Lee Does Stuff

thank you 2007, you were a good year!

woo look it’s my muchly procrastinated 2007 post! so those photos are all important-in-some-way things i did, places i went, projects i worked on, designs i created, or just images that relate to something special that happened in 2007.

2007 was seriously full of firsts. so i made a list. semi-consecutive order…

i went digital! i still do love my film, but at the beginning of the year i got my first d-slr and didn’t shoot nearly as much film as i planned to (like, hardly any at all really) because digital is just so fun and easy and i love my camera!

i made/self-published/released my first issue of my zine, do stuff! the whole thing was a fantastic experience which i hope to recreate very soon with issue #2. through the zine, i made tons of new online (and real life) friends and contacts and even got to do a reading at the multnomah county library which was awesome!

i started this blog! originally meant to go with the zine, it has become its own thing, and although i am clearly not the best, most frequent blogger, i have had a great time with it and am so happy that people have enjoyed some of my topics, used my tutorials, etc. i love every comment i get (even though i’m terrible about replying to them) and i hope to post many many more fun how-to’s, patterns, and cool stuff in the year to come!

i experienced my first falling snow (yeah, i had never seen falling snow before, i am such a so-cal girl it’s disgusting) in a really hardcore way – by getting caught in a major blizzard (labeled “mess in the west” by the weather channel) on the drive from san francisco to portland in february. spent the night snowed in (in yreka, just before the oregon border), then braved the terrifying weather the next day to escape back down to the bay area, never making it to portland, quite a trip! since moving to pdx i’ve seen falling snow i think 4 times/days this winter, in a much nicer non-scary form, including the beautiful flurry on christmas day!

i tried dyeing yarn, which ended up really changing my life! since i first decided to give it a try in march, after much experimenting, and thanks to the goodwill bins’ abundance of unravelable sweaters, i have now added a whole new level to my little business with my hand-dyed recycled knit kits. i have so much fun dying yarn, and it’s hard to put the yarns up for sale because i just want to keep them all for myself (i love yarn so much!)… also in march, i tried spinning for the first time, with my little drop spindle. didn’t get so super into this like with the dying because the drop spindle isn’t so much fun to use, although i did absolutely love the yarns i made with it. so now 2008 will be the year of spinning, since i just got my first wheel on january 2nd.

i had my first regular freelance photography job – shooting for the district long beach weekly. mostly live music, with a few other assignments once in awhile, it was tons of fun. i have been putting off trying to contact similar weeklies in portland since i’ve been so busy since we moved, but i hope to be able to do the same kind of freelancing up here this year.

i moved to a new state! obviously the biggest, most life-changing event of the year, and my first time moving out of california (unless you count living in england for one summer studying abroad, which i don’t). it has been fabulous so far, no regrets, the only thing i miss is my family. my life would be perfect if they all decided to move up here, hah!

i had my first knit pattern published! it was also the first pattern i ever wrote (like in actual pattern form, not just notebook notes for myself only) so it’s extremely simple and kinda silly, but its being in knitty got my name out there as a knit designer. since then, i’ve been writing a bunch of hat patterns, and working on some other non-hats that will be finished very soon!

i wrote (and shot photos for) my first contribution to one of my absolute favorite magazines (actually, now that i think about it, it’s my #1 favorite magazine!) which was so incredible i still can’t believe it. this is the first i’ve mentioned of this in the blog, because i think i’m not supposed to talk about it, which is why i’m being all cryptic and not telling you what the magazine is. sorry! but, it comes out really soon, so you will definitely be reading all about it here the second it’s released!

ok i think those are all the major life-changing firsts of 2007. some other things worth mentioning: i started contributing to the sampler, yay! i shot my first wedding, which was tons of work, but went really well so i’m totally glad i did it! i ventured into printmaking – not exactly a first since i took a printmaking class in high school – in the form of freezer paper stenciling and carved linoleum block printing, fun! i got involved in the portland crafty scene, getting to spend time hanging out with a couple of my craft world heroes (diane and susan are awesome!) – feel so lucky to get to be living in this city in this time so full of overwhelming creativity! i got to get into ravelry as a beta tester pretty early on, which has really changed my world as a knitter and designer (and now yarn-maker also), and i feel like because of this amazing site i’ll be able to get my designs seen by many more people than i would without it… hooray for ravelry creators jess and casey!!

