Converting the world - one little girl at a time.

I was hanging out with DBF’s sister’s friend’s little girl, Ava. She won at a game her and I were playing and declared that I owed her $3 cause she won (this wasn’t set up before I starting playing the game with her - gotta love little kids!). I told her “I don’t have and money - you want yarn?” She said yes, so I cut some bits of the yarn I had from the project I brought over, and started knotting the yarn into a friendship bracelet a’la 3rd grade. Ava come over to watch me do this, and was asking questions (she’s 7 y.o.).

DBF’s sis said “Why don’t you show her how to knit? She’d like that!” I asked Ava if she wanted to see me knit and she said yes. I was making a stuffed dog and had finished the body and had just casted on for his leg before I got there. I took my cast on row and started knitting, telling her the poem I heard “In through the front door, up over the back, peep through the window, and off jumps jack.”

Well, sure enough, Ava wanted to try. I only had my size three needles, and some “Reclaimed” yarn I was working with - not the best stuff to teach a young kid with, but damned if she didn’t keep trying and got it after a while. I kept telling her things like “you missed your house.” when she would put her needle between stitches, and “keep your hat on when you look out the window” when she would lose her yarn over.

Her older brother, who was in college, came over to watc, and I’m sure he thought I was nuts saying this stuff, but she was knitting and doing well. My fav. thing she would ask is “Where’s my window?” and I would take my figure or needle and show her where she was to peek out of.

I told her and her mom if Ava really wanted to keep knitting, to bring her over my house one afternoon and I had better stuff for her to work with and it would be more fun for her, rather than learning on these tiny needles.

Turns out, her father’s mom use to knit, and she died in a car accident when he was 24 - he teared up when he saw me knitting, and he left before I taught Ava how to - I’m sure he would be tickled pink if she learned :)

Sorry for the long post- this just made me happy and I wanted to share.

BTW - I was telling her how I make yarn from sheeps' wool and she asked me “who kills the sheep?!!?” I explained and put her on etsy to look at the different colors of roving and wool. After a bit, she pulled her brother over and proudly proclaimed “That’s sheep!” He said “That don’t look like sheep to me…”.

I've been busy

and nervous and scared and knitting and busy and ...

I started my own company. You may have (or not) noticed that I changed the name of my blog. This is now the home of Yarns from the Haunted Surf Shack. We are currently "debuting" at Sock Summit, thanks to Cherry Tree Hill Yarns showing some love to us Indie dyers.

This is where the nervous comes in. For purposes of full disclosure, I've only been dyeing yarns for about a month. Started when I lost my job, since I didn't have much else to do with myself (over then feel like crap, but that's another story). I enjoyed it, and send some of my hand dyed along on a Traveling Scarf Swap I'm part of over on the Ravelry. I figured that if I enjoyed my colors, maybe someone else would too.

I made the mistake of showing DBF.

He is ALL about quitting the day job for something that you love. This is the man that wants to give up our house that he just bought last year and just travel the country in our RV and make music, with me booking shows and whatnot along the way. Since DBF has been to a few LYS with me, and MD Sheep and Wool this year, he saw that I'm not the only one into fiber, and realized that, well, there's an opportunity here.

He's so super encouraging about this whole thing it's a almost a bit scary. Has bought everything thing I need of dyeing, without complaining. Is going to (slightly) remodel our basement washroom so I have a place to work. Even his brother has designed our logo, and my BBF Tamar is our printer of the business cards and labels.

Post Apocalyptic Luau in the mix

So what does all this come down to? I can't sleep. It's 3:48 in the morning, I have to get up at 6, and here I am, blogging, looking at colors, dye methods, yarn types, anything and everything I may need to keep this venture going. I fear failure. I don't want to let everyone down who's helped me. This could be awesome, or I could suck and not know it. I won't know for another week or so, until Sock Summit is underway and I how/if my yarns sell. I'll also have trunk show at Lovelyarns September 18, along with trying to submit something for the phatfiber sample box. So I've got enough to keep me busy for a while. And if I'm busy, I can't worry, right?

Argh, I need sleep.

Spinning - I can! (well, sorta)

I did that!

And I've done a lot more since that photo, but I haven't got the battery power to take *actual* photos of said work. So it may or may not have happened, depending on your way of thinking.

This year at Maryland Sheep and Wool, I finally got my Hitch Hiker spinning wheel. I loves it! Really. It took some figuring out as to how it goes together (cause I can't be bothered to read instructions!) but once I got my wheel working, I've been spinning just as often as I can. (Which turns out to be pretty often as I've lost my job. But I don't want to talk about that.)

I have lengths of singles from when I was trying to spin on my older wheel that I got for Xmas, and I think what I want to do is add some twist to them (terribly underspun), dye them each a different color (yeah, I do that now too), then join the whole lot together and see what happens. I'm hoping for awesome, but who knows.

Oh my GOD - I need to take photos!?!?!?!?!!?

Don't look at my Ravelry notebook. Really. All you'll see is a bunch of blank boxes, telling you that there should be yarn, or a project there, but really, there's nothing. Why? Cause I suck about taking photos.

