Seriously?

Folks, I have so many blogs that I manage or write for, sometimes I get caught short when it comes to just writing about stuff!
Here I am, several weeks later, hanging my head in shame....oh, shame has no place here! Just tell it like it is...

That choir in my last post? I joined it. Yeah, two rehearsals and one performance later, I hear that music in my head all day. Now if that were to also mean that I had it DOWN, I'd be in good shape. Fortunately I can sight read because I can't say I've really learned it all yet. Next month a couple more performances and my Monday nights are now spoken for.

Knitting? YES.
There's the stuff for Krafti-Kit that you can oh so conveniently purchase online, like...the Oregon Tweed Socks.
Or, the crochet Faerie Ring Mobius Which comes with the MOST awesome ebony crochet hook that you will most likely NEVER lend out. (Look at the drape of the wool and bamboo on the the lovely Petra)
Then, there are some things I can't show you yet... but I did finish a hat from Vogue Fall 2009, during the holiday weekend. I love it. It's nothing like the pink confection on the magazine cover, but it has sparkles and right now, this girls needs some sparkles...(why can't you see the sparkles in this pic? Click on it to make it bigger.)
Then, there's the spinning. Last in line these days. This weekend is Spinnerati again and I hope to bring the old girl wheel. I do have a fiber confession though. My rational on this on is that I will use up more handspun. I'm entering the weaving world. Don't become afraid, dear readers. I have no intention of slipping down another slippery slope (right...).

What, you want me to stop? My fiber passion knows no bounds, and in a world where I see a distinct lack of passion, I have no intention of holding myself back. I figure that if I continue to teach, and make cool stuff and spread the fiber love around, it's all cool... Yeah. Like that.

Weird?

Flash Choir Performing

A pirate, deb, me and Petra at our table (photo by Leila Wice)

Deb giving some spinning time to one girl and her sister wants HER turn ;-)

Renegade Rose Morris Dancers, here and above

This past Saturday was the Keep Portland Weird Festival at the Multnomah County (Portland) downtown library. Spinnerati was invited because that's where we meet every month. We're so lucky to be able to grab the space somehow, each month where the room is large, carpeted with tall ceilings and huge windows.

We could see by the schedule, that we would be on the top floor with all sorts of entertainment going on. I was stoked. I spent weeks imaging what fun Portland could come up with.

Portland is a place where, after work, folks actually go out and DO STUFF! Every nook and cranny of this delightful city is filled with extracurricular activities. Some predictable, some not. I think that spinning is a perfectly natural thing so do with my free time, but everyone has their own idea of fun and I think this festival made it abundantly clear. So much in fact that it actually inspired me to join a choir that was performing right in front of us at the festival. Tonight was my first rehearsal and I got to sing the music I heard them perform. How great is that??

So, Sew buttons?

Many, many moons ago, too many to count, I used to be a professional sewer. or rather, a custom clothing designer. Somewhere along the way, I lot my love of the sew. Well, not the hand sewing kind. That I've always loved. In fact, right before I took up spinning and knitting I was quite the hand-quilter.

In the past years, I've become more and more sloppy when I've sewn something on the machine. Even when it has seemed the fastest way to get something mended or put together, I've chosen a needle and thread to the machine.

I had a little tin sewing machine as a child. It had a hand wheel on the left and it sewed a very nice chain stitch. I look at "toy" machines like that in the antique stores and they are a bit out of my range. I mean, for what they are! So, how come my electric, electronic machine doesn't do a chain stitch???

Meanwhile, a friend from long ago who knows that I sew, asked me the favor to make him a pair of Hakama (samurai) pants out of wool. First came the fabric selection, sending him the swatches and then the decision. Although he sent me a pair of store bought ones to use as a kind of pattern, I realized that to create a pant that was not open on the sides was going to take quite a bit re-engineering. Pockets, ties, flaps, etc. And so, he's not here to try them on and I was unable to make a mock up in time. Fortunately we are close to the same size. I cannot imagine making them otherwise. I think I have success. I'm sending them to an event on the East Coast tomorrow and we shall see if they do the trick.


In search of further sewing success and some clothes that actually fit me and my lifestyle these days, I made these two jacket types things (New Look Pattern # 6920) For right now, the machine is staying on the kitchen table...

This one here is a batik with trim done in a really intense Kaffe Fassitt Fabric that I had laying around. You can't really tell from the pictures, but they button right under the bust and have a little A-line from there.

My Own Worse ...

I've gotten what was coming to me.

Preface: Please no comments of suggestions, admonition. Only pity please.

Had a little too much caffeine today. Thought I'd take the edge off a little bit with some washing of the huge pile of socks, in a bag in the bathroom. This will mellow me out...this will do something useful with the jittery energy.

So, let's just say that there were around 12 pairs of handknit socks just waiting for me. That's probably about half of what I own, that I haven't accidentally felted at some point.

I'm noticing how dirty they are. Happy to be getting them Lavender soap kinda clean. I've got about 10 pairs, on hangers, on the bath rod. Ah! It all comes tumbling down... CRASH.

This has happened before. No worries. I'll just get some more water out of them and... OMG! There's a hole in the heel of...SEVERAL of my socks? Yes, as I am putting the socks back up on the bath rod I notice that many but not all of my heels have been chewed out by moths.

The were indiscriminate. Didn't touch the Wollmeise, but ate the Shibui. Blue and Red were favorite colors, for sure. My hands are still shaking...

How stupid could I possibly be? For the love of...
I saw moths in the past few months and kept checking my stash and my sweaters. No harm. How strange, I thought!

I will survive. Although I no longer have matching yarn for most of the socks, I will mend them. Although, I have this silly little thought that perhaps I should send them to Brenda to continue with her Pod-Series, Make Do And Mend. (I'm gonna catch what-for from her now on THAT one.)

Carry on..... and don't laugh TOO hard.

It's Up

Kallerin Designs of Norway

I will now take a moment to say how hard it's been to not be posting about this all the time. For the past 9 weeks, I've been pretty much completely consumed with getting Krafti-Kit up and happening. Today, we finally went live. One day later than expected, but live.

All along I've been working on developing kits for the store and that work continues at an intense pace. I never quite knew I had so many designs in me! It's wonderful to get back to crochet, needlepoint and embroidery as well as continuing to design knitwear.

Building the business in 9 weeks has been completely insane, and I knew that coming into it. I don't think there was any way to prepare Laura. (Maybe I'll have her do a guest post here or on my biz blog).

Thanks to everyone for your love and support.

Spinning Hands

Yesterday at Spinnerati, I was determined to get some good "spinning shots". Considering most of the action is at "crotch level", it was a little...challenging to get this right. Oh, and then there's the matter of hands moving so fast, I had to keep telling folks, take it slooooooow.

I'm not going to identify who is who. Just for fun, see if you can guess who is who! Or not.
Do all spinners have such nice hands, or is it that our hands just look particularly graceful when we're in the act of spinning. Clearly rhetorical to us.

How I Missed Ya..

The wool is back. The cashmere is back.

Seems to me this happens every year. The stuff you finish in late Spring never gets it's moment until the Autumn unfolds again. Funny, that.

It gives me hope for all my knitting, but I must confess: I have spent hours and hours on perfectly lovely projects that I simply don't wear. I've been talking and thinking about this for a while, but need to get it together:

A swap for knitted items that you made but don't like. I can't bear to give some of these away in any other context. Seriously complex cabled capes and the like. It's a busy Fall, so maybe in the dead of winter I'll get this together, dear readers.

Meanwhile, I'm just enjoying sleeping in my old cashmere sweaters. The true luxury of my life.