1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself?

Not long, definitely a beginner.

2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)?

All of it.  I’m still playing around, getting  a good feel for what I want to do, but I’m having a blast planning out art yarns.  Beaded, sparkly stuff is fun.

3. What do you spin with (spindle/wheel/both)?

Mostly the wheel.  I do use my spindle to spin samples off the drum carder.

4. What are your favorite fibers to spin with? Anything you don’t like?

Silk top.  I could spin it for days and days.  Any soft wools as well.  I haven’t met a fiber I don’ t like.  I’m not a huge fan of rough wools, but they have their place.

5. Who are your favorite crack dealers fiber sources (etsy or otherwise)?

Sheep Shed Studios is awesome, and I love a bunch of etsy designers, and my own stuff too, of course

6. What kind of fiber do you want to try?

Just anything, cellulose, dog, whatever.

7. Is there any techniques you would like to learn?

Andean plying and coils.

8. Do you dye fiber? If not, would you like to learn?

Yes!  And I love it!

9. Do you have fiber prep tools (and like to use them) or would you prefer ready to spin fiber?

I have them, I don’t mind using them, but I prefer my fiber ready to spin because I’m lazy!

10. What do you do with your handspun? What projects have you completed?

Stick it in a plastic bin.  Sometimes I knit/crochet things.  I’ve have exactly two finished objects out of my handspun.  A chapstick cozy and a hat.

11. Are you in need of any spinning gadgets (WPI Gauge, threading hook, etc)?

I’d love a spinner’s control card and a WPI gauge as I don’t have either.  I wouldn’t mind a pretty diz either.

12. What colors “fall into your shopping basket”? Any colors you just can’t stand?

Jewel tones, especially purple/orange/green/turquoise/magenta, crap, all of them.  I despise pastels with the passion of a thousand dying suns.

13. What is on your wheel/spindle right now?

Some rough mystery wool I dyed as an experiment and I have realized I hate spinning up.  I think it’ll go to the needle felting pile.

14. What other crafts/hobbies do you have?

You don’t want the whole list, trust me, there’s a bunch.  If it can be done chances are I’ve either done it, currently do it, am about to learn it or have considered it at some point.
15. Other than crafts, what are you passionate about?

Animal welfare and treatment, factory farming, abolition of the drug laws.

16. Do you have an online wishlist?

Somewhere on Amazon.  Don’t ask me where.  I don’t know.

17. Is there anything that you collect?

Beavers!  The mammalian sort, please.

18. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What magazine subscriptions do you have?

I’d love the new Big Girl Knits, Eclectic Sole or Charlene Schurch’s first Sensational Socks book.  I don’t do magazines, really.  More trash I don’t need.

19. When is your birthday?

Dec 27.

20. What book or movie character do you most resemble in personality?
I’ve been told I look like Janis Joplin, but I don’t see it, whatever.  Other than that I can’t think of one.

21. What is the climate like where you live around this time (need to know for careful shipments of anything meltable)?

Hot, freaking OMGWTFBBQ hot.

22. Tell us one weird fact about yourself!

I once ate a live moth on purpose.

Favorites
favorite painting/picture(link): I’m partial to the Rococo Movement if you can believe it, because I am the least girlie girl you’ll ever meet.

Candy: Chocolate, of course.

Food: Indian

Drink: Iced tea

Movie(s): Gone With the Wind, The Color Purple, Happiness

TV Show(s): Spongebob Squarepants, Family Guy, Home Movies, Sealab 2001, pretty much anything on adult swim, The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Hell’s Kitchen.  We’re also currently watching the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares.  I am an animation major, do not judge my love of cartoons.

Book(s): Gap Creek, Gone With the Wind, Just about anything by Mercedes Lackey, Stephen King or David Sedaris

Guilty Pleasure(s): Schadenfreude

It’s happy crazy funtime around here lately, kids.

First, I’ve been spinning and knitting like a bat out of hell lately. I dyed this with Paas egg dye tablets and it’s spinning up really pretty. Pastels, which are so not my thing, but I’ll probably ply and knit socks out of it anyhow.

I’m also working on socks for Mom. It’s her Mother’s Day present. I let her pick the yarn and the pattern and they’re coming along nicely. I have about twice as much done as the photo shows. I need to get a new photo.

The yarn is Plymouth Happy Feet and the pattern is from Charlene Schurch’s More Sensational Socks. The stitch pattern is the Stansfield 14 from that book. I’m knitting them on 2’s.

I’ve also got a surprisingly hopping little business going on Etsy. I started making and selling snag-free stitch markers for knitters, but most specifically for sock knitters. We need us some tiny st markers, so I made a bunch and they’re selling well as is my sock yarn, surprisingly. I’m selling there to earn money for SAFF. I have a room booked through Knitch for the whole weekend. I’m sending in my registration to take Schurch’s Sock Options class. How awesome to meet the woman herself. I will be all fangrrl and ask her to sign my book, yes I will. Kelly is going with me, so that’ll be fun. We’ve asked to room together. Knitch rented out the entire Inn for the weekend, so it’ll be nothing but fiber folks running around high on wool fumes all weekend.

