Knitterly Reconciliation

Not sure if the uptick in comments on yesterday's post is a result of the probing nature of my writing, the fact that everyone has an opinion to express about politics, or simply the fact that it has been almost four months (four months!) since my last blogging. Whatever; it seemed like the time to get back to it, and I guess you agree.

If the new Knitter's Review newsletter, Who We Are is any indication, I'm not the only one thinking and writing about coming together, post-election. Clara Parkes also seems to be thinking in terms of overcoming division. Here's the opener to her KR newsletter today:

"In all these years, I've only seen two things threaten the connection among knitters: religion and politics. And acrylic."

How true. She goes on to provide some statistical insight into the "common threads that connect us as knitters". Although I'm not a huge believer in statistics, particularly after my grad school experiences with them (as Disraeli said: "There's lies, damned lies, and statistics"), one from the newsletter caught my eye:

"we proudly and comfortably will knit in public (58.7%), although some of us tend to be a little more cautious about knitting with people until we've identified them as knitting-friendly (21.7%)" (bolds mine)

Hmmm. I am definitely part of the 58%+ that knits willy-nilly anywhere, anytime, in front of anyone, but you could probably guess that by the pics here. How about you? Are you a public knitter?

All of these photos are me, knitting on our camping trip 2 weekends ago for the All Hallows Heave, our annual Halloween disc golf tournament. At the campfire, while others carve jack-o-lanterns, in the sun & in the shade - I knit for 4 days, obsessively, on my Howler Monkey socks. I'm a slow knitter, so in those four days I only got as far as halfway through the heel flap on this top-down pattern. But they are knitting up like hair dye (nice 'n easy)! Bringing the 2nd one to do some more KIPing tonight on our new day for Purl 'n Hurl.

So if you are a public knitter, get out there and knit! But either way, here's to hoping that we can all find ways to do some post-election "knitterly reconciliation".

Tags: election, unity, knitting, KIP, common ground, socks

Pleased as Punch but also Disheartened

After an interminable election cycle, my guy won yesterday. Historic, to be sure, and I am undeniably thrilled that Americans set aside their (yes, I'll say it) racism long enough to take an unprecedented chance on change that came in a package that wasn't entirely to everyone's liking.

But I am equally dismayed by the mean-spiritedness I've seen on both sides of the political spectrum, not just during the campaign, but now that the election is more or less a done-deal. And I'm not talking about the talking heads that I watched obsessively on cable all day and night yesterday. They exhibited a modicum of journalistic restraint during coverage of returns; I actually heard Karl Rove on Fox News express positive, if grudging, respect for Obama's accomplishment.

No, what saddens me is the attitude and behavior of 'regular people', the people I encounter in political discussions online, in forums for and against candidates, parties, and platforms. Name-calling, disparaging personal attacks, seemingly intentional misrepresentation of others' positions; it was bad enough during the campaign, but now that the contest has been called, it is still going on! Despite what I saw as an extremely gracious concession speech by McCain, I saw some of the least-graceful responses from supporters on both sides. And the booing and sour-grapes of the losing side wasn't the worst of it, in my opinion.

What disturbs me the most are the words I hear being spoken by people who backed the winning candidate. I participated in a chat room for supporters of Barack Obama last night, and after he was declared President-elect, I was chagrined by what I read. During McCain's concession speech gloating, derision for the crowd, and a general fuck-you-losers attitude prevailed. The crowd was referred to as "assholes" and "a bunch of fucking losers". One chatter said "I want to see her [Sarah Palin] cry"! Someone else claimed that "McCain hates America"; another participant actually wrote that "We turned evil back today". No matter how much I disagree with the policies put forth by the Republicans, I don't believe that they are evil, and at the very least I have no doubt that McCain does not hate America. What happened to being gracious winners???

I hope that everyone, everyone, on both sides, heed McCain's call to unity under the new POTUS.

Tags: election

One Day to Wed!

