SP9 Questionnaire

Most of the answers stay the same...

Welcome to SP9!

Below is the questionnaire for this round. Please post your answers to your blog before October 15th. Be sure you post the questionnaire where your pal can easily find it. :-)

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I really do not like acrylics or polyesters-- but that said, novelty fibers/yarns are growing on me lately..

My favorites are still the natural fibers: wool and cotton and silk and linen, some of the newer modified natural fibers like ingeo and bamboo, and blends that are primarily natural (wool-nylon sock yarns, for example)

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

anywhere handy. On my bookshelf I have a clear plastic shoebox, and in that shoebox I have some accordion-pleat file folders with one pleat per needle size for my circulars. .. My DPs I keep in old button-tubes (one tube per needles size) in an empty Quik container. My straights are in a large seasonal Popcorn tin, sharing space with my weaving shuttles. :) ... and those are just the places I keep my needles so that I can Find them again! .. as often as not, my needles are running around in project bags or shoved through my hair as a makeshift hair-pin, or fallen into the couch cushions...

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I first started knitting when I was about six (hated it! .. liked crochet, though) ... but I didn't really start knitting until 2003. My grandmother (the Knitter of the family) died that year.. and somehow I started knitting.. and started Understanding it, and Liking it! ... I think perhaps my grandmother is helping from the Great Beyond... ;)

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Amazon

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)

I like really light scents. .. most scented candles are much too overpowering, regardless of the scent they are aiming for!
... I like lilacs and vanilla and strawberry... fresh clean wool, of course.. ;) ... the scent of fresh baked-goods... apple cider, a recent rainstorm, lemons...

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

sweet tooth--definitely. :) favorite candy? hmmm... good chocolate, divinity, marshmallows... creme brulee! (oops, not a candy) .. cookies and baked goods!

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I spin, knit, weave, dye, crochet, scrapbook, photograph, build things (wood), make garments and costumes, quilt, do puzzles (word puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, I do them all)... bead, calligraphy, painting, ... oh, and I do tat after all! .. I figured out last month what I'd been doing wrong, and it turns out that tatting really isn't all that bad after all. :)

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 all sorts of music, very ecclectic collection. Yes, I can play MP3s. :)

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I can't think of a color that I really don't like.. every color has merit in the right context. :) ... I do adore just about any color you can find on a Peacock.. but really..bright, muted, grey, browns, jewel tones, neons, jarring, gentle, subtle, bold.. I like them all. :)

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

My husband and I have a new Angora bunny (born in May, and oh-so-cute!) .. I got him at the end of September, and he will probably live with us for the next dozen years or so, assuming a long and happy, healthy life. ... at some point I will also get a new puppy, but not yet. Right now I am still getting used to the absence of my Zhenya, who got taken to Virginia by my once-best-friend, Elizabeth. The pain is a little too recent.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I wear anything that keeps me warm! (winter's coming...) .. I've fallen in love with the shawl that Zann sent--it goes almost everywhere with me these days! .. and I love scarves! (can't have too many, I think...) .. Hats are great.. especially ones that keep my ears warm! .. for that matter, ear-bands are great, too! It's often too rainy to wear a hat that doesn't repel water, but even so, I can always wear one indoors--especially once I get back on the ice rink again. (maybe by February, if I'm lucky. ) ... I haven't had a poncho in years, but I loved the ones I did have way back when... and I think they'd be really fun if they were styled so that they could be worn as either a poncho or an over-skirt... ... it's not cold enough here to require mittens, but wrist warmers come in really handy! especially on cold mornings when I'm trying to type or knit. :)

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I'm not sure I have a "favorite" .. I almost always have a pair of simple socks on needles so that I have a small easy project to go everywhere with me... I almost always have some sort of lace in progress... and I almost always have something that requires shaping/fitting.

