The Thrifty Knitter

I just saw the redesigned chapter openers for my book and they’re so cute I could SCREAM. Seriously. This book is going to be so darling you could eat it up with a big candy spoon.

Yippee! Registration is open! (I’m just the organizer/a student–didn’t want to scare you off with my own mangy yarn.)

The Harveyville Project, aka my home, aka a rural schoolhouse creative retreat, workshop & residence, is hosting a yarn-making workshop this October, and it’s going to RAWK. The sparkling and winsome Adrian of Hello Yarn will be teach a good many of the classes, so if you admire her delectable yarn, here’s your chance to glean a little sunshine.

The workshop will cover spinning (drop spindle & wheel), dying, processing fiber, etc. We’ll be spinning (amongst other fibers) the alpaca we’ll be meeting from a local ranch, Alpacas at Wildcat Hollow. It’s $425 for 4 days, all classes, materials, equipment use, & all meals & a shared double room (former classrooms, complete with chalkboards, maps, etc.), or $825 with a kick-ass take-home spinning wheel, hand tool & fiber package.

I made some more yarn last night on my drop spindle, almost 90 yards. It’s kind of scratchy wool, so I think I’m going to use it to make a critter or something practical, not something to wear.

Here it is on the spindle:

I’m way too slow to actually use it properly, so I did the “park-and-draft” method. But yarn’s yarn, so up yours. No, not really up yours, because I would like to learn to do it properly, but I definitely need more supervision. The class I took barely touched on spindles. And this was actually a bottom-whorl spindle. I shoved an eyelet into the opposite end to make a top-whorl spindle, since that’s the small experience I had. The spindle came with the purple roving, some dyed locks that I put aside for later, and a video tape that I found completely useless. I don’t know whether it was the video or me, but I finally just had to turn it off and flip the spindle over & rig up the other end & try to remember what I’d learned in class because I was getting nowhere.

Here’s the yarn in a hank:

As you can see, I don’t know what I’m doing. But it’s awfully fun. And this is certainly yarn!

The show as fucking HUGE, I’d say at least as as big as a Super Target, maybe even double that, but strangely quiet & low key, I guess because nothing was actually for sale. So the hoards who would normally be knocking over their own mothers for the new Koigu colors weren’t, you know, knocking over anyone. Yarn store owners were marching around, dragging their stashes of bribes and goodies, the veterans puffing up their chests so you could see all their commemorative pins from past shows. I had a red tag, so one was climbing over themselves to load me up with swag. And whenever a vendor did so much as looked my way, I bleated “I’m not a yarn store,” so they wouldn’t waste a pitch on me. On Sunday, I mostly felt overwhelmed & like an interloper, just milling about a little and lurking at the Potter Craft booth like an orphan. But I did get to meet a lot of delightful people, including some knitting superstars. I don’t want to want to be a knitting star-fucker, but it was pretty inspiring. The Potter cocktail party (which I missed almost all of, thanks to the fucking Hyatt, which blew off my wake-up call. My new name for the Hyatt is the Moldy Tomato, but that’s a separate gripe) had a very dense stable of knitting superstars, and knitting-themed girly cocktails. The combination was kind of giddy-making. I wish I’d been earlier & not so hazy & tired from 2 almost-sleepless nights, as the little I did catch was kind of a blur.

It’s been really interesting to read what everyone saw as the big “trends” at TNNA. It was my first time, so it beats me. Yarn wise, it seemed to be mainly about classic yarns, but I can’t say I saw a dominant fiber. I’m not really a trend-spotter by nature though. I just drift from touchy to touchy & block out anything I don’t like. I did see a lot of elegant, feminine cables and very artful, girly applications of bulky yarns. Case in point: I was very excited to see the French Girl stuff in real life. The garments are actually even more scrumptious in person.

The best part of the show is that everyone has long, open hanks of yarn hanging from their booths, so you can walk around and feel it all up, and get a better idea of the nature of the yarn than you do when it’s all twisted into hanks. There are huge yarn companies with extravagant 12-stall booths and dozens of mannequins, all rich and overdone like middle-aged Hollywood divorcees, and tiny yarn companies with their proud, compact little no-nonsense displays. You’re not allowed to take pictures, to minimize ripoffs, I guess. But it’s a pain in the ass, because you end up with fistfuls of cards and brochures & without pictures, it’s really hard to remember who was who.

