2009 opens with a … grumble January 8, 2009

We went to bed early on New Year’s Eve, because we were exhausted. Fireworks started at 8pm, as expected, and I muttered “8pm is NOT midnight” several times. I’ve been doing a little yarn work, but it’s slower than I’d like because our counter’s broken again. So I’m hand-winding 100g balls of yarn and skeining them (thankfully Ben makes an awesome skeiner), and dyeing fiber, since it doesn’t need to be wound.

The update to crazymonkey.etsy.com last night included these 8 yarns:

2 of the colorways are panda toes in the same colors as monkey toes, so they got similar names. “Love is Patient” (MonkeyToes) is paired with “Love is Kind” in PandaToes. “Hothouse Flowers” in MonkeyToes is the same as “Forced Blooms” in PandaToes.

I’m also experimenting with the photography style of what we’re posting on etsy, making it more ‘artsy’, and hopefully making it harder to resist a skein or two of lusciously photographed yarn.

There will be more etsy updates coming, including what I’m calling “Spin me a Sweater” kits, which are simply, 2 lb of coordinating roving for you to spin up into yarn. They’ll be priced at 25% off the normal price if you had bought 2 lbs of fiber, and offered with Priority shipping. I’ve got them in Merino (drying right now) and BFL (dyeing right now), and if they do well enough, I’ll offer superwash merino and superwash BFL.

Knitting Book Sale! November 23, 2008

I’ve gotta make room for some other stuff, so I’m offering up some knitting, spinning, weaving books for sale. I’m listing anything new for half its cover price. Shipping via Priority Mail in the US, $4.80 for the first book, $2 for each additional. Please ask for international shipping, and I’ll price it for where you are. I have 2 Starmore books, both listed at 1/2 of what Amazon wants for them. All books are in good condition, no rips, tears, or dogeared pages, unless noted. If you’re interested, send me an email at christy at crazy monkey creations dot com. If you know someone who would be interested, send them over to my blog.

I am not willing to ship media mail. For one thing, it means finding an appropriately sized box, and I will end up passing that cost on to you, as I do not currently own boxes of the right size for mailing books. This means that the end cost for shipping is about the same as priority, and the mail gets there much more slowly. Priority shipping is my preference because I can get the boxes for free, it’s a reasonable shipping price for what you get, the items get to their destination quickly, and PayPal lets me print the labels directly from their site. Paypal is my preferred method of payment, and I do take credit-card funded transactions. Since I’m only charging you for the first pound ($4.80) and books weigh more than that, you’re still getting a deal.

Edited list to show what is available. (The Starmore books were the first to go.)

Knitting Socks

Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles, Cat Bordhi, $6 (Paperback)
Folk Socks, Nancy Bush, $10, Paperback

Knitting Instruction

Mason-Dixon Knitting, Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne, $15 (Hardback, Dust Cover Intact)
Stitch & Btich, Debbie Stoller, $6, Paperback
Stitch & Bitch Nation, Debbie Stoller, $6, Paperback (marked in one spot due to errata)

Knitting Sweaters

Sweaters for Everyone Kids to Adults, Mary Rich Goodwin, $7, Spiralbound
The Best of Knitter’s Arans & Celtics, $10, Paperback
Knitting Sweaters from the Top Down, Cathy Carron, $12, Hardback, Dust Cover Intact.
Big Girl Knits, Jillian Moreno & Amy Singer, $15, Hardback, Dust Cover Intact

Other Knitting

One Skein Wonders, Judith Durant, $9 (Paperback)
Odd Ball Knitting, Barbara Albright, $10, Paperback
Cables Untangled, Melissa Leapman, $16 (Hardback, Dust Cover Intact)
The Elegant Knitter, Gina Macris, $12, (Hardback)
World of Knitted Toys, Kath Dalmeny, $7, Paperback
The Knitter’s Bible Knitted Accessories, Claire Crompton, $10, Paperback
Modular Knits, Iris Schrier, $9, Hardback, dustcover torn in one spot.
Felted Knits, Beverly Galeskas, $10, Paperback
Scarf Style, Pam Allen, $9, Paperback, slightly bent corner.
Yarns to Dye For, Kathleen Taylor, $10, Paperback
Easy Beaded Knits, Jeanette Trotman, $10, Paperback

