The Knit Knight in Woolly Armor

I FINALLY made it over to DC's Looped Yarn Works for knit night (which I keep trying to write as knit knight....as if a knight in woolly armor is going to swoop in to slay the snarling alpaca dragon with a giant knitting needle sabor....)

The crowd consisted of:

• A social group that meets either at knit night or for coffee every week.  Unclear what their common bond is other than niceness and knitting.
• Two men, both EXTREMELY talented at their craft.  It seems annoying to ask "how does it feel to be a man who knits?" when it would be weird for someone to ask me "how does it feel to be a woman who knits?"  So I didn't ask.  Maybe next time.
• Two young women brand-spanking-new to knitting who would pipe up with a "what the heck is that?!?!" every time someone said words like "felting," "long-tail cast-on," or "blocking lace."  One of the women informed us that she had learned to knit when she got snowed in with her family over Christmas.  She locked herself in the home office to get away from her family and learned to knit over YouTube from a woman who talks to her dog the whole time she is explaining stitch techniques.  I, for one, found this an ingenious and perfectly normal family-coping mechanism.
• A whole bunch of other people wearing ridiculously elaborate hand-knits.  Now I am sad that I haven't kept more of my own knitting over the last year (although I do love sharing it with appreciative recipients), because all I have to show off at knit night is my hat and whatever is on my needles at the moment.

Let me tell you, folks.  While you all make me feel loved and appreciated by allowing me to ramble on about knitting and such even when you don't really understand why anyone should love wool the way I do, there is something special about hanging out with a whole group of people who understand what the pain of accidentally sitting on a metal double-point needle or the thrill of watching blobbly lace transform into something beautiful and intricate when it is blocked is like.  And more importantly, it was a social situation where EVERYONE was knitting and NO ONE rolled their eyes at me when I brought up the subject of yarn....AGAIN...

Thank you, Looped.  I will be back!

Not Knitting

You are all so polite.  So polite, in fact, that even though there hasn't been an ounce of knitting on this blog all week (longer than that?!?!) no one has complained.  Actually, you have all been uber quiet lately.  Let's play a little game.  First three people to post a comment here who have never posted before (I know you're lurking out there....) will get a very special something for International Random Gift Giving Day, which I will celebrate....oh, I dunno....sometime later this month.  Double gifting if your comments are in poetry form.  Deal?

I will admit that I have not been knitting much the past two weeks.  Chalking this up to a suspected case of carpal tunnel I am trying to avoid and also to the fact that there is wool EVERYWHERE in my room, attaching itself to all my dark-colored yarns that I want to knit with (I swear I am going to make those black legwarmers for you someday Julie!).  Why is there wool EVERYWHERE, you ask?  Mainly because I don't have a vacuum cleaner.

But also because I made this:

80 yards super bulky weight from KnitPicks Bare Merino roving.  I'm have some dying plans for this one....purple, maybe?

And this:

fatter-than-fingering weight hand-dyed Superwash Merino from Lorna's Laces (I do not believe for  a second that this is actually superwash...for you non-wool-fetishists, superwash means that you could stick it in the washing machine and it wouldn't felt....I don't believe.)

And some of this:

the first ply of a two-ply something that I have planned...wool of some kind that I was given that is not as soft as Merino.  Boring, boring color.  All rolled up on a toilet paper roll for safe keeping until I do the second ply.

All spun on my spindle, which is now starting to fall apart (I am not entirely clear on the qualities of a good spindle yet, but I am pretty sure they include having a hook that stays screwed in).  I am not entirely sucking at this spinning thing anymore, even though I am still not super consistent with my width and might over spin it just a little bit (read: way too much).  Need to go back to the Art League to play with the wheel some more, though...perhaps after acquiring some additional roving.

Nostepinde and The Dreaded Yale 250

I stand corrected.  I stated the other day that "niddy noddy" is the best name for a fiber tool ever.  Then lady friend at Porpoise Knits weighed in to tell me that the best word is, in fact, "nostepinde" (or, apparently, "nostepinne" both of which google tries to correct to "goosestepping")  Yea, I don't have one of those...but they're kinda hot...

