07.25.07
Posted in Knitterly Fraternization, Yarn and Tools at 2:43 pm by Rachel
I don’t usually travel hundreds of miles to visit friends I’ve never met.
But as I was already going to be visiting a friend in San Antonio, and Laura lives just 200 short miles away, we both knew it had to happen. Laura and I are cosmic twins (rather, that’s what I call us because it seems nicer than saying she’s “some girl who copies everything I do”), and chances to meet your cosmic twin don’t come along every day. So we agreed I’d just pop over to Houston for 24 hours before flying home — what could be more normal?
As Melissa, my (real-life) friend in San Antonio, was driving me to the bus station so I could make the four-hour trip to Houston, she asked me the question I’d been hoping all weekend she wouldn’t get around to: “Who is this person you’re visiting again?”
I admit that if I could have thought up a workable lie quickly, I probably would have lied. But Melissa knows me well, and I probably couldn’t have gotten away with it indefinitely. So I told her the truth. It sounded more or less like this:
“Okay, to be honest, I’ve never actually met her before. I know her from the internet. She, umm, has a knitting blog, and I actually do too, and we look at each other’s blogs and sometimes we Google chat? And we really have a lot in common? She’s a Williams grad. Um. I’ve known her for like two years — well, ‘known’ except that we’ve never spoken in person before. Look, if it was really a creepy stalker dude, he would have had to do a LOT of knitting over the past two years and get some random girl to model everything for him.”
There was a pause; then Melissa asked, “How do you know that isn’t the last girl he lured into his trap?”
I didn’t have a good answer for that. But as you can see from the photos, Laura turned out to be exactly as advertised on her blog — right down to her awesome cats — and not some sicko’s previous victim. We had a great time together. I got a full tour of her stash (she even sent me home with a tiny bit of it) and her FOs (it was like walking down Nimrodel70 Memory Lane!). I got to meet Peter (loved him almost as much as the cats). We knit, of course (Laura taught me the tubular cast on, which itself was worth the price of my bus ticket). I ate enough queso to fill a bathtub.
Although getting to meet Laura would have been reason enough to come to Houston, I also got to meet some other pretty cool people. On Monday after I arrived, we headed out to Yarntopia, a yarn store opened a year or so ago by Amy and Sheryl. I had never met Sheryl before, but Amy was the first person on whose blog I ever commented, and she was the first person who ever commented on mine. In fact, she organized the Honeymoon Cami knitalong that was my introduction to the cyberknitting world. I had followed Amy’s blog from before Yarntopia was a glint in her eye, through its conception, creation, opening, and success! It was pretty cool to meet her (she is exactly as I imagined she’d be), and her store is beautiful and inviting. My only regret is that I failed to bring my camera with me. Yep, I lugged the thing from Rhode Island to Austin to San Antonio to Houston just so I could take one damn picture of myself in Yarntopia, and I left it in Laura’s guest room. I have been forced to resort to shoddy Photoshoppery instead. (Note that Laura and I are modeling Laura’s versions of the projects we have knit in common.)
On Tuesday morning I went with Laura to her “Slacker Stitch and Bitch,” which is composed of a handful of people with flexible enough work schedules that they can meet mid-morning during the week. They gather for the 99 cent breakfast at Ikea — pretty clever, if you ask me. I had the pleasure of meeting Staci of Very Pink and Drew (a.k.a. the Crochet Dude); Sheryl from Yarntopia also joined us. The company and conversation were as good as the food was cheap.
Before I knew it, our time was up and it was off to the airport. Now it’s back to taunting and mocking each other over the vast chasm of cyberspace. I didn’t have to go home empty handed, though! Souvenirs from my trip include some lovely chocolate Koigu (actually from Hill Country Weavers in Austin), two gorgeous hanks of Claudia’s Handpainted sock yarn, four balls of Louisa Harding Kashmir DK, three skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (those items from Yarntopia), a hank of beautiful slate purple Texas mohair that Laura gifted to me, and a whole bunch of unflattering photographs and great memories. Thank you for your wonderful hospitality, Laura!
What do you think, fair readers: will I continue to do things I generally don’t do? Or will I revert to my normal activities — generating words without content and wondering when the heck someone’s going to recognize my unique and subtle genius and offer me a book deal?
