Bloggers are Real People

On October 11, 2017October 11, 2017 By aftheadIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Ten years ago, I found the SouleMama blog. I was searching for a knit hat pattern, and stumbled across Amanda Soule’s website. She talked about crafting and raising three kids; something about her voice and demeanor spoke to me. I’d return frequently and watch her family and life unfold from afar. Occasionally I’d comment, and once I submit a piece to her. But mostly I’d just lurk and read and imagine how if I’d made different choices along the way – like a different husband, because my beloved guy is not a farmer – I could have lived a life like hers. My baby girl was born right before her fourth kiddo, and my bond with her grew watching our kids grow up together. Funny how that “kid the same age” bond works with virtual friends too.

Well, Amanda Soule is visiting Colorado this week! She’s got a new book out and her publisher is up in Boulder, Colorado. There are a host of events planed and I targeted the Horseshoe Market book signing and an open craft night as possibilities for me to attend. Luck would have it that Saturday between taking the kitten to the vet, a soccer tournament, and readying our yard for winter I had a sliver of time and was on the right end of town to meet this lady who had no idea who I am, but who I’d known for years. During the drive I vacillated between feeling like a weirdo for visiting this stranger and being excited about meeting the real live human being Amanda Soule.

After meandering around the market, I found Amanda’s tent and awkwardly waited while another lady chatted. When my turn came, the introduction went like this, “Hi Amanda, my name is Johanna and I’ve been following your blog for years and I totally feel like a creepy stalker but I wanted to come by and introduce myself and tell you how much I enjoy your work and watching your kids grow up, I mean Harper – isn’t it weird that I know his name – is the same age as my daughter and I’m so glad to meet you.” That was me. Spilling out every detail of my life without breathing in hopes that my oversharing would somehow made up for my creepy overly developed one sided relationship with her.

Amanda replied, “You aren’t a stalker. I put it all out there.”

True enough. The short conversation proceeded a bit more normally after that, especially as it evolved to commerce. She told me about the delicious lunch she’d had, and I renewed my Taproot subscription – Amanda is the editor – and bought a copy of her new book which wasn’t officially released until yesterday. With the magazine renewal I got a free totebag, which doubles as a cat toy. (Note below cat is not the new kitten who got an emergency visit to the vet this weekend.)

I wasn’t there for more than five minutes, but I did mention that I might bring my mama and kiddo to her last Denver event. It’s at Fancy Tiger, a nearby craft and yarn store I love. I confided in her, “Make a budget, because they have beautiful stuff and you’ll spend more money than you want if you aren’t careful.” United by the call of expensive yarns and notions she thanked me, and then moved onto her next stalker/customer. That last exchange felt completely real and friendly, and I was glad I had stopped to meet this woman whose writing I have so enjoyed the past decade. Hopefully, if I make it to the next event, my interactions will be a little more natural. After all, Amanda and I are real life acquaintances now.

Knitting Friends

On August 8, 2017August 9, 2017 By aftheadIn Knitting, Uncategorized10 Comments

This cowl. I’m not one to let knitting projects languish. I start them, knit, bind off, weave in ends, then start a new project. Occasionally I’ll have two projects going because one is big, or otherwise not travel friendly and I do not travel sans knitting.
This cowl was started with a knitting friend. Together we decided to buy the expensive kit, and marveled over the magic stitches produced by “knitting in the row below” and the resulting fabric variety produced. After finishing the first solid-color rambler section, I ditched my purchased color 2 and 3 and called on my knitting blogging friends to help me choose a new colorway. Then, when the two-color checked rose section was complete, I called on blogging friends again for the final color decision for the english rose tweed section, using the world’s longest swatch to guide the discussion.

The Yarn

The Solid Section

The Longest Swatch

This cowl, oh! I loved planning it, swatching it, playing with colors, and learning new techniques. When I was done I couldn’t wait to wear it. It was beautiful, soft and warm. After researching others’ processes I blocked it before doing the final graft. Then I got stuck…on February 6, 2017.