Since SAFF is still months away I’ve taken this month’s profit and sunk it back in for more supplies so I can have more stock and make more money. I plan on having a hellafun time at SAFF and spending recklessly without guilt.

We also had some nature visits lately. First I caught a huge garter snake in the backyard. I took him in so he could stink all over Jat. Then we let him go. We also had a pair of cardinals build a nest right next to the front porch. I got pictures of the baby right after he hatched.

I cut a small hole in my porch screen so I could stick my camera lens through it and get some decent photos. Lot of fucking good it did. Turns out it doesn’t matter. I went out there to check on him yesterday and he was gone

I ended up picking up my nephews at the bus stop on their last day of school Friday. Poor Ben, he was sobbing like his little heart was breaking. I asked him what was wrong and he said, through sobs, “I’m going to miss my teacher and my friends and I don’t want school to end!” We made it a little better with lemonade on the way home, though. I’m still shocked at how small he is. When I see him from a distance I always wonder, “Who is that 5 year old with no supervision??” It takes me a few seconds to realize it’s my 7 year old nephew. How sad.

In my studio class we’re doing digital ink and paint.  It’s a lot of fun, I’m using the hell out of my graphics tablet (about time) and having fun.  It’s probably fun because I have good equipment on a good computer and I’ve been fucking around with digital art for over a decade now so I already know a ton of tricks.  We’re developing a character.  I kind of like my little guy.  We’ve only just started adding color, so that part looks like shit.

In other news, we may be moving to Virginia. Jat is interviewing for a cushy fucking job up there in a couple of weeks. We’d have to buy a house, who the fuck would rent to us with all these animals other than my own mom? No one! We’d have to MOVE ALL OUR SHIT! That is an overwhelming proposition to consider. I’d be moving all 12 animals up there myself. That is also a daunting thought. I’m a ‘go with the flow see where life leads you’ kind of person, so I’m open to the possibility, but I don’t want to go. Everything I know is here. I’ve lived here practically my entire life, all my friends are here. Friends I’ve had since high school for fuck’s sake! My knitting/spinning groups are here, I have a happy knitting home not 5 minutes from my house. I’d have to start over with everything. I’d have to find a new internist who understands PCOS. A new stylist! Ack! Oh fuck, I’m going to have to ask my colorist to come with me though. It took me a while to find her and I don’t want to lose her. Shit, the same could be said for my stylist. Goddamnit.

But, stepping out of one’s comfort zone is how one grows as a person, or some shit. I know it’s good for me to expand my horizons, but that doesn’t mean I have to sing and dance through the process.

My cup runneth over.  Seriously, in many ways, all good, mind you.

I got my wheel, so I’ve been doing that and taking breaks for things like peeing, eating and homework.  The housework, well, we all know I’m not much of a housekeeper as it is.  Dishes are getting done.  Mostly.  Dinners are spotty, we’ve been doing a lot of takeout.

I’ve got a ton of handspun to show off, but I only have pics of my most recent.  This is a wool/mohair lock blend that I carded and spun as one continuous single.  I managed 6 oz of singles and then Navajo plied the whole lot into about 400 yds give or take.

My husband is an amazing man.  He bought me a Dell Vostro, a 17″ with 4g of RAM and a dual core 2.0ghz processor.  Have I mentioned how much he fucking rocks?  Have I?  Because he so does.  It should be delivered either today or Monday.  Probably Monday, but I’m hoping for today.

I had my middle nephew over on Wednesday.  He’s 7 and all about learning to knit.  He was fascinated by the spinning wheel and I asked him if he wanted to try it and he did, of course.  So I let him treadle while I drafted.  He was too cute, “I’m doing it!  I’m really doing it!  I’m making yarn!”  After he used up the fiber I had in my hand we took his yarn off the bobbin and I wet it and gave it to him and told him to go whack it around on walls and whatever.  He went outside and whacked it on the side of a tree and against the house and loved every second of it.  He couldn’t believe we were smacking around something we’d just made.  Too cute.  They’re all cute and fun, but god, I am always so glad when it’s time to take them home.

I have lots of spinning projects in the works.  I have a shitton of fiber, pounds and pounds of it.  I have purchased very little of it, however.  It was mostly gifted/bonuses.  So I’ve been blending and dying and trying all sorts of experiments and having a great time doing it too.

My dyed batts.  Let me show you them.

That is a blend of BFL and tussah, about a 60/40 blend.  Dyed with Wilton’s.  I have some acid dyes now, the primaries and black.  I’ll be playing with those later.

And yes, that is a shredded batt, or rather a combination of shredded batts.  When I dyed them I did something incredibly retarded that ended up felting them in several spots.  I actually lost very little of the batts themselves, but I did have to tear them into pieces in order to recard them.

Sorry, but everything’s probably going to be about spinning for a while yet.  Jat says I’m just working my way further and further back in the process so I don’t actually have to knit him the socks I keep promising him.  I’m pretty sure he’s wrong.  He’ll get socks.  Eventually.