csusch's Xanga

I know I don't blog much

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:02:31 GMT

I know that you're all probably asking "Where is CAT?"
Well I know I don't blog much, but you can follow me on twitter, plurk and ravelry. Of course you can also find me at LetsKnit2gether!

Has Ravelry killed the Knitting Blog?

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:02:54 GMT

I was listening to PixiePurl's podcast this morning,(so glad to have you back!) and as I listened to her ask "Has Ravelry killed the knitting blog?" It dawned on me that I haven't blogged in months. It's not that I'm not involved and engaged with the knitting community. Now more than ever, I'm deeply involved.

So I began to reflect on what I used to blog for amd what am I doing now instead.

At first, back in 2003, my blog was a place to share pictures of my finished knitting projects to share with family and friends. As I realized other knitters were finding my blog, I began adding more detail around the pictures becuase the readers commented and asked about which yarn I used, etc. So what has replaced that? Well mostly Ravelry, but not completely. What Ravelry provided along with project posting, was the groups, discussion on the things which I was working on that others were working on too. Ravelry also gave me the chance to see possible projects that I might want to do by following firends who liked to do what I do. It didn't however, give access to my familty to see what I was doing, since they're not knitters and they're more interested in keeping up with me, not only my knitting. However, I haven't blogged in months and haven't heard from them about it so maybe they're not really looking? (If you are Mom, just leave a comment!)

At one point in my blogging life, I started to blog about the knitting community, my knitting life, later spinning and the process of that experience. I wrote about my knitting history and my familiy, as well as my commuter knitting.. So what replaced that? Well I guess our video podcast Lets Knit2gether really did that. I found a voice to speak to the knitting community about my personal stories and experiences and they wrote me back with comments and emails! This had always been rare for me to hear back from anyone on my blog, so I seemed to go where they were, which apparently was not on my blog. (If you're lurking, leave a comment and say "hi"!)

Then, I used to blog just to keep people up to date on the progress I was making on projects or the challenges I was having with my projects. When I first started blogging, I used to think it was bad luck to post pix of unfinished work because if something went wrong (see blue sweater) my blog would be a constant reminder of my failure. Later on I found that I was able to deal with the failures in the hopes that sharing my mistakes and mishaps with others could help them avoid them.
Now? Well the podcast certainly has replaced that, as well as twitter and Plurk. Plurk has been especially useful for brief and quick updates to the knitting community from my mobile on the road or when I'm not at my computer. I later discovered ping.fm which helped to keep twitter, plurk, facebook and my blog up to date with status.

So, has Ravelry killed blogging for me? I'd have to say "no". Advances in technology, specifically Web 2.0, and how the knitting community has adopted these tools has focused blogging on what is was originally designed for:
A journal and retrospective on your life and experiences. No other platform shows your history the way a blog does. Just look at my first entry in 2003 and see how I've evolved in 5 years. There's no other place that you can discover the knitter I was and see how I became what I am today. So, I will continue blogging. Will you?

Here are some recently finished projects to give you an update.

First the Morning Surf Scarf which the LetsKnit2gether Ravelers group did for August's knitalong. Below that is the finished Mystic Light Shawl Knitalong project

It has been a while.....

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:39:35 GMT

I have no intention of apologizing for not blogging for a while, since most know what I've been up to, especially if you've seen this:

I finished the Detonator socks, for Sock Wars III

Finished the felted bag for the KAL on Ravelry

Finished my Los Lobos Manos Crazy Monkey socks with my handspun yarn

Started a Clapotis

Got these beautiful roses from Eric for our anniversary:

I started spinning some 50/50 Romney/Lama which I bought at Rhinebeck '07:

and I'm still knitting the Mystic Light Shawl, now half way through clue #4

Making some progress on Mystic Light Shawl

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:09:02 GMT

Now that I've redone this shawl a few time, I'm finally making some progress with the Alchemy Bamboo.

I'm in the middle of clue# 2 (now 2 weeks behind!). I'm far happier with the look of this yarn than the other.
There was a point that I had to tink back because of a coat falling on it and loosing a few rows without a lifeline.
All better now.

I'm also finishing up spinning some Tussah silk to ply with the Qiviut.

Progress on the Rebecca's Qiviut:

I decided to stop stressing about the Mystic Light Shawl KAL

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:38:17 GMT

It only took two weeks to come to this, but I've finally decided to stop getting all worked up about the yarn for the Mystic Light Shawl KAL.

Here's what happened:

I searched the internet far and wide to find a yarn that was the color of flame since the hint that Knitandknag gave was that the theme was fire. Ooh how exciting! However, not knowing the construction of the shawl, I didn't know whether a handpainted yarn would work or not.

So, finally, I picked out this beautiful, brilliant merino/tencel fingering weight from Ellen's 1/2 Pint in the Blazing Sunshine Colorway and swatched it up a couple of weeks ago. This yarn is super soft and shiny, so I was psyched about using it for a shawl.

Now, I knew it was a little stripey, but until I knew how the shawl was constructed or how wide it would be, I wasn't sure whether it would be a problem to see the lace. So when the first clue came out this past Thursday, I started knitting it and got to this point:

From the first clue, I could tell it was a triangle knit from the neck down. That's when I knew it wasn't going to work. It was stripey and pooling.

So, I began my search all over again!

