Cool Yule!

Christmas was low stress for once - I warned everyone that I wasn't cleaning and that they were welcome to join me in ordering Chinese from the corner store that was open Christmas Day. At least one person came over in her jammies, and another took pity on us and cooked ribs. It was great. I wore my cat pajamas (ho ho ho) and didn't lift a finger. Ok, I admit that I did a little cleaning in the bathroom, but that was it. I did knit a bunch, though. :) We ordered a huge amount of food from the restaurant and stuffed ourselves until we couldn't move. Pure. Bliss.

My lovely mom gave me Barbara Walker's 4 Treasuries and Margaret Stove's book on designing lace. It's more of a text book, and has exercises to knit. I've started reading it and am at the 2nd chapter. So far she's gone over the history of lace knitting/ knitted lace, and is explaining the actual structure of the loops. It's great to have the background, as knowing context and how it all fits technically on the most basic level makes it easier to learn how to make one's own patterns and stitches.

There's a chart for an absolutely amazing 3D spider in one of the Walker Treasuries. I'm already trying to decide what I should use it on. Granny Spider is one of my totems and it really blew me away to see her in large print in such a fantastic knitting source. Definitely appropriate.

I plan to dust off my wheel tomorrow after I get some writing done and start re-learning to spin. Heaven knows I have enough fleece to keep me going for the next couple of years. :P

dissertation is done

I defended my dissertation yesterday, which means that I can do more knitting, and take up spinning again. The PhD is secondary. ;)

Here is a picture of one of my cats, something that I believe makes this an official knitting blog. That's some freshly washed border leister she's lounging on.

here be more spindles!

I really need to get some batteries for my camera so I can start taking pix of my knitting projects. Some of them even get finished, imagine that! :)

Here's another toy wheel support spindle. This one was painted with dark blue paint, then glazed with a thin coat of metallic silver. I love that stuff.

More Spindles

I'll be so happy when my dissertation is defended and done with. I plan to spend the next year fiber arting my heart out and my fingers off. In the meantime, I'll take out my spindles and dream. :)

This is a support spindle and cup. Both pieces are made from toy wheel parts. The cup part is a wooden egg cup with a short straight piece attached to hold between my knees. It's painted with copper metallic wall paint and coated with clear varnish. I bought all the pieces at AC Moore.

Drop spindles

I made a few toy wheel drop spindles last year. They're really easy and lots of fun to decorate.

I call this one orange glow as it's painted with glow in the dark paint, then coated with a thin layer of silver metallic paint. It really does glow in the dark. :)

Knitting is life

I love to knit. I like knitting better than just about anything; yes, even that.

My favorite variety is lace knitting, but I've just learned to knit with beads and am enjoying that as well. Vintage clothes and patterns float my boat. White Lies Designs is my favorite pattern/crack dealer, with Not Just Plain Jane Knits running a close second.

There is an unbelievable number of free vintage knitting patterns on the web and I am doing my very best to download them all.

When I'm not knitting I'm writing a dissertation for a PhD in anthropology. Said diss is about women amateur motorcycle racers.

I am owned by 3 cats.