The last two of my favorite self-stripers hold their own with creative color combos that always look good to me.

Sknitches

Photo courtesy of flickr user Wannabeknittin’

Take sknitches for example. Yes, I am clearly a fan of blue and brown, but don’t these socks look so good? Sknitches also has a wide array of non-striping yarn in beautiful colorways, so if you order from her site, you can get a great mix of sock yarns in fabulous colors.

Ravelry Yarn page

Knitterly things

Photo by Flickr user Wooly interlude

Some of the first handmade self-striping yarn that I ever heard about was Vesper sock yarn. As a spinner, the shop’s curator also has a beautiful assortment of hand-dyed roving. It can still be kind of a challenge to snag the sock yarn, but it seems like there are shop updates many Wednesdays, and the Ravelry Group can a be a useful guide to shop stalking.

Ravelry Yarn page

Speaking of ravelry groups…. a long time ago I started a Ravelry group for those that love stripes – Better with stripes. Pop on over and say ‘Hi’ if self-striping yarn is your sort of thing.

And the prize will be self-striping….

All of this yarn and fiber. From the top

• Finn top – supersoft fine roving, about 8 ounces
• Socks that rock Mediumweight Space Dust – I didn’t sign up for the sock club, because I am perfectly happy to spend that money on colors that I get to pick out myself.
• The bottom two are Sport Weight Lovesticks self striping yarn in ‘Watermelon slice’ and ‘With a twist’. I love this stuff.

Wanna play? Here is the low down. Anyone can play as long as you head to your stash and get re-excited about yarn/fiber that is NOT new. Take pic, and blog it*, and leave me a comment so I know you are playing (a linkback is helpful but not mandatory). The comment can be on this post or the previous one, but you must leave it by midnight (Pacific time) Wednesday, October 31. (DEADLINE EXTENDED!!) A winner will be chosen at random. I haven’t assembled all of the prizes yet, but rest assured that there will be yarny- and fibery-goodness.

*If you don’t have a blog and would still like to play, flickr entries would work just fine.

Reading knitting blogs in the wake of rhinebeck can be a rough time for those of us that didn’t attend. It seems that almost everyone was there, and is eager to show off all the yarny and fibery goodness they acquired. It makes me jealous. So last year, I decided to have a contest exclusively for those that DIDN’T go to Rhinebeck, and I am going to have it again this year! You probably really don’t need any yarn, and have plenty of little gems that you have forgotten about hiding in your stash. So dig them out and take a picture of them, as if they are your new purchases. Post your pic to your blog, and tell us about your yarn as if it was new. Then leave me a comment by Saturday, October 27 at midnight Pacific and, viola, you are entered! edit: I forgot to mention that the winners will be chosen at random. I’ll summarize the rules again tomorrow

If you did attend Rhinebeck, and have a pile of new loot, you can still play. BUT you still have to head to your stash to re-photograph and reappreciate some of your old yarn to enter the contest.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see my picture, and see what prizes you can win!

p.s…. Ohio is pretty in the fall

I am a litle remiss is in thanking the internet for the goodies it provided me as of late… For simply entering her blog contest liquidgirl sent me a consolation prize

Adorable stitch markers. Thanks! Stop by and check out her self-designed row counters. Now I finally understand how those things work.

A shout out to Liz the genius behind Hobbledehoy Handspun. I won her blog contest and she sent me a beautiful skein of handspun.

Stop by her shop and even if you don’t want to buy anything, you can get inspired – her handspun is beautiful!

I think I still have one overdue thank you which I am mentioning in case that someone is reading. Don’t worry, that random gift will warrant a post all it’s own… (cryptic, huh?).

And I finally a note to add that I cannot believe how shitty it is that my blog is rated G. G!! Can you believe that?? Apparently they can’t appreciate the Juicifixion post, because that is not for children. Clearly assholes designed the rating system. Hopefully this paragraph will at least get me up to PG. We’ll see (Thanks JenLa!).

There were so many entrants that I decided to also draw a second prize winner.

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER is ….

Julia!! Her comment was even about carders. Perfect!

And the lucky second place winner is

Debbi! I was thinking Debbi might enjoy a skein of handspun

Color totally misrepresented in this photo. It is shades of red, pink and white.

(Here’s the proof of the winners. I went a little overboard with the cameraphone.)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone’s comments (sorry if I didn’t reply to all of them!). Some tools that I love to use that were mentioned were post-it notes and sheet protectors. And the dental floss suggestion… cassandra is genius! It seems like many knitters would be a total loss without their swifts and ball winders. Speaking of ball winders…. look what I found at Value Village:

That’s right baby. $2.50. Hells yeah I bought it! It is a Toyota. As much as I love thrift stores, I thought finds like this were just a myth (along with finding Le Creuset at goodwill). But now, I am living the dream. Colleen is right – Thrift stores are an awesome resource for knitters and crafters alike.

