sp11

As I mentioned on the main blog area…I figured that I would make this post easy to find and reference. Whee!

Second Questionnaire (scroll down to find the first in this gripping series…)

1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?
Ummm….right now?  Stitch markers and row counters.  Really.  I like to magic-loop my socks, and when they say “count to three stitches before the end of needle 1″ and instead of having 4 needles, you’re working from two…well…having stitch markers really helps delineate what are *supposed to be* different needles.  The row counters?  Dude…I’m slightly dyscalculic.  ANYTHING that helps me count is a bonus.
2.  If you’re heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you?  If so, how much and what type of project?
I’m not going away on vacation.  It’s a pity, but it’s true.  If I *was* to go on vacation?  I’d probably take socks.  Small.  Portable.  Easy to hide in a bag.  And while every sock colourway is a beautiful and unique snowflake, you can always buy more sock yarn inexpensively (and usually locally) if, for some reason, you lose your knitting or Customs confiscates it.  What hurts is losing a set of Addi Turbos (so there’s the lesson: use cheap bamboo circs instead…)
3. Where have you travelled to that you’d consider your favorite spot?
I have a few of them, actually (in no particular order):
- A dock at night on the shore of Great Slave Lake, at the end of summer, watching the Northern Lights.
- Reading a book on a patio on Granville Island (Vancouver), BC, sometime around noon.
- Wandering around the different ethnic neighbourhoods of Toronto - meandering through Chinatown to the Kensington Market, then through the Italian/Hispanic/Portuguese areas….oooh, baby.
- Sitting on the shores of Lake Louise in the middle of summer, trying to resist feeding the “Stripey-squirrel-like-beasties of Banff/Lake Louise (aka the common chipmunk).
- Relaxing on a beach towel in Robert Simpson Park, Arnprior, Ontario, listening to the bustle going on during the annual Salute to the Ottawa Valley.4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment?  Do you own it?
- Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-MacPhee.  I own it.  It’s very darned handy.

5. Do you listen to podcasts?  Which is your favorite(s)?
I’m grooving on the Lime & Violet goodness, yo.
6. If you could only knit with 1 color for the rest of your life, what color would that be?
No…wait….sorry.  I just can’t do that.  Even with all the different monochromatic gradations possible with just one colour (yes, I was an art college dropout…I still managed to complete my Foundation studies year), I don’t think I could do that.  You could probably restrict me to the pink/purple/blue spectrum quite nicely, but even then I would chafe.  I’d have to go and do something like get yarn with yellow or lime green in it, and then your tidy colour scheme would go right out the window.  Particularly odd since those aren’t colours I’d normally choose, yet have been more and more attracted to  over the past 3 months or so.  I figure it’s hormones doing it.  Whenever females do something weird, it’s generally a case of hormones.
7. If you were far into a project and then noticed a mistake near the beginning what would you do?
Swear.  Loudly.  And copiously.  Probably in two or three different languages.  And with several descriptive passages detailing just how a dropped stitch could possibly be related to the bastard son of a peg-legged sailor.
And then I’d rip it back.  Because that would just annoy the fuck out of me….y’know?
8. Where is the most unsual spot you’ve ever knit?
The dentist’s chair?  While waiting for the freezing to kick in?
Apparently I have a little knitting fan club at my former dentist’s office.  Particularly after my brother designed a skull & crossbones airbrushed logo for the back of the hoodie he gave me for Yule.  Sometime I have to get around to photographing it.
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Original questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
- Ooo. Good question. I’m not a big fan of cotton. It has its place, but unless it’s blended with some other fibre, it’s a little hard to work with at times. I hate to admit that I’m not much for the “fad yarn” that you can pick up at Michael’s or Wal-mart. I’m choosy in my Wally-world/Zellers stash! Why go for faux suede when you can get chunky black & neon blue colours instead? Right? Right!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
- My straights are currently stored upright in a Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch box. We bought the scotch for our fathers one year for Yule, and stuck the bottles in decorative Christmas boxes for liquor…so the original sleeve was repurposed for holding my long, straight needles.
I generally keep my Addis in my knitting drawers, and my dpns in a Tinkerbell pencil case that also holds my notions. The Other Half calls this pencil case the “Tinkerslut case”. It’s not a very flattering picture of Tinkerbell ;)

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
- I’ve been knitting off & on for about 3 years on my own. My paternal grandmother was a demon with the needles, and tried to teach me when I was a kid…but it was something I had to teach myself, really. I blame it all on the Kittyville Hat in Debbie Stoller’s Stitch & Bitch book. Yeesh.
I’d say I’m at an intermediate level. I’m not doing any stranded colourwork or knitting any sweaters quite yet.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
-Um….yeah. It’s pretty out-of-date, but it shows how much of a sewing geek I can be. If that link doesn’t work, look for the name ArcadiaX. Because Amazon doesn’t like to make things easy, y’know.

