novamade

it's my party and i'll gift if i want to

So yesterday was my third blog birthday (I know I am a day late, I think no one is surpised by this).  It's been a fun three years*, thanks for reading!

To celebrate my blog birthday (or, anniversary, if you'd really rather) I thought it would be a good idea to open a shop.  I did mention that I had a lot of dye, right?  But you are likely see all sorts of crazy things in my shop...sort of like my blog, I suppose.

 

Clearly, this falls under the heading of "things that seemed like a good idea at the time." You guys know that I work full time, so this is definitely a side-venture sort of thing.  I enjoy dyeing wool, spinning it and making various and sundry things with fiber, so this gives me another outlet.  Yay!  I know, the irony of my opening a shop after a series of posts on economy does not escape me either.

In any case, I wanted to let Bertha and Kat know that they will be receiving some "blog birthday" gifts from me.  I really enjoyed finding out what readers most enjoy about my blog, thanks guys!  I will be in touch later today to find out your addresses and to discuss color selection for the handspun with Bertha.  Seriously, no spinners reading last week?!

Since I like celebrating a birthday heartily (I do celebrate for 8 days, afterall) and I still have a third gift to give, I figured that I would still like to gift a reader out there with some fiber, because that's pretty much what I have in my shop right now.  So let's try this again.  I have fiber...free...for a reader, anyone interested?  If you don't spin, I will offer the option of getting handspun instead...see how accomodating I am?

Just leave a comment on THIS post telling me what your fall project list looks like and what your favorite project on that list is.  I am honestly curious.  I have a pretty big list (I know, shocking, right?).  I will share mine if you share yours.  Please leave your comment (let's give you guys more time this time around) by next Monday, September 7th by noon (12:00 pm) EST.  That's a week!  I will randomly select a commenter to receive a braid of roving (colorway your choice) from my shop OR a hank of my handspun (colorway my choice, but something appropriately autumnal).  Sound good?

* And how serendipitous is this: this is my 200th post!

blog birthday on the horizon

You know how there are knitters out there who celebrate a "knitterversary" every year.  I think I tried that before.  Since my blog isn't really just about knitting anymore (was it ever?), I thought calling my blog anniversary a birthday seemed better, and maybe even more appropriate...and well, birthday, yay!  (Above photo from Little Sir's 3rd birthday party at school last March...during the Sesame Street phase.)

In trying to figure out ways to celebrate, I thought there should be a giveaway of some sort, because that is modus operandi for such celebrations in bloglandia; but, I figured I would come up with some other bits of fun too, like an announcement (no, I am not pregnant again, as Ann would say, I'd probably bury the lead with an annoucement of that nature; and no, I don't plan on shutting down my blog); and, maybe even a new banner/blog look, I think it's time.

So as far as the "prizes", let's call them "presents" (birthday and all) here's what I am thinking:

1) I have been doing a ton of quilting lately and I have some (sizeable) scraps that I would like to pass along to someone else who may be interested in making blocks of their own (or something else, don't let me restrain your creativity) .  The fabrics are all printed marbled designs from a company (of two partners) called Quilting Treasure, these marbled designs are the type you would find on endpapers of old books (the booklover in me loves this, the booklover in you should love it too). 

2) I mentioned a while ago that I have a lot of dye.  If you are into fiber, maybe you would like some handpainted or handdyed fiber (woolly) from yours truly?  You could spin it; or, if felting is your thing you could do that too; or, maybe you have an alltogether different use for painted roving, knock yourself out.  I will offer you a selection of colors to choose from (it doesn't have to be yellow, but if you like yellow, by all means...). 

3) Maybe you like fiber but you are not into the whole spinning thing and you just want the yarn to knit something up.  In that case, how about I spin up some fiber for you.  That's right, I will spin some yarn out of my own handpainted or handdyed fiber (woolly) for you.  Again, I will offer a selection of colors to choose from. 

