“You watch too much TV,” Sunday, Dec 30 2007

said a friend of mine. I took offense at first but then I realized that I do watch a lot of TV. Mostly on DVD and mostly while I’m knitting, which isn’t that rare. Chloe summed it up pretty well: “I realized one of my favorite things to do is to sit in bed and knit and watch movies. Its’ like the ultimate experience. I’m sixty.” And Adrian points out that TV shows on DVDs are the perfect companion to knitting.

I don’t know what it is about my taste but everything I love is canceled really quickly, often after one or two seasons. This year I fell in love with the haunting Carnivale, Jenna’s recommendation. Wow, I just had an idea–I should start a letter writing campaign to get Jenna blogging again! It never worked for my favorite shows but it’s worth a shot =) Besides being an insanely well acted, creeptastic show, Carnivale was a work of art. Everything from the opening title sequence to the set dressing was incredibly rendered Depression-era beauty…dusty, simple lines, tons of hardscrabble eye candy.

I just finished watching My-So-Called-Life, newly released in a charming boxed set (fun trivia: Winnie Holzman, the MSCL writer/creator/producer/guest star was the mugged/duped therapist in the season finale of Curb!) Watching MSCL a decade + after I first watched it was a trip–I kept thinking of people I wanted to send it to. I’m always nostaligic for the media and aesthetic of the early 90s.

I was pretty young in the early 90s but I was a pretty ferocious pop culture consumer with every corpuscle of my being and Nirvana + co., Angela Chase and the riot grrl movement all had a profound effect on me. But yes, it’s written to be painfully accurate, even more so than it’s comic counterpart Freaks and Geeks, which didn’t have the added layer of the midlife crisis adults storyline.

In knitting news I have a lot of little scraps. I didn’t get all of my Christmas Felted Clogs done, so I have to finish those. I took a few afghan squares for a store project. I knit a little iPod sweater (Susan Bates knit gauge has almost the same dimensions as the regular iPod, tres helpful if you own a Nano and are knitting for a friend):

Started a February baby jacket in STR mediumweight, Pink Granite, no gull lace:

Plied my Spunky sock yarn:

Also, a hat and my Knitscene project which I can’t really show (because it’s a secret, and red, really hard to photograph). It’s all pretty tame here at chez Skrilla! I think I’m a little bummed that I don’t have 4 more sweaters to post! I’m designing a lot at the moment, I’ll write about that tomorrow.

Over and out,

CR

P.S. Am I an obnoxious fan-girl or what? I squeed when I read Norah’s response to my half-joke of volunteering my name for a Berroco pattern. I badger everyone I know at Berroco about how my weird name would fit right into there pattern archive. Hey, it would make all the hassle of growing up with a weird name worth it!

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Is nice!! Sunday, Dec 16 2007

So, the poor, poor Blood Orange Cardigan/Minimalist Cardigan has been resurrected from the dead! It took hours of careful, careful repair work. Actually, it was more like repair surgery. I learned a valuable lesson–when ripping out seams to re-set a shoulder, don’t use scissors, use a seam-ripper. Duh.

All I could while repairing it was think about how beautifully ironic it would be if it turned out to be a dud. I wasn’t convinced at first but I’ve been wearing it all day and I officially love it. It’s comfortable and the yarn–I am head over heels in love with Terra. It’s the perfect blend of fibers (60 merino/20 alpaca/20 silk): it isn’t itchy at ALL, it’s soft, has really perfect body and it drapes and shines like nobody’s business. The texture is all lumpy and inconsistent in a good way and the color…I wish my photography skills were better, it’s honestly jewel like. When I roughed up ends to spit splice I noticed that that core was pure bright white–it’s almost like the outside was airbrushed with the color. I don’t know how this would be done but it makes the yarn glow. This particular color (Madder) has all the shades found in a blood orange, hence the nickname.

We got a ton of snow on Thursday and it’s beautiful!

Speaking of beautiful…check out Adriana’s Gallery Jacket!! I love this version because it’s in an awesome Valley Yarn (Colrain, shiny!) and she knit it with long sleeves which is what I had originally planned. Didn’t get it done in time, but now we know, it works and it looks awesome!

