Hi! Meet the Nut that Writes this Thing

I figured today was a good as any to not write a post about knitting, and then I realized I’ve never really introduced myself either.  So I grabbed one of those question games from another website and thought I would have a bit of fun with it.

Question 1: do you have any pets?
Absolutely.  I have a guinea pig named Peanut Butter, and recently had a kitten adopt me.  The kitten walked into my house on a hot day and never left, I bought him things he needed, had him vetted and “fixed” and named him Severus.  I thought it was an appropriate name for a black cat

Question 2: name three things that are physically close to you.
An iPhone.
An empty coffee mug
A backpack

Question 3: what’s the weather like right now?
It’s sunny, with just a touch of pre-fall chill.

Question 4: do you drive? If so, have you crashed?
I’ve been driving for 17 years and yes I’ve been in a few crashes.  Oddly enough not a one of them have been my fault, and gratefully only very minor injuries.  The most interesting one was caused by an 80-some year old woman, who ran a stop sign, while talking on the phone with her pastor.  Her van had a tiny dent, my car was tore-the-hell up.

Question 5: what time did you wake up this morning?
I woke up around 8:30 when the dog I’m watching for friends told me he needed to go wee. When a 90 pound great dane/pitbull says get of our bed, you get out of bed.

Question 6: when was the last time you showered?
9:00 this morning and it was glorious.

Question 7: what was the last movie that you saw?
It was, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Amazon Prime.  I really wish Hollywood would stop “rebooting” my childhood.

Question 8: what does you last text message say?
“Cosplayers look odd, but usually are okay folks”  As some of you go whaaaaaat, it was too my aunt who was dropping off her 15 year old granddaughter off at a cosplay event.  I’m not big into to cosplay but have quite a few friends that are and have been to a few events to people watch.

Question 9: what is your ringtone?
The theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly when it rings.  It’s usually on vibrate only.  I hate being bothered with the phone most days.

Question 11: How often do you travel?
I travel quite a lot for work, and average about one trip a month.  Things are slowing down a little since we’ve recently hired more staff and split things up a bit.  Earlier this year I was out of town more than I was home for a while.

Question 11: do you like sushi?
Oh My Dear Lord Yes!  I wasn’t introduced to it until my mid-twenties but after that first sushi roll there was no turning back.

Question 12: where do you buy your groceries?
The closest grocery store to my home.  I’m not the type to price-shop and clip coupons, it eats up too much of my time.  I just go to whatever is closest and call it a day.  Right now that would be a Kroger.

Question 13: have you ever taken any medication to help you fall asleep faster?
HA!  All the time.  I’ve been an insomniac on and off since I was in high school.  Melatonin seems to do the trick most day.  Did you know you can get it in gummy candy form now?  Best…thing…ever!

Question 14: how many siblings do you have?
Ugh.  I considered changing this question.  I had a brother, whom passed away nearly a year ago.  It was sudden, it’s been difficult, yet, it was somewhat expected.  All I can say (and I may expand on this in a later post one day) is the mental health care services in the United States is a complete and utter joke and it contributed greatly to his death.

Question 15: do you have a desktop computer or a laptop?
Both – kinda.  I used to be a graphic designer, so I have a desktop that I used for design, it gets used from time to time these days but not daily.  I was also gifted a Surface Pro 2, which considering I’m not a huge Microsoft fan, I actually kind-of like it.  Then there’s the work issued laptop.

Question 16: how old will you be turning on your next birthday?
34

Question 17: do you wear contacts or glasses?
Glasses – sometimes.  I had contacts for a few years, but honestly got tired of poking my fingers in my eyes.  I hate wearing glasses too, but will wear them when I’m reading or driving.  The rest of the time I’m perfectly happy with my fuzzy, near-sighted, vision.

Question 18: do you color your hair?
Ha! I only recently started realizing what my natural hair color is again.  I started at 15 years old and didn’t stop until about 8 months ago.  I put in some semi-permanent purple now and then over ancient highlights but that’s about it.

