My favorite month! At last!!!

It’s cooling off…the sky is darkening…the leaves are falling…and I love every second of it!!
Finally, the month I’ve been waiting for!! Delicious, wonderful October!

So to celebrate I’ve been spinning a cheerful Halloween yarn or two. Look at these happy, happy skulls!

Skully yarn!
A promising start to some happy, happy skully yarn!

While I love my spinning wheels to distraction, sometimes a spindle is ideal when you’re adding on loads of bulky things like beads or cocoons or scraps of silk and whatnot. I’ve also been using a cool trick for adding the beads: Stringing them into small bits of the roving with a needle-threader, then fluffing out the roving so it grabs on to the rest of the yarn. It doesn’t ladder like a thread can do with a heavy bead, and is remarkably stable!

Meanwhile, last night I just got back from visiting a friend who has an art studio at the Northrup King building in Northeast. I love those spaces, full of color and light. I kind of covet them, to be truthful. Studio spaces are so great. I never really used one myself, though. Why? Welllll, when you really get down to it; creatively I can be a bit lazy. When inspiration hits, the last thing I want to do is haul myself down through the cold, windry weather to where I put all my tools, paints, wool, etcetera. I’d just rather hop out of bed, have a wash, run downstairs or upstairs to the wool-bins and start mixing the fluff. These days I’m awfully lucky to have enough space at home where this is doable. If I was doing this sort of thing full-time, a space would make more sense,but I’m grateful at the moment I don’t need it. There are times though, when the paying job gets stressful and I think about starting a small yarn shop. There’s a bit of a yarn-shop gap in my neighborhood, and maybe , just maybe…

Oddments and Ends…

September already? I’m always so happy to see September roll up. Because October is right behind it. Also, retailers have been pushing loads of Halloween decorating things, so I can get all the skull goblets and and bat tablecloths I can carry. Usually I do a big hit right after Halloween and snap things up on sale, but sometimes I’m just not that patient. Because of my scrabbling around,last year I needed a much bigger Gothmas tree for all my jacked-up, weirdo ornaments. Hopefully this one will last a few years until I need a bigger one still…

Meanwhile, that blue angora hood I made could use some friends, so I’ve been knitting up wristwarmers. I have enough yarn left to make some plain blue ones, perhaps with matching snowflakes, but I couldn’t help making something entirely different with purple and blue fair-isle. I was knitting up a tummy for a gut-monster, and everybody who saw it seemed a little disappointed that it wasn’t a thing they could wear…

Half of a mitt
Fuzzy! Blue! Purple! And also fuzzy!

It’s kind of refreshing to make something that eye-catching out of fun leftover yarns from other projects. The blue and purple yarns were for making zombie dolls, and the blue angora was yarn I had frogged from a sweater a friend found at a thrift store. It was someone’s project that they never quite finished–there was a front and a back, and one-half a sleeve, as well as a little lace in a blue cotton that was too heavy for all that angora. I wonder sometimes what happened with the original owner of that almost-sweater. Did they get frustrated and give up on their project? Or did they die and leave their not-quite-a-sweater behind? I’ll never know. But I’m happy I’ve managed to do some nice recycling and make a few fun things here and there. And maybe when I grudgingly go to my own eventual grave, some fun knitter will go through my own stash and go, “Hey, look at that half-a scarf! I bet I could make something really cool with that!” I’d like to think so. So maybe the first owner won’t mind much.

(I also made a ridiculously fluffy blue nightie with some of the angora. I’m ummmm…not showing it to you. Or possibly anybody. It’s that over-the-top.)

Hot and Cold…

The dog days of August are of course the very best days to knit up a winter hood…

Snowflake hood
A blue angora hood with little embroidered snowflakes…

I think all the extra winter knitting is just for comfort. When things get a bit stressed out with my work at the Jade Mines, I knit to redirect my mind to a cosy world full of colors and textures. Though there are days that have compensations. Like the conversation I had with someone over the phone the other day…

Caller:(Incoherent muttering)
Me: “Hello? You’ve reached the Mines of Glorious Jade. What can I do for you?”
Caller: “I wanna, like sign up for the Cordon Bleu classes. I saw your add on tv! Like, I’m good at cooking and I wanna do the Cordon Blue.”
Me: “I’m afraid that’s a different institution–we don’t offer cooking classes. This is a museum.”
Caller:”Well, howabout animation? You, know, (slurs) animation?I’m really interested in your Cordon Bleu classes, but I wanna be an animator too.”
Me. “I’m sorry, we don’t offer anything like that. We’re a museum.
Caller:”Whaaaat? Museum?”
Me:”Yes, that’s right. Museum.”
Caller: “Like, when are you open? I have a 2 year old and he really likes art!” (background yodels of small shrieking child)
Me:*silent facepalm* We’re not open today.
Caller. “Oh. Okay. Bye!!”

