SpinnySpinny

The sock yarn spinning is still ongoing, but in the meantime I started a sock with some of the yarn I bought. I’m doing a toe-up with a figure-eight cast-on, which went ok. Of the toe methods from Knitty, it’s the one that made the most sense for me. YMMV, I’m sure, as lots of people hate/are scared of the figure-eight cast-on. I have that feeling about waste yarn crochet chains. I liked the fabric knit on 2mm dpns, but I went up a size to get closer to the recommended gauge. I think it looks nice around 32/10cm (8/inch.) But the manufacturer recommends 28/10cm and at least 2.5mm needles, which is no way going to work for me. Knitting is like that. Hey, it’s not like I’m really following a pattern anyway. I’m using Wendy’s toe-up sock pattern as a guide. I’m only accidentally using the same number of stitches. Based on measuring my ankle I expected 72 stitches but started the foot after 68 because it appeared to be getting alarmingly large. I finally ripped back and went with 64 because I didn’t like how it looked.

The yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fun&Stripes, the most normal sock yarn I could find in sufficient amounts at Carolina Homespun. (I also got two skeins of another color for some taller socks.) It’s mostly regular color changes with little blobs here and there. I looked around at sock yarns for a couple weeks, but wasn’t happy with what I saw. The fake Fair Isle stuff gets weird if you start changing the number of stitches and I really didn’t want all that anyway. I also wasn’t happy with the odd muted colors I saw several places. What is so wrong with basic solids? What I got was shades of blue, which I can live with. The other one is blue and green.

100g is supposed to do a pair of socks, so I’m doing toe-up to get as much as possible out of it. I intended to knit from both ends of the skein at the same time, but I’m beginning to wonder if it will work. I have to knit a little more to see if the stripe pattern comes out symmetrical. If it’s not, then I’ll just keep going until I use half the skein. This wouldn’t be an issue if I could find some plain normal yarn, but apparently I’m a stodgy old crank who isn’t keeping up with the latest styles. Feh.

The hats are back safely, so now I have my regular hat to wear again. And I went to Goodwill this morning and found not only a spindle case (wine bottle carrier) but a jar of Procion MX and a bag of soda ash. Somebody must have dumped excess tye-dye stuff, with as much as most people know about dyes it’s a wonder they even ended up bagged together. Can’t beat 99 cents.

I started back up on preparing fiber for the sock yarn. I have to find a new place to put the comb pad because the current location is killing my wrists. I need to be able to pull straight out but the shelf I have it clamped to is too tall. My arms don’t work that way, and trying to pull down is putting my hands in a weird position. I’m wondering if a low stool and the second shelf would be better. I still have some things to work out with this, but it’s coming along. I may even get enough finished by next week for the fair.

My hats are on their way back from Convergence, I should have them early next week. I was concerned at first because I got a call from the shipping place wanting to know how I was going to pay for return shipping (HGA was supposed to cover it.) But when I called back later with my FedEx account number, it had all been sorted out. The person I talked to said Convergence package handling had been disorganized, but at least now I’m getting my stuff back. So everything is ok.

I’ve been thinking about this county fair thing and I can’t see how it’s going to happen. I just don’t have enough done to feel comfortable having it finished in time. I could just send off the entry form and if I don’t make it then it would just be a waste of $4 or something, but I really don’t see it having any chance of happening. I’m not much interested in competing, but a friend asked and I figured it would be good to give it a go at least once. Oh well.

The heddle sorting continues. As does the spinning of solid color singles for sock yarn. I’ll spare you the details, other than to say I’ve got a bobbin and a half done. The president of Spindles and Flyers, a friend of mine, has been trying to talk me into submitting a skein for the San Mateo County Fair. The entry form deadline is coming up fast and items must be delivered near the end of the month. I don’t know if I will have anything finished by then. I have a day or so more to think about it.

So, of course, I went shopping at monthly spinning night instead of actually getting any spinning done. I’ve been thinking I should try some socks from commercial sock yarn before I set out to do with handspun, so I can contemplate what I want. I’ve only done a couple socks and it’s been a while. So I picked up enough to do two pairs, one short and one tall. I’ve been looking at sock yarns but not happy with what I’ve seen in a few other shops, the colors were oddly muted and mostly they were the instant Fair Isle stripy things. Stripes are ok, but I didn’t want funky patterns that would only get weird if I don’t work on the recommended number of stitches. After pawing through an entire bin, I found some I could live with at Carolina Homespun. Everyone was amazed that they were not gray. (There was only one skein of gray in the yarn I wanted.) Now I just have to work out the toe-up thing so I can knit until I run out of yarn.

I’m getting my two matching hats (seen in the Gallery section) ready to send off for display. I mentioned a while back that I was invited to send something for an exhibit of COE recipients at Convergence, HGA’s big conference. I submitted my paperwork and yesterday I got the forms and such back in the mail. Shipping labels, id tags, “Return Shipping Authorization Instructions” form, along with three pages of instructions. Sigh. Every art show has it’s own set of requirements, instructions, forms and so on. If I were a bigtime artist, I’d have to be doing this all the time as part of my marketing campaign. That’s one way you get people to buy your fancy expensive artwork, you submit it to juried shows and hope you get in. Your name gets in the program book, hopefully spelled correctly and with a decent photo of your work, and people know what you do and where to find you. The thought has been kicking around for a while, but the sheer volume of paperwork is one reason I haven’t been all that diligent about trying to be one of those Bigtime Artists. Producing two or three pieces a year at most isn’t a good way to make a living, either. This art thing is rough, why I haven’t completely given up on the computers yet. The Boyfriend has to win the IPO lottery first.

I’ve got one hat blocked and the other one is drying. I’ve got my shipping box and my packing paper (conveniently left over from the move.) To keep the nice blocked shape, I have to stuff them with paper and ship it all in this huge box so nothing gets smooshed in transit. I’ve been told they will be on hat forms, that should make them look nice, but I have to get them there unmangled and ready to display. None of that is necessary for return shipping because all I’m going to do is shove them back in my coat pocket. I have a padded envelope that would be fine, but reading through the instructions I find that there is nothing in the procedure about providing different packaging for return shipping. I guess I could just do it and note it in the return shipping instructions.

I’m sure this was developed through years of experience, but bold capital letters make me a bit twitchy. At least this time I don’t have to cut out little cardboard tags of exactly the proscribed size and so on. I’m just not big on all the formality of this art show stuff.