Free Knitting Pattern: Fiber Helper/Wrist Distaff

It's the week of the knitting pattern! This one's free and quick, and takes 10 or fewer yards of yarn. Of course, it won't be much use if you aren't a spinner or don't know one — but there's always room for a new craft, right? ;) Anyway, this pattern is for a wrist distaff. I'll probably make a PDF out of it later, but I wanted to post the pattern before I lost my nerve. Here 'tis.

Fiber Helper/Wrist Distaff
Design and Pattern by Crystal Calhoun
A Star & Crossbones Knitting Pattern



A tiny bit lacy, a tiny bit cabley, and they only take a tiny bit of yarn. Ta-da! A stashbuster knitting project for spinners or friends of spinners. For those of you who haven't used a wrist distaff before, there's a nice short demo video here.

Designer's notes: pattern structure

The wristband is knit flat, then joined together to become I-cord, which ends in a little bell or circle to help keep the fiber from slipping off. The "stopper" at the end is knit in the round — so you get a lot of technique for the tiny yardage. ;)

Added August 26, 2010: At least one person has also gotten a ruffled stopper using these directions. I think if you use a heavier yarn than recommended, or knit at a larger gauge than I did for some other reason, you'll probably end up with ruffles rather than a circle or a bell. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know if you end up with ruffles, or some other unexpected result, too!

Materials

• Around 10 yds of worsted-weight yarn
• Size 6 double-pointed needles

Stitch Patterns

Crossed Stitch (crs): Insert right ndl into 2nd st on left ndl, and knit. Knit 1st st on left ndl (st closest to edge of ndl). Slip both sts off left ndl at once.

And now, the knitting!

CO 4 sts. (Designer used the long-tail cast-on.) Purl one row.

Row 1 (RS): k1, crs, k1
Row 2 (WS): sl1 purlwise, p2, sl1 as if to purl tbl

Rep these two rows for 7 inches or until wristband is long enough to fit comfortably around your wrist with ease (it will need to slip on and off easily, but not be so loose that it will fall off while you're spinning). End by knitting a WS row, ready to start a RS row.

Next row, join wristband into a circle: Hold CO edge behind live stitches and, for all sts of row, knit into one live stitch and one stitch of CO edge at the same time.

Tip: If you find that easier read than done, try this technique for the wristband join row: Knit each CO/live st pair in two steps. Put the right needle tip into both the live st and the CO edge st. Hold the CO edge firmly with left hand, and draw the working yarn through the CO edge st. Then, holding the left needle as usual, draw working yarn through live st on needle. (Whew!)

Begin I-cord: Knit one row. * Without turning work, slide live sts to right end of dpn and bring working yarn to right edge of knitting; knit all sts. Rep from * until I-cord measures 4 inches, or desired length of wrist distaff.

Increase for bottom stopper and join to knit in the round:

Row/Rnd 1 (inc): kfb into all sts. (Divide sts over at least 3 dpns after the first rep of this inc row, and continue knitting stopper in the round.)
Rnd 2: Purl.

Rep these two rnds 1-3 times depending on how big a stopper you want. Knit one round. Bind off. Weave in ends. (I like to "weave in" the yarn dangling off the wristband by running it into the hollow space inside the I-cord, then bringing the needle out near the bottom of the I-cord and clipping it close to the I-cord — but not so close I cut the I-cord.)

Your fiber helper/wrist distaff is ready to help you enjoy making more yarn!

License/copyright: This pattern and items created from it are intended for personal, noncommercial use only. Please do not reproduce and/or redistribute this pattern without the designer's permission. If you're interested in using this pattern or the products of this pattern for commercial purposes, please contact the designer at crystal@starncrossbones.com. :D

Call to test-knitters: fingerless gloves are ready!

It's officially time. My first wristwarmers/fingerless gloves pattern — yes, the one I've been blathering about since late last year ;), the revised version of the gray wristwarmers design you may have seen — is ready for someone other than me to test-knit it. Dum-dum-da-DUM!


As mentioned before, I'll be giving out goodies for this test knit (and you'll probably get to choose between a couple of options). I'll also need a pretty quick turnaround — I'd like feedback by February 24. I knit one fingerless glove in one night, though, and they only take a little over 100 yards of yarn, so the deadline shouldn't be too difficult to meet. (These would probably make an easy Ravelympics medal ... wahahahaha. ;))

Vital stats for the pattern

• Yardage: 110 yards
• Yarn weight and type: smooth, evenly-spun, light worsted weight/DK to heavy worsted weight/aran (pattern includes information on two gauges)
• Yarn color (recommended): light to medium solid colors or long color repeats (like Noro yarn has) — texture will be obscured by dark colors or frequent color changes
• Recommended needles: size 7 double-pointed needles (set of 4)
• Gauge: for light worsted/DK weight yarn: 5 sts/inch; for heavy worsted/aran weight yarn: 4.5 sts/inch
• Difficulty level: beginner/advanced beginner
• Skills needed: CO, BO, knit, purl, decrease, using waste yarn, pick up and knit, reading simple charts, edited to add: knitting in the round
• Other required materials: 2 stitch markers, waste yarn (about 6 inches)

If you want to be in the Star & Crossbones test-knitting group, go to my shiny new test-knitter application form (I made it myself! OoooOOOooo!) and sign up! If you see anything wonked up about the form, BTW, email me and let me know. It's fresh off the keyboard, and I will much appreciate it if you point out anything ungood about it so I can fix it. :D The request for notification of wonked-up-ness applies across the board to the sign-up process, really.

And for the record, you absolutely do not need to be an expert knitter to test-knit. You just need to match or exceed the skill level required by the pattern, which is why I listed that tidbit of information above.

See you in the testing pool. ;D

Craft or Bust Week 6 check-in and roundup (Feb 7-13)

Notes and Announcements

Happy Chinese New Year, supercrafters! Oh, and happy Valentine's, too. ;)

New person!

This week we're joined by LunabudKnits AKA Steph, whose CoB goal(s) are: to finish all UFO's on my knitting needles; to clean, card, spin and knit a sweater out of the BFL fleece I bought last year; and to really hunker down and finish spinning my friend's alpaca fleeces so that her sister can crochet them into a blanket for her.

