Hi to everyone who’s still here! I know I haven’t posted anything for a long, long time. Life has been crazy busy, and I’m trying to get back into it. Meanwhile, I’ve consolidated all my blogs and got my own web address. You can keep up with my knitting stuff here:

http://knitting.beingbeata.com

Alternately, if you’re interested in the other aspects of my crazy life. My general blog address is

http://www.beingbeata.com

See you there!

I was crafty for this Mother’s Day!

For my mom, I made her a cake – Hong Kong style. In Hong Kong, cakes are not frosted with frosting, but with whipped cream. The cake itself is also a lighter chiffon cake. Needless to say, these kinds of cakes are hard to buy from an American bakery, so I made her one for mother’s day.

Show and tell (picture) time:

I baked the chiffon cake from this recipe. The cake turned out great, even though I wasn’t completely careful and made some boo-boos on the way. I baked it in a spring form pan for about an hour, then I removed the cake and put it in the freezer to cool.

Once cooled, I took it out and sliced it horizontally into 2 layers. Then I frosted the middle with whipped cream and layered slices of strawberry on top, then frosted it with another layer of whipped cream. See that gushy whipped cream goodness? I did that! Woot! I love whipped cream.

Then I frosted the top and the side (which was tricky, by the way), and put slices of strawberries on top and wrote on it. My icing hand writing sucks. Please ignore my 2nd grader letters.

The cake tasted great. My only gripe was that apparently it wasn’t completely cooked through. The middle was fine, since I tested it with a skewer, but the bottom wasn’t completely done (weird, since usually the middle is the culprit), but the skewer didn’t pick that up since it’s all the way in the bottom! At least it was just a little, so I just cut it off when we ate the cake.

Second mother’s day craftiness was more related to this blog – I dyed fiber! My mother-in-law has been wanting to spin yarn, so I decided to send her a little spindle kit. This is 4 oz of corriedale wool that I dyed with food coloring. The purple sucked up at difference paces into the wool, which created a pretty cool variegated effect.

Here is the spindle we sent her. Hubby made the spindle and painted the design on it. He came up with the sheep spinning its own wool idea – I love it! It’s the cutest thing ever!

Note: Design and Image (c) Sean Deitrick 2008

I’ve been crafty lately! Most of it is attributed to either escapism from final exam stress, or genuine posession of free time once I was done with said finals. Either way, I’m a happy crafter.

First case of craftiness. Soap Sack!

Done on a whim out of cotton yarn I have in my stash. Sean likes soap sacks, which are very popular in Japan. They’re usually made of a nylon mesh material, but since those cannot be found in the US, I found this pattern and crocheted it. First time I crocheted in ages too, but I was able to remember it well enough. It works great, although a little differently than the Japanese kind. It’s a great combination of loofah and wash cloth. Love it!

Second case of craftiness: a sock bag!

I sewed this from this tutorial. The tutorial was really clear and explained everything, so even the terrible sewist that I am, I managed to make this pretty well. Of course, I’m not a little obsessed with sewing, and have a very quickly growing stash of fabric. I did take my old sewing machine to be maintained, and I get it back tomorrow, so more sock bags might come. For now, I love this thing. It’s cute, lightweight, and perfect size for my traveling socks.

Third case of craftiness: finished socks!

Of course, with the wonderful sock bag, I’ve been doing some sock knitting. Here are my finished Monkeys, knit out of TOFUtsies yarn.

I love them! They are my first hand-knit socks (for me anyway), and they keep my feet warm and feels great.

UPDATED! 7/6/2009

Many, many, wonderful knitters have told me that there’s a mistake in my tutorial for a while now, but I’ve been so busy with life that I haven’t had a chance to correct it.  It’s a minor one – the swift requires 4 2″ pieces instead of 3 as noted.  Anyway, it’s finally been corrected!

The tutorial (pdf) is done!

Features:

• Acts both as a yarn swift and skeiner
• Holds up to a 2-yard skein
• Collapsible so it can be stored flat
• Has optional yarn guide to make winding on easier
• Cost roughly ~$10 of supplies from a home improvement store (plus some tools)

OK, so I know that I’ve been super slow about it, but exam procrastination got me so I wrote this up (I would rather do anything but study… as you can see).

I tried to be real thorough about where all the parts go and to give detailed pictures and directions. Please let me know if you use it and find any mistakes or confusions. I would love to improve them. Send me an email at beatawih AT gmail DOT com (replace AT and DOT, obviously).

Also, if you build one of your own, let me know. I would love to see what yours look like!

OK, here comes the PDF of the tutorial. Enjoy!

Today, I was able to take the day and travel to Atlanta to see the Yarn Harlot. I read her blog pretty regularly, but I only just read her last book, Casts Off, while I was on spring break (I borrowed Katy’s copy). It was super funny. So I bought her latest book, Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To or Not) , recently, and it’s been a hilarious blast. I’m about half way done with it, and enjoying every word.