This cowl, ugh! As directed, I had started with a provisional cast on – in March 2016 (the knitting took almost a year) – and all I had left to do was to pull out the waste yarn, pick up the live stitches and use kitchener stitch to turn the scarf into a cowl. Easy peasy. I’d done it many times before, except I’d never done it with a provisional cast on that went immediately into this crazy honeycomb looking stitch. Also, I might have created some problems for myself by chosing a brown tweed yarn for my waste yarn. Knitters, we all know to chose a smooth contrasting yarn for our waste yarns. What was I thinking? (Non-knitters, the bumpy multicolored tweed yarn made it both hard to see the waste yarn, and hard to pull out. Tweed has qualities good for knits, but bad for this technique.)

This cowl…it was so close to being done. I tried to just yank out the provisional cast on, and it wouldn’t come. I made four swatches with the provisional cast on in the appropriate yarn weight and color. Each swatch was examined every which way, but I couldn’t see how to remove the waste yarn and insert my needles. I tried to figure out where the stitches were, and I couldn’t. I even posted a comment on the pattern on Purl Soho requesting help. While Adam seemed lovely, he also seemed to be explaining the basics of a provisional cast on to me, which I understood, but I didn’t understand this particular variation of the provisional cast on – although in hindsight he was leading me in the right direction.

This cowl sat in a bin for five months. I thought about just sewing it up with an ugly seam on my sewing machine. After the completion of each subsequent knitting project, I would pull the cowl out and try to puzzle how to get those stitches on a needle and remove that waste yarn. Each time I gave up, folded it up, and hid it from my eyes. Then another knitting friend came to the rescue. Back from a year abroad for a few short weeks we agreed to meet for drinks and knitting. Of course we brought our current knitting projects, and on a whim I brought my cowl. After a few sips of cider, I pulled out the offending cowl and asked for help. “I just can’t see where the stitches are, and yes, I know the tweed was a bad idea.” She lovingly took my project into her hands, and evaluated the situation with the care only a fellow knitter is capable of. Finally she said, “It’s lovely. If it were mine, I’d take a size 1 needle and try to follow the cast on yarn stitch by stitch.” I turned the idea over in my head. I hadn’t tried that technique yet. That was July 10th.

This cowl is done! I traced the stitch pattern through with a long tiny needle three times before I was confident enough to pull out the waste yarn. With each stitch I would insert my needle where the waste yarn was, then pull out one stitch. At the end I had 52 live stitches to graft, and I was supposed to have 51. Any knitter will tell you that is a success. I can graft one extra stitch no problem. After reminding myself of the kitchener knit-purl-purl-knit pattern, I lined up the two sides, made sure the cowl wasn’t twisted and started grafting. As I went along I fixed stitches that were twisted and puzzled where I’d messed up the undoing of the provisional cast on, but in the end, it would take a pretty serious knitter to see where my graft was off. (Yes, I can see it.)

This cowl’s first picture, with yarn ends hanging out all over waiting to be blocked, went to the original knitting friend. She’s not through the second panel yet, but I assured her that when she got done I’d be able to help her graft the sides together. (My frustration may have influenced her decision to stop knitting.) The second picture of the final product cowl complete with ends woven in went to the knitting friend who saved me. She’s across the world again, but at roughly 11:00 p.m. for me and a.m. for her I sent her a picture and a text. “It’s done. You are a genius.” She is, and I’m so grateful for my knitting friends who push me to take on challenges, help me resolve design issues, and give me ideas when I get stuck.

This cowl cannot wait for the temperature to turn cold. It’s been waiting years to make an appearance.

Knitting Details:

Pattern: Purl Soho Stitch Block Cowl

Yarn:

Color 1: Purl Soho’s Worsted 9832 Twist in Sea Salt

Color 2: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino in Shire

Color 3: Purl Soho’s Worsted Twist in Moody Green

Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/afthead/stitch-block-cowl

Thrum Thrum Thrummm

On July 3, 2017July 13, 2017 By aftheadIn Knitting, Uncategorized6 Comments

Read the title to the beginning tune of The Little Drummer Boy, just so your afthead is in the same mental space as mine.

Welcome readers. It’s been hot here. How about where you are? Hot too? (Maybe not if you are one of my southern hemisphere friends.) Well, nothing makes me feel more comfy in the summer heat than some thrummed slippers.