RAK List Update

I have currently have four RAK forms on file. If you're interested in sending/receiving crafty goodies, check out the information near the bottom of the rules page and send in your form. I'll be sending out the RAK forms by e-mail first, I think, and then maybe I'll post them somewhere around here...

Roundup of Week 5: What We Crafted From Jan 31-Feb 6

• Halloweentango (Michelle) finished a knitted RAK square, worked on her TwitKAL shawl, worked on her inspiration book (ooo, that sounds nice!), read about felting, and sorted photographs. Read about it on her blog!
• Velma spun a yarn called "Rosy Nipples" (ha, ha ;D), attended two stitch 'n bitch gatherings, and acquired new craft supplies. Read about it on her blog!
• Meredith C did a double check-in last week, in which she frogged her scarf+hood project (sniffle), worked on her stole (see the blog link for a photo!), finished her Veyla mitts, spun some yarn, swatched lace and swatched for a baby-gift project, and fought a spell of startitis. Read about it on her blog!
• Sarah bought a web domain and hosting and wished for a blog to emerge as a result ;), and learned about the need for gloves and a vise in metalworking as she was attacked repeatedly by a chasing hammer. ;)
• LunaTheFarmLady changed her blog banner, streamlined her blog's CSS, added some blog widgets, worked on her WordPress Web Shop, and started working with graphic software with the goal of putting together a flyer and brochure for her shop opening. She also finished her patternless mitt, started crocheting baby blanket squares for a friend who had a baby, got together supplies for making a Valentine garland with a friend, organized some non-fibery craft supplies with her new apprentice spinner ;D, went to Ikea for shop display supplies, put together a huge yarn order (and started working up the courage to send it in), and spun some more on her Valentine yarn. Wheeeeeew.
• Jessica finished the body of a shawl and picked up stitches for the border, cast on a Fair Isle Harry Potter bag, acquired yarn for a friend's hat, cast on the hat, made a banana cake, and started a game of six degrees of separation on her living room wall (which sounds really interesting...).
• Vickie worked on finishing her plaster shrines (blog post here), started a project for Art & Soul Vegas (blog post here), and learned to stuff arting into small moments by always having something going. Hurrah!
• Elabeth worked yet more on her knitting WIPs (so. much. knitting.) and finished a beaded bracelet WIP, with promised photos to come. ;D

Check-in for Week 6: What Have You Done Lately? (Feb 7-13)

What I did:

Sunday, I finally cast on the Hug Monster test knit (Rav link) for NattyKnits and knit the body. Monday, I finished the Hug Monster and sent my comments to the lovely designer; I also cast on Traveling Woman shawl very belatedly for the TwitKAL. Tuesday, I made a set of test lace stitch markers for me to try on TwitKAL shawl, and worked more on knitting the TwitKAL. Wednesday, I created a yards per ounce spreadsheet for my handspun yarn. (I'll be sharing it with you guys soon — as soon as it's not ugly any more. ;)) Thursday, I added a scrolling product widget to the Star and Crossbones Web site, worked on the Web site redesign (no peeking yet! ;)), converted my business logo from Photoshop to Illustrator, and prepped for the Ravelympics with a new Ravatar and some project tagging. Friday was Ravelympics Day 1! I cast on Brian's late-Christmas-gift Filey socks and knit the cuff of one sock during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, and worked a little more on the Web site redesign. Saturday, Ravelympics Day 2, I knit to the end of the leg of Filey Sock 1, and finished one rep of Chart A on TwitKAL (actually, I made it to the beginning of the color change in the yarn — finally!).

What did you craft this week?

(Don't forget to use the standard check-in format on the rules page!)

Day 2 of the Ravelympics: Day of the Filey Sock Leg

Yesterday — Day 1 of the Ravelympics — I made it through the cuff ribbing of one of Brian's late Christmas socks, a while (I can't remember what that means; an hour? more?) after the opening ceremonies ended. Am I slow? I wasn't sure. There was one knitter who made it all the way through a pair of socks DURING the ceremonies. Sheesh. This is as far as I got:


Then, today (I'm using Baxil Standard Time, meaning even though it's technically the 14th as I write this, I haven't slept, so it's still the 13th BST), I made it through the leg of Sock 1:


And also as I type, there are eight people past the Sock Hockey finish line (Rav link). But I can see why most of them are there — most of them are knitting smallish socks, or knitting with largish yarn, or both, with one exception, who specifically noted that she knit aaaalllll day (another Rav link). The Sock Hockey progress thread (yet another Rav link) looks pretty promising, too — meaning that no one there looks like they're waaaay ahead of me.

So what gives with that one person who finished an entire pair of socks during the opening ceremonies?? Is she just the fastest knitter on the planet???

Oh.

Duh.

She used a knitting machine.

WHEW.

Guess I'm doing okay after all. :D

Of course, my poor TwitKAL has been sitting abandoned for two days, which I don't want to make a habit, or I really will end up with another UFO — and I'm right in the middle of a lace repeat, too, so if that turns into a UFO, I'll be pretty lost when I pick it up, not-terribly-complicated-pattern or not. Note to self: Finish that lace pattern repeat tonight or tomorrow.

Tomorrow's Ravelympics goal: Turn heel on Brian's Filey Sock 1, knit as much of foot as possible. If Sock 1 is finished, immediately cast on Sock 2 so as to avoid the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

And now, off for the night. Go teams!

O, Winter 2010 Ravelympics — let's begin!

The opening ceremonies for the Winter 2010 Olympics have begun — and so, I have cast on a new project in their honor, and as my beginning for the Ravelympics. (Yes, for once I'm not beginning late. Woooo!) I'm representing Team Hopelessly Overcommitted and Team COLORBOMBers this year, and my main event is WIPs Dancing. Yeah, if I get even two WIPs finished, I'll be satisfied.

This is my first Ravelympics, so here's hoping it's a good one. :D

New jewelry for my knitting

Tonight I made stitch markers.



They're meant for lace knitting. I'll test them with my TwitKAL shawl (which, by the way, I cast on yesterday — finally...), and if they don't snag or catch or attack my knitting in some other way while I'm knitting it, then there should be some appearing in the shop shortly ... or maybe I'll be giving some away ... OooOOOooo...

