Oddball

The screwiest ball of yarn I've ever seen: I tried to pull from the center, but after disgorging half of its volume it became clear that there wasn't an inside end. There were TWO! Picture two strands wound together just slightly twisted, not plied.

To make it a bigger PITA, this discovery was made in the car after our trip started. So instead of getting to knit, I spent the whole time trying to wrangle it into submission. Still not done.

When I got home, I was happy to find the other balls didn't suffer the same defect. I can't wait to see how the colors unfold in this scarf.

Wicked Tools

Studio tools that could seriously maim you: My newly acquired (pre-owned) 30" paper cutter. Looks like it could quite easily slice off an arm as well. It opens the door on the type of papers I can buy and use, since some only come in the full sheet size, and I usually make a mess of those if I try scissors.  The white sheet of paper is a standard 8.5 x 11" for comparison.

I haven't exactly rationalized the cost of it or where I might be able to store it, but it was a good deal. I will use it. In fact I feel the need to chop things up right now.

Retail Therapy

And I had been behaving so well.  One of the little lies we knitters tell ourselves is that we are working down our stashes and trying to be in control. We would only be tempted to visit the wool shop for altruistic reasons: the gift scarf would be so much nicer if it were in her favorite color and matched her coat, I could mend my poor bachelor neighbor's sweater sleeve if I can find a red that matches, I just knit a sweater with 22 balls from my stash and now I need buttons. You know these lies, although you may reframe them in the metaphors of your different avocations.

I was behaving well. I visited Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno over Christmas and despite having finished the mittens I brought along to work on, I bought nothing. Today, I wasn't even in a yarn shop. I would not normally ever shop for yarn in the big box craft stores. I'm a bit of a yarn snob and don't like the froofy acrylic "novelty" stuff and the dishcloth cotton I associate with the chains.  I was in Craft Warehouse (nicest of the chains IMHO) shopping for frames.  I won't say buying frames, because I was saddened to find out that what I imagined to be a standard size, alas, was not. Frustrated because I now am having to custom order one, I stomped around a bit looking for some miracle to bail me out of my dilemma. I did pick up some acid-free foam core because I am perpetually and inexplicably out of it. One day I will figure out which bookcase I slide the sheets behind and I will find 20 sheets, along with 800 missing ball point pens that had slipped down behind as well.

So there next to the framing department, while I waited for the gal to fetch the foam core, I saw giant bins filled with bagged yarn and signage declaring a grand mill ends closeout. The only think I like less than plasticy novelty yarn is bags of novelty yarn.

Met and started chatting with a lady there who searching for the right color of yarn for a Star Wars character in a bin of loose balls. When I asked if she meant something like a Yoda amigurumi that I had made from a pattern on Etsy, she said "Yes, Yes!"  We had a lovely discussion of which yarns would good Ewoks, and how challenging it was to find the perfect Yoda green.  And then I put my hand in the bin. The black eyelash yarn would be great for making soot sprites (from Totoro and Spirited Away) for Hannah. And a ball went into my basket.

We then discussed a strange netted yarn called Starbella that can be used for making really simple ruffled scarves. And a ball went into my basket. The rust and green and black on used in the example on the link.

Then I looked closer at the bag yarns. They had no labels, no information, no fiber content listed, no weight or gauge info, no hint of brand. They were packaged as 1 pound bags for $8.39. They had to be total crap yarn, right?  Mostly yes, but I saw a bag peeking from a few layers down that looked, to my surprise, like Noro or Knit Picks Chroma.  It looked like a wool blend, single ply with the color shifting and tweeding a bit.  I had bought some Noro Sock yarn a few years ago that was $20 for a 100 gram skein (over $80 for a pound.) I knew this couldn't be as nice, but damn, it looked good and was an amazing deal.  A little more sifting and I found several more bags, including some in a heavier (worsted?) weight.

Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. (That was the sound of four bags landing in my cart.) I had to stop myself from taking them all. Besides, without being able to properly fondle it bagged as it were, I may not like it at all. Not all the balls in each bag were the same color, which will be important to figure out when It comes to scheming up a project. Also, whoever bagged it was conscientious to ensure there was at least a pound in each bag. One had 6 oz above and beyond!  The good news is that unbagged, it looks and feels like quality yarn. How did this happen? For under $40? In a chain store?

