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TNNA Post #2: The Exhibit Hall, The Fashion Show and Saturday

If you missed my post yesterday, please take a look. I’m searching for a levenger or rollabind punch for cheaper than retail.

The Exhibt Hall: HUGE. Ginormous even! There were even birds flying around in the rafters and swooping down at people while they tried to record podcasts. It was like 3 football fields stacked next to each other. I wish I had worn a pedometer as I would have felt good about all the exercise I got over the whole weekend. But oh the eye candy and yarn Pr0n! I probably spent the most time in the Jade Sapphire booth fawning over their silk/cashmere laceweight (check out all those scrumptious colors!). I got to see all the cool new offerings from places like Lantern Moon and Namaste. There were also some VERY cool pyrex glass circular needles from glasspens.com (they also make buttons, crochet hooks, straight needles and doublepoints although I didn’t play around with any of those). I liked knitting with the glass, and I think I may have to special order some in a smaller size.

If we’re talking pure yarn pr0n, then the Alchemy booth won hands down. There was so much lovely and touchable stuff that I felt like maybe they should have handed out drool rags as you entered the booth. Lauren was working there, so I met up with her at the booth, where I also met Cathi who very well may be my new favorite person 🙂 Lauren sent me on a recon mission and when I returned victorious I was awarded by meeting Nathania, Sandi and Chloe. I regret not getting a picture of them (because they are fabulous), but nothing beats being greeted with squeals of delight and a huge genuine hug (thanks Nathania! It totally made my day!).

The Fashion Show was, to be quite honest, horrible. There were very few things that I thought were well executed and a lot of it was more to show off a new yarn line in whatever way possible than to really design good garments. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised though, since the majority of people at the show are yarn wholesalers or retailers and not designers. I guess they’re catering to their market. But keep an eye out for Kate Gilbert‘s Keyhole Tank in the Spring or Summer issue (not sure which right now). It’s beautiful! I did get to meet and speak with Stephanie Japel though. She is genuine and sweet and strikingly lovely with (as Cathi put it) ridiculously good hair. Her mother (who’s nametag said “Linda Glampyre” and gave Lauren and I a good laugh) is also very nice 🙂
On Saturday aside from the crazy fun party that I went to, I also got to meet up with a San Diego Stitch’n’Bitch gathering where I met Knitzalot, Krys (who was just starting those endpaper mitts she just finished), and Jessimuhka (who was wearing her Icarus shawl, yay!) Oh, and I bought Koigu with Dis, but I’ll get to that in a future post.

All in all, it was a very good trip. I made contacts that will prove beneficial in the future, got to talk shop with a lot of really interesting people and sort of solidified what I want to do with this designing thing. Hopefully it will all work out.

Now I’m off to bang my tired head on my desk and hope that my ickiness gets worse so I can justify going home sick.

M

Posted 22 January 2007 † Mim § Designing § Knitting § TNNA ‡ Comments (4) °

Quick Question

Does anyone have a Levenger or Rollabind punch they don’t want and would be willing to sell? I’ve been stalking some on e-bay, but they seem to be going for the same amount as the new ones and that’s a little ridiculous to me. I would prefer the one that punches all the holes at a time instead of the portable one, but I’d like to hear from you either way.

If you’ve got one or know someone who wants to sell one (I’d be up for some trade for patterns as well), e-mail me
M
*ETA*  I broke down and bought one, so I don’t need it anymore.

Posted 21 January 2007 † Mim § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (1) °

TNNA Post #1: Friday Mostly

On Friday morning (after flying in at almost midnight Utah time) I awoke early for a class with Annie Modesitt on Cables & Lace. I learned to cable without a cable needle (which is surprisingly easy, but totally hard to figure out on your own), and got a bunch of nifty ideas. Annie has a great story for teaching you how to cable without a needle – it involves girls at a dance and a charming prince and punch bowls – and I’ll never forget it. Of course, the never forgetting might have something to do with the fact that she built up the innuendo and then I laughed for a full 2 minutes trying NOT to say what everyone else was thinking 😉

Anyway, here is Annie and myself. It was great to finally meet her since I had corresponded with her back when she published my piece about my Nana in Cheaper Than Therapy.I had some time to kill before lunch, so I wandered through The Gaslamp Quarter which was right across from the convention center. I had been to a paper store there years ago and wasn’t sure where it was located anymore, but I decided wandering wouldn’t hurt me any, so I wandered. I ended up stopping to buckle my sweater into my bag so I wouldn’t have to carry it over my arm and when I looked up, BAM! right in front of the paper store! The clerk in the store chatted with me a bit when he saw my TNNA namebadge and told me all about how his girlfriend is learning to knit. I gave him my card with some helpful websites for his girlfriend written on the back. I haven’t heard from her yet, but I hope I do.

Then I met up for lunch with the “A Little Loopy” Grrls. Nonnahs, Nasus and Dis. I toyed with the idea of posting this picture, but since I look like a possessed hobbit, I decided to just link to it. Click here if you want to see it.

