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Sunday, July 12, 2009

 

Taking a spill

Last Wednesday, I was leaving a spinning get-together and was carrying 2 bins of fiber stacked one on top of the other. The entry to the meeting place is somewhat dicey, especially for someone like me who is rather lumpy, misshapen and unsteady on her feet at best. There's a ramp on the inside, the door is partway propped open and just outside the door, on the left, there's a concrete curb-like thing. Well, not being able to see my feet and forgetting the curb thing was there, I tripped right over it and went ass over teakettle and splat! Landed hard on my left shoulder, had the wind knocked out of me, and a few scrapes as I landed on gravel. I was able to get up by myself, but I knew something was wrong with my left shoulder as I could barely move my arm without considerable pain.


I went home and had Michelle drive me to urgent care. It turns out I messed up my shoulder bursa. The doc gave me an anti-inflammatory and painkillers, and told me to take it easy, that in five days I'd be feeling better. Oh no, I thought, a big shipment of yarn and fiber is due any day, and I'm out of commission for dyeing! Actually, I'm not out of commission--about the only thing I can't do is carry basins full of water and yarn to the sink. Michelle's been doing that for me. And the shipment I was supposed to have received quite some time ago? The Postal Service got it from its originating point in Virginia to the sort center in Federal Way, WA, on July 3rd. Only three hours from here. But then what did they do? They sent it to another sort center, in Jacksonville, Florida! Hmmm. Somebody dropped the ball, obviously. According to their tracking thingy, my shipment is still "in transit" so all I can do is continue to wait. By the time it gets here, I should be pretty well healed up. I'm feeling a lot better than I did when it happened, but I still get a sharp twinge if I move the arm the wrong way. Lesson learned: from now on I'll watch my footing!


***


A light dyeing schedule has left me quite a bit of extra time for knitting, so I am on the homestretch with the Svale top. Can't wait to finish this baby. A size 3x in DK-weight yarn on US 5 needles makes for a lot of knitting! My plan for it is to get the best photographs of it that I can; I may have to ask a friend to help with that--then write up the pattern and offer it for sale on Ravelry. I'll need to figure out how to size it down, I guess. That will be challenging for me, but not impossible. Stay tuned.


I had a wild hair inspiration this afternoon, while pondering the future of my nearly completed design. There are a lot of books out there for plus size patterns, which is awesome, but how about a website, blog, or online mag devoted exclusively to BBW knitting patterns? I don't think one exists--yet--and I'm intrigued. Dear readers, what do you think? I'd be gung ho for something like this!
***


Late Nite Yarn Pr0n
About all I have left to dye, until more gets here, is Titanium Sock. I've been adventurous of late and have created some new colorways. Here's one called "Dance The Night Away". So designed and named because the Van Halen fans have spoken. You may be hearing that song in your head now; you're welcome.



I also played around with veil dyeing, which is what "Salmon Dave" is before I knew about veil dyeing. Here's Salmon Dave, a colorway that's been around for about a year.





Then I tried to do a similar thing in green. I like the results, but may have been over-reaching or getting too cute with the name. Be that as it may, this is called "Tempest in a Dyepot".






I have always loved naming things, so my line of veil-dyed colorways is called "Shock Treatment". There will be a couple more for Sock Summit.



***



Feet Don't Fail Me Now!





Bobbie of Tiggywinkle Knits told me of this awesome place called Portland Store Fixtures where I could get mannequin feet to show off handknit socks in Stitchjones yarns. Went there last Tuesday with Mr. Stitchjones, and we got two mannequin feet for a very reasonable price. The only glitch is that they are men's sizes; that's all the store had in stock that day. This Vinnland sock from The Anticraft, which was sent to me by the lovely Andrea in New Mexico, is stretched out a little bit but I think it looks good, you can really see the pattern. I saw lots of cool stuff that I want to go back for, not only for the Stitchjones booth but also for me! If I'm going to design, I need a torso. They have zaftig ones, and I also learned that putting a bra on a man-torso will work great for displaying plus size fashions. So go crazy and cross-dress those mannequins!

Last Tuesday turned out to be a lovely day for me and the spousal unit. He took the day off, and after we went shopping for mannequin parts, we went to Chinatown for a dim sum lunch. Fong Chong Teahouse rocks! I could eat pork shumai and shrimp-spinach dumplings until they come out my ears.

That's about it, my doves. I'll be back when my Svale top is a shiny new FO.



