The Sick Chick

So I finally bought something on Etsy! (Not for lack of drooling, mind you, just that money is kinda tight at the moment.) I read the Yarn Harlot who was singing the praises of Unwind Yarn Company’s superwash merino sock yarn. Well, I’m looking to build my sock yarn stash (and thanks to those who have given suggestions so far, I shall seek those out!) and if the queen of sock knitting recommend a yarn, well of course I had to look. UYC was having a contest where the 175th person to favourite the shop would get a 50% discount so I just had to click and huzzah, I won! Alas, because of the Harlot it was sold out in a flash but the shop was updated last night (I stayed up til 2 am but didn’t get to see the whole range ). When I woke up I snagged some sock yarn in the Wendy colourway which are the exact colours for my Project Superstar work!

So this beauty is mine:

Click here for more info about the yarn.

I don’t yet know what I will do with it, if I will make something for Project Superstar or just make something for myself as a memento of Project Superstar. It’s being sent to my US address so I’ll have to wait until I get there to see it and decide if I love it too much to give it away — a distinct possibility! I’ll keep you posted about the yarn and my eventual project when it happens!

I strongly suspect that I will be ordering more from the Unwind Yarn Company (craftygirl83 on Etsy and Ravellry) — there are so many yummy colourways that I simply must have, like See Rock City, Riverwalk and more. I also love that she uses her local area (Chattanooga) as inspiration. I’ve been there many a time when I lived in Tennessee during my formulative years.

Because I feel bad about not having had photos today, here’s a pic of my Lagoon legwarmers (Colinette Prism yarn in Lagoon, knit in a 2×2 rib on the Reader’s Digest loom) and my sparkly Converse All Stars that are the closest thing to “dress” shoes that I can get my orthodics into!

PS, yes those shoes are what I will be walking in on Saturday’s walk! Sorry, I’m a long way from my donation goal  so I have to keep plugging it

We had a nice Bank Holiday Weekend (three-day weekend) here, the weather actually warmed up — rather too fast IMO — and the sun has been coming out more than in the last nine months put together.  Which has actually made photography a little difficult, I’m not used to full, bright sun!

Anyway, important reminder: My 5K walk for Fibromyalgia research is on Saturday so please donate now!  If you are new to this blog, Fibro is one of the many diseases that I have and walking 5K is well beyond my normal limits but it was important for me to do this as it’s a very worthy cause.  You can read more about my struggle on the donation page linked above.

So meanwhile, back to other things. We went to the National History show which was genealogy, archaeology and military history all together in one Expo.  Once again I was shocked that no scrapbooking suppliers were there as that seems like a great audience.  We saw some of the Time Team members (Tim, Tony and Phil) doing various presentations and generally found out about new stuff out for the genealogy market, etc.  The only thing we bought was mead from Three Drunken Monks but then we went to the huge Whole Foods in Kensington to stock up on supplies.

I’m still recovering from that day even though I was in the chair. I also seem to have come down with some kind of stomach virus which is unpleasant to say the least.  So my crafting has been pretty minimal.  I made two coffee cozies (which I would show you but my camera doesn’t like bright sun apparently, the colours went all weird) and started a legwarmer for a friend but I started getting hotspots on my fingers so had to give it a rest.  When I can’t knit or do something productive I feel guilty or at least out of sorts while sitting and watching tv or movies but sometimes my body just needs the rest and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’m off to lay down again and get more rest.  I need to plan the route for Saturday’s walk ASAP and just spend the week resting up that’s going to be very, very taxing.  But I have so much crafting to be done in the next few weeks that I’m already feeling the stress and need to get things done for the sake of my brain,so we’ll just have to see what I can manage in between naps!

iHanna does some of the most amazing things at her blog, you should seriously check it out!  One of the things she has turned me on to are the myriad of challenges around various crafty sites.  I decided to start the Green Pepper Press Crusades which are monthly challenges in various paper-crafting techniques. April’s challenge was cutting your own stencils.  (I want to note that I did technically do this in April, but the deadline for posting was extended to May 7 so I’m on time anyway )

The tutorial Michelle Ward posted on the Crusade site is very good and if you are interested in making your own stencils I suggest you go read it now and come back here later  I do not have a burner tool so I just had to make do with craft knives.

The first step is to decide what you want your stencil to be.  Michelle noted that it’s handy if you can cut the stencil all in one cut so that you will have both a stencil (piece of plastic with a bit cut out of it) and a mask (cut-out shape that stands on its own).  There are good reasons for wanting both to work together, but this post is going to be too long already so I won’t go into them.

