Zoom Loomin’

Maybe you’ve heard about this loom already, maybe not. I think it’s worth hearing about, though. It’s a new pin loom put out by Schacht, made here in the US. When it was first announced, I didn’t think too much about it. I thought ‘this will be good to do samples’, and didn’t think I’d be nearly as entranced as I am. When they came in, I picked it up to do a sample. I wanted to learn a bit in case anyone asked me about it. Since that first square, I’ve come up with a million plans of what I want to make and what I want to do with this.

Instead of rewriting everything Schacht has done, THIS is their newsletter that is featuring the Zoom Loom. If you want to see how it works, THIS You Tube Video, is their informational tutorial about the zoom loom and how to use it. I watched it before I started then followed the directions that came with the loom and it set up ridiculously quickly.

This is my first square:

It clearly needs a little blocking but I was so excited that I just had to take a quick photo.

Denise says in the video that once you get started you won’t want to stop and she’s right. The only thing that’s kept me from it is work and some special dyeing that I’m doing (which I hope to talk about soon).

I found more of this burgundy handspun and I know have more somewhere in the shop stash. I think it needs to become THIS shawl by John Mullarky. It is first on my agenda. I think the joining yarn might need to be something sparkly.

Spin Control

Remember that little book I wrote?
It looks like this:

Remember it now?
Did you even connect that I was the one that wrote it?

It is essentially out of print. Not really. It’s out of physical print but it’s in e-print.

This is not my decision so sending me emails asking why I did this doesn’t really help. I was very attached to this book at one time and was really sad for a while there while I was trying to figure out all the details of the way this book would or wouldn’t be sold any longer. I was disappointed at Interweave’s decision but they own the rights to it so they can do as they wish. I tried to get it reprinted or work a deal to have it reprinted myself. There is no demand to have it reprinted. I get a handful of emails a month about this but I’m sure that’s not enough to get it reprinted and really, since I tried my best, emailing me isn’t the best option to get this reprinted. I’m not even sure emailing Interweave at this point would help either.

I do appreciate those that really like this book, so all that sent me messages of love, thank you.

I’m not bashing Interweave and their decisions, so please don’t leave comments where you do either. They are a business. They need to make money and their decision, while it was an emotional one for me, was a business one for them. I’m just stating the facts.

I get emails lamenting the cost of the book on Amazon, this also is not my doing. I am sorry that people have raised the price of this book so much but I can’t tell people what to do. All of it really is out of my hands. I may have written the book and made the yarn to photograph but any decision now, doesn’t belong to me. If you’d like to send emails of accusation or snarkiness, please direct them properly. I have a few copies left in the shop for sale at their original cover price and once they’re gone, I cannot get any more.

THE GOOD NEWS!
Interweave decided that this book would be kept in e-print. You can go order the e-book on their site HERE Yes, I know it’s not the same but maybe this is better. It’s all in how you view it. You can take it to Kinkos and have it printed as you like with a spiral binding if you want. You can set up your ipad near your wheel and use the guides in the book to help you. You can have it on your computer and print off just the pages you need to help you instead of having to handle the whole book at your wheel’s side.

I suppose anything is possible and Interweave might change their mind but I’m not holding my breath and you shouldn’t either. So go buy the ebook, ask them to reprint, or search for a reasonably priced copy in print. -OR- There are other great books out there and one such book is Sarah Anderson’s book. The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs. She covers more yarn than my book did and she’s a fantastic teacher. I heartily recommend her book. Maybe we can keep her book in print.

WIP Wednesday – Potato Chip (Sprout)

This won’t be a weekly feature. It’s not that I don’t always have a project going or 10-20 projects going. It’s that I am hoping to blog here once weekly and sometimes I’ll have something substantial to say (like I did with the Yoga post on Monday) and sometimes I’m going to phone it in and just show you what my main projects are right now. That’s right. I’m phoning it in today.

I’ve been working on getting “Sprout” back in action. It’s being renamed “Potato Chip” and its going to have more features.

Sizing starting at 32 inches and going up to 56.

Sizing and shaping (or lack of it) for both men and women.

3 sleeve lengths – Full, 3 quarter, and short

2 body lengths – Full and cropped

Cardigan or pullover

New Option: pockets

New Option: Hood

All this in one tiny (not so tiny) pattern that really enables you to make the sweater you want.
I have 3 samples already finished.
This is the last sample I need to knit:

I know it looks like a pile of mustard. It’s supposed to. This is the hooded version and I don’t want to give anything away. Scheduled release is for May.