Question 19: tell me something you are planning to do today.
Having a slice of birthday cake with a good friend for her birthday.

Question 20: when was the last time you cried?
A few weeks ago, I was tired and frustrated over something.  There was some eyeball leakage, and then some wine.  All was good afterwards.  I’m not a big crier though.

Question 21: what is your perfect pizza topping?
Pepperoni of course

Question 22: which do you prefer, hamburger or cheeseburger?
Cheeseburger all the way

Question 23: have you ever had an all-nighter?
God! More times than I can count.  College, work life, personal life…sometimes it just has to be done to get things done.

Question 24: what is your eye color?
The easy answer, hazel.  The complicated answer, central heterochromia composed of light brown and green and a very pronounced limbal ring.

Question 25: can you taste the difference between Pepsi and Coke?
Yes.  I live close to Atlanta, Georgia, the home of Coke, so it’s the preferred soda here.  Pepsi is almost disgustingly sweet to me.

Alright, so there you go.  I hope someone found that somewhat entertaining.

Taming the Double Pointed Hedgehog: The Knitzi

 Alrighty sock knitters this one is for you.  How many of you find traveling with a WIP sock on double pointed needles interesting to say the least?  You know what I’m talking about, the snagged yarn, the holes in the knitting bag, or worse yet, that needle that slides out of your project when you aren’t looking.  There’s something out there that stops all of that and I’m in love with it.

I travel quite a lot for work, and I am pretty infamous from traveling with a knitting project.  Ask the TSA folks across the country  how many strange looks they’ve given me when they’ve x-rayed my carry on bag.  I’ve avoided bringing socks along, despite them being the perfect size to travel with, because of the DPN (double pointed needles) problems.  Yes, I know there are other ways to knit socks besides DPNs but I really do still love using them.

So, meet the Knitzi.  I stumbled across this doo-hickey when I was knitting a pair of socks the other day.  The pattern I was using was actually created by the makers of this product.  The Knitzi is essentially a wooden tube, with an open side, and two end caps that screw on and off.  This configuration allows for the sock in progress to hang from the slot, and the needles are protected, and snug inside the tube.  All in all, it sounds like a practical design, but the best part is the artistry behind the Knitzi itself.  All of the options available are made from beautifully worked wood.  I’m really happy I ordered one, I’ve got a sock in progress hanging out in the backpack I carry daily.

The Great Sweater Adventure: the Beginning

 After a decade of knitting, with a ravenous appetite for the clicking of needles over the past two years, I’ve finally leaped over a huge hurdle I’ve been dreading and ventured into my first sweater pattern.  I’ve held off on this feat out of fear of putting so much time, effort, and cash into a project and not have it fit in the end.  It would be traumatic for me and could quite possible land me in the loony bin for a few months.

After being teased for a while that I hadn’t made a sweater I realized I finally do have knitters in my life that are more than willing to dive in and help me out if I get stuck, and they’ve actually knitted entire, fitting, sweaters before.  I’m typically a stubborn ass that hates to ask for help, these knitters know that too, but if I walked in the door with a project with a glazed-over look in my eyes they would just take the needles from me and walk me through it.  So, that began to start the wheels turning.

I found a pattern I fell in love with the moment I saw it.  It’s on open front sweater coat with raglan sleeves called Adventurous.  I’ve been told despite the massive amount of cable work that this is actually pretty forgiving when it comes to fit.  So the wheels began to move faster.

After pricing out the yarn for this project the breaks where slammed into the floorboards.  The yardage I needed, plus the quality of yarn I wanted made this adventure cost prohibitive. Even if this is my first sweater, good yarn really makes a difference in a project, and of course I fell in love with Malabrigo’s Arroyo.  $140ish in yarn for a project I’m terrified to start…yeah….ummmm….not right now.  I put a smart-assed post up on Facebook saying if anyone wanted to fund this project I would actually start it.  Not five minutes after the post was made, and before I had even left the yarn shop, their phone rang and a gift card in my name for the cost of the yarn and then some was called in.  I not only pooped a kitten right there in the floor (it’s meowing at me and has been named Severus, and that’s a story for another day) but now I had absolutely no excuse to not start this project.  The wheels on the bus to sweaterville where speeding down the on-ramp to the interstate.