I decided that I wanted to start with a letter “J” (for Juliann, of course!).  I scouted around my large collection of fonts and found very many suitable ones but really wanted to draw my own so I doodled a little and came up with a letter similar to my actual handwriting but with clean lines so it would be a little easier to cut. Then on a whim I also doodled with the letters “tsc” (for “The Sick Chick”) and was surprised when I came up with a design I liked for that, too.

Next, I drew out these designs in a larger size onto the backs of used envelopes.  I ideally want something small enough to use for ATCs but figured that a larger size would be easier for this novice cutter.  (As it turns out I think the J will fit on ATCs but only just.)

[You can click on any image for the full sized version.]

So here are my initial doodles, the larger designs drawn in marker, and more supplies for making stencils:

Cutting the Stencils and Masks

Next I taped things to the cutting mat to help steady them.  First I taped the paper template, then I taped the plastic down over it.  This helped a little but things were still a bit wobbly and the masking tape didn’t hold stuck through the whole process.  Still it was better than nothing.

Taking a craft knife (Exacto, scalpel, whatever you have), carefully cut around the outlines *without picking up the knife*. I used a very small mat that I had gotten free from a magazine so I was able to turn the whole thing around any time I needed to change direction which made things a lot easier.  If you do wind up lifting the knife, try to start cutting again as smoothly as possible.  You can always go back and clean up joins later but this is a little hard (and you have to do it on both stencil and mask). Unfortunately, I didn’t think to photograph this stage as visually it was pretty boring and I was too busy trying to keep my knife firmly planted.

Using the Stencils and Masks

I used rubber cement to hold the stencil down as there we lots of little fiddly bits that wouldn’t stay in place just by taping the outside.  You can rub off the rubber cement later after the paint has dried.

So  here are a series of me painting the stencils and masks…

The Finished Products

That’s just what they look like solo, I hope to make some art projects soon to incorporate them into.

I have enjoyed my first Crusade with the GPP Street Team and hope to be able to be involved in more projects in the future!
 

Alas, in this case I don’t have many pictures. I took video last night but I have yet to edit it and that’s pretty far down the priority list at the moment, so you’ll have to wait. Sorry!

Last night, the Museum of London had its monthly late night opening (link may rot) but for this occasion it had a crafty theme.  There were booths of people making felt mustaches, animals out of pipe cleaners and wool, a diorama of London with plasticine sculptures, a sign language music video about London and in the other room the booths of knitting, crocheting and spinning.  You can guess what room I was in!

First I met up with my acquaintance, the lovely Claire from PurlPirate, who was teaching hyperbolic crochet which makes a coral-ish sort of shape.  She gave me several pointers about the second row issue (using a larger hook to cast on, not trying to get “under the v” when stitching into the chain, etc.) so I hope that I will be able to improve when I try it again next week.  She also had quite a crowd of people trying out the hyperbolic forms, including many totally new to crocheting.  Go Claire!  She was also teaching people how to crochet with plastic bags and gave an excellent demo on how to cut them up into jag-less strips.

Next I met Rachael Matthews and Louise of Prick Your Finger  (their blog), a yarn and fiber shop that I am sad to say that I have not yet made it to.  Especially since they are involved in the Walking Stick Cozy competition with Missability (run by Felix).  (As an aside, I am sad that I have not yet been able to make a cozy for any of my walking sticks, I think I need the Knifty Knitter Bloom Loom for that to get the right sized tube and shall get one this summer but alas, too late for the competition which ended yesterday.) Bethnal Green is geographically closer to me than Waterloo (home of I Knit) but it’s harder for me to get to due to the weird nature of the London bus system, and that’s why I have yet to go to Prick Your Finger.  They were demo’ing spinning and had drop spindles available to play with and a big bag of what I think is Black Welsh Mountain fiber.

I sat there forever and made this bundle of yarn:

Not bad for my third time on a drop spindle, but all the credit goes to the fiber, which was sooo easy to spin and wanted to be spun so fine it was almost scary.  Just in case it was the spindle rather than the fiber I tried a bit of my signature flouro pink roving but it came out crap as always. The moral of the story is that I am not very good with roving but am much better with carded batts, so I need to card my fiber!  I have handcarders but man, I covet a drum carder now.

Black Welsh Mountain is a mountain fiber so it’s very scratchy.  I don’t know that I would use this sort of yarn for much of anything but it was heavenly to spin so I shall endeavor to get to PYF before I leave for the summer to get some more to play with!

