Creatures; stage one

So, I sent out the call to create collaborative creatures. 

I got enough response to do two rounds. Yipeee. 

Since I was going to participate in both I was faced with a dilemma; should I create two different creature descriptions? Or should I give the same description to both groups?

I immediately resonated with the second option. Yet when I started to write my description I realized that I didn't want two different versions of the same person. That would be...redundant. 

So I did this instead.

Group One Creature

Klaus

Klaus is a small creature. He lives in a deep dark forest high in the mountains. He is illusive and secretive. His home is full of tall trees and quiet pools. He spends most of his time in the thick branches, grasping with the tiny claws on his six toes. It is gloomy in the mossy forest, so Klaus needs big eyes to see well. When he comes down from his tree home to drink water, he walks on two legs. He has long ears to catch the most sound, but they are very floppy to keep the constant rain and mist out of his ears. 

Group Two Creature

Claudette

Claudette is a small creature. She lives in a deep dark forest high in the mountains. She is illusive and secretive. Her home is full of tall trees and quiet pools. She spends most of her time in the thick branches, grasping with the tiny claws on her six toes. It is gloomy in the mossy forest, so Claudette needs big eyes to see well. When she comes down from her tree home to drink water, she walks on two legs. She has long ears to catch the most sound, but they are very floppy to keep the constant rain and mist out. 

I am super excited to see how different (or alike) my two Twiddles turns out to be. It is also interesting because the difference in my creature descriptions is totally gender, whereas one of my fellow creatures is entirely un-gendered.  

I am really impressed and inspired by the descriptions of the other creatures. Some focus on physical characteristics, while others focus more on lifestyle (food, habits, etc). Others are very...abstract, with little physical description, but lots of existential detail.

Next stage; design. Both the creatures I have to design like to eat; one eats only sod, the other eats anything at all, all the time.

Collaborative Creatures

The other day I discovered the e-zine UK Handmade. I can not really tell you what it is about this magazine that has me all in a twitter, but I have been devouring back issues of it for the last 24 hours. I appreciate the attitude towards crafts as real actual things, and not some silly unskilled hipster side project that people do. They interview people who have thousands of hours of skill under their belt and are making a serious living out of making things by hand. They don't just interview the "cool" people as it were. They also have articles on the business side of making a living as a craft person and little "how to" on small neat projects. Craft seems to have an alternate meaning in the UK compared to North America, and I appreciate the difference.

While reading the Summer 2011 issue I ran across mention of a collaborative project called The Creature Round Robin. You can read about one participant's description over at her blog Hand Knitted Things. Basically it is a collaborative group effort to make stuffed imaginary creatures, where each person contributes to one stage of each creature created.

I have participated in similar things before, where a bunch of people (usually around the world, connected via the great Internet) work on a project together or swap projects with each other. My issue with these types of round robin projects or swaps is two fold. My first issue is that I never really get to share the collaborative process. I only hear bits and bobs of each person's contribution to the project or swap package. Part of collaborative creative process for me is the sharing of inspirations and hearing ideas that would never have occurred to me. It is connecting with other people in creative ways that lends inspiration and motivation to my own creative endeavours. My second problem with round robin or swaps is that effort and care put into the project does not seem to be a constant across all people participating. This fact always leaves me feeling slightly disappointed and confused. After much thought I have chalked at least part of it up to the "stranger" factor. If I don't know you, I may be less invested in putting in significant effort into a project that you will end up with. I may do a messy or half-ass job on my part of the project (such as not bothering to check my gauge when adding my 4 inches to a collaborative scarf, thereby making the whole scarf look ridiculous).

When I read about The Creature Round Robin I got very excited. I immediately thought of several people who would potentially be interested in participating in this with me. If I could do this with friends I may be able to avoid my two main issues with collaborative creativity. We could share our creative process with each other throughout the whole project and we would be invested in each other and all our final projects because we already deeply care for each other.

So, I sent out an e-mail to 9 people I thought might be interested. With-in a few hours I got the three responses I needed, all from people who live or work in the same block (so we see each other often). Our first stage of the project is due next weekend, and I am so excited to see what creatures we come up with. I am stoked to be doing something creative with members of my close community.

I will keep you all posted on the fantastical beings that will emerge from this collaboration.

Spin, spin, spin

I have now spun two full skeins on my drop spindle. Yippee.
The first skein was three hanks worth of a black, red, and grey merino with threads of white silk all the way through. This fiber was a dream to spin with, so soft. I made this yarn for a swap in my Fairy Tale group. My theme was Raven and this fiber seemed to fit perfectly. I did a two ply and hated it. Way too thick for my taste, but my swap partner loved it. (I also hated spinning up the ply, way to much fussy)
The second skein was three hanks of green, yellow, and brown merino with silk (same company). I spun the whole thing up while I was at Firemaker and put it on the blanket at the Giveaway. It was single ply and gorgeous. My friend Aurora (who had watched me spin all week) picked it up. She says she is going to weave something fabulous with it.
The second skein was so much easier than the first. I am getting a much thinner and more consistent yarn. Which is fabulous. I can't wait to be able to make lace weight. I am still pre-drafting my fiber, but I find I can still spin up quite a bit even doing it that way.
Next skein I am going to keep for myself!! No really...I will. I promise. Perhaps something blue...

I've been slogging away on the February Lady sweater. I am using the cream coloured wool I got from KnitPicks in January. It looks fabulous so far. But sweaters...man!!! I can do a single 4 row repeat of the lace in the time it takes me to watch and episode of Stargate Atlantis (the current TV show we are running through). So it is slow going. I feel I need something quick and dirty to knit right now. Something along the lines of instant gratification. Fingerless lace gloves or some such. A hat maybe...we'll see. Just need a break from the sweater...

