Zen in the Fog

 6 days out of 7, the weather along the coast of Los Angeles is gorgeous with perfect temps, cool breezes, and clear skies. That seventh day, though, makes me feel like I’m on another planet. The fog rolls in off the Pacific and covers everything in a fine mist. You can barely see the sun in the sky let alone 100 feet ahead. I love walking the beach in this kind of weather. The grey mist, the sound of the waves, and wet sand under my bare feet combine in the perfect moment of zen. Still, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Cthulian monsters walked out of the depths or zombies slowly shambled into view. 

Visiting: Wild Fiber

I haven’t regretted moving to California. The weather is lovely, the beach is close, and my neighborhood is walkable. That’s not to say that I don’t miss my old hometown, family, friends, and favorite haunts. I also miss my favorite yarn shop. In The Making absolutely spoiled me with a large selection of wonderful yarn and fabric, great staff, and friendly knit nights. I’m not ashamed to say that one of the very first things I did once we decided to move was to look for yarn shops (and spinning guilds) in LA. Priorities, you know?

I finally got to visit one of the local shops, Wild Fiber, last weekend. Once I walked through the door, I was quite smitten. They have a large selection of yarns from wool to cashmere, tons of books and patterns, needles, notions, and adorable project bags. There was also hand dyed, luxury, and by the ounce roving. Can’t forget the spindles either. It made my knitting and spinning heart happy. The staff was friendly too.

 I’m looking forward to returning and browsing around for my next project and a bit of stash enhancement. Wild Fiber definitely worth a visit if you’re in town and have never been. 

A Fractal Tour de Fleece

Tour de Fleece spinning continues with one single down and one to go for my first skein of fractal yarn. I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s only taken me just over a week to spin 2 oz of what’s essentially a lace weight single. Let’s hear it for daily progress and getting stuff done! I hope I can keep up the pace since Tour de Fleece waits for no one. Part of what made the spinning go so quickly was because there where 3 little chunks of fluffy goodness to work with. I’d finish spinning one section, feel accomplished, and be raring to go with the next one. Seeing the beautiful colors rush through my fingers didn’t hurt either.

Turns out that the hard part of Fractal Spinning is all at the front before you actually start turning wool into yarn. It’s in picking out the batt or top or roving with the colors arranged just so.  It’s in splitting the fiber evenly to get the best color repetition. It’s in rolling all the split fiber to start at the same color or end.  Once you begin spinning, it’s just like spinning any other 2-ply yarn. Nothing scary about that. Makes it easy to focus, find a rhythm and, maybe, zone out a little too. Might even be easy enough for me to go spinning in public. Let’s see if I don’t wuss out on that goal this year.

Backup All The Things!

Today’s Public Service Announcement: Regularly back up your computer. I repeat, regularly back up your computer, because it is just that important. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got most of your life on your computer. There are photos, journals, half-written books, music, finances, game saves, random spreadsheets, knitting patterns, portfolios, videos, and contacts. There are the things I use everyday, archive for later, or forget about until I need them. With enough time, I could recreate a few of this items but most of the files would be lost for good.

A few days ago, my laptop battery politely told me it needed service. I say politely because the warning gave me the opportunity to do full backups and my laptop didn’t catch fire on the kitchen table. Both very helpful things. Tomorrow, my technological baby goes to the shop for repairs and all my files will be ready and waiting for it’s return. 

So, how do you backup your files? Depends on your operating system but, regardless, you will need a separate hard drive to store your data. If you’re running a Mac, Time Machine will be your best friend and does all the work for you once it’s set up. It has saved my butt several times and made transferring to a new computer exceedingly simple. Windows has a similar feature. Whatever your operating system, regular backups are your friend and help keep your data at your fingertips.

Always Leave Room in the Car for Yarn

I’m always on the lookout for yarn. It’s just a subprocess that’s always running in my brain and I don’t bother trying to shut it down anymore. Just means that I find yarn in all the right and sometimes unexpected places, like on the way to the Grand Canyon. During our visit, the Bearded One and I took the slightly longer route to the Canyon through The Painted Dessert, The Kaibab National Forest, and the Navajo Nation. The national parks were desolate but once we entered the Nation, houses and road side shops and stands popped up frequently. At the Navajo Arts & Crafts Enterprise there was a wall full of Brown Sheep yarn. They had just about every color you could think of in wool/mohair single and I was not immune. I blame yarn fumes and several cramped days in the car. We found space in the back seat and headed on our way several skeins heavier. I’m still not sure what I’ll make with yarn but it’ll tell me eventually. 

