Saturday, August 31, 2002

Play the
SheepGame

How to spin wolf hair...
Wolf Tales/Making Yarn - Part 1

make your own spinning wheel! (like Bagatell's dad did!)
craftdesigns.co.uk

Wooly Dogs - Member's Show and Tell Gallery - All Fiber Arts

An article about sheep!
ArtLoft2000.com - Sheep & Shepherd

Friday, August 30, 2002

Found some nice tutorials...
Love2Knit Tutorials

The Coffee Jokes
Too Much Coffee Man

In case you always forget to say 'rabbit rabbit'... (I can't recall who does that, only that her website has purple and black aaaaaagh! Oh yes, Hobby Whore)
harrumph! rabbit rabbit

Have you seen the
klein_bottle_hats
I especially like the rainbow one (scroll down) with the Moebius scarf!! Only $70! What a steal!!

Now you can get your very own
CrashBonsai Gallery

Any leftover tulle? Knit your own potscrubber!!
Untitled

If you sew, you can make your own sumo doll
handworks index

Here are some cloud animals. I especially like the ones entitled 'Backend of Sheep' and 'Squirrel Sitting on Africa'
The Animal Clouds

Make a Knitting Box
Knitting box

Thursday, August 29, 2002

Look! it's the
The Ashford Mini Niddy Noddy - portable for skeining yarn from Crystal Palace Yarns - Straw Into Gold, Richmond California

Hey!! A (new to me) fiber animal-- a Pygora!! The fiber was used to crochet (ahem!) a shawl/scarf
handspun - handknit crocheted shawl  - Sally McCarrick - The Black Sheep Gathering -  Eugene, Oregon

More bags.

I want an
alpaca

Ok y'all, thank your lucky start that somehow I was able to include all the 'necessaries' like the blogring button, else this template change would have ended in tragedy. Don't forget to read my (now seeming veeeery long) post !scroll down!scroll down! about what I'm working on these days. I'd try to figure out why the wanderlust button is floating away up there, but I fear that I'd lose my archives and blogring button!!! Maybe I'll feel braver tomorrow. Ta!

I'm reading Bill Holm's "Eccentric Islands" right now so I thought I'd offer you a sample of this MN native...
Holm

KNITTING UPDATE!!!!

Yes, finally some content to this here blog, for any of you that still come to look at my same-old, same-old template with no pictures posted. I know, how boring can I be? Inspired by Sarah's posting of the picture of plouf? I decided to tell you all about what I'm working on these days. No, I am not ambitious enough to get pics posted which is why my blog will never rate... Maybe when it's done? So, when Dan and I went to southern MN to do our century (2 weekends ago, it seems like eons) I of course had to go to Woolworks website and see if there were any yarn shops in the area. SCORE! In a little town there (Harmony, MN) there was Austin's Goat Farm. Mohair goats, that is. Oh, I walked around the shop after we had seen the goats (they'd been dipped so thier soon to be sheared fleeces could be sent overseas) and saw all the beautiful things (handknitted shawls to die for, jackets made from thrifted felted sweaters etc. etc.) calmly not rushing immediately to the yarn section. The picture online did not give me hope, so I took my time, only casually stumbling upon the SHELVES AND SHELVES OF GORGEOUS HANDSPUN FIBER!!!!!
So, it took me a looooooooong time to finally decide. But here's the thing, the yarn is actually waaaay cooler than I even knew when I bought it! You know how people spin yarn and then dye it, right? Well, (excuse me while I hyperventilate on and on about this if you've already become familiar) this woman actually changes the colors by changing the fibers!!
I imagine this magician-like woman, at her spinning wheel, with piles of fiber at her feet, moving as a conductor as she picks from pile after pile. So the yarn has a base of grey and garnet/burgundy wool and she adds some pink mohair here and there, letting some of the curls just pop out of the yarn, sometimes letting the grey wool 'bloop' (that's the only word I can think of) out so you see a thick piece of ?roving? ?fleece?. Ahh, words do not do justice. Gol ding it, nothing before has grabbed me like this! I swear I want to hunt this woman down (she lives in Waseca, MN) and sit at her feet and learn to spin RIGHT NOW! Juaquetta Holcomb, if you're out there email me at ihatespammclaughlin@attbi.net!!!! I did a little internet search and got her address and phone no. so maybe when I am done knitting this sweater I'll send her a pic of it.

I'm using a pattern from Tricoter's Simply Beautiful Sweaters. It's the cardi they knitted using Colinette. So I'm using that handspun yarn with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride I had in my stash that's grey and it's just gorgeous. Had to share. Thank you.