This is Marion, she works at Webs and wears a LOT of fabulous sweaters. She is a reckless knitter, and I love it, a lot of her sweaters are improvised patterns and when I asked her what yarns she used for this Kaffe Fassett Poppies vest she just shrugged and laughed. I love it.

While I’m doling out shout-outs, look at Chloe’s adorable Foliage hat, complete with a hilarious tale of DIY circulars. I gave her a big bag of yarns that were just festering in my stash and the girl is whipping out FOs left and right! Awesome.

Oh…remember when I submitted designs to Knitscene? Well, one was accepted! I’m over the moon, of course, especially because Lisa picked my favorite submission of the bunch. I’m actually starting to feel comfortable calling myself a designer…

CR

P.S. Yes, my last title is a Griswold gem, I love the entire Vacation series, probably because I love dad humor. Puns, accidental slapstick, overt foolhardy enthusiasm, all of it.

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“I vote for berets!” Tuesday, Dec 11 2007

Name that film quote! So, last night Eric and I were rear-ended heading back from a show at a terrific venue in Allston. We called the cops and in less than two minutes there were 2 cop cars, an ambulance, a firetruck…I don’t understand how so many forces of…the force converged so quickly. I was a little dazed but I saw almost a dozen men in uniform, all asking me over and over if I was okay. I got a little teary at the attention we got, to be honest.

Then, I showed them my knitting. It was a sock in progress, on DPNs, and it was the first thing to fly out of my hands, thank God. They started roaring with laughter, making quips about how it could have been a total Farrelly Bros. situation. The last thing they said to me before driving off was “No more knitting in the car!”

This is the penultimate sweater in my NoSoNaFiSweMo runway “show,” it is Spray by Kim Hargreaves from the Rowan Plaid Collection. Since I knit it in in the Stormy Night colorway I renamed it T-Storms.

I don’t know what to say about it…the yarn was decent to work with, soft and lightweight. Another chunky knit with lots of clunky seams. I used the Plaid to seam but I removed one of the plies (the light grey) to reduce the bulk a bit.

My spinning is actually way more exciting than this FO. I’m flying through the sock set I ordered from Spunky Eclectic. I think my singles look pretty good!

They’re a bit over-twisted but that should be okay after I ply it. Spunky’s sock kits are such an amazing deal–for $9.50 I get to practice spinning and plying sock yarn with a well-behaved wool (and coordinating nylon) and if all goes well I’ll have yarn to knit a lovely pair of new socks. So that’s hours of fun, PLUS a great pair of socks for UNDER TEN DOLLARS. I officially love spinning.

I kind of made up a method for preparing the fiber. I wanted to consult the Twisted Sister’s Sock Workbook, but it was checked out of my library. She includes two 2 oz. rovings (this kit was called Night Flower and included Banff and Pink Elephant, I think). I split each in half and then split each of those a few more times. I wound and weighed little “dreampuffs” and lined them up according to weight. I made two identical balls of roving alternating between the colors.

So I’m spinning up two of these. Haven’t decided whether I’ll ply the two together or attempt to Navajo-ply each one separately.

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Hudson Sunday, Dec 9 2007

Edited to add: Okay, Winnie has unknowingly given me the answer!!  Why have I never considered headless photoshoots? You’re probably all sick of my face anyway! Question–does anyone know why my photos are showing up in Bloglines with a little bit of white between the photo and the border on the right side?

Hudson Hoodie turned into a zip-up, I have plenty of hooded sweatshirts. Eric tried his hardest to take some decent pictures for me but he had to contend with weak winter light and my ‘study face’–note grey-ish blue toned (hey, matches my Tilted Duster!) skin directly under my eyes. I don’t know what it is, I just can’t pose for him. Ho hum. I’ll try again in the future, maybe after my Gorillapod gets here.

One of the only non-blurry/well-lit ones:

:

Ha, this one is so Delia’s catalog. The photography duo that does the Webs catalog have a running joke about making a coffee table book that contains all the classic, cliched modeling poses (like, “Oh, just fixing my hair!” or “Squinting at Undetermined Point Far, Far Away”) and I think this qualifies. I’m trying to make sure my eyeballs don’t freeze open.

