2009. It’s over! I feel totally okay about that. Looking back, it’s a bit of a blur. I know I spent a lot of the year hermiting with my cats, listening to audio books, and knitting. Sadly, the year was largely characterized by the escalated health problems and eventual loss of my little orange cat, Beary.

It was definitely a hard year, but I’m also really lucky that I got to have as much time with this little guy as I did, and I definitely don’t regret the months that I spent coming straight home from work and staying in to keep an eye on him. He made my life a lot better just by being his weird, chirpy little self. And in between inhaler treatments and making sure he ate and slept well, I got a pretty good deal of knitting done. To keep things from getting too sad here, I give you the requisite year-end knitting mosaic.

This isn’t actually even close to being all of it, but I think it makes its point. I left out several pairs of socks, all pretty similar to the other two-tone toe/heel/stripe pairs that are included there. I knit a fair amount of hats as well, all also pretty simple. I didn’t do as much spinning as I might have liked, but just for the sake of making more mosaics, let’s take a look.

I feel like it was a fairly productive year. And I still found time for (some) reading, running, biking, swimming, traveling, writing and continuing to make really amazing friends. I’m starting 2010 with only two projects on the needles, one of which should be done in the next day or so. But I have big, big plans. My knitting agenda is out of control, and even outside the realm of knitting, I have a lot that I’m excited to try. Let’s make it work, people.

i meant for this update to happen last monday. but life gets in the way and i am notoriously always a little late. updates will be more frequent over the next week or two though. i have some leftover yarn from mass market and i want to get it out of my life and into yours.

i posted four skeins of handspun yarn today, so go check ‘em out and keep checking back! i’ve also decided that this time around i may add copies of my zine to the etsy shop. it just seems like an organized and efficient way of keeping it easily available, although i still recommend that anyone interested in my zine still order it from any distro that carries it –  i’d rather see people supporting diy zine distros! so eventually a few copies will go onto etsy, but i’ll also be letting you know what distros carry nothing rhymes #5, and how soon they have it in stock.

that’s all – just some general shopkeeping! my personal life remains largely uneventful, but i will say that gary and steph and i might be addicted to the tv show the wire after watching the first three episodes last night, and also i don’t think i can get behind the website last.fm. but maybe that’s just because i wouldn’t want anyone actually knowing how often i listen to the annie soundtrack. if you listen to cool music, it’s probably not a bad website i guess. oh, and also, look how great my little weasel is:

we’ve been together exactly four years now. i still hate that anyone would have abandoned this little freckleface, but i’m so glad that she found her way to me.

on saturday night i stayed over at nicole’s house so we could get up and leave for boston straight from there. we made pizza and ate gross snacks and also awesome snacks and then we candled our ears! this is something we’ve been talking about for a little while, and seriously, it was really cool. according to some things i’ve been reading, ear candling has been pretty thoroughly debunked. that said, my ears feel great, and we had a lot of fun. when you cut up the candles, it’s so wonderfully disgusting:

obviously i’m no doctor and i’m no scientist, but here is my endorsement: if you have a friend to do this with (doing it alone is probably really unsafe) and you don’t have tubes in your ears (also unsafe for candling) and you like things that are gross, why not just go for it? i mean, read into it and make sure you’re  being safe of course. but then just go for it. whether or not the buildup inside the candle afterward is ear wax or candle wax, it rules to look at.

sunday morning we got up and went to boston for mass market 4, which was really fun! i’m always a little nervous doing a craft show i haven’t attended at all before. it’s hard to know what the overall atmosphere will be. like will my stuff not fit in at all, or will there be too many vendors selling things similar to what i have, or will the space be weird, etc? but this was a pretty good setup. the space was nice, the music was fun, and i thought there were a lot of neat things being sold, a good mix of vintage/thrift finds, handmade crafts, art and records. the day really flew by, too.

i just sold handspun yarn, no knit things, and my new zine. i got to talk with lots of really nice knitters and yarn-lovers, and that is always one of the most fun aspects of tabling. i got to meet ciara from learning to leave a paper trail, which was another really high point of the day. i always get so happy and nervous meeting people i’ve known through the mail/zine community/craft community, but not in person.  so that was really nice! i sold a few zines and skeins of yarn and had a really good time. it was social but not overwhelming, which is good because i do get overwhelmed! and sharing a table with courtney was a lot of fun. her stuff looked great and sold well, which was not at all surprising, but still exciting.

that’s just a tiny bit of what she has to offer. you can go to closertotheocean.etsy.com to buy things soon. it was a nice day and i’m glad i got to be a part of it. the show seemed really well run and organized, and full of great things.

this morning over coffee, also, i read a really weird article on bbc news. i’m honestly a little unclear as to how this is on the front page. in 2009. is crowd surfing really a new or relevant news topic? and do people honestly get trench foot at concerts? keep your feet dry when wet? gary was convinced that i was either reading the onion or that i had written this article myself. but it’s real. it’s so real. i think i need to write to bbc and tell them to give me a job. i’ll write stuff like this all day long if that’s what they want.