5. What’s your favorite scent?
- In no particular order, Vanilla, Raspberries, Strawberries.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
-I do have a sweet tooth (I loveLOVElove chocolate!) but I’ve found that I’m highly sugar-sensitive. No, I’m not diabetic. Sugar makes me fat. Since I cut out sugar, I’ve lost about 40 pounds, with another 90 or 95 to go. That will make me half the girl I used to be. In the meantime, I usually suck on sugar-free mints (peppermint or cinnamon flavor).

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
-I cross-stitch, do chain-mail, and sew my own corsets. Well…I’ll be going back to sewing my own corsets when I stop shrinking…

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
-I like a little bit of everything. Except maybe country. And rave music, unfortunately, gives me a headache. I’ve rediscovered a love of 70’s and 80’s rock & new wave respectively, and since our city got an alternative radio station, I’ve been happily grooving away to all the old songs of the 90’s that I used to enjoy when I was a poor art student in downtown Toronto. Yes I wore flannel. It was usually paint-stained. Shuddup.

9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?
- My favourite colours are pinks, purples, blues, and blue-greens. Normally I can’t stand yellows and rusty colours (oranges, etc), though I’m seeing some interesting solids & chromatic blends. Like that variegated yellow that I’m having the devil’s own time tracking down. Grr!

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
- Two adults, one cat, no kids.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
-Scarves, hats, mittens, gloves and/or shawls. I haven’t worn a poncho since the 1970’s, and at that point I wasn’t dressing myself so I had no choice in the matter ;)

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
-I am an admitted sock addict. Booyeah.

13. What are you knitting right now?
- A pair of monkeys in a bright pink Tofutsies sock yarn. Mmmm…

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
- Handmade gifts are much appreciated. Particularly since I know the amount of work that goes into them after trying to make a little something for everyone in the extended family these past two Yules. Never. Again.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
- I loves me my Addi Turbos. **LOVES**.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
- Thanks to my local yarncrack dealer, I have a swift. It saves the Other Half (and any friends foolish enough to wander into our house) from having to sit still for half an evening, holding yarn. I do not have a ball winder as of yet.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
- Ummm….about a year old, I think? Almost a year? I was knitting scarves for my brother & my Father-in-law…and, uh…got bored with them….
It is by will alone that I…uh…finished the Dr. Who Scarf for the Other Half. He’s still paying that one off…

18. What is your favorite holiday?
- Every Day is Hallowe’en, Baby. No, I’m not a goth. Not at all. ;)

19. Is there anything that you collect?
- Dust, according to the Other Half. But more seriously, about the only thing I’m really “collecting” right now are tarot decks. Can’t read ‘em worth a heck, but they’re darned pretty.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
- Um….Cookie A’s non-free sock patterns? I’d love to get my hands on some of the basic Elizabeth Zimmerman books. I have one of the Vogue Stitchionaries that I’d like more of (I have the first one), and then there’s the Knitting over the Edge books. I’d love to get my hands on those ones.
I have no magazine subscriptions. I’ll pick up Interweave Knits at the grocery store or Yarncrack Haven when possible.

21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?
-No, not really. If there’s something I want to learn, I generally get a book and figure it out. See, this is why Granny had such a hard time trying to teach me. I like Diagrams Where Appropriate ;)

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
-Guilty as charged! Size 9 and a half foot. Length: 9.5 to 10″, circ: 9″, approx. Usually I make the socks just a wee bit smaller than that. If I actually make the socks to what my measurements are SUPPOSED to be, then they wind up fitting my sis-in-law (size 9/10 feet) or my Mum (size 11 feet).

23. When is your birthday?
- February 7th.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what’s your ID?
- Yep. My ID on Ravelry is “Maire”. Same as my name. I try to keep things pretty simple ;)