Adventures in Silk

I showed you the mawata (also known as silk hankies) I got from Stitches South a couple of weeks ago.  Essentially they are square, thin layers of silk.  I decide to knit mine without spinning them first.

I had four different colors of hankies, each without about 15-20 layers.

This is what a single hankie looks like.

I gently stripped off each layer of silk.

The layers are very thin (see the layer on the left).  You can see right through them.

I poked a whole in the center of the layer and started stretching them into a thin loop.

When the loop was the thickness of about a worsted weight yarn, I broke it to make just one long line of silk.  Silk as very long and very strong fibers.

I rolled the strands up into a little multi-colored ball.  It is alarming how small the ball is, but if I did the math right, it should be enough for a pair of adult mittens ( I hope...)

Here is what I started to knit.

Pretty colors, yes?

This was a very fun if slightly frustrating project at first.  You have to keep your hands really smooth and moisturized or the silk catches on them:

My picture is sideways  but you get the point.  Sticky fibers.

I sent some silk hankies to Porpoise as well.  She said she is going to spin hers, so it will be interesting to see the differences in the way they knit up.

Graffiti

Reminder:  Comment on this post for a VERY good chance to win a hand-knit hat.  To clarify, you all have until Monday noon to comment, then I'm picking a winner.  Deal?

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I LOVE when knitting makes it into the mainstream media.  Graffiti is apparently a mainstream issue because earlier this year the NY Times did a piece on the "more feminine side" or graffiti.  Not so pleased that they call knitting feminine (I personally feel pretty butch in my hand-knit watchman's cap_ but whatevs.  The Torontoist did an article about "99 Problems But a Stitch Ain't One" talking about yarn bombing.  NPR did an article, too, although they call crochet a grandmas' activity.

HI've talked about yarn bombing before, but here are a few more of my favorites:

In Paris, one artist has filled sidewalk cracks with bright yarn.  More pictures here.

This one is less graffiti and more awesome:

From Living Crafts

Stairs!  I also really like the links on these metal chains.

From FlickaMag

And look at these trees!

From Knit Hacker

Can you picture these in DC?  Or how about these at the bus stops?

From

There is a fun video of subway yarn bombing:



I especially appreciate the masked yarn bombers.  This would make my MARTA experiences a little less sad.  Maybe every time my bus is late, I will spend that wasted time yarn-graffiting the bus stop.

I really need to learn how to make knitting in the shape of cracks and bus stop benches and light posts.  I am considering yarn bombing the front pillars of my apartment building.  Anyone wanna help out?

Registered for Stitches South

Folks!  I got myself an EARLY birthday present and signed myself up for Stitches South!!

What is Stitches South, you ask?  Well, it's sort of a knitting...convention?  Happening on my birthday weekend (that would be April 20th, for those of you who like to plan ahead), there are three days of classes, a market, a fashion show, and other exciting events.  One of the only upsides to leaving DC is that I am now close enough to attend (although, I just checked, an it isn't very MARTA accessible so I might as well be coming in from out of state for all the help my proximity will provide...sigh).


I signed up for two classes:  Design Your Dream Sweater with Leslye Solomon and Entrelac Basics with Gwen Bortner.

Wanna join me?  Registration is open now!!

Espionage

Every year I go to Target and scope out what is new in knitwear fashion (a.k.a. to get mad that stores charge for something I could make myself and/or can charge so little for what would take me FOREVER to make myself)

More flip top mittens.  But these have entrelac on the hand.  Interesting.

Also seems to be a bunch of Fair Isle this year.  If I had the attention span, these are what I would make.

These, not so much.  You can't tell, but a couple of these are scarf/hood combinations.

Would look like this laid out flat.  Cool or not cool?

Vogue Knitting appears to agree with Target that fair isle is fashionable:

But I question the taste of that first hat and of wearing a wool cap with a tank top...but maybe that's just me.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Knitters

I am not going to lie.  One of my summer goals was to re-read all the Harry Potter books before the newest and last movie came out in July.  I did.  And watched many of the old movies, too.  I totally admit to dragging ten pound books of children's lit on the metro with me.  And while I didn't see the movie THE DAY it came out, I was super excited to see it this weekend.

But maybe not quite as excited as all those knitters out there that have devoted themselves to making the most amazing HP-related knitting patterns and finished items I have ever seen.

The Leaky Cauldron ("the most trusted name in Potter") has a whole page devoted to HP crafts including an actual knit Harry Potter:

Pattern here

Pretend to be Dumbledore with your very own wizard beard

Via

For the more sinister, there are Dark Mark Scarves:

And from LionBrand, you can make the three Deathly Hallows including this lovely Elder Wand:

Pattern here

I resisted making one to take with me, but just barely....

Wait Wait, Do Tell

Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me is my favorite NPR show ever.  Having a favorite NPR show is like having a favorite stamp in your stamp collection...a legitimate thing to have, but not something you share with the world without the expectation of a few eye rolls and a request that you leave your yippie name checking at the door.