Spinning

Spinning Designer Yarns, Diane Varney, $8, Paperback
The Joy of Spinning, Marilyn Kluger, $5, Paperback
Spin to Knit, Shannon Oakey, $10, Paperback (some water damage on the corner)

Weaving

Weaving without a Loom, Veronica Burningham, $8, Paperback
The Weaver’s Companion, $10, Spiral Bound

Embellishment

Colorful Stitchery, Kristin Nicholas, $9, Paperback
The New Crewel, Katherine Shaugnessy, $7, Paperback

Vintage & Out of Print

Encyclopedia of Knitting and Crochet Stitches, Fran Westfall, $5 (Hardback, Dust cover torn in 3 spots, copyright 1971)
The New Paris Fashions in Laines du Pingouin Yarns (No 23), $2, Pamphlet, 1963.
Bernat Raglans (Book No 97), Copyright 1961, $3. (Name written in the front, pages still holding together)
Woman’s Day Knitting Book, Fawcett Service Series, Number 7, $3, (Magazine, name written on front, back cover falling off)
Classic Designs, An Exclusive Collection of Knitted Sweaters, 1985, $10, Hardback, dust cover intact.
The Bantam Step-by-Step book of Needle Craft (1979), $3, Paperback

And again, I shake my head. November 21, 2008

I keep saying that people are getting less creative, less able to cope with new things, and today at the grocery store, I saw another sign. I rolled my eyes, and went on to finish my meager shopping (potatoes and ‘eyeball juice’ — contact solution [I had a coupon -- pronounced 'coop'n' of course]). What was it? What was it that made me cringe and sigh and shake my head?

Turkey Brine.

Pre-jarred turkey brine spices. It’s salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, a little candied ginger, and veggie stock, or something similar. The recipe’s up on Food Network for the version we used (Alton Brown’s version). Who’s paying $9 for $1 of spices and 50 cents of salt? Especially out here, in my middle class neighborhood? Don’t people have a stocked spice cabinet anymore?

I’m just in a grumpy mood today, I guess. I started ranting this morning about someone posting on Rav in Text Speak. “Kid’s 2 day need 2 learn 2 do s’thing 4 themselfs.” Yeah, and they need to learn to SPELL and type. *gah*

Get off my lawn, you kids!

Heads are Round from the Top Down November 10, 2008

I’ve got a new pattern for you to play with. I call it “Heads are Round (from the top down)”. It’s a top-down hat that’s actually round. I use the same concept as the round toe and apply it to something else that’s even MORE round.

Here are 2 of the finished hats:

and

I love the tassel with its awesome bead. It’s from Blue Cat Beads. She makes beads, buttons, earrings, bracelets, etc. with hot glass. She does a lot of dichroic work, and her beads are just lovely.

Download the pattern here!

Toe-up Stockinette Socks November 5, 2008

I know I’ve been gone a while, but I figured I’d just post as if nothing were going on. So, I’ve been working with toe-up socks for a while now, and the ‘wedge toe’ that looks like a short row toe has been working, but has also been slightly too pointy looking when it’s off, so I’ve reverse-engineered a German Round Toe for Toe-up socks.

It looks like this from the top:

And this from the side.

A vast improvement on the normal wedge toe, especially when started from 12 sts.

Here’s the toe in all its glory:

Stitch counts (in parens) are for 1/2 of the stitches, as I’m a 2-at-once Magic Looper. These counts work for both 2 circs or ML. For 4 DPN’s, you will have to figure your count over 2 needles. The ‘Inc on each end of the needle’ goes like this (for me): K1, KFB, knit to 2 stitches to the end of the needle, KFB, K1. This is a decent increase that doesn’t leave holes, because you’re not placing 2 together. If you have a favorite increase technique, feel free to use it. I only list my way because it works for me.

Row 1: Using Judy’s Magic Cast-on (or your favorite Provisional Cast-On), Cast on 12 stitches.
Rows 2-5: Inc on each end of the needle (14, 16, 18, 20 sts)
Row 6: Knit plain.
Row 7: Inc on each end of the needle (22 sts)
Row 8: Knit plain.
Row 9: Inc on each end of the needle (24 sts)
Row 10: Knit plain.
Row 11: Inc on each end (26)
Row 12-13: Knit plain.
Row 14: Inc on each end (28)
Row 15-16: Knit plain.
Row 17: Inc on each end (30)
Row 18-20: Knit plain.
Row 21: Inc on each end (32)
Row 22-25: Knit plain.
Row 26: Inc on each end (34)
Row 27-30: Knit plain.
Row 31: Inc on each end (36)

This leaves you with 72 stitches on your needles total, and ready to make your foot.