Finally, I went to meet some of the lovely ladies of Stitch and Bitch London.  I’d only just signed up for their newsletter about three days ago so I haven’t had a chance to attend their events yet (I couldn’t do their sewing up event on the 30th as I had to rest up to go out on the 1st). But it was very nice to meet people and show off the world of loomknitting.  Photos of me will probably be appearing on their blog in the near future.

I didn’t really have anything to do with the other crafty things,which seemed either aimed at kids or designed for people who aren’t usually crafty to dip their toe into the waters and have a little fun.  I have nothing against that, I just wasn’t in the mood.

Still, it was a very fun evening and many thanks to all of the lovely ladies I met who made it such a great experience!

Some more photos just so I can catch up on the past week.  (I still have several months backlog of photos and events to blog about, but I am at least trying to stay on top of things as they are happen now!)

This week I attempted to crochet:

I didn’t get very far, I’m still having difficulty with the second row issue, but I got lots of tips last night (which I shall blog about in a minute) so I think I shall give it a go again this week with hopefully better luck.  Buthey, at least I did get stitches made in a second row!

I also made a partial gauge swatch:

I was supposed to knit a 4 inch swatch but by three inches in I knew that I didn’t want to use this yarn for that project.  I did get gauge though, so I am chuffed about that  I will use this yarn on a felting project, probably a laptop cover.  But it (Debbie Bliss Soho) is just too scratch for a hat and I don’t really want to have to line it.

Also in the photo is my new temporary wedding ring, I think I have blogged about it but not sure :/  (Brain is sooo not what it used to be, thanks fibro!)  My real one doesn’t fit at the moment but as I *have* to lose weight because of the diabetes I didn’t want to get it resized so I got a temporary one from the same place as t’s wedding ring and he is getting one to match (but wearing it on a different finger, it’s been backordered for a while though ).  I couldn’t wear rings at all for about five years because my fingers swell a lot during the day but that is lessened now and also I don’t need to use two sticks quite as much, I can make do with one, so that makes it easier to wear a ring on my left hand.  It’s just so nice to have *any* wedding ring  Plus I can wear this one on a different finger once I do lose the weight.

I mentioned these last week so here are the pix:

The upper bracelets are plastic beads on elastic cord, the lower (for their mom, Valerie) is glass beads mixing the girls’ favourite colours with a silver awareness ribbon charm, strung on 49-strand silver-plated Beadalon.  The colours here aren’t great since I photographed them on my red flannel sheets but you get the idea.

And, because I thought it was amusing, I snapped a pic of how I have been storing them, on an empty dvd spindle (with my alarm-clock watch):

I actually finished this last weekend but with photographing, tagging and all that am only just posting today. Hope that still counts for FO Friday ;0

I had contemplated sending this in to LKC magazine as a submission but A) it’s pretty basic and more importantly B) it fits me perfectly, which means it will be too small for most adults with hair.  I didn’t want people to get disappointed.

So here it is instead!  I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk in Aran weight (I still think Alpaca smells of dog when wet but oh well, it’s sooo nice to knit with!) that I had gotten half off at the John Lewis after Christmas sales in Newcastle.  It had gotten lost in my stash for a while until I was looking for something to go with my Harley jacket (the jacket you always see me in in photos where I am in the chair) which has charcoal grey lettering on the back.  So I pulled this out  hoping to make something in time for the Paris trip and I might have succeeded if I hadn’t frogged the first three attempts.  The yarn’s softness was lost in a detailed stitch pattern (frog #1) but I found I wanted a pretty edging rather than purely functional (frog #2) and eventually (after frog #3) settled  on a basketweave border with plain stockinette for the rest.

I used the Reader’s Digest loom and used a little bit tighter tension for the borders as I want a little bit of “grip” like you would otherwise get from ribbing.  I did five rows of k2p2 ribbing, then five rows of p2k2 and then five more k2p2.  Then knit as long as I wanted (28 rows in this case) and do the border again for the neck or closed up for the hat.

The neckwarmer looks insanely long but it actually pulls up over my mouth, nose and the bottom of my ears.  The hat comes down to meet it around my ears and thus is forms a pseudo-balaclava but a little more dainty and of course they can be worn separately and the neckwarmer can be scrunched down when it’s not so cold.  (I have problems in very cold weather with my lungs due to my asthma and doctors have suggested that I breathe through a scarf to help pre-warm the air before it hits the lungs.  It does seem to help.)  I also wanted something that could go under the collar of my jacket so that when it zips up I have a layer protecting me from wind — my biggest complaint with that jacket is that the neckline is a little too big. (My second biggest complaint is that if I am wearing a sweater under it it looks like I have scary uniboob happening around my waist, soooo unflattering, especially as it flattens the actual boobs so they don’t show and I get this weird look instead :/  But I have yet to find a knitted solution to that!)  So this has fit both bills

I have to say that I LOVE this yarn.  It handled the frogging pretty well and I think it will bloom a little when washed, but right now the stitch definition is excellent. It feels a little softer when sliding through your fingers while working with it than in the finished garment, but the end product is still really nice.  WEBS has this for half price (I think it was just under US$5 for a 50g ball) so I got four skeins in an eggplant colour and I hope to do a cabled scarf to go with my burgundy coats (maybe a hat if there is enough left!).  I totally recommend it. 

