Mandy Moore's Blog, page 101

Spinning Tuesdays: Quick Madrona Recap

I just got back from the  Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat. I went with Sasha of the SpinDoctor podcast. It was just what I needed.

When you are lucky enough to work in a field that you love there are still some times when it becomes more work than love. Madrona reminded me how much I love knitting and spinning.

Here's a quick little tour through my classes. I'll show my shopping haul next week.

 

 

My first class was Photographing Your Fiber with Franklin

I was so engrossed in this class that I forgot to take a picture of Franklin teaching. Franklin gives his all when he teaches, then entire class didn't move while he taught, no shuffling for coffee or the bathroom, we just soaked it all in.

I can show you this:

A photo of yarn I might have taken before Franklin's class - dull

A yarn photo after Franklin's class - bright!

 

 

My next class was EPS -Elizabeth Zimmermann's EPS System Updated with Amy Detjen

Amy Detjen purple goddess

True confession time. I have never read any of Elizabeth Zimmermann's books. I know, I should turn in my best set of needles to the knitting police. I have skimmed and snacked in the books and even knit her patterns. But I have not sat down and figured out the EPS system. Amy explained it all. She did it with humor and diagrams and lots and lots of knitted examples. She knows so much about knitting, even her jokes teach you something.

 

 

 

On Friday I took a mini class Making the Most of Your Drumcarder with Sarah Anderson

Sarah Anderson and her beautiful batts

Because it was a short class it was all demonstration, but boy did I get a lot of ideas. Sarah showed how to blend colors on the drumcarder, how to make layered and striped batts, how to make art batts and how to keep your drum carder happy. The magic moment in this class for me was when she showed how to make roving by diz-ing off of the drum carder.

 

 

Friday afternoon I played Madrona hooky and went to the Museum of Glass

Part of the Glass Bridge that leads to the Museum of Glass

I also bought cupcakes for Sasha.

 

 

Saturday was a big fiber day for me.

The morning saw Hand Carding with Less Stress and More Fun with Carol Rhoades

Carding, carding, carding

For someone who love woolen spinning with all of my being I completely suck at hand carding. Carol actually fixed that.

I was horribly fumble fingered for 90% of the class then all of a sudden it came together and I was making decent rolags. I even made a cotton puni. I am adding get fabulous at hand carding to my list of goals for 2012.

 

 

 

The afternoon was all about Judith MacKenzie,  Yarns Recycled : Reuse and Reduce.

Cashmere sweater scraps carded with merino fiber

We learned about cashmere . We learned about unraveling and replying cashmere sweaters from thrift stores to make luscious new yarn. We learned about carding scraps and threads of cashmere and silk garments together with fiber to make really gorgeous textured yarns. Mostly we learned. When I take a class with Judith MacKenzie what the class description tells is only the tiniest fraction of what I learn. Every sidetrack, and aside is full of information. I always leave her classes especially full, in the best possible way.

 

 

Those were my classes. There was also a whole lot of goofing and knitting and a podcasting meetup. No one is a stranger at Madrona, everyone is welcoming and everyone is constantly knitting and spinning. It was bliss.

 

Being around so many creative people even for a few days, shifts your thinking.

You find yourself saying things like, "Wow, that would make a great colorway"

Herbal tea as a colorway

 

 

History: Wool Works

Changed my life.

Although I learned to knit when I was a kid, in the UK, I didn't seriously pick up my needles until I finished University, in the early 1990s. It was the worst possible time in recent memory to take up knitting…. my knitting grandmother had recently died, all the yarn shops were closing, books and magazines were hard to come by, and there seemed to be so few other knitters around.

 

For a few years, I muddled through on my own, learning what I could from the few books I could find, buying yarn and patterns where I could find it, feeling totally isolated.

 

And then, one quiet day at the office, around 1997, my life changed: I found woolworks.org. (The site is not longer being maintained, but there is a version of it available online here. You can also browse the site as it was in the past through the WayBack machine, here.)

 

The founder of Wool Works, the lovely Emily, was a knitter in a very similar position to me: she'd taken up the craft, and found herself struggling to locate resources and products and indeed other knitters. She was a subscriber to the email discussion group, the KnitList. She had a simple realization: the answers to many of her questions were in the archives, but there was no easy way to search them. So, using skills developed in her day job, she built a website. Seems obvious now, but this was a revolutionary thought in the mid 1990s.

