spindles+hanks::spindle+shanks

peep

2012-01-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

My poor, neglected, blogger friends! This has gone on too long, clearly. I have been without internet in my home for months (which is only a partial excuse), besides which the end of 2011 exploded into frenzy (which is more of an excuse), and then also I am apparently fundamentally too lazy to take my computer to one of the score of cafes in my neighborhood to blog in the moments I do have available (which fills in the last piece of the puzzle). But I resolve herewith to do so soon, because a lot of stuff happened that I want to show you. If anyone is still left standing in this no-man's-land...

For now, I am signing off from my phone, and take care and I will see you soon. That's a promise.

~V

Fort Popham

2011-09-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

I may have gotten a bit overzealous amidst all this concentricity. I am not even caring if that is a word, sshh, let your eyes feast on the lines...{i kid you not, almost every one of these still has its b&w/color counterpart over in my flickr pool, i couldn't leave any of the tender things behind.}

I used to dream of stone houses.

full of corners, laden with the weight of their age. Silent under foot.

But I imagined them full of kitchens with warm ovens, and heaps of wool before I ever knew how essential wool is to me. Later I understood how stone can be stifling and cold at once, but I still swoon over its textures and sweet neutral palette, its spare dusty scent.

Boy battles shirt:

and wins. Which was, I believe, the most action this fort ever saw.

Hermit Island

2011-09-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

We went camping on Hermit Island while in Maine, a little island that has been a designated recreation spot for over 60 years, and those who know say it hasn't changed much since. You drive on (no RVs), pitch your tent, and spend your days walking the trails that criss-cross its tiny area from one secluded beach to another. We brought kayaks to explore the bay (no pictures, water sports and my camera don't mix) and sampled about seven different beaches. These photos are from a walk we took around the southern tip.

I like rocks. The end. I will try to get more glimpses of our epic stay on the Atlantic coast trickling in.

Whoopsie-doodle

2011-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus, I fell into a pit on the east coast.

Well, mostly it was a lot of water, and sunlight. I may have a few more pictures, I'll have to go and check sometime. But really, we just had a heckuva lot of fun, with nary a picture in sight.

at last!

2011-08-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

Remember all those annoying posts I dragged you through that hinted at things I was doing that I wasn't supposed to tell you about? I am excited to report that now (drumroll) I can finally unveil

The Book!

Beyond Toes: Knitting Adventure with Judy's Magic Cast-On (rav link) by the world-famous Judy Becker, she of the cast-on that has revolutionized sock knitting...and now so much more. The actual book does not come off the presses until the end of September, but I am officially allowed to give a little preview of some of its TWENTY THREE patterns. I will note that I had nothing to do with this book other than the photography (I have not even really seen any other part of it, I hear there are great tutorials and everything), all design credit goes to the many brilliant knitters who contributed to the project, too many to name here. Also, something funky happened during my shortcut version of converting CMYK TIFF to jpeg in an RGB system so the colors are a little, erm, bolder than life here, but I am fundamentally too indolent to do anything about it, so a little forbearance is appreciated. I tried to mostly include photos that didn't make it onto the Ravelry pages since variety is the spice of life. Without further ado:

(also, so delightful to remember these photoshoots from months ago and see my friends again!)

I want a girl like this one, she is every bit as serene and wise beyond her years as she looks, and sweet to the marrow of her bones.

of COURSE my son got to mix in there a little bit...

this project, by Judy herself, wound up being the most fun to photograph.

Lo, looking great in my clothes. Darn her.

I was impressed by the variety in this book -- I didn't even get into the shawls here -- which made for an unusually engaging photo project. I had boatloads of fun, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat, perhaps making sure to have warm drinks on hand for freezing models...

All my thanks to Judy, the designers, and the many beautiful people who let me tease, cajole, and beg into modeling for this, it was such an outrageously good time.

the little red sweater

2011-07-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

Whew folks, I am on my way home. I won't tell you how long it takes, start to finish, suffice to say that there's plenty of time for me to stop in and talk about my new sweater:

Kerrera! I made a couple modifications, leaving off the hood (I never wear them and I didn't have enough yarn anyway).

and putting buttons all the way down since the flyaway look is super trendy but a bit breezy.

And I made sewn button loops instead of crocheted, and backed the buttons with buttons since the double garter is a bit flimsy.

(plus, I love buttons and doing this meant that I got to use two of my very favorite ones!)

I finished the sweater (sans buttons) the day before I left for Australia, and I have worn it all day, every day since. I am so glad that I made the trip on many levels, not least because it meant I found some wintertime to appreciate this sweater in. It fits perfectly, the style is so easy and elegant, Gudrun is a genius. 'Nuff said. Thanks to my dad for taking pictures on our last day down under!

To Oz!

2011-07-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and compatriots, my best wishes from across the equator and the international date line! I am all kinds of upside-down, but as long as I don't try to think about what day it is where and what time, I do all right. Australia is wonderful, this was our sunset last night:

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before New South Wales there came a lot of traveling. A few days' worth, in fact, from summer to the tropics (for a brief layover in Rarotonga, then on to Auckland, NZ (and winter) for a day and a night. Thence to Sydney for another night, where we had our crash course (almost literally) in driving on the wrong side of the road. After all that, being firmly ensconced in the Upper Hunter Valley in a little shire called Scone (the horse capital of Australia) is relatively relaxing. Yesterday I did what I came to do in the way of work, so now I'm free to enjoy myself for a few days before making that trip in reverse. But you all don't care about this nonsense, here are some pictures! (I don't have many, work and all, but hopefully now I"ll be able to take more.)

