BSJ progress

Just a couple pictures. Here is the project as it appeared on Monday -- yarn chosen, pattern available, cast on done:


The yarn is my own, in colours Grape Jelly, Rose-A-Lee, and Mocha-Chocolata.

Here it is today:


Another day or two, and the knitting will be done. The Baby Surprise Jacket done with thick yarn -- delightful. The thing I love about instant gratification knitting is that the gratification is so, well, instant.

It's coming out about the right size for a two year old, which is what I expected. I may lengthen the sleeves a bit with a perpendicular garter stitch border; I may not. I don't know who will eventually wear the jacket, but it's a lovely demo piece for my yarn.

Studio Tour, and a Sunny Day

I had an excellent day today. It was one of those sun-is-shining spring days where all the neurons are popping, and I feel electric with ideas and possibilities and optimism. The sun is just part of it. Today, I had my third spinning class, and I think I finally have sorted the difference between woolen and worsted, both as fiber preparations and drafting techniques. It remains to do some scientific experimenting -- use the same fiber to spin roughly the same weight of yarn in four different ways (woolen prep/woolen draft, worsted/worsted, and both semi-worsted yarns), then knit them, then examine them in lots of light and possibly given all 4 swatches a serious wash and rub to see how they wear.

Usually I'm not very scientific -- my dye mixing technique is solidly in the "a little of this and a little of that" camp, and note taking is an occasional afterthought. But I can't yet see some of the differences I'm looking for, but I want to be in control of the yarn that I spin so that I can make decisions about technique to produce a desired effect. I need to do what it takes for me to be able to see the differences.

I'll keep you posted on this project.

After my spinning class, I visited Three Bags Full to deliver some promised rovings, and I found all four of the Elizabeth Zimmerman books that I had wanted to see in person. I settled on The Opinionated Knitter and Knitting Around. The Knitters Almanac frankly doesn't contain projects that interest me, although I'm intrigued by the concept of knitted tights, and the book based on her TV series is a bit redundant, since I have the DVDs.

EZ always gets me inspired. The new books, along with my teacher's exhortations to be seen knitting my own yarn more often, are combining to inspire me to make my first Baby Surprise Jacket with my own soft-spun yarn. As soon as my husband comes home, I'll head out to the car (I ought not to leave the three year old alone in the house) to bring in the rest of the yarn that's still in the trunk from the weekend show, and choose my colours. I'm thinking two or three purples, and a lovely brown.

The Studio Tour was cool -- i met some neat fellow artists and artisans, I explained how to make yarn to a lot of kids, and I explained the mechanics of the spinning wheel to lots of all kinds of people. I really enjoyed myself, but I'm wiped, as usual.

No rest for the self-employed though. Today's full schedule of class and a sales call was technically my "day off," and tomorrow I have to hit the dyepots -- I'm completely out of fiber. If you want my fiber, head down to Three Bags Full, they have everything.

I Haz a TARDIS!

This is attempt #1 at dyeing a TARDIS colourway, and I'm pretty pleased with the first attempt. My next attempt with make the greenish parts a little more blue, and will add some of the darker tones, but hey waddya think for a first try?

Coming Events

I'm doing a couple public events in the upcoming weeks, and they are these:

April 12-13, noon to 5pm: The ArtsConnect Port Moody Studio Tour. This annual event is a chance for the public to visit many of Port Moody's several artists in their own studios, or, in the case of those without public-friendly studios, in public venues. I will be at the Station Museum with my wheel, my yarn, and my fiber. To get the map of the whole event, click here.

May 4, 11am to 5pm: The Got Craft show on Commercial Drive. The Got Craft blog is profiling all the vendors one at a time, so check it out!

May 18: The Coquitlam Farmer's Market begins its 12th season on May 11, and I'll be there as a vendor on May 18. I intend to be there every three weeks, all summer.

And as always, my yarn and fiber is available at Three Bags Full.

"Dear Brown,"

Dear Brown,

I'm sorry to have to write this letter, but I'm afraid we have had some complaints with regard to your behaviour.

I am afraid I must ask you to stop impersonating Orange. You are not orange. I'll grant you, there is a striking resemblance sometimes, but on close inspection, you are about as close to being Orange as a drag queen with visible stubble is to being a beautiful woman.

If you do not cease trying to be Orange, I'm afraid I shall have to take measures. Your job can be done perfectly well if your duties are split between Green and Red, with some occasional help from Black. In fact, given your consistently spotty performance, I am tempted to replace you right now, but as there is some time left in your contract, please consider this to be a stern warning, and try to fulfill your own job function, and no one else's.

Sincerely,

The Dyepot

I'm doing it all wrong

"Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly."

This has been a mantra of mine for a long time, ever since I read it...somewhere...and I'm reminding myself of it today. Because yesterday, I learned that I was spinning badly. I'm doing it all wrong. And it's the lesson I expected to learn -- I am self-taught after all, and I'm not usually big on autodidacticism, I think it leads to bad habits and stunted skills. So I wasn't shocked and offended or anything, but even still it was a bit of a tough pill to swallow.

It's hard to learn new things at any stage, but when you're a child, there are so few things you know, and even fewer that you know well, so it's not quite as much of a risk to the ego to try doing something new. As we grow older, though, we learn what it feels like to master skills, learning sets, facts, and paradigms. We put it all on the line when we try -- and risk failing at -- something new. It takes, I think, a greater deal of bravery to try something new the older you get. It's why some people simply stop trying new things.