So I blog this score as both a rationalization of an unneeded purchase and the confession of a yarn hoarder. Besides, It was nice meeting someone from the Tri-Cities who actually knows what amigurumi is. Time to turn my attention back to things that I actually need to do, rather than rambling on and on.

Old School

And here are a few tiny paintings I did last week using more traditional materials - ink and paint. I was on the road, so it was interesting to see how adequately I packed my travel art box. I know of a few things I need to add/change.

Scanning Electron Microscope

I wish I had one. It would take pictures like this, at least that's what I think it looks like. These are fractals that I generated using the Mandelbulb rendering software. The coolest thing about fractals is that the closer you look, the more you see. Makes you want to just dive in and keep zooming, which you can do until your computer's floating point arithmetic runs out of digits.

Closeup of one of the blue lines in the bigger pic below

Digital Snowflakes

I've taken a challenge to make art every day in January. We're not required to finish something every day, which is good.  I have done a bit every day so far - even when we've been on the road. I'm sharing pictures today of some digital renderings I made of fractal equations. I thought they looked like snowflakes, so I colored them as such.  I'll post some of the other (traditional media) finishes from this week when I bother to get the scanner back on.

rotated and zoomed

Coffee Break

Finished this today: ink and gouache, 6" square.

Coffee Break

The ink came out a bit heavier than I had originally envisioned, particularly on the orange border. But it didn't look finished with just the paint. In the top photo, you can't see the gold is metallic and the red looks a touch more gaudy than real life.

Here is the initial sketch, for anyone who cares.

Not the Hat You Were Looking For

Life is too short to drink delicious homebrew labeled crudely with only a Sharpie. It also looks a bit more classy if we give a bottle to a friend.  This beer is not new, but has entered the window where it is fully carbonated and drinkable and was, embarrassingly, one of three batches on the shelf without proper labels.  It's a clone of Magic Hat #9. So if someone asks us if it is Magic Hat, we can answer, "Nein."

It's supposed to be a rabbit puckering a bit (as the beer is an apricot sour) but my daughter thinks it looks like a skull, with the necklace as teeth. I need to brush up on my rabbit drawing skills.  Done in ink and gouache. All of our beer labels have a character wearing an eyepatch, a long-running inside joke from our first batch.

And on the bottles it looks nice and cheery.

Cheers!

Squirrel Zombies

Did you ever notice how much a walnut resembles a little tiny brain?

If a squirrel were to become infected with the Zombie virus, or afflicted by a Zombie curse, or whatever mechanism you attribute to zombification, would it be adequate for it to continue feasting on walnuts? Would my dog continue to chase squirrels or would they chase him?

The squirrels are always busy planting walnut trees in my yard, but we usually pull them up before they become large enough to require implements of destruction for their removal.  I don't even know where the nearest walnut tree is, but the squirrels do.  I found a recipe online to make ink for dip pens using black walnut husks. Rather than wait until one of my squirrelly gardner's sapling reaches the twenty feet of height usual before a walnut will starts setting fruit, I turned to friends to get a supply of husks.

I probably undertook this project at the wrong time of year, because the husks had dried and became integral with the shells. All I could do was separate the nut meats from the not-nut meat bits.  And this is where the recipe gets fun. It says to add the hulls to water and basically let it mold and ferment for a few months. If only all recipes were that easy to follow! The water got dark immediately, so it must be doing something in there. To be continued...

Future Ink

Meanwhile, it has become apparent that I really need to properly label all of the these things I have brewing in the back bathroom.  I wouldn't want to drink the ink, or try to write with the beer.

The "Other" brown liquid staged while chemistry does it's thing.

Holiday Needles

It's time to get serious and dust off those needles for the holidays. I wish I knew better what all of my friends and family wanted for holiday gifts, but in the absence of specific guidance I will do my best to churn out random crap of my choosing. If you think you are on that short list that gets a handmade something, feel free to cry out "MINE" if you see the ideal thing posted or to drop me a line with a thought on what you would like. I am not psychic; I simply play one on tv.

Totoro Mittens. Lovely, but too small for Hannah. Note: will only be gifted to a true Totoro fan.

Hat, in cream, reds, brown and green wool. Can't have too many hats, now can we.

Flannel lounge pants of comfiness, an idea suggested by Alan, who liked the pair I made him last year and thought everybody should be so comfy. Light blue with fishing/boat motif.

I apparently have a strong need for everyone I know to be warm. :-D