13. What are you knitting right now?

Right now? well, I haven't mastered the ability to type and knit at the same time.... ;)
On the needles right now (and currently progressing): two pair socks, one beaded scarf, one worsted-weight lace scarf, my Noro shawl (which might be finished, or might get an attatched capelet added on..), the Fiber Trends "spirals" hat (if I can make gauge)...

also on the needles (but not currently progressing): mystery stole lace project, baby alpaca lace scarf, pop-up paws for my husband, Shapely Tee for myself, felted mittens (may become an abandoned project or might get finished.. either way its fate will be decided by the end of the year), Fiber Trends shrug (or did I pull that one already?) which didn't look like it was going to fit right so go shoved away into a corner for awhile, the second sock to match the over-the-top SockapalOOOza colorwork socks that don't quite fit me right so I need to pull back the first sock and re-knit the foot anyway, two dishcloths, a pair of knee socks (set aside for the priviledge of working with my very special swap partners' Get Well yarns instead!), and maybe a few others that I'm forgetting at the moment..

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

I *love* receiving handmade gifts!! (and baked goods! ;)

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I'll work with all of them these days. :) My absolute favorites these days are Addi Turbos (the longer the better) and Addi Naturas.. (Addis have a really nice cord that doesn't get kinked or cause the yarn to get caught at the connection points.) I also love DPs of almost all description.. and as for straights, I have a mild preference for the shorter lengths (long straights can cause problems with the person in the next seat over at the theater or on an airplane.. ;)

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

I do own a ball winder and a swift! I can't imagine trying to get by without them!

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Oldest UFO? hmmm.... maybe that little beaded crochet bag? (I ran out of beads)... maybe the hairpin lace I started a couple of years ago? ..
I have a tendency to continue to work on old projects at least once a year, and if I don't work on them, I rip them back out and reclaim the yarn. :)

18. What is your favorite holiday?

My longtime favorite has been Valentine's day.. but this year has left me a little cynical and wary, so maybe for this year it'll be Halloween instead: masks and costumes and being someone archetypical.. a theatrical presentation instead of a vulnerable human soul...

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Is there anything I don't? ..hmm... I have a large and treasured collection of knitting and fiber craft books (yet still somehow I have a wishlist!) .. I collect stone globes (orbs, not eggs... though I think that my orbs are collecting eggs because I seem to have quite a few of them even though I've never really asked for any! ;) ... peacocks (of course!!), hedgehogs, and jellyfish... yarn..., fiber craft tools!! (like shuttles and lucets and knitting needles and tatting shuttles!), ... that's what comes to mind today, anyway..

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I don't yet have subscriptions to any magazines! (can you believe it?) .. I've been thinking I should get some this year, maybe.. Vogue Knitting, Spin-Off, InKnitters, Ornament, and FiberCraft are all magazines I pick up regularly from the stores and should really think about getting subscriptions for! (I'd probably save money..)

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

.. techniques that are still on my to-do list: entrelac, domino knitting, shadow-knitting, further exploration in hairpin lace crochet, making a sweater (that not only fits but flatters), more experience with cable knitting, really intense lace work (maybe the Peacock Feathers shawl from Fiddlesticks?), and combining knitting with other fiber techniques

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I am definitely a sock knitter. My feet are about an 8-1/2 US. I used to be really specific about what I liked in a sock, but that definition is ever-expanding these days... I haven't made any lace socks yet, so I'm not sure whether I'd like them (it seems to me they'd let the cold in. ... but then.. perhaps I'd wear them over a contrasting color nylon?) ... and I haven't made any cabled socks yet, but I have a plan to! .. I am absolutely in love with every pair of hand-knit socks I own--especially the ones that have been knitted for me by othe people! (as a sock knitter, I understand the value of every single stitch that goes into a pair of hand-knit socks!)

I'm thinking that I need a pair of leg-warmers this year, specifically to keep my injured knee warm (and hopefully then it will quit complaining so much about the weather changes and the cold!)

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

My birthday comes around in January. the 12th. Capricorn. Did you know that the Capricorn sign is connected to the Knees? .. fascinating tidbit, that.. I've always had really wonderful knees until this injury.. I'm hoping that when the healing is done I'll have wonderful knees again.. (miserable ankles, but wonderful knees!)