Craft or Bust Week 5 check-in and roundup (Jan 31-Feb 6)

Notes & Announcements

Based on the response in last week's poll, we're on for the CoB RAK List. Woohoo! So let's RAK. If you want to be on the Craft or Bust RAK List, do the following:

1. Make a wish list of things that would help you achieve your CoB goals. It can include crazy and extravagant items (you never know) as well as "easy" stuff.
2. Check out the CoB rules page for the short and snappy RAK List form to send in, and fill that out. (Scroll doooown ... The form is near the bottom.
3. Send your form and wish list to me at crystal@starncrossbones.com.
4. Check back next week for the wish list info and start a-RAKin'!

New People!

We also have some new members this week:

• Jessica, the Knitting Linguist joins us with the following comments: "My crafts are knitting and cooking/baking. I think that my goal will be to knit six pairs of socks this year. I don't know what kind of goal I could have in baking because I already bake every weekend."
• Carmen also joins us, with the goal of making one item a week.

Onward!

Roundup of Week 4: What We Crafted From Jan 24-30

(Going to be a short one this week, since we have a couple of people who will be doing double check-ins this week! ;))

• Velma invented some cocktail recipes, spun yarn, made some custom fiber and started a new knit object. WooOooo. Read about it on her blog.
• Sarah learned to make silk rosettes (and needs some ideas for how to use them — anyone?), had some crocheting issues that made her feel like a first-grader (or something like that), but on the up side, made some lovely jewelry that you can see in the Flickr pool. ;)
• Halloweentango (Michelle) knitted yet more on the 12x12 inch square, worked on her TwitKAL shawl, took about 500 photographs (oops, I still need to go back and answer that thread! Sorry for my slackerdom!), and finished her art card exchange project. Read about it on her blog.
• Luna worked on revamping her blog (LOVE that new banner photo!), took photos, knit, and started spinning a new yarn from her own dyed and blended fiber (yum) that will become a COLORBOMBer yarn. See photos on her blog.
• Elabeth knitted a bunch, added projects to her Ravelry project page, and did a supply check that she hopes will help inspire her (okay, my words, not hers ;)) to do more crafts. Read about it on her blog.

Told you it would be short this week! Hopefully last week was insanely productive for everyone and we'll all have a lot to say. ;) Here goes my part:

Check-in for Week 5: What Have You Done Lately? (January 31-Feb 6)

What I did this week:

Last Sunday, I finished knitting the right wristwarmer while test-knitting my own pattern. Monday, I edited the pattern, made my first knitting charts in Illustrator, started laying out the pattern in InDesign, and spun some more on my TwitKAL yarn. Tuesday, I helped enable a friend to join the fiber arts world by meeting her at the local yarn/fiber shop and helping her pick out fiber for her new spindle — and I came home with some variegated Merino for another handspun shawl (ambitious, aren't I?). I also thrifted a bit to find something on which to photograph scarves, test photographed on the new scarf display, FINALLY finished spinning that TwitKAL yarn and started to ply it. Wednesday, plying the TwitKAL yarn consumed my craft time ... but I finished. Yay. Thursday, I read up on Ravelympics rules, made a potential Ravelympics project list, and it was a good mail day: some destashed fiber and a lace yarn RAK (to pass on as a knit RAK) arrived. I also bought more stuff from Velma to spin during the Ravelympics. Friday was this week's fail day. We'll call it my day off, even though it was more of a drama day than a vacation day. ;) Saturday, I finished spinning some organic cotton singles from Blonde Chicken and rather belatedly started test-knitting the hug monster pattern (Rav link) I need to send comments on today (but I'll finish today, I WILL! Stupid dramatic Friday and its delaying effect ;)).

Hmm. I feel a little better about my productivity when I put it all together like that. I guess this listing-of-accomplishments thing really works. ;) Anyway.

What did you craft this week?

(Don't forget to use the standard check-in format on the rules page!)

The Tale of the Monster TwitKAL Yarn: How to Spin a Shawl

O. M. G.

That's what I would name this yarn if I were lazy. (...or feeling particularly bizarre. ;))

I have finally finished spinning the TwitKAL yarn, and it turned out to be a monster. This is the biggest skein of yarn I have ever spun. At a guess, I don't need to worry about running out of yardage for the Traveling Woman shawl.

You want to see photos? Yeah? Yeah? Well, I sat there through what, twelve hours of spinning and plying, not even counting the dyeing? You can put up with a few more in-progress photos before you get to see the finished product, too, dangit. ;)

So we left off after the fiber was dyed and dry. The next thing I did was split each color in half (without worrying too hard about making them exactly equal halves) and make mini-sets of three colors — each set of three colors would go on one bobbin, then the two bobbins would get plied together. I actually wanted a bit of overlap between the color changes, to hopefully make for smoother transitions — which is why I didn't bother trying to split each color exactly in half.



Close enough to equal weight for me. Next up: Spinning. Actually, pre-drafting before spinning, to take out any fiber stuck-togetherness (a.k.a. the bit of felting that I probably did when I wasn't paying attention to whether the dyepots were boiling ... ::whistles innocently::).



For those who wonder this kind of thing (I do), the above photos only show half the fiber of a given color. I have waaaayyy too many photos of predrafted fiber now, though, if anyone likes to look at that sort of thing. ;)

And then it was time for lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of spinning. Mini bobbin montage! (Yeah, this doesn't even begin to convey the hours and hours of tiny-yarn spinnage involved.)


At last there were two bobbins, no unspun fiber, and a ghetto lazy kate. The Magical Jumbo Flyer and Bobbin were just over the horizon...


Finally, after more long hours of plying (with occasional cursing when one of the plies broke — not a problem the intrepid wheel+spinner normally have...), one unassuming but gigantic bobbin remained.



Then, this dark and unpromising yarny caterpillar (if you will) split its chrysalis and unfolded its brightly-colored wings. (Ready for it? Ready? Ready??)



TA-DA! And the close-ups!