Anyhooo!

Now that I have submitted all my grad school applications (and am no longer afraid of plagiarists stealing my ideas...you know I was first...), I thought I would share with you part of one of my applications.

Yale Law School, in addition to the personal statement, diversity question, resume and other materials that most law school ask for, also requires a special essay that is lovingly known on the web as "the dreaded Yale 250."  The prompt is:

Write an essay of not more than 250 words about a subject of your choice.  The Admissions Committee looks to the 250-word essay to evaluate an applicant’s writing, reasoning, and editing skills.  The subject is not limited; the choice of topic itself may be informative to the readers.

Did you hear that?  The choice of topic itself may be informative to the readers....why does that sound so scary to me?  I originally joined my law-school-applying compatriots in hating this essay and wrote some horribly boring essay about something incoherent.  Then I deleted it and wrote this instead (possibly also horribly boring and incoherent...but it makes me giggle that someone on the Yale Admissions committee got to read about knitting):

I knit my first scarf in fifth grade. From there, I progressed to mittens and blankets. This summer I decided to embark on a more ambitious project: to knit a sweater from scratch. To accomplish this goal, I would need to learn how to shear a sheep, spin the fleece into yarn, dye the yarn into a palatable color, and knit a sweater that I actually could wear. 

I have had mixed success. My knitting has gotten progressively better as I have mastered working with multiple colors, casting on and off in different ways, and utilizing various needles. On the other hand, my dyeing skills are abysmal. My attempts at subtle, understated tones more closely resemble failed tie-dye projects from Girl Scout camp. My shearing skills remain untested. Although I recently visited a flock of ewes in my hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, I have yet to work up the nerve to wrestle one of the wriggling ladies into place while using sharp clippers to remove her fleece. 

Despite these initial obstacles, I am not worried about failing. I did not know about highway systems before working at the US Department of Transportation. I had never witnessed a birth before becoming a doula. Throughout my life, I have pursued interests that ignite my curiosity and often challenge my abilities. These experiences have given me the confidence to know I can gain the skills to succeed whether I am knitting a sweater from scratch, starting a new job or attending law school

Besides the requisite cheesy ending, I'm not entirely sure what information the admissions committee will get glean from this one....heh, knitting...

Weekend Update: Work that Spindle

I am not entirely sure what I did this weekend; it just ended very abruptly without me actually accomplishing anything.  I went to try outs for the DC Vagina Monologues on Sunday.  The rest of the weekend I spent spinning all kinds of crazy.  I am most in love with this:

Hand spun on my spindle.  I am going to pretend that I MEANT it to be "thick-and-thin" instead of me just not being able to spin it very evenly.

The wool was 100% Merino from Abstract Fiber of Portland, OR in colorway "Snapdragon" (the prettiest thing I've ever seen, I think)

4 ounces as fat as I spun it only came out to 80 yards, so there aren't a ton of amazing things I can knit with it. Maybe more of these??

But I have this belief that maybe I could use handspun yarn to make something else.  I am trying to figure out how to combine it with the silver/glass jewelry work that I usually do.

Bad pictures (my camera hates night-time) and not quite what I was thinking, but it's a start...

I Did A Bad Thing

I started out the New Year on the wrong foot.  See, I promised myself I would be good.  I promised myself that I would always do the right thing and use up my (already prolific) yarn stash before getting anything new.  And for the most part, I followed that rule (well....almost) and.....just got some new knitting tools instead!  Oops...

So for you viewing pleasure, and explanation of all these weird freaky tools that (I think) round out what I need to spin and knit (at least until I have an extra $400 to spend on a spinning wheel...ha!).

A spindle (I had this already from my spinning class): This is what I spin the yarn with.  Mine is cheap and light and wood.  I keep wrapping the yarn around the bottom of the stick until I have spun as much as I want or it is full.  But then what?  I have two options.

Yarn I'm spinning.  More on this later.

A toilet paper tube (not even joking):  If I am going to ply the yarn, I roll the two plys off onto separate toilet paper tubes.  When I go to ply them together, I take the two ends, hold them together and spin them into a two-ply yarn.  Once I have the yarn that I want, I go on to the next step which is a.....