 

For about 6 or 7 years in the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Wool Works was the online knitting resource. It wasn't the only site, but it was the largest, and it was the most active. It had a section of tips & techniques, it had free patterns (notably, the KnitList Christmas gift exchange patterns), it had a gallery of finished projects, it had links out to other online knitting resources (knitters were starting to maintain personal sites, the forerunners of blogs). It had a spinning section, which seemed seriously radical to me  at the time (eating my words, as I look at the huge box of roving beside my desk), and a list of stores. The store list was particularly wonderful, as I was travelling on business a lot at the time.

 

I would not be the knitter I am without Wool Works. Wool Works let me know I was not alone.  Through Wool Works, I was able to learn more and expand my skills. Wool Works kept me interested and engaged in knitting when the rest of the world was less interested in it.

 

Thanks to Wool Works, I am a sock knitter. My first socks were knitted from a pattern published there: the legendary Joan Hamer's socks. And indeed, I not only used Wool Works to find my first sock pattern, I used the store list to help me locate the yarn, and I used the tips and techniques section to help me with the heel turn.

 

As a knitter, I owe Emily a huge debt of gratitude for providing so much support and so many resources, perhaps most important of all, making me feel connected. Thanks Emily!

Obsession: awesome app!

my new friend.

Ask Jillian. This is my new obsession: Voxer.

 

It's an app for iPhone and Android, and it allows you to have walkie-talkie-like conversations using your voice with your friends.

 

I boop Jillian to tell her something funny, or boop my sister to ask a question about our upcoming vacation. I've had the hub snoring next to me and had a conversation with the sister, whispering back and forth, after midnight. If you happen not to be near your phone when a message comes in, just tap it and it plays back.

 

It also does text messages and lets you send photos, but my favorite thing is the Walkie Talkie bit. LOVE IT.

 

It feels like a toy, but it's damned handy. Free app, free to use. Do keep up on the updates — it's already improved in stability considerably since I first found it about 3 weeks ago.

WWW: Problem Grandmothers, Knitting Prime Ministers and Extra Yarn

Wonder who's actually writing these posts? There are three of us: Kate, Jillian and Amy. You can tell who wrote any specific post by looking at the top of the post itself next to the date, on the right. And if you want to send the post author a Twitter comment, you'll find our Twitter addresses over there

 

We love hearing from you!

 

Helping women take care of themselves.

Jimmy Beans Wool is leading an initiative, "Stitch Red", to bring attention to heart disease, the #1 killer of women in the United States. The program is part of a broad campaign to help women understand risk factors and to encourage them to adopt healthier lifestyles for their long-term benefit.

 

Stitch Red is supported by a majority of manufacturers and vendors in the Needlearts industry who are creating unique "Stitch Red" products for which 5% of gross profits will benefit the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) in support of The Heart Truth®, a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease, sponsored by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Additionally, Jimmy Beans Wool has written a book, Knit Red, which features 30 celebrity designers sharing patterns and personal stories and will be released in June of 2012.

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Generous and productive knitters!

A heartwarming profile of a knitting group in Calgary that is making dolls for children in Malawi. Since 2005, they have made over 10,000 dolls. The initiative is part of the work being done by Lifeline Malawi, a medical charity started by a Calgary physician. The dolls fufill a dual purpose: they are used as packing materials to protect medical supplies in shipping, and they are given to the children attending the Lifeline-run clinics, to bring some joy and smiles.

 

Annabelle and her sweater

The New York Times reviews a number of children's picture books, including the beautifully illustrated "Extra Yarn", about a little girl living in a monochrome world who discovers a box of brightly colored yarn, and learns to knit.

 

This truly amazing and highly amusing article from the archives of the Guardian in the UK is a must-read. The article, published in 1961, proudly touts the miracles of nylon yarns, reports that 2/3s of teenagers are knitters, but notes a disturbing trend of "problem grandmothers" who don't knit.

 

Cam Dup travaille la laine.

A friends brings our attention to the fab blog of French textile designer Camille Dupuis, who is doing amazing things with wool and knitting. I particularly like the lion, but all her stuff is wonderful. (The blog is in French, but there is much to look at.)

 

And in other world news, Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia, is a knitter.

Spinning Tuesdays: Packing for Madrona or a Sidekick in a Suitcase

Tomorrow I leave for Madrona, the high holy fiber arts retreat/playtime.

I've saved money for two years to be able to go and I am quite excited, like the days before your birthday when you are 6, excited.

