Of Yarn and Wizards

Last night, we took the whole family to a Washington Wizards basketball game. It was a lot of fun--Selma enjoyed every second. She loved the game, the "dancers," Jay liked the mascot and all the clapping and chanting. We're paying for it today, all tired and out of sorts from a change in our schedule.

I had some crocheting with me, but It didn't make its way out of the bag in the arena (it did on the metro) because Jay was too bouncy going from lap to lap.

During the game, A Wizard player had the ball, but he realized he was falling out of bounds. Just in time, he threw the ball so it bounced off his opponent's foot, and then out of bounds. Because it touched a player on the other team, the rules say the ball stayed in possession of the Wizards. I thought this was completely unfair. Unsportsmanlike. The opposing player never reached for the ball or touched the ball--it was thrown at him (something an opponent would never do under other circumstances). But no one sitting near me agreed with me. "Those are the rules," they said. I was trying to think of any such "rule" in everyday life, but I couldn't. Imagine, you're about to have some kind of problem, and instead, you push a problem onto someone else, on purpose, to save yourself the trouble. To me, that seems to break what my mom calls "the golden rule."

Aside from that--I loved seeing how the two teams interacted. I've been mostly to baseball games in the past few years, and there's often shouting, and sometimes even brawls between teams. But during last night's game, I saw Wizards helping up Pistons when they fell down, and vice versa, and after the game (The Wizards won), I saw high-fives and even hugs between players of opposing teams--they're clearly friends off the court which was cool to see.

I went to a new yarn shop yesterday. It's called A Tangled Skein (no web site yet), and it's in Hyattsville, MD. right on Rt 1. The shop is big and the people there are very friendly and fun. I'm going back tonight to their "sit and stitch." The shop is in a great location with no competing stores in the entire county from what I can think of--and it's a downtown area that's having a very artsy renaissance, so a yarn shop fits right in.

Cover Girl

Crochet Today - March April
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

Drew's sneaking around the Craft and Hobby Association conference in between his book signings, and look what he found at the Coats and Clark Booth. It's the March-April issue of Crochet Today, and it's got the vest I designed on the cover. Yeah, cameraphones!

Knit with the Brits

I've finished my tea and toast, and I really should be starting work (have I mentioned I have piles of other peoples' knits and crochets in my studio waiting to be edited? It's a little scary--I have them perched on high surfaces to protect them all from things like pets, kids, the odd natural disaster.) But anyway, instead of working, I really needed to tell you about the British knitting magazine Simply Knitting. I've been buying it occasionally for a while, but the most recent issue I bought convinced me to subscribe. It's not just the patterns (the patterns are ok, but the magazine isn't as beautiful as Vogue Knitting or Interweave Knits), it's just full of great information... New Yarns I learned about a new French yarn company that folks in the UK are all very excited about--Bergere de France, lots of reader interaction (they give a free gift for every reader letter they receive.) They have crochet patterns as well as knitting ones--the January issue had a cute Crocheted Cardigan and a very chanel-ish purse, and they even have a knitting crossword puzzle! If you're in Britain, the mag is even more useful because they list local events and things happening at shops and festivals. My favorite parts are the technique articles--a great one in Jan. about substituting yarns, and their stitch library-each month they "profile" two stitches. Oh, and finally--two other tidbits--it's monthly unlike most other fiber magazines, and you get a little present with each issue. This month it was a needle sizer--can never have too many of those--this one was small enough to fit in my knitting bag's toolkit.

In other magazine news, the latest issue of Knit It (sorry, they don't have a web site, but they're produced by Better Homes and Gardens), has an article by design guru Deborah Newton (author of the still in print after over 20 years, Designing Knitwear), about creating a custom fit. It has instructions for making a graph-paper scale model of your body. I find these things indispensable--I use one every time I make a garment--with my little model and some tracing paper, I can see how a garment is going to fall on the body, how much ease I need, how big an armhole, etc. And since one square of graph paper is like 1 inch, I can even work out my schematic and design. But even if you're not designing your own sweater it's very useful for seeing if a garment is going to fit you, and figuring out how to change what you don't like.