Yoga

Sometimes I get asked personally and sometimes I’ll see it posted places in fitness forums… “How do I start a yoga practice?”

I talk about my practice or I mention completing my practice, but I’m no expert. I’m not a certified teacher, I have no special expertise in the matter but I do have opinions and I do have a practice so that’s what I’m going to talk about. If you’re looking for someone with real experience, expertise, and certification, it’s not me. This is just my story.

I took yoga classes at a gym in my early 20′s. I can’t say it was any discipline. It was, to be honest, a little boring but the stretching was great. I didn’t find it a challenge, nor do I feel like I learned much of it. I liked it enough, though, to take up some relaxing classes again in my mid 30′s. I had some videos but nothing was difficult. It was simple stretching for the most part. Sometimes I would break a sweat. It was good though. I liked the instructor and the classes made me feel good. I really overall enjoyed the classes and it was nice to have an activity that made my body feel better afterwards. Like running, but with less pounding on my body.

In walks Ashtanga.

I was researching new videos to continue my relaxation at home when I couldn’t make it to class when I came across Ashtanga. I had never really looked into the specific disciplines of yoga before. I knew they were there but I didn’t delve deeper. I read about Ashtanga. And then I bought books. I devoured all about this and watched so many online youtube videos. Most of which made this practice seem far out of my range of ability.

Then I bought a video…..that’s when I really knew I needed help. I’m a do it yourself type of person but something in me said “take a class”.

Luckily the studio that I was practicing yoga at already, had Ashtanga classes. In I walked ready to go and I was hooked. HOOKED. I love this practice. It is now MY practice. When I talk about practicing yoga, I’m not doing videos or necessarily taking classes. I’m doing Ashtanga. It has a set series of poses in a set sequence. That’s not to say that I don’t change it up sometimes. I change the number of repeats of Surya Namaskara A and B (Sun Salutation), and sometimes how many vinyasa I complete in seated sequence. I always start the same and end the same but the asana in the middle section may change.

For those not familiar with Ashtanga, the way I practice might not make sense. Some say that it seems boring to do the same thing over and over. I like changing up my runs but with yoga I enjoy the set practice. It has a flow and a rhythm that allows me to do the practice and my body remembers most of the positions in sequence without me having to think. This gives me time to focus my mind and bring more clarity and peace to my over worked brain.

There’s my yoga story in a nutshell. I have an opinion too and since this is my blog, I feel willing to share it. YOU can do yoga too but Ashtanga isn’t for everyone. Find the yoga that works for you. Go to different studios, try out yoga. No. Classes are not cheap but if you’re going into it with the idea that you’re learning a practice that you will eventually not need a classes each time, it seems not so pricey maybe. BUT I don’t recommend anyone doing it on their own all the time. I started out with help to get my positioning and even now I get adjusted because I’m off. I’m not as off in position as I once was but it still happens.

You can get injured in yoga. Don’t just think that it’s all happy stretchy goodness. Yoga can cure your body but it can hurt you. If you have a practice already and have taken classes, keep up your practice and go to to a trusted studio every so often to get refreshers and to make sure you’re doing it all right. You don’t want to hurt yourself. If you’re new to yoga, find your yoga discipline and then take classes so that you will be less likely to hurt yourself.

The next thing I see on forums is how expensive classes are. They’re cheaper than the dance classes my 7 year old takes. And they’re cheaper than the doctor bills will be if you mess up your back doing asana over and over with the wrong positioning. I’m reminded of that saying “If its important to you, you will find away. If it’s not, you will find excuses”. Take care of yourself and take care of your body. If you simply cannot find room in your budget for classes, stick with something that will not mess up your body….which may not be much. As an example of “not much”; At one point the movement of my feet was slightly off in timing during Vinyasas going into Upward dog from plank (which is also in Sun Salutations so I made this movement many times a day). This could have caused increasing lower back pain if it hadn’t been caught by an instructor.

I’m not perfect in my practice and I’m not even close to being more advanced. I do really enjoy my practice and that’s why I continue. It works for me. It may not for others and that’s ok. Do what works for you.

If you want to know more about Ashtanga – Look Here
If you do Ashtanga and you want a series cheat sheet that will help with sequencing for a home practice – Click Here.

All Goats….