The airstrip in Raro. Crap picture, but I just thought the whole thing so incongruous I had to snap one off.

The Cloud, in Auckland. Taken from the hotel room. This structure has something to do with the upcoming Rugby World Cup, hosted this year by New Zealand. And by night:

Yeah, it's blurry. I'm no brain surgeon.

Breakfast menu in Auckland. Taken only to prove how incredibly expensive EVERYTHING is down here, NZ especially. Yes, I had that $16 bowl of porridge, and it was darn tasty. We had company for our meal as well:

(Look! Knitting! It's my Kerrera, finally off the needles!)

Maritime Museum pics.

(the yacht that won the first America's Cup for NZ)

A socked-in Sydney, from the hotel. We spent all our time outside trying dearly not to die, so there are no other pics as yet.

The man who brought us down, an equine vet who pretty much embodies my childhood idea of James Herriot. Only taller.

My dad.

The Research Centre where we had the teambuilding, and dad did his marketing powerpoint thing, after a bevy of technological SNAFUs. But it always works out in the end, eh?

Today we got to play, which for dad meant golf *snicker* while I went horseback riding. I got to see kangaroos and a cockatoo and some green and red parrots, and he got to see kookaburras and ibises and budgies! An all around success. In the next few days I'll be knitting, punctuated by some sightseeing before we head off to Sydney, the opera, and back home. See you all soon!

of forests and amphibians

2011-07-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

For heaven's sake, people, I am the slowest! But (almost) only on the blogosphere, mind you, I manage to keep all those balls tripping merrily through the air in real life. What with patterns and photos and impromptu business trips to Australia and family and work and stuff, things just seems to get a bit snarled up and go nowhere. Does it infringe on your credulity a bit to appeal to your sympathies? Not bloody likely, eh? Poor me, too much of a good thing! But honestly, with all of my great good fortune aside, all I really want to be doing right now is to buckle down to the even more serious business of summertime.

Because, friends, when Summer peeks her insouciant head into the Pacific Northwest, nowhere is it lovelier. And all the natives come out to play (even the ones with very heavy deadlines swinging ominously over them).

Memaloose Lake, with friends. Now why, you may ask, after all that gushing about ripe summertimes, do those people look for all the world as though they are dressed for winter? How astute the blog public is indeed, and the answer lies in the majesty of our mountains and the unpredictability of their weather systems. We swelter in the valleys while the snowmelt continues its journey to our gardens. But it made for such a clear and invigorating hike up to the lake, with still-blooming trilliums and other beauties, nascent huckleberries, and dramatic and swirling mists. And true to the magic of such places, the sun did come out and we were transformed.

And the excuse for my son's attire? The hunt!

I wish I could take pictures for you of the air and the singular way it makes you feel, all the scents of growing things and the story of the temperature changes in each little ion. Refreshing just doesn't cut it. And the trees! And all things green! I will let the pictures do the talking from here.

A perfect day, I hope to have many more like it, and soon. Well, in a couple of weeks perhaps, after I've sampled that antipodal wintertime. Now that will be a shift.

Photo class upcoming!

2011-07-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have wanted to join one of the DSLR classes I offer at Twisted, we're trying to schedule one for either a Wednesday or Thursday evening before July 17th...any takers? All comers welcome!

**UPDATE: we nailed the time down to Thursday, July 14 from 5 to 8pm! There is still space if you were on the fence...**

And here, something from the archives so that we're not totally photo-less:

{sign, Chelsea, MI}

Also, folks, I have great news to share! In my capacity as a teambuilder/facilitator I am taking off for the great continent of Australia to offer a workshop! I am, as you all may rest assured, absolutely honored and thrilled. Wish me luck!

remember this?

2011-06-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Since Alex got her nuptials out of the way she can finally get back to the really important work of keeping us happy and knitting. Which means....Howlcat is now an official pattern!

Head on over and show the girl some love for coming up with a seriously brilliant -- and simple! -- pattern.

i want one!

2011-06-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

I am a great believer in instant gratification, it must be the times. I love to knit hats and sweep floors (fastest way of making a room look clean, don'tcha know) and make buttons!

THAT kind of button. Sooooo many buttons! My workplace made the sage investment of a button-maker, threw some vintage magazines at me, and let me go to town. Nowhere else on earth can you get paid to have so much fun.

Include the judicious application of some colored sharpies, and the possibilities are boundless:

Or more than one color of paper:

Pretty much, this is how cool I am. And if you ever want to show me how much you love me, you can gift me one of those sweet little machines for my very own. And I will make you an army of buttons. {All these pictured are available through Twisted, while they're hot!}

the new class

2011-06-12T09:23:00.001-07:00

I had another DSLR photo class! These are the most fun ever, guys, seriously. If you're in the area and have a spare few hours some time and have been wanting to explore all the magic that awaits you in your camera, come play with us! This time the weather was so lovely that we got to spend most of the class outside, exploring all kinds of things in our neighborhood, and they dressed me up and posed me like their own little doll in their handmade items as well. The ones of me here were taken by Sivia in some new creations of hers that I understand will be coming out soon to a pdf-download near you! Both she and Judy took some very lovely flower and nature pics as well, enjoy! {I would give individual photo credits, but alas, to my undying shame, I cannot remember with perfect accuracy who took what pictures!}

Kudos to Sivia, Judy and Karie (whose photos I didn't get to snatch up, but rest assured that they were beautiful as well), and thank you for all the fun exploring!

yay!

