Tuesday, November 07, 2006

a little birthday hangover!

Totally free of alcohol, mind you.

I cannot explain why I am so lucky to know people like Emma and Lorraine, but I am. Together, they conspired to birthday me in the coolest way EVER. Emma did some digging at the best source possible and learned that I was quite obsessed with the idea of carding non-woollies together as I walked around Rhinebeck. The more I saw, the more I wanted into the blending party! So Emma and Lorraine made it possible. Look!


All this loot! The fiber is organic cotton from the Good Shepherd in Vermont, plus a very heavy silk cap (not sure where that came from!).

Then this:

What's so special? It's just a lovely set of carders, right? Nuh-uh!


These are COTTON carders, with exponentially more teeth, placed closer together, specifically for cotton fibers. I can blend cotton and angora! Cotton and silk! I can't stand it! :-)


Here's Emma's first shot at blending in a dark bar, under the influence of beeeer. I'll be begging Lorraine for a lesson really soon, so i can start making some of the beautiful batts she does...AND be able to touch them, too! [You'll have to wait for a future issue of Knittyspin to read more about Lorraine and her blending technique. It's supercool.]

Thank you SO MUCH Emma and Lorraine! It was a complete surprise and made me warmer and fuzzier than you can imagine.

---

Not a birthday gift, but a gift nonetheless is this amazing bag I hinted at last week.


Sarah is making these bags from her quilting stash and giving them away with a wheel-fund contribution of $20 or more, to raise funds for the spinning wheel she craves.


The bags are really well made, with exterior pockets on both sides, and the perfect size for a handspindle and some fiber, or a small knitting project. Most excellently, she's also donating a portion of the money she collects to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, in memory of someone special to her.

The post with the bag info is here.

Best of luck, Sarah!

posted by amy [Knitty] @ 10:58 AM 4 comments

Comments:
I'm glad you're excited about your new hobby. Sorry about the amount of time that you're about to start "wasting" making new fiber blends. ;)

The silk cap and the cotton are both from the same place. I believe the cotton is referred to as "Sea mist." The booth had at least four different shades of cotton (all the natural colours, not dyed). Sea mist had the most blue in it which I thought which blend nicely with the blue/green caps.
# posted by Blogger emma jane : 10:09 AM, November 09, 2006
 
Wow, the blending looks fun! Can't wait to read more about it :)
# posted by Blogger Jen : 10:31 AM, November 11, 2006
 
Wow, Sarah picked out some lovely fabric for your knitting project bag. I love it!
# posted by Blogger Carrie : 12:21 AM, November 12, 2006
 
Hi---
I just want to respond to the article called "Sez who?" about the fear that the current knitting zeitgeist might be ending, the glut of unbought knitting books on the market, the boredom with fake fur, etc. I would like to suggest that part of the decline in the zeitgeist might have something to do with a few flaws in the knitting culture that might have turned a few people off, along with me.
First of all, I think it's a big turnoff for people in the culture, the ones I call "fiber snobs", to be so prissy about what kind of yarn other people use. I have gone to various knitting events and no matter what the complexity of your pattern or whether your knitting skills demonstrate the ability to knit American with one hand and Continental with other, while at the same time being able to talk and read graphs, the first question always is: "What kind of yarn are you using?" And if the answer is "Knitpicks" or (gawd forbid) "something I bought at JoAnn's", the noses go up and remain up. I once saw a knitting store proprietor in Columbus, Ohio, HIDING a gorgeous donated Ann Norling Entrelac throw because it was made out of "horrible yarn" (Homespun) and she was afraid her customers would see how pretty it was and convert to cheap yarn. But why would someone spend $300 on a blanket that they plan to donate? And furthermore, if knitting is a hobby and something you do merely for fun, is it necessary to go broke from it?
Second of all, there is a degree of patronization that I just cannot stand. For instance, I went to a knitting guild meeting, was sitting there knitting something that required a genius I.Q. and reams of graph paper to do, and someone came up to me and said, "Well, sweetie, it's good to do hard things when you get older. It keeps your brain active." I have three degrees and I'm 61, not 89, but my point is that even though I might be Dr. "Sweetie," that I am insulted by the mindset under which I was perceived as an uncomplicated little old lady who couldn't do anything else to "keep her mind active" except sit there and knit".
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the knitting culture might have more chance to survive longer if there weren't so many people who were determined to take all the fun out of it. I mean, I suppose the point of it could be to lord it over or condemn other people, but where is the joy in that? For myself, I guess I'd rather be a solitary practitioner....
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 8:43 PM, December 23, 2006
 
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