# posted by Sharon @ 1:00 AM 5 Comments

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

 

Disappointed

I recently found out that due to production problems, the base yarn I ordered for Glam Sock won't even be manufactured until next month, and I have to wait until September before my order is shipped.




I'm bummed--not only will I not have it for Sock Summit, but also, I had my first order cancellation because of the delay. I don't blame my customer; I hate making people wait for their yarn and in fact, I gave my customer the option to cancel. It just sucks is all. I expect that quite a few indie dyers who have Sterling Silk & Silver in their product line are in the same boat.

***

My family's home, including Jimmy the longhaired mini dachshund. He got to go on the road trip and had a blast in Spokane; my inlaws have 19 acres, including horses and a barn, so it's a doggie paradise for running and playing. Here is one of my favorite Jimmy pictures. I've never had a dog who loves to play as much as this one does. It's hard to get him to keep still long enough to take a picture!


Buster, my first wiener dog, just turned 10. He has various health problems, so he stayed with me over the holiday weekend. Here is a picture of him from a couple of years ago.
He kept me company while I dyed, knitted, and watched all the episodes of Showtime's "Nurse Jackie". Love that show! I never watched "The Sopranos" but I sure am a fan of Edie Falco now. That girl has some prodigious acting chops. I also watched "Milk" on pay per view. I think it was an important film, well made and well acted, and I'm glad I saw it.


One of the things I didn't get to over the weekend was practicing my bass. I keep thinking about it though, and it's probably a pipe dream but I'd like to be a solid bass player someday. I had a few lessons and picked up the fundamentals quickly. About the only song I can actually play competently is a totally vulgar Denis Leary song (is there any other kind?) which I won't mention here! The reason it's easy to play is because it's a descending bass line and I don't have to think about it too much. Hey, budding musicians have to start somewhere, right?
Soon I'll have a finished project for show and tell; I got quite a bit of work done on the red Svale top. I'm glad 4th of July is over and done with. The older I get, the less tolerant I am of noisy celebrations and I'm increasingly more concerned about pets, mine and other people's. For a time on Saturday, I couldn't find our cat Hannibal, and I was worried he might bolt into the street and possibly be hit by a car. Thankfully, though, he came to the door late Saturday night, after the neighbors ran out of fireworks.
I'm also glad the heat wave is over--it's early summer so I'm sure we'll get more of them, but it's nice to have some cool weather. Anyway, I hope you all had some good times over the weekend, and thank you for reading my rather dull blog. Between the anger management courses and industrial-strength antidepressants, the noise in my head seems to have subsided, along with anything interesting I might have to say.
(That last sentence was a joke.)

# posted by Sharon @ 1:42 AM 3 Comments

Thursday, July 02, 2009

 

working vacation

Mr. Stitchjones and our darling daughter are heading to Spokane tomorrow for the long weekend. As much as I will miss the delightful company of my brother-in-law, I've chosen to stay home and tackle my to-do pile.



This represents only part of what I'll be dyeing, because today 2 more kilos of Titanium Sock came in. No sign of Glam Sock yet, regrettably, although I'm still hoping it will be here in time to get it ready for Sock Summit.


Speaking of the Summit--you may have already seen this on Ravelry, but here is my entry in the "Dye for Glory" contest in the Painted category.

This colorway is "Magic Judy" in honor of Judy Becker, inventor of Judy's Magic Cast-on and one of the teachers at Sock Summit. It has several of Judy's favorite colors, and she seemed pleased with how it came out. I've already had a couple of requests for the yarn, so I'll be dyeing up at least a half dozen skeins of it over the weekend.


I'm not sure if I was supposed to wait before unveiling my colorway. According to the Ravelry rules, the entries can be posted to Ravelry up until July 22nd or something like that, and then voting commences. You know me; I have poor impulse control and tend to shoot my wad no matter what's at stake. In this case, though, I think I'm OK; it's yarn after all, not state secrets.



Got Swag?




I now have a Zazzle panel, although it's hard to see because the blog layout put it waaaay down at the bottom. To save you from having to scroll, here is a linky to the Stitchjones Zazzle store. We've already sold a t-shirt and a couple of buttons, plus I just got 10 of the buttons in today's mail. I'll be wearing one at Sock Summit, and will have some for sale in the booth.




Yeah, "Accept No Substitutes". Don't read too much into it. Or do; whatever turns yer crank. I just thought it was funny.




