Small Business Saturday

No, I don't do the war on Thanksgiving -- a.k.a. post-Thankgiving sales, a.k.a. "Black Friday." I don't do well at all in noisy crowds of strangers, especially in enclosed spaces, and I can't stand the greed-fest. I'm not opposed to shopping, but I am opposed to stores encouraging people to camp in their parking lots on Thanksgiving day instead of being home with their families, or that start their sales on Thanksgiving itself. I've noted which stores in town did that and will not be shopping there all the next year. Maybe, like Bill O'Whatshisname who yammers about the supposed "war on Christmas," I could start a movement about the "war on Thanksgiving." And I think I'd have a much stronger case. I did Buy Nothing Day instead -- at least until the kid from the local high school wrestling team came around selling wreaths. But that's a fundraiser, so it doesn't count.

I waited for Small Business Saturday and patronized Tangled Purls, one of two yarn shops in town. Not that I really need an excuse to check out the books and yarn, but I'll take one anyway. Came home with The Knitter's Handy Book Of Patterns and a skein of Madelinetosh sock yarn.

Then the family went to our locally-owned theater pub and saw The Muppets. Ah, a lovely feel-good holiday moving. Next we want to see Hugo, and we're really looking forward to The Adventures of Tin-Tin. Directed by Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson? Sounds good already.

In Sheep's Clothing: Vintage Film from Shetland

Want to know where your genuine Shetland yarn comes from? Or perhaps, used to come from... check out In Sheep's Clothing, a rare vintage silent film of shepherds on Shetland herding and "rooing" sheep, then turning the wool into hand-knitted garments. The traditional Shetland sheep shed its wool, so had to be "rooed," or hand-plucked. The film dates from 1932, and is in the Scottish Screen Archive. Click on the picture to take you to the site.

I just love this image of a woman hugging and comforting an antsy sheep.

I'm on the Yarn Harlot's blog!

Squee! Yes! I'm going all squealy fangirl here. I'm on the Yarn Harlot's blog with my scarf, Katie and Ellie are on there, and a whole flock of other folks from Portland and environs are on there. So is Laia and her Kiwi, Agnes -- I met both of them at the spin-in at Stash LLC in Corvallis.

When Muggles Knit

Or rather, attempt to knit. Without instruction. You just take yarn and needles and go at it, right? Whip out that scarf, right?

Riiiight...
 

I'm laughing AND want to slap him hard, at the same time. Honestly, I know a three-year-old who can do better than this, and is a lot cuter, but not quite as hilarious.

"Just use some tape. Some people say, you know, that's cheating, but I say, shut up. Because tape is like knitting for everybody."

"Now, if you you don't want to make a scarf, you can make a snake blanket. Because a snake blanket... is just a scarf."

"Sometimes you'll see people knitting in the subway, or in coffee houses, and... they're just jerks. Because they like to knit in front of people and brag they can do it."

All right, to be fair, we're always saying in my knitting group that whatever knitting method gets you the results you want, whether it's English or Continental or the Norwegian purl or whatever, is the right method. So Dan, my boy, if this gets you the results you want, carry on. Maybe you'd like to bring your project to my knitting group so that you can brag, too.

Spinning Sunday at Stash LLC

Rejoice, Citizens of Corvallis! There's a new yarn shop in town, and it's lovely!

This afternoon, two of us made a pilgrimage to Corvallis to visit Stash LLC for their spinning afternoon. Having gone to grad school in Corvallis -- twice -- I was already familiar with the downtown area and quickly placed the address as a near-next-door-neighbor to a fantastic bead shop I used to frequent, one of those with the aroma of sandalwood and all the peace signs and ethnic items that makes you go, "Bead shop? Head shop? Think I'll stick with the bead cases, thanks."

Just walking in -- doesn't that feel lovely already? Polished wooden floors, samples on display, books -- and yarn! Lots of lovely yarn, and local spinning fiber too.

The spinners were already gathering, with a variety of wheels in evidence. In the back, some folks were having fun with the drum carders, making batts.

Patch came with her spindle:

Helen, who rode down with me, came armed with a spindle, too, as did I, since we didn't know how much space or seating there would be. Jakay came with her crochet:

While the spinning carried on, I trotted down the block to the head bead shop in search of at least 35 grams of beads, yes beads. I needed size 8 seed beads for some tencel yarn that I bought at the first Sock Summit, which will become an Entomology shawl, which is what I intended when I bought the yarn.