We're all packed up (mostly), we've got all our backpacking/camping crap, and extra beer, and rings, and our officiant is on the way to pick us up... It's our last day of single-dom, and we can hardly contain ourselves, we're so excited. Here's a shot of our crap.

Back on Tuesday, newly hitched!

Tags: wedding, camping, backpacking

As L&V Say: 'Squeee!'

I finally updated my COLORBOMB Creations shop on Etsy yesterday, and sent out my very *first* official shop update email to my growing list of fans, and was instantly rewarded this morning when I discovered that in addition to several sales, I had been featured on the Lime & Violet blog Daily Chum as their ESotD (read: featured Etsy crack yarn sellers)! How cool is that?!? You can read their writeup of me and my yarns/fibers here.

Here are some of the yarns I added to my shop:



All the BOMBatts are gone already (!), but I'm busy crankin' out more, and there are a bunch of BOMBits art yarn ingredient spinning kits there, and some knitting buttons. More added in the coming days.

Happy freakin' Fiber Friday to YOU! :)

Tags: COLORBOMB Creations, Etsy, Fiber Friday, yarn pr0n, shop update, Lime & Violet, handspun

Black Sheep, Part 2: Shwag, Bingo, & Peeps

Couldn't cover everything yesterday, there was so much to see/do/buy at Black Sheep Gathering, so it's spilling over today into Part 2. I didn't make the financial killing I was expecting, so I didn't spend much (I think I got away with only parting with $55 of my hard-earned cash for everything), but I got a big return. It helped that my friend/driver/pee-breaker Elena/Knitopotamus trotted back to the booth the first day with this gift of a 2oz. bag of merino/mohair fluff from Rainbow Farms Northwest in one of my fave colors, international orange. Next year, I want to get some Pygora from them, which I hear is to die for.

This green/brown batt is from Superior Fibers, a mill that specializes in Shetland wool, which is much softer than I'd expected. They had some of these huge mill end batts in crazy Velma colors on Friday, but I forgot to go back to their booth with cash 'til Saturday, and they were all gone. But I think it's time for me to do some forays into more 'normal' colors, so I got this one, which is much prettier than it looks in my crappy photo.

I traded a skein of my LoopyDoopy yarn for this spectacularly soft Cormo-X batt (and $12!) from the lovely Linda & Lois at The Bellwether. I am recently in lust with Cormo, and just couldn't pass this up. I hardly ever spin undyed fiber, but I am a sucker for chocolate brown. Just want to eat it up! And I can't speak highly enough of the women behind the company (and their fiber groupie, Madeline); they were my neighbors outside the vendor building in the scorching heat, and they were just a blast, making my first time as a vendor just the most pleasant experience one could hope for.

I shared a booth with Veronica of Ronnie's Handspun, who sold the most scrumptious merino/Rambouillet/Targhee blend (look for 'Soft Wool Blend' on their website). I bought 2lbs. of it undyed, and 12oz. (all they had) of it dyed a screaming acid yellow-green (shown), another fave color.

I think I will spin all that I bought at BSG for myself, the little hoarder that I am. I think I have enough of each
(except maybe the orange) to do something substantial. Not sure what yet, though.

I also found a booth (sorry, can't remember which one!) that was trying to get rid of some cones of weaving cotton, marked at 25cents each on Friday. When I remembered to go buy 'em on Saturday, they'd been marked down to 15cents each, and I got all of these in the photo for the princely sum of $1.75, which is what I had left in my pocked after buying the Shetland batt. Score!