Moral of the Story: Always leave room for yarn in the car. You never know where you’ll find a few skeins to take home with you.

Tour de Fleece 2013

Tour de Fleece has officially begun! How’s your Tour going? I got a late start on Day 2 and was finally able to prep my fiber and get to the business of spinning. Today, Day 3, I’m just enjoying the process and putting a few more yards on my spindle between mundane tasks. Washing all those dirty dishes  really cuts into my spinning time. 

I’m keeping my goals short and simple this year. 

Spin everyday.

Spin in public. 

Practice new techniques.

Spinning everyday should be easy as long as I don’t have to spend another day acquiring and assembling furniture. Spinning in public will be something completely new and strange for me but doable. Learning and practicing new techniques is something I try to do all the time and have a long list of things to pull from.

Near the top of spinning techniques list is Fractal Spinning which I’ve wanted to try since I first read about it. Fractal spinning is a way of dividing fiber to spin for self repeating colors. Knitty published a helpful article on the process in their Winter 2011 issue. Whenever I open up a bump of fiber, I check to see if the colors were well arranged for fractal spinning. This happy bump of yellow, grey and white fiber from Yarn Geek Fibers was the first to really fit the bill.

I spit the fiber lengthwise in half and then split one half lengthwise three more times. The smaller strips are working their way onto my spindle first. Since I’m aiming for a fingering or sport weight yarn, this is probably going to probably going to take me the entire Tour to spin. Such a difference from last year and its 5 finished skeins!

We’re just 3 days into 3 weeks of Tour de Fleece and there’s lots of yarn to spin. I wish you the best of luck!

Ready for Tour de Fleece 2013?

Tour de Fleece is a fun and ever growing spin-along that runs every year alongside the Tour de France. Doesn’t matter if you’re new to spinning or have miles of your own handspun stashed away, you can participate. You could even use the Tour de Fleece as a reason to learn how to spin yarn if you’ve been too afraid to start. Both Tours start tomorrow, June 29, and finish on July 21. The guidelines are simple. Every day that the tour rides, spin yarn. When the cyclists rest, take a break too. Most importantly, challenge yourself. Don’t be afraid to ride right out of your comfort zone. 

One of the great things about Tour de Fleece is that you don’t have to go it alone. You can join a team and show off your successes as well as ask for help. There are tons of groups and teams on Ravelry and elsewhere dedicated to Tour de Fleece. The main Ravelry group is Tour de Fleece which is very active with over 6,000 members. 

Don’t worry if you don’t have a wheel. Spindles are wonderful, productive tools in their own right. I’ll be using them to spin all of my yarn again this year. 

I still haven’t picked my spinning goals for this year’s Tour but there’s still one more night to decide. Should be just enough time, right? Are you participating? What are your goals for this year?

Time To Replace Google Reader

Google Reader officially bites the dust on July 1st. When I first heard the news it was shutting down, I felt betrayed. The good news is that I’ve found a great replacement that I enjoy using much more than Reader. I hope you do too and keep all of your much loved RSS feeds to boot. 

There are several different options for feed readers and more appearing every week. The top 3 options right now are Bloglovin, Feedly, and Newsblur. I’ve seen multiple bloggers going for each of these services. Personally, I went with Newsblur. It’s easy to migrate your feeds from Reader, easy to add new feeds, easy to navigate on a laptop and and iPhone, and easy to organize. It’s also a stable, dependable platform. The other great thing about Newsblur is that you can train it through Intelligence to know what you like. Love every post a blogger publishes or want to know when knitting/gardening/recipes/kitties/etc show in your feeds? Tell Newsblur you like something and it’ll tag those posts with a little green box and make it easy for you to find and read them. Trust me, that one feature is worth paying $24 a year for.

The Grand Canyon

When driving across the Southwestern United States, you can’t just drive past the Grand Canyon. If you are anywhere in the state of Arizona, you visit the Grand Canyon. Detours be damned. The Bearded One and I followed this rule to the letter and were not disappointed. We were only able to spend a few short hours exploring the canyon rim but it was still a breath taking experience.  Yes, it was hot and, yes, it was bright but the majesty of this place cannot be denied. I want to go back to explore, hike, camp, and maybe even ride a mule. I want to lose myself in the power of that place.

I took quite a few photos while we were there but even amazing photographs can’t do the Grand Canyon justice. You have to go, stand on the edge and look into crags and valleys before finally casting your eyes on the horizon to really appreciate this place. When I stood on the edge I became aware of my place in the universe. I was and am very small but surrounded by wondrous things.   