Total lie. Thrummed slippers are miserably hot summer footwear, unless you are the nine-year-old member of the Afthead family, in which case you have joyfully spent June and July wearing fuzzy crocs and your mom’s thrummed slippers in 90 degree heat. Not wanting my slippers to get all gross with kid sweat I cast on so she could have her own pair.

My slippers are boring adult brown and yellow, using up yarn I had no plans for and the cheapest non-itchy piece of wool roving I could find at the knitting store, but I had big plans for my daughter’s slippers. Rainbow plans….

When my favorite local yarn shop, The Recycled Lamb, went out of business, I bought this amazing tube of roving: Three Feet of Sheep in “Rainbow Twilight” by frabjous fibers, because I had a feeling that more thrummed objects were in my future. The assortment of colors combined with a red Debbie Bliss Paloma from the stash – chosen because it’s “not itchy” – made an exceptionally colorful slipper.

For you knitters who haven’t thrummed, be warned that it is putzy and not a travel friendly knitting project. That said, it’s novel and creates a colorful fuzzy finished product that I love.

Luckily I had a 9 hour conference call and laryngitis, so needed an activity to stave off sleepiness while listening but not talking on my work call. Thrum making was the perfect activity! Patiently I separated the balls of roving, tore hunks off, unraveled the hunks into lengths which I folded and twisted into thrums. The cats had to be locked out of the room during this task, because kitties love thrums.

The thrums did not take the whole 9 hours to make, so I started knitting on the call too. (Really, if you knit and frequently have boring conference calls, may I suggest that you combine the two activities. I’m much more engaged on my calls when I’m knitting. Odd, but true.) I knit both slipper soles first, because I wasn’t sure I had enough yarn to complete the slippers and liked the idea of contrasting pink tops more than I liked the idea of mismatched pink and red slippers.

In the end, I had enough yarn for both slippers because I shortened the top to only four rows of thrums, which seemed better for the smaller scale of my daughter’s feet and legs. Also, like with my slippers, I modified the pattern to use an i-cord bind off, because I like how the extra weight of the fabric keeps the thrums from escaping over the top.

As soon as the last slipper was cast off, my daughter’s ran outside in them. Screaming after her, “Not outside with the hand knits,” I noticed the lovely contrast between the new slippers and the concrete. Therefore, I demanded the ungrateful child take them off so I could photograph them before the slippers came back inside to live.

So we are all set for sweaty summer rainbow feet at the Afthead household. For you knitting knerds, I’ve got all the details below. Thrum, thrum, thrummmm……

Thrummed slipper knitting details:

Pattern: Cadeautje by by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Paloma in Red 42015

Roving: Three Feet of Sheep in “Rainbow Twilight” by frabjous fibers

Ravelry Link for mamma slippers: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/afthead/cadeautje

Ravelry Link for kiddo slippers: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/afthead/cadeautje-2

If you are a knitter and never thrummed before, I recommend the Yarn Harlot’s blog post about the topic. As always, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a knitting genius.

I am an unconventional prepper

On May 4, 2017May 4, 2017 By aftheadIn Meet Afthead6 Comments

Ah, this writing class I’m taking… It’s a treasure trove of reading and writing enlightenment. The homework for our last class was titled Funhouse Mirror and again was from The 3 a.m. Epiphany: write a caricature of some aspect of yourself. Blow it up. Take it to the extreme.

At first I thought I’d take some part of Johanna which is exceptionally vulnerable and see how I felt when I pushed that to the extreme: no one likes me; I am not actually good at anything I think I am good at; I am selfish. But those ideas sucked and made me want to cry, so I went another direction. Below, I present to you, the first – perhaps of many – meet Afthead in the funhouse mirror posts. Enjoy!

Johanna is a prepper, but her version of the apocalypse appears to differ from those typically found in literature. In her end-of-the-world scenario the killer bug, aliens, nuclear fallout, or zombies will only be thwarted by soft colorful hand-knit items. Heads of her family and friends will be covered in zombie proof alpaca toques. No body part of her child will be exposed to epic flus; instead they will be covered with garments knit from hand-painted yarn produced via sustainable practices high in the Andes, which have known germicide properties. Aliens will be repelled by the soft glow of angora halos radiating from shawls wrapped around her shoulders. Pile on enough woolens and radiation has no chance of reaching human flesh.