Evidence that I did come back with beads.

And I think they go with the yarn quiet nicely. Even if they do have the lingering sandalwood aroma of a... bead shop.

A Night with the Harlot

Have y'all been following the Yarn Harlot's (a.k.a. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) book tour on her blog? Her last stop was last night in Portland at Powell's Books, and a whole flock of us from Salem went up to see her.

Now, for those of you who sometimes say, "Aw, I worked all day, I'm too tired to go to that thing tonight that tomorrow I'll probably wish I went to," listen up. Here's how my Fridays go this term: I teach two 2-hour back-to-back labs in the morning, followed by a noon meeting (which is where I scarf down lunch), followed by a 1-hour lecture, followed by a 2-hour lab. That's seven hours on my feet, a non-stop day with no breaks to sit by myself and decompress, and I'm an introvert so that's the definition of hell for me. So after all that, last night the lab got out a little early (thank Mendel). I jumped in the car, rocketed home, feed the cats, warmed up some stuff that I rummaged out of the fridge for dinner, and met my friend Katie with her little Ellie at the IKE Box where our knitting group meets. We bolted for Portland, got stuck in traffic so slow way south of Wilsonville that it looked like walking there would be a viable option, finally got out of slow traffic around the I-205 exit, and sailed into downtown Portland around 7:00 -- the talk was scheduled for 7:30. Katie was on the phone to Stephania (a.k.a. Three Fates Knitting) who was holding two seats for us. Thank Mendel again, there were parking spots open in a pay lot catty-corner from Powell's. We dashed in, claimed our seats, bought our books, found the ladies room, and sat down about 10 minutes before Stephanie Pearl-McPhee came on stage.

Then we laughed ourself silly for the next two hours.

I'm still grinning the next morning.

I got a blurry picture of Katie, Ellie, and Stephania:

Ellie was a little worried about the size of the crowd, but she settled in and was a pretty happy baby the whole time we were there.

The crowd was as big as the space that Powell's could provide:

I got one sorta-not-blurry photo of the Yarn Harlot giving her talk -- and yes, her Gwendolyn sweater was done! And she wore it! Jut not at that moment because with all those bodies packed into one space on the top floor, it was quite warm:

One of the perks of giving a young mom a ride is that moms with babies are among those who get to go to the front of the line at Stephanie's book signings. We both had spanking new copies of All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin, the newest book, in our hands. Katie gets her book signed, and I was next, but I didn't get a good shot of that.

Wow, a few weeks ago I saw Jane Goodall give a talk and got her autograph, too, though I don't have a picture of that either (they had one person doing all the picture-taking, and I don't see our picture posted in the pictures for that event). Jane Goodall AND the Yarn Harlot in the same month! I was equally thrilled to see both -- for different reasons, but thrilled all the same.

A couple of FOs

We're three weeks into fall term, and between teaching full time, trying to write a paper, and working on an outside contract, I tend to come home and mostly stare at my computer and vibrate in place in the evenings. I could be knitting but that would mean summoning the energy to get up and fetch a project, then find the brain space to remember how to knit.

Nevertheless...

I finally finished my Summit Socks, designed to celebrate our own Three Fates Yarns being chosen as a vendor at Sock Summit. This shot, besides showing how cozy hand knit wooly socks are, shows the colorway that I chose. I think something plainer would have suited the pattern better, but it was a Three Fates skein that I had so I cast on with it at the time.

Here you can see the three "summits" on the side:

And the three diamonds on the instep, as well as the star toe:

I also finished the first sample skein from an 8 lb variegated gray Romney fleece that I bought last spring. It's worsted-spun in the grease from unwashed locks, plied as a 3-ply, and then washed. It came out to about worsted to aran weight -- I'll need to knit a swatch to see what gauge I get.

It's destined to be a fall coat, once I spin up at least a pound of this fleece. That still leaves... wow, there's a lot of fleece in this fleece.

And now a completely unrelated cute kitty picture: our shy calico, Sprocket, cuddled up with the Princess Belle.

Guests in our house never see Sprocket, because she hides in some secret place that only she knows. For all I know, she has a secret tunnel under the floor. So here she is for all to admire her calico beauty.