There it is. Finished. Done. Finito. NO MORE. And it's, like, way, way, WAY more yardage than I need for this shawl. Ha, ha, ha. 4.9 ounces (weirdly, I didn't "lose" any weight, although I normally do with smaller skeins of fatter yarn). 686 yards. Around 18 WPI, a.k.a. sport weight to fingering weight, which is pretty much what I was going for (did I neglect to mention my trusty spinner's comparison card? Maybe it'll show up in a future photo...). Purple, blue, and greeny-blacky.

You may now applaud. Thank you, thank you. Bows all around. Flowers on the stage. The roar of the audience's sincere and deep appreciation. Ahhh.

(And whew. Wait — you mean I have to knit the shawl now? Groooaaan...)

My first original pattern, fresh off the needles!

Ta-da! The wristwarmers I've been working on test-knitting for myself are finally done enough to get a photo of them! Here's a sneak peek:


Now I need to proofread the pattern/make the edits I have written down, and off my pattern will go, into the wilds ... If you're interested in test-knitting it, there will be test-knitter goodies. :D More details on that when the pattern goes live.

Wooo!

Craft or Bust Week 4 roundup and check-in (Jan 24-30)

Notes & Announcements

It's Week 4 of CoB — woohoo! We've made it a month! (A little scary, actually.) Way back at the beginning I mentioned giveaways and goodies. Well, the goodie-talk popped back into my head this week, what with it being a whole month since we started ... and while I do have a giveaway planned for Very Soon, Very Soon is not Now. So I present to you the idea of the Craft or Bust RAK List. RAK meaning "random act of kindness," a.k.a. a gift that you give completely out of the goodness of your heart.

How it'd work

The idea of RAKing is to spread general positivity and enable other people to do things they wouldn't have been able to do without your help. So to do RAKs, you need a) wish lists and b) addresses at which RAKs can be received. This is the basic premise:

1. You make a wish list of craft items you want or need in order to do stuff relating to your CoB goals. (Okay, your wish list can include non-craft items, too, if they're somehow related to your CoB goals ... you never know. ;))
2. You can have people contact you for your mailing address, or contact me for it if they want to surprise you. Decide how you prefer to have your RAKs sent (or if you want to give people the option of surprising you or not).
3. Send me your info.
4. I'll post the wish lists in a central post that people can refer to — and/or I'll link to your blog post that contains your wish list. I'll probably ask that wish lists be re-sent monthly, to make sure that they don't go out of date.
5. If someone sees something on your list that they have, that they want to gift you with, then they can get your mailing address, and off goes the RAK to you.
6. You get goodies, the RAKer gets good karma, and maybe everyone gets a little more motivation to craft. :D

Note that this isn't a swap, so it's not one-for-one. You send people stuff because you're just that darn nice (or in the interest of destashing, or whatever ;)), and they can choose to send stuff back, or pay it forward, or do whatever they choose with your gift.

It's not exactly a standard giveaway, but as part of the RAKing, I can guarantee I will personally pick at least one person a month to gift with something ... So what do you guys think?



Enough blather. Time for...

Roundup of Week 3: What We Crafted From Jan 17-23

• Elabeth posted on her blog about two weeks' worth of baby blankets (that's a photo link) and sweaters, charity hats (photo link), frogging, and cardigans (yes, another photo) — oh, my! She even got in some spring garden planning. Busy, busy. :D
• Michelle/halloweentango knitted, prepped for the TwitKAL, and worked on her art card exchange project. Read about it on her blog.
• Velma did some stash enhancement, Ravelympics stuff, and had cocktails (is that really a craft, Velma? ;)). Read about it on her blog.
• Sarah hit things with hammers (that is, she did some wirework), and re-photographed some old projects, through which she learned about exposure locking and white balance. (Sounds like a good subject for a tutorial-type post. Ahem?)
• Anna/This Good Life spun, germinated seeds, made felt, dyed and made a new store banner. Woo! Read about it on her blog.
• Luna is also checking in for two weeks — she took roving photos, spun some lock yarn and photographed it for a tutorial, signed up for Sister Diane's Blog Tune Up workshop (sounds useful...), worked on prep stuff — design plans, display pieces, and furniture painting — for her physical shop location (really??), and knit on her patternless mitt.
• Meredith C. realized she would probably have to frog her hooded scarf — oh, no! — spun yarn, tried spinning woolen, and knitted on her entrelac stole. Read about it on her blog.

Hurrah for everyone!

Check-in for Week 4: What Have You Done Lately? (January 24-30)

This week didn't feel that productive for me, but then, it was my birthday week. I had to allot some time to non-crafty adventures. :D Sunday, I finished knitting the left wristwarmer of my original knitting pattern and cast on the right wristwarmer. I also swatched some stitch patterns for another pattern idea. Monday, I dyed the fiber for my TwitKAL project, knit some of the abovementioned right-hand wristwarmer, and in the wee hours of the morning, cast on the abstract caterpillar cowl (scroll down to see the pattern on that page), because technically it was my birthday. ;D Tuesday, my birthday, I did nothing except the aforementioned cast-on. Wednesday, I finished knitting the cowl (Ravelry link). Thursday, I was useless took a day off crafting. Friday, I did a weaving demonstration for a friend of mine who just bought a loom, which forced me to warp the Cricket. Yay! Saturday, I spent the day being a pirate and running around in the rain. Not really crafty in the handmade sense, but maybe crafty in the rapscalliony sense. ;)

What did you craft this week?

[Edited to add: Don't forget to post your check-in comments in the format described on the rules page, to help give me more time to craft and less time spent hunting links down. ;) Thanks!]

Dyeing the TwitKAL fiber, part two

State of the TwitKAL fiber: dyed and dry, but as yet unspun. I'm hoping I'll get up the gumption to try spinning it tonight, but in case I fail miserably at the spinny idea, I now have backup yarn.


It's Jojoland Melody Superwash, which I bought when I stopped in at Needles and Knobs yesterday — finally. They opened, like, a month after I moved out of St. Petersburg, which is where I'd lived for, ohhh, 20something years at that point. And of course they opened like four blocks from where I lived right before I moved. Of course. Ahem. Anyway.