To figure it for any other number of cast-on stitches to any other number of stitches, simply figure out how many increases you’re going to need, and divide that into 4 sections. Your first section will be increase every row, your second section will be increase every other row, your third section increases every third row, and your fourth section increases every fourth row. If you have only 1-2 increases per section, you may want to group your increases into three sections, and leave out the ‘increase every fourth row’ part.  The key to this toe is the different rates of increasing, which make the toe more round.

On these socks, I’m using a short-row heel without wraps. This heel had a K2TOG across the ‘gap’ between the stitches, then a M1 right after.

I’m working from a sock blank that I dyed in September, right before Dye Day at my house. As you can see, I’ve got a ways to go on this 100g of yarn. They may end up knee socks before I’m done!

Handspun this week… July 31, 2008

I jst posted two of the handspun yarns I made this week. One is a purple, beaded 2-ply out of BFL superwash (so doubly shiny) and the other is a 3-ply spun out of ‘tidepool‘, the BFL roving I dyed and mangled when I braided it. Ok, ok, I BROKE the roving while braiding it. But it gave me a chance to spin the new roving I had just dyed.

I don’t ply beads on using a second thread. I spin the beads onto the fiber and they slide up the single. The second ply of the 2-ply is plain, without beads. This places the beads randomly in your project. You can use a crochet hook to manipulate the yarn to where you want it.

So, without further ado…

The BFL 3-ply I spun, I split into three parts. One part ended up without a blue section in it, but I wasn’t discouraged. I pre-drafted the first section leaving the colors in sequence with long, long color repeats. I split the second section into two parts, making the color repeats shorter, but more frequent. The third section, I split into four parts, making the color repeats again shorter and more frequent. I plied these three together to make the yarn that varigates at different rates in the different plies. This is the yarn that I timed.

The update I made this week to my etsy store included merino rovings, BFL and BFL superwash rovings, PandaToes, MonkeyToes, GorillaToes, and Cotton Monkey yarns. Take a peek to see some of the fabulous colors!

So I was thinking… July 29, 2008

I read the Yarn Harlot’s post about her Tour de Fleece injury the other day, and I was trying to figure out just how one gets a spinning injury, and then I thought I’d see how long it would take me to get through 4 oz (approximately 113 grams) of fiber. The answer is shorter than I thought. 140 minutes. 2 hours, 20 minutes. That doesn’t include pre-drafting time, but includes spinning 3 bobbins of singles and plying them into a lovely 3-ply yarn.

I can now see how an extra 2 hours a day spinning might give someone a really bad leg cramp. I spin about 8 oz of fiber a week, so about 4 hours of spinning a week (although I sometimes spin 2-ply yarns, sometimes 3-ply). Going from 4 hours spinning time to 14 hours would be a bit much. Doing ANY physical activity an extra 10 hours a week would tax anyone’s body!

Handspun posted to Etsy… July 25, 2008

I’ve been spinning lately, and spinning the shetland from Kev’s Korner, which is about 5 miles away. The three-ply I’ve been spinning is just lovely, and the blue superwash 2-ply is nice, too. All three are listed, as well as a small update to the listed yarns — next week, there will be more fibers than yarns, from what I’ve been up to…

Back from the SLVFAFF… and a short photo session July 17, 2008

We got back from the San Luis Valley Folk Art and Fiber Festival on Sunday. We had a blast, and it was fruitful. I got a little sunburned, and my brake band broke during the spinning competition, but all in all, it was a great time.

Yesterday, there was a knock at our door and our friend Mike was standing there. We hadn’t seen Mike in a while, and decided that it was time to go out and take some shots at nature. With our cameras, of course! We headed to Fox Run Regional Park, and spent about 2 1/2 hours re-figuring-out how to use our cameras.

I came back with these:

I found them much more exciting than the product photos I took this week for our etsy store update, although those photos are just as colorful and happy.

Crazy-Poking Stick (Pattern) July 3, 2008

I know I said (on Ravelry) I’d have the pattern up on Monday, but it took me another couple days due to issues beyond my control. This is the pattern for the Crazy-Poking Stick…

Click here, or on the Pokey Finger for the Pokey Finger Pattern