In other "literary" news, I had a long train ride, and read The Friday Night Knitting Club from cover to cover. It was a treat for me just to have the time to sit and read, and I was definitely drawn in by the book--I enjoyed the characters, it was funny and moving--I loved the young girl, Dakota who is so much like the pre-teens I teach knitting to. I did have a hard time imagining it as a movie--I think it might loose a lot of the humor, but we'll have to see. (Julia Roberts bought the movie rights before the book was even released--but the script has not been written yet, so the film isn't expected 'till late '08).

Technorati Tags:
knitting, crochet, magazine, friday night knitting club

A Sweet Cardigan

Ellen Bloom has recently posted pictures of her take on my Sweet Sweater. I love it--It's a cardigan, and she played with color and stitch pattern and added a collar and buttons. Fabulous job!

What happened at TNNA?

Since I'm woefully behind in writing about TNNA, I'll point you instead to CRAFT Magazine's great re-cap of the event--it has links to other good write-ups too. After all that reading, you'll know pretty much everything I did. To see some pictures, you can click on the photo here-it will take you to my flickr set.

Technorati Tags:
knitting, crochet, TNNA

DIY Hairpin Lace Loom

The Little Projects blog has a nifty tutorial on how to make a hairpin lace loom out of stuff you have around the house. (By the way, this is a great site. She's also got a crocheted felted clog pattern which I just bought--I've been eyeing the cool fiber trends clogs, but being able to crochet them seems like a big advantage to me). (Thanks to Amie for the link)

I've been promising myself to spend more time with hairpin lace this year (as well as tunisian and other fascinating crochet subsets). I have many looms, including a beautiful one Jennifer gave me when we shared a room at the Chain Link conference last year. Well, I suppose it won't happen if I don't put it on the schedule.

I got some lovely samples in the mail today from Darlene of Hand Jive, she's the artist behind Nature's Palette--she dyes all the yarns herself with plant dyes. They're amazing. She has a fingering weight merino that' s a favorite for socks, an organic wool and mohair which comes in generous 230 yard skeins (it's a 2-ply and seems very soft), and a bulky thick and thin merino that feels like you're touching clouds.

Today I'm crocheting with another favorite yarn, Malabrigo, while I usually knit with it, it seems to be lending itself well to crochet. I'm using a size K hook and a simple v stitch to make a prayer shawl for a friend. I'm headed to the bead store this morning because I was reading on another site a suggestion to add beads to the end, for meditation. I love that idea.

Sneak Peek Monday

Blue Sky Crochet Swatch
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

With thanks to Robyn for the idea, here's a look at what I've been doing. I adore swatching. Maybe I even like it more than making garments. Am I crazy? Maybe. Swatching is all about potential--with none of the worry (yet) about fit, shaping or other fiddly bits of designing.

This swatch is for a sweater I'm working on for Blue Sky Alpacas. The yarn is lovely, and is so new I don't even know it's name. It's soft, has a beautiful drape and with this stitch (a conglomeration of two I found in Harmony and the Crochet Stitch Bible, it's quite stretchy.

If you click over to my flickr page, you'll see I'm swatching for a couple of other projects too. The knit swatch with the ribbing is for a vest I'm working on in Blue Sky sport weight. I'm headed off to write up that pattern now.

What to wear with your newly knitted mobïus wrap

Why, mobius shoes, of course!

Thanks, Boing Boing

Talking Smack

So, we know everyone says that Blue Moon Fiber Art's Socks That Rock is like crack--knitting with it is addictive. Well, it appears that Blue Moon's bank thought that they were doing SO MUCH business they must be a front for something illegal--like selling drugs--it couldn't just be yarn, right? Fortunately, the company quickly corrected the problem and got a new bank, but maybe we should be careful how we talk about this stuff ;-).

