Friday, November 28, 2008

Because I refuse to do this on Facebook...

I thought that I could just tell people what I wanted for Christmas when they asked. I really did. But then I realized that I never actually remember when people ask me. And I have online wishlists kicking around all over, too. So. An amalgamation, or something like that.

Inspiration, Instructions:
Craft (zine) any of issues 1-8 or a subscription. (6 and 8 are the ones that intrigue me the most at this point)
Knits, Cloth Paper Scissors, or PieceWork (from Interweave)
Last-Minute Knitted or Patchwork and Quilted Gifts (Joelle Hoverson)
Mason-Dixon Knitting (or M-D K Outside the Lines) (Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne)

Ingredients, Parts, Materials:
Lilypad E-Sewing Kit (from the Maker SHED)
Actually, just about any of the Craft kits from the Maker SHED
Yarn (colours are good)
Spinning Fibre

Toys and Tools
Size 0 (2mm) or smaller circular needles in ≥40" lengths
Metolius Portable Power Grips (I found them at MEC)
A compass (preferably with decent sighting funtionality)
A couple of those awesome surgical brushes (the Lee Valley kind)
Extra Robertson bits (#2 and #3 are the most useful, in ≥2" lengths, so I can fit them in my screwdriver)
A good seam/stitch ripper (like this one)
Fabric Scissors (because I am now old enough to take care of them)
Board Games (Carcassone, or Settlers of Catan, or brain-type games)

Enjoyable Authors (fiction)
Guy Gavriel Kay (I have the Fionavar Tapestry, as well as Last Light of the Sun)
Terry Pratchett (Anything but the first 5 Discworld books)
Jack Whyte
Diana Gabaldon (I have the whole Outlander series to date)
Jasper Fforde

Places I like to shop
Amazon
MEC
Elann.com
Chapters
Lee Valley
Three Bags Full (the yarn store on Main Street)
(I have wishlists at MEC and Amazon.com (but not .ca))

I'm pretty sure that covers it. Now, what's on YOUR wishlist?

Monday, November 10, 2008

Stupid Weather Gods

So. I should be just getting home now from a hiking trip, soaked to the skin, but fairly pleased about getting out into the green, and making a summit attempt of a local mountain. However. This is not the case. I came home yesterday morning. Because we got (essentially) flooded out. The trail we were hiking (we were trying to get up to Alder Flats, in Golden Ears park, for anyone that cares) was alternately a trail and a creek. Or at least so it seemed. There was lots of rain (plus the previous week's worth, making its way down) and some trail marking issues. We ended up coming back to where the rest of our group (all of 2 people) were holding down the fort for the weekend, in the car-camping area of the park. One of our guys' stuff was absolutely soaked, so he went home, and dragged marksman along too, to play video games. The rest of us stuck it out for the night (it stopped raining about an hour after we got into camp, until after we went to bed) and came home the next morning. So, instead of minor amounts of knitting on Jaywalkers numero dos, I instead have some Jaywalker knitting *and* some spinning. I finished the green stuff that was on the wheel, which I've decided to call Tollana, after one of those comfortably Pacific-Northwestern (well, Southwestern to us Canadians :p) planets of Stargate SG-1, Tollana being the one that's mostly set at the SFU campus. It's named after that because it's well, comfortably Pacific Northwestern-coloured. Green, with wee bits of browniness and blue. Oh, wait. I took pictures. I could just show you those...

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This is the single, before plying. It's not the *most* even thing I've ever spun, but it's not bad, considering it's been done over the span of a few months.



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This is the finished 3-ply. That's a penny there, off to the side, as an attempt to show the size of the yarn...

Details on the yarn: I have three skeins of varying sizes, depending on how comfortable I was with how full the bobbin full of singles was. The first is 170 yards, the second was 205 and the most recent one is 255. I have about 25 grams left, I'd say, out of 200. I'm not sure I care enough to spin it up. I might just keep it for some kind of carding experiment later. It's all 100% merino roving that I bought from Birkeland Brothers a while back (after that purple stuff, actually...) in the colour English Garden.

Not having yet set the twist, this will probably sit in the lazy kate box until I'm ready to do something with it. But I do have a new project on the wheel. It's Yummy Yarns' 50/50 merino soysilk, in some colourway that reminds me somehow of sugarplums. I have no pictures to show you yet, but I started it on my aunt's wheel at Thanksgiving, filled a bobbin, and then went back to the green stuff. I don't have any pictures of it yet, because I put it back on the wheel *after* clearing the camera and was too lazy to take more pictures. Even though I know now that they turn out ok, even when I am inside, because I can set my own white balance. Awesome tool, that...