ok yeah i’ll stop here, lots of rad stuff in 2007. it wasn’t an all-good year, there were definitely low points, like really low, but i feel incredibly lucky that my own life is going so well right now and things are looking great for 2008!

in it to spin it!

oh goodness, i am a terrible blogger. but hey, you get a spinning wheel, you want to spin! so instead of telling you about it, i’ve spun up three skeins so far since i got it on wednesday. well, technically three… but one of them was recycled sweater yarn that i spun onto bobbins, then plied together – like i first talked about doing in this post, but a thousand times easier with the wheel!

oh first, before i show you my yarn, i’ll tell the story of my wheel acquisition. i had been researching a bit, and had decided that i wanted a double treadle wheel, and was kind of planning on either the ashford traveller of the ashford kiwi. i had been told that i should try them out before choosing one, so i went to woodland woolworks and did just that. i decided the traveler felt good, i liked its size and look, so that was the one for me. they were sold out of everything, so i was going to special order it, but had to wait a minute for the saleswoman, which was when i noticed they had a hidden back room with used wheels. they only had three, but the louet s10 called to me, even though it was a single treadle and not one i had been considering. it seemed to be in perfect condition, and it felt so smooth, and i recognized louet as being a brand i hadn’t been considering because the new wheels were out of my price range. so… i grabbed it right then and there, no special ordering, no waiting for the new one to arrive, no finishing the wood or putting it together. i couldn’t believe i was going home with a spinning wheel, ready to spin!

so that’s just what i did, of course! that night i started practicing with the insubordiknit pink wool i got in our holiday swap – ended up spinning the whole thing, and plying it together. it’s extremely bulky, but i think it looks cool!

so then last night i practiced trying to make more even singles, and played around with the idea of self-striping handspun. i dyed the orange and green parts – the wool was gifted by my parents, from spunky eclectic – and the other colors were all in my package-o-fun from insubordiknit. so it’s mostly the orange and green, then a bit of yellow, blue, purple, brown… i think i’m getting better at keeping it more even; my fat parts aren’t as fat or as frequent, and ditto for my super thin parts. i think i do have a problem with over-spinning though. of course, now that i’ve set the twist, it doesn’t curl up on itself anymore, but before you set the twist is it supposed to be that twisty?

i made a flickr set for my wheel spinning, with a few more shots of these yarns, and i plan to upload all my spun yarn photos here. i don’t want this to become a yarn-only blog, so i won’t be posting much more spinning related stuff here, but befriend me on flickr if you want to see my yarns! hopefully tomorrow i’ll have time to write my 2007 post that i’ve been meaning to do all week. i’m loving all the pretty crafty 2007 mosaics, definitely gonna copy that idea!

holiday bragging post (i’m so lucky!)

first before i forget again, i want to mention that i changed my comment options so now you have to register before commenting. i started getting an overwhelming amount of spam comments (like, 50+ per day) and didn’t want to have to sort through them anymore. sorry for the one extra step, i hope it doesn’t deter anyone from commenting…

and now some fun stuff! i was super sad to not get to see my family for xmas, but it turned out to be a pretty rad holiday, despite the lingering sickness. my mom totally went overboard sending me gifts, so i had tons of packages to open, which is always fun, and pete’s parents and uncle came up, so it was all family-y still, and they are awesome, so it was a really fun day. and, the snow!! we heard that it was portland’s first white christmas since 1937! and it just happened to fall on our first year up here – how lucky are we?! that was amazing…

and i am seriously blown away by all the amazing stuff i got. pete got me a beautiful wooden umbrella swift and a ball winder!! so now if you buy yarn from me, i would be more than happy to ball it for you! i’ve been balling yarn just for fun since i set it up…

and i got a pile of awesome books (and a few dvds) from my parents and pete, and a bunch of other fun stuff that i didn’t take pictures of. and i was given money from my grandma towards a spinning wheel, and from pete’s parents towards a new (24mm f/1.8 macro) lens!! wooo! i love my family so much! for reasons other than these material things, of course, but you know, i’m pretty happy about creative gifts. (a spinning wheel and a new lens, what more could a girl ask for?)

