Dull Roar

The 7+ Tacky Sins of Pattern Photography

2012-01-27T17:18:00.020-05:00

Listen up, knit and crochet designers of Ravelry. I don't want to be the bitch here. I don't want to be all coming-down-on-you, telling you UR DOIN IT RONG, lecturing you about how good photography is really, really important to a knitting pattern.

...but I totally am going to.

'Cause when I browse through the pages of "recently added patterns" I've noticed a few disturbing trends. Ugly trends. Perfectly lovely designs being represented in the least flattering way possible. What a waste of your hard work and effort! Your project deserves much better than that.

So let's have a little talk. (But first up, full disclosure: All of the "don'ts" photos you see here were taken either by me or my husband. Some are not pattern photos, some, unfortunately, are- it's taken awhile for me to learn these lessons. Most of the "do" photos were taken by the obscenely talented Vivian Aubrey. She's the pickiest photographer I've ever met and as a result, her photos tend to look awesome.)

1. No Goddamn Cell Phones

Just because your cell phone HAS a camera does not mean it IS a camera. Look, I snap a ton of iPhone shots with the best of 'em, and I even post them here sometimes, which is sort of bad form. But when you need a really clear, high-quality photo to show off your goods? Don't do it.

And don't think you can just run it through friggin' Hipstamatic and make it go from crappy to artsy. It doesn't work like that. We see through that.

2. No Goddamn Flash

Unless you are a professionally trained photographer using professional equipment, your flash is never going to make anything look better. NEVER. Nobody has ever, in the history of ever, looked good in a photo taken with on-camera flash. You either get super-washed-out-with-no-detail:

Or you get Cap'n Shinyredface:

And either way, you're likely to get red-eye. (And just so you know, I actually had to go take those right now, for this post, because I hate flash so much that I didn't have any around. Something I can't say for the rest of these, unfortunately.)

3. If you're taking it yourself, use a tripod and a remote or timer. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Just because Stephen West can get away with the self-held-camera Myspace shot and make it look damn good doesn't mean anybody else can. And even he can't pull off the grungy-mirror-shot:

(Also, don't hold the camera at angles that make your chin look redonkulous.) If you don't have a tripod, you can also prop your camera up on a table with stacks of books and whatnot. But decent tripods can be had pretty cheaply, as can decent cameras, nowadays.

4. Watch your backgrounds

The purpose of a pattern photograph is to make your item look beautiful and to give the knitter vital information about the piece. Information you DON'T need includes: what my neighbor's house looks like, what kind of bush is growing on top of my head. And while the first one has my face in shadow (another no-no) the second one has wretched direct sunlight, which brings me to...

5. Watch Your Shadows!

You pretty much never want to shoot in direct sunlight or any other harsh directional light (unless you're after a specific effect and you know what you're doing, in which case you'll have already stopped reading this post.) It will wash out some details while plunging others into shadow, and nothing will look very good. It will usually make your models squint unappealingly, as well. On the other hand....

6. Don't Get Antsy and Try to Take Your Photos Indoors At Night

Even with a tripod and the ability to hold very still, indoor night shots just won't be that flattering most of the time. Addendum: Don't then go on to lose the hat, and therefore the ability to ever reshoot it without knitting it again. Sigh. Miss you, Maelstrom!

7. Think About How the Yarn Will Photograph Before You Knit

This one has taken me years to embrace. The sad fact is, some colors are very hard to capture well on camera, especially when you're trying to shoot details. It's one thing if you're working with a very skilled photographer- a good photog with good equipment can usually capture just about anything. But if you're closer to the amateur end of the spectrum, it's best to think before you cast on. Very dark colors will require a LOT of light in order to show off their detail, something I didn't account for here:

Meanwhile, in order to keep white knits from looking washed out, you may have to underexpose the photo so much that other things disappear into shadow:

And then there's the problem that many cameras have with bright, pure reds:

It seems to send their sensors into overload :-( In theory, pure green and pure blue can do this too, though it seems to happen less often. This yarn gave me a lot of trouble unless I photographed it with both a black and white object in the background to balance things out.

So do yourself a favor- if you're not sure how a given color will photograph, take a bunch of photos of the yarn in different settings, held next to your face, etc. before you start knitting with it.

BONUS. Don't do anything that looks like this:

There are exactly zero things that are ok about this picture. Sweet Guacamole.

How to do it right:

Let's have a look at some of Viv's lovely work, eh?

1. When in doubt, choose a nice neutral background in a complimentary color, and use a wide aperture so that it blurs out. Make sure your model is far enough away from the background for it to get good and blurry.

This wide-aperture trick is great for isolating detail or photographing smallish objects:

(THAT ONE'S NOT VIVIAN'S! She might kill me if I let you believe otherwise. One note- the piece of dog hair stuck to the balls is not exactly in good taste. Always be scanning for intrusive details. Vivian would've caught that.)

2. Get in nice and close to the details. Knitters want to see how things look on people, obviously, but they also want a good hard look at the minutia.

3. Look for sunlight that has been bounced around a bit- reflected off a wall, perhaps. Shady photos work too but tend to be very cool feeling. If you can get that ideal, reflected sunlight, you'll get lovely colors. In this case, we were under a fairly high bridge. (You can get a good look at the location a ways down this page- look for the car.) The light hitting me was bouncing off the legs of the bridge, the nearby houses, the ground, etc.

Of course, color correction helps too. My camera seems to tend towards cool tones while Vivian's always seem to come out warm and lovely (jealous.)

Now that I've said my extremely wordy piece... if anyone else has any other tips to add, please feel free!

And the results are in!

2012-01-23T09:51:00.007-05:00

........sort of. Drum roll, please!

click to embiggen

Our little Pog:

Is a Corgi - Schnauzer with (it goes on to say) a healthy dose of Argentine Dogo, Chihuahua, and Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Hmmm.

Or, maaaaybe, as one guess-er suggested, she is at least primarily a Patterdale Terrier (three picture links, there) - a breed that isn't AKC recognized and therefore isn't tested for by Wisdom Panel. Now, she's about ten pounds too big... but she definitely has some of their unique breed traits and since the breed isn't really held to any AKC standards, it's possible that she's simply poorly bred :-P Or, indeed, she could be a mix with a bigger dog. Maybe even a Schnauzer and an Argentine Dogo, in there. I am giving her the title of "Patterdalesque Terrier."

(Of course, the test doesn't test for "horse" and "bat" either, so horsebat isn't out of the running.)

Anyway, given this outcome, I'd like to offer two prizes: One to user Damaged Goods who first introduced me to the Patterdale, and one randomly selected guess-er, since nobody said anything like "Schnauzer Corgi" because clearly none of you are blind. And that random guesser is...Connie! Damaged Goods- please send me an email at keepittoadullroar (at) gmail (dot) com to collect your prize! Connie, I'll email ya ;-)

Thanks for playing my super silly game, everyone!

Patterdalesque Terriers enjoy yoga. Or should I say....doga.

Studio Tour!

2012-01-11T19:20:00.002-05:00

I feel silly doing this, but I love seeing other people's studio spaces and how they organize them... so I thought I'd return the favor. Complete with extremely nauseating camerawork!

(Sorry, it's an iPhone, what d'ya expect? I still need to buy a new charger for my real video camera. Apparently they are kind of expensive. Who knew?)

Guess that Pog!

2011-12-30T10:07:00.006-05:00

As promised, a little game!

As you might know, we adopted some dogs a little over a year ago. One of them, Pog, is a major mystery mutt.

Exhibit A:

For Christmas, I asked for this:

It's a DNA test that will, theoretically, tell us what dogs make up Pog's specific brand of mutt. We have our own theories, but we thought it'd be fun to let people guess! Y'know, like those pools they do with babies, only....not.

The prize:

Some nommy Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, plus whatever other goodies I feel like tossing in when I'm mailing it.

So here's how it works: In the comments, tell us which dogs you think make up the Pog. You can be as specific as you want ("50% Horse, 50% Bat" or "Mostly Gargoyle with a little bit of Gremlin.") The answer that is most accurate (and comes first in the case of a tie) gets the prize. Wisdom Panel is sort of notorious for coming back with totally left-field answers that make no sense, so if nobody gets it, I'll just draw randomly. Also good to know: Wisdom Panel doesn't have "Pit Bull", but they do have stuff like "Staffordshire Terrier" and "American Bulldog" which is what Pits were made out of back in the day. (Here's the full breed list if you want to get technical. )

Pog facts:

- 31 lbs

- Black outer coat with a tan undercoat and white blob on chest, one toe.

- 'bout knee high, or "just tall enough to whack you in the balls with her front feet."

- Very fast, smart, and stubborn. Slightly neurotic.

- Makes a wide variety of grumbles, yodels, and trills

- Underbite

- Tail curls upwards slightly

- Slightly tucked up belly

- Short hair, but not smooth. Mohawk on the spine that raises when she's angry/excited.

Reference pictures:

And this is what she sounds like being grumpy.

Good luck! I popped the tests in the mail today and we'll keep the contest going til I get the results :-)

2011

2011-12-29T09:50:00.003-05:00

Time for the yearly retrospective mosaic. Not too shabby. I cheated a little and included the CF4L hat to make it an even twenty, even though I only put up the charts for that.

I'd say "I can't believe it's almost 2012!" but really I've been accidentally writing "2012" instead of "2011" all year, so it ought to be an easy adjustment. Resolution-wise, I decided to set myself up for success this year:

1. Knit

2. Pet at least one dog on a daily basis

3. Do not go into space

DO I HAVE WHAT IT TAKES??

Anyway, a happy new year to all!

Let's play catch-up!

2011-12-27T15:38:00.006-05:00

I have been very bad bad bad about updating the last few months- I'm tempted to blame my computer, which keeps refusing to work very well (hopefully I'll have a replacement pretty soon.) But it's probably more my own fault.

So anyway, let's see, what's been happening...

1. A small thing, but I meant to show it off...splurged on a sweet new Namaste bag (the mini-messenger.) I saw these at TNNA and kinda fell in love. I've had it on order at Twisted since summer. Hooray!

2. I recently took over the Project Coordinator position at Malabrigo! You guys may know Hannah- she was the gal handling this stuff before, but recently moved on to a swanky new gig, and I'm pleased as punch to be taking over some of her duties. It will give me a chance to work with all sorts of wonderful designers and flex some creative muscles - very exciting! All from the comfort of my pjs. Which, today, are Travis's new Christmas pjs, which he hasn't even gotten to wear yet. They are cozy.

3. I did a craft fair! Just a little local gig (I don't make much stuff to sell, in general, so once a year or less is just about right for me) but it was a lot of fun and helped me buy quite a few Christmas presents, haha. Here's Travis manning the table (he made and sold some seriously good toffee, remind me to post the recipe next time he makes it):

4. And of course, Christmas time! Probably my favorite time. Lots of friends and family in town, lots of tasty food and time off and sparkly things and PRESENTS. I only wish this crazy snow we're getting today had turned up a few days ago. Geez.

Our little tabletop tree. The better for avoiding dog-tastrophe.

My favorite ornament- a unicorn I picked out when I was very wee.

A super crazyjellyfishrainbowglowtank from my niece & nephew (endlessly entertaining.)

Travis and I got each other shoes, quite unbeknownst to each other. His have Batman, mine have warmth.

Cross-stitch iphone case! I'm so excited! I have no idea what to stitch on it, though. I'm thinking something sort of bright and Scandinavian-inspired.

Tattoo money for Travis!

BASTARDINO!!!!!!! He's a weird Toki-Doki art-toy. I LOVE HIM.

It's difficult to get a dog to model earmuffs. FYI.

Shiny-baby-Christmas Le Creusets. I'm hoping to rope Travis into making me some souffles and mini cheesecakes.

The awesomest thing ever. It is huge, and plastic, and it is now on our wall.

Check out how excited my sister is (in the corner):

There's another present to show you but I think we're going to make a little game out of it. A game with prizes. The best kind of game. Mwahaha!!!! So we'll get to that later. Hope you're all having wonderful holidays, whichever ones you celebrate :-)

Bauble Cowl

2011-12-07T15:12:00.003-05:00

Malabrigo + pompoms + reversible + really, really fast to make =

It just makes you want to hug a weird pillar, what can I say.

The good news is, you can probably whip out at least two before the holidays! (If you're aiming for Hannukah you'll have to work a little bit faster, but I believe in you.) Last minute gift knitters, rejoice!

See it on Rav

or...

Mandelbrot + Fractal Knitting

2011-12-07T14:27:00.003-05:00

Yay! The new Knitty Winter bis issue is out, and in it is an article I wrote on Fractal Spinning, and an accompanying hat pattern, Mandelbrot.

(It even made the Knittyspin front page! Ooooh!)

You may remember my previous experiment with fractals- I figured out why that one didn't work. The key is to pick something with nice, loooooong color segments. If they're not long enough, it won't be a noticable difference.