A niddy noddy:  If I am ready to set the yarn (by soaking it in water to make sure the twist stays the way I want it to), I wind the yarn off onto a niddy noddy.  It wraps the yarn into yard-long loops that, when removed and twisted together, become a skein.  You store yarn in skein form (not in ball form) because it allows the yarn to stay loose and fluffy instead of stretched and compact as in ball form.  But to knit you need your yarn in ball form so that it doesn't tangle up.

niddy noddy is the best name for something EVER

A yarn swift:  To get your yarn into a ball, you stick it on the yarn swift.  It is a big umbrella thingie that clamps down on the table.  You put the yarn around it

and open it up until it is taught.  It spins around.

A ball winder:  You then set your ball winder up next to the yarn swift (or hold it in your hand if you want).  Hook the yarn to it and start cranking. 

This is the most satisfying thing.  You spin the handle and the ball of yarn grows.  It's like magic...

 You end up with a ball of yarn like this:

I want to find a video of someone REALLY having fun with this, but all I could come up with was this very silent lady.



I might have to film something for yo, 'cause this thing is just too much fun :-)

Knitting Inspiration

Things that inspire me this month:

This Lion Brand Map Quilt is knit entirely by hand using intarsia and uses 25 different colors of yarn.  What!?!?!

Make knit objects, not war?  From the Lets Colour Poject

May have posted this one before.  It is a clock.  Made of yarn.  From Gretel.  I want it....

These clothing labels from Name Maker have got me picturing some "Ambitious Knits by JoAnna" labels.

HA!  From yarnbombing.com

Janice Rocema is my current favorite artist.  She has a tutorial on how to make this kind of amazing creation in her etsy shop....

BISIO Update: December/January

Oh man!  I made it all the way through December without writing a "Because I Said It Outloud" Update.  I feel ashamed.  So here it is:

Doula: I am co-coordinating the volunteer doula program at the birth center now with two fantastic women.  I helped train eight new volunteers in December and we hope to get a bunch more in January.  Sooooo exciting!  I was in-charge of creating the January on-call calendar, though...what a stressful, complicated activity.   I also attended two births in November, one of which was qualifying towards my certification (only one more to go!!!).  The other randomly ended up being in support of the wife of a college friend of mine.  That was weird at first but extremely exciting.

Sheep to Sweater:  I went to spinning class.  Soooo much fun.  I need to practice, though, so I can keep up the skills/hopefully improve a little.  I learned that my Local Yarn Store (LYS) has roving (prepared fleece) so I at least have a local supplier for basic spinning supplies.  Made the (I think, pretty smart) decision to not necessarily clean my own fleece to be used in my sweater yarn.  Still deciding whether I should try to spin all the yarn for a sweater or if I am satisfied just knowing that I could.

I've also been doing some seriously awesome knitting (IMHO).  I made these Fair Isle Socks, this awesome hat, made some alpaca awesomeness for Devon (OMG Devon, I never took a picture of them!!!  Send pictures quick!!), working on my multi-colored mitts still (gosh, don't seem to have a pic of those either....).  Not that high-volume when I see it layed out like this, I guess.  But I feel good about it.


Grad school:  I've officially applied to all the programs that I am going to apply to.  That would be joint JD/MPH programs at Emory, Columbia, Minnesota, and Michigan and just law school at Yale, Stanford and Georgetown (gotta reach for the stars, right?).  I didn't bother turning in the UCLA application because it was too annoying (I'm ignoring the sneaking suspicion I may have destroyed a beautiful legal career in LA over paperwork issues).  Now I have 10-12 weeks of nightmares about my letters of rec not getting to schools in time before I hear back from schools.  Also, interviews at Georgetown Law (this week) and the Michigan School of Public Health (early February).  Not sure where I want to go, so it would be nice to know where I am accepted so I can go visit a few places.  With all the cold weather around here, I am beginning to think I should have chosen some warmer places...

That's what's up.  More pictures of things next time