Monday, August 29, 2005

Yarn Art

The new LYS* is called "Yarn Art". Brian just emailed me this update:

While passing by on the bus this morning I saved Yarn Art's phone number to my phone. I intended to call them to ask when the grand opening would be and to suggest a grand opening sale with deep discount prices in case they hadn't already thought that one up.

Unfortunately, at this time the phone number is not being answered by other than a machine whose recording does not indicate the grand opening date nor the plan to offer deep discount prices upon opening.

I will keep you updated on this matter as time passes.

Brian

P.S. The subtitle on their sign is as follows. "Home of Fine and Novelty Knitting Yarns." The complete snub of those crochet bitches has heartened me muchly, Bevin. Muchly.

*Local Yarn Shoppe

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Totally Incredible News!

There is a new LYS* opening up right near Brian's house either this week or next week! I hope they are open late one evening each week and not "late" like 7 PM, either, so working people who aren't bartenders or teachers can't ever actually make it there.

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Wrap Style is out soon, which is yet another affront to our anti-poncho sensibilities. First Debbie Stoller trying to glamorize crochet and "make it sexy" and now Pam Allen trying to make FUCKING PONCHOS "stylish". I am dubious about this one but will still look to see if there is a miracle within all of those afghans with squares in the middle in that book.

While I was at Michigan, I went into the crafts area (basically a shopping mall of mostly faaaabulous crafts and some other crap) and wandered into a booth selling cute crinolin skirts and asked if they had one in my size (a 24). The woman in the booth said "No, but I do have THIS!" and she whips off a rack with a flourish a FUCKING PONCHO.

My friend Megan started laughing OUT LOUD. I said, "You are trying to sell me a PONCHO for $100!!"

"Oh, but NO! This is so much MORE than a PONCHO. It has this! It's a CAPE!" She drew her hand across the slit in the front with a flourish.

It is a FUCKING PONCHO WITH A SLIT. Which makes it a wrap, which can be cute in some instances that are entirely isolated and never ever worth $100. It's a PIECE OF FABRIC.

Anyway. They had a different styled cape/jacket thingy that was on display for $1100.00. US Dollars. It had a lot of bead work on it, though, and individual strips of ruffly fabric between the beading. It was quite beautiful and looked intricate and I noticed someone had purchased it by the end of the week. This was far more than a piece of fabric.

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In other, knitting related, news, I finished "My Constant Companion" in March and felted it at my mom's house. So it's long overdue for a post but whatever.





This was the first bag I ever felted. I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in (insert fancy name for) red and (insert fancy name for) black.

The purchase of the pattern was reasonable and fast and it came in a nice plastic covered sheet thing so my (pattern destroying paper eating) cat wouldn't eat it. And I learned a lot about I Cord finishing and made my first I Cord for the strap (though I recommend doing 2 or making a wider strap because it is a really heavy bag. I followed the pattern but mine is way bigger than the ones in the photos so maybe next time I should make the sides shorter.

It took forever to knit (months) but it was a great project to have around the house as the 18 inches you simply knit in the round was a perfect brainless knitting circle/being at a meeting project to keep along where distractions don't really matter.

The pattern does not give the design for the pocket they used, so being the punk rock knitting girl I am and wanting a tough knitting bag, I ganked a skull chart I'd liked on the internet and used that, cutting off the top part of the head.

Since the pocket was fair isle I had to felt it longer than the cords or the bag, but it all worked out and how cute and marvelous is my knitting bag??

The pets often sleep on it, too. Which I guess is a testament to the cuddliness of Nebraskan Sheep.

*Local Yarn Shoppe

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

The Latest Outrage

Go Ahead and Click Me.

I can't believe this. This is bullshit, people. Bullshit.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Which Womb?

For those of you who do not know, every year during the second week of August, there is a womyn's music festival in Michigan. Yes, womyn with a "y". Normally I do not spell women this way but referring to the Festival, I defer to their spelling. It is a week long event of concerts, workshops, super tasty food, camping and about 6-10,000 womyn. Mostly lesbians. It is a totally different experience going from being a minority in a male cuture to an entirely female culture and being the majority. I view the whole week as girl scout camp for grown-ups.

Anyway, a cool part about MichFest (one of the many) is that many traditions exist created by the womyn who attend the festival every year. Not officially scheduled/programmed events are sustained year to year by the attendies. One of them is the Barter Mart, where womyn bring crafts, books, clothes, anything that they wish to barter with other womyn. I decided that this was the perfect place to bring Womb Dolls. They only take about a night to make and are really cute and cuddly. And a womyn's festival is all about the girlparts, really.

I made 8 of them, in the pattern specified yarn (Cascade 128) in both pink and blue. Blue for those who are of the more masculine presenting or perhaps people whose wombs make them blue, even just for a couple days per month. Everytime I think of my Blue Wombs I sing "Blue Womb, you saw me standing alone..." to myself.

In conjunction with my pile o' wombs, Knitty is having a contest. They want pictures of an item produced of a Knitty pattern in an unusual situation. What is more magical than a pile o' wombs with a shih tzu in the middle of it?

I have decided to submit one of the following photos of Macy, the Official Spokesdog of the Totally Knitting Universe (TM).

Choice #1


Choice #2


Choice #3


I need to make this decision by Saturday night, so I need y'all to comment NOW on which one you think should go to the Knitty Editorial Staff.