Friday, March 21, 2008

Sin and roving

Once upon a time there was a Knitter of Shiny Things, who also spun Shiny Things. One day, she came upon a book on modesty (in Orthodox Judaism) which said it was forbidden for a woman to spin red wool in public, since red was a licentious color that attracted male attention, and if she spun red wool, the fibers might get on her clothing, causing men to notice her and think lustful thoughts. Being the heretic that she was, the Knitter of Shiny Things' immediate reaction was, "I must spin red wool in public now!" since clearly she was an immodest person who promoted licentiousness throughout the land. But alas, she lacked red wool.

One day, she and a friend went yarn shopping, and she found red wool. So she bought it. And spun a bit. No one seemed scandalized. (Nor did she seem to attract male attention, or any more than she would have gotten from spinning with any other color. People don't usually carry around drop spindles, so whatever you spin, they will notice.)

Anyways, she decided to go as sin for Purim (the Jewish Holiday where you dress up in costumes among other things). And obviously, spinning red wool in public is the biggest sin there is, so she brought along her drop spindle in addition to dressing in red and black and wearing red wings. Here's the red wool she used:


Also, (switching out of first person) here are the Manos wrist warmers I mentioned in my last post:


And I bought shiny roving which came today:

Monday, March 17, 2008

Manos, part II*

So after I finished my Manos hat on Tuesday, I started a pair of wristwarmers. Since I had 2 skeins (though one was about 2/3 used up) I decided to do as the pattern recommended and make both at once. After a small failure with doing the front cables wrong (by starting at the beginning instead of knitting 3 first) I restarted on Thursday and finished them last night (minimal weaving in still required). I'll post pictures after I take them.

And I was able to complete one wristwarmer with the leftover yarn from the first skein without having to take any yarn from the second skein. And still there was a bit left in that skein. So theoretically I could make another hat, but I'm going to use some of the yarn to redo the top of my existing Manos hat, since it's a bit tight and I think if I add a few rows to the decrease (or in general) it should be fine. Of course, with the cable pattern I'm not sure how to add rows and keep it looking nice and not screw up the pattern too much, but I'll deal with that.

Meanwhile, the list of people I need to knit shiny things for is still growing. One I found out about Saturday night and the other just now. Ack.

*If they ever make a sequel to "Manos, the Hands of Fate" I will be very, very sad. In fact, I would posit that there was no justice in the world were such a thing to happen.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Manos, Hat of Fate

In January, a friend of mine gave me 2 skeins of Manos 100% wool in turquoise. It was very squishy, but sat in my stash because I couldn't think of a project for it.

Bumming around Ravelry, I found that one of the patterns was the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat. The cables looked pretty and I had wanted to try it for some time and I had never used a chart before (the pattern also has text), so I decided to give it a knit:


Behold! Manos, hat of fate. (I always think of "Manos [the] hands of fate" whenever I see Manos yarn.) I still have a skein and a quarter left, so it will become a pair of matching wristwarmers. The Knitter of Shiny Things has matching accessories. What is the world coming to?

Also, I made a baby hat with the leftover leftover beret yarn. And now there's still leftover leftover leftover beret yarn. I should do something about that.

The baby hat was for charity, and I sent it off on Tuesday in a string of productive errands.

A story about the hat: I was working on the hat last week before and during class. While waiting for class to start one of my classmates remarks that she wants to learn how to knit, but has never been able to learn it from books and was thinking of taking a class. I told her that classes were good, but sin my experience as a summer camp knitting instructor, they can sometimes be annoying if you have too many people and need extra help and the instructor can only spend so much time with you since they have to help everyone else as well, and she might be better off with a private lesson.

Her: Do you give knitting lessons?
Me: I could...

So I am going to teach her how to knit, and get paid some monies. I've been looking around the internet and have seen classes being offered for anywhere between $12/hr- $50/hr. Most fell within the $20-$30 range. So I think I'll ask for $15, since after all, she's also a student, and a Divinity School student at that. It's reasonable, far cheaper than the class she would have signed up for, and fair to me as well. (And that's what I got paid this summer for teaching a billion kids how to knit and crochet.)

In the ideal world I would have a job teaching knitting in Cambridge this summer, but I'm more likely to get a job doing research or working in a library. At least they are both conducive to knitting.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Dice are nice

When my friend told me that he needed to get more dice, I decided that I, too, needed more dice. So I went on the internets and ordered a Chessex pound-o-dice. I don't think I realized the enormity of this.

Meanwhile, at D&D on Sunday I found out that my friend really doesn't have that many dice. The dice bag is more than big enough to hold them all.

Lo and behold, my pound-o-dice came today. And they weren't kidding when they said around 100 dice. Look at them!


