Miscellaneous: August 2006 Archives
I love this sweet little gift tag made by Little Oranges of California. You can actually read the size of the needle on the needle head: 13 US 9.0. At $6 for 8 tags they aren't cheap, but then neither is a handknitted gift. I found it at Paper Doll one of my favorite stores on Division St. Filled with interesting paper goods and special little tchotchkes of all kinds, not to mention a wonderful little pug, I have a hard time walking by without going in.
Thanks to everyone who said such nice things about my handspun. I think this yarn is looking more and more like a table runner. Or maybe some kind of sampler pillow. I do think I have to check out Alterknits and see if the idea Morgan metioned would work.
A couple of comments from yesterday's post included questions, so I thought I'd answer a few of those here today.
Morgan asked:
Where did you get all your info on the ratio's ??? since i am still learning to spin I am trying to find resources and I have no clue what you were talking about!!
You can get that info from a couple of places: your spinning wheel manufacturers site or from retailers that are selling the wheel you are interested in, or at the WooLee Winder site. I'd love it if the info was stamped into the flyer somehow because I always have to look it up. In general, the ratio tells you how fast you can put twist into a yarn. A 10:1 ratio means that for every 1 rotation of the big wheel, you have 10 rotations of the flyer. The smaller the whorl on the flyer, the higher the ratio, the more twist you can can create in any unit of time.
Liz (no URL) asked:
How long have you been spinning, if you don't mind me asking?
I don't mind the question at all. I got my first drop spindle (actually first 2 drop spindles) from MS&W, May, 2005 and my first spinning lesson from Claudia at the same time. I bought my wheel in late January, 2006. So I've just been spinning a little over a year now. I love spinning and find I can do it for hours and hours given the right fiber and something good to listen to.
Heatherly, on a different topic, asked:
I finally started my here b dragon sox. i am making them for a child so i am doing the scaled up, but in 3 repeats. what do you think?
If you mean three repeats for the leg, I say no problem. If you mean three repeats around instead of 4, then you may have problems with the heel and toe details if you want to include them, since those assume that certain parts of the pattern will be centered over the heel and toe when you get there. Depending on the size of the child, it might be better to experiment with a finer gauge yarn and smaller needles and stick with the 4 repeats. But if you don't mind spending time playing with the pattern, I'd say try the three repeats and see how it goes. You never know, you might get something you really like.
What do you do when you don't have actual fibery content for a blog post? You look back through the photos on your SD chip and see what you can find that might even be remotely related. It's kind of an alcoholic week chez Keyboard Biologist since what I found on my chip was some interesting wine that I found when John and I were in Ann Arbor earlier in the spring.
One thing I love about wine right now, is that there is a lot of wine that doesn't take itself too seriously. This leads to some very fun labels. If you go into almost any wine store, you're bound to find some of these or other clever names. Some of these wines even go beyond having clever names into being good wine. And one of these, I promise, will even have a fibery connection.
The Chocolate Block isn't really a play on words, but what knitter doesn't like to have a little chocolate to accompany her knitting. There's no actual chocolate in this South African Syrah/Grenache/Cabernet blend but it's supposed to be sweet and rich and the relatively high alcohol content guarantees to help mellow you out during even the most stressful tinking or ripping experience. The bottle I didn't get a good shot of on the right side is "Goats Do Roam" which I love because of it's play on "Cote du Rhone" a wine region in France.
Zinfandels may not have the luxurious quality of a good cab or merlot, but they are a personal and sentimental favorite. When I was in college I had a plant physiology class by one of my favorite professors. One of the "laboratories" for those of us who were 21 and over was a "grape physiology" lab -- i.e. a wine tasting. At the very end, a few of us got to stick around to try a couple of wines from the professor's special collection, which included some wonderful Ridge Zinfandel. I've been hooked ever since. I love the hearty and spicy qualities of a good Zin. And these labels made me smile. After all, I think my parents had a few "Earth, Wind and Fire" albums in their record collection and I am almost sure that almost every one of those 7 Deadly Sins can be applied to knitting! Lord knows, I've already got gluttony taken care of!
I must admit to not being the biggest fan of pinot noir (but perhaps we have not yet been properly introduced) but how could I not be intrigued by a wine called "Dyed in the Wool"? And it's from New Zealand, a land of many sheep! How incredibly appropriate. This bottle came home from the store with me but still remains in my parents house (hopefully in a cool dark place!) waiting for a good occasion to be opened -- at which point you will all get a review. It was this bottle that got me to pop out my camera in the wine department of a produce mart in Ann Arbor and got me to see all the other clever labels around me.
Maybe you know of another wine with a clever label? If you feel so inclined, share it with me in the comments!