oh and also, i did a holiday swap with my favorite spinner, insubordiknit, and got a bunch of pretty dyed wool and these two skeins of gorgeous yarn! i can’t wait till i have some free knitting time!!

ooh and here’s the hat i knit for pete. it’s a modified version of my spiraling stripes hat, but with purl ridge spirals instead of color stripes.

ok and for a pattern update… i didn’t forget that i had planned to get a couple free patterns posted here by now – the sickness and all the last minute holiday stuff took over, i’m so sorry. one of my new year’s resolutions is to be more regular and reliable with my blog. i shouldn’t make pattern promises i can’t keep. and i should post more often. yes.

so right now, i am trying to complete a submission for the spring knitty, which is due on jan.5th. and then i need to put together my samples, due on the 15th (so, mailed out by the 10th). after those are all done, i should be able to get my next free pattern up. so now you know what’s up.

anyone else but you

whoa i’m back! sorry i kind of disappeared from blog world – i got a horrible cold that lasted 2 weeks because i couldn’t rest to get better due to long hours at the day job… blah… but now i’m just about healthy, have 3 days in a row off (!) and plan to get catching up on all the things i had planned to do before xmas. here’s a quick little post, and then after i get through some emails and stuff i’ll be back on the blog.

has anyone seen juno yet? we saw it last night, i liked it a lot. the ending scene felt strangely personal to me, since i recorded this song for pete about 2 and a half years ago. i am not a musician, but i wanted to make a song for pete since i loved his songs to me so much, so i learned this super basic easy guitar riff (is that even the right term? riff? i don’t know what i’m talking about…) and then i wrote most of my own lyrics and used a few of my favorite lines from the original song, and recorded it with my internal laptop mic with garage band, so you can hear my hard drive spinning (loudly at the end). so yeah, it’s very silly, but it makes me smile.

crafty wonderland success and yarrrrrrn

well crafty wonderland went well! thanks again to susan for letting me share her table! i didn’t have tons of stuff, but i wouldn’t have been able to display more than i had anyway, so it worked out well. between the scrap bazaar and yesterday, i am almost sold out of hats! i have one new one that i haven’t posted in my store yet, and then one monster hat and one snake hat.

anyway, i finished the spiraling stripes hat kits super last minute saturday night, and then i sold two of them, plus a pattern set by itself, so it was worth all that rushing stress! the two i sold were my two absolute favorite yarns, and they never got a chance to be posted on my website, so i want to show them off here:

that left one is a wool/alpaca blend, dyed 5 rotating colors, with the red and green on one side and the blue, purple, and orange on the other, so that the stripes will go something like: red, blue, green, purple, red, orange, green, blue, red, purple, green, orange… not necessarily like that, but maybe. i really hope the hat maker shows me her finished hat!!

the right one is lambswool dyed 6 shades of green and blue. that one has the dark green on one side, and the 5 different lighter shades rotating on the other side, so the striping with go dark green, shade 1, dark green, shade 2, dark green, shade 3, etc…. this one sold really early on in the crazy crowd, my first thing to sell! i hope she shows me her hat too!

it’s hard dying yarn to sell, i want to keep it all for myself!!

oh, if anyone wants anything by xmas – if i get your order within the next day or two i should be able to get it to you by the 25th!
ok now i have to go shopping at mystery stores for no one in particular who reads this blog (wink wink, nudge nudge)…

diy knit kit: spiraling stripes hats

yay, my second hat knit kit! this pattern set includes 6 different patterns – wide straight brim, slanting brim, and no brim, each with spiraling clockwise and counter-clockwise versions. the kits come with 2 stitch markers, so you get everything you need to make one of the hats except for a pair of size us 9 knitting needles and a tapestry needle.

