Remember, Saturday is Small Business Saturday, a day to celebrate and support your local businesses. Shop locally-owned small businesses and a much higher percentage of your dollars stay in your local community. Shop at a national or international chain, far less money stays in your local community.
Support your local community – and your local yarn shop – Shop Local!
“It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices…” – JK Rowling
Shop early, shop often!
Handweavers Guild of Boulder
October 31 – November 4, 2012
Wednesday – Sunday
10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sunday: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Boulder County Fairgrounds
Hover Street and Nelson Road, Longmont
Admission and parking are free.
Again, I promise it is not me. She got a great job somewhere closer to her family. So she gets a farewell scarf!
Warp: Hand-dyed Anzula sock yarn in Denim (Superwash Merino, Cashmere)
Weft: Cascade Heritage sock yarn in Steel
Sett at 16 for a twill, probably should have sett it at 15
Yet another one
Current Audiobook: Castle Corona by Sharon Creech
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus
Lovely Lois has sent along info about a new pair of clogs she found. And yes, for knitters everywhere who are also Sensible Shoe Fanatics, they are from Dansko.
Dansko Photo Real Patent, which look like a photo of knitting!
If I took every penny I might make at this year’s Guild sale, I would be able to buy these. And they just might be worth it. I mean, look how pretty and just darn Knitty they are.
Thanks for the head’s up, Lois!
Another audiobook on deck:
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, because I didn’t get around to it last time I had it checked out.
“A reliable way of making people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.” ― Daniel Kahneman
$10, 14 pairs of knitting needles. Yes, metal, but useful to have around for sizes I don’t already have in bamboo.
Needle Treasure!
Another find from the thrift store this weekend; a plastic Weave-It Hand Loom. Something to do tiny samples on, or just a random piece to collect? Hopefully I’ll make use of it.
Weave-It
For more info on using these little gems, see the eLoomaNation site.
Current Audiobook: Having given up on the annoying Sister Grimm series, I’m moving back to adult books. Currently listening to 12.21: A Novel by Dustin Thomason
On Deck: Just picked up The Elgin Affair: The Abduction of Antiquity’s Greatest Treasures and the Passions it Aroused by Theodore Vrettos
“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde
I’ll give you one guess. Starts with the letter “C” and involves two patterns from HeadHuggers. Cash Vero DK, size 7 needles.
Yes, another one
Recent Audiobooks: Unbelievably annoyed by the Sisters Grimm series. The characters are at turns completely ignorant or ridiculously knowledgeable. Are these supposed to make young readers feel better, that they can guess the answers long before the characters can? Or do they get as annoyed as I do and talk back to the audiobook about whether the editor slept through the editing process? Major knock off of the brilliant Fables series by Bill Willingham.
Other recent audiobooks: Starting the Stoneheart series by Charlie Fletcher, only because it is performed by Jim Dale of Harry Potter audiobook fame.
“There is no darkness but ignorance.” – William Shakespeare
The last challenging bright scarf. Wandered around Shuttles trying to find something aqua, teal, or bright green – the recipient’s favorite colors. Found Plymouth Yarns Kudo (color #42, blue green), which seemed like a good base. Trouble is, the yarn is kind of crunchy, for lack of a better word. I needed something to soften it up and make it more appealing as a scarf.
After too much searching, decided on two hand-dyed merino wool and silk blends as additional warp, Malabrigo Silky Merino Yarn (412 Teal Feather from My Sister Knits) and Louisa Harding Grace Hand-Dyed from my stash (#16 Melon, purchased last year from sale bin at Tuesday Morning). Wrapped around the ruler, the Kudo was 11 epi, the others were 11-12. Set at 13.5 in a 6 dent reed, slightly tighter because of weaving a twill.
Weft = Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk sock yarn color #5633
Again, it is not necessarily recommended that you use Kudo as warp. It can pull apart, so it needs to be babied like Manos. Don’t pull it too tightly in the warp, choose a simple pattern, use a big dent reed (6), and add in additional yarn as warp. I also put a few threads of solid Cash Vero on the edges, to make stronger edges and match the solid warp to a solid (not variegated) edge thread. Conceals more errors that way!
Kudo plus silk wool warp
Washed and Dried
The pictures don’t show that this really is more teal and aqua than anything else, but the silk in the warp, plus the sock yarn weft, has given it a nice hand. Not too crunchy for a scarf now.
Recent Audiobooks: Starting the Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley. Enjoyable, but clearly written for the adults instead of children. How many modern children actually read real Grimm’s tales? Will they understand these references? Or do they just think Jack the Giant Killer is a hero, and not understand the wealth of Jack tales indicating that he is a trickster (plot hint)?
“I like the challenge of trying different things and wondering whether it’s going to work or whether I’m going to fall flat on my face.” – Johnny Depp
Dug dug dug out the loom, at least temporarily. Two of the three scarves are done. Okay, all three were actually woven this weekend, but one of them turned out so badly I cannot give it as a gift. Talk about sleazy weaving! Between the cotton warp and bamboo weft, something went very wrong. Nothing shrank and tightened up as I thought it should, and the thing is just too fragile to consider wearing. Certainly not going to give such a failure as a gift.
The two that did work:
Very bright and stripey
I warned you that they were bright.
Pink and Black: Weft = bamboo knitting yarn. Warp = pink bamboo/cotton knitting yarn, black SugarRush sugarcane sock yarn.
Red and Orange: Weft = Manos wool/silk blend in red. Warp = Random 100 percent wool in solid orange (very similar to Manos, sorry already threw away the tag) and Manos del Uruguay Maxima 100 percent wool.
Apparently, some folks do not recommend weaving with Manos as the warp. As I am not a good weaver, it is not a problem for me. I have to weave the entire scarf in one day in order to get the beat to match. This means the warp is only under tension for 3-4 hours total, which the 100 percent wool Manos can handle if treated gently.
Recent audiobook: More About Paddington by Michael Bond, performed by Stephen Fry
Current audiobook: Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, performed by Sophie Thompson from the films Emma and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
“Why do you always complicate things that are really quite simple?” – Mary Poppins
Three co-workers have left in the past month. I swear, it isn’t me. One retired, and two got great new jobs elsewhere. It means that three Goodbye scarves are owed, and two of the three have to be blindingly bright because those are the colors they like.
Seriously, only one of them likes black (but she likes it with hot pink). Due to home reno, the loom is currently unreachable, so the most I can do is select warp and weft, wind things out, and wait. And wait. And start digging out around the loom.
Recent Audiobook: Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (performed by Ralph Cosham)
Recent Reads: Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson (excellent); The Body Project by Dr. Joan Blumberg (incredibly depressing); Living Dolls : The Return of Sexism (incredibly depressing)
“I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves.” – Mary Wollstonecraft
For those of you (us) that actually think shopping for wool in 100 degree heat is fun.
Hot August Knits Yarn Crawl
Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming
Yarn Along the Rockies
General Colorado Yarn Shop Crawl
Oh to have a spare few hundred dollars and space for more yarn.
“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.” – Mae West
Wit&Wonder's Blog 