The rewards are tremendous, though. Today, I feel that childlike sense of possibility and confidence, the voice that says, I can't do this, but I'll practice, and then I'll be good! And that feeling is why some other people keep trying new things. When I was little, my mom expressed admiration for an 80-year old friend of hers. For her 80th birthday, this friend asked for an 8-volume set of the history of China. Because she didn't know anything at all about China, and wanted to learn. I was kind of inspired then, and I continue to be now.

The fact that I clearly have so much to learn, more than I thought I did going into this, is good news in one way though. These classes are pricey. They're the perfectly correct price, given that they're comprehensive, thorough lessons taught by a highly skilled instructor, but it's a chunk out of my budget to be taking them, which is one of the reasons I waited this long to sign up. So the good news is this -- since I have so very much to learn, I am definitely getting my money's worth.

Back to it

Well that was a lovely little break. I have been working, but really, not much. I'm kind of amazed by how long it has taken me (is taking me) to get back to my usual work rhythm. Partly, I was really wiped by Fibrefest, and partly, life just sort of took over. It's the curse of the work-at-home-mom -- if an errand needs to be done, then the one who works at home is going to be the one to give up work time to do it. And I get that, it makes sense. I don't need to book time off with anyone, rearrange meetings, file paperwork with HR. But still, there have been a lot of little things -- holidays that preschool takes but not any other business, illnesses, etc -- and they have taken over 50% of my usual three days a week working time lately.

But I'm back to it! I spent Tuesday communing with the dyepots, and dyed 8lbs of corriedale. The current batch is possibly even lovelier than usual; Hello Yarn is such a great supplier, so reliable and affordable. Can't say enough good about them and their product. Here is some of what I have dyed:



The current batch of BFL is sort of intriguing. It has an incredibly soft hand, and the fibers are long and very fluffy. It's wonderful to spin, soft, a bit soapy/silky to draft. However, there are these regular little tufts of very short hairs. Any spinners know what those are? They must be something that's usually combed out, that wasn't in this batch. Anyway, it's spinning up fine, but I'm having to slow down and be careful when I get to the short-ish bits.

In other news, I have signed up for the comprehensive spinning class at Place des Arts starting next week. Here's my little secret -- I'm a beginner spinner. I can do a couple types of yarn rather well, so I'm confident about what I offer for sale, but my range of skills is not high. I'm looking forward to this course, so that I can learn the basics right from the dirty-fleece stage, fill in gaps in my basic knowledge, and extend my skills so that I can spin different types of fiber with confidence. I have learned as much as I can by myself, with YouTube videos and experimenting, and I'm looking forward to learning from a real live teacher in a classroom situation.

And to close -- here is some yarn to look at. I am still trying to perfect the colourway "Ianto." Torchwood fans -- waddya think of this batch? I didn't get the charcoal element in, quite, but if you see it as just a tie-shirt combo, it's rather good I think.

I love him.

I will tell you all about Fibrefest, I promise, but I'm still recovering my language skills.

Today, my mom has gone home to Ottawa and my daughter is in preschool all day. I have the day to myself, and I will not be working. I have knitting plans -- the Kauni stranded scarf I started at Fibrefest, maybe, or the double-knitting scarf I started a while back. Don't-bug-me knitting projects, both of them. I have reading plans -- the Spring issue of Bitch magazine came to my house yesterday.

And as to my title -- when I came home from dropping my daughter off, the house was empty, and on a couch cushion was an envelope. On it, my beloved husband had written "Go to a movie, K," and inside was a free movie pass.

I love him.

I've decided to see Juno, all by myself. I love to go see movies by myself. No one to consult on the movie choice, no one to negotiate snack-sharing with, no one else to worry about in any way. It's only-child nirvana.

I made a wool tree!

Is it wrong to be just a little in love with myself today? 'Cause I am. 'Cause look what sprouted up in my dining room:


I'm very proud of my work. I'm also certain that I haven't done nearly enough to prepare, I don't have enough stock, I'm going to be doing a lot of handing out my business card and hoping people contact me later, but hey, I can't do anything about that now. I have worked my fingers off the last three weeks, I bought as much supplies as I could afford without digging into high-interest credit, and I've accomplished quite a bit. It's a balancing act, doing this small business. I want to keep enough stock around so that anyone who finds me can probably find something to their taste, but not so much that I have more than i can afford tied up in the stock. I want to buy enough supplies to keep my stock high, but not so much that the business is living on credit. So, a balancing act. But an interesting one.

Look! Yarn:

I feel pretty...

Well, not me precisely. Me, I need a haircut, my roots are severely grown out, and I'm still fighting an unpleasant multi-symptom virus that had me cancelling class on Saturday and, what's more not meeting my spinning quota for the day, but the part of me that I'm all focussed on these days -- the wooly part of me -- that feels awfully pretty. Here is my upstairs half-wall thingy:


And my back patio drying racks:


And two bigass bins o' yarn in my spinning room:



I am actually feeling not completely panicked, not entirely inadequate, not like I am about to be cleaned out of my meagre supplies within moments of Fibrefest's doors opening, leaving me with 15 hours in which to apologize to potential customers that I have nothing to show them.

I had a little burst of energy yesterday and I managed to dye another 4lbs of corriedale, in awfully pretty colours. Not having much in the way of creativity left, I dyed colourways that have been popular in the past and all 4 batches turned out just like I wanted. I spun 12 skeins of yarn as well, and felt generally cheerful in the process.

Did I mention the unexpected not panicking? That was nice.

Today, I'm starting with some relaxing spinning -- a very pretty Shetland roving:


And in case you missed it: Fibrefest is in Abbottsford on March 7-8, *not* at Tradex where it used to be. Follow the link for driving directions, and come visit me there!