2011-06-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

Look! And *ahem* no, I didn't make these, either. Who said this knitting and spinning blog had to be about my knitting and spinning? Sorren made these ones, such loveliness, I want a dozen things out of this color.

She also did a perfectly beautiful job with the pictures I think, in the evening light after our workday. Thank you, Sorren!

p.s. the pattern is Mirry Dancers by Gudrun Johnston (with nine extra pattern repeats), knit out of Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in "Hoppy Blonde"!

our EcoTrust

2011-06-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

{Be advised: this post has no adorable people or knitted items.}

This morning during my planned procrastination hour I came across this series of photos I took in March when I went scouting around for locations for some of those photoshoots I can't tell you about. I've held onto the pictures with the vague sense that I wanted to spend more time with them at some point, and if you love photos of buildings and shapes as much as I do, please read on. If not, I won't hold it against you.

Most of these were taken around the EcoTrust building downtown, a very cool old reclaimed center for eating and shopping and I'm sure some kind of ecothings. The rest are parks or bridges in the surrounding area. It turns out that when it came time for the actual photoshoot it was freezing and my models were turning all white and blue, so I didn't wind up using half these locations. Oh well.

This and the next three are all different parts of a free-standing brick wall that borders the parking lot.

Coming up next: my new favorite hobby!

i was there

2011-06-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

My friends Alex and Travis got hitched last weekend! It was such a good party, and they even let me fly across the country to make a darn fool of myself all over their dance floor. I had more fun than anybody, almost guaranteed! Michigan is one of those places I never really expected to go, but I'm so glad I did. And no, I did not finish my sweater in time, but I didn't need it after all. And now I have yet another mostly-completed sweater sitting around in a project bag! Hooray! On to the pictures. I did not take very many of them, Alex was rightfully indignant every time I left my camera at home. Fortunately she knows of my lameness and hired a professional to document the occasion, if you want to see those lovely photos, go here.

But I did manage to snap some off while we were setting up, before all the pomp and circumstance. These are some of the lovely centerpieces that my talented friend put together. I loves her!

And a few of themselves, being the dozens of ways they are adorable in their hometown of Chelsea.

Thank you guys! I miss you and I still haven't forgiven you for moving so far away, but such a glorious vacation goes a long way towards mollifying me. You are the lovely, the awesome, and the happy. Have such wonderful lives!

best picture of me ever

2011-05-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

taken by my son, at my brother's bike shop. happy face.

these happy few

2011-05-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite moments from the last few weeks:

Star, modeling our shop's new knitalong, Abi

the beautiful new shawl sticks that we just got into the shop...and are already gone (there are other types by the same crafter, if you care to look, made by Squire Country Crafts -- my boss's parents).

a very quiet moment in a photoshoot with Lo for an upcoming design (in test-knitting, more later).

gratuitous yarn beauty.

and a face that only a mother could love (Karat, that is, with my lovely boss Emily in a recent hush-hush shoot for the shop)

I wish I could share more, but really, things are pretty dull around Casa del Shanks lately, as I prepare myself for a certain wedding by trying to speed knit an enormous sweater in laceweight yarn, thereby requiring that I redo all the math in the pattern.

In the pink!

2011-04-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Finally, well into the third decade of my life, I've decided to like pretty things. I like lace and filigree and cherry blossoms and delicate skirts. And now I even, in some contexts, like pink. This hat makes me very happy when I wear it (which I am not here, but is looks so lovely on Sorren, too, does it not?).

I think part of what I enjoy so much about this hat is the immense relief of knitting something that someone else designed. And all I had to do was follow directions. Ahhhhhhhh. The pattern is Orchids and Fairy Lights by the marvelous and whimsical Stephanie Dosen of Tiny Owl Knits. The pattern was a delight, and so quick and easy that before I knew it I was dressing up in all my girliest clothing (a quick survey of the wardrobe says this area could use some expansion) and floating around town like a little girl in her first pair of butterfly wings. I have not, I swear it, had a cranky moment since, and that's a lot of power in one pink hat! Malabrigo worsted (in Dusty), what can I say. It's just hard to go wrong.

If anyone else out there is feeling the need for some Lovely + Delicate, give pink a try. It could rock your world, too.

{green & grey}

2011-04-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you to the Tigard Knitting Guild for being such accommodating hosts! I had a blast and this post is for you, and especially for those asking about grey items on a green background...yes, I enjoy it, too!

This cowl and arm warmer set is from the 2011 Twisted Single Skein Club for April. I'm assuming anyone in the club has long since received their packages, so there is no risk of spoiling the surprise. It's a fun textural pattern by our own Star Athena out of a yarn by Berroco made from 100% recycled materials from the garment industry, which gets me right in my little conservationist's heart. This was a fun and super quick little photoshoot in front of some mossy trees down the street from the shop.

once upon a time

2011-04-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

I used to knit and then wear things. Then I got peer pressured into designing and the intoxicating experience kept me coming back for more, ever more, until I no longer really knit. Now I make sketches and scribble out notes and calculations and format and all these other things...and I kind of have a lot less to show for it, when all the shouting is over. Oh, I never shout. And these days I take a bajillion photographs for people, a similarly heady and rewarding experience, but they've got me promising not to reveal things before their time...so I kind of have a lot less to show for it.

Fortunately for all of us, there's always the beach.

(columnar basalt elephant skin)

I will have more fiber to share sometime soon, too, I promise. Sooooo many pictures to edit in the meantime!

eyes only no longer!