So three different "presents".  To be considered, you do have to do some work however.  Over the course of the last three years, I have blogged about all sorts of things.  Please tell me about three posts that struck a chord in you.  I would like to know 1) what post you have found the most humorous or entertaining; 2) a post that made you think; and 3) a post that you learned something from.  I don't need dates, just a general description like "the loser sweater post" or something like that (see, now if you don't remember that post, you are going to look for it...it was just that good, she writes, humbly).

Please leave your response as a comment on THIS post.  In addition to your three posts, tell me what "present" you would most like to receive (fabric, fiber or handspun).  If you want to be considered for more than one (or all three) that is fine; but, more presents mean more work.  You will have to come up with 3 different posts for each "present" entry (if you list more than one choice on one comment/entry, I will go with whatever you list first).  Please comment/respond by 11:59 p.m./2359 EST August 29, 2009 (Saturday).  I will post the winners (and my annoucement) on Sunday the 30th, my blog birthday.  Fun, huh?

on economy: treatise 3, you get what you pay for

 

There are a ton of gorgeous designer fabrics available for the quilter (or crafter in general) these days.  I am a fan of pretty much anything that Amy Butler and Joel Dewberry come up with.  I like Alexander Henry's prints as well as Michael Miller's, too.  It's fair to say that I have a pretty good handle of the slew of modern fabric print designers out there.  And as you know, I am a stasher.  So I nab bits and pieces of things here and there for consumption later.  But I will share a secret with you, I hoard the designer fabrics in they same way a newbie handspinner will hoard and hold onto his or her first independent dyer's handpainted roving.  You know, afraid to spin it because it's the "good stuff". 

 

For a while, I was afraid to dig into my fabric stash because it was all "the good stuff" and I have never really been that sure of my quilting abilities.  But it recently occurred to be that I have been quilting for ten years, so I actually know more about quilting than I do about anything else I do.  And if I have been quilting for ten years and haven't been using "the good stuff" what have I been using?  Well, I am glad you asked.  Let me tell you...

I have been using fabric from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft.*  Some of you out there, I am sure, are shaking your heads.  But hear (read) me out.  My mother has never met a piece of fabric she didn't like.  She is a sewer.  My aunt is a professional seamstress and tailor and my mom insists that she taught her everything she knows, I would like to think that my aunt's schooling did that; but, there you are.  In any case, when my mother discovered JoAnn's for the first time, it was a little insane.  I was 5 or 6 at the time and a friend told her she should go see it, so she did...she almost passed out because of the selection.  My mother is a sewer of clothes.  She always has been, she only sews aprons now (why one woman needs 30 aprons, I will never know), but back in the day, my mother was a sewing machine, or rather, an extension of her Singer.

So when I started quilting ten years ago, JoAnn's was pretty much all I knew about fabric.  I never really wanted to sew clothes as a kid, my mom sewed them for me all the time and I didn't care for them (my mom has a thing for ruffles, bows, etc.), she leaned towards sewing dresses and I was a tomboy (does that shock anyone?).  My mom never made quilts,  even today, it would never occur to her to make a quilt. In any case, I started buying fabric from JoAnn's for quilts.  And then one day, I got a Hancock's of Paducah catalog from a friend... I wish I could say it changed my whole crafting world; but, my first thought, at the time, was "why is this stuff so expensive?"

I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, so I figured there was something about the fabric one purchased from Hancock's or from a quilt shop that made it remarkably different from the fabric one bought at a JoAnn's.  So I ordered a half yard of a print that I liked just to compare (it was the cute fish fabric, I still like it--too bad I can't find anymore of it).

There, obviously, was a difference...but not a huge one in regard to quality.  You know how sometimes you pay for a name or a logo or the brand?  I think that is the case with a lot of the fabric on the market today.  I have seen fabric at quilt shops that surely was not worth$10 a yard... and I make that statement on the weave structure of the fabric, not the print design (which really, is another kettle of fish(!) entirely).

At a quilt show I went to recently, there were these two women, let's call them Linda and Holly (because that's what they called each other, I am going to go out on limb here and guess that they are probably not novamade blog readers).  This was their conversation:

Linda: Holly, did you see that quilt with the browns and reds in the corner?

Holly:  I did, Linda, but it's too bad she used JoAnn's fabrics.  You can tell that the fabrics just aren't up to snuff.