As for other BSG activities, local Ravelers Jodie/violinjodie and Bonnie/TheBon organized a game of Black Sheep Bingo, a la Rhinebeck Bingo, and it was a blast. Prizes were solicited (I donated a $25 BOMBucks gift certificate - congrats to Eliza/Fiberliza who won it, and who turned out to be the Official BSG Fiber Wrangler), and I won this lovely skein of handspun from Janet/jkplanet! Brenda/mythkeeper, came over to me and gave me a big hug from our friend Eva/atomHEART in Santa Cruz, which was really cool. I got to meet Mary/catmccall in the flesh, the woman I did the mondo seeds-for-fiber swap with several months ago; sad to say, many of the heirloom seeds I sent her from my mother didn't germinate, so I need to send her something else. Amelia/AskTheBellwether was not only there as a vendor, but she bought one of my BOMBits art yarn ingredient spinning kits! Can't wait to see what she makes with it; check the COLORBOMBers group on Flickr for her results. I met Wendy/Tortuga, who I really liked, but with whom I only seemed to bitch with about a person with whom we'd both had a bad encounter; I want to hang out with her again and talk about fun stuff sometime, so maybe a trip to Yreka is in my future. The crew from A Verb for Keeping Warm and Tactile Fiber Arts were really fun & friendly; hi to Kristine/KristineV, Adrienne/AdayKnits, Brooke/MissyB, Maia/Maia and Marcel the Bunny. Oh, and a shout-out to Adam/Knitguy - I had a blast chatting, hope I didn't talk your ear off; I'll email you about Twisted. I even met some folks from my own neck of the woods: Erika and her daughter Cecilia from Fortuna. Small world. I know I met a metric TON of interesting people that I haven't mentioned; if you didn't make the list it's just because I was so discombobbled and sleep-deprived that I've temporarily spaced your name. Never fear, I will remember you in time! Thanks to E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E. who took the time to come say 'hi', fondle my wares, have me sign their bingo card, or otherwise interacted with me.

Tomorrow: BSG Part 3: Merchandising, and 'Why I Love Vending'...

Tags: Black Sheep Gathering, BSG, fiber, Ravelry, fiber, handspinning, handspun, bingo

Of Black Sheep, Inventory, & the World's Greatest Fiancee

I'm baaaaack! Five days gone, all for Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. My first big(gish) fiber festival, and my first time as a vendor (don't worry, they were gentle).

I traveled with Elena, aka Knitopotamus, my spin-buddy extraordinaire. We managed to get all our camping gear and about a metric ton of COLORBOMB crap -- yarns, BOMBatts, BOMBits, displays, promo materials, etc. -- crammed into her Saturn 4-door, but I forgot to take pics. Meant to get a photo of the pile o' gear, but oh well. But I *did* capture this shot of her driving as we left town for parts north. Isn't she cute?

We left Thursday morning at about 10, right on schedule. We wound up the coast, stopping briefly at A Perfect Yarn in Crescent City, where I was hoping to pick up some 12" circs to start my Latvian wedding socks. No such luck, and I had a verbal tussle with the owner when she tried to correct me about stranded colorwork ("That's called fair isle, you know" said she.). But still a nice stop; it's a really lovely little shop, with a lot of variety and high end yarns. Almost bought the last Needle Gauge Pendant she had.

Stopped in Grants Pass for lunch at Wild River Brewing & Pizza Co. - yum! I always get a Rueben and a Bohemian Pilsner, and this time was no different. Love that place! No money and no room for the purchase of a case, though. Oh well.

Got to the Lane Co. Fairgrounds at about 6:30 as expected, and pulled in to the parking lot next to the campground (just a big ol' grassy field across the creek from the fairgrounds proper). When I asked the folks camping next to us if we'd left enough room, we found out they were members of our very own guild! It was the Southern Humboldt contingent, including Ace and family of Ace 'n the Hole Ranch (Romney sheep) in Myers Flat, Janet Heppler of Nebo Rock Textiles in Covelo, and Janet Finch of Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill in Whitethorn. We scored on neighbors!

Friday was, thankfully, slightly cooler than the Thursday; I think it only reached about 85. For us thin blooded Humboldtians, it was freakin' HOT! But I liked it. I was supposed to set up the booth the night before, but my booth-mates were busy assembling the tent and weren't ready to set up until almost opening time Friday morning. So I managed to get my table set up in about 40 minutes.

As you can see, I went with an orange color scheme. I really like it. Scored a great woven fabric at Joann's for the tablecloth, and picked up a boatload of plastic containers at the Dollar Tree for displays. Plus Cole, who is the most supportive fiancee a girl could ask for, made me 2 tabletop racks to match the floor rack he made me for Christmas, so my yarns were really shown off to best advantage.