2011-04-02T23:27:00.000-07:00

Whew, a little bit of those Top Secret, Eyes Only photos are available for release! Some weeks ago I had the great good fortune to take some pictures for my neighbor Jen Hurley of Rainy Day Knits. She has created a lovely and whimsical set of Stained Glass Bubble accessories based around an ingenious stitch pattern, the latest being these mitts:

(many thanks to Lo, as always, for being such a smashing model)

Jen has crunched all the numbers for you, so these mitts come in a full array of sizes, from wee to manly, and every shade of grey in between. They were so much fun to take pictures of, all those little brightly colored bubbles of wool!

If you want to check these out, and her other great patterns, head on over to Ravelry and show her some love! In the meantime, I have massive amounts of editing to do, and some more exciting shoots, and someday, my lovelies, I'll get to share it all with you.

um...

2011-03-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

Whoopsie-doodles, I forgot to let you all know that the Lifeline mitties are up for grabs now. Check it out:

$4.00 is a small price to pay for toasty paws. Just sayin.

The rest of my life has been taken over by Top Secret photoshoots, so I don't have much to show for myself over here. Except my adorable friend Sorren's adorable striped socks and boots. I seriously want to elope with those boots.

I may get to sojourn at the beach for a wee bit for a mental health/design like a madwoman break, so hopefully some pictures will come out of that soon, if nothing else. In the meantime, happy springtime! And don't even pretend like that means that you have to stop knitting. I assure you, I will still be here, fighting the good fight.

Until next time!

put a bird on it!

2011-03-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

Portland has been making the news lately, nay, it's been making it to the silver screen (and, well, the plasma screen more often). An increasing number of producers and movie houses have been choosing Portland locations for their movies, and now we have our very own show. Or a show about us, as seen through the eyes of outsiders. Just for being our own selves, which I think is kinda cool, and it's the mark of the Portlander that those things that make us most absurd (like taking locally sourced food to the extreme, as well as our cycling rights) also make us the most proud. Including our love of all things that have birds. Flocks of birds are even better.

I may have mentioned before that I do the windows at Twisted, and my bosses said birds so I gave us some birds! In migration

because after all, it is

So I say to the cynics out there, watching us through the lens of Portlandia and perhaps sneering at our somewhat twee sense of kitsch: don't hate, and put a bird on it!

lifeline

2011-03-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

I started these mitties on our trip to Madrona, knit and reknit and revised about a dozen times, and finished them up for a wee cold spell we had a couple weeks back. I don't ordinarily have the urge to work with my own handspun yarn, but this one called to me. The roving was a superwash merino hand dyed by Melanie of Black Trillium and it was love at first sight. And then, even more impressively, at second and third and fourth as well...

I had just seen a picture of this new (to me) thumb gusset and was intrigued by its unusual shape and wanted to give it a try. I love how it curves across the palm like a secondary lifeline, and it makes a very snug and comforting fit.

These are pretty uneventful mittens since I think that handspun is at its best in the simplest stitches, but there is a bracelet of garter eyelets for a smidgeon of la-ti-da.

I got to drag my friend Lorelei to the park in the rain for another exciting photo shoot for a few other designers (secrets! I will share at length, I promise!) and as photographer's prerogative I snuck these in too. I will make a pattern soon, and am planning on also offering it as a freebie with any skein of handspun yarn, as a ready answer to the ubiquitous, "what can you make out of one special skein?"

Pssst, you can get the pattern to make some of your own right here:

Thanks so much friends, as always, and until next time!

we hearts our cameras

2011-02-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

I had some photo classes this week and last, so much fun! Thank you to my students, Cath, Marie and Emily, for many enjoyable hours of photo geekery. And can I humbly say that you blew me away with the alacrity and elegance with which you translated my yammering about framing, exposure and depth of field into some truly lovely photographs:

Views from a yarn shop. Thank you all once again for a remarkable experience. Now go forth, white balance and shun the flash!

it was all so sudden...

2011-02-19T22:37:00.000-08:00

This last Thursday I got to take a train across the river and up (Up = North).

(I did remember my camera, but forgot to renew the battery. So I interspersed precious moments of 'real' photography with phone camera photography, and apparently my phone thought that I was in a Hitchcock film.)

All the way to Tacoma! And Madrona.

With my good mates Star, Lee and Sorren! And since I am a dope and people usually hate having cameras stuffed in their faces besides, I have no adorable group shots. But I did catch some other important stuff.

(Look! It's Lee and Star!)

We ran into a bunch of friends and a few famous people and generally basked in the glory of the fancy hotel and the even greater luxury of a day off from our lives.

I realize that I kind of fail at the storytelling end of things here, relying overmuch on pictures and cryptic half-phrases. But really, what more can I say about an entire day in the company of great people, doing the things that we love to do best? The weather was marvelous, we packed the best collaborative picnic basket I've had in years, and many hilarious and unrepeatable stories were made and shared. And we ended our stay in Tacoma here, and that, my friends, is all I have to say about that.

mass communicating!

2011-02-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago my friend (and boss) Emily asked me to be a guest on the internet radio show she co-hosts called "Knit Happens". It was great fun, I've never been on radio before, so much more civilized than television...but I digress. I had my family and close friends vet the resulting show and was adequately assured that I don't sound like the blooming idiot that I hear when I listen, so I bare my soul and offer it here to share:

Listen Now!

Enjoy, and be kind! On a related note I do have a class coming up at Twisted that deals specifically with becoming acquainted with your big fancy DSLR camera, and there is space! Sign up if you wish you could wield the beastie a little better, we always have a blast.