You can really see the striping on the brim of the Mandelbrot:

...and in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like when I try to walk two dogs:

I wonder where our blue leash went...hmmm....

Doggerversary

2011-12-04T10:40:00.002-05:00

I hope, despite my crappy posting history of late, you'll permit me a gratuitous dog post.

'Cause exactly 1 year ago today, we brought these monsters into our lives:

Back then, they were a bit scruffier. Rupert was definitely skinnier (he may have overcompensated, just a little.) I'm not sure they were quite so good at using pillows like humans. Pog barfed in the car on the ride up, and ran around in circles whining for three days. Rupert snarled at me when I tried to stop him from licking his neuter stitches (they were infected- turns out the shelter didn't exactly take him to the best vet around. He had to have them totally redone a few days later, poor chap.) Things haven't been boring since. No more snarling, thankfully. Plenty more barfing and whining. Mostly from Pog.

Just for kicks, I uploaded a few videos from my phone:

(She did that for at least an hour, no joke. I eventually had to pop them while she was outside so she'd let it go.)

...and this is the abuse we wake up to everyday. Usually there's more hitting-faces-with-claws.

Alright, enough of that. We're off to DUCF! I promise I'll get a real post up soon- I've got plenty of things in the pipeline but my studio is just so darn cold, I haven't edited any pictures or formatted any patterns in a month. Stupid winter.

Muhmuhmuhmyyyy Sharona!

2011-11-26T11:05:00.005-05:00

Hooray! My Sharona cowl has finally shown it's face :-)

You can find it in here: Interweave Knits Accessories 2011

I thought it was going to be in Knitscene Accessories, but I guess I was confused and that doesn't exist, haha. But yay! Interweave!! So psyched. I've been saving some Tosh and Habu to remake this later, I should get on that, now that I can show it off.

A few crappy pictures I snapped before I mailed it off (back in Portland! Whoa!)

I look ridiculous in this one but you can see the stitching well:

We're in The Knot: Michigan!

2011-11-11T12:25:00.003-05:00

Some of you probably saw this on twitter, but hey, it's kind of exciting:

Our wedding was featured (briefly, which is funny cause they sent me a huuuge questionnaire, haha) in Michigan's edition of the Knot (Spring/Summer 2012, if you're wondering. I'm not sure if it's actually on newsstands yet.) I don't know if it will go up on the website under real weddings or not... maybe :-)

Fiberstory.tv Interview

2011-11-11T12:24:00.002-05:00

Want to hear me talk (and talk...and talk... and maybe nervously giggle a lot) about designing? And maybe win a free pattern?

Clicky Clicky Talky Talky

Fun with Spam (NSFW!)

2011-11-03T11:29:00.001-04:00

Blogger is pretty good at filtering these out, but I have to say- the spammers, they are getting creative. Thought I'd share a few (with the obvious plugs removed, haha.)

"i hope this is ok for my first post , i found www.dull-roar.com by chance and think its the right site to ask this question, i was wondering if any one on here has any good information on tin sheds, i was thinking of building from scratch but i cant find any info or construction drawings on one,it needs to be around 40ft x 45 ft with a large door at the front, there was a guy who posted here a few weeks back who said he knew of a computer softwear program to design them if hes still about please get in touch or if any one can help me please reply as i have tried googling it but seem to get loads of rubbish, i would also appreciate some input with framing materials i have been recomended to check these out (link removed) as i didnt want to use timber for the frame as it will rot in time regards neil"

"The question is: how are you going to do. It is important to to get a niche market that you are eager to put it up for sale their products." (Thanks for the advice, spam dude.)

"What I wouldnt give to have a debate with you about this. You just say so many things that arrive from nowhere that Im fairly certain Id have a fair shot. Your blog is wonderful visually, I mean people wont be bored. But others who can see past the videos and the layout wont be so impressed together with your generic understanding of this subject." (On a pattern release post. Yes, let's debate this hat.)

"Individuals are yours alright! . We at the very least should get these individuals stealing photos to begin running a blog! They almost certainly just did a picture lookup and grabbed them. They seem great although!" (that one didn't even have a link??)

And this one is fairly long, but it's poetry:

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But the prize for total non-sequiter rambling goes to:

"Rhona Mitra nude Hello. What a beautiful day, isn't it? Well, of course that depends on where you live. For example in Africa it is way too hot and in America is pretty fine right now. What can I say, it is summer and a lot of people are seating at home this time because they are either on vocation or unemployed. By the way, this is a perfect time to get yourself a job. But don't forget about having a rest as well, especially if you are a high school student or a college man. Anyway, what I was going to say to you is that this website where you at right now is about Rhona Mitra nude pictures. I love her a lot and that's why I have decided to dedicate this whole place to one person. Below, you can expect to see her amazing pics and even some videos from movies. Have fun and let me entertain you. And right now I want to talk about couple of movies where you will find Rhona Mitra naked scenes as well as watch her having sex. The first film is called Life of David Gale so let's talk about it. First of all, I have to say that this movie is kind of tragic and if you cry even why you watch soap operas then I don't know what will happen to you after this one. This is about one teacher that was convicted for something he didn't do. But I am here not for talking about the plot and stuff like that. This is no movies review although it kind of looks like that. Anyway, there is a very nice sex scene of her and some guy. He is tapping her ass from behind and then she hold on a sink while that fellow is working in a doggy style. Man, I would give anything to be on his place. I know he didn't have sex with her because that is only a movie but still, you know. Just holding her nice ass and see her red hairs on her back is so damn nice that I think it is time to go and masturbate. But this is not going to happen until I finish this post. By the way, this is not referring to you because you can stop in any second you want and do that. The other movie that I was fond of to watch is called Hollow Man with the most gorgeous and amazing sex scene ever. Here, you will see some nice shots of Rhona Mitra nude in shower and then how she is coming out of it and puts her bathrobe on. But despite she is in her clothes right there, you still can see her boobs and nipples. Next thing you know that invisible guy comes and she screams pretty hard so that when I first saw this scene, I was quite excited at that moment. Anyway, don't miss that scene because only here you will see her naked body and all parts that you wanted to see one day. I think I am in loved with that woman because I have never had such strong feeling to a person that doesn't know about my existence. I know she is a bit older than me as her age is 33 and I am 22. Wait a minute… she is 33? Oh man, how the hell is that possible? To be honest I thought this woman is something between 25 and 27 but clearly I was wrong. What a nice chick, she looks so young. It probably demands a lot of work to be that sexy and cheat on your age like her. If you want the same for yourself then you should probably make her as your role model and do everything that she does. The only thing you will have to know is what she is doing to be that pretty and young. The rest will come eventually. You can start that by watching those Rhona Mitra nude pictures and see what it is like to have a perfect body like that one. Man, I could keep writing all day long about this woman but that still wouldn't be enough for describing how much I love her. You know what they say, love cannot be written in words. You have probably checked all those possible pics I have offered you today, right? But if you haven't that don't get worried as you still have some time. May I suggest you something? It is just if you really want to have some fun, don't watch all pics at the time. Save something for tomorrow because new day will bring some new demands. Always think about tomorrow. See you."

"While that fellow is working in a doggy style." Poetry, man. Pure poetry. Always think about tomorrow, guys.

Peek & Space Case now available!

2011-11-01T11:40:00.004-04:00

Yaaaay, I can finally send my VKL patterns off into the wild!

First we've got Peek:

Yarn is Lobster Pot Handdyed Cashmere in Bass River Beach.

Check it out on Rav here, or

Aaaand Space Case!

This one is knit in Knit Collage Rolling Stone, in Boho Dance and Shooting Star. Definitely some unique yarn, hehe.

On Ravelry here.

The Elusive Gentleman

2011-10-24T12:53:00.003-04:00

Just a little something to help you blend in. Sort of.

You could hide amongst the flowers:

or perhaps amongst the University of Michigan Quidditch team:

or just fade into the crowd:

You guys, you have 7 days until Halloween. Which is just about plenty of time to make this hat and scrounge up a striped shirt (unlike us- we're lazy) and, coincidentally, the same amount of time that this pattern will be available abso-stinkin-lutely free! (After that, well, I'm not positive about phase 2 yet.)

Nab yours fast, over here on Ravelry!

(Or, skip the formalities and download now)

Hint hint

2011-10-23T11:16:00.001-04:00

Ten points if you can spot tomorrow's pattern:

Chiiiicago, where the wind goes sweepin' cross the plains!

2011-10-15T11:32:00.004-04:00

(I'm intolerable on road trips- I insist on singing that song about every place we drive through. Anyway...)

The husband (whoa!) and I took a whirlwind trip to Chicago a few days ago- drove in one day, spent one night, drove out the next. Not enough time to see everyone/do everything we wanted to do, but fun nonetheless. Of course, I only brought my crappy iphone camera.

First stop was the aquarium to see the jellies. Crazy expensive... but we had to, because that's where (ish) we got engaged. It's a long story, involving there being NO JELLIES. But now, so many jellies!

These guys are the best- I think they're called "Blue Blubber". Crappy picture because they were in one of those stupid convex tanks.

And of course, my favorite things ever:

Then we wandered around Michigan Ave a little, since it was by our hotel:

Steve Jobs memorial post-it window at the Apple Store

Lego store! Let's get a closer look...

No, closer...

Lego men!

And my lego man:

There was lots of food and some friends in there somewhere, but of course I didn't take pictures of those parts. Derp. But no trip would be complete without stops at Loopy Yarns (felldowngoboom) and Nina:

For the interested, left to right we've got: Tosh Vintage in Fig, Tosh Vintage in Candlewick, Malabrigo Worsted in Frank Ochre, Malabrigo Silky Merino in Manzanilla Olive (on sale!), and Tosh Dk in Terrarium. It's been so long since I got to look at Madelinetosh in person, it's dangerous.

In other news, my hair is dark teal now, and very hard to photograph accurately.

Rimple Pattern Available

2011-10-08T16:01:00.003-04:00

Pattern! Hat! Welted!

Sorry, I'm borderline incoherent today, I ate way too many of these. But you get the idea- the third welted hat pattern is out! It's name is Rimple, and it wants to be your friend. Like Eudora, it's made with scrumptious Tosh Vintage, with a little accent of Happy Fuzzy Yarn (what a name, eh? Kinda sums it all up.)

You can get some more info over down yon Ravelry, ici.
Or, if my oh-so-eloquent sales pitch has swayed you:

Klingy Girl

2011-10-02T10:25:00.005-04:00

The second welted hat pattern has landed! And it's a strange one. But in a good way.

Klingy Girl (so named because it reminds me of wrinkly Klingon foreheads) has two differently-scaled welted sections, either of which can be worn to the front, back, or side, making it effectively 3 hats in one. The welts force the hat into a lovely slouch with very little effort on your part. It's edged with a row of contrasting single crochet. Shown here in Malabrigo Worsted Chapel Stone, edged with Paris Night (or, um, possibly Tortuga. It was a scrap, it's hard to tell!)

Sorry for all the pictures, it's hard to show all the angles, haha.

Anywho, you can find Klingy Girl on Ravelry
or

(pssst! There's a video tutorial on the welt stitch here. Might come in handy!)

I done got Sexy-fied!

2011-09-29T20:53:00.003-04:00

Sarah Wilson (the quite-adequately-aka'd "Sexy Knitter") just posted a Get-to-Know-Me interview over on her blog, this-a-way! There's a giveaway and a sale, to sweeten the deal ;-) And if you haven't seen her stuff before, you oughta check it out- Sarah is handsdown the most fashionable gal in the biz (and has damn great hair. Not that I'm jealous, or anything.)

(...maybe a little.)

Crafty As Fuck

2011-09-26T18:45:00.005-04:00

So guys, in the end I decided I did want to do a separate blog for my less-personal, less-knitting-related pursuits. I hope those of you in the "Just put it all here!" camp will forgive me. I just really like the layout, ok? ;-)

As you may have gathered from the title, this blog may include no-no words and other such atrocities. If you don't care for those things, you've probably already stopped reading THIS blog... but still. Fair warning. I don't want to hear any whining about it, mom. But mostly, it's just a craft blog.

<3 Craft on, mothafuckas!

VKL Pattern Preview

2011-09-25T11:55:00.004-04:00

I figure since they're now released at Vogue Knitting Live, I can show you the sooper-sekrit-hats-of-mystery. Knitculture will have them exclusively for a few weeks, then they'll be set free into the wild!

First up, in Lobster Pot Cashmere (mmm) is Peek:

Shaped with shortrows to radiate out from around the i-cord edged keyhole, which can be worn to the side or back (or, you know, if you LIKE it in the front....) A very satisfying amount of slouch.

The second one I call "Space Case", and I will be the first to admit it's kinda silly. But I totally love it anyway. I met the KnitCollage folks at TNNA and they are super sweet, and their yarns are just gorgeous- so when KnitCulture offered me a chance to try them out I went for it.