And there's a bucket of freebie Smarties, a bowl of sale yarns, a bowl of BOMButtons & keychains (with knitting- & crochet-themed pics), and you can see Betty modeling my Dread (K)naught Hat using LoopyDoopy yarn, so people could see how they knit up. I also had The Fez with me, for an example of WoolyBear yarn, and I was working on Wrong Number, in a (S)craptastic yarn. I meant to have swatches of *all* my yarns, but it just didn't happen in time. Next year...

There's more pics in my COLORBOMB Live! set on Flickr, if you're interested. But they're all of my booth; not a one of me, or Elena, or the animals, or the other vendors, or camping, or... Doh! I was so busy having a great time that I just never thought to pull my camera out of my bag.

I *did* have time to peruse the 'competition', though, and pick up a few things. I bought 2lbs. of an undyed merino-Rambouillet-Targhee blend, an another 12oz. of the same blend dyed a screaming acid yellow-green, both from Veronica of Ronnie's Handspun, whom I shared a booth with. (Thanks, V!) It is just *the* softest roving ever, and I might start carrying it in my shop, so keep your eyes out for it. Isn't it purdy? I got some other fibers, and played Black Sheep Bingo with the other Ravelers there, and, and, and... Check back tomorrow for pictures of the shwag I bought, and more of the story. :)

Tags: Black Sheep Gathering, BSG, COLORBOMB, COLORBOMB Creations, yarn, artyarn, handspun, fiber

Boy, Do I Have Pics for You

New yarns:

New knitting:

New spinning:

Click on a thumbnail to see it bigger and with details!

Tags: COLORBOMB Creations, yarn, yarn pr0n, knitting, handspun, handspinning, WIPs

More Absentee Velma

I've been having a hard time getting good blogging mojo again, folks. Lots has happened in the last week, but I'll wait to post on it.

Instead, here's the photos from last night's Purl 'n Hurl KIP gathering.
This week, we had 12 knitters, a hooker, and a husband. Thanks, Eli, for letting me rope you into playing photographer!

1. Happy Photog, 2. Lookit Us!, 3. The Band, 4. Bea & V, 5. Gaye & Des, 6. Suzy WIP KIP, 7. Elena WIP KIP, 8. Bea WIP KIP, 9. Velma WIP KIP, 10. April WIP KIP, 11. Kellen WIP CIP, 12. Happy Knitters, 13. Happy Knitters, 14. Purl 'n Hurl

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Come join us soon! We meet on Wednesday nights at Mazzotti's on the Arcata Plaza. Oh, and a few of us are also meeting on Saturdays at the Farmers Market on the Arcata Plaza, on the southeast corner, facing the band, from about 11am to 1:00ish. We even bring spinning wheels! All are welcome.

I'll give an update soon on the scarf I (finally) finished, using my Floofle-y handspun. That's it on the broomstick-sized needles you see me wielding.

Tags: purlnhurl, stitchnbitch, snb, arcata, humboldt, knitting, crochet, WIP, KIP, KUI

Lots Goin' on in V-World

Is this the cutest baby ever, or what? Welcome Dinon into the world, readers. He was born on 4/20 (insert stoner joke here), and he's the best hat model EVER! I made that hat for him awhile back, before he was even conceived, as a matter of fact; I just didn't *know* it was for him 'til he popped out. I can't get over how much I love those little fists (I think he's sick of campaigning, too). ;) Oh, the hat? Made with Koigu KPPPM, which I can't recommend highly enough for infant hats: so soft! And easy to work with, too.

Put up a custom reserved listing today on Etsy, for a BOMBits Spinning Kit of art yarn ingredients in 'Crayola'. My plan is to make a bunch more kits in a variety of colors to take to Black Sheep Gathering, so if you're planning on attending and you've been jonesing for one, come by my booth for a visit. If you have a color request, be sure to drop me a line and let me know - I'd be happy to try to accomodate your special request.