One of the nicest things–and something I should’ve photographed, because the sign just said no cameras in the exhibit hall & this was outside–was the Great Wall of Yarn, where there are hundreds of hanging hanks to fondle, as well as corresponding snips for you to tape into your little yarny memory book. Totally fun for a yarn nerd, and a nice, concentrated, unintimidating way to check out the yarn. I think a lot of people recorded every single yarn, but I just took the ones I liked in both looks and touch. I missed out on a few I wanted, because I didn’t realize what was going on until the end.

 

Tool-wise, Clover had a brilliant pompom maker. I really liked the handmade wooden circular needles from Stitch Diva, and Colonial’s new rosewood circulars were pretty darn nice, too, but much pricier. There was a small company with completely one of a kind hand-carved knitting needles & crochet hooks (Dodo’s Design).

See how the two are different? The left one has a little ring rattle near the base of the end, while the right has a ring at the tip of the end. They’re weightless. 

Both sides of my exotic birdie hook. Is it a heron, maybe? I don’t know. They also had a weird airbrushed pink & blue rabbit I really liked, but it was bigger than what I would typically use.

As far as yarns, I tried to mainly explore companies I didn’t know or that aren’t carried at my LYSes, so I could expand my horizons a little. Ozark Handspun had defiant, mouth-watering, glubby melted-candy yarns. That’s always my favorite stuff, although wild yarns are challenging to actually use. You just want to put them in shadow boxes. But I’ve got an embryonic pattern bobbing around in my brain. I wish they had more crazy art yarn at the show, but I guess that would just be maddening, since you couldn’t buy it. Ooh, and speaking of, I got to look at the Pluckyfluff Handspun Revolution book at Unicorn (which had every single craft book you’d ever want to browse). It’s expensive for its size (littlish), but lovely and very interesting, and it’s definitely on my splurgy to-buy list. With the fiber workshop coming up, it should be a snap to rationalize. I was psyched about O-wool (certified organic, soft, richly colored classic wool yarn); the delightfully economical Kraemer, with plenty of undyed selections and a great cotton blend tweed; the new Lana Grossa and Nashua stuff; some of the Universal natural/synthetic blends; and a couple of small importers: Latin Collection’s buttery alpaca from Peru and Rio de la Plata’s marled hand-dyed from Uruguay. Plus the Dancing Fibers Diamohair & Serendipity; gorgeous Twinkle bulky, especially the stormy ice blue stuff, which was practically liquid (the hand varied a good deal by color, though it was all labeled simply “pure wool” or “virgin wool” or something similarly generic); the candyish and feel-good Be Sweet pretties; muted Hand Jive bulkies; and the luxury Classic Elite. I could soak in a tub of that. There was nothing for sale at the show, but afterwards, they were allowed to do some modest cash & carry, so I got the Denise companion set I’ve been needing, the handcarved tools above, and some Ozark roving, which is really meant for knitting, but I think I’ll try to spin tufts of it into my spindle practice.

I really wish I hadn’t been so bashful about talking to yarn companies & publishers–I didn’t really relax until Monday afternoon & by then it was almost over. But I did introduce myself to a few yarn people and get some great samples of new yarns, and I have a couple possibilities for pattern design. Next year, I’d really like to have a book proposal in hand so I can figure out just what yarns I’d like to use with what pattern.

I wish they had a little 1-page orientation/overview/don’t-miss notice for first timers. I missed all the book signings & gimmees, and didn’t realize what was up with the Yarn Wall until the very end. And I didn’t know about the silent auction until after the fact. It would have been very exciting to win a garment you’ve admired in your favorite book or magazine. Plus it would have been a nice shopping release in a no-shop-em weekend. And I should map out everything I want to see so I don’t get lost and miss anyone (like Karabella & Blue Sky Alpacas & Louet, boo hoo). And there were goodie bags at the Potter party, so I reckon there were goodie bags to be had elsewhere. I’m nothing if not a goodie whore.

But there’s always next year! By then, I’ll have a real book and not just a pretend one! (All the publishers make pretend versions of upcoming books that aren’t out yet. They have a shiny, authentic-looking jacket, and a few pages of patterns, and then the rest is blank. It’s quite a fake out. There were a couple books I picked up again and again. They could have put one of those rat buzzers inside and made an experiment out of me.)