The yarn has arrived, it had to be ordered to get all of the same dye lot, the first two skeins have been wound into cakes and the first of many, many cable repeats was completed this evening.  Wish me luck folks – so far it looks good – but I’m still terrified.

Knit Fast, Die Warm: Winter is Coming.

As the last days of summer fade away, the speed and voracity of knit projects have begun to pick up.  It’s as if the first cool evening kicks off a primal urge to start making warmer things.  I’ve started picking into the stash of yarns I’ve collected over the previous months and begun to knit the holiday gifts for friends and family.  This winter is predicted to be pretty ugly for the southern states this year.  I’m not looking forward to it but damn-it I’m doing my part to try and keep the people I care about warmer this year since winter doesn’t really kick in down here until January-ish.

How about you folks?  Do you have the same urge to start picking into heavier projects?

I Didn’t Mean to Drop of the Planet!!!

I just realized my last post was back in February.  Let’s admit it, I’m not that dedicated of a blogger right now.

My life has consisted of a lot of work, a lot of traveling for work, some more work, oh yeah and work., and there is no sign of it slowing down in the future.  Despite the insanity, traveling has led to me having quite a bit of time sitting around without much else to do other than surf the internet or knit.  Knitting has won out quite a few times in those battles. So over the next few weeks I’ll make a few posts with those projects.  I’ve been trying some new things and have had mixed results.

Meanwhile, I’ll try to do better with this whole blogging, twittering, instagraming thing that I’ve set up.  Hopefully all of you have been doing well and have had some fun projects flying from your needles or hooks.

Much Love,
RP

Public Acts of Crafting – The Challenge

Over the past few weeks I’ve talked to a few crocheters and knitters about their crafting habits and have overwhelmingly found that they hide in the safety of their homes to work on projects.

I don’t get it.

So many projects are portable why not take them with you?  Let’s be honest with ourselves.  How many times do you go into a public space, pull out our cell phones and start looking at whatever app amuses you this week?  What do you gain from it?  Very little. Right?  Just think about it, before the rise of the smart phone we had more direct social interaction with those that where physically around us.  We went to the coffee shop and struck up conversations or actually noticed the independent art exhibit on the wall.  We where much more observant of what was going on around us. We had more interaction with people.

So I propose a bit of a challenge. Pack up a small project and toss it in your bag.  When you have a few moments whip it out and throw in a few rows instead of grabbing that cell phone.  Let’s see what interactions it triggers.

I travel a lot and frequent the local coffee house more often than I would like to admit.  About a month ago I started taking projects with me and have had some amazing interactions with people around me.  Public crafting has introduced me to new people and conversation, a few of these people are beginning to turn into friends.

Give it a shot and see what happens.  Don’t worry what others think, just do, and see what happens.  Besides, taking a few minutes to make something tangible instead of beating the next level of Candy Crush is probably more fulfilling. Think of this as a revolution!  Be the interesting person in the room!  And feel free to share your public crafting stories in the comment section.

Knit Companion – The Squeeee Moment

The local yarn shop I frequent held a class about a week ago on Knit Companion.  I was told I should stay and take the class but for $45 bucks and a busy evening already planned I weaseled my way out of it without feelings getting hurt.  It didn’t stop me from downloading the app when I started a new project yesterday though.

After watching the video tutorials that Knit Companion provides and paying up a whopping $.99 to try out the full features for a month.  I threw my first project in.

Okay so what’s Knit Companion?  I should have mentioned that earlier.

