Month: November 2007

Swatching and books and oh hey I bought a wheel!

Posted by zyllah – November 2, 2007

So I picked a pattern, Vee. I also went through the stash and came up with two possibilities that wouldn’t wreck a sweaters amount of yarn and I swatched them. We’re going for 4 spi, which we did not get (as usual) but we did come close. Swatch 1 is Classic Elite Renaissance in a color called Plum. Its kind of an odd yarn in that each ply is a different but harmonious color.

It’s not dry yet so I am reserving final judgement till morning. Our next contestant is a discontinued yarn by berroco called Pleasure. It’s mostly angora and has a cabled construction that supposedly minimizes shedding.

At this point I’m leaning towards the classic elite even if its not as squishy.

Today was a good day, my vogue sock book came from zooba. Zooba rocks, how can you beat books for 9.95 including shipping. Sometimes they even have good knitting books, I got SKS and this vogue book through them. It is very similar to sks but with different and perhaps better stitch patterns. I haven’t had as much of a chance to look through it because I was swatching and well buying a wheel. So anyway I forgot while at the fiber fest I picked up No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne Macdonald. I’ve just paged through it but so far it looks really interesting.

Ok now the big big big news. I have been wanting a wheel and I kept putting it off as they are a huge expense. I came close a couple of times with some deals on various babes. However…I’m a big believer in buying something that will last. Which is why I have expensive cookware and sheets since I would rather buy something once. Anyway I considered buying a so-called beginner wheel and I just thought that seemed stupid. None of them are cheap you know? Might as well get something you could conceivably keep forever if you are going to invest that much.  Anyway…so today I happened to glance at an email from the spin sales list and saw this deal.

I am now pricing my Majacraft Suzie plus many accessories at $XXX
with free shipping. It is excellent condition, with the exception of
two scratches on the left peddle. Runs great. It comes with 6 plastic
bobbins, 2 jumbo plying bobbins, a fine fiber flyer with attachments
and a high-speed whorl and belt, a Wild Flyer for funky spinning, and
a non-tensioned Majacraft lazy kate. I’m willing to break up the
accessory package if I don’t get a buyer for the whole thing. The
whole package has a retail value of around $850, so it’s quite a
savings.

So I emailed her and got pictures and decided it was too good a deal to pass up. Siouxsie arrives tuesday.

NA*X*MO

Posted by zyllah – November 1, 2007

Ok so I’ve sort of decided to unofficially blog everyday. I’m just trying to see if I can do it. I mean I sure as hell don’t have enough interesting stuff going on in general but what the hell. So today’s entry will be about the fiber fest I went to this past weekend. I went last year and it seemed like there were more vendors but this year had more people. I took Lady E out for her first public appearance and she was much admired which she enjoyed immensely. We took a big carpool trip all umm 6 of us which was quite fun. Anyway I met some neat people and of course we traded ravelry Id’s. I set up a flickr set for the event but I’m going to bore you with some photos anyway. Once we got to the fiber vending area I didn’t take as many photos since I was too deep in shop mode.

So there were Sheep:

Sheep Getting Nekkid:

Anyway like I said if you want to go look at the set.

So I was pretty decent. I mean I had a budget and I only went a little over. I bought another 4 oz of that gorgeous silver alpaca that I got at the last fair (and in my laziness I am reusing the old picture)

I also got two different colorways of bfl from fiber denn.

I also got two spindles also from Fiber Denn. My spinning is much much improved.

And now to the yarn. I only got two skeins.

This is 550 yrds of sock weight. It wants to be something other than socks.

This 880 yrds of wool lace. It actually is more variegated in real life.

So after the festival we hit the Knaughty Knitter and I *shock* didn’t buy anything. I just felt like I had spent enough. However I did meet the lovely Barb. After that we went to lunch at corky’s this really good BBQ place and then we went to threaded bliss. I hadn’t been since it was sold. I’m really glad they brought in some Rowan and I think the yarn selection is improved somewhat. I will miss David though. He was hilarious. Again I didn’t buy anything. Although at one point I had over a 100 dollars worth of yarn in my hand. I was good I resisted the siren call. So after that we tried to hit Haus of Yarn. Now I hate to complain but we had an SUV full of knitters. We probably all would have bought something and they still had people in the shop but they wouldn’t let us in. Exactly how likely are we to go back and drop mega cash now? In my case not very. The service there has ALWAYS been hit or miss for me. We were all rather peeved.

The sock is still a toe hat but I am in spitting distance of finishing the left front to thermal. I expect to finish that panel tonight. I also (because I am a lemming) feel the pull of knit a sweater naswamo or whatever. However NO SOCK WEIGHT SWEATERS. So I’m thinking the cardi version of wicked or the Vee pullover. If I can pick a yarn. Cause you know with family coming for turkey day its the perfect time to totally stress myself out over other things.