Evil Eye

We are finally getting ready to unveil the new Evil Eye website, so things might get a little weird for a bit.  The new site will launch on Friday, and there will be a link to the blog on the main page.  You will not be able to use the current url for this blog as of Friday, but http://www.evil-eye-emporium.com/ will get you to the main page as always. If any of you RSS this blog (and if you do, thanks!) you might need to update it a couple of times before it settles down, but I will keep you posted.
I am busy updating inventory which was a collosal pain on my old site, but much improved now.  The look of the page may evolve as I get handier with Zencart, but it’s not too shabby.

The website is not the only thing I have been crafting, I’ve actually been spinning a little bit too, as well as knitting.  I can’t show you the knitting, gifts, you know.  But I can show you the spinning.

I dyed this corriedale at Yarn School in April:

And have spun it into these singles, which I am going to ply:

I am curious to see how it plies up.  The colors are muted, but nicer than I thought they would be when I first started spinning it up.  The corriedale is dreamy to spin, so soft and squishy.  I started spinning the single on that bobbin before Victor was born.  I don’t get much time to spin, but even a few minutes a day is nice.  I set him in his play pen where he can see me, and encourage him to play with his toys while I spin.  He almost rolled over yesterday!  Good times for both of us.

I’m looking forward  to some holiday crafting and decorating too, we’ll see how it goes.

Without fail, I always leave the DIY Trunk Show with a little less inventory, and a whole lot more inspiration.  Chicago has some amazing crafters! And I had some amazing helpers, thanks so much Scott, Sara and Victor for making it a great day.

I always like to hunker down and make stuff as the temperature drops, and that includes baking of course!  I just visited a site that is perfect for making some crafty cute cupcakes and candies: Bake It Pretty!  And, as if that shop is not sweet enough (yes, pun intended), they are having a contest over on their blog, every little thing.  Of course I entered the contest, I need more of those gnome decorations!  If I had seen that site yesterday, I think the tasty pumpkin muffins I made yesterday would have been embellished somehow.

I couldn’t think of a title, so I’ll plug the DIY Trunk Show, which I’m honored to be at again this year.  It’s on Saturday at the beautiful Pulaski Park Fieldhouse from 10am to 5pm.  It has been a challenge to get ready this year, but thanks to a supportive husband, I have managed to pull it off.

Yesterday Victor and I went hunting for historical figures.  I just finished reading Sin in the Second City, and recently remembered that Big Jim Colosimo, a Chicago gangster who was a major player in the Levee, the Red Light district in Chicago at the turn of the last century, is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery.  So, off we went to find him.  I had seen the grave before, but didn’t know anything about him, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.

We also found someone along the way I hadn’t expected to see, James R. Mann, the author of the Mann Act, or the White Slave Traffic Act.  It was “drafted to prevent interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution or concubinage, or other forms of immorality.”*

When I saw it, I thought it would be funny if Colosimo were nearby.  See the dark gray mausoleum in the background, to the right?  Yup, that’s Colosimo.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act#History,

More about the Mann Act: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88104308

More interesting people at Oak Woods Cemetery: http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=173554

I have been spending part of my morning feeding Victor and catching up on blogs lately.  I read a lot of crafty blogs, and it is no surprise that the focus is on the economy for many bloggers.  How could it not be?

Apron Thrift Girl’s guest writer posted a great link yesterday about living well within your means.  It reminded me of the changes I’ve made concerning how I spend money, of how little money Scott and I made when we first got married, and how we’ve always been happy and have enjoyed ourselves regardless of our bank statements.  I was so irresponsible with that first credit card, I had no idea what I was getting into (if you’re going to give college kids credit cards, make them take a class in fiscal responsibility to qualify!)  I learned my lesson, we got out of all of our debt (short of our mortgage), and we are very careful to stay out of debt.

It also reminded me of my post last year in April when we took the leap and I quit my job.  Learning to live within our means, to put money aside for emergencies, to consider each purchase we make has made it possible for me to work from home, and now to take time off from that to take care of Victor.  Do we splurge on occasion?  Of course!  But by living a very DIY lifestyle, and buying resale, and making due with what we have, we get along nicely.  Some months are tighter than others, and we adjust accordingly.  I feel sad for people who got in over their heads in debt, who took mortgages they could never afford, and grateful that I learned my lesson when I was younger and the stakes were not so high.  I am angry at the lenders who were willing to give people loans they clearly could not afford.  What the hell?  Now we have empty houses on our block, with boarded up windows and shabby yards where there used to be friendly neighbors and pleasant conversation.  It’s just sad.