Aren't they pretty? So I probably have more dice than I can use. So I took the set of 7 that came with it and put it with my original set of 7 in my dice bag, and they are happily mingling. (They're the white and blue speckled ones in the lower left. The original set is the one in the pictures of the dice bag 2 posts ago). I also made myself another set of 7 from what I had.



Then I decided that my friend needed a set of 7, except that the 7th die, the d10 that goes 0 to 00 by tens, is missing since I only got one outside the complete set. Instead, he gets 2 d20s, and also 2 d6s, one with the dots and one with the numerals.

Also, I decided that since I got 24 d20s, I could easily give one to everyone in my party, even the guy who is playing a rogue assassin who tried to kill us rather than join the party like he was supposed to. Maybe I'll curse his die or something. I might also give everyone d8s, though maybe not. I rather like having d8s, since I use them for damage with my fire spells. And I have my original one, the one in the complete set, one for my random set, and then 5. And there are 5 of them.

I might also give a d20 to everyone in the Saturday party (there are 2 campaigns since 12 of us wanted to play, so 5 besides me are in my party, and then 6 are in the Saturday party. I'm friends with 5 of them, the 6th being a random person from another school whom I've never met). I'm undecided. It would leave me with 9 d20s outside of my 3 sets, which is more than I need, but then again, maybe I do need 15 d20s for something. I could instead give them d10s. Or d6s (though that would be lame. Anyone can get a d6). The d20s are rolled more often in D&D than any other type of die. But if the DM has 2 more d20s, I doubt they'll have problems.

Here is my dice bag, by the way:


Sadly, it isn't big enough to hold all these dice. Maybe each type can have its own bag. Or I can have a large bag for all of the ones not in my 3 sets.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

More dice bags!

I decided after the last dice bag that I needed one for myself. I made it out of the leftover yarn from the failed beret of doom. I'll post pictures when I'm less lazy.

I also finished spinning the silk, and now am going to ply it, because it is way too thin currently.

Now I'm working on a bunch of small projects. I'm a bit afraid of the sock, as I worked on it in class this morning and my hand started to hurt. This probably has to do with the fact that it's on tiny needles and is really tight. But I don't want to rip everything out and work on slightly bigger needles. The sock is the size it's supposed to be. (Well except for the not being a complete sock yet...)

*Sigh* Stupid project ADD. I should just finish something already.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Lots of knitting

So the Coronet from my last post is finished. I actually ended up using another pattern for the top of the hat, since I liked the decreases better. It makes little spirals on top by having the decreases be in the same spots.

And it fits. This makes me very happy, because now I have a hat that fits. It only took me half of winter to get one...

I then started a sock. Hedera. It is shiny and I have the lace pattern memorized now, so it should go quickly once I get back to working on it. I admit, I've strayed a bit, since although I love it, I also want to work on something(s) with bigger yarn.

And also I had a WIP which had been long-abandoned, even though I was more than halfway done. Another set of Irish Hiking wristwarmers. So I went and finished those:

I spun the yarn myself. The purple was kind of large so I had to switch to bigger needles to be able to work with it. The purple is Corriedale and the green is Colonial. I had a bit of leftover yarn:

It sat happily on top of my German homework for the photo shoot. I think this was the one about Paul's sermons, and his trip to Thessalonika and Philippi.

And on Thursday night I decided to make a dice bag for a friend of mine who is DMing a D&D campaign that I am a part of. (When I tell my friends about this, I say, "Guess what I'm doing now? I'll give you a hint: it's the nerdiest thing ever." Most of them actually guess D&D first, and are surprised when they are right!) He keeps his dice in a CVS bag, which is sad. So I worked like crazy to finish it before Shabbat. And I did.


I used this pattern, size medium, though with bigger yarn and needles than called for, plus I added two rows. Yet I was still afraid it wasn't going to be big enough, because he has numerous dice. So I tried it out with my own dice:

I only have 7. But they are shiny.

So after measuring it against my dice, I thought theoretically it could be big enough, but there was still the chance that it wouldn't be. However, I still brought it to gaming last night, and he loves it, and says he needs to get more dice now. Apparently it is big enough. Yay!

And it's always nice to use up scrap yarn. Part of the reason I knit this so quickly was because it was made out of dishcloth cotton, which is not very shiny on the grand scale of shiny yarns, so I wanted to be done with it. And I could have theoretically used my big skein of one color, but I like these colors better. Plus, when you tell me that you have no favorite or least favorite color and "colors are pretty" you can expect me to do something like this.

Maybe I'll start making dice bags on commission if other people who game think they need them. First, however, I must make one for myself. And I need to buy more dice. Whee!