Guess what arrived a day early? My new carder!!! My beater Fricke that I bought used from Otto Strauch, to complement my Finest that I got for Christmas from my sweetie in '06. Isn't it purdy? Started makin' batts on it immediately, and cranked out enough for a 50+ yard skein of WoolyBear yarn in nothin' flat. Put aside the supercoils for awhile, and spun that up. Now it's back to LoopyDoopy for a few more days. But check back tomorrow for pics of the WoolyBear yarn and batts...

Oh, and I keep forgetting to post this photo of my 'stable' of wheels. I took it a week or 2 ago, after my Pirtle was fixed. L to R: 'Myrtle', Vintage Pirtle Bulky Spinner, c. 1970s; 'Harry', Lendrum DT; and 'Babe', Babe Production DT.

And just to leave you with a weird piece of trivia: I can't believe how many hits in my blog stats come from the search parameter "knitting pattern penis" (and I suppose writing that won't help any either). I think I may have to write one, since there is apparently such a huge clamoring for it. ;)

Tags: COLORBOMB Creations, FOs, handspinning, spinning wheel, drum carder

What Did YOU Do This Weekend?

Spinning in public happened! Elena and I did some spinning on the Plaza during Farmers Market again, with Bea and Autumn and Eileen for company. (Thanks, Bea, for taking photos!) Also ran into my friend Alison and her daughter Willow, who I haven't seen since she was preggers; dude, am I ever out of touch - Willow is 15 months old! And dang if I didn't forget to grab the camera.

I also set the twist on the last of the 'Spent Blossoms', for a total of 4 skeins. That's it there, after drying. Purdy! AND yesterday I spun a long skein in another colorway, 'Cecil Bruner', and today I plied it. Busy. More to come, including photos (as always). Oh, and I didn't forget about the BSG Bingo details, I just haven't had a chance to blog about 'em. Soon, I promise.

And that's about it! Hope your weekend was fun.

Tags: SIP, handspinning, yarn

Scarfy Adventures

A bit of a knitting update for Fiber Friday: remember 'Cotton Candy', the first (and only, so far) of the Floofle-y line? I've been knitting on it off and on for *weeks* now, trying to come up with the right thing for it. Tried a freeform crochet hat first; didn't like it. Frogged and did an 8-stitch scarf; didn't like it, too wide. Frogged again, 6-stitch scarf next; didn't like it. That's it in the photo. Still too wide, I think. I think I'll frog yet again and try with only 3 stitches, in the same improvised drop-stitch pattern, and see how that works. I think it wants to be skinny. Feel free to make suggestions. Oh, and there's a closeup view on Flickr & at its Ravelry project page.

I completely forgot to put the info about BSG Bingo into my post on Black Sheep Gathering!! Doh. I'm out of energy, so I think I'll postpone 'til tomorrow, 'kay?

PS - I have a new online friend, jelover9, who is a new blogger, and I just read that her house caught on fire! It didn't burn down, but all her yarn smells icky-poo, and she's having a bad week. So go give her some love, wouldja? Read her blog and leave a comment with some virtual support. Me? I'm gonna send her some candy yarn.

Tags: Fiber Friday, WIPs, handspun, COLORBOMB Creations

WOMB Wednesday & BSG

It's acronym day at Velma's World! Thought I'd do a "What's on my Bobbin?" Wednesday post. Here you are seeing skein #3 of 4 of LoopyDoopy Minis in 'Spent Blossoms'. Destined for sale at Black Sheep Gathering in June, it's supercoils in merino. (Yeah, I know; I'm sick of supercoils too. Something new soon, I promise.)

Speaking of BSG, I know I've alluded to it several times here, but I don't think I've made a formal declaration about my attendance. I'm here to change that; I *am* going to BSG in June, as a VENDOR! I'm very excited, but nervous too. This will be my first time at a big fiber festival, AND my first time as a vendor anywhere. I hope COLORBOMB and I are up to it!