However, there were two bits of joy I discovered when I was catching up on WWDTM this week.

Carl Kasell Limerick May 28th:

My new sweater is nothing to flog.  It's from yarn that leaves most couches clogged. My pet I do brush. For his hair is quite plush. I make wool from the hair of my...

Yup....talking about people who knit stuff out of pet fur (note: I am super sad by the misuse of fiber art terminology here.  For example, you don't make "wool" from dog hair.  Wool comes from sheep.  And this New York Times article refers to "yarn weaved from dog hair."  You weave yarn into fabric, but you spin fiber into yarn....anyhoo...)


And then there was this exchange between WWDTM panelists on June 18th:

SAGAL: Faith, this week we read about a growing trend among expectant fathers. They're having what?
Ms. SALIE: A shower, a baby shower...Well, they're not called baby showers for expectant dads, they're called dadchelor parties...Well, you know, it's where you get stuff for the baby. It's all about preparing to have a baby. Dadchelor parties are about getting ready to lose your freedom. So there's lots of drinking and gambling and carousing.
Mr. ROCCA: And the doula gives you a lap dance.
SAGAL: Exactly.
Mr. ROCCA: I was just in Hawaii.
SAGAL: Yes.
Mr. ROCCA: And I was watching hula dancers and it's so relaxing just to watch them. And I kept thinking, I bet, like, if you were a lady and you were going into labor and a hula dancer came in, it would be so relaxing that the baby would just kind of come out really easily.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. ROCCA: I don't know, I bet a hula dancer could get the baby out of you like just so easily...It's just amazing. Like a hula doula would be incredible.

Yup, hula doulas.  I totally agree that wiggling your hips around would help the baby come out.  I know of pregnancy yoga, but is anyone out there doing pregnancy hula?  Not sure, but apparently hula-hooping works for some moms.

(P.S.  The doula does NOT give you a lap dance....)

Weekend Update: Stitch and Pitch

My last experience with knitting at Nationals Stadium ended in me flipping off a stadium employee for taunting me for my "womanly" craft.  This weekend the employees contained themselves as scads of knitters showed up for Stitch and Pitch, an event where knitting at the game is not only allowed, but encouraged.

I knit my way through maybe the most interesting game the Nationals have ever played.  11 innings, loaded bases, pinch hitters, walked batters, you name it.  Yet, my sweater was still WAY more interesting: increasing at the side markers every three rows AT THE SAME TIME as adding the pocket linings.  Take THAT baseball!

Julie and Devon avoided knitting by just politely holding the yarn I gave them...

Julie's feet got cold ,so I let her put them in my purse....after removing the yarn and knitting needles.

And the nationals didn't suck that badly despite the eventual loss.  In other new, Lincoln won the President's Race.  It was rigged, I tell you!

The only truly awkward moment was when they honored the troops, asking them to stand for applause.  Some genius had decided to change the lyrics to the Cee Lo Green song to "Thank You" but of course none of us could hear the words and instead sat in horrified silence as CeeLo called his would be lover a gold digger.**  Awwwwwkwarrrrrd....

In other news, I pulled out the Schwinn

I love this thing so much.  I feel so regal cruising through traffic.  I am thankful for having a mother who saved all her quality vintage awesomeness.

And saw the sights

Is that one tall, ugly building or what?

Happy Monday!


** So apparently the "Thank You" version of the Cee Lo song is a real thing.   Still sounds crazy when you can't hear the lyrics.

Search for Me

I was looking through my Google analytics to see what search terms people use to find my site.  May I just say: Hilaaaaarious!

The top ten are pretty much what you would expect (wool, sheep, Vagina Monologues, FemEx, etc).  But from there on it just gets bizarre.

Some of my favorites include:

• how to make a pussy with a pillow case (this makes sense since one of my posts is called "How to Make a Vagina Pillow")
• amethyst gem sauna (this person spent 10 minutes on my site, meaning they must have found what they were looking for....)
• how to make vagina with yarn
• korean girls feet
• name of shape with 2 flat sides and 2 half circles (this one completely baffles me....mostly because I, too, have no idea what to call that shape)
• ncis femsex fanfiction (I am trying to imagine the person who typed this query....)
• turquoise tangles my opera j baird 

On a semi-related note, you can now find this blog at www.ambitiousknits.com in addition to the regular www.sheepishlyambitious.blogspot.com address.   Get excited for search terms and domain names!

Sheep/Dog

I saw this article the other day and decided that you just NEEDED to know.

A farmer in China says his sheep gave birth to a sheep dog...as in, a dog that looks like a sheep...A researcher at a local university had this to say about it:

It's not possible that a sheep could become pregnant with a puppy...It's likely that this is just an abnormal lamb.

Heh, the name of my new death metal band is going to be "Abnormal Lamb."  We'll be moshing this weekend at a club near you.