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival 2011

Marking the end of fiber festival season in this part of the world, Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival happened this weekend, to both sun (Saturday) and pouring rain (Sunday). I went up with a friend on Saturday and spent most of the day there, looking at the critters, breathing in the fibery goodness, and taking time in the afternoon to sit and knit with friends.

This young lady had a beautiful angora goat (the kind that give mohair) for sale that she was parading around, attracting the younger set who wanted to pet the long, curly locks.

As for the other angora, the kind that give angora, there were lots in attendance, some being sold. This lovely fellow was wiggling around until he saw the camera. Then he sat down and posed.

The adorable alpaca, with his fresh haircut, wanted to get up close and meet everyone. Definitely wanted a shot from his good side.

Gotland sheep were the featured breed of the year. If I'd wanted the fleece, I could have had it sheared for me right then and there:

Churros gave a lovely showing as well:

I'd seen pictures of Scottish blackface sheep, but I had no idea they were this tiny. These little guys are almost lap-sized. While the fleece is often coarse, this little flock felt like they were soft enough for good outerwear.

I didn't catch what breed this little lambie-pie was, but it was some kind of hair sheep:

For all you Blue-faced Leicester fans, here's that famous "blue" face:

In the marketplace, I saw the new Schacht Sidekick being demonstrated at the Abstract Fiber booth:

Every year I'm tempted by these glass needles, but I haven't succumbed yet. Maybe sometime. There was a pair out for demonstration just to prove that they don't really squeak when you knit with them.

And at the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth -- anyone who practiced the flash mob dance for Sock Summit should recognize Steven. Tina (one half of ST1) is behind him to the left.

This was a great book booth, with lots of vintage and antique books. I picked up two books of sweater patterns from the 40s for my vintage collection.

The best part, of course, is meeting up with friends to knit and spin together, and to show off all the new pretties.

I was pretty restrained this time around, since my stash boxes are stuffed full. I even had cash left when I was done. I picked up (clockwise from the left) a 4 oz hank of silk/alpaca blend to spin, a 2 oz cup of B-type pygora fiber, two 2 oz hanks of pure silk spinning fiber from Blue Moon (in the Morticia colorway, which made it totally irresistible), a skein of mill ends Socks that Rock from the Blue Moon both, and in the middle, 4 ounces of English angora, which is pretty compacted but I don't think it's badly felted. If I find felted bits, I can use it for needle felting. It was only four bucks.

Now I've got to get to knittin' and spinnin'!

World Wide Spin in Public Day!

We did it again! World Wide Spin in Public Day at the IKE Box, hosted by the Salem Area Ravelers was a success! I only wish I'd gotten more pictures.

We had a raffle table, with lots of donations, including fiber and silky Socks that Rock donated by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and yarn and dyed silk hankies from Three Fates Yarn:

And speaking of Three Fates Yarn, Stephania set up a booth to sell her luscious creations:

We had spinning going on, as well as knitting, beaded crochet, and drum carding going on.

With special guest appearance by Omar, all of four weeks old and bottle fed since he was an abandoned newborn:

Omar says, "Heck yeah, we're having fun here!"

Bridges of Marion County Scarf - My first for-sale design!

Hoorah! I finally did it! I've got a PDF pattern up for sale on Ravelry! With some good photography thanks to my hubby, a lovely day for taking photos on the local footbridge over the Willamette, finally finding a knitting stitch font that I liked so I could work out the chart out in Excel, and then finally coming up with a layout and set of pattern instructions that I liked, Bridges of Marion County Scarf is ready to go.

It's a lovely, long scarf knitted from light fingering-weight yarn and designed to show off yarns with long color runs. I used a handspun silk/wool blend from Dicentra Designs (Aventurine colorway) and spun it as a chain-plyed 3-ply to preserve the colors. (Dicentra dyes yarn as well as fiber in her various colorways.)

Because some people love charts and some people love written directions for lace, the pattern has both. Can't beat that. I've arranged the pretty pictures mostly on their own pages, except for a close-up of the edging that I put on the page with the chart, so that people have a choice of printing everything out, pictures and all, or printing out just a page of text or just the chart. Y'all know how expensive printer ink is.

I got a lot of admiration for this scarf at Sock Summit, so I thought I really had to get it written up and out there. So, world, here it is.

Ravelry even provides a nice little buy now link. Pretty cool.