Knit Companion (KC from here out) is a pattern management system.  It’s not the prettiest thing on the outside (the graphic designer in me is screaming) but the functionality is amazing!  KC allows you to import a pdf and set it up in a way that you have all the pieces you need to knit a project right in front of you instead of printing out 6 pages of pattern and having to flip back and forth to get what you need.  You get the benefit of having everything within reach quickly.  But here’s the biggest kicker…I’m a chart person….I knit lace….I knit complicated lace….so large charts on paper have always been a mess where I’m squinting like hell to see a line and then having to mark that line out so I don’t loose my place in the chart.  It’s a pain in the ass but it works.

KC not only imports the chart, you can set it up to where it will help you track it.  The arrows you see at the right of the image are your row counters, moving that  blue line up and down your chart as you complete it.  That feature alone will have me purchasing the whole version (a whole $10 for a year) when the trial expires.

I could gush about KC all day and I’ve not unlocked all the features yet.

If you want to give it a go, right now it’s only available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod.
You will need to set up a dropbox account to import your pdfs.  Dropbox is free, easy, and entirely not a big deal.  I strongly recommend watching the free tutorials.  Stumbling around in this app without a quick intro may get dark and scary pretty quickly no matter how software savvy you are, but it’s a snap once you get the first project set up.

I really think this is one of those tools that really up a knitters game, and I’m sure over time my boss will notice my paper costs are going down because I’ll be sneaking less personal projects of the office printer.  For a buck to try it out the full featured version for a month you don’t have much of an excuse not to give it a go.

To Sell or Not to Sell…

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of those that say “you want how much?” Or to take arms against a sea of “I can have someone else make that cheaper” and by opposing convince them to buy my stuff.

All of us that hand craft and have born our work out in to public eyes or better yet have been caught crafting in public will draw some sort of attention.  There is always that first person that says “that’s good enough to sell”.  The first time that you hear this you immediately consider it, at least for a few seconds anyway.  You admit to yourself that what you make is actually pretty damn good and high quality.  You start calculating the cost of yarns and time, and eventually you come up with what you think is a reasonable price for your time and effort.  You open up that etsy store make that first post and then after a few days you hear the sound of crickets chirping every time you log onto your store because nothing is happening.

Don’t get me wrong here…if you are selling your work and doing it successfully, congratulations you’ve discovered the magic formula that works for you.  The vast majority of us don’t.

Many, many moons ago I thought I could successfully sell my work, and some of those pieces are still sitting in a box at my parent’s house 500 miles away from where I currently live.  So, yeah, it didn’t go well. I used the classic formula you hear a lot of crafty types use, the cost of supplies x3.  I’ve always bought good yarns, red heart super saver has never been, or never will be an option for anything I would consider selling.  But let’s base the rest of this conversation on that acrylic nightmare.

Let’s make a alligator scale crochet scarf, a real yarn eater, that uses about 450 yards of yarn in a variegated colorway.
That’s two skeins at $5 a pop.  So we’re into $10 in supplies.  Using that little formula your finished scarf would be $30.

That’s $20 bucks for your time and effort.  If you can’t get that bad boy whipped up in 2.75 hours you are making less than minimum wage.  I know it’s not all about the money, but dammit if I am selling something to someone I’ve never met in my life I want to be paid for my time.  And I don’t know about you but when you’ve crafted for literally 2/3 of your life I would like to see a little better pay rate based on experience.

Then let’s be even more realistic.  Someone may gust all over your work but admit that they are going to go get that scarf they saw down at Wal-Mart for $10.  Most people love the look of handmade but don’t want to pay for it.

So obviously I’m not selling my finished products.

Once in a while I’ll meet someone who is truly interested in a piece I’m wearing and will strike up a conversation.  There have been a very small number of occasions where I have been convinced to sell it, and I will give them a fair price because I can see they truly love, and want the piece.  And when this has happened it’s been less than the cost x 3 concept.  I walk away with a bit more than my yarn costs.  They walk away with a smile and care instructions.

Now I’m sure someone is scratching their head and mumbling WTF?!? after wading through that tirade above.