Anticipating the end of the world, Johanna knows that saving humanity will invariably be hampered by a lack of crafting resources. Scarcity is common in apocalyptic scenarios. She knows yarn must be hoarded and protected. Today she is building best practices by keeping her yarn stash safe from invading caterpillars – well known to eat through woolens. Her basement stash is displayed in a glass front cabinet for protection and ease in project planning. However, while glass protects against moths, it is vulnerable to a quick alien smash and grab, so in nooks and crannies of her basement lurk larger stashes of more securely organized knitting raw materials.

High in the dark corner of a closet is the sweater yarn protected by five gallon Ziploc bags. In these giants of the sandwich bag world lurk yarn quantities large enough to cover an adult torso in stitches. There are two, or three, okay maybe five such bags on the top shelf. On the bottom shelf? An opaque Rubbermaid container of blanket yarn: quantities similar to sweater yarn, but with more color variation.

Most preppers would stop there. Yarn stored in three discreet locations with the big quantities hidden away for protection, but not Johanna. No. Hidden in the storage shelving under the stairs lurks two more large Rubbermaid containers. These hold the auction yarn. Yarn that was purchased for a tenth of its value, and while it might have limited use as yarn today – certainly it won’t smell like cigarette smoke anymore someday – everyone knows that aliens hate nicotine, so when the invasion comes she’ll be ready with jewel toned garments which will repel even the biggest eyed anal probe wielding creatures from another planet. One can never be too prepared.

2012 Sweaters — All set for the end of the world.

Tiny Knit Pirates

On March 3, 2017March 3, 2017 By aftheadIn Knitting, Uncategorized12 Comments

Hi Bloggy friends! I have missed you, but enjoyed my time away basking in the sun and catching beads in New Orleans. Our Mardi Gras trip started and ended in Houston, saving us thousands of dollars in flights and allowing us to visit friends and their new baby in Houston. But what was a person to do with 10 hours of driving?

Knit tiny pirates!

Grandma Afthead has been hinting for a bit that her and Afthead Junior’s “pirate game” would be greatly enhanced by some tiny Mochimochi Land pirates, and I am not one to ignore knitting requests. Thus, I broke out my newly created tiny-knit-kit during the drive back to Houston from New Orleans and started knitting. What’s a tiny-knit-kit? I’m glad you asked!

Before the trip I wound many colors of tiny knit yarn onto embroidery floss spools – I use Knit Picks Palette yarn because it is cheap and comes in a bazillion colors. Then I raided the few Mochimochi Land kits I’ve purchased for tiny bags of fiberfill. Finally, I found my favorite needles for making tiny creatures, size 1 Lantern Moon Sox Stix, and threw everything into a small plastic pencil box. Voila! Tiny-Knit-Kit: perfect for tiny travel knitting! My patterns were slipped into sheet protectors and clipped into a plastic two-pocket folder. The whole thing fit nicely on my lap as we drove/flew along.

See! It even worked on the airplane after I finished the pirates and started on a tiny knit chicken, because that’s what pirates wear on their shoulders, right? No? Oh…. Guess I know what my NEXT tiny project will be.

Let me introduce you to my newest tiny knit friends! We have Orleans Tinypants and his golden jelly bean. Orleans is knit from the base Mochimochi land pattern with no modifications.

Then we have Captain Penn Tinypants, who may also moonlight as a gangsta rapper when he’s on shore. Captain Penn is a modification of the Mochimochi Land Tiny Pirate pattern, and details are on his Ravelry page. Basically he’s a row taller than the base pattern, has a wicked gold belt buckle and chain, has a debonair white shirt open to the waist, and his glowing blue eyes make the tiny ladies swoon and strike fear into his crew. He’s also meticulous about his sunscreen use, which is why he’s such an oddly pale pirate. Way to be skin cancer conscious Captain Penn!

The pirates were thrilled when we got home and they discovered the piles of dubloons and beads from Mardi Gras. The two of them have relocated with their booty to Grandma’s house and are having a great time. Grandma has mentioned that she thinks she’s heard the quiet sounds of pirate rap on still nights, but she might be imagining things.

Ravelry Links for Tiny Pirates:

Orleans Tinypants – Base Pattern

Captain Penn Tinypants – Modified Pattern

As always, thanks to Anna Hrachovec and her amazing Mochimochi Land patterns!