Linda:  Yes, it's too bad.

Really?  Really, Holly?  Because I saw that red and brown quilt too, and I thought it was lovely (sorry, the quilter didn't want photos taken, I like to follow rules).  Folks, there was nothing wrong with that quilt.  The quilter picked good solid cotton fabrics, and quite frankly, she was probably able to afford the long arm machine she used to quilt it because of the money she saved/s on fabric; but, what do I know?

I know, for a fact, that if you use common sense when selecting fabric from JoAnn's or other discount fabric stores, you are going to be able to put together a nice quilt (for less money).  And that quilt will last for a long time.  I made Special K's wedding quilt with fabric from JoAnn's, almost ten years ago. 

It has been washed repeatedly (in the washing machine...and dried in the dryer).  This quilt gets a lot of use, more so now because of Little Sir and his penchant for using it as a cape.  Any irregularity in the quilt now probably has more to do with my quilting ability back then...it was only my second quilt, cut me some slack.

 

I went though my fabric stash recently and pulled out all of the leftover JoAnn's fabrics from projects I have done over the last 10 years.  I ended up giving a ton of it away to some other crafty people I know.  I ended up keeping the stuff most recently purchased for particular projects.  I may not purchase as much fabric for quilting from JoAnn's in the future, mostly because it's not the greatest idea to mix JoAnn's fabric with the designer stuff, as they probably would degrade at different rates, but you have to be careful about that with fabrics from different design houses anyways, in my opinion.

 

I think, and again, this is just me, in this economy, or any economy really, you have to be able to balance your crafty pursuits and your other responsibilities, be they fiscal or otherwise.  I recently bought "designer" quality fabric to make a a queen-sized quilt.  While entering the receipts in our money management gizmo thingy I realized that the amount spent on that fabric and supplies could have fed my family for a month.  I didn't feel guilty about this, as the money was used from money specifically budgeted for my crafting endeavors; but, it certainly puts things in perspective.

 

Before I start working on that pricey quilt (probably with the help of some friends), I still have to figure out how to finish my queen-sized JoAnn's fabric nightmare.  It's a nightmare not because of the quality of the fabric, which is fine, I think some of the prints are cute too; but, seriously?  Thirty-six log cabin blocks?  Gah.

I went to JoAnn's yesterday because the Simplicity patterns were on sale over the weekend (Little Sir wants to be a pirate for Halloween, that's what he settled on after realizing his gnome costume doesn't fit him anymore).  As I paid $1 for the pattern at the register, I concluded that sometimes, it's nice to pay for something on the cheap...because really, who doesn't like a good deal?

* Some of you may have also figured out that you can find a lot (and I mean A LOT) of Alexander Henry and Robert Kaufman prints mixed in with the calicoes at JoAnn's.  Just saying.  If you were not aware of this nugget of info before, Happy Christmas.

on economy: treatise 2, making do*

 

There are many knitters who pride themselves on the size of their yarn stash(es).  Some people are proud of how much they have accumulated; while others are proud of how little they accumulate, instead making deliberate purchases for planned projects (admittedly, there are not that many of you).  There is another camp of course, the one I am a part of, the stashers who have, basically, greedily hoarded, so much yarn and fiber that they are humbled, if not embarrassed, by the volume of stash accumulation.

I have a lot of yarn. Amount assessment is relative, to be sure.  My definition of "a lot" may be minuscule to some; but, let's get real here, any sane person will agree with me, there is no shortage of yarn and fiber in Novaland.

This great epiphany of my yarn stash having a life of its own occurred to me last March.  When I bought yarn that I pretty much already have to make a vest for Special K.

  

I wish I could say that my argument was: I didn't want to use part of a sweater's worth of yarn for a vest; but, that wasn't it, not completely any way, the fact of the matter is this: I forgot I had the yarn.  Let me say that again: I forgot I had the yarn.  In my defense, there was a time that I packed my stashes of yarn, fabric and fiber away in bins, boxes and bags; and, there was a good deal of "out of sight, out of mind" action going on.  But here's the thing, if you have twenty-two (22) sweater's worth of yarn sitting in your stash, you (and by "you" I mean "I") should probably just make do with what you have and figure out a use for any surplus yarn meant for a sweater project.