And soon I will have a post about my fabulous madcap adventures in Tacoma at the Madrona Fiber Festival...stay tuned!

time well spent

2011-02-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

Hello again, friends.

I've been busy while I've been away, I assure you. I have most of a sweater done, even!

Soon to be this pattern, out of Madeline tosh Vintage in the colorway Tart.

But even better than that, there are new yarns for sale at the shop!

"Arsenic & Old Lace", 100yds of a bunch of soft and sparkly stuff, including vintage lace and recycled sari silk!

"My Old Aunt's Kitchen", 130yds bulky BFL and cotton thread bouclé thick/thin

"French Revival", 190yds silk/wool DK-worsted

"Skittles", 350yds merino sport-ish single ply, in rainbow stripes! Taste the rainbow...

"Tartan", 350yds DK merino

another "Jacks" (subnamed 'Sparklejacks'), an adorable silky and sparkly 30 yds of random!

And hopefully more to come before too long...depends on how long that those sleeves take me...

HowlCat

2011-01-07T23:18:00.001-08:00

This is become the blog wherein I discuss my generous and talented friends and thereby show nothing of my own. I'm fine with this for the present, so let's move right along.

This is something I like to call the HowlCat (cowl+hat) from my dear friend Alex. It is just so flippin cool. I remember months ago when she discussed the concept with me and I had only the faintest idea of what she was envisioning. She promises that this will become a pattern soon available to the general public, but in the meantime she sent this one to the boy in our Christmas box.

She also sent me this:

I love it so much! Thank you Alex! She also sent a bunch of other stuff of a wooly or comestible nature, like a miniature garden of delights, but they didn't make it into the light in time for a photoshoot. Just imagine in your sweet heads how incredibly impressed and lucky I feel, and have a truly wonderful weekend.

Daisy Dear

2010-12-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

In the midst of all that madcap holiday knitting I took on a test knit project. I don't really know what I was thinking, but I'm glad that I did because it was a really fun hat to make.

This hat was designed by my friend Lenka who is one of the most amazing colorwork fiends I've ever met, and she designed this one as a good 'beginner's' project. Which it actually is (heck, I did it) since the design is very intuitive, there are no overly long yarn floats and the motifs move you along very quickly.

The crown of the hat is especially masterful, I think, with a strong architectural theme that is again very easy to memorize. I didn't even choose those colors, they just dropped into my lap, unbidden. And who am I to protest? I used the Brown Sheep Lanaloft Sport, which is a blessedly forgiving yarn which helps give a professional veneer to my amateurish colorwork skills

This hat will be published soon under the Twisted pattern line -- check in with them to try it out for yourself!

light!

2010-12-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

The sun came out, after all that moaning, and I lost no time in getting out my camera. To see what there was to see on my walk to work, and to find those instances of my colors that I could. The above photo is of a mysterious window display that has captured my imagination for years now.

We had a birthday party for the boy yesterday, complete with some crafts which I'll blog about soon...right now, I have to finish knitting! Gahhhh!

stone soup

2010-12-16T22:54:00.000-08:00

My life has been shockingly photo- and wool-less lately. I'm knitting but it's yielded nothing since it's the time of year when I'm constantly interrupted or else what I'm working on is hush-hush. Nothing terribly exciting, though, all the same. The weather has been nasty so the light has been poor and I've barely even taken pictures. Lest I be accused of whining, today was lovely and my whole family and a passel of friends loaded up with hot cocoa in thermoses and went to the zoo lights. For some reason I always have a great time. And the boy wore his brand-new birthday fish mittens that Sorren made for him (pictures someday) and we laughed and jumped up and down and flapped our wings to keep warm.

But this is what I'm really here for:

Soup!

I make soup every week, and lately it's been a version of the same everything-in-a-pot-to-clean-out-the-fridge sort of old world economizing soup. Sometimes I bake a nice crusty bread for dipping, or noodles, or crostini out of the old stale bread my father blessed us with. I love soup. It's hearty, tasty, includes all the necessary food groups and generally only dirties one pot (plus some knives) and then one bowl each. One night as we were eating our soup my dearly beloved said I should blog about it for you, since -- as he said -- it just seems like soup and knitting go together. So here it is, friends, my baseline poor-person's soup of winter heartiness:

** Measurements are generous and approximate. It's really hard to run afoul with your ingredients in soup **

3-4 quarts stock (I often make my own and then supplement with store-bought)
onion
several celery stalks
a few pounds of root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, celery root, turnips, sweet potato, unsweet potato...you get the idea.
2 cups pearl barley
1-2 cups legumes (precooked, or dry if they're quick-cooking like the lentils)
2-3 pounds protein (I like beef in the winter, but I'll also use the baked chicken from the previous night and sausage or hambone for flavor...if the meat is not already cooked, I brown it before adding it to the soup. And before you go judging on the amounts, I feed at least three boys most nights and they always eat up all the meat.)
1-2 large cans whole peeled tomatoes, roughly chopped
spices: cumin, thyme, a whisper of cardamom or cinnamon (I often add these to stocks), rosemary, etc.

Procedure: 1) Put the barley and lentils (if using) in a bowl and cover with cold water to soak while preparing other ingredients (to reduce the amount of your stock they use up -- you can also cook them separately and add them in, but that's another pot dirtied). 2) Saute chopped onion in pot until translucent, add spices and throw in the cubed celery and root vegetables, stir for a bit. 3) Cover with your stock and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. If using uncooked meat, brown it while the stock is heating, then add to the vegetables. 4) Add the drained barley and lentils, cook until tender (approx. 30 minutes). 5) Add tomato and any precooked ingredients and let simmer gently for a bit to meld.