I have to say I’m really pleased to be part of the Potter Craft catalog, both because of all the impressive books (See? Look how fancy!) they’ve already published & because their crew is so lively & friendly & clever. At the end of the show, I got a huge haul of Potter books, almost doubling my craft library in one fell swoop (there’s also a couple of magazines in there, and one book, Modular Knits, from a different publisher). I’ve only started Mason Dixon Knitting so far, and it totally deserves every drop of hype it’s gotten.

 Well, I took my first spinning class Saturday and produced my very first little, clumsy skeins of yarn. I’m just dreadful at it, but it’s intoxicating. It was all I could do not to buy a wheel on the spot. I have to be honest and sort of vain and say that I’m kind of used to being good at things right from the beginning. Spinning is not one of those things.

I’ve seen all my friends’ beautiful first skeins, and they all look way better than mine. Worlds better. Mine is awful. But I love it. It represents a vast and shining room for improvement that I’m just aching to fill.

Okay, apologies aside, here’s my first yarn:

Actually, that was my first yarn of any length. I also tried a couple of times before this, producing a few feet of crazy corkscrewed odds and ends:

The colored stuff was made on a high-whorl spindle, spun with raw locks that were spread out with the fingers (I think that has a name, but I don’t know it). The other two were done on the Ashford Traveler that wasn’t adjusted, so it just kept–oh, what’s it called? adding twist?–spinning and spinning the yarn, but not actually taking it up onto the bobbin. I wouldn’t actually buy the wheel I used, because it’s orifice (hee hee) was too small & so were the bobbins. I generally go in for worsted or thicker yarn. I pretty much filled up the spool making that ugly 2-ply and it was still under 20 yards, so that’s clearly not the wheel for me. Plus it kept getting stuck in the hole. I’m guessing I’ll want a Louet, since I like both the modern lines (flat plywood beats captain’s wheel in my book) and the big spools. But are the less stable than the 3-legged kind?

Some other stuff we did in class:

We carded raw fiber to make a rolag. I put too many locks on my brushy thing and ended up with the thing on top. The little blub on the bottom is my try at roving. That time I didn’t put enough fiber on the carders (that’s the name, right?). But everyone else was twice as fast and I felt pressured to hurry up. As you can see, I’m just as useless at preparing fiber as I am at spinning it! Hurrah! I can’t wait to try again! I need to buy some carders. I need to play with some of that alpaca fiber and see what’s what with it.

I got to take some leftover fiber home with me, some Bonkers roving that I wasn’t confident enough to waste, and a little brown & white wool roving, the same I used in that awkward but happy-making 2-ply.

And then with the very dregs of my remaining Yarn Barn store credit, I bought 2# of roving, a pound each of merino and a somewhat coarser wool. Here are the giant balls of it! They’re basketball-sized!

I want to see if I can make more than a foot at a time on a drop spindle, so I’m going to dig out the spindle kit I bought months ago and never used, and try to spin me up a little yarn tonight, in breaks from the endless crocheting I’m finishing up.

Crocheting a giant wool thing when it’s hot and muggy is sucky. I’m glad it won’t be much longer, and also that crocheting goes so much faster than knitting. If I had to knit the rest of this thing, I’d be horsefucked. And really sad.

I’m off to watch my spinning video. TNNA was really fun, once I got into the swing. Before that it was totally overwhelming and sort of half boring, half intimidating. Plus, there was a ton of stuff that doesn’t interest me, like needlepoint canvas. I love needlepoint, but I’m a custom girl, so the miles of canvas leave me cold. I got to meet all the charming Potter girls, plus lots of designers I really admire.

Getting there sucked it, as we got caught in an impossible storm in Missouri. Truly, I could not see more than a foot past the windshield. The brake lights of the car in front were impossible-to-gauge blurs. Everyone was going 20 along I-70. It was horrible, just wave after wave of sickening we’re-about-to-die adrenaline and nowhere to exit or pull over. More on TNNA later.