It's such a pretty yarn that I kind of want to sell out and cast on for the TwitKAL with it, but then there's my pretty fiber. Let's check out how that came along, shall we? Here it is in the dyepots (where, in fact, I did not dye one batch of black and two batches of almost the same bluey purpley color, no matter what my camera or my screen say — you can see the difference, right?):





The blacky color is really a dark dark green. It's rather an "oops" color, since I didn't mean to dye it that dark, but I didn't realize the dye was in chunks instead of well-behaved powder form until I tapped the jar of dye over the pot (I know — I was being very precise and scientific). Let's just say that my amazingly controlled methodology resulted in a rather larger chunk of dye falling into the pot than I intended. You can even see the bit of the pot that was in the splash zone. Doh.

I'm not sure what the darkdark green will come out like when I spin it, but here's what the roving all looked like once it finished drying.




Since I have a couple of votes for spinning rather than selling out, I'll definitely at least give it a shot. More on that in a future post, with shiny new pictures, too.

For me, TwitKAL means Adventurous KAL

So a few days ago, Amber (a.k.a. Spazzy Amber) announced the winning pattern for our Twitter knitalong — the Traveling Woman shawl. Which is the pattern I was hoping would win, since I a) like it, b) like the story behind it, and c) need to finish a friggin' lace shawl sometime in my life.

Then there's the fact that I have to pick a yarn. Not a bad thing — it's just that I don't have a ton of sock yarn sitting around (even if sock yarn doesn't count as stash, it counts as Taking Up Space), and of the sock yarn I have, not much of it matches up with what I want in the Traveling Woman shawl.

But, you know. I have undyed fiber. I have dye. I have dyepots. And I have a spinning wheel. All of which led me to think, Oh, why the heck not? I'll dye and spin my own yarn for the shawl.

In, like, two days. Ha, ha, ha. ;D And one of those days is my birthday, so I'm not sure how much I'll be working on TwitKAL prep that day. And then there's the fact that I haven't dyed anything in, er, quite a while. Years, maybe.

So, surprisingly enough, today I got a bug up my butt to pick the dyepots and dye powder off the floor and mix them up with some nice what-I-think-is-Columbia wool roving. Ensue photo montage:










That's fiber + dye, dyepots, dyepots + water and vinegar, and dyepots + water and vinegar and wool.

Right now I'm waiting for the last batch to finish dyeing, and for the first two batches to cool. Would have done all three at once on the stove, but the boy person appears to have poured some form of congealing-prone food substance into one of the burner drip trays. Nice. Always fun when your dyepots start smoking.

The wristwarmer adventures continue (this time in green)

What I'm working on tonight:


That's the green, commercial-yarn version of that darn wristwarmers pattern I've been working on forever. It's a quick knit, but I haven't had the focus to sit down and do it all at once — partly because I'm afraid of the results. ;) Not that the pattern sucks. It's just that I feel like maybe I'm a crappier designer than I hope I am — but the best way to fix that is to find that out and work on it, right?

Now to go knit some more. I really want to have this darn pattern done this month. (A good birthday present for myself?)

Craft or Bust Week 3 roundup and check-in (Jan 17-23)

Welcome back to the blog for this week's official Craft or Bust post. :D

Announcements and Other Notey-Type Things

Short this week, so we'll be on to the roundup and check-in lickety-split! First, a big thanks to everyone who used the new format for posting your check-in comments. It really really does help save time and effort on my part, so I can spend more time crafting and thinking up fun stuff to do with you guys and the rest of the crafty community. :D I've added the check-in format guidelines to the official rules page.

The other item in this week's announcements: Join me in saying "hey and welcome!" to the newest Craft-or-Busters.

Our newest supercrafters

Michelle a.k.a. Halloweentango has joined us with a quite organized set of goals: "1. To craft, or better yet, create in the physical form the visions residing in my head and dreams. 2. work on various knitting/crochet/sewing/needlework projects that are in my storage bin in particular a twenty year old cross stitch. 3. Actually upload pieces to my Artfire store. Blog writing happens about once a week for me anyways so that part is natural."

And Rhonda is also crafting along with us. She says, "My goal is to work on and complete at least one large project every 30-60 days and to finish at least one small project each week. Both of these can be in fiber, painting, metals etc. Sometimes it might encompass learning a new recipe and putting my 'stamp' on it to make it mine or it might be completing a simple scarf and leave photographic evidence on my blog."

That was easy, right? Moving along...

Roundup of Week 2: What We Crafted From Jan 10-16

Still trying to figure out how to get Flickr to let me search the Craft or Bust pool by date, so I can make a pretty mosaicy graphic to go here — if anyone knows how to make it work, let me know...

• Velma's Week 2 blog post features a lovely knitting needles + thermos + shabby chic fence photograph, and some thoughts on knitting, Photoshop, Help for Haiti, and other accomplishments.
• Sarah was reunited joyfully with her craft tools, which inspired her to make four things and try out a new material: lucite beads. Check out her first (lovely tangeriney) lucite piece on Etsy or in the Craft or Bust Flickr pool.
• Meredith C. knitted on her stole and hooded scarf (sounds yummy), spun and plied some new yarn, and acquired a new goal: to do colorwork. Read all about it and check out some pretty purple spinning fiber in her Week 2 CoB blog post.
• Vickie took some photographs while camping in Death Valley, worked on her shrines, and finished a hat that you can see on her Ravelry projects page.
• Elabeth finished a baby blanket, worked on some sweaters, photographed a bunch of her WIPs for her Ravelry projects page, and added a WIP counter to her blog (I still need to do that ... or maybe not, since then you'd all get to see the shameful amount of WIPs I have). She knit every night in Week 2, which is awesome, if I do say so myself. I haven't done that in a while...
• Diana finished her shooter's mitts (although the recipient's reception was Not The Best — HMPH), worked on her top-down sweater, and discovered that she needs more yarn for her pattern sample.
• Joni Rae missed Week 1 check-in but came back to us for Week 2 — yayyy! She finished four cute and colorful goddess dolls, which sounds darn productive. :D Check them out here.

As always, let me know if I missed someone's Week 2 check-in comment. Someday I'll have some technological stuff set up to automatically net check-ins for me, but for now I'm pulling them out of my swampy inbox by hand. ;) Which brings us to...