Yes, pummelling brings me peace of mind as well.
wrap 1

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Have you seen these children's books? I haven't but I think I'll check them out...
Scary Stories Inc.

ooookaaaay. I told my husband that if I die then this is what he should do. Then he could wear me on a ring and someone would say, "Oh, was that your wife's ring?" and he'd say, "No, it IS my wife.".LifeGem Prices

Reduce, reuse, recycle
Mouse Pad Couch

The last game I tried to post didn't work...
See if you really are as fast with the left mouse button as you think you are...
Fly The Copter - South Coast Diaries - Seethru Zine

More SUV pranks...
Park Slope Public Works resents sport utility vehicles

Maybe Bagatell has already blogged about this, but here's another boo hiss story about McDonald's
McAfrica burger launched in Norway

More bags

Here is a poem I found on the Jean Moss website;

"The Prayse of the Needle"

To all dispersed sorts of arts and trades
I write the needles prayse (that never fades).
So long as children shall be got or borne,
So long as garments shall be made or worne,
So long as hemp or flax, or sheep shall bear
Their linen woolen fleeces yeare by yeare,
So long as silk-wormes, with exhausted spoile,
Of their own entrails for man's gaine shall toyle,
Yea till the world be quite dissolv'd and past,
So long at least, the needles' use shall last.

- by John Taylor, the Water Poet, (1580-1653)

Here is a hedgehog rucksack produced using car innertubes... reduce reuse recycle
The Inner Tube

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

A terrible game. Use your mouse to throw up and down.

Does Dangerous Chunky know about this?
Big Things, Community Monuments in Canada

Check out the
humanclock.com - Submissions Gallery

Monday, August 26, 2002

If you ever think about having sheep as I do sometimes, read about
Washing Wool

I keep thinking that someday I would like to have sheep or rabbits or goats for fiber. See if you qualify...
The Angst of Custom Millspun Yarn

More of these braids.
????

Here are some good pictures of the finished product.
Kumihimo

It's some sort of new fiberart...
Hatchtown - Marudai for Kumihimo

I know some of you are addicted to bags...
oggi e domani --- evening bags

Look!! It's the AlpacaCam!!
Blue Moon Ranch Web Cam

Here is something new I learned. Lamb's tails are docked when they are little. Is nothing sacred?!?!?! I'm sure there's some good (hygeine) reason, but still. Here is a
Glenquarry -"Sheep with Tail"

Saturday, August 24, 2002

Then of course there's always Teva Durham. I like the
loop-d-loop.com online store: Braided Neckpiece

Whoa...
Here's
an interesting article for any of you vegetarians or vegans to read about the BK veggie burger. Reduce animal suffering by eating it despite the butter on the bun. Hmm. I never thought of it that way. I don't think that that's how I am a vegetarian.

Here is a cotton chunky sweater in ladder stitch

Here is another take on lace...
lace sweater for Fall

Friday, August 23, 2002

This
is a nice way to use lace in a sweater. Recognize those stitch patterns, anyone? Must go check my Barbara Walker...

Here is a sweater they say is an ultra hip rendition of the old Fair Isle style. Can we say, 'no'?
bouclz

This sweater is cute, can we say, boobies?
Boobie sweater

Wow, check out this space-dyed short sleeve sweater. Way to take advantage of the way space dyed yarn sort of 'blobs'
space dyed sweater

Hmmm... it's getting to be Fall. I like this
sweater...
I guess I'd have to buy some kind of a big 'ol grommet gun, though, if I were to try and make it. Bwah ha ha.

Monday, August 19, 2002

Try solar dyeing... before the summer ends.
dyeing

Wednesday, August 14, 2002

AHHHHHHHH! Nooooo! Say it isn't so!!!! A McDonald's Hotel.
The Globe and Mail: Series

Hit the randomizer for a new pseudoword.
pseudodictionary - the dictionary for words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries :: v2.0

If you have a pretty fast connection and computer, then you can take some time and see an aerial view of your neighborhood. Creepy.
TerraFly

The Simpsons: sell out or sold out? you decide...
Panderers in Japan

Friday, August 09, 2002

If you have some time...
Nobody Here

Wednesday, August 07, 2002

Now you can relive your childhood...
Lite-Brite

Tuesday, August 06, 2002

check out Kartoo... It's a search engine that displays it's results in a map format.
kartoo

Just in case you ever wanted your own, personal font...
Go Font Yourself!

Don't you just love Elrond's crown?!?!
Gem.net: Lord Of The Rings Jewelry

See some fishies!!
Giant Ocean Tank Web Cam

Here is a link to something sort of similar to a found objects site; Bill Keaggy has collected and put up found grocery lists.
/ keaggy.com :: The Grocery List Collection /