This is a pretty straightforward knit, can’t believe it took me so long to pick it up and just finish it! All it needed was one raglan sleeve cap/top) and some finishing. It was pretty intense finishing. I hate seaming bulky knits, I used a lighter plied yarn but the seams are still large and in charge. Zipper installation takes time, this one was ordered from Zipperstop and sewn in by hand, twice on each side. The collar was improvised, which meant I had to rip and re-do 3x, mostly due to my lack of planning/number crunching.

I lined it in some delectable cashmere tweed , (a teensy bit that was left over from knitting a Panta for the store) so I didn’t really mind re-knitting it 3x! To work linings I usually work my collar as usual, work a purl turning row, then switch to my contrast yarn and increase a bit if it’s much thinner. I work until it almost matches the length of the collar and I usually bind-off while picking up a loop right below where the original collar started…I knit a stitch together with this picked up stitch so it’s bound-off and tacked down in one go. I hope this makes sense. Alternately, you can bind-off and tack it down with a whipstitch, which is what I ended up doing here. Is nice!

Tonight I’m happily spinning while Eric plays Mario Galaxy. Just two geeks, geeking out. Dinner was a Nigella recipe, onion pie (lots of caramelized red onions with a cheese scone crust) and some roasted cauliflower with plenty of wintery beer. Would you believe I already cracked a bobbin, most likely from dropping it. Those suckers are expensive. I might try to whittle a few =)

My father is insisting I give him Christmas wishes and while I was researching new knives on Amazon I came across Mollie Katzen’s new cookbook and promptly threw that onto the wish-list, but not before THIS treasure gave me whiplash. We’re not vegetarians but Eric doesn’t eat red meat or pork and I try to eat 90% vegetarian for ecological, fiscal and health…ful reasons. Besides that, the only thing I want for Christmas is more fiber!! Spinning is too fun…

CR

P.S. Hope you’ll pardon my slow adjustment to WordPress, I’m a bit slow about Interweb things!

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“You’re so beautiful… Thursday, Dec 6 2007

you could be a part-time model, but you’d probably have to keep your day job…”

This is my theme song. It kills me when he says “spend part of your time modeling, and part of your time with me,” I would love to eat a kebab and take it slow with Gemaine, why does everyone prefer Brett, Gemaine is clearly the better man here!!

Anyhow, back to part time modeling! The latest Lexie photoshoot was really fun! She has given her site a makeover, it’s lovely! As always the new bags aren’t just in new prints, there are lots of cool new details. My favorite print is Pacifica, don’t know if it’s the colors I love or the fact that it was photographed with chocolates and a vanilla milkshake! There is also something very O’Keefe about the print, I love it. If you’re going to do floral, that’s my kind of floral.

My wardrobe for the day was…my wardrobe! Here it is resting on the radiator, which got rid of wrinkles and made outdoor shots a little easier.

Lexie graciously provided a giant down parka which was so ANTM (btw, SO sad about Heather leaving last week). The location was an absolutely beautiful converted mill building. I’ve spent a lot of time in buildings like this–I earned my A.A. at Middlesex Community College which has a campus in Lowell, MA, a beautiful mill town and the home of Jack Keroauc (fun Skrilla fact: I used to write a column for the Lowell Sun and JK got his start writing for the sport’s pages there). I don’t know much about architecture but I love the feel of converted textile buildings. Plenty of exposed hardware that looks cold and heavy juxtaposed with worn brick and scuffed up hardwood flooring, plus tall, sectioned pane windows that let in tons of light and offer views of the rushing sparkling rivers that are always nearby. I love it!

The photographer is/was fantastic to work with. We’ve worked together on three or four Lexie shoots now and it’s always relaxing and fun–no barked orders, no impossible contortions (for ME at least!) just very thoughtful snapping. And unprofessional goofing off:

Lexie wisely chose this shot instead. I love this one, I wish I always looked that placid when communing with a laptop…

Which I should actually be doing right now. I had a data disaster yesterday and I need to rectify the situation. Before I go, another finished object, the Girl Power shawl, details on Ravelry. This was nothing but fun and started a serious Spunky Eclectic addiction. Thank you again for spinning it, Jenna!

The FO parade will continue. Sorry to drag it out, but it’s really fun to give each item it’s own post. It’s also hard to coordinate good sun + me being showered/presentable. Heh. TMI?