Check-in for Week 3: What Have You Done Lately? (January 17-23)

I had a semi-productive week; I think I did more information-gathering and signing up than I did actual crafting, BUT I did get some crafting done, so I haven't mucked up my Craft or Bust goal yet. ;)

Monday, I knit some more on my original wristwarmers pattern using my handspun. Tuesday, I took some random photos of food — that's creative, right? — and on Wednesday I cast on another version of my wristwarmers pattern in a commercial yarn for comparison. I also joined Velma's Team COLORBOMBers for the Ravelympics — although we thought it was going to be Team Unsanctioned for a little while there ;) — (more info on the COLORBOMBers Ravelry group), and changed my blog template. I'm sure you've all noticed that, though. ;D Thursday, I took some beach photos and warped my Cricket loom to start weaving a fresh new blue scarf for my Etsy shop, which is strangely pink-looking of late. Friday, I pondered what yarn to use in the Spazzy TwitKAL, for which we're going to be knitting the Traveling Woman shawl. I also signed on to test knit a Hug Monster (that's a Ravelry link) and measured and recorded a bunch of statistics about my handspun yarns, since I'm pondering using handspun for the TwitKAL. Saturday, I did a bunch more Ravelry account maintenance stuff — took some yarn photos (see that nice yellow yarn up there?), added some yarns to my stash page, added some projects to my projects page ... Anyone want to take some Louet Alpaca Web off my hands? ;)

What did you do this week?

Florida life: scenes from Madeira Beach

Brian and I visited Madeira Beach in between errands earlier this week, and I snapped some photos for my very-errant participation in Slice of Life Tuesday and 2010: A Year in Pictures. There were some lovely beach sunflowers blooming.




And we had a lot of surf, for this part of Florida — being in the shelter of the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay usually keeps the waves from really crashing (they tend to calmly lap instead), but the potential for rain must have kicked up some extra wave power.


There was a nice breeze blowing off the water, too, which made things rather hazy to either side of us, and I think Brian thought it was a bit cold, although I enjoyed the cool sea spray. I like going to the beach even in scarf-and-sweater weather. This is why I want a sailboat — the breeze is my friend. I think the breeze was this windsurfer's friend, too.


It was nice being outside again after sitting inside, trying to craft and plot and blog and market and record. Maybe I'll spend part of my birthday on the beach, too.

Survey: What do you want to know about other crafty businesses?

Dreaming up new things, I am. New things for you guys (all two of you ;)), and for the crafty/businessy community at large.

I want to start a new interview column here at the blog.

Inspired by Erin's post about not fitting the "Etsy mold," and by the cries of other Etsians who worry that they'll never make the front page because they're not the right style, I want to feature non-moldy* Etsy sellers (and if there are crafty business owners out there who aren't on Etsy and need more exposure, well, I just might feature them, too ;)).

So what I want to know is, what do YOU want to know? If you could ask any question of crafty business owners, what would you ask?

Leave a comment on this post and let me know your burning questions about crafty businesses. Your unasked, unanswered questions just might make it into the interviews.

*Not that mold is bad. Mold is necessary for cheese, and who doesn't like cheese? (HUSH, cheese naysayers!)

Today's Snapshot: (Fast) Phat fibery goodness

Ordered this on Sunday, and it got here today — Wednesday. Three days later?! What does Jessie do, teleport them?

Mystery number two is how the heck she gets all that fiber in the box ... I sure can't get it all back in now. Guess that means I might have to spin it ... ;)

(Want your own Phat Fiber sampler box? Go forth to the Phat Fiber Web site and sign up for the "drop" announcement — you'll get an e-mail telling you about the secret drop date and times. But don't leak the drop details to anyone — that would negate the purpose of keeping them secret!)

Banishing creative blocks with randomness: generated art yarn win

1. Art yarn: Dragons in the Playground, 2. Art Yarn: Dragons in the Playground, 3. Dragons in the Playground handspun yarn, 4. Dragons in the Playground handspun yarn

That's my latest art yarn. Okay, technically I spun it in Week 1 of Craft or Bust, which is also when I started the draft of this blog post, but CoB this week has been slow and unpicturesque so far, so it all works out.

Here's the story of my art yarn, and how CoB helped me bust in a good way — that is, how it helped me bust an old block: spinning art yarn.

If you've been reading along for long enough (which seems ridiculously unlikely, but some people even still remember me from high school, so anything's possible), you'll know about my First-Art-Yarn Fiasco: I joined an art yarn swap and tried my best to spin a crazy yarn on my drop spindle, based on exactly zero directions, having never actually seen an art yarn in the flesh wool — and pretty much failed miserably, which earned me a lukewarm rating on the swap and broke my art-yarn-spinning heart.

So from that point — although it clashed with my "I can too do it if I try hard enough" attitude — I was semi-secretly afraid to even try to spin art yarn ... What was the point? I sucked, and had been told so by that crappy swap rating. (Swap-bot, I curse you!) It didn't help that I was in a fail-ful relationship at the time — you trying adding failure to failure and see how it makes you feel. ;) Or really, don't; being a failure zombie is no fun.

And being afraid of art yarn was no fun, either, what with that distant echo in my head that said art yarn = fail. But Craft or Bust is about unfail, and in Week 1 I was sick of being a failure, of feeling like a failure, of letting myself fail...!

So I fired up the Art Yarn Generator, courtesy of the Art and Novelty Yarn Spinners' group on Ravelry, and it told me my fortune:



I stash-dived to come up with this:



...and with many a calming breath and some invisible fingers in my ears to help me ignore the You're going to fail voices, I made the art yarn you saw at the top of the post. (Light shone down from above.)

Which just shows how being completely random — a.k.a. letting yourself be free to fail and releasing yourself from old negative attachments — can help break down old blocks. I haven't spun any more art yarn since, but it was surprisingly easy to just let the Art Yarn Generator tell me what to do ... and I get to look creative as a result. ;D

Check out some more randomly-generated art yarn for inspiration at the Art Yarn Generator Flickr pool.

What blocks could you bust with randomness? Any other random generators you'd like to share?

Cool crafty links to start the week off right

Some neat crafty links to spur you on and inspire you as the week begins. (Okay, so I'm a day late, but we haven't gotten to Wednesday yet, so it's still the beginning of the week.)