Here’s the deal.  I no longer look at my finished products as a way to potentially make money.  I knit, and crochet because I love it.  It’s a good way to calm that twisted, wild mind of mine in the evenings.  It’s how I occupy time sitting on a plane, or have a free evening in a hotel room when I travel for work.  On the few occasions that I’ve had people stop and ask to buy a piece on impulse you can see in their faces that they love your work, and they understand the value of your time an energy.  You know that they will love and care for the hours you spent.

But most of all crafting is how I tangibly show my friends and family that I love them.  There is nothing more precious to give to someone than your time.  The hours I sink into a project  could have easily been spent doing something else, like reading the huge backlog of books sitting on the shelf at the house.   That little bit of yarn at the end of the day is nothing without the time and energy it takes to craft it into something beautiful and usable and gifting it to someone who understands that is just a priceless as the time.

Many years after the fiasco that left finished pieces sitting in the garage 500 miles away, I don’t think about sales anymore.  In fact I’ve told my family to give those pieces away to whomever they think will like them.  I make things without regards to what the yarn costs, well…I take that back, I still won’t buy pure cashmere, that’s still out of the range of what I’m brave enough to knit.   I buy it because I like it, or know someone who will.  I’m not thinking about my time having a price on it.  My only concern is crafting a piece that is made with love, because I believe that it makes that finished piece feel warmer, and more alive when it finally comes off that hook or those needles.

So those of you selling or considering it, good luck!  You’ll never find a competitor with me.

Plymouth Yarns – Gina…The Review

Plymouth Gina 12

Being more than 600 yards into a project using Gina I’m pretty comfortable throwing up a review for this yarn.

This is a variation on the Sheep Wagon Shawl on Ravelry it’s still pretty chilly in the mornings down here in Georgia so I wanted to make a piece that I could just wrap around and go.

I picked up a few skeins of colorway 12 and got to work.  I’m a huge fan of long color change, self striping yarns but I’ve not been a fan of some of the price tags associated with them *cough Noro cough*.  Gina is 100% wool and amazingly soft and 100% not itchy for those folks that have dodged wool because of the itch factor.  I forget it’s a worsted wool most of the time I’m working with it.

It’s entertaining to see the yarn transition from one color to the next with several yards between each transition.  It works up quickly and slides nicely on and off the needles.

Plymouth made this yarn as a competitor to Noro Kureyon. After using both yarns I won’t be returning to Noro for long color changes. Having knit several pieces with Noro over the years I think it feels scratchy and almost stiff at times.  I really am amazed at the feel of Gina and it’s considerably more affordable than that competitor I mentioned in that previous sentence.  I’m dying to finish this project up and hoping it will be off the needles by the end of the weekend and get this shawl into service.

Update! 2/10/15

This made it off the needles two days after the original post.  Blocking went well and it’s happily in service.  I finished off the final rows in Malabrigo’s worsted wool in Tortuga. I’m still very pleased with Gina and will use it again when the opportunity comes up.

Hey There!

WIP Late January 2015

Let’s go ahead and get the first post thing out of the way.  These are usually introductory, right?

I was one of those kids that had to stay busy all the time.  If my nose wasn’t in a book, I was making something.  I learned to crochet at 7 by watching my great-grandmother and my mother teaching me the basic stitches.  Knitting was introduced to me in my early 20’s by a co-worker.  Both fiber arts, past learning the basic points, was largely self-taught by spending hours in books and on the internet to learn techniques. At this point in my life, hanging out in my early 30’s, I really can be called a crafty bitch.  Fiber arts aren’t the only modes of creation but by far are my favorite.

So here’s the deal, I created this blog so I could stop talking about my projects on Facebook all the time.  I’m sure at this point it’s beginning to annoy the ever-loving-shit out of my friends.  Over the past few months my need to create has been intensified and has no sign of slowing down, and I’m learning new tricks and techniques with every project.  So there you go…and here it is…hang around long enough, see what I’m up to, see what I’m working on, and if you’re good I’ll throw up a pattern here and there.