still knittin’ and spinnin’ and otherwise trying to stay on top of things, but last night i took a little break to have some beers with corrinne and some of her super nice friends. you may or may not know that i’m more mild than wild, and a few beers had me feeling pretty rowdy. yeah i said it, rowdy.

now i’ll say something else: all i want today is to hang out knitting in bed and enjoying that lazy grimy post-drinking feeling and looking at pictures like this and this all day long. coffee is also invited.

i’ve gotten some things in the mail recently (and some not so recently, i’m just slow) that i can’t wait to share with the inter-world. they’re all wool-related, which is not surprising because i only have like three interests and one of them cannot be mailed (that one is cats).  one of these little presents is also key to me making what i think may be the coolest and also grossest thing i have ever made. or maybe that i ever will make. don’t even try to imagine it, you probably can’t. but i’ll tell you soon.

ps. yes:

shannon and i are taking a walk down photobucket-memory lane. i’m finding things you wouldn’t believe. it’s awesome. look at the cover of teenage sexuality! those teenagers are wearing turtlenecks! i call shenanigans!

busy busy days here. i’m hangin’ in there though. in my temporary home there are five cats and five dogs right now, and it’s honestly really great. i never have to worry about there not being an animal around to sit on my lap.

i just finished typing nothing rhymes #5. now i just need to glue the pieces together and make copies and covers. it feels good to check another thing off the list.

i’m taking a break from productivity to share pictures of some of my handspun yarn. these are all spun, dyed, soaked and skeined for mass market 4 next sunday afternoon. i’m feeling pretty relaxed about this craft show. i think it’ll be really fun to share a table with courtney, and if i sell a few things, wonderful!

anyway, (a very small sample of) the goods:

there’s much much more to come. but for now i’m gonna go knit and hang out with this little guy:

i mean, isn’t that what you would want to do? vargas is seriously my favorite dog maybe in the entire world. he’s wheezing at my feet right now and looking at me with that gross smooshy face and seriously, i can’t believe i’m anywhere other than on the couch gazing lovingly into his eyes.

time to go do just that. bye!

it would be in kinda poor taste for me to not ever mention that wool and fiber festival i went to last saturday on you know, my knitting blog. right? still, i’m not so focused on woolly matters right now, so mostly you just get a few of the pictures i took while i was there.

those are all naturally dyed fibers. most of them were dyed with plants, but one was dyed with copper pennies – kind of awesome.

nicole and i didn’t see any actual shearing happen, but we did get to touch all this fresh wool that was just lying on the ground. ps. nicole is engaged now! congratulations!!

and we got to touch so many animals – sheep, a bull, a donkey  (the bull and donkey were just residents of coggeshall farm, they weren’t there on any kind of woolly agenda), angora rabbits, alapacas, and goats.

obviously we also touched so much roving and so much yarn. everything felt amazing. we touched cashmere and yak fiber, and camel and lots of beautiful hand dyed sock yarn. there were big bags of alpaca roving that i seriously just wanted to crawl into and roll around in forever. is that weird?

it was also really nice to meet so many people who cared equally about producing quality fibers and about taking care of their animals and treating them with respect. it was a pretty heartwarming thing.

i bought a few things, because i can’t help myself. but i was not even remotely extravagant. when i get back to providence, i’ll take pictures of those things.

which i guess reminds me, i’m in pittsburgh right now. i’m interneting on the spare bed in josh’s room, waiting for brandon to wake up so we can get half gallons of turner’s iced tea before i leave. i’ve been here a day or so now and it’s been nonstop nice in every respect. maybe i’ll tell yinz more about that later. now i’m going to get dressed and start my day.

]]> http://chelseacreature.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/ri-wool-and-fiber-festival/feed/ 2 chelsea dyes shearing sheep http://chelseacreature.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/dream-life/ http://chelseacreature.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/dream-life/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 17:38:06 +0000 chelsea http://chelseacreature.wordpress.com/?p=580 ]]>

i will have knitting things to share with you again one day. in the meantime, know that i am spending good chunks of time knitting in my bed, drinking tea and thinking about what i want out of life. my current life dream is moving back to the marys peak in oregon with a pack of wolves as my companions. you are probably thinking of reasons why this is a bad and/or dangerous idea, and that’s totally okay, but i’ll tell you now that i don’t wanna hear ‘em.

and just to satisfy your knitterly needs, if you’re a rhode island person, the third annual ri wool and fiber festival is happening saturday may 16 from 9 am to 4 pm at coggeshall farm. i don’t know if i’ll be going or not, but hopefully. who knows, if i don’t gain the trust of a small pack of wolves someday, maybe i’ll settle instead for a few sheep.

in my knitting, dyeing and spinning, i think a fair amount about how i can keep my hobbies fairly “friendly.” as in, environmentally friendly, animal friendly, and personal health friendly. obviously, this is always a work in progress. but as with most things, the more you learn, the harder it is to ignore what you learn, so consistent improvement is inevitable.

so i just want to share with you some of my favorite recent discoveries. some of these i have already tried myself, and some i’m just eagerly awaiting a few extra dollars to try.