Pro Weaving, Odd Stuff

The Odd Weavings blog is written by Kerstin på Spinnhuset, a professional weaver in Sweden, and houses some really interesting tidbits, like some photos of old wooden loom reeds and woven bread. Kerstin calls herself the laziest weaver ever, so it's a nice blog to visit for those of us who hanker to be superweavers but who make mistakes or have lazy spells ... because she shows how she compensates for her own less-than-perfect moments — with appealing results. The blog isn't updated that often, but there have been two posts this month, so maybe if we go over and leave her some good comments, she'll realize there are people watching and caring. ;)

Nature-Inspired Knitting Patterns

KnitChicGrace's Etsy shop has knitting patterns with the coolest nature-inspired lace and cable patterns. I want, like, all of them.

Knitting Trick: Garter Stitch in the Round ... Without Purls

Fleegle's blog features a trick designed for Shetland shawl knitters, but probably useful to knitters of other things knit in the round (cowls? mittens? sweaters?). The Fleegle corner trick involves using two balls of yarn to knit a garter stitch border in the round. Scroll down in the blog post for the actual directions. They take a little thinking, or maybe a little doing would help, since I'm just sitting here reading them rather than trying to do my own garter stitch in the round ... but it's worth taking a look at.

Craft or Bust Week 2 roundup and check-in (Jan 10-16)

First, the requisite link to the original directions, in case anybody wasn't clear on anything and wants to review. ;)

Next, welcome to the Week 2 Craft or Bust check-in and roundup! As usual, this post will consist of a summary of last week's check-ins (that's the roundup part) and then it'll be check-in time, meaning I'll write about what I crafted in the past week (January 10-16), then you leave your comments on what you crafted. (Eventually I'll stop repeating myself quite as much; just figured it's still early in the game, so the rules aren't set in all our brains yet...)

This week I'm also adding some Craft or Bust notes. Here they are:

New people

We're joined this week by a new crafter! Carol in Canberra is crafting along with us now, although I guess it won't be too much of a challenge for her, since she says she would have to sit on her hands not to craft every day (lucky ;)).

Your roster info

And since I was vague and unhelpful about this before, I should clarify that yes, you can totally have more than one link listed by your name on the roster. I just needed at least one for identification/linking purposes. If you give/gave me more than one link, I'll use the first one as your ID link. Or I'll use your blog link because I'm like that. Make sense? No? Clear as clouds?

Craft or Bust badge

I should also have mentioned this last week: Elabeth has made a nice Craft or Bust badge/button. She says anyone who wants to use it is free to, so there you go: Feel free! If anyone else makes one, awesome. (I'd love to see it in the Flickr pool, and don't forget to note whether you're letting other people use it or if you'd rather they not.)

How to make live links

Vickie asked on last week's check-in about how to link her URLs instead of leaving the full URL in the comment, which you do by using the following code: <a href="http://www.yourfulllinkhere.com">Your Linked Text Here</a>

Making things nice for the organizer

That said, it's easier for me as Ye Olde Summarizer and Rounder-Upper if you post the full URLs to things you want me to link to. You can also link said URL(s) for the benefit of people reading the comments who might want a live link, of course. Here's why the full link is better for me, though: I've been copying and pasting everyone's comments into one place to write my roundups ... so if your links are hidden behind text rather than written out, I don't capture the linked URL in my copying and pasting. To get those links, I have to copy your comment and then separately copy each live link's URL.

Another thing that saves me some time is if you include your name and IDing URL with your check-in comments. Kinda like this:

Name: Crystal
ID link: http://quicksilvercrafter.blogspot.com
Week 2 check-in: This week I crafted lots of stuff. I knitted two blankets and saved an old lady who was crossing the street from a rampaging tangled ball of yarn. You can read about it here: http://quicksilvercrafter.blogspot.com/saved-that-lady.html.

That way I don't have to remember which Blogger ID goes with which person on the roster, if your name doesn't match your Blogger ID. (I might be able to remember the number of people we have right now, but if there were 50 people? Ha, ha ... It'd be a good memory exercise, I guess...) And if you include your ID link in the comment, I don't have to hunt that down to link to you, either. ;) Anyway. PSA over.

Craft or Bust charity post?

Finally, a question for everyone: What craft-related thing(s) have you done to contribute to the Haiti post-earthquake recovery? Did you put up a pattern on Ravelry's Help for Haiti? Did you do something else crafty? Mention it in your comments or drop me an e-mail letting me know, and if there's enough to write one, I'll do a special blog post with everybody's info, so we can all be inspired and maybe help each other help others. :D

Now ... Roundup time!

Week 1 Roundup: What We Crafted From Jan 3-9, a.k.a., Last Week

(Maybe if I get off my butt later, I'll put together a mosaic from the Flickr pool. Imagine it being all pretty right here.)

• Velma was Miss Organized with her craft projects last week, and you can read about it here.
• Meredith C, who made progress on two projects, also wrote two blog posts, one here and one here.
• Diana went on a knitting retreat — oooOOooo — where she worked on some shooter's mitts, a top-down ribbed sweater, and a sample for a pattern she's writing.
• Luna was a busy craftygoddess. She restarted a mitten that had visited the frog pond, finished a felted sheep (which you can see at her blog here), downloaded a groundhog-along pattern from Ravelry (what the HECK is that?), worked on a Web site design, and painted fun stuff at the new shop.
• Anna took a bunch of photos for 365/Pictures, created her first piece of felt (yayyy! Firsts!), spun three yarns, created a craft journal, put up curtains, got out her sewing machine, started prepping a craft area and her garden stuff, and worked on knitting a sock. Whew...
• Elabeth made a new blog banner, a CoB badge (which she's kindly sharing with us, as mentioned above :D), knitted, and got stuff to make resin jewelry. Read about it at her blog.
• Sarah was out of town, and alas, without craft supplies ... aside from the ones she bought. ;D
• Vickie started three plaster shrines and worked on the stuff to go in them. Then she went camping. (No fair. This would be the time for it, here in Florida, too ... unless you like mosquitos.)

Did I miss anyone in my first full roundup? Still working out the kinks, so let me know if I did. And now that we're all warmed up, it's time to talk about this week. :D

Week 2 Check-In: What Have You Done Lately? (Jan 10–16)

This week was a little less productive for me than last week, but I started classes online again, so I guess that's not really a surprise. Grumble...