I'll be there late Wednesday and I leave mid-day Sunday. So far I have packed 5 knitting projects and 2 spinning projects. I thin I'm a little light.

 

Here are the classes I'm taking:

Photographing your Fiber with Franklin
EPS System with Amy Detjen
Handcarding with Carol Rhoades
Recycled Yarn with Judith McKenzie

I have left Friday completely open, no classes – nothing, just playing/knitting/spinning time and shopping. Any tips on eating/playing/shopping in Tacoma are appreciated!

 

Did you notice I have a spinning class? That means I'll have to take a wheel. So far, I've been a fan of the Schacht Sidekick as a travel wheel – it slides into tiny spaces when my car is packed.

But I really love this:

Sidekick in suitcase

That's a 27″ Samsonite wheelie suitcase – look at all of the room left over. I can even bring clothes.

I borrowed the suitcase from Beth – the Sidekick Suitcase Saga is here on her blog.

Tune in next week for the Madrona report.

 

Knitting Goals: Qiviut Socks and Escargot and Lanesplitter, and the Cooperative Press Contest Winner

Comfy and, more to the point, warm.

Kate's qivuit socks:

They are finished! And not a moment too soon: we had a cold snap over the weekend. Don't tell anyone, but I wore my Qiviut socks two days in a row…

It's a plain and simple pair of top-down stocking stitch socks, 56 sts on 2.5mm needles. There are two advantages to having small feet: fewer sts means less knitting, and also more leftovers! I've got about 40gm of the skein left, which is enough to make the feet of two more socks. Since it's my feet that get the coldest (rather than my ankles), I'm going to make a toe-up pair with Qiviut feet and something else for the leg. They'll look sort of funny, but I will be so warm I won't mind!

Jillian's Escargot:

Project #2 from Knitty done for the year (my goal is 6).

Escargot from the current issue:

Escargot modeled by hat thief

Escargot finished and stolen in the same day, that has to be some sort of record. Of course, the thief is my daughter.

The yarns are Dream in Color In Vino Veritas for the main color and Spring Tickle for the accent.

I purposely made the snail part of the hat larger to offset my huge hair. But now that the girl has it, I think I'll restitch it to regular snail size.

Next up in Knitty knitting queue is Groove by Stephen West.

Get into the Groove

I'm going to knit it in Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Clematis, an indigo blue and one of her browns Bark or William Morris. Of course I may completely change my mind once I'm standing in front of the display at my LYS .

Amy's knitting goals

Lanesplitter in cotton tape is progressing well. Supposedly I have about 6″ of straight section to go and then the blissful decreasing.

The other secret project for Brenda Dayne's "Welsh for Rainbow" is on the final segment. I took my own advice (instead of agonizing over a billion options) and chose a simple-but-perfect lace pattern to use for the last rows.

One repeat done, making decisions quickly and I'll have it done in time to hand it to Brenda in person when she starts her North American tour in early May!

Cooperative Press Winner!

The winner of the spectacular Cooperative Press, explode your head with all of the creative ideas, book giveaway is:

Robin in Ohio. Happy Knitting!

A huge thanks to Shannon at Cooperative Press for the generous giveaway!

Knitty Friday: Escargot Everywhere!

Oh so chic!

The lovely and clever Escargot hat was published in our Winter issue, which went live in early December. And it seems to have caught on…  there are nearly 400 projects already, and more being added every day.  And many knitters are making more than one…

Everywhere we go we see this hat – at one of my LYS this past weekend I saw one finished hat and talked to two knitters who were working on their own.

There are so many fabulous versions – lots of color combos, and some great yarn choices.

Knitty Designer Laura Chau worked one in two great shades of blue

Classic

Summerlea worked an amazing version in textured yarns for a different but equally great look.  She sadly lost it, but reports that another is in the works… We can only hope that the original is being enjoyed by its finder.

Love it!

NextThursday chose bright snail colours for her version…

Fun!

GardenKnittr's is straight up elegant in grey and cream…

Just perfect.

MamaNicoleG created a pair of fab fingerless mitts to match.

Wonderful!

Kybosh chose great colors, and when it turned out a bit big, felted it to fit.

I love these colors

And the wonderful and generous Jami created a kids' version, Escargot Jr.

How good is this?

Jillian has just finished hers – doesn't it look great!

 

Girlchild has already taken my Escargot!

I think I might have to knit one now…

It's Sweater Day!