here are what the clockwise and counter-clockwise spirals look like from above:

of course, your results will depend on the way your yarn stripes. i will be selling kits with different types of striping yarn, and i’ll tell you in the descriptions about how the stripes will turn out. if you use the patterns with store-bought yarn, i recommend self-striping yarn with long-ish color sections. (to give you an idea, the example above with the straight brim has 2 yards of each color. so if you want wider stripes on your hat, you’ll need several yards of each color.)

all of my yarn will come to you in hank form. for some info on balling it, you can see my 2-color textured hat kit blog post.

there are a couple things i forgot to mention in the pattern. first, if you want a little topper on your hat like the orange one on the rainbowy hat above, it’s just a short i-cord. when you finish seaming up the back, cut your yarn leaving a long tail (at least a yard). close up the top as instructed, then grab two double pointed needles (a little smaller than size 9 is good) and pick up three stitches evenly around the closed hole. knit those stitches into an i-cord as long as you want, then just tie up the top and weave the end in down the center.

second, i just wanted to mention that stitch markers are optional. it’s easier to explain/write the patterns using stitch markers, but once you knit a few rows, you might find that you’d rather just skip them because you’ll see how the pattern works and can keep track easily enough. the stitch markers i include with the kits are not heavy duty – don’t expect them to last forever. right now i’m using a thin wire, threaded through some beads to look pretty. (don’t let kids get ahold of them, they may come apart and have sharp wire ends!) i might switch to some kind of more recycle-y version in the future.

i also want to mention that you could use the yarn that’s meant for the 2-color textured hat kits for the spiraling stripes patterns. your results will look something like this:

sorry the colors aren’t very contrasty, but you get the idea. if you want to do this, you can purchase the yarn from these kits alone and the spiraling stripes pattern alone (for $4.50). yay! oh and by the way, that’s another example of the no brim hat version.

i would really love feedback on this pattern set! i pretty much print out the patterns as i get the orders, so if i am told something is unclear or something should be added/changed, i can fix it for all future copies. and i would really really love to see your finished hats!!

edit 1/21/08: the pattern set is now available as a pdf! it’s 7 pages, lots of pictures, tons of info.

edit 3/04/08: just posted a new entry about pattern variations to make slouchy styles and some color ideas.

(ravelry page!)

some holiday updatey stuff

oh goodness, so many things going on, so little time to blog… first, i want to tell you i have 5 new 2-color texture hat kits up in my shop. i now give the option to get just the yarn without the pattern – so if you want multiple yarns you aren’t stuck with multiple copies of the same pattern.

there are 2 holiday colored yarns! “mistletoe + berries” is a really nice darkish red and green, not too bright, more natural. and “candy cane” is dyed red with the other half left undyed. and that last yarn pictured is my personal favorite.

yesterday, i was blogged about on the oregonian’s knitting blog! that was exciting!

the scrap bazaar went really super well. i wanted to talk about it more but i’m getting really sleepy, so maybe later when i have photos.

and the most exciting news – i’ll be sharing a table with susan beal at crafty wonderland‘s big holiday sale on sunday!! i was pretty sad when i didn’t get in to the event (portland craft competition is tough!) so when she asked me if i’d want to share hers i couldn’t have been happier!

ok i just can’t write any more, i’m falling asleep here. sorry for the poorly written post, just wanted to get some info out there. hope everyone’s holiday crafting/shopping/etc is going well!!

real quick, then back to work!

here’s my new yarn for tomorrow!

all for the 2-color textured hat kits. of course, i’ll have all the other stuff in my online shop, and zines too! if you’re in pdx, come by scrap and say hi!!