It reminds me of a space helmet from a 60's B movie about alien babes from the planet Alaska. Or... something.

I'm a professional model, btw. No big deal.

VKL Designer Profile

2011-09-20T14:02:00.004-04:00

Hey look, there's a neato little feature about me on the KnitCulture blog!

I (and a handful of other designers) am doing a few exclusive pattern releases at Vogue Knitting Live through KnitCulture, so if you're one of the lucky folks who gets to go, keep an eye out for them in the KC booth! (They'll be available to the world at large shortly thereafter.)

They might look something like these yarns....

Odd Bonnet

2011-09-05T10:28:00.004-04:00

Happy third day of weekend, most Americans! I hope you are enjoying your beer and grilled meat products. We don't have a grill, so I'll just eat a popsicle.

Anyway!

Odd Bonnet!!

If I look a little bit like I want to cry in these pictures, it's because it was one of those bright-white-light days and I couldn't keep my eyes open, haha.

This is a strange yet fairly adorable little hat, knit front to back, flat to round, with a little short-row shaping for maximum head-huggage. It's shown in Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Kale, which is the one color I am guaranteed to pick up and be all "Oooh what's this one?!?" every time I look at Tosh, anywhere. It is a good color. Also, kale is good for you. So I'm told. I only eat it covered in salt and butter, which I think negates the goodness.

Anyway, hat!

On Ravelry here
or if you're so inclined:

Aww crap, it's that time of year again

2011-09-03T09:43:00.002-04:00

The time when all wise knitters start cranking out holiday gifts, because it always takes longer than you think it will. In the interest of giving you a headstart, here's a round-up of patterns (both mine and not-mine) that I think would make pretty bitchin' (and reasonably fast) gifts:

For Mom

Fluency Gloves by Sivia Harding

Everything Sivia does is absolutely filthy with elegance and class. She is like the Greek goddess of lace and beads, except I'm pretty sure she's not Greek. Her shawls are works of art but I'm betting you don't have time for one of those, so these gloves are a nice alternative.

Coleus by Kristen Kapur

You think you have time for a little lace? Well okay then. Here's a nice one.

Daisy Wrist Pincushion by Greetje van Tuil-Klavers

Everyone's mom sews, right? Well, not mine, but if she did, I'd make this, because it's adorable.

Falling Leaves Scarf Necklace by Rosemary (Romi) Hill

Oooh knitted jewelry! Now we're pulling out the big guns. If this doesn't scream "Classy lady who shops at Coldwater Creek" then I don't know what does.

For the Menfolk

Cuboid by Sarah Wilson

Every good man needs a dopp kit to hide his manly accoutrements in.

Gridlock by Vivian Aubrey

Actually, for the whole fam-damily. Did your mom used to say "fam-damily" a lot? I think mine did. Weird. Anyway, this is a really cool hat. And better yet, when I swiped this photo from Vivian to post, I learned that the file had been entitled something like "Money-2." As in "Alright! This one's totally the money shot!" I guess. I love you Vivian!

Pavement by Jared Flood

It's hard to talk about men's knits without bringing up Brooklyn Tweed (and Stephen West, but he's next.) And for good reason. Jared is the absolute champ when it comes to timeless knits that work well for anybody, photographed so beautifully it makes you want to puke, especially when you think about the inadequate guttercrust you've been passing off as photography. Conclusion: this is a nice scarf.

Chadwick by Stephen West

Ain't nobody works a manshawl (or a Myspace-shot) like Stephen. He practically invented the genre, smacked everyone else's genres in the face with it, and scrubbed his floors with their delicious, salty tears. I find this scarf particularly awesome, but there are plenty to choose from, if your guy is the type to rock a manshawl. There's even one that looks like a fuckin' hawk crashed into your neck, it's wild, man.

For the Kiddies

Nyan Cat Scarf by Kelley Freeman

Do you crochet? Are your kids totally into goofy internet memes? Perfect.

Howlcat
Knits up quick and does magic tricks!

Hazel the Humpback Whale by Bec Brittain

If you love your child, you will make them this whale. Also, if you love me, you will make me this whale. It is one of the awesomest things to ever come out of yarn.

Boys Can Wear Pink by Kate Oates

For when you're feeling business-casual-formal-cozy. Or... something. Oh shush, just make it, I think it's hilarious. For the record, though, boys can wear pink, but only if they're super stylish. Don't you want your kid to grow up super stylish? I thought so. Start him off right.

For your Sisters/Girlfriends

French Press Slippers by Melynda Bernardi

I made these for my sister a year or two ago and she wore them until they fell apart, and then called to demand more. We'll just see.

Oh Deer! by Natalie Selles

These totally crack my shit up. You're a deer!

Heartbreaker

The brioche knits up surprisingly quickly, and gives an overall impression of lushness (particularly in a nice yarn.)

Red Velvet Cupcakes by Star Athena

I had a pair of these made for me awhile ago because I was too ~~lazy~~ busy to make them myself- they are like an instant "I feel pretty" tonic.

For your Pets

Judd's Plush Pet Blankie by Jen E. Johnson

My dog would destroy this immediately, but if you don't have a "this is why we can't have nice things" personified (dogsonified?) as a pet, it's pretty adorable.

Frog Costume for Pet by Lindsay Smith

Let's get one thing straight right off. Your cat does not want a frog costume. But you know what? Your cat already thinks you're an asshole, so you might as well go for it.

Side Button Greyhound Sweater by Terri Lea Royea

It's totally ok to knit for greyhounds, because they actually get cold, and because they're so big and regal that it won't make you look like a total nutjob the way you do when you stick a sweater on your maltese. (But let's face it, if you have a doofy little dog, you already look a little crazy, so you might as well dress it up and put it in a purse. And I say this lovingly, as someone who is totally weird about her two dogs, so please, no angry emails about how dignified your malti-poo or cocker-shihtz or poo-shitz or whatever is. They're not, and you know it. But it's ok, they serve other functions.)

My Pimp Paw is Strong by Stacey Mar

You remember what I said about cats in costumes, right? Ok, good. But seriously, look at this. This cat has more pimp in it's dewclaw than you'll ever have in your whole body. Cats do have dewclaws, right? I'm not making that up? I don't know, I have dogs.

(Also, PSA: Don't leave your cat hanging around with strings around it's neck, they are not smart enough to cope with that. And at this point, offing themselves is going to sound pretty good. Or possibly garroting you.)

Another day we'll have to talk about how "it's ok to not knit everything" and "only knit for people who will appreciate it and not lose everything or be all hypercritical and dick-y." But for now I'll trust you to decide whether or not Fido or cranky Aunt Mildred is knitworthy. Seriously, though, START IN SEPTEMBER, it will make your life better.

Guess...

2011-09-03T06:31:00.000-04:00

...who went to the fair and got piggy snot on her hand but it was totally worth it because !!PIGGY!! ?

(That wouldn't all fit in the title bar. But the answer is me.)

I would let this little piggy get snot on my hands any day. As long as he keeps wiggling that weird little flat nose back and forth and going "grrrntgrrnt."

I mean look at this butt:

It's almost enough to make me write off bacon. Almost.

Other things at the fair that are cute:

Baby wool tree

Baby Squeeeeeeeeee!s

Baby Cashmeres (kinda)

A chicken who got left in the dryer without a static sheet.

The absolute handsomest bunny I've ever seen.

Vincent VanGoat (not kidding.)

Some sort of... STD + burn victim + tumor + thanksgiving.

I would not let this creature snot on me, as her nose is not as cute as the piggy's. But check out the tongue:

Like a giraffe or something.

Of course there were other things at the fair, like fried food and noise, but I didn't really partake (we were there too early for the fried oreo booth to be open, sadly.) I always sort of think about entering some yarn or knitting or something into the judging, but then I remember that first prize is like four bucks, and that's not enough to motivate me off my ass, so instead I just go look at the winners and reassure Travis that I could TOTALLY beat that, you know, if I WANTED to...

Polaris now available!!

2011-09-02T13:03:00.003-04:00

The three months are up and now I can make Polaris available to the public! Hooray!

This is a nifty, very wearable hat- another take on the star motif from Hollywood Boulevard. I love, love, loove this yarn- Malabrigo Rios in "Playa". When the pattern was released as part of Twisted's Single Skein Club, and they did it in Cumparsita which was also pretty gorgeous.

See it on Ravelry

Speedline!

2011-08-24T11:13:00.007-04:00

Holy poop, it's pattern time!!

(I'm a maaaawwwdel, you know what I mean, and I do my little turn on the catwalk....)

Speedline! You know, like those whooshy lines they draw in comics that mean "Hey, you! I'm going fast! You don't need to watch tv for motion and excitement! I got your motion and excitement right here!" (Is that even what those are called?)

I don't really know why, it just makes me feel whooshy.

Gray: Malabrigo Silky Merino, Smoke, 3 skeins
Yellow: Malabrigo Lace, Frank Ochre, 1 skein
Needles: US size 7

Speedline is knit from the bottom up, so each row gets shorter (though let's not kid ourselves, they are long rows- but there's relatively few of them!) It uses neato techniques like this one and maybe also this one, if you choose to use lace for the contrast stripes like I did. Though I'll be honest- it'd be easier to just use another color of Silky Merino, but I wanted Frank Ochre, haha.

Looks pretty good on cranky farmers who are tired of taking your picture all the time!

You can find Speedline on Ravelry, or:

Video Tutorial- Triple-stranding-as-you-go!

2011-08-23T15:34:00.005-04:00

One more for the upcoming pattern ;-) This is a great way to turn a lightweight yarn into a heavier weight one, without winding a bunch of strands up together or using multiple balls.

Sorry if I sound less enthused than usual (yes, Alex, because you're usually downright bubbly on camera.) Something in my studio has decided to give off a wretched perfumey aroma that is making my sinuses explode (I think it's one of the built-in drawers that I organized yesterday- must've been used to store colognes or had potpourri in it or something. Seriously, wtf is with potpourri? It never smells good.) Ugh ugh! But the good news is that the pattern should be ready today or tomorrow ;-) If my brain doesn't melt out of my nose first.

Survey says...

2011-08-23T10:17:00.005-04:00

So the winners have been drawn for the survey, and contacted by email (congrats!) But what did we learn from this experience?

- You guys are fast!

- You are primarily between the ages of 20 and 40, distributed fairly evenly.

- Most of you don't have children, though a goodly number do.

- Lots of students, homemakers, and knitting/crafting professionals

We dress like students, we dress like housewives...

- You guys read a lot of really cool blogs, which I intend to peruse fully (as if my Google Reader needed more stuff on it.)

- Discovery of the century: 100% of you are interested in knitting!

- 16.2% of you describe your aesthetic as "robots", and at least one person describes theirs as "Unicorns."

The jury was sort of out as to whether or not the expanding topic base would be enjoyed- pretty evenly split between people who would be cool with it and people who would prefer it stayed craft or knitting oriented. So... I'll have to have a think. I'm not going to lie, I really like the layout I did for the potential other blog, so that is weighing in, haha.

Thank you, everyone who participated!!

Video Tutorial: Two Color Long-tail Cast On

2011-08-21T12:42:00.001-04:00

Yep!

You'll see why soon ;-)

Help me blog better!

2011-08-20T17:08:00.004-04:00

EDIT: The contest is now closed! You're welcome to take the survey if you want but the prizes have been assigned :-)

Hello friends! I have a teensy request for you.

Could you perhaps find it in your heart to take this relatively short survey?

I am trying to figure out where to go, blog-wise- I'm considering starting another one to cover more general craftiness, but I could also expand this one. I also just want to get to know you guys a little better so I can make my posts more interesting for you :-)

To sweeten the pot, since I know surveys are boring as heck, I will be randomly selecting one respondent to receive these two balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed (seriously nice stuff! Most tweeds are scratchy, but not this- it's got silk and cashmere!) and a Dull Roar pattern of their choice.

To be eligible for the drawing, you do need to leave your email address in the survey, but I promise I won't sign you up for my mailing list or anything shady like that- it's just to pick a winner. (Though if you want to sign up for the mailing list... there's a box in the sidebar ---> )

Thank you all so much! If you have any other comments or suggestions, please feel free to put them in the comments section- I was limited to 10 questions for the survey so I know I didn't cover everything in detail.

A Hat for Eudora

2011-08-19T15:17:00.003-04:00

....Eudora Welty, that is. 'Cause it's got welts. Man, I gotta stop naming things with puns.

