sweetgeorgia

Happy, but hoarse

Yep, I left the Pacific Cinematheque just past midnight, happy, but hoarse! Not from the singing, but from all the screaming and hollering throughout both “Hush” and “Once more, with feeling”! See the goodie bag:

We got bubbles for Tara’s song, “Under your spell”, and the plastic fangs were for Spike’s song, “Rest In Peace” — instructions were to wear the fangs while singing. The lighters were originally for the big “Walk through the fire” group sing, but the organizer found out at the last minute that we weren’t allowed to use lighters in the theatre — the sprinkler system is very sensitive and so we had to use our cell phones instead.

I thought I was a big Joss Whedon fan, but wow, I am not as hardcore as these guys… the Vancouver Firefly/Serenity Meetup group. We sat in the middle of the theatre, surrounded by these fans — two of the girls did an amazing job with their makeup and came dressed as seriously bumpy vampires.

And lest you think that I haven’t been knitting, here’s the little Trellis sweater so far:

The front and back pieces are all done, blocked and seamed. I chose to the three-needle bind off for the shoulders. Now, I’m just working on the sleeves…

Happy weekend!

Meeeem.

Mmm, fun…a meme! I just got tagged by cosmicpluto…

What is your all-time favourite yarn to knit with?

Ok, I had to give this some thought… there are so many yarns that are soft, silky, squishable and generally nice, but not many yarns give me that “oh my god” feeling like Rowan’s Kid Silk Haze. It comes in amazingly brilliant jewel colours and knits up into a beautifully soft, silky and light but warm fabric.

Your favourite needles?

Abso-positively Addis. I know Addi Turbos are expensive, but I love the slip they give. I just buy a few here and there and have a pretty complete set now. Denise Interchangeable needles are great too since I’m completely safe taking them on airplane trips… they give you a great feeling of security… OMG, they are like the Volvo’s of knitting needles.

The worst thing you’ve ever knit?

Oh, yes. The worst thing I ever knit was very positively the “Very Cherry” top that I knit last year. Ok, first, it’s knit in Colinette Point 5 which costs something insane. Then whenever I put it on, I look like I’ve immediately gained 30 pounds. Umm… so I never wear it. I’m thinking to frog it and make a hat and scarf set now!

Your most favourite knit pattern? (maybe you don’t like wearing it…but it was the most fun to knit)

Definitely Birch. Sharon Miller is a genius. I know, it’s an easy-peasy lace pattern but it’s a simple pattern that makes a beautiful product. I was always excited to do a little knitting on Birch. Love it.

Most valuable knitting technique?

Cabling without a cable needle! And like cosmicpluto, laddering down to fix mistakes — very useful!

Best knit book or magazine?

Interweave Knits is a fabulous magazine — not just sweater patterns, but full of all sorts of ideas, tips and techniques. Best knit book… I have a lot of lovely knit books in my library, but one eludes me — Principles of Knitting by June Hiatt — you know, the one that goes for $300 on ebay? Yeah, that one is good.

Your favorite knit-a-long?

Like I said, I suck at knitting along.

Your favorite knitblogs?

Oh dear, this is hard. I seriously have about 200 blogs that I read… quickly. I definitely always read Wendy, Melinda, June, Diana and Adrian. But here are a few that you may or may not have seen before:

• Mustaa villaa (means “black wool” in Finnish). She takes beautiful photos and writes her blog in both Finnish and English!
• Knitting Iris. She is building a fibre studio (”dream room”) of her own right now and does a lot of natural dyeing.
• Saartje Knits. A knitter from the Netherlands knits beautiful fairisle.
• Torsades. This blog is in French, but if you don’t read French, it’s still worth it to go see her great photographs.
• Dulces!. She’s not posting too much right now since she’s in the middle of a big move, but see her archives for some gorgeous dyeing, spinning and felting!

Your favorite knitwear designer?

I love them all! Ok, not really. I love Sharon Miller, for sure. And I’ve been stalking Alice Starmore for some time now. Oh, and of course, Kim Hargreaves, who also just released her new “Evergreen” collection (beware the Rowan Big Wool).