I looked at getting 3 shades of red MainLine yarn from Halcyon so that it would be more solid and I could graduate the colors. Then I thought that wouldn't work becuase I wouldn't know when to change colors since each clue comes out once a week. I then considered blending yellow and red fiber (using my new drum carder) in varying degrees of color to go from yellow, orange, deep orange to red and spin that up. I even considered spinning up this SpunkyEclectic silk in Sangria colorway which I had already started and to use that for the shawl.

Then common sense got the better of me and I realized that there was no way that I was going to have time to spin up a yarn (would have to be a 3 ply) for this shawl. (it took a week to come to my senses about this!)

That's when I decided to just knit it in a red yarn which I had lying around in my stash. That was fine, I started swatching until (SPOILER ALERT) I received my Year of Lace project pattern and yarn yesterday in the mail. Well it just happens to be RED! (no pix included so that anyone else on that KAL hasn't received theirs yet) Whatever would I do with two red shawls?

So that's it! I am now going to knit with some Alchemy Bamboo which I've had in my stash since 2006 Stitches East.

It's more like a burnt orange with very gradual color changes. It will be lovely in the fall, which is probably about when I'll finish it at the rate I'm going!!!

Going to Hamburg, Germany

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:55:28 GMT

If anyone is interested, I'll be in Hamburg, Germany April 7-9. Contact me at CAT AT letsknit2gether.com if you want to meetup!

Making some progress

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:23:10 GMT

After several weeks now of knitting everyday. I think I'm finally making some progress on my Boundary Waters Shawl.
Even though the website says that this is a new pattern, it is a reprint of a pattern I bought at least five years ago.

So, I started the shawl by spinning this from for some CJKopec blended roving:

I got the knitting started with beads on dpns

Now, I'm about a 1/3 of the way on circular round needles (time to move to a longer circular?)

I'm also contemplating knitting EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. I really want to choose something either self striping or variegated and definitely machine washable worsted weight, but I don't want to use RedHeart. Any suggestions?

A Visit with Wild Fibers

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:22:44 GMT

Last week, my spinning meetup went on a field trip in Brooklyn to The YarnTree shop and got to meet with Linda Cortright, publisher and editor of Wild Fibers Magazine. Linda spoke with us of "the stories behind the stories". The incredible photographs and her riveting storytelling was amazing to see. She spoke of her trips to Kazikstan, India and the Himalayas.

Eric and I spent most of the weekend shooting new episodes since the Rhinebeck Epic is beginning to wear us down a bit.

It all started with a request on Ravelry

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:29:52 GMT

Before the holidays last year, I was reading the SpinCity Ravelry group and there was a post from Kathe requesting if anyone would be interested in spinning some Qiviut.
I thought how interesting that would be, why wouldn't anyone want to spin Qiviut?

So I decided to go for it and volunteer to spin it.

It turns out that although Kathe was a knitter, she didn't spin and her colleague Rebecca who had picked up the Qiviut from the bushes while on a trip to Greenland didn't knit!
So this was going to end up being the work of three people. Rebecca the fiber collector, CAT the spinner and Kathe the Knitter.
There was no telling what could be knitted from this until I did the spinning, but Rebecca was willing to settle for even a headband or something small.

First thing was that I asked Rebecca if she could remove the guard hairs (thicker course hairs) from the Qiviut fluff.
This is a picture of the lump of fiber before Rebecca removed the guard hairs.

After that, Rebecca and I met in Columbus Circle and she gave me a bag full of the dehaired fluff which I washed and dried as pictured here:

I took the cleaned fiber (as seen on right below) and using my hand cards (cotton cards to be exact) and carded the fiber into rolags (as seen in the middle below)

I started spinning on my laceweight Golding (this stuff really wants to spin fine!)

I got to a spindle full and rolled it onto my makeshift bobbin (aka TP roll)

I haven't decided yet whether to just make a 3 ply of Qiviut alone or add a strand of silk to add some strength and stretch the yardage a bit.
Any ideas from you all would be welcome!

Carding?

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:21:12 GMT

After waiting for almost 6 weeks, my Louett Drum carder finally arrived from Paradise Fibers. Actually, it was drop shipped from Louett in New Jersey.

I love this new toy! I have all these great ideas now on what kinds of fibers I want to blend together.

There are a couple of reasons to card. (either with a drum carder or hand cards)
Color:

If you are looking to blend colors to create a new color
to create a colorway with each color still retaining its original color but striped.

New Fiber Properties:

have the final fiber take on the properties of both (i.e. blend wool with nylon to add stregnth)
Create an all together different texture than the original fibers.

Using a drum carder is much easier and faster than using hand cards and it also gives you many more options for blending since you have more control.

This was my first attempt at carding on my new Louett:

I took some Lama which I got at the 2006 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (Portia!) and blended it with Louett Chestnut Silk/Merino and some gold Angelina

What is pictured here was not the same ratio carded. I used 3 parts Lama to 1 part Wool/Silk and only a pinch of the gold Angelina.

I carded each fiber separately first, then recarded them together to create this batt

My goal was to enhance the Lama's ability to hold it's shape by adding wool/silk and then to give it a little sparkle with the Angelina.

This is how it is spinning on my Golding:

I really love the resulting color. Of course now I need to card all the fiber up the same way so that my project will all be consistant, but this was just my first experiment.