Ravelympics: Finish Line

So, this post is a little late, but...whatever!
I finished the first mitten on a Tuesday...just over half through the Olympics. So far so good, I just needed to pick up the pace a little to get the second mitten done. To bad I go to school and have things due. I didn't cast on the second mitten until the Friday before closing ceremonies.
I woke up on Sunday morning only 1 and a half colours into the mitt, with a take-home midterm due that night and the hockey game to watch. I decided early that it wasn't going to happen. But heck-I was going to try anyway.
I actually managed to fly through the second mitt. I cast off 1 hour after the extinguishing of the flame (while the embarrassment that were the closing ceremonies was still on).
So, with no further ado, here they are...


This isn't a great pic of them, but I needed a quick one to post in the Finish Line. They are super soft inside and very yummy warm. I can't stop wearing them (everywhere). I carry them around when they are not covering my digits. In sum, they are fabulous.
And so...my medals!! YAY!!

Ravelympics: Qualifying

Here is my progress so far on my one project for the Ravelypics. I know, on project is kinda sad. But I'm a crazy student (read to many obligations) and these gloves are lined, so really, it's like knitting FOUR gloves. If I finish them early I am sure I will cast on something eles for Ravelympics.



I am knitting Fiddlehead mittens. I love them so much already. The white is baby alpaca, which is so soft. Even better, I am going to be using the white to line them. Yummy!!!

Also, stranded knitting is WAY easier that I thought it would be. I am just flying along, reading the charts is not hard at all (I am not even having to mark it off like I do with lace), and holding and knitting with two yarns does not seem to be a problem for my fingers to figure out, which is great because my brain has a hard time getting around that concept. Glad my fingers know what they are doing.

Spindle

I participate in a KAL (knit-a-long) in my Folklore and Fairytale group. The KAL's in this group are always centered loosely around a particular tale and this winter is (of course) The Snow Queen.
One of our group memebers is not a knitter (his wife is the knitter) but he does make drop spindles. For those of you who are not knitters a drop spindle is a small object that is used to hand spin yarn without a wheel. For an awesome demonstration (and the video that made me freak out and immediately want to learn this ancient way of spinning) check out Megan LaCore's Drop Spindle tutorial video.
Anyway. John, the spindle guy, decided that he was going to make some Snow Queen drop spindles out of a beautiful peice of holly he had. Much interest in the process of making spindles was expressed by the group and so John started a whole thread that explained, in serious detail and with many pictures, the process of making drop spindles by hand from scratch.
I quite enjoyed this thread, for John would post the "next step" every couple of days. Many members of the group fell in love with the spindles. So John decided to have a draw for "first dibs" on purchasing them. I put my name in for the medium size top whorl spindle (for making fingerling/sock weight yarn) and I won!!! YIPEE!!
I just sent off my money and I am so excited. Drop spindle spinning has been around since the Paleolithic era, so learning this skill is some seriously human heritage knowledge. I feel like this is the "next step" as it were in my knitting, to be able to make my own yarn (before you know it I will be dyeing my own wool, spinning it, and knitting things with it).
If you are interested check out John's Esty page The Dragonfly Workshop to see more of his beautiful handmade spindles. They truly are works of art.
I am going to be taking a drop spindle class at the local yarn store so I can have some expertise on hand while I get to know how to use the drop spindle. I will post pics and adventures when my spindle arrives.
Oh, and for those of you who know the story of The Snow Queen, my spindle's name will be Gerda.

The Yarn

So, my package from KnitPicks finally arrived (only partially thanks to Canada Post, who lost it for awhile there). I was very very excited when I saw the box sitting in the sun room. I made strange sqweely noises for a long time.
There is so much joy in this box that I am going to spread this out over two posts. This one will be about the yarn. The next one will be about the books. So here goes.



This yarn is for something super secretly special that will take a long time to make and that I am designing myself, so I'm not telling. But isn't it a pretty colour? It's called Fedora!!



This heap of "cloud" white wool is going to be this sweater, except with blue buttons (the same ones as seen on wisdom cowl #1)



This fabulous little pile of colours is destined for a pair of Fiddelhead mittens. I've drooled over these for awhile now, but have always been terrified of colour knitting. Luckily I've decided that I can brave it (one of the books I got is all about colour knitting). I am pretty sure this is going to be a Ravelypics Event project for me. The colours are a nice sturdy plain wool, but the white (which will also line the inside of the gloves) is super super soft 100% baby alpaca. These are going to be warm and soft!! Yippee!!



This bowl of green is destined to be turned into the lace Hemlock Blanket. I have heard this is actually a fairly fast knit, and it is so beautiful. I really love lace done in a heavier weight. This will be perfect to curl up with.



Remember how I just talked about scary terrifying colour work? Well this yarn is going to be my very first piece (before I attempt the mittens). This wool is also baby alpaca and so super soft. I am going to make Manresa leg warmers with this. They are knit on fairly big needles, so there is more room for tension mistakes (which I am sure to make when working with two yarns at a time), and the pattern is pretty simple. Hopefully this will give me a little practice before I start the mittens.

This gratuitous stash builder has no destined project. I like lace weight, this colour is stunning (the picture does not do it justice) and you always pick up some stash yarn when you've gone shopping for something particular. It will be something fabulous, someday, I am sure.

Some yummy sock yarn. Superwash wool (so I can throw them in the washing machine) and with a little nylon (so they have a little give and last a little longer). Not sure which socks these are destined to become, but I bought a book full of sock patterns, so...there's gotta be something in there that will call to me.

I also bought some black yarn to go with some white yarn I already have to make some mittens, but pictures of black yarn are boring, so...