My camera is missing again. Grrr. So we have a picture-less post--No cute pictures of PeeWee, no annoyingly teasing pictures of the blasted magazine sweater, no bizarro pictures of a dog wearing a wig... Please pay no attention to the time stamp on this post. It's not really 2 AM, I'm not really up in the middle of the night waiting for a wash load to finish spinning so that I can put it in the dryer and go back to bed, and laundry is not really ruling my life. Denial is my friend.
I'm in Secret Pal 11 (Wohoo!) and I've been instructed to get this little Q&A session posted tout de suite. Alors, c'est voici. (I think those last two words were redundant, but I don't remember my college French well enough to be sure. Quel dommage.)
1.
What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? Favorites: springy natural fibers. (That's code for wool, right?) Non-favorites: furry yarns, although I do have a soft spot in my heart for pink fuzzy and/or eyelash yarn because my girls love it so.
2.
What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? They're currently squashed into an old canvas tote bag.
3.
How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I've been knitting for about 9 years. My dear, darling friend Wendi answered her door one day wearing a sweater she had knit and my jaw dropped when she said she had made it. That afternoon, she placed two mis-matched aluminum Boye needles and a ball of forest-green acrylic yarn in my hands and taught me how to knit. It was one of the best days of my life and I have been unable to adequately repay her, lo these many years. I would consider myself to be on the advanced side of intermediate.
4.
Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes, Amazon.
5.
What's your favorite scent? Grapefruity-limey-citrusy type scents.
6.
Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Ah, yes. Unfortunately, I love pretty much every candy there is. I especially enjoy crystalized ginger, lemony candies, and dark chocolate.
7.
What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I like to sew and bead. I enjoy the thought of gardening, though you wouldn't know it to look at my yard. I learned to spin this past winter and it's probably my favorite thing in the whole entire world.
8.
What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I like almost any music that has interesting and creative instrumental qualities, but my current favorites are bluegrass and Scottish music. I recently downloaded Lost and Gone Forever from Guster and I think they're pretty nifty. Bongos on every song? Oh yeah. MP3s: yes.
9.
What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I love colors on the purple-blue-green side of the wheel. And I love reds--from russet, to aubergine. Ooooo, go look at
this picture. Gorgeous! It makes me want to dye some wool.
10.
What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I'm married with children--5 little cheeky monkeys. I have a sweet elderly lab/border-collie named Dottie. She's a love. Want to see a picture?
There. Picture-less no longer.
11.
Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Not so much with the ponchos; yes to the others.
12.
What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I like to knit baby sweaters because they make me feel like I'm making a major item, but they go so fast since they're little. And tiny things are just cute. I like socks for the same reason.
13.
What are you knitting right now? I'm working on a sample for a pattern that will be in the May '08 issue of Creative Knitting. It's my first magazine pattern and the deadline is making my fingernails sweat. I don't know that I'll do this again. I'm experiencing barely-controllable urges to knit anything,
anything else besides the sweater.
14.
Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Yes! That's the best kind of gift.
15.
Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I like my on-the-go projects on circulars, but straights were my first love.
16.
Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Yes, both.
17.
How old is your oldest UFO? Hmmm. That would have to be the Lion Brand Homespun sweater for my 12-year-old son that was started when he was 5. I need to let it go already!
18.
What is your favorite holiday? Easter--besides the holiday part, you can always find cute lambs and the PAAS egg dye is really cheap on the day after Easter. :)
19.
Is there anything that you collect? I'm assuming that this question is not referring to my library overdue fines... I used to think I collected pottery, but most of it has been broken in the past few years. I have two matryoshka dolls and I hope someday to have more. I like ladybugs, does that help?
20.
Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? At the top of my book list is Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I've been wanting to knit with some angora. I'd like some wood DPNs in the mid-range of sizes (between 4 and 7). I want to get the pattern for this Blue Sky Alpacas
Crochet Trim Hoodie. I subcribe to Interweave Knits, Spin-Off, and Vogue Knitting.
21.
Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? I like to bead. I like to knit. Interestingly (at least to me) I haven't knit
with beads and I'd like to try it.
22.
Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Yes, but I'm a newbie. I'm on only my second pair of socks. I knit them in the car, but with school out for the summer, I haven't had a lot of car-knitting time. I wear a size 8 shoe and I have average width feet.
23.
When is your birthday? April 3.
24.
Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? Yep, I'm 'shoeless'.
C'est fini.
The Indians and Red Sox have just gone into extra innings. What a game. I love baseball. It's the perfect complement for knitting. I thought of calling this hat the Swirly Hat (yes, I'm not terribly imaginative--it's the same swirly pattern as PeeWee's Swirly pullover), but I think it might get called the ALCS hat. Cleveland and Boston have the same colors, have you noticed? And they both match the hat. It's knit from my handspun, a bulky 2-ply spun from 4 ounces of Hello Yarn handpainted merino top called "Darling".