I think that’s it for Friday and the highlight of Saturday was covered in the previous post, but I’ll tell you later about the Exhibit hall…. and if I can do it without getting the heebeejeebees, I’ll treat myself to some nice soothing chocolate.

M

Utah Grrl Lauren finished her Hidcote shawl! She had a bit of weirdness that we performed SnB night cosmetic surgery on, but I must say, in the end, you can’t tell and it’s absolutely LOVELY! Go read her harrowing tale of dying a finished shawl 🙂Emma finished her Icarus shawl, and I don’t know what the yarn is, but it’s BEAUTIFUL! Go check out the pictures in her flickr album. (Make sure you scroll through the pics, there are 6 of them)

Megan at Wooly Interlude finished her second Adamas shawl in a beautiful red Zephyr called Cinnabar. It looks great Megan!

Posted 19 January 2007 † Mim § Knitting § Others FO's § TNNA ‡ Comments (6) °

Home

Hi all, I just wanted to let you all know I’m not dead.  I arrived home on Monday morning, but I haven’t blogged because I’ve been busy keeping my bed warm, wearing pajamas all day, and knitting like a maniac because I realized the Book Project 1 & 2 deadline was NOT the end of February as I had convinced myself, but Feb. 9th.  Just a few more rows, some finishing and blocking and BP1 will be done.  I’m still wondering where the yarn for BP2 is though…. it’s making me a bit nervous.

TNNA, in one word, was HUGE.  Overwhelmingly huge.  So huge that after the first day of the open exhibit hall I toyed with the idea of going home and sobbing into a pillow and wondering what I had got myself into.  Thank God I convinced myself to go to a party that night with Lauren instead.  I had so much fun sitting at a table with Lauren, The Purlescence Chicks (Nathania, Chloe & Sandi), Amy Singer (who cornered me and twisted my arm until I promised to design something for a future knitty issue.  She’s mean like that 😉 ), and NICKY EPSTEIN!  My face hurt so much from laughing!  And Nicky Epstein almost threw my sister’s Icarus shawl (which I borrowed back for TNNA) over the balcony into the bar below.

I’ll tell you more about it later when I can connect my camera to a computer (the cord is at work and I am most blessedly NOT at work).

M

Posted 17 January 2007 † Mim § Designing § Knitting § TNNA ‡ Comments (15) °

I would really love to write more…..

….. but I’ve got limited time and a bunch of stuff to do in that time.

I’m leaving tomorrow for TNNA in San Diego, so I’ll be away from e-mail most likely until Monday or Tuesday. I’ve got an auto-responder set up for e-mail, and hopefully I’ll have a bit more motivation when I return. With all the travel time, I bet I’ll have a whole heap of knitting done too.

M

Also, don’t miss out on seeing Rosemary‘s lovely Icarus shawl! She knit it in Ebony Zephyr! 🙂

Posted 10 January 2007 † Mim § Knitting § Others FO's ‡ Comments (3) °

Smitten

As you may recall, I decided to buy a spinning wheel this year. I got an e-mail from my lovely friend Isela telling me that she was interested in getting rid of the wheel she got for her birthday in 2005. I guess she just never caught the bug 🙂 She offered to let me borrow it for a while and see if I liked it. So on Saturday we met up at Black Sheep Wool Co. in downtown Salt Lake where we did a bit of shopping and I took a beautiful Ashford Traveller (with Sam-approved Walnut finish) home with me.

I decided to not try to spin late on Saturday night when I got home from a movie, so I waiting until I was fully awake on Sunday morning. I fitted the drive band, then realized that I had fitted it in a stupid way*, so I had to re-fit it. Then got spinning and realized that the drive band was slipping just a bit, so re-fitted it again. I’ll tell you one thing about it, starting from the beginning like that really helps you understand how the wheel works.

I started out by spinning some icelandic lambswool I got from Anne, and made a royal mess of it. Over and under spun, many breaks… just not even something I would consider to be yarn. But I learned about how to adjust both tensions and how it changed the yarn I was getting and how it changed the force with which the wheel sucked up the finished yarn onto the bobbin.

I was getting really frustrated with the lambswool and decided I should try something else, so I pulled out some Navajo Churro (also from Anne) and gave it a spin (har har!). It turned out MUCH more even and I put some on 2 bobbins so I could try plying. I severely OVER-plyed it, but it looks like real yarn, even though you could probably scrub your bathtub with it because it’s so harsh! I tried to take a picture of it, but they all came out blurry and bad.
Having been encouraged by the Navajo Churro, I switched to some merino tencel my sister gave me. It’s slippery, and I have to treadle really slowly, but I definitely got the hang of it. I adjusted tension and set off. The singles look good, although still a bit uneven.

By the by… merino tencel is really SLICK! Especially when it’s combed top instead of roving. It wants to pull right out of your hands, so you’ve got to be careful. As you can see though, progress is being made. It’s a much thicker single than I WANT, but I’m sure I’ll learn how to spin finer weight yarns in time. I bet the key is pre-drafting, but if any of you other spinners have any tips for me, I’d like to hear them.