Love Affair with Laceweight Continues







This is alpaca laceweight in Chartreuse, prior to reskeining. It's now for sale at The Naked Sheep Knit Shop, along with 6 other skeins of alpaca lace yarn in assorted colors. I seem to be alternating between whatever is easiest to get--sometimes the alpaca, and sometimes the 70% alpaca/20% silk/10% cashmere. Believe me, it's much yummier than the 100% alpaca, yet it's obviously much more expensive. I have just enough of it on hand--or will, as soon as my shipment gets here--to fill a wholesale order, and can't wait to get my hands on more. I think I should focus on sock yarn for the time being, and try to keep that urge at bay until after next month's big event.



WIPs will have to do.



Just as all the vendors were packing up at the close of Black Sheep Gathering, I went into the exhibition hall and purchased 2 lovely skeins of Cormo wool in neon green from Bellwether Wool Co. The softness of the fiber and the eyecatching color had me feeling sparkly, and I vowed to myself that if they hadn't sold the two 6 oz. skeins by show's end, they were going home with me. Score! I'm turning them into a quick and easy Diagonal Baby Blanket. I cast on a couple of days ago, and am already half finished.

(protective eyewear recommended for next photo.)


This is all I can show you of a painstaking design I'm cooking up, with Dale of Norway Svale in Chinese red. I am nearly half finished with this summer garment, which means that by summer's end it should be a FO. Even though it just looks like miles of unexplored knot stitch, I think it's gonna be pretty sweet if I can keep plugging at it.

That's it--have a happy, safe and cool Fourth, no matter how you spend it. It's a very hot day, so I think I'll head into the kitchen/family room for an iced beverage and some knitting.


# posted by Sharon @ 5:12 PM 0 Comments

Friday, June 26, 2009

 

musings of an old knitblogger...

Ever been to Victoria, Australia? I sure haven't. But hey, guess what--Stitchjones 100% merino sock yarn is going there! I love sending my yarn to far flung places; I just wish it'd send back some photos. A postcard, at least. =)

A new online shop is coming soon: Stitch Culture. The website is still under construction, although a lot of progress has been made on it in the past week. The owner, a lady with the lovely name of Chantal, found me through Etsy and ordered 24 colorways! Working on this order, in addition to prepping for Sock Summit, will make for a busy July. I'm grateful to receive the business.




Speaking of Sock Summit...yes I'm excited about it, I look forward to it, but I sometimes wonder if the actual experience of it won't be somewhat anti-climactic. The buzz has reached absolute tsunami proportions; my base yarn suppliers are backordered due to the demand created by the event, which means some of my customers are still waiting for yarn they should've received by now. I can't dye it if I don't have it, and that's a bit frustrating for me. However, I know it will all get ironed out and we'll all have a great time at SS09. I found out today that I'm vendor #1119--still in the Oregon Convention Center, just barely! Put on yer roller skates, and come see me.





My Knitting, My Yarn, and other matters dear to my heart





Yesterday I chugged along on the back of a sleeveless baby-doll style top I've been making in this beautiful yarn.





I started with a pattern but am changing this and that on the fly. I was so proud of myself, having gotten to 16" but realized that I needed to do the decrease row about 3" lower than that, in order to make it pooch below the girls, then add a fetching inch of seed stitch, then continue for several inches before beginning armhole decreases! Rrrrip, rrrrip, is how I'll be spending my Friday evening. While I wait for my undyed yarn shipments to come in, I plan to try to catch up on some languishing knitting projects.

Yarn Updates: Remember the pretty chartreuse laceweight I mentioned before going to Black Sheep? It sold! Now I get to make more. I love it when that happens. And perhaps you may have heard of "Dye for Glory", the Sock Summit yarn colorway contest. I haven't heard if there are going to be prizes or what; rest assured that Stitchjones plans to enter at least one special Sock Summit colorway. Even if there are no prizes awarded, I'll be content with just the glory! ;)

A good friend of my daughter's who had to move away when his dad died is here visiting. It's been nice having him around. He also just graduated, and is going to Western Washington University in the fall. Michelle's diploma arrived in the mail yesterday--sigh. It's official; my girl who just yesterday was a tot, is a high school graduate and heading for community college in September. In order to help pay tuition and buy textbooks, Mama needs to sell a lotta yarn!


# posted by Sharon @ 1:09 AM 1 Comments

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

 

BSG Report

Arrived home Sunday evening sunburned and weary, yet satisfied overall. Here's my outdoor booth, of which I was very proud. Kudos to booth stylist extraordinaire Kathleen for making it look so awesome.



Quite a bit of Titanium Sock sold, no doubt because of how pretty the skeins looked hanging on the peg board.

