Strings & Yarn

I just saw a violin in Target. They were selling it for $99.99…. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

First, the violin is a total piece of crap. The bridge is a joke, and anyone would have a hard time playing it and making it sound half way decent. On the other hand, it makes music more accessible to children and students. If people are buying them it must mean they have some interest and put some value towards learning music. There was also a clarinet, a flute, and a trumpet in the display case. Pretty much the divas of the music world.

What do you think? Is this a good thing, or does it take away from the long tradition of music?

Link: Target Violin

I said goodbye to my apartment today. Got the rest of the stuff out and did a little bit of last cleaning. I really liked my little apartment, so close to classes and full of good memories from the past year. I like my house a lot more though, and I’m glad I don’t have to be traveling back and forth between residences anymore. Now I just have to wait to get my deposit back.

Look what I did!

Here are some close ups.

They turned out very different than I expected, but I like them both. I really enjoyed dyeing these and learned so much. I now feel much more confident in my dyeing abilities. I did felt them a little, especially the black one. I’ve been spinning that one though, and here’s how it’s turning out.

Consistancy is obviously an issue, but not to shabby huh?

The Black Sheep Gathering was awesome. I got tons of goodies and for killer deals (I made sure to walk around enough that I found the best deals. The vendors probably thought I was crazy going back and forth that many times). Overall the gathering seemed to be a lot more fiber than yarn and the focus was on spinning. I’ve heard that in past years it wasn’t like this, but I liked it just the way it was. Here are my great finds!

I found this first. It’s From Barn to Yarn in Boring, OR. Wonderful sock yarn that can be any color I want. Do you see the yardage on this?! 1280 yrds for 10 bucks. Not bad huh?

Then I found the Baby Alpaca Hand Painted Yarn. This Yarn is from Spor Farms in The Dalles, OR. I got two skeins for $11 each. If you want to get some email sporfarm at skyride dot net. She has a few other colorways, but I fell in love with this one. They are 1.7 oz and 416 yrds each, lace weight.

Getting a new drop spindle was first on my list. I found this one reasonably, and I liked the wood. Simple, easy to spin, but I’ll have to get used to a top whorl.

I’ve been needing one of these. No more time wasted winding yarn. More time for knitting and spinning.

I found this early on, but had a hard time re-finding it later. I felt it, saw the price and fell in love. It’s a 1.5 lbs bump of kid mohair and is so soft. It doesn’t have a destiny yet, but will soon I’m sure.

This was my biggest find! It’s a used Lendrum I got from Woodland Woolworks I’ve spent several hours spinning now, and I’m in love. I can’t get enough of it. I won’t bore you with all of it yet, but you can be sure there will now be pictures of freshly spun fiber still on the bobin. This wheel was exactly what I was looking for. I had never sat at a wheel before and almost instantly got a feel for it. Of course, I’m still working on consistancy, but overall things are turning out beautifully.

I really enjoyed watching some of the Sheep to Shawl contest. I would love to do that someday. Create a beautiful shawl in one day. Of course I would want to be one of the spinners. I better get practicing.

I also was recognized for the first time. Rime from A Notion to Knit saw me at the Black Sheep and mentioned the Saturday Market Bag pattern. That was pretty exciting, and a little shocking. I hope I didn’t choke up to badly. Even though I know I’m recognizable, (having one leg will do that) I just didn’t expect it. I could be the next kniteberly.

It was great fun, and I’m not allowed to buy any yarn stuff for awhile. For a long while. Not to mention I’m out of money for yarn stuff. So hopefully you’ll see lots of finished objects from now on.

I know there are several people doing the Print o’ the Wave Stole right now, and I wanted to let you know about a mistake in the pattern. On the edging chart the last two stitches of rows 9,11,13,and 15 should be Ktog, K1. It works out beautifully this way. I found these a mention of the errata here and then I e-mailed Eunny to make sure I was doing the right thing. It’s working great and I have close to 17 repeats done.

Black Sheep Festival starts today! I get to go today. I actually have reserved the whole day just to go, but now I can’t. I’m waiting for my leg to get here before I can head off to fibery goodness. It’s only 8 o’clock! I can feel the little kid part of me not wanting to be very patient. Hopefully it gets here soon.

I almost had my first real knitting crisis. I almost ran out of yarn for the lace stole that I’m making! I’m not totally sure that I will, but my ball of yarn seems to be shrinking much faster than I anticipated to. I got the yarn in March, in Bandon, OR and I sent them a quick e-mail asking if they still had some. Luckily they had three balls left, so I had them send me two, because now I want to be super safe. If I have left over, I’ll make something else. I’ve done 15 repeats on the edge…69 to go.

I had to send my C-leg away again. My precious C-leg! Although, I think I’m in better shape than last time because walking around on ‘ol foamy’ seems easier. What’s ‘ol foamy’? It’s my backup leg. I am lucky enough that I have a leg to use as a back up when I have to send in my fancy shmancy C-leg. My backup is simply the leg I had before ‘C’ came into my life with a better socket, and what used to be a very cool cover. I wasn’t always as comfortable with showing off the very spiffy silver and blue leg. When I got the C-leg covering it was more complicated since it needed to be charged every night and I liked how it looked. Now when I have my foam cover on it feels huge, and I actually kind of feel…fat. Isn’t that weird? So now the cover is no longer cool because I’ve fallen one it and their are multiple holes, and because it makes me feel wider in some way. My dear C-leg will be back soon (hopefully) and I’ll be able to frolic with the best of ‘em.

I only have to wait two more days until I cast on some socks. It’s been hard to resist, but I’ve been successful. I have several wonderful sock yarns waiting to be knit. I have some knitpicks Memories in Cape Cod, three balls of Regia Color Surf (each different for a different pair), and two balls of Regia Short Color (makes one pair). I have 5 pairs of socks to make! What am I waiting for, you ask? The Summer of Socks. It officially starts on Wed, and I want to enter the most socks contest. I hope it won’t distract me too much from my lace.

P.S. I’d love suggestions for good sock patterns. Let me know.

Team VlnJodie has been making great progress. Jodie has been staying true to her project, the Print o’ the Wave Stole, and has been knitting whenever she can find time. Though the move from her apartment to her new home has created several distractions, her dedication has been quite extraordinary.

First she felt the need to hide. While Jodie is usually an avid outdoor/public knitter, she needed some time away from the competition. Nothing was going to stop her from making her July 1st deadline. She was found here, in the garage hiding among pieces of furniture watching out for distractions.

Then Jodie came up with a brilliant idea. If she got a chance to put herself in a box, maybe she would be moved along with the rest of her stuff. Jodie found the largest box possible, and hid as a packed object. The competition soon discovered her, and she was sent back to packing.

Moving hasn’t been the only thing keeping Jodie away from knitting. She has also been painting the trim all over her first home. Here she was trying to be the queen of muti-tasking, but soon after the stole would have none of it.

“Jodie is willing to go to extremes, but I’m just not,” objected the stole. “The risk of getting green paint on my delicate surface is not one I’m willing to take.”

At the end of the day there was success. Jodie was able to finish the second center panel while on the back of a Harley Davidson. “All of the work and sneaky tactics were worth this moment,” said Jodie. “We had our trials, but our efforts will be invaluable to the outcome in the end.”