The Web, I knit

Mrs Luedtke asked the question

"So where do you purchase your "yummy yarn" on the internet. How close have colors matched from the screen to actual arrival? Please, let me know your internet yarn secrets!"

Here is my EXTREMELY scattered answer:

So here's the deal. I'm kind of a yarn snob. And even a yarn store snob. Not that any one is better than the other, I just have a VERY strong preference. So, well, yes I do believe that some IS better than the other. But I also think to each his or her own.

Yarn choices are also made based upon what you will be knitting, who you are knitting for and it's function. Where and how you purchase them can be based upon whether your priorities like in cushioning the wallet or keeping small businesses open and supporting the independent crafter. I also like to factor in how soon I need (okay crave) the yarn.

Warning, I am about to reference The Yarn Harlot several times. Her calendar is a fantastic resource. I encourage you to ask for one for Christmas. Thank you Mark and Cindy! I didn't even have to ask! ;)

1.)In 1953 the first commercial polyester fiber was put into production by the Dupont company. With this invention began a knitterly debate about the pros and cons of man-made fibers and their use in knitting. The battle still rages to this day. When you're selecting yarn to make something for a baby (or anyone for that matter *) keep in mind that many synthetic yarns (like acrylic) are extremely flammable and shouldn't be used for things that babies will wear when unattended or for sleep(or around the campfire, at a candlelit Christmas service, when reaching across the dinner table with candles). Superwash wool can go in the washer and dryer.

My Vandal Fall hat and many other projects you may or may not have seen are knit out of Lynda's Superwash wool hand dyed sock yarn<click here>. Very soft, very vivid, very love.

2.) August 14 is love your LYS day. LYS=local yarn shop. Local yarn shops truly procide a service that is vital to knitters and you will NEVER EVER find it at JoAnnes or Michaels. At a local yarn shop you will find years of experience, camaraderie, and joy. When I was first in McCall and needed friends Luke said "Go find friends, go to a fabric store or something." Well I went to the fabric stores, they were cool and all, but when Lynda offered right then and there to teach me how to knit, and she showed me the table where people come in just to knit, my heart was won over. Friends, you will never find that at a mega craft store. If it means I pay more for yarn, I remember I'm getting much much more than yarn. On that note, Fresno does have very good local shops. I've rather turned into a hermit, sort of to my dismay. (I say sort of because Im really okay with it right now.) In my opinion Swatches has the most kindred spirit feel, but there is also Janna's (Fresno and Bullard) and Ancient Pathways (by St Therese, the Armenian Catholic Church.)

Okay so those were things I had to throw out there. Now on to how I buy online:

First, I have become a Ravelry <click here> junkie. It's like Facebook for knitters and crocheters. You can view reviews of gazillions of patterns, find free patterns, see how other peoples projects turned out if you're considering a patter AND get yarn recommendations. I can click to view the yarn the pattern uses and I can click on the yarns tab and see what other yarns have been used and how many times. If I click to see the projects done in the yarn I am considering and they all look funky, I search for the yarns that look good, or get used the most. THEN I start looking into it online. You can click the "Where to buy this yarn" link. I check out prices, color availability, etc. Sometimes I'll call around to see if I can find the yarn locally, other times I get it for 45% off (only happened once) and order it ASAP!

If I know that finding the right color/size is imperative and I need the advice of an expert with a large stock available, I call Wendy at The Websters in Ashland, OR. <Click Here> Wendy has been amazing. She helped me pick the yarn for Janice's Slippers when I told her I needed aqua and red for crocheting slippers, she helped me pick the yarn for Cindy's slippers when I said I need vibrant orange and pink in cotton, and she helped me pick the Navy Blue and Gold yarn for Henry's hat and mittens. When I call her with my request she goes on a yarn hunt, gathers them all together, then takes pictures of each of the color combos, and then emails them to me. Ooooh she is awesome! The colors are never "Dead On" with what I expect but then again I've always refused her offer to send me swatches because I am too anxious to have the yarn in my hands!

Cady is a Crafter

At the beginning of the school year my friend Cady had been having a hard time getting homework done in a reasonable amount of time. I struck a deal with her. If she could get her homework done by an agreed upon time then she would earn some points for that day. Well she recently earned enough points to have a crafting adventure! Yesterday was the day. She had decided she wanted to make a blanket for her American Girl Doll, Zoey. If you're unfamiliar with American Girl click <here.> Me being the quilter that I am my brain automatically translated blanket into quilt. It was a go. First thing we did was stop at Country Waffles where Destinie works. Cady knew Destinie from when she came to my PE class last year. Then we headed over to NFC to see the quilters in action! Cady was lucky enough to see all the different kinds of quilts and all the stitches/ties being put into the quilt.