CR

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Pun time. Tuesday, Dec 4 2007

I swear to Jeebus I wasn’t being clever when I took these. I really need a Gorilla. I won’t let the chimp I live with take FO pictures because he has an uncanny ability to capture ridiculously awful faces.

So this is the Tilted Duster! I did the best I could getting pictures of her. You’ll note that it is a bit snug. Andra, can you believe it, I’m TOO BOOBALICIOUS FOR MY DUSTER!! No, not really, I knew it would be too small. I knit the size 32″ assuming it’d stretch a little over time (I’m a 34″ usually). I could have wet blocked it to facilitate this but I just steamed it and I’m liking how it looks open, so I’m fine with the size it is.

Whoa, sun!

My mods were minor, I added garter stitch to the bottom to prevent curling and to the collar to sort of’ ‘ground’ that little design element. I happen to love when ribbing is juxtaposed with garter welts, a la Forecast, I think it works here.

I purposely knit the collar a little longer because I like it folded over. I stupidly forgot to knit the buttonholes on the other side of the collar, I might add Velcro or snaps or something.

I searched everywhere for buttons and finally found some winners at Jo-Ann’s. I think these are new JHBs, they are thin, light and they match the little strand of yellow heathering that runs throughout this Peruvia colorway 7183 Abusar, which everyone insists is gray, but is actually a nice steel blue. I love the Peruvia! It’s light, easy to knit and soft enough for me to wear the tightish sleeves on my bare skin with no problems. I didn’t encounter any shedding issues, and I’m really fussy about that. I knit it on a US8 and it looks beautiful, especially after the steam treatment.

I can’t think of anything else I want to mention. I’m wearing it now and it is very comfturbulhs! AND, it completely invalidates everything I said in my last post about hating to wear my handknits. I spent a lot of time finishing this sweater and I think it shows. I wore it to teach in today and no one asked if I had knit it (my students know I knit and even saw me working on this particular sweater during their presentations). One day and I’m already eating my words, sheesh!

As always, bigger pictures at Flickr and more details at Ravelry!

CR

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And the winner of NoSoNaFiSweMo is… Monday, Dec 3 2007

Dharma! I’m going to have fun putting together a custom prize package for her, she is a fellow graduate student and used to live in Northampton. She correctly guessed the # and name of the sweaters that I would finish by my deadline (which I unscrupulously extended to include this weekend)!! Until the weather clears up and the sweaters dry, the promised runway show is on hold. You’ll have to be content with this, the remnants of the FOs:

Clockwise from the top these represent the Hudson Hoodie (which ended up hoodless), T-Storms, Blood Orange cardigan and the Tilted Duster. Technically I also finished Thermal…and by finished I mean chucked it into the wastebasket! That pattern is too cute to knit in such a droopy, pill-tastic yarn.

I learned a lot from this endeavor! I learned that, like Grumperina, I don’t think I’m a sweater knitter! It could be the deadline that was making it unpleasant but as I worked on these long abandoned projects I realized that I almost never wear the sweaters I’ve knit. I actually sort of hate them. There are always little flaws that bug me. I’m not a fashionista or even all that well put together but I’m insanely particular about fabrics and the way things fit. If an outfit is itching, sagging, riding up or doing anything weird it will ruin my day. Most of my hand-knit sweaters are imperfect, and I’m fine with that but I don’t know how sensible it is to keep making things I’m not going to wear.

Of course, last I checked I had enough stashed yarn to make…50 sweaters. It sounds crazy and inflated but it’s true and probably a low ball estimate as well. UGH. My plan of attack for the time being is to finish Treeline, Enid and Forecast. Then I want to emulate Siri and knit up my equally insane sock yarn stash. Socks get worn.

So do hats! Jenny and Nicole were reading my mind last week with their excellent episode on my absolute favorite thing to knit. Gudrun was as well, check out her adorable Unst. Julie at Team Knit has got me plotting a Brownie’s beanie redux! Hat love never dies around here.

Spinning is also kicking lots of ass. Jenna stopped by on Saturday with her wheel and it quickly turned into a night of spinning Q&A, chocolate munching and raspberry wine swigging (it was made by a Webs co-worker). Somehow, we ended up wearing a batt and a flyer.

I’m not as drunk as I look, I promise.

The same Cormo I spun and plied on the drop spindle was given the same treatment on the wheel:

I like!