So back to the trip. Lisa and I left at 8:30 am for Atlanta, and we got there at 11:30 or so, just in time for a delicious brunch at Murphy’s. Their eggs benedict is to kill for, but I went with the version with spinach and mushrooms on a foccacia instead of the traditional one. Super delicious. Lisa got the French Toast, and while I didn’t try it, it looked to be about the most delicious French Toast ever (I was a little caught up with my eggs benedict). Then we had mimosas… delicious mimosas. Something about their mimosas make them better than other mimosas. No idea what it is. Just awesome.

Ok, enough food rambling. After brunch, we got in the GIANT line to get in to see the Yarn Harlot. There must have been 700 people there, it was incredible. As we walked along the line to find the back, people kept commenting “Oh I love your sweater” “What pattern is it?” etc. I love knitters! Mostly, this was directed to Lisa, who’s wearing the most awesome cardigan made from some super cool Cherry Tree Hill yarn. She just winged it – top down raglan style. It was incredible. I was wearing my Isabella – cool, but just not nearly as cool as Lisa’s was.

We stood in line probably for 20 minutes, but of course, no one was impatient because we all had our knitting. I had my monkey socks with me, and the pattern is pretty easy to remember, so I didn’t even need my chart all the time. People were commenting on each other’s patterns, shawls, socks, sweaters – you name it. I got some kudos for doing 2 socks at once on magic loop. I never thought it was that hard, but apparently it’s pretty impressive . That’s kind of cool.

Oh, and we got free wool wash while standing in line – cool, eh?

Several muggles walked by and was like, WTF? What is with this giant line of people trying to get into Ben & Jerry’s. Here’s the trick, the theater where we saw the Yarn Harlot is behind Ben & Jerry’s with no visible sign (or a separate door). I bet it looked pretty funny having 600 people line up with their socks in progress trying to get into Ben & Jerry’s. hehe. Of course, they were probably equally, if not more, baffled by us knitting. I mean, who in their decent mind would be knitting at noon on Sunday in a giant queue?

Once we got in, we had about 2 hours to just knit and chat. Knitch did a pretty awesome raffle with really good prizes. If I had cash on me, I would have totally bought some tickets (they were donations to Knitters Without Borders anyway – a good cause). Seriously, someone got a $300 skein of yarn. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck that’s made of.

Then the Yarn Harlot spoke.

I’ve never laughed so hard in an hours worth of time. She is about to so accurately reflect society, but in the most humorous way possible. It’s much, much better than I could ever repeat it at, so I’m not even going to try. Her blog and her books come pretty darn close to seeing her in person, but there’s nothing quite like being in a room with 700 knitters listening to her speak about knitting, all the while knitting on my socks. I think I cried about 5 times from laughing so hard.

It was also pretty amusing to hear someone dropping a dpn every 5 minutes or so. We’re a coordinated bunch, no?

After her speech, people had a chance to ask her some questions. It was such a nice and jovial atmosphere – almost like a conversation. She’s so nice and down to earth that sometimes, I forget I’m not acutally just sitting their talking to her. It’s awesome.

So after all that, we went back to Knitch to browse. The store is absolutely amazing. Yarns in all colors from top to bottom. In all amazing fibers. There’s quite a few cashmeres that I’m surprised didn’t jump in my bag to come home with me. I did end up with this though. 2 oz of camel down. RIDICULOUSLY soft. It’ll be interesting to see how well I can spin it. Current plan is to make it into lace weight and knit Wisp – since Knitch had a really nice sample knit in 100% cashmere, and I really preferred that to the Kid Mohair that the pattern is designed for. Problem is, I don’t want to spend $50 on cashmere, and the camel was only $6 for the same amount. Let’s see what I can do! They fall into the same fiber category, so surely, it can be done. Now, my spinning skills…

So after the yummy yarn shopping, we got in line to do the book signing. The Yarn Harlot is super wonderful. She takes time to talk to everyone, and takes care to sign her entire name instead of just initials like some other celebrities would do. And she has a long name. (Refer to this blog post of hers). I even got to take a picture of her while she’s signing my book. Yay!

So after the book signing, or mission for today was basically accomplished. We had dinner at Neighbor’s (Shrimp Caesar Salad) and drove home. Here I am blogging. It was a good day.

On Saturday, I went to my local spinning guild for the first time. I was so pleasantly surprised at how large the guild was. There were probably about 20 people there. Wow – that many spinners live near me? One lady even told me she had the same wheel I did. Yay – someone to ask if my wheel is acting wonky. The ladies were all so nice at the guild, and super knowledgeable too. I learned so much just from sitting there and listening. It’s definitely going to be a great resource for any spinning questions.

Of course, it was super fun as well. Everyone goes around in a circle to do a show and tell. Some people have some awesome stuff spun and knitted up. One lady made this really long and amazing shawl out of linen. The drape was incredible, plus it looked great and cozy on her. Two ladies had hand dyed wool with easter egg dyes and food coloring. Such beautiful colors. Some showed their finished spinning. There was definitely some yummy stuff there.