After this purchase of yarn that I didn't need to buy because I already had it, I decided to go off of buying yarn for a while.  I don't feel deprived at all.  It's not a yarn diet, I am simply making do with what I have; or, if you'd rather, making use of what is in the stash.  If I can't knit a project with yarn that I've already got, I probably shouldn't be thinking about knitting it right now.  Seems so logical.  Surely, it's the economical approach, wouldn't you say?

  

Lest you think me virtuous, let me say that my hoarding tendencies moved from yarn acquisition to increasing my stash of fiber since the yarn shelves were full.  I burn through fiber pretty quickly; but, I ventured into fiber stashing in the least fiscally responsible way possible (basically, if Krista or Carrie did an update, I competed with other buyers to purchase the fiber--I can be a wee competitive).  I am all about supporting independent crafters, but for my health and the health of my bank account, I need to bar myself from etsy sometimes, like now.

And really, it's called for when you start to accumulate fiber at an exponential rate.

 

And when that fiber starts encroaching on the fabric stash, well clearly, it's time to stop.

So I am in full "making do" mode.  Which, for me, isn't such a bad thing.  I have a ton of good quality yarn and fiber.  Over the years, I have become something of a fiber elitist (for whatever reason, I like "elitist" better than "snob"), that is not to say that I don't recognize a good deal especially when it comes to utility and function.  While I am not overly enthusiastic about acrylic.  I recognize that this synthetic material makes caring for knits made for children more doable.  I wish there was more Cotton Ease in my stash right now, because I would really like to make sweaters for the boys for Christmas in yarn that will actually facilitate utilizing the garment.  I'll figure something out, I am nothing if not industrious.

Lately, I have noticed that yarn and fiber that was once coveted (by me anyways) is more easily attainable now.  I am not sure if it's because I am not purchasing right now and the materials are beckoning to me with some sort of weird siren's call; or, perhaps, it's not just me.  Maybe other knitters, and spinners are out there looking at what they have in their stashes and thinking, "I have a lot enough.  Maybe I should just make do."

* alternatively: I'm a greedy hoarder and I need to stop

on economy: treatise 1, the sentimentality of spending

Not THE economy; but, economy in general.  Despite the state of THE economy, I made a purchase that some would consider frivolous.  I know the person who made the purchase possible would have thought so.  Oh, well.

I've been thinking about economy quite a bit lately, not so much because of the state that our (THE) economy is in right now (some would say the toilet, I'll let you define it for yourself); but, mostly because of the date.  If my dad had lived, he would have turned 66 years old today.  You guys know how much Ilove birthdays and celebrating them.  Every year, for his birthday, I would buy my dad a box of chocolate covered cherries.  His favorites weren't especially fancy, they were the economical choice.  They were the type that one could walk into a drug store, any drug store, and buy for less than $5 a box, if one wanted.  My dad only ate them for his birthday, and Christmas, because I would send them again at Christmas time.  He loved them; and, he considered it a special treat, mostly because I sent them to him---it was the sort of thing he would never buy for himself.  For my dad's birthday today, I almost bought a box of those chocolate covered cherries in his memory; but, then I realized, I couldn't eat them anyway (due to recently discovering that I am lactose intolerant, I know!). 

My dad often said that sentimentality caused one to make silly decisions, I think he was right about that, for the most part.  My dad was a pretty funny guy, he was a bit anti-social, so people didn't always really get to know him; but, he was the kind of guy that most people would like, I think.  He never took himself seriously, and he loved to laugh; but, above all, he was thrifty.  If there was a photo of a person in the dictionary (or, I guess, on wikipedia) for the entries on thrift or frugalitythere would be a picture of my dad.  My dad didn't like spending money, and he was more a "use what you have" or a "make do" kind of person.  Growing up, I didn't really mind his frugality so much, only in the summer when he would sort of try to beat some record to see how long he could go without turning on the air-conditioning (with the goal being to not turn it on at all).  His little test of wills wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't live in Florida, on the gulf where it usually gets to be around 104 degrees in July and August with 100% humidity without a drop of rain (seriously, I used to call Pensacola the tenth cirlce of hell--for the heat weary). 