All goats all the time.
Ever since the little barn was built and the oldest child was told she could have a goat in 2013 it’s been all about goats. March brought with it an increased discussion of goats because they’d be all kidding soon if not already done….
When are we getting goats?
What kind of goats are we getting?
What color will they be?
Will they be boys or girls?
Will they be fiber goats?
Will the pull carts?
And about a million more questions… Mostly unanswered so the questions are repeated and new ones added along with fun hypotheticals.

My Mom bought a book on goats (that one up there) and well, that was an opportunity for me to throw a little extra homeschool assignment around. Tell me dear child, how are we going to take care of goats? So she’s worked very hard and read the book and discussed goats non stop.

NON STOP.
NO STOPPING.
ALL GOATS ALL THE TIME.

She’s got a massive list of names picked out and crocheted 2 little goat coats for her 2 hopeful kids. If we don’t get goats soon I’ll probably be slightly nuts from having talked about goats constantly.

Spin Along

In Ravelry we like to hold several different spin along or knit alongs throughout the year. We just wrapped up a huge one that lasted 4 months. It was productive and all inclusive and we all got something out of it but for me it felt a little disjointed. It covered too much. I like the ones that really hone in on subject.

The Southern Cross Fibre people are doing an Extreme Ply Along. If you want to advance your plying and see some crazy awesome yarns, that’s where you need to go. I’ve done some crazy plying in the past.
9 ply cable. 3 different yarns were navajo plied separately and then they were cable plied together to form this:

6 ply cable. I made 3 different 2 ply yarns. 2 were both red singles and one was 1 red single and 1 black single. The 3 yarns were then cabled plied to produce this:

The Spunky Eclectic group started a spin a long for the new 2013 limited edition colorway Friend’s Forever:

I spun a bunch of samples before the fiber ever was released. The rainbow goodness intrigued me and I had to see what it would produce.

Left to Right: South African Fine Singles – BFL 2 ply – Shetland N-ply

Our group is also just starting a Combo Spin Along on the 15th. Basically a combo spin is when you spin 2 (or more) singles from different colorways and then combine the different colorways into one yarn through plying. This is a yarn I made in 2011 when we had a Combo SAL before:

I call it “Grouchy Piglet”. It used 2 Helloyarn colorways of “Grouch” and “Piglet”. Grouch was spun into a thick and thin yarn while piglet was a fairly even sport weight single. Plied together it’s a funky awesome super bulky yarn.

That one is one that I did because I wanted it and it wasn’t connected to a Spin Along at all. It used one ply each of a Spunky Eclectic, Southern Cross Fibre, and Helloyarn colorway. It’s all BFL silk and it’s all knit into a sweater now.

I am not sure what I plan on doing for these Spin Alongs but I’ll try to remember to come back here and mention it.

I’m still here

How many times have I written that?
I can answer that, countless times. Sometimes I kept it to myself and sometimes I posted here. Blogging used to be something that I did without even thinking. A couple of times each week I’d sit in front of my computer and I would just write. In the beginning I’m not sure anyone was reading. In the middle somewhere there was a fair amount of readers and now, I think we’re back to how it was in the beginning…. crickets….

I said, and I maintain, that when I write I do it for me. I’ve still been writing, I just really do it for me. I have gone back to paper and pen over the past year or so. Sometimes I write a few sentences and then sit there and think… When I think with a journal page in front of me, a lot of times it’s as if I’m writing a blog post. I’m always writing ‘to’ someone. It just happens that someone is usually little old me these days.

Recently I’ve gotten more questions about spinning, weaving and knitting. There’s been more interest in maybe hearing what I have to say. I answer the questions but it might be helpful to have a blog post to point to. There’s a few that I’ve done in the past that I readily point to and it would be nice to have a few more.

I suppose I feel like I need to be useful if I’m going to blog to the public again. I already write for myself, but to be public, I’d like it to have a purpose.

I know I’ve posted before and given a list of things I’d like to write about or sewing tutorials and what not I had planned to do. And then….I’ve never done them. This time, I’ve started writing a few posts already. I figure if I’ve got a couple of tutorials and posts already written, this might happen.

I’m going to click that button in the right hand corner that says “publish”. Next week, I’ll come back here and I’ll hit that button again on another post. It will be more than just a bunch of words but I can’t guarantee it will be a lot more than that.

In the meantime I have some Knitting

and Spinning to work on

See? More posts are coming.