Oh and for the record the neckwarmer took a little over one skein and the hat a little under, but again that’s because I made the neckpiece longer than most anyone else would want it.

I’m also proud that it looks needle-knit rather than loom-knit.  The flat knit stitch (Isela’s way) really makes sooooo much difference to the finished project that I have switched to it exclusively.

Many thanks to Daniella for pointing out that Malabrigo Organic Cotton is now available at WEBS.  It’s pricey, but with the pound being strong it worked out to be affordable for me.  I also took the time to get some of my new everyday-workhorse favourite yarn, Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk (I need to photograph those FOs), in a deep purple colourway (half-price), some more Arucania Pima Cotton (not organic, but at least fair trade, half price) to go with what I bought last year, and lots of onsies and twosies of other sale items for a total of £52 including shipping (to my US address).  t gave me a budget of £50 since aside from Project Superstar (2 skeins, now used) and the Paris trip (2 skeins), I haven’t really bought yarn since the after-Christmas sales.

My gothpoints are utterly in decline as once again I bought really bright colours  I even considered several blacks and then thought “Well what would I make with that?” (as I haven’t tackled fair isle yet to do the piratey things).  But in my defense, many of these yarns will be used for presents for children and I think children need eyepopping hot pink, right?

For some reason this blog is the top Google hit for Malabrigo Cotton.  How odd.  I’m sure I will lose that status in the future as others come to know and love this yarn, but for now I felt obliged to order two skeins of the organic. I plan to crochet a bag out of it.  Guess I’d best get cracking practicing my crochet first!

I do believe in using organic cotton as much as I can afford to.  It’s hard when the price tag is up to ten times more than non-organic (considering that I have a mill that is localish to me in the States that at least hits my low-airmiles button, which most organics do not).  It’s not so much about the environmental aspects in an altruistic sense but because I believe that the widespread use of pesticides is part of the reason why fibromyalgia and other neurological disorders are so much more common nowadays. (Remember to sponsor me for my walk for Fibro research!) Cotton growing accounts for 50% of the world’s pesticides which is why it is most important to buy organic cotton to prove to the rest of the industry that it can be done. But, I guess the lack of pesticides reduces the yield which accounts for part of the increased cost, although I am sure the rest of it is just the organic fad, alas. But Malabrigo is a higher-priced brand anyway and is fair trade as well as organic and these yarns have only natural dyes.  Pity about the airmiles though

So with looms, swap goodies and now yarn coming my way, I think May 25 is going to be a lot like Christmas  I can’t wait to get there and see all of my stuff.  But first, several projects to finish and a swap package to make!

Thanks to everyone who wore blue shirts and wished the girls well.   Their grandmother says that the transplant went smoothly, but now Marian has two weeks of feeling very rough while her bone marrow hopefully converts to be like Audrey’s.

I finished the bracelets (3 each for the girls in plastic beads on elastic cording, one for mom that is glass beads combining the girls’ favourite colours and a silver awareness ribbon charm on silver-plated Beadlon) but I’m still feeling a bit rough so I haven’t set up the lightbox to photograph them properly.

Now I just have three cards to make and can finally send off this package!  I’ll be sure to get pictures of everything before they go out. The hats are already on my Flickr and havebeen for a while now but I will post about them properly when the package is sent.  There’s also Playmobil, Hello Kitty, stickers, books and cutie (machine washable!) rat stuffies from IKEA and stuff for the mom.  OK so I got a bit crazy!  (Their dad got left out, as I had no idea what to get him…)

I’ve also been doing a bit of spinning with my uber-cheap spindle and the leftover drumcarded (but a bit mangled after carding) merino that was leftover from my felting class.  It’s super ugly but hey it’s only for practice and the fiber was just going to be thrown out otherwise.  I have two people who have offered me a little raw fleece from the UKKarma group on Ravelry so I am really looking forward to getting those packages!   Plus I mega-envy everyone at Wonderwool Wales this weekend.

Well, I have to go put away the beading supplies so that our guest tomorrow has somewhere to sit and eat!