It was still not as funny as the guy who wanted to come and hold one of our samurai swords, just because reasons. The world is full of people who have, shall we say, interesting demands…

Knitting mercenary…

Squidling!

Usually summer is my downtime for knitting for other people. I usually don’t get the panicked notes about lost hats and single mittens from people until at least late September. But this summer? Seems a little different…

One reason is we have a series of changes at the Jade Mines, where I work. New branding, new logos, new furniture, and new uniforms for us doorshakers. Instead of our Matrix-y Mr. Smith outfit we normally wear, we will have a softer look in khakis, a denim shirt and a black cardigan. The cardigan–made of scratchy acrylic yarn I wouldn’t have bought on a bet–has teeny, tiny little pockets that are totally unsuitable for our Guardy McGuard needs. So I’m already getting requests to sneak in new pockets on the insides, to accommodate the things we need to carry. I was going to do it for my own, anyway, but I have a feeling I will be a very busy little thing on my breaks, stitching in new pieces that won’t be too obvious. It’s for Great Justice, my friends…

Also, a while back I made a few gutmonsters for friends, and here and there people ask for a few more fun, tentacled monstrosities they can take home and cuddle. It’s the baby Squidlings that seem to catch people’s eyes. I just love how much fun they are for me to knit, cackling away on the couch and deciding how many tentacles to add. Hehhehheh…

Squidling!
A little squidling, ready to be squished and cooed at. Juuuuust don’t let it get too close to your face…

Tarot of the Yarns…

Knitting Tarot Spread

There’s been quite the dust storm kicked up on Etsy recently, concerning purveyors of magical supplies and readings and such. While I’m very glad to see the obvious fakes and predators kicked off the site, sadly some of my friends have also gotten their items booted off–candles and herbs and such; actual items used for religious purposes instead of the amusingly priced “Call a Sexy Vampire” rings and necklaces. And mainstream religious items seem to be selling just fine. It’s more than a bit confusing for everybody involved, I think…

And how does that have anything to do with me? I’m glad you asked. I’ve always loved Tarot decks and readings, and have been collecting them for years. A while back for last Halloween I ran in my shop among the woolens and yarns a Tarot reading for knitters. For the princely sum of 3 dollars, I would do a three-card spread about a knitting project someone had problems with and give them helpful advice. I labeled it as Entertainment Only, but added the caveat that any reading I did would also be bolstered with solid knitting advice.

Knitting Tarot Spread
A Knitting Tarot Spread…3 cards to help the knitterly-challenged.

People seemed to like it a lot, but alas, I had no takers. I took it down right before the new changes took effect. Would Etsy have kicked it to the curb? I’m really not sure. Very probably, even with the amusing premise. Ah well. I suspect my time is better spent with the spinning wheel…

A little fun at the Mines…

Last night my sweetie and I went to my workplace to go have a little fun. We stopped by the Staff art show to go visit my shawl, before they take it down from the wall…

My Flourish shawl
My circle shawl, made with handspun and milled yarns, sequins and sparkle

Label
Shawl didactic with artist’s statement

We also checked out the Mark Mothersbaugh show, which was amazing. At work, I’ve been running into Mr.Mothersbaugh quite a bit here and there as part of my job. I’d grin and try very hard to be cool, then hand him a badge or open a door or what have you. He was very kind generally; tipped me a salute yesterday which earned him a very un-guardlike giggle from me. He seemed to be having a pretty good time last night…

Mark Mothersbaugh and me
A happy, happy Maus with a stripey Mark Mothersbaugh in the background.

Soooo, yes, a pretty good time. It’s nice to have a little fun here and there…