Carnaval Fingerless Mitts

On March 2, 2017March 4, 2017 By aftheadIn Knitting, Uncategorized5 Comments

You detail oriented readers might have perused yesterday’s post and left wondering, “Johanna, if you knit those tiny pirates on the way BACK from New Orleans what did you do on the way to Mardi Gras?” (No one wondered about that, did they?) Well readers, I have an answer for you. The first leg was spent completing fingerless mitts for Afthead Junior in the perfectly named “Carnaval” colorway.

Afthead Junior has always been a lover of fingerless hand garments. Her allowance has been spent on an array of neither practical or comfortable colored Party City fishnet glovelike creations ranging from wristlets to full arm length wonders.

Thus when one of my knitting friends knit her daughter fingerless gloves my daughter begged for a matching pair of her own.

I finished the knitting as we battled traffic heading into New Orleans. I wanted to her to have them in case it was cold at a night parade. They would be perfect for catching – fingers free – and the bold colors would attract the attention of the krewe on the floats. However, the weather in New Orleans was beautiful, so I was able to weave in loose ends before my daughter wore them for our not-cold-at-all five hour drive to Houston. Aren’t they adorable with her Mardi Gras hat? Thankfully we still have plenty of winterish weather to come at home, so they will get used.

For the knitters, here are some details about the project.

Pattern: Little Girl Wristlets by Janice MacDaniels

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Allegria, colorway Carnaval.

Needles: Random bamboo size 3

This is a great pattern, and a wonderful yarn. Afthead Junior is really sensitive to itchy yarns, and she loves these mitts. Super bonus for parents, the end product is machine washable. The colorway is beautiful, bright and eye catching. I recommend these for anyone looking for a quick functional knit for kids. Plus, I’ve got enough yarn left that I’m casting on a pair of socks for myself out of the same skein.

Let’s end with a totally unrelated picture of Adventure the cat snuggling on a draft of my short story next to the Carnaval yarn, shall we? This was taken moments after I pulled a good 8 inches of ingested yarn out of the tiny kitty’s gullet. Yuck. At a year and a half I hoped she would be farther along the “respect the yarn” continuum. (Note, I cut off and threw away the kitty chewed yarn. It’s not included in the final product.)

Wonky Love

On February 14, 2017February 14, 2017 By aftheadIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Love is not always a humped crimson orb tapering to a perfect point. Sometimes it’s a little asymmetrical, dirty and rounded.

Or life has taken a big hunk out of it.

Occasionally it’s cracked, misshapen, and poorly sprinkled – yet still delectable.

Sometimes it’s fuzzy and a bit standoffish.

Unexpectedly its feathery alien aspects will push you to new limits.

Yet pure glimpses into its soft irregular perfection will overwhelm you.

Whatever the shape, size, or consistency of your love today embrace it. Happy Valentine’s Day from my afthead (and forehead) to yours.

Knew Year Knitting

On January 2, 2017January 3, 2017 By aftheadIn Uncategorized10 Comments

Ah the holidays! Unless you are desperately knitting some gift for someone, which I was, there is not a ton of time for handcraft in December. My unexpected trip to Washington, DC meant I needed a travel friendly project, and the gift I was knitting and my cowl I will never finish were both too bulky to take. I needed another option.

I’ve had this Zealana Rimu yarn for awhile now, and have been looking for the right project to make with it. Zealana uses brushtail possum fiber and combines it with merino wool to make a machine washable yarn. Yes, I have possum yarn. Also, the more I read about brushtail possum and the impacts the non-native animal has had on New Zealand’s ecosystem the more I’m pretty sure that I have dead possum fur in my yarn. I think that’s okay, even though one of the things I love most about yarn is that it’s made from renewable fibers from animals that aren’t killed. However, I’m helping New Zealand’s ecosystem by providing a market for dead possum, right? Regardless of the ethical implications of my yarn, the stitch definition is great, but the final fabric also has a really nice halo, thanks to the dead possum’s fur. The stuff’s not cheap either, so I hope I’m also financially helping out the New Zealand’s ecosystem.

