I’m finished with my first car project. I call this my Hippie Tam. This is the first tam I’ve crocheted in years. I used to make them a lot back in my commune days. There were a couple times I had to rip back because I was doing the pattern from memory. But it all came back and now I have a tam for winter.
I did two rows with no increases or decreases to make it roomy enough to tuck up my braids if I want.
Pattern: Hippie Tam
Source: Me
Size: Custom
Yarn: Repurposed wool from a thrifted vest
Needles: H hook
Started: April 2008
Finished: May 2008
Modifications: None
May 13th, 2008
Meredith from Knit Night bought herself a new spinning wheel and gave me her old one. I’m so excited and grateful!
It’s a Louet wheel S15. I love it. It feels so good and so right to be getting into spinning again.
Remember that roving from December? I was supposed to be learning how to spin on a drop spindle. There’s been no blogging about it because there’s been no progress. I tried but had no luck at all.
Though it’s been four years since I’ve spun on a wheel I was able to pick it up without too much trouble.
It’s thin and thick. It’s overspun and underspun. But it’s mine, all mine. Yay!
May 12th, 2008
Abbey and I went to Merce’s place last month to do some felting. Merce showed us how to hand felt. Wow! It was so much fun. There’s something so satisfying about felting with your hands. I like it much better than throwing a piece into a washing machine. Plus I’m off grid so hand felting is something I can do at home.
The three of us went free form and “painted” with raw fleece. Here’s what I made:
It’s the sunrise over Taos Mountain. Since I’m such a night owl the sunrise is one thing I don’t see much. When I manage to get up that early (or more likely to stay up that late) and see the sunrise it feels like a rare treat.
Merce suggested we put uncarded fleece around the edges as trim.
This was a brilliant idea. I love how primal it makes the piece look.
I’m in love with painting with wool. I’ve never been a painter because I like to touch my work. This is why I’m also drawn to sculpture. After the piece is done you can still touch it. I find myself petting my felt piece.
Merce also told us the trick to hanging felt art on the wall. You simply staple a piece of velcro (the grippy side) to the wall:
I’ll definitely be doing more felt work in the future.
May 11th, 2008
This is my first full repeat for Thebes’ Heirloom sweater. I’m using superwash wool and wow are these cables popping. It’s beautiful and I’m loving the pattern.
Near the end of April Sieben and I went on a walk. The weather seemed fine.
But by the time we got back there was a full on snow storm. We got several inches. See, even Sieben looks surprised.
Though his surprise didn’t last long. He loves snow and we ran around playing in it. One of his favorite games is catching snowballs in his mouth.
May 8th, 2008
I finished Samus last month. It fits perfectly and I just love it!
This pattern is so versatile. I can see me remaking this with a different cable pattern at the edges.
Despite my zipper drama the zipper installation turned out fine. Since I couldn’t get a purple on I went with gray. It picks up on the heathered purple/gray of the purple yarn so it worked out perfectly.
Pattern: Samus by Brynne Sutton
Source: Knitty
Size: Medium
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, Amethyst Heather, 11.5 skeins
Needles: 4.5 mm/US 7
Started: January 2008
Finished: April 2008
Modifications: Instead of doing an I-cord edging I did a row of single crochet. Looks fine to me.
May 7th, 2008
I just finished sewing in the zipper for Samus. I’m wearing it now and it’s a perfect fit. Yay! I’m so excited. This is one of the best sweaters I’ve ever knit.
Pictures to come soon.
April 27th, 2008
Abbey got me a gift to cheer me up after all my knitting related stress:
I’ve been reading the Yarn Harlot’s blog for awhile but had never read her books. This one is great. I’m now reading another one of hers, Knitting Rules. She talks about how the obsessive knitter redefines knitting time. Like standing in the grocery line transforms into sock knitting time.
This is an excellent idea. I’ve now started crafting in the car.
Last time I went to the Taos knitting group I somehow forgot my knitting bag at home. I was annoyed at first. Then I realized I had a knit vest in the car I had snagged from the free box for recycling the yarn.
Instead of knitting I brought in the vest and started the frogging process. I haven’t crocheted something in awhile so I decided to crochet myself a tam. I haven’t made myself one in years. It’s relaxing to make something in the car. Makes car trips just zoom by.
April 26th, 2008
The knitting portion of my Freedom Skirt is done! It’s a little loose around the waist but I planned to put in elastic. I had to foresight to avoid a zipper. hehe I’m especially happy with the length and lace pattern.
Feather and fan is definitely one of my stitch patterns now. It’s just so pretty.
Those yellow pins in the top pic are knitting seaming pins.
They’re plastic and from JoAnne’s. No more jabbing my fingers when seaming knitting projects. I recommend them.
April 21st, 2008
Our podcast friend Pauly B. visited me and Thebes last month. His show is Punky Radio. Punk music, great new curse words and comedy-what’s not to love?
Pauly B. lives in Britain and asked if there was anything from the UK I’d like him to bring over. At first I was at a loss because there’s so much I can find on Ebay. But then I realized I could ask him to bring me knitting magazines! He graciously brought me three.
I had such a fun time reading these magazines! The basics were the same of course. It’s still knitting after all. But it was different enough that it was such a treat to get them. There are several patterns that stand out to me. These two I especially like:
April 11th, 2008
OMG I’ve been having some frustrating times with my knitting lately.
Thebes’ kilt hose toe has been frogged. I had knit it thinking I was going to do the full foot before picking a toe up pattern. The pattern I’ve chosen is super cool but knitted top down. To the frogging pond the toe went.
That wasn’t a major deal. But it was frustrating. So I decided to focus on finishing Samus. I finished the ribbon lining and started pinning in the zipper. Before sewing it in I decided to be safe and unzip it to make sure I had pinned it in evenly. One problem. The zipper didn’t unzip all the way. It was attached at the bottom.
I bought an invisible zipper because I thought it would look pretty. But invisible zippers are apparently for purses because they don’t detach at the bottom.
I’m not proud to say I had a royal freak out. I cried and cried and cried. If I could buy a zipper without driving down to Santa Fe it wouldn’t be nearly as big a deal.
Thebes was great though. He comforted me and then pulled in reinforcements. He got Abbey to call me to console me. She happens to be going to Santa Fe soon and said she’d get me the correct zipper. I’m so overjoyed and grateful!
I tried to carry on and switched to Thebes’ sweater. The suggested needle size for my yarn was #6-9. I tried an 8 and didn’t hit gauge. I tried a 6 and didn’t hit gauge. I went down and down until finally hitting gauge at size 4. Gulp.
For this sweater I’ve decided to knit it on Addi Turbos. Thebes and I went to Taos Sunflower so I could pick up a pair. They’ve recently redesigned the store to carry independent or small business yarn makers. To be honest I was worried the store would now be out of my budget. I’m happy to report that there’s still tons of yummy yarns I can buy. Yay! And did I buy some? There was some sock yarn on sale so yes I did. Pics to come soon.
When I got home I did another gauge swatch on the Addi’s and didn’t hit gauge. OMGWTF?! I knit it again and again and sometimes would get too many stitches and other times get too little stitches. On the whole though I’m averaging out on gauge so I think the Addi’s will work. It was frustrating though.
Feeling stressed out on yet another knitting project I switched to my Freedom Skirt today. I’m working on the lace part when I realized I messed up the pattern and have to frog 4 rows. I’m not sure what I’ve done to upset the knitting gods but perhaps I need to sacrifice some acrylic to get in their good graces again.
With all these problems at least my knitting helper is cute:
April 6th, 2008
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