oh holiday season, never enough time for everything

ok so i keep wanting to post and i keep not having time and i need to be sleeping so i’ll make this semi-quick for now. first, the reason i’ve been keeping so busy, i’ll be a vendor at the SCRAP bazaar on saturday, which should be a super fun event. everything for sale will be made from mostly recycled materials, and there will be a bake sale too. if you are in the area, definitely stop by! and if i have never met you, introduce yourself, i’d love to meet some of my blog-readers!!

i was shocked to get home tonight and see 3 out of my 4 2-color textured hat kits sold! exciting! but don’t worry if you were interested, there will be many more to come. i already have 2 more skeins dyed and ready for saturday, and a couple more planned to be done in time for the bazaar. i will put up whatever doesn’t sell in my store saturday night or sunday.

and then i have another hat kit planned to be finished and announced next week! it will be a very cool one, you’ll see! and also, a free blog pattern is in the works for as soon as possible, probably after saturday. just a little last-minute-holiday-gift kind of pattern. then there is another free hat pattern i keep putting off – i’m thinking that one will be kind of a christmas present to you, very close to the 25th. i have gift crafting to worry about too ya know!

i’m going to see debbie stoller at powell’s tomorrow (wednesday) night – any portland knitters planning to be there? i’m kind of excited, i’ve never been to a knitting book event, gosh i love powell’s.

on a completely random unrelated-to-anything note… pete is going to be playing keyboards in a guitar-center-employees band at their company holiday party sunday night, for their beaverton vs clackamas battle of the store bands. they are playing journey’s “separate ways” and he just showed me the original music video. i just had to tell you, if you’ve never seen this video and you feel like laughing nice and hard, i recommend it. oh goodness. so funny.

oh yeah i did have one other thing i wanted to mention. i’m thinking about doing neckwarmer knit kits with smaller amounts (like 40-50 yards) of fancier yarn, or a couple different yarns for stranded knitting. i made this to try out the idea, but it’s kinda weird. so i guess i’m just wondering if there is any interest in the whole concept… the kits would have a more unique pattern like this one and a much more simple pattern option, and would come with the buttons too.

i hope everyone is having fun this season and not stressing too much about gift making/buying. and try to buy handmade, of course! yay!

diy knit kit: 2-color textured hats

here is my very first knit hat kit – which includes a pattern set with 4 different hat options. there is a knit flat version and a knit round version, each with 2 stitch pattern variations. and of course the yarn; each kit has a 90 yard hank of recycled hand-dyed yarn, striping between 2 colors. all you’ll need to make a hat are the knitting needles (and a tapestry needle for finishing). all patterns use size us 10 1/2 needles – straights for the flat hat, and 16″ circular for the round hat (or you can use double pointed needles if you like).

the blue+green hat is an example of the knit flat version. the knit round version not only includes two stitch pattern options, but also varying hat-fit (floppy vs. fitted) and stripe-width versions. the red+aqua hat is the floppy (my personal favorite!) and i knit a 2-swatch example of the fitted version to show both stitch patterns, with 2 different yarns – both of which were left over from yarns i have in kits for sale now.

i also have the pattern set by itself for sale ($2.50) if you want to dye your own yarn. to get results like the photos, your yarn will need to have 1 yard stripes of the two colors.

if you are new to yarn in hank form – you’ll need to wind it into a ball before you can use it. the hank untwists into a big loop, which is tied together with scrap yarn. here is the way i wind it: sit up straight and put my legs up, bent at the knees; put the yarn around my knees. make sure the yarn isn’t twisted, and with it stretched somewhat tightly, cut the scrap yarn and find an end. wind the ball! i just make normal yarn balls, but you may prefer to make a center-pull ball. also, you can use chair backs instead of your knees.

if you knit a hat from this kit/pattern i would really love to see it! pretty please leave a comment here with a photo (or link to a photo) and any feedback you might have. thanks!!

edit 1/21/08: the pattern set is now available as a pdf! it’s 4 pages – all the same info as the paper pattern, but with more photos!

(ravelry page!)