This hat has a seamless, contrast hem, several welt stitch sections (also called "tuck stitch"), and staggered decreases. It's knit in deeelicious Madelinetosh Vintage (color "Tern") with Malabrigo Rios in Lettuce on the hem. If you didn't catch them before, there are some videos demonstrating the welt and hem techniques here: Video Tutorials: Seamless Hem and Welt Stitch

It is the first in a series exploring welts, alternative decrease schemes, and peeks of contrasting colors. The rest will follow shortly ;-)

Find it on Ravelry here

or:

Video Tutorials: Seamless Hem and Welt Stitch

2011-08-11T20:55:00.006-04:00

So I made these two tutorials to go along with a pattern that I've got in testing at the moment (should be out soon!) But of course they can be applied to other projects as well.

(Sneak peek of the project in the videos ;-) )

Hooray!

On a related note: I've received the sad news that a pattern extremely similar to the hat you see in those videos was released a few days ago. This sort of thing is a nightmare for designers- we don't know if it's a coincidence or not, we CAN'T know, and indeed even if we did know, there would be nothing we could do about it. But I did want you guys to know that this pattern has been in the pipeline for months- photos of the finished hat were submitted to a shop-hop that was looking for a "signature design" several months ago, and the call for testers went up July 31st (which is also when I made the videos.) I have, perhaps, been unwise to be so public about my designs-in-progress, and I think I'll probably have to change the way I go through this process. Coincidences happen all the time, but at least if you've kept the project under wraps, you'll know that that's what it is. I like doing sneak peeks, and would be sad not to, but it's worse to end up releasing a pattern that's already been released by someone else while you were finishing up.

My biggest concern is that people might mistakenly believe that I am copying the other designer, which would be absolutely awful. So, I just wanted you to know :-)

Free Pattern- Worry Hat

2011-08-10T18:53:00.005-04:00

So, I'm kind of a webcomic nerd. (It's funny, since I barely ever read REAL comics, but there you have it.) I've been a long time fan of Questionable Content. So as soon as the Worry Hat made an appearance, I knew I was going to need to knit one, one of these days. And I finally did!!

For giggles, I wrote up the pattern for other QC fans. Please note that this pattern has not been professionally tech edited or test knit (unlike my srs-biznus for-sale patterns) so it's possible it's not perfect- let me know if you have any trouble and I'll fix it right up :-)

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in 17025 (light blue), two skeins, and 17002 (white), one skein
Needles: US size 8, 16" circular needle and DPNs
Gauge: 17 stitches and 26 rows in 4"
Tools: stitch marker, darning needle, pom pom maker
Skills: knitting in the round, decreasing, picking up stitches

Co 88 stitches, place marker, join in the round
Work 1 round 1x1 rib (k1, p1 all the way around)
Work in stockinette (knit all stitches) until the piece is 5 inches long (or slightly longer if you want it slouchier)

Decreases:
1. (k9, k2tog) repeat around
2 and all even rows up to 12. k all
3. (k8, k2tog) repeat around
5. (k7, k2tog) repeat around
7. (k6, k2tog) repeat around
9. (k5, k2tog) repeat around
11. (k4, k2tog) repeat around
13. (k3, k2tog) repeat around
14. (k2, k2tog) repeat around
15. (k1, k2tog) repeat around
16. k2tog around

Cut yarn and draw through remaining stitches on needle. Pull tight and weave in ends.

Earflaps:
(By the way: I chose to do these as afterthought earflaps in order to maintain the seam line that you see in the original comic. There are more seamless ways to do earflaps. And yes, the plain stockinette does curl- though with some heat, you can "kill" the microfiber content in the Cashmerino, which will help flatten it out. In the picture, I've just wet blocked. In order to do an earflap that wouldn't curl, I would've had to make it look less true to the original, or make it double-thick and very heavy, so I didn't. Feel free to improvise if you'd prefer a less curly flap!)

Put the hat on your head with the join in the back and figure out about where you want the first ear flap (hint: over your ear.) Take the hat off. Pick up 16 stitches in the earflap area. Work in stockinette for 23 rows (note that you're now working flat, so that means you'll be alternating knit and purl rows to work stockinette. You'll want to start with a purl row after picking up the stitches.)
On the next row (a right-side, knit row):
1. k2, ssk, knit to the last 3 stitches, k2tog, k2
2. p all
3. k2, ssk, knit to the last 3 stitches, k2tog, k2
Bind off.

Repeat for second earflap- make sure to try the hat on to determine where you want the second earflap, since it's usually not a good idea to make it on the direct opposite side from the first. Earflaps will sit better if they're towards the back of the head a bit. Weave in all the ends and make a white pom pom for the top. Now put it on and shout "WORRY HAT ENGAGE!" Feel better?

Abbreviations:
CO- cast on
k- knit
p - purl
k2tog- knit two stitches together
ssk - slip one stitch knitwise, slip another knitwise, move them both back to the left needle and then knit them together through the back loop

(It's a good thing I'm not an actor... my "worry face" looks a lot like my "abject horror" face. Which isn't as bad as my dog eating face. )

Fine print:
This pattern and all photographs are copyright Alexandra Tinsley, 2011. Please don't reproduce or distribute this pattern in any way, besides printing out a copy for personal use. If you wish to share this pattern on your blog, feel free to use a photo with credit and link back to the pattern here- please don't copy and paste the whole thing :-) This pattern is intended for non-commercial use only.

The Questionable Content comic, website, and the Worry Hat concept all belong to Jeph Jacques.

Mail Call!

2011-08-10T18:45:00.004-04:00

Don't you love exciting mail days?

This is a new Malabrigo test yarn that Imagiknit has in stock (I really can't believe I've been to SF twice and haven't gone there.) I believe it's the same as the stuff I knit Darla with. It is ggggooorrgeous. This color is "Glitter", one of the newer colorways, and I LOVESIT. It's a little more accurate in this poorly-focused picture:

And in a surprisingly similar color, here's some roving I traded a fellow Raveler some sock yarn for:

It's Funky Carolina Mixed BFL in "Toby". I really kinda love mixed BFL- it's white and brown wool mixed together and over-dyed, so it comes out all lovely and streaky.

And finally.....

Booklets! It's hard to tell here, but they're a lovely half-page size, perfect for knitting bags, and distributed to LYS's via Deep South (who also handles wholesaling my patterns.) So hopefully, you'll see these little suckers in an LYS near you someday soon! Hoorah!

Video Tutorial- Knitting Back Backwards

2011-07-31T16:11:00.003-04:00

So, I do this weird thing where instead of purling whole rows, I knit them backwards. Which means...well, the video explains it. I taught myself on a whim a few years ago and for some reason it stuck- I like doing it more than regular purling. I always forget that I'm a weirdo until someone gives me a crazy look :-P

Related: I finally figured out how to build a tripod mount for my ipod. Yes, I could have bought one by now. No, I didn't. I'll be putting up a tutorial shortly on my brand-new-not-yet-started-polycraftual-blog. Eeeep, I've said too much!

Mailing List Giveaway Winner!

2011-07-29T13:32:00.004-04:00

Remember how I said I'd randomly be giving prize packs to people on my mailing list? Well I picked the first winner a few weeks ago! Congrats Heather!

This picture is possibly the worst I've ever taken, but the prize pack included:
A skein of handspun merino
A skein of Schaeffer Andrea in Empress Wu Zhao
Some stitch markers
Food with faces stickers! (I love anthropomorphic food. Couldn't tell you why.)
A sequiny-flower thing patch
Some buttons, some of which are dinosaurs

Heather, being some kinda crazy nice person, sent me a sweet thank you note with a few goodies of my own!

Local alpaca goat puppet? Hell yes!!

Anyway, if you would like to win fabulous yarny prizes someday in the future, and you don't mind me emailing you when new patterns come out (and ONLY when new patterns come out, promise!) then you should consider joining the mailing list by clicking right here ;-)

In other news, I've finished up most of my secret knittings for other people... so now I'm back to the secret knittings for myself. At least I can potentially show sneak peeks of those ones. I also had [what I think is] a brilliant idea for some free patterns- we'll see when I get to that, haha.

Yellow Storm

2011-07-04T10:07:00.002-04:00

Happy 4th, Americans. I don't generally do much to celebrate but I believe I'm eating some barbeque, so, yay.

We had the craziest storm ever the other day- everything got dark and turned a weird sickly green-yellow color, fading to golden and then to sort of pink-yellow as sunset came on. I snapped a few (understatement) pictures...

"The air... it tastes like... mosquitoes...."

My wide angle filter makes everything sort of cloudy...but I had to include the picture of Travis in the street in his underwear, my coat, and nothing else but a glass of whiskey. He is a gentleman.

Polaris

2011-07-03T17:48:00.003-04:00

So I guess I can show this off now- this was my pattern for Twisted's Single Skein Club (June edition.)

The pattern will be available to the general public in a couple of months (for now it's exclusive to the club...which I bet you can still join, if you want to receive an awesome yarn and pattern every other month! I think you get the "back-issues" if you join late, too.) It's on Ravelry here, if you want to see the gorgeous Cumparsita version that Twisted used!

Darla, Darla, Darla!

2011-06-28T12:00:00.004-04:00

New pattern! I had this test knit about a hundred years ago, but I've been sitting on it because I was a bit nervous about putting out a pattern in a yarn that's not commercially available (yet- it's a test yarn from Malabrigo called "Mmm"... I hope it does come out someday, because it's sooo soft!) But I figured, any DK weight yarn will work, really, so why not. I recommend Malabrigo Silky Merino or Madelinetosh Tosh Dk.

It can be worn a few ways...

A simple knit, for sure, but I think she's pretty cute ;-)

You can see Darla on Ravelry here
or

(psssst! Mailing-listers got a discount on this pattern. Wanna join up for next time? Click here! I only use the list for pattern notifications, so you won't get mail very often, and I'll never share your info, not even if asked very nicely.)

We are living in a Namaste world, and I am a Namaste girl...

2011-06-23T16:29:00.004-04:00

(I suppose a "Namaste Girl" would be more into, like, yoga...but hey. A Namaste World sounds nice.)

Look at all the goodies that have been showing up here lately!!

I WON that Namaste Bitty Bag from Laura Nelkin's blog! I've been pining away for a Namaste bag of my very own, and I am SO EXCITED. Plus it's a good purse size, so it might just be my purse now. Thanks Laura!!

As for the yarns... well, you'll see ;-)

The C Word

2011-06-23T11:20:00.005-04:00

Want to learn more about copyright as it applies to knitters, straight from the IP Lawyer/Knitting Teacher's mouth? My favorite lawyery person, Parna, guest starred on the most recent episode of Knit Happens (along with one of my favorite ex-boss-y persons! Who is apparently an ongoing co-host now. Pretty cool.)

Listen to the Episode

Cowl + Hat = Howlcat!

2011-06-16T14:30:00.003-04:00

New pattern! Yaaay!

Howlcat is an intriguing little garment that is both cowl and hat, and is also reversible! The pattern contains two sizes, which should fit most people (and it's very simple to tweak!) It is the ultimate in super-simple tv knitting and a great project for a beginner!

The pattern includes a photo tutorial for converting it - it's really rather simple ;-)

You can find it on Ravelry here
or:

Also works on dogs!

Many thank yous to Vivian and Anatole for their photographic/modeling talents on the silver/yellow version!

I made a thing!

2011-06-13T11:25:00.004-04:00

I stumbled across this video the other day and had to give it a whirl.

It is, admittedly, pretty crappy, since I just grabbed a rough scrap of suede I had hanging around and hacked into it with some scissors (plus my snap setter suuucks.) But it's a neat trick! I'm thinking about ways to incorporate it into knitting...

Mmmm mmmm

2011-06-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

This pile of yarn may or may not have something to do with my project in the upcoming Malabrigo Book 4.

Iwillsaynothing!

And now, I am on my way to TNNA! I don't have a booth, though some samples of mine will be up at the Deep South booths. Do say hi if you see me wandering around, though!

Knitters, they is good people.

2011-06-07T15:44:00.003-04:00

Have I mentioned how much I like my internetty-knitty pal Heidi? Look what she sent me, just for getting married!

I KNOW RIGHT? (It turns out that not only is getting married pretty cool anyway, but people GIVE you stuff for doing it! Isn't that crazy?) This is all super amazing Quince & Co. stuff from their flagship store, which is doubly exciting because I hadn't had a chance to see it in person before. It is scrumptious!

And for the dog-children, some fancy Maine treatsies!

(fancy, right?)

They are lavender and blueberry and actually smell pretty edible but I have managed to hold off, so far. Rupert can't eat a whole one all at once, so he runs as fast as he can to his crate to hide so he can break it into little pieces, while Pog stands outside whining even though she just inhaled hers five seconds ago. She's kind of an ass.

No, Pog, I said it. Don't try and make me feel bad about it. Why is your face so blurry?

Anyway- Thank you Heidi! You rock!!

What I've been up to lately...

2011-06-01T07:35:00.003-04:00

So, I am married. It rocks, in that it's a lot like being unmarried, but with more jewelry and a great party.

More pictures by the fantasticallicious Nicole Ladonne here.