My search led to a hat pattern I was dying to try – not literally dying like the possum – that matched up with the Rima yarn. The Bath Abbey Hat is adorable, and looked like the right level of challenge to take on a trip. I needed a cable needle – annoying – but I love knits that I look at and think, “how did they do that?!?!” Into my bag went two contrasting skeins of Rimu and the pattern.

Hotel knitting

Home knitting

Bad kitty!

I started the hat on my flight out to DC and by the time I got home had my first repeat of the dunes done (those are the rounded shapes that make up the majority of the hat.) Non-knitters can skip the next sentence. There is no fair-isle knitting here: the color work is all done with slipped stitches and cables. Welcome back non-knitters! Even through the holiday I managed to knit on it here and there. As I rang in 2017 on New Year’s Eve I finished the dunes then left my knitting beside the bed. Bad idea Afthead. New Year’s morning I found my bamboo needles thoroughly chewed by the tiny cat. While she has learned to respect the yarn and the knitting, the cat does not respect the knitting needles yet. This is the third set she’s ruined. She and I are going to have needle lessons soon. I continued stitching on a nice sturdy pair of metal needles, and finished the crown shaping today. I love this hat! I even snapped a couple pictures of my forehead to show off the loveliness.

The Dunes

Happy Afthead forehead

The Ravelry details are posted, but my biggest modification is that I only did 5 rows of dunes, not 6. I just can’t get into the super slouchy hat trend, but if you do love slouchy the hat would be great with another repeat.

One final picture of me in my new hat with the obnoxious needle chewing kitty. Happy knew year!

Update: Additional pictures provided that show the full hat, unblocked, and the inside of the hat, so you can get a sense of the construction.

A Continuing Knit Dilemma of Presidential Proportions

On October 15, 2016November 13, 2016 By aftheadIn stories, Tickles my afthead, Tiny Knit Presidential Election23 Comments

Frustrated with their tiny knit presidential candidate situation the bad guys and evil Lego figures took matters into their own molded plastic hands, as evildoers so often do. If no tiny knit Trump was going to be an option for them, they were going to create a leader they could follow. As a surprise to everyone, mad scientist Lego has some pretty decent skills with the double pointed needles.

Voila! Tiny knit zombie is complete and was presented to the leaderless toys, but something didn’t seem right. While tiny knit zombie was evil and green he just didn’t seem presidential. How would he attract undecided voters? Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of a zombie – even a mouthless zombie who can’t eat brains – as president. They needed to do something to improve his image.

Mad Scientist turned to the real human election for inspiration, and with just a few stitches tiny knit zombie became a viable candidate.

Complete with red tie and a distinctive toupee, the toys present tiny knit Trump-like zombie candidate! Now there is a brain enjoying leader any toy can support, or that’s what these guys hope. Let’s see how he does against tiny knit Hillary in the debate. In the meantime, we are going to keep him away from the baby toys, because the way he “kisses” their head makes the mommy toys a bit uncomfortable. It’s like he’s smelling veal as he caresses their little heads. Hopefully he can overcome that flaw.

Third post in a potential series of tiny knit presidential dilemmas. See the second post here, and the first post here.

Thank you to Anna Hrachovec for the amazing pattern! Please see http://mochimochiland.com/shop/tiny-zombie-kit/ for the zombie pattern and visit her site at http://mochimochiland.com/.

Another Knit Dilemma of Presidential Proportions

On October 10, 2016November 13, 2016 By aftheadIn stories, Tickles my afthead, Tiny Knit Presidential Election8 Comments

I just couldn’t make a tiny knit Trump last night. I turned my back on my plans at the last minute. The debate started and my double pointed needles refused to be sullied with Trump yarn.

Then, the unexpected happened when a certain subset of toys revolted. It turns out some Lego figures – with ringleaders mad scientist, witch, and Viking – joined with The Joker, Little People The Joker, and Two Face to violently protest tiny knit Hillary being the only candidate in our household.

It’s chaos here. Tiny knit Hillary is safe, and recovering, but we need a second tiny knit option for president. Who could have anticipated this turn of events?

Second post in a potential series of tiny knit presidential dilemmas. See the first post here.

Thank you to Anna Hrachovec for the amazing pattern! Please see http://mochimochiland.com/2016/09/free-pattern-tiny-trump-and-tiny-hillary/ for the pattern and visit her site at http://mochimochiland.com/.