Sunday, I warped my Cricket for a swap scarf:



And finished the scarf:



I also worked on knitting a washcloth in the Elvish Leaves pattern.

Monday, I finally sat down and spun the singles for my Heart in the Skies yarn, which is earmarked for a knitting pattern I'm developing. (It's the revised version of this pattern. If you're interested in testing the pattern, which is for aran/worsted weight yarn, let me know...)



I also finished the abovementioned washcloth.



Tuesday, I finished plying the Heart in the Skies yarn.



...and started knitting the abovementioned wristwarmers.



Wednesday I did NIL! It seems like Wednesdays are my off days...

Thursday and Friday were eaten by homework, which is arguably creative, but not exactly what I'd call crafting. Actually, I think one of those days, I worked on customizing my computer desktop/wallpaper in Illustrator, which is all I got done on Saturday, aside from shopping for Help for Haiti patterns on Ravelry.

So what did YOU craft this week?

Help Haiti, get knitting patterns

Recovery efforts in Haiti are all over the news these days, so no rehash. I just want to point out the ever-growing number of Help for Haiti knitting patterns you can buy and download through Ravelry. There are 32 pages of patterns as I type this — whew.

Anyway, I've sorted through all 32 pages and have pulled out some patterns to highlight here. For all the patterns below, 100% of the pattern purchase price (minus fees from Ravelry and Paypal, etc.) will go to charities helping in the Haiti recovery efforts. Get knitting patterns, support indie designers, donate to a charitable cause ... seems like a win all the way around.

• Esopus lace scarf or stole ($3.50) — donating until Feb 14; uses laceweight yarn in a pretty but not overly complicated lace pattern
• Bellona cowl ($4) — donating through January; uses fingering weight yarn knit in the round, in a drop-stitch-inspired cable pattern
• Hooded soft scarf ($2.50) — donating through January; worsted weight yarn in a rustic, textured, cozy-looking cold-weather accessory
• Ariadne wristwarmers ($5) — donating 100% through the end of January and 50% of February sales; sport-weight yarn in swirly cables
• Old Copper Pipes cowl ($5) — donating through January; fingering weight yarn in a seriously interesting woven-looking texture
• Spring Peach Shawl ($3.50) — donating through January; sport weight yarn in a lace and cables pattern
• Coniferous cowl ($1.50) — donating through February; aran weight yarn in a cool spiraly, texturey, close-to-the-neck cowl
• RoRo socks ($5) — donating through January; light fingering weight yarn, cabled and ribbed socks designed for variegated yarn and good for nonskinny calves ;)
• Paul and Virginia socks ($5) — donating through January; fingering weight yarn in a spiral slip-stitch pattern designed to go with hand-dyed yarn

And while I'm on the subject of charity donation, the U.S. Better Business Bureau has a handy charity and business checker that will tell you what a charity does, its contact information, whether it meets all the BBB's standards for charity accountability, etc. Always nice to be able to research someone before you hand over your money.

Every act counts: even a moment can change the course of the world

What would you do if you could have closure on a question that's woven into the fabric of your life and being?

(Yes, it's time for another thoughtful blog post. Settle down, students. Open your textbooks to page Think With Me for a Sec ... ;))

Tracey/Froggie at Froggie Knits Like Crazy asked a version of that question on her blog a few days ago.

"What questions do you carry with you that you need answers to in order to move on?" That's the question I got out of her blog post, although I'm not sure it's the one she meant to ask.

My answer is a flood of words — more than seemed to fit in the comment field. This is one of those questions that reflects more on the answerer than on the asker. I wrote in my comment to her:

I'm the kind of person who likes to ask questions some people are uncomfortable asking — specifically because I seek the kind of closure and information you're talking (writing ;)) about here. I had a friend say once that I was the only person she knew who could say anything to anyone at any time. It's not completely true — one thing I really dislike doing is asking a question I know won't be answered properly.

"Properly" is the same thing as "thoughtfully and honestly," to me — and if I ask you a "closure question," being honest with me is less important than being honest with yourself.

Because if I'm asking you a closure question, it almost always means this at its heart: I want to see if you're open to a fundamental question — "Have you thought about your actions enough to be comfortable with their possible consequences?"

Although it may not look like one, that's a positive question. It's about making good choices. It's about learning not to regret. It's about making every moment count, and believing in everything you do — big or small. It's about intentionally being yourself, because you know who you are and how to be that person.

I asked this question uncounted times as a student: Does Mr. X realize that if he fails Student Z today, Student Z's parents will punish him rather than trying to help him succeed, both of which will encourage Student Z to believe he isn't smart enough to study astrophysics, even though that's what he really wants to do?

The answer was always Probably not. None of us can see the future with complete clarity. But we see even less if we don't try.

And the truth is that every moment has the potential to make a difference. If a teacher takes today to sit with a student and explain why he got a failing grade — even though the student "has a bad attitude" and the teacher is tired and has 100 things to do — that's a little more thought and a little more truth in the world. That's a little more weight on the side of the scale that gives a person a head start toward being what they truly want to be. That's a little more potential for that student — that person — to realize, a little more light in the darkness.

The truth is that the teacher is realizing his own potential, too. In being honest and thoughtful on someone else's behalf, he's getting good practice spending every moment positively.

A lot of people take for granted that small moments don't mean much. They do. The small moments add up to a lifetime, and one moment can change the course of a life. Sometimes, we can see results right away — but more often, the little things we do influence the world invisibly ... until we see, years later, how "little" things helped guide us on the path to the Big Thing: who we are today.

What small moments do you carry with you still? What still hurts, and what still heals? What still makes you proud? What still makes you wish you had chosen differently?

The questions that stay with me, the ones that demand answering long after the opportunity to ask is gone, are almost always inspired by small moments. I want to ask, "Why did you think it was okay to do what you did?" or "Why didn't you think it would be okay?" And then, more importantly, I want to ask, "Do you think differently now? Can you think of something you can do today to make things more like you want them to be? Can you think of something small to do, that matters?"

All I ask is one little thing. One today, another tomorrow. Another the day after. One tiny thing each day. Something easy.

Because you never know when a tiny thing could start an avalanche.