Thanks for all of the helpful carder info. I have been pretty lucky with the Kitchener stitch markers over at the Loopy Ewe (currently sold out!), so I might have one before you know it. I wonder what Sheri would think if I named it Loopy?

How freaky is that picture? Seriously. Wow google, you have outdone yourself. For example, here is my neighbor working on his motorcycle. Here is my little car on the street. The resolution on the Bay Area street pictures is much better than the New York ones. i am totally fascinated by this and keep looking around zooming in to see if I can recognize anyone. I am weird.

Don’t forget about the contest… Leave me a comment telling me your opinion on drum carders OR your favorite knitting/crafting tool/material and you could win a prize. I am truly enjoying reading all of the comments and discovering new webpages!

I have had this nagging in the bag of my head telling me that I want a drum carder. I have looked into it a few times but never bought one. I want one primarily for blending merino wools with fine fibers. It should be able to handle the slightly coarser wools that I like – Romney and wensleydale for instance. And it should be able to handle the occasional fleece. Ultimately I would like to be able to make blends with soy silk and camel down and other finer fibers. I think the one that might be right for me is a Strauch Petite. I like the petite-ness (studio apartment) and the fine cloth. The only complaints that I was that when processing fleeces on the fine cloth, the second cuts didn’t get separated but that seems preferable to not being able to card fine fibers. And I shouldn’t forget to mention that the comparatively low price is a major factor.

Here’s where you come in… What do you think? Do you know anything about carders or own one that you have an opinion about? Leave me a comment and let me know! You will be eligible to win a prize from me if you do.

Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about drum carders, you can still be eligible to win a prize. Just leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite knitting/ crafting material or tool. For instance, you might tell me that you you couldn’t survive without medium-weight Socks that Rock. Or that your Bernina is your most dear possession. Or that you cannot resist alpaca yarn. I want to hear about what you like!

The contest will be open until next Saturday, June 9th when the winner will be selected at random. I’ll send you some sock yarn, and a sock knitter’s needle case. If a non-knitter ends up as the winner, and doesn’t want the prize we’ll figure something out.

Want to see the prizes?

The red yarn was dyed by me, but never made it into my etsy shop. I dubbed it “unphotographable red” and had to screw with the photo in photoshop to get it to look kinda normal. The colors go from a red-orange to a medium red and it si a superwash wool nylon blend. The Needle case was hand sewn by me in the style of the ones in my shop. Perfect for circulars, DPN’s and crochet hooks. I threw in a little crochet hook that I got at Daiso – you’ll get that too. Finally I added two skeins of Brown Sheep Handpainted yarn. Nice traditional wooly sock yarn. So get commenting!

Enter Moirae, whose blog is one of my frequent stops. She had a blogiversary contest that I won. And my prize… Sweet Georgia sock yarn

Oh man. It is good looking. I chose the colorway “rusted” and I think it really suits me. And for such an act of kindness on Moirae’s part, I am sure she has just amassed an awesome amount of good knitting karma. I try not to enoy the yarn too much since it might be all I ever get… kinda reminds me of the ribwich…

In other news, the Maker Faire and Bazaar Bizarre are happening this weekend (recent craftzine post contains all the links you might need), and I am very excited to attend. I immensely enjoyed the event last year, and by all accounts it should be bigger and better this year. i hope to start the day with a visit to Nine Rubies to enjoy being in the presence of yarn (and podcasters). I think that I might have some local Bay Area readers out there… I will be at the maker faire probably all day Saturday. I will also be packing a load of moustache and i *heart* yarn pins. So if you see me, say hi and i will shower you with buttons. I might be forcing them on strangers anyway. Have to spread the love of ‘stache.

Remember how I was bummed that I didn’t get a table at the Bazaar? Now I know that it was so that I could have a relaxing week this week (not caught crafting under a deadline). And the money I had set aside for registering at the Bazaar… Now it is spending money! Expect a full crafty shopping report.

Today the only thing Carmen I could do at 5 p.m. to get a respite from the heat was to drink Mint Juleps. I made them in a Mason Jar and felt totally like a Hazzard county Duke while doing so (a feeling which I am always trying to capture). Free mint from the shady courtyard outside my apartment – hooray!

So even though as I write this it has cooled of to 85.5F in my apartment I am going to do some knitting. If it were a weekend I might have attempted some more solar dyeing (it is all my crappy car is good for, really). But instead I am going to pick up some wool and enjoy it. And I am going to have visions of Sweet Georgia dancing in my head – I won some from Moraie. At this point, doesn’t giving away Sweet Georgia qualify you for knitting sainthood? Check out her purse – I love it.

gratuitous photo of Noro that I bought during the ‘Knit Happens’ sale.