I also found some yummy stuff to buy there. Check this out. It’s a wool silk blend (exactly percentage not sure). The blue is the wool and the silver is the silk.

There’s a really nice shimmer in person. It’s not as soft as merino (yeah, I’ve been spoiled), but it’s pretty soft. I bought 20 oz from a lady at the guild who owns her own farm and sells her fiber. I’m hoping to get enough yardage to make at least a tank top with it. Dare I say a sweater? I guess we’ll just have to see.

So I’ve been eyeing a skeiner for a while. Babe’s sell one for $35, which isn’t bad. But I wanted it to be free standing, and I also wanted it to function as a swift too. So in comes DIY.

My hubby is a seasoned PVC builder. He grew up playing boffer and and built numerous weapons. So I asked him to help, and when I showed him what I wanted, he said, “Oh! That’s ridiculously simple.” Whee!

We spent about $10 at home depot for the materials, and an additional $8 for a PVC cutter to make it easier. I’ve used it a few times already, and I absolutely love it. Check it out

The arms are adjustable to fit skeins up to 2 yards. It functions both as a skeiner and a swift. When I use it as a skeiner, the extra arm in the middle is the handle I use to crank it around. The cup hooks at the base helps to feed the yarn in to the skeiner – useful when I’m winding from a cone into a skein. When using it as a swift, I take the middle arm out to make it more balanced. It spins more freely that way.

I’m thinking of writing up a tutorial to build this, since it was really easy and cheap, and I think it works great. Anyone interested?

Edited to add: Tutorial now available!  Check it out here.

FO time! I finished this baby hoodie on spring break.

Thanks Abby for modeling! As you can tell, it’s still a bit big on her. This is good, since it’ll still fit her next spring.

Some specs:
Pattern: Hooded Baby Cardigan (P630) from Plymouth
Yarn: Oh My! by Plymouth – 7 balls
Needle: Knit Picks Options size 10
Project Ravelry page

Pattern knit entirely as is. I wanted to convert it to be knit in the round, but was too lazy to. The pattern is very easy to make.  It made for really productive SnB knitting, and spring break knitting while traveling in the car.  The only change I made was to kitchener the top of the hood instead of bind off and sew it together. The bind off just seemed a little arbitrary, plus who would want a seam there?

I read on ravelry that the yarn unravels easily from being weaved in, so I (gasp) knotted the ends in after weaving. Let’s hope that withstands the pulling and tugging of a toddler!

I made the buttons from polymer clay. It’s sort of a new hobby of mine. I consider it an extension of my knitting (like the beading – it’s just for stitch markers, really), so it’s not really a new hobby. Can you see them? I rolled the clay on the thickest setting of the pasta machine, cut them out from a 5/8″ template, and textured it with a rubber stamp. Then I painted it with a wash and put gloss coat on it after baking it. I love them!

My floppy dog was also kind enough to model the hoodie for me.

Isn’t he just so darn cute?!?

So I apparently like to forget to blog about spinning.  Here is my latest finished yarn, actually finished a couple of weeks ago.

It’s 253 yds of sport-dk weight super-soft merino (~4 oz).  When I spun the singles, they were as soft as Malabrigo lace.  I think the finished yarn is pretty close in softness too.  I’m totally in love with this Merino. 

I spun it up to make a stag bag (link to pdf pattern), although now it looks like I’m a little short on yardage.  I think I’m going to try it anyway.  If I run out… well, I’ll just have to spin some more.  I guess I better go get more of this roving soon.

I’m currently spinning this to use along with the red merino for the stag bag.

Same super-softness.  I love merino!

A small bit of yarn dyeing activity.  After & before pics:

I did this Sunday in my crock pot using food coloring.  The base yarn is Knit Picks Essential bare, 100g of sock yarn.  I used 16 drops of blue to 7 drops of green (although using much more dye than that – my blue bottle is almost gone!).  I used knitty’s dip-dye method.  It was so easy to do!  I just put the yarn in the crock pot and would occasionally come to pull some out.  No exactly science or anything. 

When it was done, I washed it and it bled a little bit.  It kept bleeding even after 4 washes, so I decided to put it all back in the crockpot with clear water and vinegar and left it overnight to set the color.  It did set the color a bit more, but still not completely.  I’ll just try to remember to wash the socks separately until it stops bleeding.  The bad thing about leaving it overnight was that it starting boiling.  No biggie since the yarn is superwash, but I used maroon yarn to tie the skein, and the maroon bled a little onto the yarn.  Whoops.

I enjoy doing food coloring dyeing a lot more than kool-aid.  The color is more predictable and controllable, and I’m just not a fan of the kool-aid surprise.  It’s almost much less neon colored.  I also really enjoyed reskeining the yarn after dyeing.  I think it looks much better mixed in like that.  I’m quite in love with this dye job.  Who needs $20 hand-dyed sock  yarn when I can dye my own?