My only advice: Go. Experience the Grand Canyon. You won’t be disappointed. Also, don’t forget the sun screen.

Crossing the Country

In the first week of June, The Bearded One and I shoved as much stuff into our car as possible and set out on a cross country drive for Los Angeles. We covered over 2,100 miles in 4 days through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California . It was eye opening to watch the countryside change from forests to plains to scrub and finally to desert. The thought that 150 years ago people managed to cross this land with wagons and oxen not just to survive but to prosper amazes me. The knowledge that people lived off these plains and deserts hundreds and thousands of years ago is completely mind blowing. It’s one thing to learn these facts in  school and something completely different when the truth, land, air, and storms swirl together around you.

2,000+ Miles Later

Turns out that planning a wedding and getting married while also prepping to move cross country takes up all of one’s time and energy. Then after driving 2,000+ miles to the Pacific Coast, finding an apartment in a weekend, finally moving in, and setting up said apartment there isn’t much energy leftover or internet for blogging. The good news is that I once again have internet and most of the heavy work is behind me. I’m back to having a daily routine that involves washing dishes and going for walks on the beach instead of checking out of hotels. I’ll take dishes over uncertainty any day.  I’m also getting to know my new home base of Los Angeles. Last Saturday was part of World Wide Knit in Public Day so I took the opportunity to explore before settling down on Venice Beach to knit.

Wander the Web 3

Because one cannot survive on cute cat photos alone. 

3-D Printed Food - NASA gave out a $125,000 grant for the development of a “universal food synthesizer”.I wonder how long it will be before we get a Star Trek style replicator. via Brown’s Edible Examiner

Pretty Vacant - Rietveld Landscape, a Dutch design office, built a foam screen to showcase the space and potential of vacant Netherlands's government offices.   

Oscillate - “My goal with "Oscillate" was to visualize waveform patterns that evolve from the fundamental sine wave to more complex patterns, creating a mesmerizing audio-visual experience in which sight and sound work in unison to capture the viewer's attention.” - Daniel Sierra

A How-To Guide: Accelerated Learning for Accelerated Times - Tim Ferris’s basic method, DiSS, for learning and mastering any skill in a short time period.

Visiting LA

As I’m typing up this little entry I’m sitting in an airplane at 35,000 feet above Indiana, hooked up to the net, and scrolling through the photos I took while in Los Angeles. I love living in the future. Would be nice to have some more elbow room though.

​Right now I’m on my way back from Los Angeles which will be my new home a few weeks from now. This trip was my first time visiting the city and also the first time I’ve been in California and on the West Cost. My previous record was Nevada. Los Angeles was definitely interesting. There were oil derricks next to parks next to strip malls next to apartments next to more strip malls. It was also very flat. There were billboards for new movies everywhere which really isn’t surprising. Just different from home. The weather was wonderful after coming from a city with 80°+ temps and high humidity. I pretended the interstates/parking lots didn’t exist which made the traffic a lot more bearable. 

One night The Bearded One and I headed down to Venice Beach. I couldn’t resist getting my feet wet in the Pacific Ocean. It wasn’t as cold as I was expecting nor did it smell quite the same as the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. The sunset though was more beautiful than I imagined.

The next few weeks of packing, moving, and getting married are going to be crazy and stressful but I’m still really excited. Can’t wait to start the next chapter of my life.

May is for Writing: Week 3

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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I’m going to be honest here. My writing goals went out the window last week. My daily word count was 0 and I didn’t even read any books. Why the sudden lack of progress? Life turned wonderfully sideways. In two weeks I’m getting married and moving cross country. In the mean time, I have to DO ALL THE THINGS! that come with planning a wedding and prepping to move over 2,000 miles west. Any farther and I’ll end up in the Pacific Ocean. 

Ironically, the combined craziness of wedding planning and moving cross country seems like the perfect thing to write about. I feel that that I should be judiciously documenting the next few weeks but I need all the sleep I can get. Ah well. This is what memoirs are for, after all. I do feel slightly guilty about not writing but I am getting ready for a marvelous adventure with my best friend. The writing can wait.

Knit and Be Proud

​One reason I love knitting is because of all the different things I can make. The other big reason is how easily it fits into the rest of my life. I don’t need to sit at home to knit. I can go out with my knitting and not be stuck in front of a computer. I can run errands with yarn and needles in my bag to keep busy and not waste time standing in line. For the last few years, my favorite bit of purse knitting has been socks but I’ve also hauled along hats, fingerless mitts, and even a shawl or two. I carried around the Hitchhiker Shawl until I had to wrap it around my arms so it wouldn’t trail along behind me. Before I learned to make socks and developed a love for shawls, I carried along washcloths to keep my hands busy. I clearly remember knitting a washcloth in a doctor’s waiting room. While the lady sitting across from me thought my knitting was pretty great, I was just a little embarrassed. Not because I was seen knitting in public by stranger but because I was embarrassed to be seen knitting a washcloth. 