I’m currently waiting for two packages from Spunky Eclectic, a lazy Kate and some assorted stuff to try (I’m especially excited about this, which I purchased in Night Flower). Hot damn, it’s fun to buy fiber. Speaking of Amy, I finished the Girl Power shawl. And two dog sweaters. Wow, it was a busy November.

Finished object runway show in the very near future,

CR

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!!! Wednesday, Nov 21 2007

So I’ve decided to try and streamline my Internet life, and making the switch to WordPress seemed like a good idea. Can’t tell you why yet, still exploring, but so far so good!

I haven’t posted much new yarn lately…this is because I’m really not buying much (well, compared to what I usually do), but it’s also because entering it into Ravelry feels like enough. I purchased yarn for the Colette sweater in the new Interweave (I chose burgundy and grass green Whiskey). I special ordered an Autumn Rose kit. I got two Ravens:

J.Knits generously sent me a few skeins of her new spring yarns to sample. I’d never seen these yarns, but Andra reps them in New England and speaks highly of them. They are GORGEOUS, look at this Camel in Nebraska (it feels thick and luscious, yarn Haagen-Daaz):

This is Charming in Iowa. The yardage and the fiber content are really excellent–300 yards of lambswool, cashmere and angora. I’m thinking ridiculously luxurious socks.

And speaking of socks I had to grab this skein of my favorite ice cream flavor from Keegan Lane Yarns (I love the realism of the chocolate ‘chips’:

In other news, a Ladybug has landed in my apartment! Jenna and Melissa graciously rang me up past the official Webs closing time so I could take my Ladybug home. Thank you both, ladies, I know it was an annoying sale on a few levels =/ I did assemble it and find my ladybug (she’s on the right side of the…the part the looks like a phallus, I’m sorry, it does).

I’ve decided to name the wheel Lexie Sedgwick, a double homage to how I earned it and a theorist I’m fond of who writes about gender, performance, deconstruction and textiles! I didn’t know naming wheels was a “thing” but I used to name my cars, so why not the wheel?And speaking of spinning, check out my first plied yarn, this was spun and plied on the drop spindle.

I totally love it, flaws and all! Those fat fuzzy slubs (and the uh, unspun bits) are right up my alley. I couldn’t believe how cool plying was, it went from overspun, kinky singles to a relatively balanced, pretty yarn. I really think that this fiber (wish Foxhill Farm had a website to link to) is what prompted me to pick up the drop spindle again. As for the wheel, it was equal parts Adrian and Jenna. Again, it makes so much sense that my next fiber endeavor is spinning, I’m the sort of knitter who is somewhat ashamedly in love with miles of stockinette–I’m in it for the fabric, and beautiful yarns speak to me more than complicated stitch patterns or ambitious construction. There, I said it. I’m a knit simpleton, with expensive tastes.

CR

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Venti! Sunday, Oct 7 2007

The other day I finally had a tattoo touched up that I’d been meaning to fix for…oh…12 years now. Yes, that means I was 13 when I got this tattoo, my first. I was living in Germany and went with my mother to get it (long, sordid story). This is really the only picture I could find, it’s a tiny lavender rose (barely visible):

Anyhow, it’s better now! I love the three yellow pistils…stamen? Plant sex organs. I pretty much let the artist do his thing. It’s slightly more open now (appropriate, I’m older, more in bloom) and has more thorns (also appropriate!). I asked for what I thought was an impossible color (light burgundy) but he pulled it off very well and updated the green, which was a very dated shade of jade. I was very impressed with the work (Timmy at Holeshot in Amherst).

In case you think I haven’t been knitting…you’re wrong. I’m still ignoring my Blood Orange cardigan (the yarn really resembles the flesh of a deliciously strange blood orange) but I’ve been churning out small projects here and there. I have three baby sweaters on the needles and a half finished Tilted Duster (all it needs is the skirt, a collar and buttons). BTW, Norah Gaughan is about to unveil a pretty bitchin’ FO/WIP, keep your eyes peeled!