Devour for three meals a day for several days. Or if you're crazy organized, freeze some and save for a rainy day when you don't feel like cooking. My favorite trick (much to my family's chagrin) is to make the same pot of soup stretch out for a week or so, adding some different ingredients and more stock here and there as they present themselves until the character of your soup changes into something totally different than you started with. I always feel like my Croatian grandmother when I do this, since I hate wasting food and soup is such a great, cheap, nutritious way to feed the voracious hordes (and we have us some of those here in this house), especially if you're baking your own bread to go with it.

So long, friends, and keep warm!

The {big} little things

2010-12-08T20:21:00.000-08:00

The quality of life depends so much on the quality of your friends. My friends, I tell you, take the cake. I am the luckiest girl. Sorren (who we've discussed before with her impressive array of talents) presented me with these yesterday:

We have to rewind a bit first because it wasn't all a surprise. A year ago, another very good friend, Star, gave me this yarn for my birthday, a lovely hand-dyed sport weight that just kept taunting me and not really wanting to be anything except socks. And I don't really do socks (not adult-sized ones anyway) but I may just start because hand knit socks really are a world apart. I was musing over this out loud in Sorren's presence one day and she said, 'I'll make them for you!' After I picked my jaw up off the floor I ran to my cabinet and stuffed the yarn in her hands before she could change her mind. Like I said, I'm just weak that way. Some weeks later, these, the most gorgeous socks ever to grace my feet are allll mine. It's her own pattern, one which she says she'll be writing up.

I love the comfort of the turned cuff

and the texture of the simple stitch pattern really lets the yarn shine

(The white balance and I are having uncharacteristic arguments lately, I don't know if I've changed or if my camera did but I miss our golden relationship of yesteryear! Imagine all this a little less blue and you'll be there.)

I love these, they are perfect, and I am indebted to her generosity for life. To both of them, really. I defy you to think of how I could be any luckier!

The Albatross

2010-12-05T23:25:00.000-08:00

I said to myself some weeks back that it was high time I spin up a laceweight yarn. For kicks, you know, and the satisfaction of it. Some people do this all the time, and I now believe that they are sadists because it is a bit of a slog, I tell you what. Maybe I'm not doing it right (hail to the self-taught crafters) but this humble little skein probably took about fifteen hours to squeeze out (perhaps I exaggerate just a skosh) and that's not including the many hours I spent ignoring and avoiding its heathen self. So I'm calling it The Albatross, but even for all that, I am very satisfied with it because this skein has some serious squish.

That right there is almost 1000 yards (985 for those with hair splitters), and it has a companion mini-skein of 188 yards because I plied it up until my bobbin literally could not turn any more under the duress of so. much. yarn.

I've had a bit of a spinning frenzy in the resulting void left by this yarn's absence, and I'm pleased to say that many more yarns will be making their debut to the shop this week. I'm not going to make you suffer through an exegesis here, just head on over and see them soon.

But before I go, look! I dyed! (nyar-de-har, I never tire of that threadbare pun.)

Carrie of Big Alice Dyes had Sorren and me over for a very generous dyeing tutorial and holy rusted rocks, batman, this is some crazy fun stuff. While I am clearly in some sort of a Green Period, we have big ambitions to start doing this for serious reals and spinning up and selling our very own roving in all colors of the rainbow...we're trying to come up with a good marriage of our names, Spindleshanks and Puddlefish. My vote is on Spindlefish, any other bright ideas?

on love

2010-11-30T15:33:00.000-08:00

So far I've been approaching this blog as fiber-exclusive and leaving all that other 'life' stuff to my other blog and never the twain shall meet. But seriously, doesn't that kind of segregation get a bit tiresome? So perhaps this blog is about the things that I truly love about this world, which happens to include a lot of fiber. And a lot of grey and red.

This is the house that my grandfather built on the Oregon coast, where we went visiting on Sunday. The one thing that I love (exclusive of my people, bien sur) more than wool? The Oregon coast. I love all beaches, but none quite so much as we have here.

It's not something that I can explain exactly. It's about how relatively empty they are, and how soft the sand is from those big Pacific waves, and our incredible hills and the fog and the clean smell and oh, just Everything.

And lookie, there's me wearing that hat I just made. So there's fiber involved as well.

I could do this all day, but instead if you're as crazed for coastal images as I am, you can see all the waves and sand you want in the flickr set.

Kinda makes you want to curl up and knit now, doesn't it?

Gridlock

2010-11-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

It's up!

Gridlock is a ridiculously fun hat to make, and fast, too! Between all the, erm, ideating and revisions I've probably knit half a dozen of these in the past week without breaking a sweat, and I got some other side knitting done, too. Many thanks to Sorren for test knitting that grey and red one on my brother's head (he took it over as soon as it got home) and to my lovely models, Chris, Anatole and Lorelei. This was the fastest hat shoot ever as I made them hang around on the coldest day we've had yet...

This hat is worked up in a worsted weight yarn for the adults, and a light worsted/dk for the kidlet. We have Malabrigo worsted, Tosh Merino, and Rios up there. The astute among you will have noticed that these colors are awfully similar to The Big Easy and you are correct. I bought one skein each of Tosh Merino in Filigree and Norwegian Spruce and got two Big Easy hats and a Gridlock out of them. I like that kind of economy, myself.