At the time, hand knitted washcloths were all the rage. However, for as many people I saw extolling the virtues and wonders of knitting your own washcloths, there were just as many people typing their distaste. One person wrote they would rather pull out their own hair rather than knit a washcloth. Another commenter stated that they would flat out refuse knitted washcloths given to them as gifts. It was comments and thoughts like this that were swirling around in my head as I was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room stitching away. You either had to love knitting washcloths or hate them. There was no in between. I was afraid that some knitter - one that unapologetically hated knitted washcloths - would see me and sneer. So I slunk down in my chair, kept knitting, and hoped that the imagined sneering knitter would not appear. The thought that some knitter who loved making washcloths might appear did not occur to me.

I couldn’t help feeling that way even though I knew it was silly and completely illogical. Several years later, I’m certain that it’s silly and illogical. Just because someone on the internet or in real life says they don’t like knitting washcloths or lacy socks or giant blankets or funny hats doesn’t mean you have to feel like a smuck for enjoying those things. If you want to knit a stack of washcloths 10’ high or a hat that looks like a cooked turkey, go for it. Enjoy it. Have fun. Own it. Just knit what you like. Knit what makes you happy. You don’t have to sneak away and rent a hotel room to get your fix for knitting washcloths or full-length beaded opera gloves. 

Over the years, I’ve since come to terms with my love of knitted washcloths. They’re small, colorful, generally easy, and entirely functional. I like them for scrubbing my dishes and scrubbing my back. If you’re wondering, I do have separate kitchen cloths and bath cloths. Don’t worry. My kitchen has a special drawer filled just with knitted kitchen towels and a few crocheted clothes from a friend. I have an unapologetic stash of kitchen cotton. What’s more, I’ve released six washcloth/kitchen towel patterns and have a few more in mind. The Triforce Washcloth and Bridges Kitchen Towel are the most popular but my favorite is Cthulu Rising. I have no intention of not knitting washcloths because they’re awesome and I enjoy it. Socks are my default purse knitting of choice now but I’m not afraid of sneers or derision, real or imagined, for knitting washcloths or anything else. I say, knit what you love and be proud of it.

Wander The Web 2

Random bits of fun, interest, and insight from around the web. May include knitting. 

Click That ‘Hood - A fun little geography game that tests your knowledge of cities in the United States and around the world. 

On The Rise - Did you know the city of Galveston, TX was raised 17’ after a 1900 hurricane?

A Few Thoughts on Content Creation, Monetization, and Strategy - Tim Ferris’s thoughts on blogging, content, and timing. Lots of insight into the whole process too. 

How to make Whipped Coconut Cream - I’ve seen plenty of posts about whipping coconut milk but this solves problems before they happen. 

May is for Writing: Week 2

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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Writing is hard. Writing everyday is even harder. I’m sorry to say that daily writing wasn’t something I managed last week. Some days my brain was so frazzled I just paced back and forth. Other days, I just stared at a blank screen before being completely unexcited about what my fingers typed up. There were a few good days though when I didn’t have to force the words out my head. 

The days where things were easy, where the words seemed leap onto the screen, were when I tried something new. Instead of trying to force a story or an essay from the ether, I captured my ideas. I wrote about backstory and tried to make sense of dreams. I wrote about questions that I wanted answered. I wrote outlines and paragraphs of descriptions. Whenever I thought something might be great to write about, I didn’t file it away in my brain for later but sat down and wrote everything out. No detail escaped the brain dump. Might not have much in the way of first drafts but I’ve got all I need to write them.

If you’re having trouble writing something new, let no idea escape. Record everything and sort the good from the bad later. After all, you never know when you’ll find that one perfect seed.

Knit and Focus

I love the versatility of knitting. I can have giant projects that take months to finish like the Norma Blanket. I can have medium sized projects like the Shur’tugal Socks which fit in my purse and keep me entertained for weeks. I can also have small projects as a refresher and break from the larger projects. It’s a good thing there’s no such thing as the knitting police or they’d be writing me up for just how much I have on the needles.

The current small project of choice is the Unique Basketweave Washcloth by Anna Peck Maliszewski. It’s a simple pattern that’s easy to remember and looks great in variegated yarn. I can knit a few rows here and there without loosing my place which is great since I only have a few minutes for knitting these days. Plus, knitting a few stitches helps me focus and not run around like a headless chicken. Yep, knitting is good.