My opinion thus far? I love it. But I’m not sure whether “it” is the Traveller or the wheel spinning in general, so I’ll give Margene’s Lendrum a try at some point and see how I feel about it.

That’s about it for my weekend except to say I saw “The Good Shepherd” which I thought was really good 😀 I heard that some critics thought it was slow, but there was so much to internalize that if it hadn’t had those slow parts, we would have left the theater feeling like our heads were about to explode.

M

*the “mother of all” on an ashford traveller is hinged so you can adjust the tension on the drive band by turning a screw which lifts one side of the whole assembly taking it farther away from the wheel, and I had fit the band when the assembly was partially extended from the wheel, so that if I were to un-extend it, the drive band would basically fall off. No bueno.

Posted 08 January 2007 † Mim § Spinning ‡ Comments (20) °

Can anyone help Ellen?

I receive this e-mail this morning:

Dear Mim,

I am casting off the Seraphim now, just passed the centerpoint, and, uh-oh,
no more yarn!  Do you or any readers maybe have about 10 yards (just to make
sure) of natural-color KnitPicks Bare Merino fingering (440yds/100g) maybe
even in "dye"lot #66688 (or is that 88999?), and be willing to mail it to
me?

Thanks so much,
Ellen

Can anyone help her? If so, please e-mail me and I’ll give you her address.

M

ETA:  Thanks!  It’s been taken care of.  Knitters are the BEST!

Posted 07 January 2007 † Mim § Knitting ‡ Comments (6) °

Today's outfit…. mark the occasion!

Those of you who know me in person know that it’s a good day if I manage to brush my hair before leaving the house.

But I’ve been trying to really make an effort to look professional at work and I’m learning to love my curves (since there are more of them than there were 2 years ago). I’m also learning what flatters me and how to be more feminine without looking like a bimbo. For years I wore only men’s pants. They were comfortable, had large pockets, lasted longer with tough wear, and were generally cheaper than mens pants. I had the lack of hips to pull it off, so why not! But my hips spread (curse you genetics!) and I’ve been sort of floundering trying to find things that looked good on me now that my entire shape has changed.

I’m proud of myself today though. I am wearing a new skirt that my mother bought me yesterday at White House Black Market. It is corduroy and cut in biased panels, so it’s clingy around the hips and bum and flares out a bit at the bottom. It’s very flattering especially with the black 3″ heeled boots I got from Michelle. I even brushed AND straightened my hair today and put on make-up! I’m feeling quite accomplished!

M

Posted 05 January 2007 † Mim § Totally Random ‡ Comments (26) °

An Ode to my beloved Rabbitch

In a hat tip to Rabbitch’s post today, here’s my favorite joke:

There are 2 muffins in an oven.

One muffin turns to the other and says “It’s hotter than hell in here!”

And the other muffin shouts “HOLY SHIT!!! A talking muffin!”

*gigglesnort*

M

Posted 04 January 2007 † Mim § Totally Random ‡ Comments (10) °

Gifties and a wee peek

Isela tagged me, so here is the New Years Meme:

What is the first thing you did in the New Year…

Kissed C long and hard and then danced.

What is the first thing you ate in the New Year….

A sandwich? Not sure… it was probably consumed at 4 in the am, so I’m not sure I recall.

What is the first thing you knit in the New Year…

I worked on BP1. Still haven’t got the go ahead to show it to you.

What is the first blessing of the New Year…

Good friends in the form of neighbors.

What is the first thing you will do to make the world a better place…

Pet my cat. As he’s a rescue cat I feel any love I give to him is making the world better. Also, I plan to start some charity knitting soon.

Post the first photo you took on New Year’s…..

I’m not tagging anyone… if you want it, take it.

Sort of anticlimactic after having shown you the picture above, but in addition to that one, I’ve got these:

These are stitch (and row) markers from Beadmakers that Rhonna was so sweet to send me! I am so in love with that little ram! Make sure you go check out Karen’s stitch markers! The ones in the first picture are designed specifically for lace so that you don’t snag delicate stitches on your stitch markers! And the numbered ones are row counters! You wouldn’t need to count the same rows over and over again, just mark strategic repeats (think multiples of 10 on the foot of a sock). The little lobster claws would grab a stitch in the row and keep you from wasting valuable knitting time by repeat counting. Karen specializes in ceramic animals… she even has BEAVERS! I wonder if she could do monkeys…. Ninja monkeys….. *ponder* Thanks Rhonna and thanks Karen!pssst…. lookie here!M

Eva finished her Hidcote Garden Shawl and it turned out HUGE but very pretty! Wrap on up in it Eva! (scroll down in that entry for the pictures)

Posted 03 January 2007 † Mim § Acquisitions § Designing § Knitting § Memes § Others FO's ‡ Comments (4) °