To celebrate Sweater Day, Kate is wearing her Perfect Turtleneck, made out of Lopi.  (Yes, I know. I do wear a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath.)

Keeping warm the woolly way.

What are you wearing? [Keep it clean, folks.]

WWW: Sweater Day, Hat Sizing Table, Woolfest 2012

The only challenge is to decide which sweater to wear....

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 9th, is WWF Sweater Day in Canada. WWF asks us to turn the heat down and put your favourite sweater on – you don't need to ask us twice!

The initiative is to help WWF take action against climate change, and work toward a sustainable future.

Sweater Day is a fun way to make Canadians rethink how we use energy and how much we use… WWF says that if every Canadian lowered the heat a few degrees this winter, it'd be like taking 300,000 vehicles off the road!

You can even book a reminder call from one of a group of grannies.

The promotional posters for Sweater Day were created by a local Toronto team, aided by friends of Knitty Jasmine Cirjanic and the gang at The Purple Purl. The photographer provides a great behind-the-scenes view on his blog.

Amazing resource alert: a hat sizing table. And not just head circumference, but also lengths – very important for figuring out how long hats & earflaps should be!

A great Kickstarter project… Knitting the World together. Bonnie Kate Wolf, a knitter and art student in London is raising funds to help her knit a 7 foot wide map of the world. The map is her final project for her degree at the London College of Communication. She's raising funds to help her buy the 6000 yds of yarn needed. Contributors will receive a high-resolution image of the final map.

The amazing thing is that the knitter only picked up needles for the first time a year ago!

Happy Fleece buyers at Woolfest

Planning ahead for the summer, Woolfest 2012 has been announced. Friday and Saturday June 22 & 23 in Cockermouth, Cumbria, the event promises lots of excellent fiber fun. From fleece animals and rare breeds, through fleece, tops, craft equipment and materials, to finished clothing, accessories and unique hand-crafted woollen goods, there is something for every fiber enthusiast.

Wonderful story from Australia about the resurgence of wool as both a luxury and practical fiber in clothing... Over three quarters of Australia's wool last year – over $2 billion's worth – was sold to China for use in the clothing industry.

Awesome video of an experiment conducted in space, using a static-charged knitting needle.  Although we do sort of resent the implication that knitting needles would be otherwise uninteresting in space.  I mean, honestly, I think knitting socks would be an ideal way to pass the hours on the journey…

Spinning Tuesdays: Adventures In Spinning Worsted

One of my spinning goals for this year is to make friends with worsted style spinning.

The only way for me to do that is to spin a lot of worsted yarn this year, to make myself spin that way, like waking up with an alarm.

 

I spun 4 ounces of Spunky Eclectic, South African Fine in the Peace on Earth colorway.

2 bobbins both with 2 ounces of yarn on them, why is one fuller?

Both bobbins have 2 ounces of fiber on them. Why is one so much fuller? Did I cheat and spin the fluffy fiber woolen?

No, I did not cheat, really, I have the hand cramp to prove it. Both bobbins were spun worsted, no twist between my hands and smoothing, smoothing, smoothing. I do like the smoothing part of worsted. The bobbin in the front has more twist in it. I changed my ratio after the first bobbin to see what difference it would make.

I spun on my Lendrum DT, with the regular flyer. The first fluffier bobbin I spun on the biggest whorl/pulley/thingamabobber which has a ratio of 6:1. The second bobbin, I dropped down one groove to a ratio of 8:1.

 

Now I won't say that having more twist made my worsted spinning effortless, but it sure helped. It was easier to draft and control using the worsted style. I got a more compact and finer yarn. I still said a lot of words not fit for a blog post.  I had my fiber in a death grip. My yarn was uneven, and uneven in a way that wouldn't have bothered me if I was spinning woolen, but made me crazy in the worsted yarn. Learning something new is hard.

I did a simple two-ply:

I love this colorway

I like the yarn. I can see the usefulness of worsted spinning. That's as much love as I have today for the worsted. I still have a hand cramp. But I'm going to do it again, this time with a smoother less fluffy fiber, maybe something with shine.

 

When I first opened this club package I knew I wanted to make a shawl out of it. So I swatched with my new worsted yarn:

A little blue lace

I really like the stitch pattern in this yarn, but I want to try going up a needle size, just to see. I'm thinking about a crescent style shawl. What do you think?

 

My first appearance as jabbering sidekick on the SpinDoctor podcast is available to download. If you think I get excited about spinning here, you should hear me talk about it. Downright giddy.