The we went to cottage quilts where she picked out her fabric all by herself! Not fabric I would have instantly been drawn too but it looks great together! Really POPS! We got some zebra minky for the back! Then we had to drop of my computer at Eagle Networks where I happened to know there would be some fantastic fabric appreciators! I wanted Cady to have the full experience including OOoohing and ahhhing over fabric. Great job Eagle Networks! Thanks Aunt Maggie for taking pictures!

Then it was back to Cady's house where she mapped out her quilt...

cut the fabric...

layed it out...

and got to work sewing!

Here is the finished product! (Minus the quilting...I think she might start that Monday...)

the back...

We even busted out a pillowcase (minky for the main part...what a spoiled doll!) and a rug like the one in cottage quilts. Flowers on one side...

Zebra skin on the other.

It was a great day! Cady is a very committed crafter! She stuck to her project all day and the only time she went off to do something else was when I asked her to practice piano while I pinned some of her corners!

Kool Blue Waters

Val's good friend Laura has commissioned a pair of mittens. Valerie told her she couldn't wear the ones she got from the dollar tree so now Laura is pullin out the big guns and goin for the gold. I had her log on to my Ravelry account and pick a pair she liked. She said, "Can you do those? Are they too hard?" Psssh. I can do anything. We'll see if that's my tune when I'm done. I got the book from the library, ordered the wool yarn (Lanaloft worsted.) Laura is pretty go with the flow so I've taken this opportunity to hand dye the yarn for the pattern. I'm using Kool Aid.
I made a big loop so that the yarn wouldn't be variegated in such short intervals. I wanted it to be fairly gradual. Soaked the yarn in water. Looks like spaghetti.

Dissolved the kool aid. (Round one: 1/3 package blue 1 tip of spoon purple Round two: 2/3 package blue 2 tips of spoon purple Round 3: Whole package blue 3 tips of spoon purple)

I wanted 3 shades of the same blue each level darker than the next. Here you can see round one in the microwave.

I believe this is round two. Chopsticks were perfect for propping the round one yarn out of the dye. Not metal so I could still do the simple microwave method.

After round three I did all the yarn for two more min in the microwave all submerged in the darkest dye. (I realised there was plenty of room to take the whole thing darker.) You can see how much of the color it actually absorbed.

Here's the whole thing hanging out in the sink post rinse. Twisted into a loose hank and drying the rest of the way on the back of my door.

Wound into a ball. Doesn't do it justice...looks rather pink...couldn't wait to start knitting it.

This yarn has been dubbed Kool Blue Waters.

My Resource can be found here http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html and I strongly recommend following their directions and not my photo story board.

Under 1 Generals Fan

Not to mean that there is less than one generals fan. Just that THIS fan is under the age of 1. Henry's Dad John is a coach and henry needed a blue and gold hat to wear to games. I was up to the challange. Henry's Auntie Jill and I picked out a pattern at Monday night football. Then I forwarded some yarn choices I'd gotten from the ever so helpful Wendy...shoot I think that's her name...at The Websters in Ashland OR. (Pretty good yarn store folks.) The day I got the yarn in the mail I started the hat!

But then I though...Henry cant just have a hat! I have left over yarn. He needs something else.

Mittens! Henry needs mittens! Having just picked up the book Knit Mittens by Robin Hansen from the library for Miss Moss's mittens, I was well equiped to make Henry's. (This book is fantastic by the way.)

And now Henry has a set to wear when he cheers the Generals on!

The Curse

"The Sweater Curse holds that if you knit a sweater for your romantic partner before there's a commitment with some sort of legal binding, there will be consequences. He will, within days or weeks of your delivering a sweater into a previously happy relationship, dump you and take the sweater with him. As you can imagine, this is quite painful. There really are other fish in the dating sea and people survive terrible breakups all the time; the real tragedy is that he gets away with a great sweater."

Yarn Harlot from her Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar

The same applies to quilts. Sooo I never made any quilts, or sweaters for any of those boys.

HOWEVER

"In Devon, England, during the 19th century, it was common for an engaged woman to knit a wedding sweater for her beloved. It would be a fancy, personal sweater, sometimes with his initials knit into the gusset under the arms. The groom didn't have to knit the bride anything."

Yarn Harlot from her Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar

Soooo because Luke is well, larger than me, and MY OWN sweater took forever, the day Luke and I got engaged I began this quilt for him.

It is very personalised in that the very dark green diamonds have scenes of "old world" golfers on a golf course. Seeing as Luke is a Professional Golf Management Major, I found this very fitting. Hmmm, maybe it's his graduation present too! Haha.