We also sold several copies of Judy's Mint Parfait Socks pattern, along with the Good Day Sunshine Tote (Ravelry links) and baby vest pattern from Katherine Vaughan Designs.



Kathleen's clever sample display generated lots of oohs and ahhs!



More sexy sock yarn.

I love this! It's made from 1 skein Glam Sock. It's Kathleen's design, and was knit by Melissa. Hopefully I can prevail upon Kathleen for a pattern.

This, knit in Stitchjones Dyepot Chunky, turned out to be the runaway hit of the booth. Like an ee-jit, I didn't take a photo of it all buttoned up into a shrug and hanging up for display, but it helped sell a lot of the Dyepot Chunky wool. Many thanks to Angela for knitting the sample!

Now that I've had the experience of my first big show, I can say I learned a lot. Being an outdoor vendor makes one completely powerless over the weather whims of Oregon. Up until Sunday afternoon, there was a negligible amount of rain, and we wrapped the booth in tarps at the close of each day so everything stayed dry. Sunday afternoon, however, brought enough rain showers that I couldn't keep my products from getting wet, so I felt there was no choice but to tear down early. I can deal with sun and wind, but rain is a different animal altogether. I will definitely apply to vend at Black Sheep Gathering again next year, but I don't think I'll want to be on the lawn!


# posted by Sharon @ 11:34 AM 4 Comments

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

 

start your engines

Everything is just about ready to be loaded into the vehicle for tomorrow's trip to Black Sheep Gathering. Yesterday I dyed up some alpaca laceweight. It's almost dry and needs reskeining and labeling, then into the bin it goes. I was going to stick to plan and make only colors that are proven sellers--however, since art is driven by inspiration, my curiosity got the better of me and I did a skein in an "experimental" color--chartreuse. Swoon! It's subtle and complex, not day glo at all. If it doesn't sell down at Black Sheep, I'll bring it home with me and photograph it. I might even put it into my personal stash.


Various factors, not necessarily fiber festival prep, have made this a stressful week. One of the casualties is that I have a huge zit on my face! Yes, over 50 and still breaking out--whaddya know. Concealer and MAC makeup should help my outside appearance, but this is how I've been feeling on the inside.



I know that pleasant interaction with lots of fiber lovers over the next few days is going to help tremendously, though, and right now I'm doing OK. It just seems to take a while for my psyche to become clear of negativity and emotional upsets. Many friends are going to be there, including some that I haven't seen in a long time, and just thinking of that helps cheer me up.


I did the Facebook thing a couple of days ago and it's a blast! Don't know what took me so long. So many of my buddies are there, connecting with one another and chatting.


Not much else to say, except See ya! I'll be back next week with a full report.





# posted by Sharon @ 4:15 PM 6 Comments

Monday, June 15, 2009

 

I promised knitting

...and I'll deliver.



This is a net lace panel I'm working on, using Jojoland Cashmere laceweight in Cream. It's just a rectangle about 18" wide with garter stitch edges, and I got about 26" in length from one skein. I bought 2 skeins from All About Yarn. I asked for one extra skein to be reserved for me, and if they still have it next week I'll pick it up. The desired length for this piece is at least 60 inches, and I plan to add fringe. It's easy and fun--when I'm using really fine yarn, I like doing mesh lace patterns. They're mindless, and there's a lot less likelihood that I'll goof them up. It still happens, but less often than if I were doing, say, the Frost Flowers stitch pattern!


Once I finish this wrap, which is almost gossamer lightweight yet warm, I'm thinking about making a scarf version in this.



Karabella Merino Lace from Knit Knot Studio.

Besides projects using fancy LYS yarns, I've also been working on samples for the upcoming Black Sheep Gathering, Sock Summit and OFFF. The Earth Angel baby hat in garter rib now has a sweater to go with it--Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater. It's a bit "cropped" in length; I was running out of yarn. Kathleen's fine, 2-ply handspun from a small amount of Stitchjones merino roving in Earth Angel yielded enough for a baby set.

I know--the right sleeve looks wonky. Could it be an optical illusion caused by the color interplay? Just kidding. When we put it on display, maybe we can pin it somehow so it's not so obvious.



Even though I kept missing yarnovers while knitting, I still like the contrasting color bands.
WWKIP Day '09 - Hillsboro
What a great event that was! My friend Cindy aka Maxfun has some photos up on her blog. I had a lovely time and sold some goodies. Hope it becomes an annual event, and keeps growing.
I'll probably post once more before leaving for BSG. Can't believe it's almost time!










# posted by Sharon @ 11:59 AM 1 Comments

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