How to Skein Handspun Yarn with a Swift

Ah, the niddy-noddy. Why does such as simple tool have such a strange name? In all the research I did before taking the plunge and finally learning to spin, I never found the origin of its name. Only that I needed one to make skeins. A niddy-noddy is basically a bar with an offset handle at each end. So, I bought one before I started spinning to pad out a yarn order. I did finally use my niddy-noddy and it was fine for small skeins; however, as I started producing more yardage, using the noddy became cumbersome and took a good chunk of time. Time I would rather have spent spinning.

I also had a swift but never thought to use it to skein handspun because all I saw people using were niddy-noddys. You want to know what makes an umbrella swift perfect for skeining yarn? A loop of string and a clothespin. That’s it. With a swift you can make large skeins and small skeins, know the exact yardage, and spend less time doing it. Using a swift instead of niddy-noddy is also easier on your arms and shoulders too.

To make the loop, you’ll need:

• a button
• string that won’t stretch (I used baker’s twine)
• scissors
• marker
• tape measure
• tapestry needle

You can make any size loop you want as long as it will fit on your swift. I made mine really long so I could double and triple it for smaller skeins without having to make another loop. 

Tie a loop large enough to fit around the button at one end of the string. From the end of the loop, measure the string to the length you want and mark that spot. I wanted a cord 72” long so I measured to 36” twice. Cut the string plus a few extra inches. Thread the string through the button holes till the mark is between them and tie a double knot. A button with a shank works well too. Optionally, you can dap some glue on the knot to help keep it together. All that’s left is to write the length of the loop on the button.

Now you’re almost ready to skein your handspun! Set up your swift and slip the buttoned loop around the arms just like a skein of yarn. Here’s where the clothespin comes in. Use the clothespin to clip one end of the yarn to an arm. The pin will hold the end in place and make it easy to find when it’s time to tie up the yarn. Now, just spin the swift and get all that wonderful handspun off the spindle or the bobbin. You don’t need to put tension on the yarn just don’t give it any slack. When you’re finished, tie up the skein at the ends. If you tie up the loop with the skein like I do half the time, just unbutton the loop and pull it out

Knowing the size of the finished skein makes it easy to determine how many yards you’ve spun. Just count how many times the yarn went around the swift and multiply by the length of your loop. You’ll also need to divide by 36” if your measurement is in inches so you’ll get the total in yards.

For example, my loop is 72” (2 yards) long and the handspun went around the swift 59 times.

(72” x 59)/36” = 118 yards

Now that I know that skein has 118 yards, it’ll be much easier to find just the pattern to show it off.

May is for Writing: Week 1

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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We’re only 6 days into the month so May is still new and fresh. I’m writing everyday. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s hard. Most of the time, I play things by ear have no idea what I’m going to write until my fingers bungle about on the keyboard for a few minutes. Once the words start coming though, I don’t want to stop. I might take a break for yarn but words keep flowing in bits and pieces. When enough pile up, it’s time to go back to the page. 

The day before this project started I wandering around bookstores and trying to decide between Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. I’ve heard amazing things about both books but decided to begin with On Writing. I devoured that book. I stayed up past 4 AM several nights just to finish. The first half of the book and several postscripts acts as a short memoir. The second half contains King’s sixteen rules of writing. Reading about the life and practices of an author I’ve been following since my early teens was a welcome peak behind the curtain.

Rule One: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” 

I’ve already got the reading part covered since I’ve made a concerted effort to read more books this year. My handy spreadsheet, complete with pie chart, tells me I’ve read 25 books this year and that I’m in the middle of 3 others. Voracious reading is there to teach you how to write through observation. I really hope I’ve learned something from the hundreds and hundreds of books I’ve read over the years.

So May is all about working on the writing half of the equation. During the first few days I gave myself 15 minutes but I quickly switched to a minimum word count of 500 instead. Depending on the day, 15 minutes could only see a few sentences or it could see a whole page. Going for a word count lets me ignore the ticking clock and just get some words on the page. They might be horrible but you have to start somewhere. So far I managed to write more than 500 words per day, everyday completely separate from anything I’m working on for the site or other projects.

Writing, compared with last month’s project, daily knitting on the Norma blanket, is so much harder. Last month I had a pattern, numerous charts, and all of my materials. The work - aside from the actual knitting - was already done for me. The knitting could get boring because I knew what was ahead of me. When it comes to writing, I have no clue. It’s a wild and welcome adventure.