The mere fact that he can hold it long ways in each corner and have it be spread out, stresses A.) That he is not a tiny man and knitting a sweater for him would take FOR-EV-ER and B) that this is a LAP quilt. I realized he cant exactly burrow deep down under it. It's perfect for watching movies! I used a plaid flannel for backing and its warm and soft!

I hand quilted it in blue pearl cotton big stitch. I was going for an argyle look! The light wasn't fabulous sorry. Maybe someday when the quilt and I live in the same household Ill give taking new pictures a shot.

Vandals Win!!

It was homecoming in Idaho and I got to be there for the game! It was quite the event! I can believe I forgot to get the camera out until halftime!You can see the marching band alumni up front by their uniquely painted tubas! There's one with a flag and one with flames!
These were the shoes I wore pretty much all weekend. Yep sheepskin, fleece lined slippers. They had a rubber sole so I could wear them around town....and I did. Everywhere. It's cold in Idaho!

The seats thinned out at half time when everyone went back out to tailgate. From back to front here's my old roommates Heather and Kelsi, Kelsi's boyfriend and Luke's old roommate Cody, and Chris (also Luke's old roommate.)

You can see all the light coming in from the new glass panels on the end of the kibbie dome.

Luke and Mark...yep they're brothers. (I think they had to say that like 20 times this weekend.)

The game was pretty exciting. I watched the whole time and even yelled at appropriate places. The crowd is supposed to yell when we're on defense so the other team cant even hear themselves think let alone hear each other. The noise was DEAFENING! Especially at the end. The score was 34-28 Vandals were behind in the fourth quarter. They pulled through made a touchdown and scored the extra point by kicking it through the yellow meat fork at the end of the field (field goal?). That put LA Tech down by ONE!!! They were trying to push close enough to at least get a field goal and score another point to tie the game. The coach even made desperate time out calls and stuff to "Ice the kicker" or whatever. Once second left, their kicker missed the meat fork. Vandals won!

People swarmed the field! This was 5 min later when I finally remembered to take a picture so things were calming down by then.

What made a significant impression was that the tuba players who normally wear skirts/kilts/whatevers had donned tutus! Tutus and tubas. Never would have put them together but they cracked me up!

The Vandals have 7 wins now! Wooh! Now they gotta beat Fresno State on the 7th and Boise the next weekend. Don't call me Saturday. I'll be watching the game! (PS. If anyone knows how to find fantabulously inexpensive plane tickets to the game in Idaho please share...)

Fire and Ice Slippers

Dear Little Spouse on the Prairie,

For you. Colors of fire and ice to keep your toes from freezing! Made of wool and rather thick. No buttons per specifications.
AND just for you in appreciation for all those buttons you've been sending, a coordinating knit hat. This one is the bulky yarn version of my Vandal Fall hat. The leaf pattern makes me think of scales while it's being knit, so I'm calling it Saphira after the beautiful blue dragon in Eragon.

The scarf I am making in the same pattern to go with my Vandal Fall Hat will probably be called Thorn after the villainous dragon in this book. Hmmm this naming thing is growing on me! :) The slippers will be on their way this afternoon!

Fall Fun-Fresno

The weekend before Halloween I was really craving some fall fun! Soooo we headed for the pumpkin patch. I read other peoples blogs and their pumpkin patch and apple farm pictures show them all bundled up with coats and hats. Well not in Fres-yes. Here it was in the 80's. Whew!

This pumkin patch had fun play areas where I could hang out with Bethany and Rachel on the swings, and tires! Well the swings were made out of tires too...maybe I should just say tires?They had tricycle races...And a tractor pulling these super fun cars/trailers/buggies.It looked ike a caterpilllar!They also had farm animals that you could feed and pet. I met this cool guy JJ. He's an alpaca and I just know the two of us could make a great knitting team. He grows fur. I spin and make sweaters! When we asked him if he wanted to come home with me he snorted and shook his head. Alas, I am still alpaca-less.I picked out the perfect pumpkin too! Bethany and Rachel came around and helped me too. We seriously contemplated the pros and cons of each pumpkin. Then we calculated the cover just to get in AND the cost of one pumpkin?!?! I decided to buy THREE for the price of one at a local grocery store. Here are the grocery store pumpkins. After a dangerous session of cutting out the top hole we (mom and I ) decided that utilizing power tools would be a much better alternative. Sooo I busted out the dremmel and the drill. Success. We were even able to use the dremmel to create shading for when the light shines through!On Wednesday before I left for Idaho, my school had their play....Peter Pan! I helped one of our girls come up with her costume. She was a lost boy. For under $20 this is what we came up with!One of the birds lost its head during rehearsal but I was pretty proud of how we turned her hair into a birds nest!