I promise I'll get back to the knitting, now!

Two Little Ghosties, a story in Instagrams

2011-05-12T10:37:00.000-04:00

(that is not supposed to look dirty... they're doing the cha cha.)

In other news, I think everyone will be glad when this wedding planning business is over and I can get back to my knitting. Heh.

Do fish really see this way?

2011-05-10T20:22:00.001-04:00

You know what's fun? these.

(I have the wide angle one.)

(dear pal Aaron)

(Travis's parents, being somewhat perplexed by what I'm doing, and probably wondering why I'm doing it at the dinner table.)

Heh. heh. Did I post that hat yet? It looks like this:

....yeah. I like it, though, for some reason. Heh. It's some handspun yarn from, I think, Maiden Skeins roving, courtesy of last fall's trip to Oregon Flock & Fiber.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T20:11:00.005-04:00

Today, during a nice mother's day nature walk with Trav's parents, we came across this little guy, being attacked by a bunch of angry red ants:

I scooped him up, named him Jimmy, and squealed a lot while Travis pulled off his nasty little attackers (which wasn't easy, they were pretty determined.) We took him down the street to a very nice nearby pond where lots of his kind hang out.

I think his mother would be happy. Happy Mother's Day, turtle mom.

(Speaking of excellent reptiles, you should check out our cake toppers. I'm pretty proud, considering all I did was glue the headwear on.)

Wholesalerrific!!

2011-04-22T17:29:00.003-04:00

Just had to share my excitement- I finally got a distributor for physical patterns!

Dull Roar on Deep South Fibers

Deep South also handles people like Ysolda, Stephen West, The Shetland Trader, and like a bajillion other super fabulous designers, so I'm pretty jazzed to be part of their line-up :-) The ebooks aren't available yet but we're figuring out a way to print them out as neato cute little pattern booklets, so that's pretty exciting too!

If you have a favorite yarn store (especially one that already carries patterns by some of those designers, 'cause that probably means they already work with Deep South) feel free to give 'em a gentle nudge ;-) ;-)

...and if YOU own a yarn store, well then, let's talk, baby. Did I mention how nice you look today?

And now I'm going to go watch the first half of Harry Potter & the Last Book Of The Series (whatevertheheckitscalled) so I can see the second one when it comes out.

Miss nerdy fangirl face is pretty excited. Clearly.

A Most Bespeckled Hat!

2011-04-20T10:02:00.003-04:00

I. Love. This. Hat. I wear it constantly. Something about Frank Ochre + polka dots just lights my fire.

To summarize the key talking points:
Malabrigo Worsted!
Easy stranded colorwork!
Brim can be worn up or down!
Sexy double decreases!
aaaand POMPOM!

Yay.

Check it out on Ravelry here
or

New Studio

2011-04-11T21:42:00.007-04:00

This is probably like the fourth time I've done a "oh hey look, new studio!" post, but hopefully this one will be around for at least a few years (though I'm going to repaint at some point, and probably take pictures- you have been warned.)

This one has wood floors, and I lovelovelove them.

And it's BIG. And I finally have a couch. It's our ONLY couch, and the living room is quite sparse at the moment, but studios > living rooms.

I need a lens with a wider angle. Hmm. My wide angle attachment shots look like this:

But you get the idea ;-) If you want, you can see some crappy shots from before it was filled with stuff, to give an idea of the scale:

http://twitpic.com/4fucmn
http://twitpic.com/4fucht

(hehe, fucht.)

I need to decide how to paint it... I want something bright and warm for photos, so I'm leaning towards either Dusty-ish or Sunset-ish. (Yes, the Malabrigo colorways. Hush.)

The closet is also amazing, but I'll show you that later... anyone want to hazard a guess as to just how many hats I have in there?

Stripe Your Fancy!

2011-04-09T18:07:00.004-04:00

Finally!! Internet access AND a new pattern!

This shawl has three sizes - the purple/blue one is the large, and is a sort of mushy ruffly starfish shape, and the gold/silver one is the small, a standard triangle. The middle one isn't shown, but it's like a split square- you can see it here.

It also has two edgings. And you can even change up the striping and do as many colors as you want, and you only ever have to weave in two ends per color! Handy, eh?

(we call that one "Blue Steel.")

(I'm not sure what we call that one.)

You can See it on Ravelry here

or...

And just an FYI- the folks on my mailing list got a discount code on this pattern AND are eligible for fabulous random prizes of the yarn-pattern-stitch markers sort, which I will hand out at my whimsy! If you want to join the Very-Important-Knitter list and also get discounts/freebies/fabulous prizes, you can sign up by clicking here!

(Don't worry, I only send things out when new patterns are released, and I'll never sell your information, not even for a gabjillion dollars.)

Miscellaneous Photo Hour

2011-03-27T13:30:00.000-04:00

Wedding crafts, they are becoming important. (If you want to see more of 'em, check out the wedding blog.)

The purple gluesticks? They don't dry clear. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I have the doofiest family...

... but it turns out that Rupert is some sort of... heavenly being or glowing Pokemon or something. My iphone's crappy camera exposed his true nature to us. (Weird, huh?)

The other one, well... we can't all be glow-Pokemon.

Lifeline!

2011-03-24T13:17:00.000-04:00

First, an apology for the lack of blog posts and pattern releases- not having internet is really messing with my workflow. But we're moving soon and I've got a major backlog of patterns to get tested/formatted/released, so things will look up soon.

But for the time being, I have to show off these:

These are Spindleshanks' Lifeline Mittens, which I had the great pleasure of testing for Miss Vivian, using the gooorrrgeous yarn she gave me as a going-away present when we moved last fall (a good thing, too, 'cause all my handspun is too chunky for these lovelies.) I didn't get a great picture of it on my hands, but they have a really cool gusset that sort of resembles the lifeline on your palm:

I also love the neato garter-eyelet "bracelet" around the wrists (you know how I like my garter eyelets.) That Vivian girl, she's got a fabulous eye for detail.

I knit them both in like a day and a half, too- they freakin' flew by. Is this what it's like knitting from other people's patterns? I should do it more often. Anyway, you can find 'em on Ravelry here, if you're so inclined. And let me tell you, if you're sitting on a special little skein of handspun, these are just the thing. They feel so gooood.

Foofoo Beret!

2011-02-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

Foofoo indeed! This hat is bunnylicious... all warm fuzzy Malabrigo handspun angora, with little bunnytail-ish pompoms. You could, of course, sub in a smoother yarn for a different look ;-)

For more info, check out the pattern page on Ravelry!
or buy now

And just so you know, the folks on my mailing list got this pattern totally 100% FREE... and I will probably do it again! So if you like being a super special awesome VIP who gets stuff for free, you might want to consider joining :-) I only send out emails to announce new patterns, so it's a pretty low-spam affair (and, of course, I will never share your info.)

Sign up here

Ah, screw it.

2011-02-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

I really like that soft, neutrals/pastels/dusty old feminine colors look, and I want to be the sort of person who surrounds myself in some sort of magical fairyland of prettiness, like this person or this person or especially this person. I do. It's so... pretty.

But the fact of the matter is...

I think I might just like color too much.

So, fine, color. I guess you win. I embrace you.

But someday I'm going to make JUST ONE ROOM pretty, ok?

(Speaking of color, I've finally got some mixed-fiber "wild card" batts up in the etsy shop! I managed to only spin two of them. It was hard.)

Things are happening behind the scenes...

2011-02-05T13:06:00.000-05:00

... I promise.

Meanwhile:

The beautiful rovings I got for Christmas from various family members and Vivians.

Carding! It is happening! And batts will be available in the etsy shop soon!

Bonus: I didn't even give myself a horrible case of textile lung this time. Always wear a mask.

Pog is a much more willing model than Rupert was:

She's surprisingly photogenic for someone a little ugly:

Rupe won't even try.

Yes, I realize I've become one of those crazy people who posts pictures of their pets all over the place. Sorry. They're around a lot.

I am also just about to add some stuff to the wedding planning blog, for those of you who were asking about it. Hooray!

Picture is Unrelated

2011-01-27T11:29:00.000-05:00

So I've been having fun playing with the video capabilities on my phone (especially now that I've downloaded this blasted 8mm app) and it got me thinking about ways to incorporate more video into the blog. So I'm looking for some feedback:

1. Do you even LIKE videos on blogs, or do you just skip 'em?
2. Are there more techniques you'd like to see demonstrated?
3. Would you be interested in a video Q&A type thing? It could be totally goofy- people could send me questions (about knitting, or not) and I'll answer them to the best of my capabilities. Or perhaps have an occasional guest star do it. Really I'm just looking for an excuse to fool around with video again.

Maybe I'll even break out the real video camera instead of my dang phone. I know it's around here somewhere.

If you guys DID want to give me questions to answer, you could send them to keepittoadullroar@gmail.com, or just post 'em here. They can be anonymous. And about anything.

Or... something. Otherwise, you're probably going to get videos of dogs in clothes. Just sayin'.

Brioche How- To Video

2011-01-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

In the Heartbreaker pattern I recommended looking up how-to videos for brioche in the round... but it turns out that I couldn't find any that really demonstrated what I wanted, so I tried to make one. With bad lighting, lousy equiptment (my iphone) and iMovie, which I only kind of understand. So, uh, here's my attempt.

Please excuse my wonky finger. SOMEbody mistook my finger for part of her nylabone (it was my fault for holding it, but it's making it tough to knit.)

I know I'm moving a little fast... sorry. It's hard to slow down and think about it, I start messing up :-P But hopefully this is a little helpful anyway- brioche makes a lot more sense once you see it done, at least in my experience.

What I've been up to

2011-01-17T15:30:00.000-05:00

A little of this, little of that.

"I hate you so, so much."

Wind yourself up a big hank o' Me!

2011-01-15T12:56:00.000-05:00

I've always harbored this weird little... vanity, I guess you'd call it, wherein I secretly wish for things to be named after me. Perhaps a song (I looked SO HARD in high school for songs about girls named Alex. There aren't many) or a newly discovered disease, or....dare I to dream?.... a colorway of yarn.

(Image by Black Trillium Fibre Studio)

Today, my wish comes true! A few months ago, Melanie of Black Trillium Fibres approached Twisted about doing a series of colorways based on the Twisted crew, and had each of us fill out a questionnaire about our personalities, likes/dislikes, favorite colors, etc. Star and I were lucky enough to be the first colors released! (I'm especially lucky, since I'm not even there anymore :-( )

You can read more about it on the Black Trillium Site and see Star's gorgeous color too! I've already ordered one of each. Heh.

(You can also check out Mel's shop here: Black Trillium Etsy Shop
She's got tons of fantastic stuff, even if you don't want to collect-'em-all, with regards to the Twisted gals. Pictures don't do the colors justice- they're always so deep and rich and mmmmm!)

Heartbreaker Beret

2011-01-08T17:33:00.001-05:00

It's a little early for thinking about Valentine's Day, but I'll offer up this little ditty now anyway (plenty of time to knit it for the occasion, I suppose :-) )

Heartbreaker is an easy brioche beret, which uses coordinating ribbed decreases to avoid the messiness of decreasing in brioche and shows off the completely gorgeous, rich luminescence of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino (or whatever yarn you choose to use- pick something luscious though, ok?) Plus, it's warm and squooshy!! You can find it on Ravelry here, or buy now!

It will be in the etsy shop shortly, but I forgot to resize the pictures before coming into town to use the internet, sooo... not yet, heh.

I'm in art! Kinda!

2011-01-05T14:50:00.000-05:00

Looky!

Sarah's beau Doug painted a portrait of her wearing her Kilter hat (awwwww.)

Bad pictures of nice hats

2011-01-04T12:30:00.000-05:00

I am afraid to say that I once again fell into that common (for me, anyway) trap of thinking, “Oh hey, I’ll get fabulous pictures of my knitted gifts on the recipients! Won’t that be neat!” instead of just taking some ahead of time. To my credit, at least I took SOME this year… but I always forget how badly this sort of thing turns out.

Best case scenario, I get this:

That’s the middle of the hemlock ring blanket/doily, for those curious.

But more often, the dang thing isn’t even in focus.

At least this tea cozy held still.

I didn’t get a picture of my dad’s hat because, frankly, it was ugly. I repaired his other hat, though, as you saw before.

Travis’s hat was somewhat of a success, though, even if these photos weren’t.

I’ll be reworking it slightly and publishing it in the next few months here, so I hope you’re super pumped for dinos. If I get really ambitious, I make a few alternate panels so you can choose your favorite four dinosaurs. Don’t hold me to that, though.

Then again, I DID take a photo in advance for this one, and it's still bad:

I have other things in store, in various levels of secrecy. I have to talk to Vivian about how secret to keep the things we’re working on- it’s kind of a delicate dance when something won’t be published for a while, y’know? And I am currently putting together a little article/tutorial/pattern thing that I may submit to knitty (otherwise, it’ll be here.) Golly gee!