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07.10.07
Posted in Yarn and Tools at 3:11 pm by Rachel
I have often stated here that I have no interest in taking up spinning, crocheting, dyeing, sewing, tatting, or any other hobby that would cut into my already scant knitting time. (I may not actually have ever mentioned tatting explicitly, but I’m sure you could have inferred my stance toward it.) I don’t doubt that all these things are absolutely wonderful pastimes, but there are so many things I want to knit in my finite lifetime that I have always carefully avoided the temptation of trying out other crafting hobbies, for fear I might like them.
Recently, however, the fates put me in an awkward position. Some friends of ours had a party at which the predominant activity was to be tie-dyeing. We were all instructed to bring items to dye. Now, my wardrobe does not incorporate a tremendous number of tie-dyed garments, and I didn’t have any strong inclination to change that. However, I also didn’t want to be left out of the party fun (although it turned out there was an opportunity to play Zelda on the Nintendo Wii, which might have been the best option, but I couldn’t have known that in advance), so when my brain idly set upon the idea of bringing some yarn to dye…well, I must admit it seemed the perfect solution.
I had two balls of pure white, 100 percent cotton Classic Elite Spotlight with which I’d made Cozy a couple years ago. Attempting to recall helpful hints from the numerous blog posts I’ve skimmed about yarn dyeing, I un-balled one of them and wound it into a long skein around the coffee table. Willow was none too sure about the wisdom of my plans. (But what does she know? She’s a cat.)
We arrived at the party just as the tie-dyeing was about to get underway. People were evoking lessons from long-ago YMCA summer camp to instruct each other on the best way to wrap up their t-shirts. It was kind of fun. (I offer this party idea up to all of you with my full endorsement.) I didn’t have any big plans, so I just kind of separated my yarn into three sections and started dunking.
I will admit that there was something really satisfying about dunking that pure white yarn into that scarlet dye. I will also admit that other partygoers were not entirely sure what to make of my particular choice of tie-dye canvas, but as I’d already started thinking about the brilliantly colored, original…something that I would surely be creating out of my spectacularly dyed yarn, I didn’t really devote the energy that would have been necessary to deweirdify myself in their eyes. Oh well, no matter.
Anyway, it’s true — my worst fears confirmed. Dyeing my yarn was fun. I began to wish I’d brought the other ball of the Spotlight left in my stash. I started having color combination inspirations — vivid blue meets cheerful orange! Chocolate brown meets smoky lavender! I began to allow myself to believe that I was creating something truly sophisticated and spectacular. I started brainstorming names for my Etsy shop and calculating how many weeks of notice it would be appropriate to give at my job before leaving to make money solely through the sale of my exquisitely hand-dyed yarn.
There was only one problem: my yarn was hideous.
First of all, it might have been useful for me to recall that I have never, ever liked the way red and purple look together. But even that aside, this yarn falls seriously flat. I tried to tell myself that if I just called it “Mixed Berries” (other options:”Antioxidant Delight” or “I Drank Too Much Grape Juice and Then Threw Up”) and put a snazzily designed tag on it, it would still sell like crazy from my Etsy shop. Then I managed to tell myself that the yarn would look much better knit up into…something. Something that could be made out of 92 yards of cotton. I thought it might get cutely stripey or something.
Yeah, so, that didn’t fix things. Out of my hideous yarn, I made a truly appalling wine cozy (not only unattractive, but useless, too!). No, please, save your comments telling me that it’s not so bad — it is dreadful. There’s no way around it: my first time dyeing yarn yielded entirely amateur results.
That’s okay, though! I mean, after all, I am an amateur. And from beginning to end, this adventure only took up a couple hours of my life, so it’s not that big a loss. The bigger question, however, is whether or not I’ll be able to resist the temptation of doing it again. I’m already picturing myself frolicking in the backyard with my skillfully mixed dyes, a long skein of pristine yarn, and a paintbrush that I am wielding with astonishing artistry. (I quickly distract myself when my brain accidentally follows through to the logical conclusion of giving my whole family hideous wine cozies for Christmas.)
So, who knows — maybe I’ll do it again, or maybe my infatuation will dye (hee hee!) away in short order. In the meantime — wine, anyone?
Coming soon: More things I generally don’t do!
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