Right now would be a great time to update all that stuff, but I can't - cable is at work and camera is at home. I'm at home, and therefore, can't upload anything. It's been this way for weeks, cause I'm too lazy to bring one thing to the other...thing. ARGH!

The other reason I need to take pics, is cause I wanted to make a really nifty tutorial thing about how I taught my self to knit Left to Right so I won't have to turn when knitting flat. But again, no can do.

So where I am, writing yet another pointless, boring blog, without the benefits of pointless, boring photos to give you something for the trouble of reading this. Well, I'm sorry. Stacey FAIL!

I'll do something better next time I bother to blog - I swear!

2009 - Fearless knitting

I know that last year, knittingdaily.com started the whole idea of knitting fearlessly and whatnot, but I'm always late to jump on a bandwagon, so here we are.

Besides, I was talking to Tamar and told her that 2009 would be the year I give up mindless knitting and try some challenges. Her and I both need shawls, and of course *she* wants a mohair one and I really have a terrible time with that stuff. I guess I can try again.

The other reason for this year of challenges is, well, I'm kinda getting bored. I've knit four headbands in the past month. Mainly cause they're quick and people love them. But it is SOOOOO mindless. I'm knitting socks now that is the second time I'm using this pattern. Mind you, I'm using a much smaller yarn than called for, so there was some math, but really - k3, P1 over 80 sts. makes me want to stab my eyes out a little bit.

So yeah. I figured I would make my point/resolve here - so it makes for some sort of accountability. I guess...

More spontaneous blogging

I know, I know. i post, what, 4 times a year? Maybe? It's really not you, it's me. I don't have the internets at home anymore, and have about an hour a day at work to play and that time's usually spent over there at the Ravelry. I heart Ravelry <3 So, that means, that I never post here. You don't know of my knitty adventures, (or lack thereof) or of my knitty progress (again, or lack thereof). But have no fear - I shall update you on everything, and it will be like we're old friends :)

So, where to start... well, my Left thumb decided to say "To hell with this!" and stopped working for a few months. I tried Physical Therapy, and ice, and heat, and rest, and not rest, and FINALLY got a cortisone shot in there about a week ago, and my hand finally is functional enough that I can knit again. So in the last 6 months, I haven't done a whole lot other than cry cause I couldn't knit, and read books cause what else am I going to do if I can't knit?

In the 6 months prior to that, I was knitting about 16 hours a day, since I was out of work and could do that. Lots of stuff got knitted then (pics of which are over there at the Ravelry). Now, I'm playing catch up - trying to finish stuff started 6 months ago, and trying to finish things for Birthdays and Christmas. Right now, I'm making the BF a another pair of socks (which I was trying to take a picture of and the batteries just died in the camera. Argh!) and am trying to finish me mum's sweater. I made myself a sweater, and now sweater's are my favorite things to knit right now. I have this wonderful woolly brown yarn at home and I am DYING to make that into a wonderful sweater.

With moving, and now having to COMMUTE (which I've never had to do before) I'm only home and awake for about 4 hours in an evening. There goes my amazing amounts of knitting time. Hopefully Santa will bring me more time or something to help me out.

Free therapy

By which, I mean knitting. (duh :P)

I'm having computer issues at home (I think computer from 1972 finally died), so please forgive me for the lack of photos.

I'm currently working on something that I have no business knitting. Rather, I'm knitting *for* someone that I have no business knitting for. A very near and dear (ex boy)friend of mine has asked for a pair of black fingerless gloves. Mind you, I took up knitting because of the stress of the break up, I mean, because I had so much free time after we parted ways. And one of the first things I made after I started down my crafty road, was a blanket for him, made of about 20 granny squares (since I was convinced that no one would worry about him being warm after I left.)

And here we are , two some odd years later, new boyfriend, and much more crafty skills, so what do I do? i ask the ex "What can I knit for you?" Why? Well, (leaving out the hundreds of reasons of why I shouldn't even be entertaining this idea), I think I need to make one more thing, to put all my good wishes in, and then I might be done. With the ex, not knitting, or course.

I mean, even though it wasn't the best of situations for a very long time, I did have a lot of fun with him, and still get along with him on the few occasions that we happen to run into each other. And I still worry about him, and worry = knitting. I tend to think about whoever I'm knitting for at the time, and thinking about how helpful/useful the item is that I'm making and how (hopefully) the person will be happy with what I make, and maybe thing fondly of me, since I was so awesome and made it :P But with the ex, I just worry lot about him, and really and truly want him to be happy in his new life. And that's what I think abut when I work on his gloves. I want him to look at/use these gloves, and know I wish good things for him, that I worry about him, and that I want him to be happy. And making these gloves... the time that I've spent on them, has given me time to figure all this out, and realize that I'm in a good place now in my own life, and that worrying abut him, and dwelling on the ickyness that was that old relationship, isn't going to change what happen, and really only going to hurt what could happen tomorrow.

So, I'm making these gloves, and he'll get them, and with them, all my good thoughts and hopes for him and his tomorrow.

Godspeed - Dorothy Parker
Oh, seek my love, your newer way
I'll not be left in sorrow.
So long as I have yesterday,
Go take your damned tomorrow!

(won't be one bit surprised if that's the email I get sent to me, should he ever read this blog :P)