I am glad I can go through my baskets of yarn and knit up gifts for a few people this year.  I enjoy planning projects for little gifts my loved one’s will hopefully enjoy, without going out and shopping.  Where I used to love to bring home new stuff (and I still do to some extent, Halloween stuff, I am looking at you), I have come to feel a great deal of satisfaction in not bring home something new, but making it myself, or even getting rid of some of the old clutter.

I am also quite satisfied with two new knitting techniques I learned this week while working on a gift.  Hooray for the magic cast-on!  I am also getting the hang the short-row heel.  I am so happy about these new skills that I have decided that next year must include more challenging knitting, including some stranded knitting, and maybe even steeking!

Hopefully I will keep all of this in mind when I go to Target this week.  I love their Halloween decorations!  Sigh…

It happens every year as the weather gets cooler (and yes, I know we are expecting a high of 80F today,) I start to plan new crafty projects in my head.  I see new knitting patterns, I start revisiting old ideas (cigar box dioramas, I haven’t forgotten you), or I see pictures on Flickr and blogs and get excited about entirely new ideas.  I am like a crafty squirrel (yes, I know they are cute rats, I am a pack rat, it works,) I want to start gathering supplies, preparing my space so I am ready to hunker down all winter and make stuff.  Other than a few consumable supplies, I have no reason to gather supplies, I have all kinds of crafty goods in the house.  I need to learn to wait to start a project, and then see if I need anything, and get just those supplies.  Besides, I am still learning to balance those activites with caring for a newborn.

I have learned to knit while nursing Victor, and yesterday I even made pie (not while nursing!)  So, some amount of craftiness has returned to my life.

It is amazing how quickly these last 10 weeks have gone.  I was so impatient at first for him to get bigger and more predictable so I could go back to doing some of the things I enjoy.  Now, I am beginning to understand that this all works itself out in time, and that these days of cuddling with Victor on the couch while knitting and blogging will not last for too long, and that this has become one of the things I enjoy.

Now, I think I will look at crafty things online and enjoy my dreaming.

I always enjoy reading the lists bloggers make, so I thought I would compile a popular one, 10 favorite things right now (in no particular order).

1.  YarnCon is on Saturday!  Please come and check it out*.

2. The poster my brother, Alex Uribe, created for YarnCon (and will be for sale at YarnCon.)

3. My baby curled up on my lap (or asleep in his sling).

4. Pumpkins!  I love pumpkin soup, pancakes, bread, roasted in the oven, and carved on front porches.

5. Scott spending time with Victor so I can spend time here:

6. Wool weather (yeay for knitting!)

7. Learning to knit while nursing.

8. Getting more sleep.

9. Sin in the Second City.

10. Listening to Public Radio streaming on my computer.

*We could use a couple more volunteers, please email me at info (at) yarnygoodness (dot) com if you are interested in helping.

Victor took a long enough nap yesterday for me to start knitting a hat for him.  I got a couple of inches done, yeay!

His feeding frenzy seems to be slowing down a bit, maybe we are almost through this growth spurt.

Want to enter a raffle for amazing knitterly goods, and support the Chicago AIDS Foundation at the same time?  Head over to kristyland.com to see how to do both, and see the great prizes.

A belated happy 80th birthday to Maurice Sendak.  I just heard some old interviews with him on Fresh Air.  He is one of my favorite illustrators and children’s book authors, and it was a pleasure to hear him interviewed.

I really have been knitting, and doing many crafty things, I just keep putting off posting about these activities. So, what have I been doing?

On top of not posting, I haven’t been great about taking pictures of what I have been working on either, but I do have a few pictures.

Do you sense a theme here? The first is the Fixie hat from the pattern by Larissa Brown. The Second is the Pinwheel Blanket, from the pattern in Knitalong, also by Larissa Brown. The third is an All-star sneaker bootie from the pattern by Brooklyn Handmade. Yup, baby items. Which brings me to the other project I have been working on:

(Picture taken at Yarn School, I was 27 weeks along.)