 

It’s cloudy, so the color’s still not quite true. The big skein has more orange in it (the orange shows up better below, but is strangely more washed out in the other hand) & it’s a bit darker. The bubblegummy hank is plain old kitchen cotton, the big hank is an overdye of an really ugly dyejob I made when I first dyed my tshirt yarn for the Alterknits rug (which looks way nicer in the picture than it did when it dried–it turned all dingy and gross looking), and the sherbety one is just some random little ball of sort of an ugly peach dk wool I had. Not enough to make anything substantial, but a pretty experiment.

I dyed them in a crockpot of RIT dye. I was originally trying to dye them with leftover beets, but it just made a big dingy mess, so I scooped out as much beet slop as best I could and dumped in an envelope of pink RIT I had on hand. The big hank was loose, and the other two were wound into loose cakes and I just plopped them in.

I culled out a great big bag of stuff for the flash your stash. Hooray me!

I also wasted a bunch of time reorganizing my yarn yet again. I moved all the stuff in the cabinet into the 3 lockers closest to my room, and made lists of what’s in each locker, so I can print them out and magnet them to the locker doors.

I also played with dying a little miscellaneous yarn. Here it is drying just after sunrise. I’m pleased with how it turned out. It looks even prettier dried out and twisted into hanks, but I can’t get the color right without daylight.

Here’s the back of the knit.1 tank. (Here’s what it looks like assembled.) The decreases look ugly, so I’ll probably pick up the edge stitches or do a slipped-stitch crochet edge all the way around. I probably should have cut the ribbing a stitch or two before all the edges, but I wanted to try to stick with the pattern. I did change the armholes so that they weren’t stepped, as written, since that looks kinda weird when there won’t be a sleeve going in.

I’m totally exhausted (my goal). I woke up at 1am yesterday & decided to go ahead and get out of bed to wear myself out, so I could get off my 6am bedtime. Somehow, with a 25 hour day, I still didn’t get all that much done. Oh, well. There’s always tomorrow. Nighty-night.

Today I received some yarn I’d ordered before I joined the stashalong. I’m actually kind fo relieved that it didn’t really thrill me. I almost have buyer’s remorse. The first stuff, 10 balls of On-line Linie 20 Cora (60/40 superwash merino/acrylic) , is just a bad color for me, but I like the yarn well enough. It was described as “mauve,” which is what I’d call it, but the picture just looked a lot brighter, so I gave it a whirl, because the price was right. I think I’ll see if anyone likes it at the Flash Your Stash, and otherwise, I’ll just keep it and dye it a more suitable color.

The other lot was 10 balls of Schachenmayr Two in One in a sort of Halloweeny blend of black and copper and orange.

I’m kind of into it, but it’s getting the gears all turning or anything, but maybe it will if I seek out some patterns. I’m guessing it knits up all tweedy, so it might be nice for a skirt or tailored cape or something. Maybe that Brioche Raglan I liked…. It’s too warm to consider seriously. Oh, or maybe a nice, plain man’s sweater. Ron does love orange…

Anyway, my point is that it didn’t make me all delirious and eager to consume more. I’ve gone a week and change on the stashalong, and so far, the only yarn I still want is some Rowan Plaid and some Karabella Piuma Gold (both on sale).

I also reorgainzed my yarn (now it’s roughly gathered into fiber content/weight), and culled out a respectable bagful for the Flash Your Stash. Maybe as it gets closer, I’ll get more ambitious/realistic and stuff the bag. The best part of reorganizing was cramming a giant bowl with all the single balls under 100g (100g balls area easier to contemplate by themselves). It’s very pretty.

OH! And I sent back my first dummy today, completely on schedule! Look at me, finishing on time. Okay, I’m not utterly, utterly finished. I still need to organize my notes and finish some captions/schematic measurements. But that’s just tidying up.

I really really really hope they accomodate the changes I want. I want a little less talk, more rock. And a couple more patterns squeezed in so the chapters are better balanced. I’m still not happy with the tech photos, to be perfectly honest. That’s my own fault–I just couldn’t find a yarn I really liked and ended up settling for one that I’m not crazy about. I wish there was a way to redo those. I’d also shoot a couple more pattern-specific shots if I could. I wonder if I know someone in KC who would do it for me?

Next weekend, I’m taking a spinning class at the Yarn Barn and then going to the TNNA market in Indianapolis. Well, I’m about 85% sure I’m going to the market. It will depend on whether I finish all my already-late Vickie stuff next week. I’ll be crocheting my ass off.