In other news, here is a brief photo documentary prepared by my betrothed, as he bravely removed his godawful facial featherings in the name of love (friggin’ FINALLY.)

Before you get all “aww you made him shave his awesome moustache!” I want you to sit silently for five minutes and think, really think hard, about putting your mouth on that. Daily. For 8 months.

And if you’re still pissed, look at this cute pictures of animals.

(My parents cat, Sadie. Technically I have to dislike her since she makes my lungs stop functioning and prevents me from having extended visits with my family, but darn she’s cute in that basket. She loves it, too- settles in there by herself. Awww.)

What a cute portrait of Pog! But where’s Rupert?

Oh, Ripper.

Resolve

2011-01-01T12:42:00.000-05:00

Warning: Boring, poorly-formatted self-indulgent post with no good pictures.

I don’t usually do the whole new-years-resolution stuff, because I never keep them and I usually forget them immediately. But a few years ago I decided to try the “101 in 1001” project, where you get 1001 days to finish your 101 goals. So I figure now is a good time to reorganize what’s left of those and see what’s what so I can work on them before the deadline (September 2011! Ack!) At some point I moved them over to 43things.com (from the separate blog they were originally on) but that’s clearly not working out that well, since I spent the morning typing in “42things.com” and “41things.com” and grumbling a lot about where the hell they were hiding it. (ie- I haven’t been to the site since I set it up. Ha.)

So here’s what’s left of the original list.

Education
1. Re-learn French, or at least buy some tapes.
2. Re-learn piano a little (I think my parents are going to let me take their old keyboard, so that’s good.

Career/Work related
1. I’m hereby dropping ‘put together a line of recycled products’ cause that’s not going to happen, I’ve changed direction since then. But I’m replacing it with “Get your damn Michigan business paperwork turned in” now that all my Oregon licensing and stuff is expiring.
2. Going to drop “Join Trillium Artisans” since I’m no longer in Portland. Replacing it with “Finish all the half-done projects and patterns surrounding me before starting anything else.” This one actually kind of IS a new year’s resolution.
3. Join Trunkt. I don’t know if it makes sense for me to do this, but I’ll leave it on just in case.
4. ~~Talk to shops about consignment.~~ I’ve actually got some stuff in a shop in Chelsea, so I guess I get to check this one off. Yay! Though I also want to start making more spinning batts, and I should talk to some shops about those.
5. Try the Saturday Market…. That’s also a Portland one, so, no dice. Oops. I’ll replace it with… do some craft fair somewhere here.
6. Be self-employed full time. I sort of am, now, in that I don’t have another job, but I think it has to be sustainable to count.

Artistic

1. ~~Buy a moleskine and fill it.~~ I think I meant this in an art-journal kind of way, but instead I filled one with knitting designs, so y’knowwhat? I’mma count it.
2. Knit up my stash. (Hahahahah. Yeah. Right. Well, maybe now that I don’t work at a yarn store, I’ve got a shot. But I doubt it.)
3. ~~Finish “Wreck that Journal”.~~ I think I gave the journal away. So pah, it’s done.
4. Make my dog a coat. This makes me really sad since it was intended for Rocky, but I guess he would’ve hated a coat anyway. The new ones are young enough that I don’t feel bad about humiliating them, though.
5. Begin working seriously on a book. I don’t know, do ebooks count? I’m going to say that the collection I’m starting on with Vivian counts, but I won’t check it off til it’s done-ish.
6. ~~Model for a good photographer.~~ Eh, I’ve decided I don’t really care about this. I’ll just count our wedding photographer.
7. Start making photomanipulations again. Eh, don’t care about this either. I’ll change it to “learn more photoshop tricks” and leave it at that.
8. Improve self-portraiture skills. Probably a good thing to do, given how many hats I model.
9.Take photos in Death Valley. Sadly this probably won’t happen by September
10. 365 day challenge. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried this and I just flat out suck at it. And now I don’t even have 365 days left. I’ll just try to take more photos in general. Heh.
11. Start working on coffee table book projects. Honestly, I don’t even remember what these were anymore, but it sounds like it could be fun?
12. Make a quilt. Yes.
13. Paint something. I’m sure I must’ve done this at some point…but now I’ve given away all my paints. Hrm.
14. Sew myself some skirts.
15. Try natural dyeing. Hmm….I probably won’t do this either, it’s messy and I don’t really dye anymore.
16. Learn Crewel. I guess I’ve done a little of this….hmm.
17. Print fabric. What?
18. Learn naalbinding
19. Make some stuff for charity (I’ve donated a lot of yarn but I guess that doesn’t really count.)
20. Do the Ravelry Photo Assignments

Health and Whatnot

1. Build up my alcohol tolerance again
2. Find a way to actually do yoga regularly
3. Do my damned PT exercises (I think I want to try and attend this program in Wisconsin that gives you better exercises based on the specific curvature of your spine…but then, I totally need to DO those.)
4. Try a hot rock massage (gave the kit away, dammit.)

General enrichment
1. 29gifts.com
2. learningtoloveyoumore.com
3. Mentoring? (probably not now… I’m 1-2 hours away from any real urban area.)
4. Kiva loan
5. Send something to Postsecret
6. Pickthebrain.com
7. Volunteer with animal rescue (ack, I was totally going to foster, then we accidentally got two dogs. It’s still a possibility, but not til they’re older. I’ll have to see if there’re any rescue orgs nearby with other things I could do. Too bad the humane society is like 50 minutes away.)

People
1. Find or create a knitting group (unlikely out here, darn. Maybe when I’m closer to Ann Arbor.)
2. Interact with far-away friends at least once a month if not more often
3. Write at least 10 cards/letters per year, Christmas ok. (Fail fail fail fail.)
4. Plan a bitching wedding (workin on it)

Etc.
1. Learn to spin poi (I have them, but fat chance)
2. Learn to hoop dance
3. Try blond
4. Explore Forest Park (in… Portland. Fail.)
5. Get a credit card (grumble)
6. Swap the Mini for a car that doesn’t break so freaking often
7. Switch banks (ASAP, since Chase is about to start screwing everyone big time.)
8. Clean out/organize computer files
9. Organize mp3s (eh)
10. Get a manicure every 6 months (fail…but I’m very due for one.)
11. Go through stuff at my parents house, toss the crappy and move the good in with me.
12. Visit the Oregon desert (fail)
13. Design and get another tattoo
14. ~~Eat somewhere that requires dressing up~~ (I’m positive we’ve done this… I’m striking it.)
15. Organize recycled fashion show (not going to happen.)
16. ~~Get tire chains and go to the mountains~~ (nope….but I went on a trip to Timberline in the summer, so I’m counting it!)
17. Take the dog for a decent walk once a week (Poor Rocky. He was a lazy old man though.)
18. Actually try sushi (I tried a sweet potato roll, does that count? I hate fish.)
19. Increase my tolerance for spicy foods (I think I’m making progress, here.)
20. Learn to finger-whistle
21. Spend some time in Alaska (probably also won’t happen by September.)

The problem with a list like this is that your ~~priorities~~ whims change a lot in 1001 days. Still, sort of interesting. I best get moving, though.

Ummm... and here's a picture of some yarn!

Finally got my stash unpacked. Yay! The scary part is that everything on top is a WIP.

Also:

Year in Review

2010-12-31T12:13:00.000-05:00

I thought doing this might make me feel productive, but it kind of has the opposite effect. But oh well- here are my accomplishments for 2010:

Pack Life

2010-12-30T20:14:00.000-05:00

(ugly carpet, acck!)

K, I'll stop now.

Re-cuffing a hat (or mittens/socks/whatever)

2010-12-27T19:59:00.000-05:00

(A tutorial, with horrible iphone pictures!)

So, let's say you have this lovely hat made out of Verb for Keeping Warm Annapurna, and say that your dog got ahold of it:

I feel it necessary to mention that my dogs did NOT do this... it was my dad's hat from last Christmas, and my parents' goldendoodle has an eating-things-that-aren't-food problem. I assured him that I could reknit the cuff, and he requested dark brown. I thought I'd document the process. It's pretty easy, but hey.

1. Using waste yarn and a yarn needle, pick a point a few rows above the damage (or the whole cuff in this case) and go under one leg of each stitch in a row, all the way around.

(the circled leg is where the needle would go in next.) And so on, all the way around.

2. Chop off the cuff a couple of rows above the stitching.

(God these pictures are awful, I'm sorry. I'm not sure where my real camera was for this.)

3. Unravel down (or up) to the waste yarn. There'll be a lot of little pieces to pull out and it can be slow going, but it's not too bad.

4. Stick a circular needle in along the waste yarn. Make sure you pick up any wayward stitches that you might've missed when putting the waste yarn in, heh.

5. Snip the waste yarn and pull it out.

6. Knit! Make sure to correct the stitch orientation if they ended up backwards, like mine did. Hehe. (Nice dropped stitch, too.)

7. Put it on your zombie alter-ego!

(Man, winter light + cell phone white balance = unfortunate looking Alex.)

The Offender (and my grandmother):

Good thing she's cute.

Ack!

2010-12-25T20:35:00.000-05:00

I just learned that I wasn't receiving emails when people commented on the blog, and blogger was marking a bunch of legit comments as spam- so, I sincerely apologize if your comment didn't show up, or if I didn't answer you! I didn't mean it! I just thought nobody wuvved me ;-)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:43:00.000-05:00

I got you a present! Sorta!

I only bake once a year (it's hard on the wrists, man! Plus, I'm lazy.) but I discovered these little gems this year and they're too delicious not to share.They’re like Oreos, only with salted caramel goodness and a way better texture. They are also extremely buttery, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Caramel Sauce (you can make it ahead of time and put it in the fridge for a day if you want… just try not to eat it all. You’ll probably have extra though.)

¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp coarse salt
1 ½ tbsp unsalted butter, cut into smallish bits
2 tbsp heavy cream

Measure everything out first – sugar in a small saucepan, cream in a cup, vanilla/salt/butter in another cup.

Heat the sugar on medium-ish until the edges go all caramel-looking. Spatula that shit around the pan, folding it inwards repeatedly, until the whole mess looks delicious and caramely colored and melty. Be careful, it happens fast and you don’t want to burn it too much. I think I overcooked mine a little, but it still tasted fine. This whole process takes about 5-7 minutes.

As soon as you get to that point, take it off the heat, toss the butter & friends in, stir til it melts, pour the cream in, stir more, then pour it into something that won’t melt and let it cool. Cover and refrigerate if you’re not making the frosting right away.

Cookies

1 ¼ sticks softened unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg (separate it- you want the yolk and possibly some of the white)
1 ½ cup flour
½ cup baking cocoa powder (use the good stuff, c’mon. Unsweetened of course.)
½ tsp coarse salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Mix the butter and sugar together. This is hard if you have shitty knitting wrists like I do, so a mixer is nice. (No matter what I always end up digging my hands in to mix cookie dough up properly, so if that’s what it takes, do it. My poor limp wrists.) Then mix in the egg yolk. Save the white, just in case.

In a different bowl, mix the dry ingredients, and then toss them into the buttersugar and mush it up real nice-like. If it’s too dry to stick together at all, add a little egg white. You want the consistency of slightly dried out playdough- crumbly, but will stick if you squish it together.

Using a small melon-baller or a measuring teaspoon, sculpt tiny little half-domes and put them on a cookie sheet an inch or so away from each other. Normally I am not that fastidious about my cookie shapes, but you want to make decent little sammiches later, don’t you? If these seem too small (they ARE really rich, remember, and you eat two at once) you can use a not-quite-full tablespoon-size and they cook just fine.

Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes, rotating at some point if your oven is uneven (aren’t they all?) When you take the pan out, drop it from a height of about half an inch above the counter/stove/wherever you’re setting it. This makes the cookies flatten out a touch. (Don’t overdo it, though, or they’ll fly everywhere. Ask me how I know.) Let them there cool a second, then put them on cooling racks til they cool completely and stiffen up. Meanwhile, make frosting.

Caramel Frosting

¼ to 1/3 cup caramel sauce (it’s hard to measure, you’ll see.)
1 ½ sticks softened unsalted butter
1 ½ cup powdered sugar

Mix the caramel sauce and butter together. I found it helpful to do this on top of the hot oven, so they both softened up (my caramel had been in the fridge.) Add the powdered sugar (gradually, if you’re smart… I’m not.) Stir til it looks like frosting. Slap a generous blob between two cookies and dig in! They should keep for a few days in the fridge… but they probably won’t need to. Nommers!

(Adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. I don't care what anyone thinks, the woman's a genius.)

Pog approves. Or would, if she could have chocolate. Also, she's on clearance, apparently.

What news!