My dad used to say things like, "when I kick the bucket, then you can spend my money anyway you want.  Get yourself something nice."  When I was a kid, I never really thought much about spending my dad's money at all, probably because it was so rare to actually spend any money in general, really (this might be what drives my hoarding now, but, there you are).  My dad wasn't a wealthy man, which, I suppose, might explain his frugality. But, he wasn't a stingy man.  If he had something and someone else was in need of it, he would share it or give it outright.  He liked to "spread the wealth" as they say, similar to the way I like sharing my passion for fiber and textiles!  That being said, my dad never quite got the whole crafting thing.  He never held it against me, but, he thought it was weird that I spent so much time and (especially) money on crafting.  Last year, when he visited, he summed it up like so, "I don't know much about the whole knitting thing, but, I am pretty sure you've got enough of that yarn."  When he saw my spinning wheel, he just shook his head and didn't say a word.

A few weeks ago, a check came in the mail from a life insurance policy my dad had with his job.  I didn't know he had it, neither did my half-sisters.  It was a surprise, a welcome one, actually.  Death is expensive.  We ended up charging a great deal to our credit card after my dad passed away.  But K thought (and I agreed, obviously) that it would be nice to get something with some of that money that would help me remember my dad (you know, a thing...people do this, right?  It's not just me, is it?!).  The obvious thing would have been a fishing pole, because my dad loved to fish; but, let's get real here, I am not going fishing anytime soon.  I didn't like to fish when my dad made me go with him as a kid, so I am certainly not going to do it now (though I am sad that my boys will never get to go fishing with my dad, it was kind of an event).  So instead, I got myself something nice: a Schacht Matchless double treadle spinning wheel. 

 

I feel like I have to learn how to spin all over again.  It's a little different from spinning on a Lendrum (not a lot; but, enough to know there's a difference--and wow, is this wheel fast.).  I am calling this wheel Choobie.  That was my dad's nickname for me, and I haven't heard it in a while, and I am feeling sentimental, if not wholly economical.  Thanks, Dad.

i dye.

So you remember how I said there would be no dyeing studio in the vicinity of my residence anytime soon...or ever.  I think I was well-intentioned when throwing that out there for the masses; but, the fact of the matter is this: when you have a little over two pounds of fiber to dye, and you have a full-time job, children and a husband all hoping for dinner that does not involve a box or microwave...you are probably going to dye that wool at home when everyone else is asleep (and then spend an eternity cleaning your kitchen.  Sigh.). 

And well, it just worked out better that way...because really, I can't think of anything else I would rather be doing at 2 a.m. on a Thursday morning--though I am starting to think that sleeping would be a good alternative too; but, there you are. 

I like it, there was a good bit of trialing.  A got a lot of dye (I know, this is not shocking to anyone) to try out before settling on something suitable for me.  I wear a lot of neutral colors, my wardrobe is not very exciting, I usually punch up my color options with accessories.  As I write this I am wearing various shades of khaki, which really, is a little less than inspiring.  But as you may remember, I have a fondness for purple (which, if we are being honest here, is kind of a lively version of black, really--color theorists back off!  I am thinking fashion-wise here!  Trust me, after all the dyeing I have done recently, I know a thing or two about the color wheel).  So that's what I went with...purples...greys  and the white of my canvas...I like that effect; I know it's not for everyone though. 

All this fiber needs to be spun up (though I could make a statement by simply wearing it draped on my person, stylish, no?).  I need to find a suitable sweater pattern so that my spinning can be informed--which will be new for me--spinning for a project, that is--usually, I just spin and what I get is what I get; but, in my defense, I think many people spin that way.  So sweater patterns, thoughts?  I mean, there is over 2 pounds of wool here, I won't need it all.  I am leaning towards a cardigan, but I could be persuaded to knit a pullover too.  It's going to be multi-colored, so let's not forget that