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)

Not exactly a glamorous item, I wear my Ribby Cardi quite often. I think the fact that it’s a zip up cardigan makes it really versatile, warm and comfortable. Something easy to throw on. Hmm, maybe that’s why I’m stalling on making “Rogue”… deciding on the zip or plain version?

Tag time!

Hmm, don’t anybody feel obligated, but I’m tagging Mari at marirob, Marie at Brooklyn Handspun and Rebekkah at bowerbird knits. I’d love to see what these knitting/spinning bloggers say!

Crushing on Paula

My new crush, second only to Josh Holloway from LOST (who, by the way, has the same birthday as me!), is Paula Simmons.

Paula is a weaver/spinner/shepherdess who is also half of the “Pat Green Carders” business. She’s written several books and I noticed in one of the Spin Off ads that her “Spinning for Softness and Speed” book was reprinted. So I called her to see how I could order a copy. She said, “Well, you write me a letter.” I got out the pen and paper, wrote Paula a letter and mailed her my cheque.

The book came in the mail yesterday and I’ve been enjoying her writing and instruction. Take for instance:

Spinning without looking
Once you get the feel of it, you will be able to spin without look at the yarn or your hands. This is not a matter of showing off; it has practical applications. If you can spin without looking, you can then read a book, or watch television, or look out the window at the sheep.

I love it. The whole book centres around the idea of spinning low-twist yarns with one hand from a well-prepared fibre supply. One that will slip easily… Kind of like a one-handed long draw… I’m going to try this with some of the Border Leicester and Romney that I have waiting to be spun and knit into a hat…

Shop Stuff…

The sweet shop has been updated with eight new skeins of sock yarn! I knew I would eventually snap and dye a Buffy-inspired yarn, so here it is:

And here are the rest — obsession-free colourways:

And finally, if you asked me questions in your comments, I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to answer them! I only realized on Monday that most of my comments were being tagged as junk and didn’t get published on the blog… and here I was thinking that everyone had gone to Rhinebeck and decided to ignore me!

Once More With Feeling

This Thursday, I’ll be at… the Buffy Singalong!.

The Cinemuerte Film Festival is being held at the Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver this week. They are showing filmes like “Creep”, “Class of 1984″ (apparently inspired some scenes in “Fight Club”), a Japanese “nunsploitation” film called “School of the Holy Beast”, “Night of the Living Dorks” — a zombie movie, “The Thing” and more…

For Buffy, lighters and fangs and dancing bunnies are included in the price. If you go for the Exploitation All-Nighter, you get all-you-can-eat cereal. I love October.

Having a Bridget moment.

Bridget Jones and I must have been separated at birth. I mean, trying to hide fifteen pounds of spinning wheel and fibre from a room full of onlookers? Completely mortifying. Man, why didn’t anyone ever mention that spinners don’t actually spin at a spinning guild meeting?

So last night I attended my first guild meeting. Not knowing what to expect, I brought along my spinning wheel and fibre. I walked into the meeting and realized that no one else brought anything except their knitting… Really, the meeting was just like a business meeting… set up like an annual general meeting for small companies… How embarrassing. I talked to the membership chair and she explained how their meetings work — business at the beginning and programmes afterwards. I found a seat near the back and actually put my jacket over the wheel so that hopefully not everyone in the guild would think I was a complete knob. I was kind of outed when the girl behind me recommended that I move my wheel to the back of the room. Ok. No problem. I can deal. My spinning teacher, Irene, was also there and introduced me to a couple people — all good. Everyone was very friendly to me, the complete knob.

After the business portion, the programme of the evening was “Try Something New” and allowed members to try their hand at a variety of different crafts. There was needlefelting (led by Irene), basketry, Chinese knotting, silk ribbon weaving and bobbin lace. I went for the bobbin lace… so much fun! See what I made:

That’s some “cloth stitch” on the right, “whole stitch” in the middle and “half stitch” on the left. The girl who taught us has been doing this for 12 years!

I came to the meeting not knowing what to expect and I left with a lace bookmark and a membership card. Yep. I survived and now I’m a card carrying member of the Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild. Maiwa discounts, here I come.