2010-12-14T12:03:00.000-05:00

Hello! We've finally moved into our new place. It's a very cool apartment in the top floor of a barn, on a beautiful piece of land... only problem is that, as it turns out, it can't get any sort of affordable, useful internet (useful as in... I want to watch Netflix without paying $20 per mg over 5 or whatever.)

So that sucks, and may limit the amount of time we can live here, but it's fun for now and I can still check email and everything on my phone.

We also picked up a new pooch! Two, actually. The second is probably a foster, so she'll hang out until we can find her a really great new home (though who knows, she may just end up hangin' around forever.) They were the only two dogs at the shelter and we couldn't just leave her alone there... it was not a very nice place. She's a real sweetpea but still sort of a pup and a bit rough on the other dog. (Incidentally, if you're in southern Michigan and looking for a really great dog, let me know.)

Anyway, this is Professor Rupert Q. Dogsworth, the one I intended to get:

And this is Pog:

(yeah, sorry, I just discovered Instagram)

I am in Christmas panic mode, and no one is surprised... I had all these grand plans to maybe even whip out the sewing machine, but my studio is still packed up and full of off-gassing ikea furniture and frankly, it's probably not going to happen. So...crap. I got most of the knitting done, though (except for Travis's, poor kid.) I've got a pattern or two at the type-up-and-photograph point, so...sneak previews soon. I'll try to nip into town for a blog post every now and again, but this whole no-internet thing really sucks.

Sure is pretty out here though-

(of course this was all before the insane deluge of snow.)

Dang local cat who won't stop tormenting my dogs from outside.

Steeking is Seereus Biznuss.

2010-11-30T11:19:00.000-05:00

Heheh- one of my former Twisted bosses, Emily, just posted a video of her friend Alessandra steeking a Bad Oyster shawl (with helpful commentary, of course - "Don't say 'wait!' while someone's steeking!")

And even better... a Frenchie in a shawl! Lookin' good, Carat.

So I caught a glimpse of my recent Etsy favorites today...

2010-11-24T12:02:00.001-05:00

It would appear that Vivian's color sense has rubbed off on me.

Heh.

Sorry the blog has been so dull. We're still waiting for our awesome apartment to be ready (soon!) so I've just taken these few weeks to crank out Christmas knittings, which of course I can't show here yet. I think I actually only have one thing left to do (plus all the blocking and whatnot) and that's only not done because I have to get white yarn (who buys white yarn? Ain't no white yarn in this stash, man.) So...that's good! Plus two hats for army friends, finished up a ridiculous scarf/shrug thing (pictures forthcoming), and worked on some supertopsecrety stuff ;-) Once we're moved in, I can start making batts again! Hoorah!

Home, is where I want to be...

2010-11-09T16:49:00.000-05:00

Whew. So, we're back in Michigan. Have been for a week or so, actually, but I'm still getting my head back on straight. We're staying with Travis's parents for the time being, while we find a suitable apartment (it's hard when you insist on the level of dog-friendliness that I insist on.) I've got some patterns in the oven, but with Christmas coming out they're bound to get waylaid :-/ But here's a quick smattering of pictures from the trip!

We dodged the bad weather, but got a nail in our tire somewhere in Buttholenowhere, South Dakota...and without a replacement for about 500 miles, we were forced into buying a full set of snow tires. But, oh well, I'm in Michigan now, it can't hurt to have snow tires I guess. We were delayed enough that we had to skip the House on the Rock, though, which was very depressing. Ever since Rocky died, I'd been telling myself "But at least now, you can go to the House on the Rock on the way home!" Nope. Rip off. Grr. But I did get to stop in Chicago and meet Sarah in person (no pictures of that, I'm afraid), and we did go to a sort of neat little museum in Idaho, and a crazy abandoned cement factory in Oregon:

(Tyrannosaurus hands!!)

(Sneak peek of something that will either be awesome or really terrible, I'm not sure yet.)

It's good to be back, though. So crazy to be surrounded by countryside again, and deer and cranes and farms and donuts and cider and goodness! Travis has already secured himself a job at Zingerman's, at least for the holidays. I'll be glad to get our own place and start covering it in wool-dust. Itching for another dog, too. Or several. Sigh. Soon enough, soon enough.

Go Go Malabrigo, Vol. 2!

2010-10-19T11:15:00.001-04:00

Six patterns in two days? Am I insane?? (Well, I formatted for about 12 hours yesterday, so I am now.) But anyway... The second Malabrigo ebook is nigh! By which I mean... totally here!

Now, if you want the whole shebang: five patterns, including three worsted weight hats, some easy-peasey-squooshy armwarmers, and a cowl-thing, you can go right ahead and click this button:

add to cart
The whole ebook is $15 again, so 5 patterns for the price of 3!

And what are these patterns, you might ask? Let me give you the tour. (Click the names to go to their Ravelry pages, where there are more pictures and details. If I repeat them all here, this post is going to get waaaay too long.)

Hollywood Boulevard

Merino Worsted beret! With a star on top!

add to cart

Dilih Wrap

You might've seen this one on the blog some months ago. Very quick and easy and foxy and warm! Have I mentioned how I can't stop buying "Sunset"? I think I've gotten it in every base yarn, by now.

add to cart

Hypnotica

Look deeeeep into my hat....

add to cart

Annelida Gauntlets

Fancier and squooshier than your average ribbing ;-)

add to cart

Sweetness

So darn cute you'll get a cavity.

add to cart

Hooray!! And now, I move. See you on the other side, folks!

Wheatberries Shawlette, hooray!

2010-10-18T13:26:00.001-04:00

Finally!

I've been experimenting with putting increases in various locations to see what shape comes out. This one is a neat, squared-off kind of crescent shape that really lend itself to being worn a bit like a capelet. The vast majority of the project is easy knitting, with just one repeat of lace stuck in at the bottom to give it a little pizazz.

Two warnings:
1. The lace part is charts ONLY. No written instructions for the lace. I may write some later, but for now, please don't buy the pattern if you can't or won't use charts, because you will be unhappy with me :-)
2. Bind off loosely!! Maybe block it first, and then bind off. My bind off is a bit too tight, even though I went up to size 10 needles, haha.

This yarn is delicious and I am loving the finished project and the unusual shaping. Several testers knit it up on larger yarn- sport or dk- and it came out beautifully there as well, so feel free to play around!

You can find it on Ravelry here, or buy now

On a personal note, I've decided, after being painfully reminded of just how expensive veterinary care is, and finding out how insane and largely useless pet insurance seems to be, that this shawl will be my pet insurances for our next rescue pup (we're holding off until after the move, but golly, how I miss having a dog around.) All the proceeds will be put in a special savings account just for poochy medical needs. Hopefully by the time he's old and needs it, there'll be a nice little nest egg. I don't want to ever have to consider the price when deciding on an animal's care- it's the worst feeling in the world.

Annnyway....getting ready to move really slows down the whole being-productive thing, but I'm hoping to have some more goodness for ya in the next few days, too ;-) Maybe something a little "Mmmmmmm"....

Long Beach, cont...

2010-10-13T15:50:00.000-04:00

You know what's a pain the ass? Moving. Sorry there's been no real content in ages... there's lots of stuff in the works, lots of stuff finishing up, but dangit, we're moving scary-soon and time is becoming an issue :-(

No, I don't know either.

A freaky thing from inside one of those antique "put a quarter in to see some freaky stuff" boxes in Marsh's Free Museum. Which is really more of a store with old stuff on the walls. They wouldn't sell us the sweet old Schlitz lamp :-(

The classiest business I have EVER seen.

... except for this one. I'm going to the salon, lol!

Our hotel was ridiculous-nice and not that expensive. I guess when you have a beach with super dangerous water that you can't swim in, that's what happens.

Travis's attempt at a towel turban. Apparently this is something that guys don't know how to do??

Long Beach, WA

2010-10-11T13:24:00.000-04:00

We went up for a night while my mother was in town. Pictures happened!

This one's in Astoria. Had to stop at the Rogue Brew Pub for the boy.

A few from Cape Disappointment (what a name, eh? We thought about having our wedding here just for irony points.)

Travis with my mother, who never lets me take pictures of her.

Notice how my skin matches the lighthouse. Frightening.

Not sure what's going on here.

I heard breastfeeding was tricky, but I had no idea!

We saw a porcupine!!! They are so friggin cute. And they hide their spikes, to trick you into hugging them.

Maaagical leopluradon! It will show us the way!! (ok, ok, it's a dead whale.)

More later, this is getting long. Also I have a bunch of stuff currently being test knit, so... get excited!! (And one that I can release as soon as I buck up and redo the charts and figure out how to compress them so they aren't terrible.)

Allow me to introduce you to Spindleshanks...

2010-10-05T01:26:00.001-04:00

I've mentioned my friend Vivian on here like a bazillion times, since she photographs a lot of my designs for me and seems to be around for most of my sporadic adventures...

Well, she has just published her very-first-for-realsies pattern on Ravelry and it is super awesome! Plus I'm in it, and we all know how much everyone likes looking at my awkward modeling jobs.

It is called String Theory! And it's like wearing a skein of delicious yarn around your neck without having it get horribly tangled! Check it out on Ravelry here, and keep an eye on Vivian's new blog, 'cause I know she's going to do some rad things. (At least, I hope so, because we've got some plans for collaboration. Mwahahah!)

Soon she's probably going to have to start tweeting, too. I'm a terrible influence.

OFFF 2010, a Pictorial

2010-09-27T22:12:00.000-04:00

Cutey-wutey Amnials:

And a small smattering of the haul (I should've taken a group shot. Oops.)

2010-09-27T18:41:00.000-04:00

This morning at about 2 am, the best dog in the world (and my very best friend) woke up unable to feel or move half of his body. The prognosis wasn't very good for a 15-ish year old dog, and we had to let him be put to sleep. He was perfectly healthy and happy when we went to bed.

I know people get angry when you say your pets are like children, but really, Rocky was. Except that I don't have even an ounce of maternal instinct for human children (even my hypothetical own) whereas I had gallons for this stinky, deaf, rickety little pup. He was a rescue, and I got him from a woman who'd gotten him at the humane society. It bothers me that I never knew what the first 9 years of his life was like, or what kind of dogs his parents were (I toyed with doing a Wisdom Panel test, but they are pretty expensive.) But so it goes. I had him for 3.5 years, and they were wonderful.

All this to say that if you don't see me around online very much for a little while, or if I'm slow to answer emails and tweets, that's why. We're also moving at the end of October, and then possibly going abroad for a bit, so things are pretty crazy anyway, but I will be back, eventually.

I'm turning off comments because I don't want to get a bunch of emails reminding me to be sad (I can handle that on my own, and rather like the internet being a distraction.) I will, however, put up shortly pictures from Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival, which I went to yesterday and which was good fun. I also found five dollars, and Travis found a four-leaf clover. Apparently we used up all our luck for the week in one day.

Mailing list!

2010-09-21T02:16:00.001-04:00

Sort of. I don't feel like I have enough important things to say on a regular basis that I need to throw it in your faces. But if you want to be notified when new patterns come out, you can now sign up for just that very thing using the box in the sidebar over there ---->

I promise I won't share or sell your email address, or spam you with a bunch of other nonsense. Scouts honor.

Trunk Show!!!

2010-09-20T19:37:00.000-04:00

My very first ever trunk show is going on this week at Twisted! Please do stop by if you're in Portland. All the patterns are 10% off and you can see a lot of the samples (though less than I'd like, since I have a nasty habit of selling them/losing them/giving them away, haha.) Friday evening at 6 there'll be a reception with foods and wines and, I guess, "the designer", though really you can see me at Twisted every Friday night, since that's when I work ;-) But still, come by! I never get to knit with other people, I'm always on the other side of the counter, so I'm excited!

Fell in love with a drum(card)er, another then another...

2010-09-13T12:01:00.000-04:00

(Aww, remember Wilco?)

I finally got around to doing what I bought the drum carder for in the first place: scrap batts! I've been saving up roving scraps (which is sort of a silly word since you don't usually have scraps unless you force yourself to set a little aside) and figured it was time to put 'em all together. These are for sale at Twisted, but I hope to do more for etsy soon (but if you really love one, you can call the shop and they can mail it :-) They might make it into the web store too eventually, I'm not sure.) I think I need to wear a dust mask, though... my lungs are still recovering. Ugh.

"Pumpking"

"Stegosaurus Dreamin'"

"The Fresher"

"Elementary"

"Deep" (last one named, I was getting tired at that point)

"Plastic Trollop" (exploding my red sensors apparently.)

"Razzle"

"Retro"

"Scrapplejacks"

And a before shot:

Hooray! It's fun getting to name things again, haha.

Nice People are Awesome, part 2

2010-09-01T13:47:00.000-04:00

So a few weeks back, I was bemoaning to Carrie/Big Alice that I couldn't find the perfect orange and turquoise roving. She's been playing around with dyeing roving (in addition to her super pretty yarn...which I assume will be available in her etsy shop eventually) and volunteered to give it a whirl if I'd test it out and see how it spun up.

