Ravelry

Holy shit. I finally got my Ravelry invite last night. After signing up like, three months ago. I had almost forgotten I signed up.

It is not often that I find myself aligning with much of the knitting zeitgeist. I was getting bored with socks when people started being enchanted with them, and my interests have waned (I like to think of it as "specified") to lace (good lace, here, fine lace, not stupid boring lace that is barely lace at all, even though I totally have Icarus wadded up in a ball in my closet needing a wash and a reblocking as I type this) and anything else that is either stranded color work and/or items that are knitted with nothing larger than a size 5 needle (although frankly, I think 5s are pushing it).

But ravelry? That shit is cool. I am finally (finally, god I am so cheap) buying a digital camera with a macro function this weekend - nothing special, but enough, I think, to actually be able to take decent pictures of my stash/projects. With my new Macro Awesomeness almost at my fingertips, and this awesome tutorial on how to light it, I figure I should be up and running pretty quickly.

This site focuses exactly on why the internet is awesome for the knitting, and lets me ignore a lot of the other crap. Love it.

Variegated Yarn Is The New Fun Fur

So I was checking out the new Fall Knitty, and while I don't feel like there is a huge number of catastrophic failures out there (although, I'm sorry, but you are never going to convince me that the beret is coming back, and I say this as someone who bought Anna Zilboorg's hat book, which like, why did I buy that?! I am never going to make something out of that book. It is like, too lame for RenFest people. I don't think homeless people would ever wear any of those hads), I am a little bugged by the whole "I wear clothes made out of variegated yarn" thing.

Por ejemplo:

Cherie Amour - although the gauge is too thick for me, the pattern's cute, I assume, but it's so difficult to tell because of the color vomitousness. Same with Mr. Greenjeans and Roam.

Sure, I know, not difficult to replace with a solid color - it just seems to me that variegated yarn use is the first sign of someone who has lost the perspective when it comes to knitting. We all go through it to a certain degree - I get the wicked hard jones to start doing really intricate Norwegian colorwork because I know that it is inordinately difficult, and proof of skill, but then I check myself and think "sure, it's beautiful, to a knitter, because we inherently see the skill or value therein, but to everyone else, it looks like a grandma sweater." And then I move it off my list again, having to content myself with perhaps selecting a cute ski sweater (I guess I'm going to have to come up with my own reindeer-patterned yoke style) or something else to lust after.

I think this is also a problem with my peeps, the spinners. I am warning you, variegated yarn is a gateway drug. Because you think "wow, look at these color combinations, and all in one yarn, color color color" and then you get tunnel vision about how perhaps that thing that reminds you of wildflowers in the spring in the skein will look when you, yourself are covered in odd little blotches of red, yellow, green, blue and brown. Answer: like your Koigu vomited on you.

And I love Koigu. I think Variegated yarn has its place. And that place is called "Accessoryland". Socks, gloves, fuck, ladies, I'll even give you a scarf, perchance even a hat, if you can stop rolling into the yarn store proudly wearing the cardigans you made out of hundreds of dollars' worth of ugly, ugly yarn. If you want interesting color combinations, think stripes. Think Fair Isle. Fuck (I can't believe I'm even saying this), think intarsia before you think "well, I'm just going to make this out of variegated yarn because it's like, every pretty color in one!"

Don't even get me started on variegated lace shawls. I'll just leave it at the point that here you are, spending all this time making this beautiful lace piece, and you decide to fucking ruin it by making it in a variegated colorway, removing any ability for people to actually see the details in the lace? Stop. Please, please, just stop. I know, colors are pretty, but just walk away.

This also goes for you self-stripers out there. Enough.

Scouring a fleece

I am currently in the process of scouring an Icelandic raw fleece.

I tried to skirt it as best I can - I just ripped off the stuff that had like, black gluey buildup and turds.

There is a lot of grass and crap on it, but I am hoping I will wash most of that out.

It is hard work, and one thing that I don't think has been mentioned quite enough in all the instructions about scouring fleeces and washing fleeces and blah blah blah, is the smell.

Good lord. Barnyard+animal turd+wet wool is a really unholy combination. Sure, my hands are going to be soft, but at the expense of my olfactory sensibilities. I am not kidding, it stinks. Bad.

But I didn't realize until today that it was a white fleece (long story), which makes me excited. For the dyeing.

Spinning with a wheel

First wheelspun singles, originally uploaded by siobhanmc.

So I finally got a spinning wheel, after what seems like years of pining after one.

It's a Kromski Symphony (and I bought it from the woolery, and was really pleased with the service and speed).

I put it together Wednesday night, but because of social commitments, I didn't have a chance to play around with it until last night. Which is the only thing I did.

I was a little concerned that the wheel wasn't going to suit me, since I didn't have a chance to try out different wheels (well, okay, let's be honest, I did have a chance, but I am not the kind of person who looks at my knitting/spinning hobbies as the kind of thing I really want a physical commitment to - I mean, I very rarely buy from my LYS, I don't attend knitting groups, it's just not my bag. Everything that I've done with knitting has been on my own and with help from the great internet, and I figured that I would just adjust to whatever the foibles of my particular wheel).

Which I did. The Kromski has a dead spot at the top of the wheel, when both footmen are in line at the top of a treadle, and I don't know (since this is the first time ever I have ever even touched a real working spinning wheel) if this is typical, but it can get a wee bit annoying. Nothing too bad, but just a little vexing.

I was also concerned about some comments regarding the Symphony being a right-handed wheel only. Since I began with spindle spinning, I feel more comfortable drafting with my right hand (right? That's the one that pulls the fiber out of the wad from my left hand that is holding it) - I don't find it difficult - I just have to remember not to crank my fiber all the way over to the left, and hold it more comfortably in front of me.

I am very proud of my singles - they're thin and lovely and I think they totally don't look like they are beginner singles.