If you are interested in toasting your top with one of these, head on over to Ravelry or just jump right in here with your $5.00 and click on this button:

And thank you, as ever, for your support and compliments! Any questions, you know where to find me. Now go eat yourselves silly and have a great long weekend!

holding pattern

2010-11-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

My friend Sorren just started spinning. Keep that in mind, she just started. She brought this lovely, opalescent yarn in to show off the other day and I snatched it, literally, away from her and declared it mine.

Fish gotta swim, she gotta spin. And knit. I should mention that the girl is also a knitting phenom, she knits at the speed of desert lightning. I have conned her into doing much for me lately so it's unfair of me to also be stealing her yarn, but what can I say, I'm weak.

Fortunately we have more collaborative plans on the horizon, involving these adorable little packets that arrived this week:

Live free or dye! I went to school in New Hampshire for a year, and I tell you what, you would never know that it was populated by such zealous textile artists. But yes, we're going to start dyeing our own fiber! And then, presumably, when we get good enough we will be selling it on the etsy, and we are just so dadgum excited! Any tips, tricks? I'm especially interested in this Greener Shades Dye because it's an acid dye that is free of heavy metals so you get all that vivid color but without the Mad Hatter's diseases.

I'm fairly itching to spin with all this fibery goodness going around, but I got myself deep into this laceweight polwarth dyed by the famous Tina at Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and boy is it kicking my butt.

It's wonderful stuff but, oy, it's a lot of spinning. I've promised myself that this will be the week that I get it off the wheel, after my next hat pattern comes out (shhhh), perhaps during the snow that our region has been promised tomorrow...

The Big Easy

2010-11-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

Last October I was hanging out with Alex at a craft fair and I cast on for this hat. I intended it to be a present for my son but it just never really made it off my head...

And then people started asking me about the pattern and I just went, uhhhhh...It's easy! But finally something had to be done, so I made up another one, slightly larger (for all those large-headed people in the world like the ones I live with) in another beautiful yarn.

The red one is Malabrigo worsted in Sealing Wax (heart!) and the second in the equally swoon-worthy Tosh Merino in Filigree. I wear these all the time, people, in fact one of them (I forget which) is on my head right now. It takes approximately zero hours to knit up and it just sits so nicely over the hair and covers those tender ears and slouches in a way that is far cooler than I can ever hope to be.

Many thanks to Lorelei for helping take photos and for modeling with me so winsomely. And that grey coat I'm wearing? Yeah, that's the best-ever coat that I wear every single day, if only to remember Alex. And keep the wind off. Red/orange and grey is all I need to have a happy day, folks.

Oh! So if you are interested in purchasing said pattern (for $3.00!) you can head on over to Ravelry or just click this button right here:

Many many thanks to my brother for the pictures of both of us, but most of all for opening up the doors to his bike shop (!) on his day off so we could make use of that nice natural light on a very grey and drizzly day. Go on over and check out the journey of his new shop, Crank, and if you're local just stop on in their new location on SE 27th and Ash because these guys can take care of you like no one else can.

And stay tuned, there are games afoot.

Show the World!

2010-11-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

I teach an amateur photography class at the shop called "Show the World!", intended for this brave new world of mass communication via interwebs and the sudden proliferation of digital media. It seems like everyone and their dog has a digital camera, and they're using them to broadcast themselves and their lives (and, often, livelihoods) to the world. But not everyone has had the chance to learn some of the simple tricks of photography, which can sap a lot of the fun out of such endeavors. And thus, a class was born. This time, I happened to bring in my computer to use for practice editing so I got to hang on to one student's photos. And might I say that I am so honored and impressed.

(I also love the, erm, subtle -- and hopefully accidental -- commentary in this photo. Sometimes framing mistakes are priceless.)

We finished the class with a brief session with a model (yours truly) decked out in knitteds (none of them are mine) in front of the shop to capture that lovely post-storm afternoon light. I habitually have a none-too-gentle loathing of pictures that feature my own self on the other side of the camera, yet this student managed the impossible, A+ all around!

Here it's the subtle echo of the spinal curve by the window display that gets my attention, and the highlight on the beautiful stitch pattern of the lace.

Thank you so much to all my wonderful students, and I think that next time I'll have to make sure to get more examples that I get to take home.

Oh, wool is me

2010-11-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

As promised, some new yarns for squeezing. These are all at Twisted, but soon, soon my dearlings, I will have more choices for the buying. And maybe even more kinds of things to buy! Goodness gracious, I could do this all day long.

"Jane Austen," an aran weight merino 2-Ply

"Cauldron Born," everything under the sun is in this yarn. Alex gave me a crazy batt for my birthday (sorry, no before pictures) that was a riot to spin up, then I plied half of it with silk and the other half with alpaca. It's actually super pretty in real life, doesn't translate well to photographs at all.

"Acid Test," a very toothsome, chunky merino. This one and Jane Austen were originally going to be plied together, but then I had a change of heart. But a glimpse of them as singles, all the same:

"Trout Tickling," BFL light worsted. Another one that is so much better in real life, with this deep, subtle rainbow quality and that famous BFL luster.

At this rate, I'm going to burn through my fiber stash in pretty short measure, I get pretty obsessive about spinning. Good thing I have a plan...more on that later, I hope! Until then, happy November!

goodbye Alexandra

2010-10-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Whew, we had birthdays back-to-back and then my best-good yarny friend, Alex, split town forever (?) to move back to Michigan...just in time for winter. Yeah, good luck with that, by the way :)

I spun up a really lovely yarn for her to remember me by, which I was so excited to deliver that I neglected pictures. Again. Perhaps she'll humor us with some in the future, but it was this roving (the blurry one on the bottom, sooo lovely) by local dyer Big Alice.