I’m busy making a baby.  This is part of why I have not been posting much.  I have been waiting to post about it, and when ever I sit down to write, it feels strange to withhold something so important.  It’s not like I reveal everything I do on this blog, hardly, but still, this is pretty huge.  But, having been through a miscarriage before (see, I didn’t tell you that either), I knew I wanted to be pretty far along before I shared the news with the blog reading world.  Now I am firmly into my third trimester, and feel like it is time to fess up.

So, there you have it.  But that is not all I have been doing!  I am also helping plan World Wide Knit in Public Day, which takes place on June 14th in Millennium Park in Chicago (and in cities all over the world, if you are not local to Chicago, go to the website, and see where you local event is taking place.)  Please join us if you can, and it’s not just for knitters, crotchers, spinners, and anyone making stuff with yarn is welcome.  There will be a yarn swap, a collection of yarn and knitting needles and crochet hooks for Interim House, a woman’s shelter, and 9″ X 7″ afghan rectangles for Afghans for Afghans (including a group you can join to sit around and assemble the blankets.)

I’m also, of course working on YarnCon with Sara, and we are still accepting applications, so please, if you make stuff yarn lovers would enjoy, or know someone who does, please contact us at: info (at) yarnygoodness.com
Whew!  That is a lot.  So, I am taking a little break.  I will be away from all things electric for a week, starting May 20, and returning May 27.  Needless to say, I am taking my knitting.

Yikes!  I almost forgot to mention that on Saturday Woodlawn experienced its first farmer’s market of the year at 61st and Blackstone, and all of the gardening we (mostly Scott) got done.  I am so happy to have a local farmer’s market!  But, I have much to do, and will have to post more when I get back.

Ever since I got back from yarn school, I can’t get enough of spinning.  I am thinking differently about my approach to how I spin yarn, how much twist to give the singles and the plies, and how to split up the top to get desired color effects.  I spun up the sample from Maisy Day, and I love the results.  The colors line up for the most part, but with lovely bits of overlap, that make for a very pretty 2-ply yarn.  And it is the most even weight yarn I have spun to date.

Today I started washing my alpaca fleece.  I did just enough to dry on a screen I use to dry sweaters.  I figured if I messed up, I didn’t want to waste the whole fleece.  I am pleased to report no felting at all, and it smells very nice now.  As if I was not already glad to own a washing machine.  As soon as it dries, I will try hand-carding some rolags and see how it spins.

Now to decide, sit outside and knit, or put up a couple of shelves.  It seems a shame to not get those shelves up, but it is an awfully nice day.  Hmmmm…..

I don’t even know where to start. Yarn School was an amazing experience. I left with new knowledge, inspiration, fiber, and friends. I have been more excited than ever to sit at my spinning wheel and try out new techniques (I am really enjoying spinning silk from the fold, and just used up my sample. Need…more…silk…), and can hardly decide which fiber to try next. There is the stuff I dyed in the dying workshop, there are the copious samples we were given from different dyers and spinners when we arrived, plus the batts I made when trying out the drum carders. Plus, once I decide what to spin, I get to think about how I want to spin it! I’m the one who is spinning!

Nikol Lohr, the teachers, and helpers were amazing. I was feeling a little star-struck about getting to take classes from Adrian from Hello Yarn, and Sarah from Maisy Day Handspun. I’ve been admiring their yarn, and reading their blogs for some time now. Not only do they make fabulous yarn and dyed roving, they are really good teachers, which in my opinion is much harder than just being good at something. Yarn School takes place in an old rural high school, with the grade school serving as the dormitory. It’s a great setting, and we had so much space to work and play in. We had access to fiber, and tools all the time, room to just hang out and practice our new skills or just relax and knit. They also did not mess around when it came to meals, the food was great! Every morning started out with good coffee, and a pitcher full of fresh waffle batter next to a waffle iron! How fresh is that? I wish I had taken more pictures in the cafeteria, but I was sleepy and/or hungry upon arrival, and ready to go do the next thing after meals, so I didn’t think of it then.

Here is a small sample of the pictures I did take, plus a picture of me spinning, and the class picture, both taken by John Wise, and I will leave it at that for now. I wish was more articulate about how great a time I had, but too many thoughts are coming to me at once.