Via Shannon

Crochetville Podcasts!

Amy "yarnaholic" from Crochetville has begun a weekly podcast of crochet news submissions from the crochetville participants, and more fun stuff. The first episode will air sometime this week. You can subscribe in iTunes and find more info on the crochetville message boards.

Technorati Tags:
crochet, podcast

Call for Knitting Groups

This just in from the folks at Knitty Gritty:

CALL FOR KNITTERS - 1/07

Screen Door Entertainment's TV show Knitty Gritty is looking for unique
knitting groups, individuals, or events to profile in an upcoming one-hour
special for the DIY Network. We are looking in the Los Angeles area AND
NATIONWIDE!!!! We'll be taping this special throughout 2007, and we'll come
to you.

We're searching for knitters or groups with a "story" or extra-special
quality. For example: unlikely knitters such as a sports team/league or a
group of Harley bikers, actors who knit on the set or bands who knit
backstage, groups who knit in unusual places such as a pub or baseball
stadium, someone who has knit a car cozy or something incredibly unusual or
large, someone who incorporates knitting with art projects, people who knit
for a purpose/cause (whether for charity with a great story behind it, or
for a nontraditional purpose such as knitting graffiti taggers, etc), a
knitter with a personal human interest story, or anything else along these
lines that may come to mind.

If you have any leads for us - even if it's just something you've heard of -
please send me an e-mail with as much info as you can provide, as soon as
you can. We'd love to hear more and could really use your help in finding
these stories to make this one hour special, well... special!

Please feel free to repost this (anywhere you can - on myspace, your blog,
or to a mailing list).

Thank you so much for your help! :)

Please email:
Lorelei at LPlotczyk@sdetv.com
or
Joy at JWingard@sdetv.com

On Travel

Travel Slippers
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

I love flying. Last night, I had a five-hour flight, and after 2 hours, I had knitted my way through all the UFOs I brought with me, and I didn't feel like starting something new, so I wrote up a few patterns on the laptop, and when the battery was exhausted, I went to sleep.

But there's something about being on a plane which seems to help my thought process. I was knitting faster, thinking more clearly. I had good ideas for blog posts, which now, bleary-eyed, this morning, I can't remember.

There are a few reasons why flight-time inspires so much creativity in me. The main one is the lack of distraction. There's no part of your normal life you could deal with even if you wanted to--no phone, nothing to clean, and this time, since I was flying by myself, no one to take care of but myself. The other, I think, is the white noise. I was imagining last night that if airline makers wanted to, they could make planes quiter, but there's an advantage to all that noise: you don't hear anyone else's conversation. I could barely hear the baby who was fussing at the front of the plane.

All this made me think that my perfect workspace would be a room without all the books, yarn and tools that decorate my current studio. It wouldn't even have a computer. It would be empty save a few comfortable places to sit, a work table great lighting, plants, and probably a sound system. Any work I wanted to do in there, I'd bring in, and when finished, take it out again to store in a separate storage space.

I arrived in San Diego at about midnight pacific time, and yet, I still woke up at 6 a.m. I'll work a bit this morning, maybe explore, and then I'm off to Cat Bordhi's new sock architecture class. Whee!

p.s. The picture is my travel slippers that I got in LA at the Japanese $.98 store. They came with a little pouch to transport them in, and this is the first time I've gotten to use them. Perfect for protecting feet/socks from hotel-room floors.

Yes to Mess?

My brother wrote a fun post about a new "messiness movement." I have to say I agree with him.

Tasty Diner with Kim and Shannon

Tasty Diner with Kim and Shannon
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

This fall when Kim and Shannon came to town for their book tour, Shannon snapped a few pictures. She just sent this one to me.


p.s. Shannon was on HGTV last night spinning dog hair for an episode of Knitty Gritty. I'm sure it will rerun on DIY, so keep an eye out for it!

p.p.s. Happy Birthday Shannon!

