What I Do While I Wind

Ever wonder what I do during the many hours of yarn skeining/reskeining that is a necessary part of handdyeing? Well, it changes. But usually it involves listening to something. Occasionally its music, but usually its something that keeps my brain a bit more active, a book "on tape" or a podcast. It just occurred to me that instead of just enjoying these podcasts and books in private, some of you might like to hear about it. So today I want to tell you about Escape Pod. I just discovered this pod cast, but so far I am really enjoying it. Escape Pod is a free podcast put out about once a week. Each week features a science fiction short story by assorted writers, read by different people. Some are better than others, of course, but there are already well over 100 episodes (I believe they are up to 136 so far) so skipping one or two isn't a problem. You have to be a sci fi fan to "get" it, of course, but its worth checking out if you are interested. If you like it, they accept donations, but otherwise its free.

Such Pretty Designs...

I just discovered a designer who I now love; Ysolda. She has a beautiful website and graceful, feminine designs. And I just can't resist this adorable elephant!

Must Resist...

I am going to be strong. I am going to resist casting on for my felted boots until after I've finished all my holiday knitting. So if you see my with light green wool in hand please gently remind me of this promise.

Yarn: Singularity in Wool (color: Mountain View) by The Unique Sheep
Pattern: from Felt Forward

Knit Picky Holiday Party

Christmas parties are so much fun. Its just great to see all the people I love together, laughing and enjoying themselves. And presents are always great fun, especially when stealing is involved! Last night was the Knit Picky holiday party and 30 of my favorite knitters gathered to eat dinner and engage in a "Dirty Santa" gift swap. Not to brag, but I ended up with some fantastic presents. I won a door prize drawing for a pair of GLASS knitting needles from Namaste. Yes, I said glass. They are huge (size 15) so maybe I can manage not to break them. The protective needle shell that they came in should help too. Then when it came time to choose presents I lucked out again and came home with a copy of the book "The Knitter's Bible of Knitted Accessories" Its got a lot of great patterns for small, quick projects that I can't wait to try out.

Today is good...really

Crushing headache and tangled yarn skeins and making it hard to look on the bright side. Or focus on the computer screen. But this is cute enough to make me smile anyway. Free pattern here.

On My Needles

Holiday Knitting. I said I wasn't going to do this. I said I was only going to do a teeny tiny bit of gift knitting this year and that I was going to get it done early. Things started off well. I finished a (single) sock, a teddy bear, a bath cloth set, a scarf. I was on a roll. Then a couple of hats fell into my lap. And another pair of socks (plus the second one for the pair I mentioned above). And of course I keep knitting along on my sweater, ignorant to the fact that Christmas is drawing ever closer. This weekend it hit me. Its December. And I am going on vacation the week before Christmas and can't depend on being able to do any serious knitting during that time. So that means I have TWO weeks to finish everything. So this weekend I finished up a little bag I was working on (I HAD to finish it-- I needed the needles!) and cast on for the first of the hats. After realizing that doing it on size 5 needles would take too long (and be a bit thin) I doubled the yarn (Super Wool) and switched to size 8s. Much better. The first one I'm making is in the colorway "Blue Jeans" (soon to be added to the website) and is for my mailman. At the shop we decided to make hats for all of our delivery guys- the two UPS men, the FedEx guy and the US mail man. We divided them up and I took on Tim, the mailman. Realizing that Tim is not the only mailman in my life, I decided to also make one for Stan, the mailman who comes to my house. I've been sending and receiving a LOT of packages for the Unique Sheep lately and he deserves a thank you. Plus hes been my mailman for almost ten years and I've never done anything special for him. The third hat on my list is going to be in the color "Evergreen" and is for another special man in my life who's name can't be named until after presents are opened on Christmas ;-). By the way, the pattern for these hats will be for sale on the website once I've written it up and had it tested. Its just your basic, ribbed toboggan. Warm, simple and perfect for a man or a woman.

Aside from the hats, Chris cast on for a pair of socks for himself, also using Super Wool. I think this is my new favorite yarn. Its just so practical and SOFT. There is nothing fancy about it, its just a good yarn. He requested the colorway "Traditions" and its working up beautifully but with a surprise-- its striping! I didn't mean for it to stripe, but the gauge hes getting over the number of stitches is adding up to perfect stripes. Hes actually knit more now than when I took this photo and the stripes are continuing.

And one last bit of knitting for this weekend was a swatch for that second pair of socks I mentioned. This pair will be for a man so I wanted something masculine, warm and washable! I had been wanting to try socks holding two strands of fingering weight yarn in different colors together, so I decided this was my chance. I am using Verve in Sinful and Spiced Apple. Held together I am getting 6sts per inch on size 4 needles, so they should knit up pretty quickly in a basic ribbed pattern. (sorry for the bad photo of the swatch, I'm still trying to figure out this new camera)

Other than this little bit of knitting, I spent most of the weekend setting up a new account on Ravelry just for the Unique Sheep. I uploaded zillions of photos of yarn and projects and tried to get as much information filled in as I could. There is still more to be done, but I got a good chunk taken care of. Next on my computer-to-do-list is updating the website and adding some new colors and photos...

I'll leave you with one last photo of me pretending to drive Chris' motorcycle. Really, I just ride on the back. But Saturday he let me sit on it in the parking lot and roll it back and forth (supposedly I was feeling for some sort of "zone"....)

Artisans Fair

Friday was the annual Holiday Artisans Fair at school. I have attended since it started 3 or 4 years ago and so once again I had a table. My yarn was a bit out of place at a holiday craft fair and I didn't expect to sell much, so I wasn't disappointed by low sales. I handed out a lot of cards both for The Unique Sheep and Knit Picky, though, so I consider it a success.




The real reason I attended, though, was the shopping! I love being able to support fellow artisans and can't resist their handmade products. I have a true weakness for hand thrown pottery and ended up buying 3 mugs for myself! Plus one or two other little treats that can't be posted about until after Christmas. And look at this great basket; its supposed to hold fruit or bread but as soon as I spotted it I knew it would be perfect to hold a WIP! As in past years I also snagged a couple of hand knit washcloths. One of the ladies at the school knits up cotton dishcloths throughout the year and has a table full for sale for $4 each come fair time. For $4 I'd rather buy them than knit them myself!