The color isn’t anywhere online (a seller on eBay calls it “Abusar” but that isn’t it’s given name) and it reminds me of the main color of Reynolds Whiskey in Enid…my poor, ignored Enid. Maybe I can take that to Baltimore and finish the yoke in my hotel room? Working at Stitches always gives me a knit fit (like a nic fit…). It’s puckering ever so slightly, some of the floats span 5+ stitches so I’ve been ‘catching’ them as I go in using directions from Montse Stanley’s Handbook. I think it will block flat.

I finished Foliage, my first top-down hat. I’m blocking it on a dinner plate so it’ll be more snood-ish. I love snoods! I double stranded Malabrigo Worsted in Bobby Blue. It reminds me of a vintage bathing cap and was a fun knit. I used twisted ribbing and bound-off purlwise, other than that no mods. Clearer pictures at Ravelry.

I made a few adorable and goofy coffee cardigans. These are wicked fun and I actually have been using it, it makes baristas smile. This is knit with Valley Yarns Superwash (LOVE how it looks knit at this tight gauge) and features three corozo nut buttons from the Creative Needle in Amherst, which happens to be owned by the mother-in-law of a professor in my department. I love corozo nut buttons almost as much as I love shell buttons. And Moving Mud buttons. And horn buttons. And…oh, I’m a button whore, are you surprised??

I just purchased a kit to make this Greek Deli version by Jennifer Reichert, it’s hysterical! This embroidered grocery purse of hers is 2 parts hysterical, 8 parts amazing.

Brain food, mmmm….I don’t eat much fruit but I loves my vegetables (this site makes me drool). I have many ways of preparing them so that they taste very, very decadent. This was today’s lunch, an old favorite (recipe here):

My next treat is butternut squash roasted with maple syrup and cracked peppercorn (something about the hot/sweet combination is very soothing). I do a mashed cauliflower with cream and asiago that would make you disown potatoes forever.

Meet Irma the Owl, a friend who is staring sternly down from her perch. I met her at Starbucks where she was deeply discounted and deeply adorable. She looks like an Irma, and when I looked up that name I learned that it is an Old High German/Hoch Deutsch word for…word! Perfect patron (stuffed) saint for a communication scholar, no?

Speaking of that. I have a 12-page paper to write. Probably why I suddenly felt the urge to blog. I’m going to try to link the practice of blogging to early 20th-century language theories (using some key works from Saussure, Nietzsche, Boas, Sapir, Malinowski, Jakobson, and Bakhtin…among others).

WUNSCH MIR GLUCK, BITTE!

P.S. FYI, funniest Fug I’ve seen in awhile.

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She’s Snoody… Tuesday, Jun 26 2007

Okay, sorry for the punny title but I couldn’t help it, I love puns! I’m up late playing around with new Interweb tools after spending most of the day laptopless (I reformatted, all by myself–Eric, didn’t think I had it in me, didja?

Time for a finished object!! It’s the Art Deco Beret by Grumperina, from the fall issue of Knitscene. The yarn is Sheep Shop 3. I have a few hints–it is much, much easier to knit from two balls. I tried to knit from the outside and the inside (you alternate knitting with the beaded and non-beaded strand) of one center pull ball and it was a massive tangle fest. Another tip–look for knots. The unexpected knot on your beaded strand will BUM YOU OUT. When I was about 2″ from finishing one ply finally gave out. I was at Eric’s and the crafty engineer whipped out an old guitar string for me to use as a big eye needle. After carefully restringing my beads I knit about one round and found A KNOT. Knot cool.

Anyhow, the yarn is gorgeous and I love the fit, I’d wear this as a snood but blocking it over a dinner plate definitely yielded a beret shape. It was a fun, addictive pattern with a very cool cast-on…tubular-ish but I’m not sure. I’ll have to investigate, it looks like it’d be great for socks. Now for tons of pictures!

My tribute to Emily (I think she’d like my golden mirror):

Okay, I know that was probably a FEW too many for just a little hat…but I can’t help it, I love hats! Oh, that dress might look familiar because it’s a dress version of all those Built by Wendy tops I was making awhile back. It’s aight (did anyone watch Greg the Bunny? I loved the episode where Count Blah got a new catch phrase and couldn’t pronounce it–“It’s ah-ig-it!”). I like the fabric but it isn’t very soft. I had to add a sash because it was tent-ish on its own. It has pockets which makes it good for housecleaning, so I call it my Hausfrau dress.

Over and OUT,

CR

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