Yeah, pretty awesome, right? That's like asking me to "test this batch of delicious homemade cookies."

So. Pretty. I squealed a little when I saw it.

aaand spun up:

Yum!! It's BFL, which I'm rapidly discovering is very enjoyable to spin. It came out super squooshy, which is awesome- I'm not quite good enough at spinning to make things come out squooshy unless they want to do it all by themselves. Hooray!! I'll take another picture once I knit it up into something...but I should probably show Carrie the end result first. Heh. Thank you thank you thank you Carrie!!!!

I learned a cool trick!

2010-08-27T01:15:00.000-04:00

It's dead easy, too. (Click here!)

Oh, hello.

2010-08-22T22:13:00.000-04:00

I didn't see you, there. How do you do? Me? Oh, I'm just hanging out in my new Hazel Knits shawl.

(Coming soon to a knitting blog near you!)

Nice People are Awesome, part 1

2010-08-22T15:21:00.000-04:00

Recently I was given the opportunity to try out some of BMFA's awesometastic rovings (Thanks Tina! You are the super most excellentest!) I was going to post about it earlier, but I thought I'd wait til it was spun up and do a before-and-after.

Here are the rovings:

And the somewhatpoorlyphotographed yarns (it always looks like they're in focus when I'm taking the picture. Sigh.):

These three are 50% Merino, 50% Yak, in Brick, Mossay, and Pond Scum. Um...yum. I've never really worked with yak before, and it is ridiculously luscious. I tried to spin these finer than usual so I could make a little shawlette, but somehow I still ended up at a heavy worsted. (As I said on Twitter... I will blame the wheel until someone buys me a new one to prove me wrong.) Making the shawlette anyway. It'll be for winter :-)

This one is 75% BFL and 25% Tussah Silk, in Drucilla. Can I just say how geeked-out excited I am about Buffy-themed colorways? (Bought myself one of these, too.)

If you squint real hard, you can see that this is a skein of 50% Mulberry Silk, 50% Superfine Merino in Valkyrie. So shiny and yummy. Much prettier in person. Must rephotograph, sometime. Sigh.

And here's a little baby skein of 70% Silver Alpaca, 30% silk in Copperline. Loooove this color. Fun to spin- I left it as singles for once, and should probably block it since I'm sort of shoddy at singles.

Pretty!! The roving was split with Vivian and Star, so I'm really excited to see what they ended up with. Pretty sure both of them are better spinners than I (or at least better at spinning fine, good-for-things-besides-hats yarns, haha. Good thing I like hats.)

2010-08-04T18:28:00.000-04:00

I am working on way too many things that are either secret, or possibly-secret (and therefore, for the moment, secret.) It makes for terribly boring blogging.

So I'm taking a break, and working on something less secret.

You'll see it as soon as I'm done frogging it and fixing it repeatedly. :-P

For now, here is a picture of a bird on my head:

(I'm not sure how I escaped without getting pooped on, but I'm glad I did. That's a handspun hat, dangit! And lorikeet poop is seriously ewwww. All they eat is nectar-juice out of zoo-goers's cups all day. Eugh.)

Beetlefriend!

2010-08-02T18:55:00.000-04:00

I identified my beetlefriend from the trip: he's a Golden Buprestid/Metallic Wood-borer/Jewel Beetle. Aptly named, since that's exactly what the guy who walked by as I was taking a picture AND Travis's mother said about him ("Oooh, it looks like a jewel!")

From Beetles of the Pacific Lowlands (funny since I saw him in one of the much higher lands):

"This beetle spends most of its life as a larva, burrowing in dead wood. The larva has the remarkable ability to go into a sort of suspended animation for apparently decades, then pupate and become an adult. There have been reports of beams which were installed for 30 years which then have beetles crawl out of them. The adult flies to the south side of trees looking for mates. They often will congregate in an area that just burned, apparently able to "smell" smoke for several miles."

This person had one crawl out of her handmade cutting board after 29 years. Surreal. Though as far as bugs who could pop out of your home furnishings at any moment, I'd say they would be one of the more welcome ones.

Timberline - Once More with Color

2010-08-02T15:33:00.000-04:00

(Look familiar? It's the hotel from The Shining. The outside, anyway.)

WhatisthisohgeeIdontknowitlookslikeMalabrigo....

This bug is the prettiest living creature I think I have ever seen, and it landed on my pants. It was a little over an inch long, and friggin SPARKLY.

This is a Douglas Squirrel, which I named Douglas. He was very angry with me, sitting in his space. Much loud, bird-like chittering. I left him a little bit of trailmix for his trouble.

Every time I have my camera by flowing water, I get really carried away with the slow shutter speed.

Check out those bike-seat marks on the jeans. One of these days the butt's just going to fall off completely.

Shootin' through my sunglasses!

(Travis's)

(and that)

(and that. He went up much higher than me, heh.)

My good side.

I can't believe I didn't take any decent picture of the inside of lodge... it was very cool. I guess my altitude-addled brain just didn't think of it. Arg.

Also, just because Travis is wearing my experimental fractal Cosy-fiber-club hat in every picture does not mean it's his, no matter what he thinks.

Timberline- B&W edition

2010-07-31T00:27:00.000-04:00

I've got more yarny-related sorts of things to photograph and post and otherwise ramble about, but I haven't yet, so here's some pictures from my recent trip up to Timberline with Travis and his parents (thanks guys!!)

Travis took these ones:

(Though I black & whited them.) My body doesn't handle altitude as well as it apparently used to, so I was pretty lazy while we were there (I've been higher places during roadtrips and been fine. Weird.) But it was very relaxing, and I got lots of knitting done and soaked up lots of lovely sunny-breeziness (and barely burnt my face at all, somehow.) Amazingly perfect weather. And I do so enjoy hanging out with the Schuster gang (which is probably a good thing, as I expect they'll be around awhile, what with me marrying into the bunch.) Travis hiked his face off and somehow magically avoided falling off of things and horrible sunburn. He's tricksy like that.

I'd say I have a tassel problem...

2010-07-16T15:08:00.000-04:00

...but is it really a problem when it's so awesome? I mean, it's like being addicted to huffing sheer radness. Amirite?

(My tassel enthusiasm may be reaching eccentric levels.) I don't do a ton of test knitting, busy little bee that I am, but when miss Sarah Burghardt asked me to test a hat knit out of Malabrigo....well hot damn, that's pretty much my thing.

It was a super speedy little project, and much easier than it looks. Very satisfying. You can wear it with the brim up or down, and there are buttons on both sides (well, there would be, if I had found enough buttons that I liked. Right now the inside is still buttonless, but I know in my heart of hearts that I'm going to wear it brim-down all the time anyway, 'cause I kinda love it that way. And in Polar Morn! It matches everything! This one's gonna come in handy.

The hat did not, originally, have a tassel. But c'mon. I'm gonna add a tassel. C'mon. Though I did seriously consider a pom pom.

The pattern isn't out yet, but I'll let you guys know when it is!

Fun fact: Sarah is dating my ex, and both of Travis's major exes have been knitters also. Do we have a "type"? Or maybe we ARE a type! You know, "I like my girls to enjoy quiet nights of television during which they will ask 'what just happened?' a lot because they aren't looking at the screen.... and also, I'm cold a lot, so if they could maybe do something about that... and if they could hit me in the face with their flailing elbows occasionally, that'd be great."

Or maybe there are just a lot of us. I don't know, man. It's crazy.

Speaking of Travis:

Yeah, I know.

Physical Copies of Go Go Malabrigo Now Available!

2010-07-07T15:37:00.000-04:00

I recently discovered Magcloud, which is this excellent little printing website where you can have such things as, oh, say, knitting patterns or booklets of patterns printed on demand! I just got my proof in the mail today and I'm happy to say that it looks pretty darn good. So I'm pleased to announce that the complete Go Go Malabrigo pattern set is now available as a real, hold-it-in-your-hands type booklet!

Go Go Malabrigo on Magcloud!

The price is an eeensy bit higher to help offset the printing fees a little bit. But it looks lovely and sturdy and you can carry it places! Hooray!

I hope to get my other patterns up there soon. I'm in the midst of reformatting all the old ones so they're all pretty and fancy like the newer ones. The only trick with Magcloud is that things have to be a multiple of four, and it takes a little finagling. But I think I can make it work ;-)

Meet Vahl!

2010-07-04T14:19:00.000-04:00

Yay new pattern! It's been a while.

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Antler, Tilli Tomas Disco Lights in Jade, one skein of each.
Needles: US Size 7 (4.5mm) 16" circular, plus a spare needle for a 3-needle bind off.

Vahl is an easy little hat using two deeelicous yarns that have been languishing in my stash for awhile. The Tilli Tomas was supposed to be my reward for using up the rest of my stash (ha!) but I dragged it out when I was putting together magazine submissions, and these two became friends and, well, just had to be stuck together. The "Antler" colorway is a very strange white, with a pale, only-slightly-visible green cast. I sort of love it, and it worked well with the Tilli. Any light worsted or DK weight yarn should work, though, and you should only need one ~100g skein of each color. The top has neato little ties which you can crochet, icord, braid, whatever and then embellish with tassles, pom poms, feathers, beads or whatever else you can think of. I'm in a feather phase, personally.

(I am so thoughtful and pensive. Clearly.)

More info on Ravelry
Or...

In other news, it might be awhile before you see those other two patterns...but I ain't sayin' anything yet.

Fine Print: Your purchase of this pattern constitutes your agreement to use this pattern only for personal, non-profit use without specific written permission from the designer. Items made from this pattern may not be sold, nor may the pattern itself be copied, sold, or distributed in any way. You may print one copy for personal use but may not print multiples to distribute, nor may you share the digital file with others.

Contrast Hydrotherapy and You!

2010-06-29T02:21:00.000-04:00

Since I know I'm not the only knitter out there who's poor little wristies get all pooped out, I wanted to share a technique I've had a little bit of success with. I'm certainly not back up to my prior knitting capacity, but I'm doing a far sight better with hydrotherapy than with all the braces and stretching and resting alone. (Jury's still out on the arnica cream... I don't use it regularly enough or in controlled enough conditions to know if it's helping at all.)

Recently I got a professional massage, a sort of make-up massage for the one I was too land-sick and sunburned to get when I was in Hawaii last year. I made sure to find a guy who claimed to know a thing or two about carpal tunnel. While the massage was pleasant, the effects weren't terribly long lasting... you'd need long, daily hours with a jackhammer to make any real impression on my back. But he recommended this technique:

Get two buckets, deep enough to accommodate your arms up past your elbows. I couldn't find buckets at Fred Meyer, so I ended up with trash cans. Just as good.

Fill one with ice and cold water. The masseur said "a full bag of ice" from the grocery store, but no way am I paying for ice, so I've been keeping a plastic bowl full of water in the freezer. It does an ok job.

Fill the other with very hot water, just barely tolerable (make sure to test for tolerabilty before you start dunking your hands.)

Starting with hot water, submerge your arms up past the elbow, and wait somewhere between 1-3 minutes (time recommendations seem to vary wildly.) Then plunge them into the cold bucket for 30sec-1min-ish. I usually do a cheater's 3 minutes (I count to 180, but too fast) and an honest 30 or 40 seconds. Repeat 3 times. Or so. Like I said, every source of information about this technique says different things, so I'm sort of making up the times as I go. Same with frequency...aiming for every other day, but it's sort of messy and I'm lazy. My arms tend to feel sore afterwards, but better overall.

You have to be careful- there are some conditions/medications/etc that mean you shouldn't do this (my blood pressure's a little low so it does make me a tad woozy to have all my precious blood in my arms, but as long as I stand up slowly and go rest until my arms stop being all red and tingly, it's fine.) Do some research before you start, I don't want to be responsible for anyone keeling over. But overall, it's a very cheap and safe and seemingly effective therapy and definitely worth trying if you're in my boat and trying to avoid (or avoid paying for) things like cortisone and surgery.

Recently Discovered Tip 2: Heartburn that Tums doesn't fix? Vinegar. Seriously. I have no idea why, but it works sometimes. Most sources say a spoonful of apple cider vinegar, but that's gross. Just put some balsamic on bread.

RDT 3: Turn your head sideways while typing... it makes the sudden appearance of letters way cooler than usual. Ok, that one's probably just me. But the other two tips are probably legit.

Peekies!

2010-06-14T20:59:00.000-04:00

Though I can barely knit more than a few rows a day, I've managed to eek out a couple things that should be showing up shortly, once they're tested...

The first two will be for the next Malabrigo ebook. I think I'm going to release most of them individually before the ebook itself is out. I've got enough Mal to keep doing this for a while, so...we'll see what happens, haha.