I've been spinning like mad, stepping up my production as much as I can. I'm a fairly slow spinner, but I've already got 11 skeins of LoopyDoopy and LoopyDoopy Minis ready to go. My goal is to have at least 50 skeins of yarn to bring, plus some fiber. But it's been suggested that maybe I'm concentrating on the wrong audience, and that I should really be focusing on spinners, not knitters/crocheters, and should bring mostly fiber. So after my new carder gets here, I'm going to start cranking out the BOMBatts. With 2 different carders, I'll be able to make both smooth, well-blended batts (on my Strauch Finest), and lumpy-bumpy art batts (on my Fricke coarse). I'm calling them Plain Jane BOMBatts and Artsy Fartsy BOMBatts, respectively. Oh, and I'll be making some smooth batts with sparkle, called Bada Bling BOMBatts. Hope to have some pics soon to share. I should have some Wads o' Wool and Felty Balls, and some BOMBits art yarn ingredient kits, too. More details to follow as they emerge.

Tags: COLORBOMB Creations, yarn pr0n, yarn, spinning, handspinning, Black Sheep Gathering, fiber

Validator Velma

Over the weekend I decided to do a little research into why my blog doesn't appear in the Google Alerts I have scheduled to receive. Learned that one of the reasons might be HTML/XHTML errors in the code, so I went to a validation site, Validator XC3.org, and checked my code; whoa! There were over 1400 errors! So I spent an hour or so yesterday and another hour this morning fixing an ampersand here, and a missing carat there; I'm down to under 1200 errors, but that's still a LOT of code to sift through. Next up, I've got to go educate myself about parsing errors...

Helper Cole is off work today, so I sent him downtown posting COLORBOMB packages, paying bills, and returning the dye I bought Saturday. Love having a chore-boy!

But I spent the day spinning and plying - you guessed it - coils!

And here's a little yarn porn so you don't go away empty handed; it's the March installation of the Yarn Pirate sock club - 'Sweet Lime'. It's got bamboo! :)

Tags: blogging, yarn pr0n

Busy Sunday

Every day is busy 'round these parts, it seems... No rest for the wicked, eh? ;)

Spent an hour or so fiddling with the new ring membership for the Fiber Arts Bloggers webring; seems that Ringsurf has changed all the rules, so the webmistress for FAB had us change our code yesterday, then today I get another email saying that she's switched to an entirely new ring manager, alt-webring. I think she made the right decision (the new "improved" Ringsurf deal was crap; no more 'previous/next' surfing, everything gets directed to Ringsurf, no way to see a list of all sites in the ring, etc. - I wouldn't be surprised, or disappointed, if I heard from my other ring managers in the near future); but it did mean another hour of code tweaking. Ah, well, all is fixed now.

Then I did a little COLORBOMB paperwork, 'cuz I've had a few sales over the weekend. Got my spreadsheet updated and the packages ready to ship tomorrow. Now that's a chore I don't mind!

Today was supposed to be a day of dyeing (my first with 'real' dyes), but between the butt-ass cold weather and the fact that I - doh! - bought the wrong dyes yesterday, that is on hold. Yep, I bought MX fiber-reactive dyes, not acid dyes. What a dork, huh? Back to the drawing board.

My friend Katie stopped by to drop off her button-maker, on loan so I can make a bunch of freebie promos to bring to Black Sheep Gathering. But I've got to get my printer problem straightened out (no cord for one, no ink for the other, & both need the drivers updated) before I can make any. Think I'll spring for the ButtonBuilder software, too. Again: back burner for now.

So, I set about my daily task of spinning coils. And more coils... Everywhere, coils! Today I worked on plying the 'Spent Blossoms' colorway I spun yesterday. I think maybe coils are my favoreite thing to spin. Of all my yarns, they are the most relaxing to spin, so rhythmic. But plying, I am not a fan of plying. And the plying of supercoils seems the most endless task.

Back to it!

Tags: COLORBOMB Creations, Sunday, chores, spinning, handspinning