greener shades dye starter kit seriously go check this out! greener shades dyes are non-hazardous dyes that work on all animal fibers and don’t use any metal compounds to get really pretty colors. the starter kit is $34.95, but it includes all 9 colors and citric acid, and apparently is enough dye for about 14 pounds of fiber. if you don’t need/want all the colors, you can also get a 1/2 ounce jar of each color for $6.75, which is not bad at all. these dyes also meet the standards for organic fiber processing, which is nice. i haven’t used ‘em yet, but i plan on it very, very soon!

north star alpacas one of my favorite etsy shops. the alpaca fiber she sells is awesome to work with, and comes from her family of 15 alpacas. she also includes a picture of the alpaca your fiber is coming from with your order. mine came from celeste. i think this is a really nice practice because it gives a sort of feeling of personal connection with the animal, and also because alpacas have really funny and endearing faces and are great to look at.

enchanted knoll farm another great etsy shop i’ve had good experiences shopping with. they apparently live my dream life – a solar powered farm in the woods of maine, with lots of sheep and dyeing and spinning and other yarny treats? it sounds wonderful! it feels good to buy from a shop who really seems to care about the well-being of their animals.

cascade ecological wool bulky 2-ply yarn that’s not dyed or chemically treated. it smells natural and woolly, which i really like. (obviously, if you don’t like that sheep smell, it goes away when you block your knitting!) i used this for my owl sweater and am really really happy with it. i have half a skein leftover and can’t wait to knit more with it.

blue sky alpacas organic cotton a cotton yarn option that still uses no chemicals or dyes. and if you’ve knit with blue sky alpacas yarns, you know it’s maybe the best feeling this side of a free chinese buffet. probably healthier, also.

vermont organic fiber company i haven’t shopped here yet, but i’m more or less itching to. you can get organic, environmentally friendly yarns in almost any weight, and the colors are beautiful. reading their standards page is also very eye-opening if you’re wondering what might really differentiate regular commercial yarns from organic and eco-friendly yarns.

ANYWAY. this is barely an introduction to the topic. expect more updates on the subject as i test out new things. and as always, i still recommend just going to a thrift store and finding a nice big sweater to unravel. shopping second hand is always a great resource, and you will find bizarre and unusual yarns more often than not.  maybe find a nice undyed wool sweater, and try out some natural dyes on the yarn you get from it!

also, i’d love to hear about products and practices you’ve tried out and liked. hit me with it!

ps. meg and i believe andrea, i think you both have mentioned on your blogs an interest in building spinning wheels out of old bicycle parts. i am very curious about this process! i found a few links (like this and this) but i’m wondering if anyone out there has more info. admittedly, i am more likely to just cave and buy an ashford or something, but i don’t know. maybe if someone more mechanical than i am wanted to enlighten me, this could be a fun experiment?

the philadelphia independent craft market was a really interesting event. i had actually never heard of it when i applied, but i thought it would be a fun justification for a weekend trip to philly, which would mean getting to visit with some friends.

this show was a total team effort. nicole drove us down to philly, rachel gave us a place to stay, and shannon provided my table. it was so nice to get to see friends, visit the mutter museum (which might have actually been my favorite part of the trip), and shop at THREE local yarn shops.

it was fun to do a new event in a new place – new experiences! unfortunately, this may not have been the best event for me. i thought it was in a really cute location, filled with great things from other vendors, and offered a really fun atmosphere, but unfortunately, something for me was a bit off, as my sales were a record low (nearly nothing!) and even browsers seemed to be just glancing at the tables without looking too closely. business seemed just as slow at most of the tables surrounding mine, although hopefully other sellers did a bit better than i had by the end of the day! i think there may have been another craft even happening in philly the same day, so that may have accounted for some of it as well.

slow business aside, the trip was really amazing. as i said, it was great to see friends, and to check out the wares of other sellers. i traded zines with katie of the la-la theory and had a really pleasant chat with her. interactions like that are always one of my favorite parts of craft and zine events.

in the end, it’s pretty hard to complain. i’m glad i went and got to see what the event was all about. and although it may not have been the ideal craft show for me, i think it’s a really neat series and i’m glad it’s happening.

so now it’s on to christmas knitting. i bought yarn at the shops i went to in philly, and my posts will be pretty focused on that for awhile!

oh well that, and also this: www.birthdayeveryday.etsy.com.

i’ll be adding new items every day this week. there is still time to order holiday gifts! check back frequently!

a little more handspun yarn. hand-dyed on my stove and spun on my drop spindle. see, i’ve been up to more than just buying silly shoes and reading baby-sitters club books. granted, those things have been an important part of my life recently as well. but i’m ALSO being productive.

i knit a ton of hats and cowls this weekend, watched teen witch (it might have been even better than i remembered), and took a little break from productivity on saturday night to go to a glittery birthday party, and listened to a lot of christmas music. i love christmas music. as soon as it’s even remotely cold, i consider it christmas music time. i’ll listen to it at least through february.

i was also pleased to notice that the semi-formal ski mask i knit made it onto threadbanger’s diy roundup this week. novelty ski masks may be my calling. will i be selling some at the philly craft show? duh.