Sneak Peek

project preview
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

This fall I completed a project for Amy Swenson's felting book that was a labor of love--a toddler's felted varisty jacket. It took a very long time to complete, but I loved it.


Just before Christmas, I was speaking to Amy's editor about a different project and I mentioned how I was hoping Jay would still fit in the jacket when they were done with it. (often you don't get book projects back for over a year, but Amy had said she thought I could get this one faster). Anyway, a couple of days later, I had it in the mail, and I gave it to Jay for Chistmas!


I can't show you the whole thing because the book's not out yet, but here's a sneak peek. (Of course, if you're in Takoma Park, you may see him around town in it.)

Carpet Bag

0104070950.jpg
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

Here's the bag I spoke about yesterday.

Yarn Place Yarns

I received some lace-weight yarn to review this summer at TNNA, and since my friend and fellow blogger, Hannah, is much more of a lacemaker than I am, she graciously agreed to try out the yarn and write the review!

Hannah says, in her first paragraph:

"Yarn Place produces beautiful yarns. Coming in a wide range of colors, lace-weight yarns Touch and Graceful are very different from each other but share one thing in common: they are both extremely affordable. I know Yarn Place will be getting an order from me in the future!"

You can read the rest on Hannah's blog, The Purloined Letter.


Technorati Tags Start

Technorati Tags:
knitting, review, lace

Technorati Tags End

Not so random acts of kindness

Last month we had a lot of work done on my car--an almost 7-year old VW Passat with 80,000 miles on it. The work was expected, but expensive, and our repair-guy, Johnny at Takoma Auto Clinic, was friendly and fair and even gave us a bottle of wine to help soften the $3000 blow.

On Saturday night, when we returned from our trip to Arkansas, James realized the alternator on his truck was broken, so we took a shuttle home and left the truck parked at airport parking. AAA towed him home the next day. James bought a new alternator and was going to replace it himself when he realized he didn't have the right kind of wrench to get the old one out. Instead of messing with it any more, he called Johnny and brought the truck and the new part in there. A few hours later, when James picked the truck up, Johnny said, "No Charge, you've paid enough." It wasn't a big thing, but it felt really good. Johnny has a customer for life and he's only out an hour or so of his time.

Since I have no elegant way to segue this story into anything fiber-related, I'll just say that last night we had a particularly lively SSK (Silver Spring Knitters) meeting. Our normal haunt, Adega Wine Bar, was closed, so we went to Lebanese Taverna down the street. They were very accomodating, the food was great, and we even had a few new people join us. David showed off his first ever completed sweater, Wallace debuted his "I.D.E.A" fair-isle stocking, and Hillary was working on a woven stitch scarf (a great stitch pattern she and I both discovered by watching Candi Jensen on the Knitty Gritty).

As soon as I get my camera and my christmas stuff in the same room, I'll show you a picture of the carpet bag my mother-in-law gave me. It was her knitting bag and before that, she thinks it belonged to her grandmother. It has Bakelite handles and very pretty colors. It needs a little cleaning, so I have to figure out how to do that without damaging it, but it's in terrific condition.

Technorati Tags:
knitting, pattern, knitty+gritty

New Book: Crochet Style

I can't really call this a book review because I'm hardly objective--I contributed as a technical editor on this project which was created by two great friends, Shannon and Cecily along with designer Stina Ramos. Crochet Style: Chic and Sexy Accessories really does have chic and fun accessories. The projects use great yarn! As well as the great little bolero pictured on the cover, there's a fun page-boy hat done in Lorna's Laces which makes great use of this variegated yarn. There's a pretty lacey blue ascot done in a lace-weight baby alpaca. There's jewelry, hair ditties, bags, and more. (All in all over 25 projects). Plus, there's a full-color photographic intro to crochet and a small stitch dictionary in the back with ideas on creating your own designs.

Technorati Tags:
pattern, crochet, book, such+sweet+hands, knitgrrl