In return, she gifted me tons and tons of amazing things, including the best ever coat, a brand-new screen printing machine, and a dining room table and chairs...I think I'll keep making yarn for this girl, it pays. But best of all she gave me this beautiful batt she carded up that I've been drooling over for months and months, thanks so much Alex, and I'll miss you for always!

Meanwhile, I have been spinning like there is no tomorrow. I'm ready to take a break soon and knit up some sweaters as it's gotten downright brisk here in the PNW lately, but I have a few more days of hard labor first. And this time, I promise pictures. And selling.

on sale now...

2010-10-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

I love to spin, but once done I am often just as content to send the yarn itself out into the world, with my dearest wishes. Which often means it goes to Twisted, where I sell it. A few of my recent favorites that are there now:

"Wicked", 150yds of worsted/aran that is more silk than wool, and that wool is so soft it might as well be silk. This was a fun one to spin up, especially those bright bits of 100% pure silk. mmmm. A girl could get used to that.

"Beach Glass" (so named by Sorren), 132yds, another 3-ply in a slightly heavier weight out of a beautifully dyed corriedale that blooms and softens into something truly lovely after blocking.

"Pandora's Box", 400 yards of sport/dk weight in a riot of colors. It took a while to get all spun up, but it is a most satisfying skein...

Those are the ones that I reach over to squeeze most often when I'm at work, but I'm also very excited about the things that are on the list for this week (if I have the time...)!

i heart fiber

2010-10-10T21:20:00.001-07:00

No great surprise, I seriously wake up in the morning excited about wool. I recently splurged on The Knitter's Book of Wool and it's like she made that book for me. I want mountains of it, in a dozen sheep breeds, just to play with. If I didn't have a family, I would never leave its side. As it is, it's pretty hard to tear me away.

This happy pile is (most of) my booty from this year's Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival, doesn't it kind of make you want to swoon? I definitely had some color themes this year, and it's going to be mighty hard to choose which ones to sell out of that bundle...this cashmere/merino (50/50, i mean really folks, that a ton of cashmere) blend from Lisa Souza in the colorway 'Bhutan' was my only splurge, and I'm saving it for some really dark and rainy winter day.

But surprisingly enough, the one that didn't even make it into a photoshoot until it was already a finished object was this straight up merino by Maiden Skeins I got home, spun up, navajo plied and turned into a hat (with some help from Alex, heh heh) lickety-split. And now it lives on my head (except in pictures, my head doesn't do too many pictures).

That pom-pom is the definition of squoosh. So what's next? Aside from some knitting that may or may not prove to be exciting, perhaps one of these little darlings...

Honestly, a girl can lose sleep over these happy quandaries.

It's all about string

2010-10-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

It's no exaggeration to say that I've worn this scarf almost every day since I finished it.

It's so eminently wearable, versatile, smooth, and made out of my all-time favorite yarn: Malabrigo sock in Archangel. This yarn was actually the inspiration for the scarf; when I bought it, I kept wearing the naked skein wrapped around my neck because it felt so good and the colors of all those strands was just stunning.

being the self-respecting knitter that i am, that era could not last long (yarn? unknitted! bah!) and String Theory was born. Then friends and co-workers wanted to try it out, too, so it grew up into an honest-to-goodness pattern, with formatting and everything. A heady experience, I tell you what. I'm already on the road again..sshhhhhh. Enough time for that. For now, a word about practicalities.

One of my favorite features of this scarf is its function -- the number of wraps determines its effect, both in style and warmth. And no matter what, it's staying on, none of that Isadora Duncan-style undoing. For all that and its mysterious looks, it's really quite a humble pattern, nothing very fancy about it at all in the making, which makes for some good movie knitting. The transformation is in the bind-off, which kind of is mind-blowing, very caterpillar/butterfly. Written for two gauges, the possibilities are endless; I want to have one out of a dozen different yarns for a dozen different moods. As it is, I'm pretty pleased to have two.

This second one, out of Araucania's sugar cane (!) yarn, Ruca, is definitely much more the diva version. The silky plant fiber is at once cool and insulating, and it somehow feels like water flowing around the neck. And the character of it is so different. Where the sock version is perky, this one is languid.

Incidentally, if you want to get this pattern in your hot little hands, you can do so right here (this technology never fails to amaze) for $6.00 and a little moxie, this scarf can be your best friend, too!

The patterns includes an in-depth phototutorial of that unusual bind-off, and as soon as I wrest the little video I took off Alex's phone, I'll have that up here, too. Until then, enjoy, and happy knitting!

Going live in 5, 4, 3, 2...

2010-10-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome all to the official (half-baked) launch of this website. Thus far my presence on the blogosphere has been concentrated here, which is mostly about my family and the sundries of life. I endeavored to keep my knitting and spinning separate from that space, and the eventual pile-up became Spindleshanks. I also needed a name for selling my handspun yarn and for people to come with questions about my new pattern, String Theory. I shall post more about that exciting little number very soon, I promise, and I even have a multi-media presentation (sounds so posh and pretentious, doesn't it?) to help describe its processes.

Until then, welcome to newcomers and oldcomers and allcomers, and I will try to get all the strange design bugs smoothed out of this site in short order so that we can get down to the very serious business of the fiber arts. And since we cannot leave without a photo, here's one that didn't quite make the cut for the pattern, but deserves its time in the sun: