SP8 Questionnaire

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

Favorite yarns include Koigu (for socks and shawls), Nashua's Creative Focus as a good basic for felting and such, it's just a bit softer than Lambs' Pride (another favorite), Regia's new silk-blend sock yarn (not too keen on their scratchier wool/nylon blends, but the one with silk is fabulous.

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

Whatever I can lay my hands on! Different things for different needles. I use old button tubes for my larger dpn's and crochet hooks, ziploc baggies for some of my small dpn's, the original packaging for my small Crystal Palace dpn's, a strange binder sized plastic box for my circulars, and a zippered cloth bag for my single points.

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

My mom taught me to throw when I was little. About 5 years ago, I picked knitting back up and taught myself to pick continental style. I'm a convert and will not willingly go back. I consider my skill level intermediate, which is to say that I am comfortable tackling almost any project with a pattern (the only thing keeping me from completing them is time and follow-through), and designing my own small things on the fly (sometimes without documentation, a bad habit that causes my second socks to differ from their earlier cousins).
For some reason I can teach throwing, but I have not yet figured out how to teach picking.

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

I do, ask me where to find it and I'll let you know

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

I don't do scented bath products so much. I do, however enjoy trying a new tea.

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

Dark chocolate. Rapunzel brand is a current favorite. It's suprisingly good dipped in a bit of a chipotle chili sauce.

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

I spin (often), I weave (infrequently), I dye (with enthusiasm), I braid (when a plied cord just won't cut it), I crochet (more frequently this year than last), I lucet (only at RennFaire), I sew (poorly).
I do not draw.
(I used to say, "I can't draw," but then I decided to earn a BA in Art and had to do a couple of prerequisite courses that involved drawing. Now I am firm in the opinion that I don't draw. If I wanted to spend the time to learn how to do it better, I could. I choose not to!)

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 lots of music, rock, folk, indie, world, celtic, indian, some country, minimal pop, some classical.
My computer is perfectly capable of playing MP3s, (I think I even have a CD player somewhere that will play them, though I may be wrong about that... and besides, I've been thinking about getting an iPod)

9. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

I like from green all the way around the color wheel to the near side of red. Or rather, green, blue, purple and the cooler reds. Orange and yellow don't really do anything for me, either when I'm wearing them or looking at them.
Favorite color would have to be green. I'm identified around the house by green polka dots on things and that's just fine with me. It makes finding my stuff much easier. (This will be a moot point next year when I've moved off to school and my own apartment, but for now it's very convenient and I won't mind having the green dots follow me around.)

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

I live with my best friend and her husband. We share a dog named Zhenya who will become mine when I take him with me to school next fall.

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

Scarves, hats and mittens, yes.
Ponchos, no.
Not that I wouldn't wear the right poncho, it's just that it'd really have to be the right poncho...

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

Socks...
Or at least that's what my project basket would tell you. I seem to have at least a few of them on needles at any given point in time.
Sweaters are my favorite things to have knitted, they're much more impressive and get complimented more than socks.
Lace is my favorite thing to knit. I enjoy being asked to pay a little more attention to my knitting than I normally manage. (I find reading charts much easier than following verbose lace instructions.)

13. What are you knitting right now?

I plead the fifth...
The projects that have been following me around are:
A sock in regia's new silk blend, a felted evening bag for the shop, a lace weight mohair scarf for the shop, the handspun hat for the NWRSA swap, some spinning fiber, a commercial sweater I'm ripping for yarn, and the chart for my first cross-stitch project in ages.
I suppose those aren't all technically knitting, but I don't really care.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes, they're lots of fun and often give a bit more information about the giver than a purchased gift would.

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

Circular for anything I can't fit on a 7" or shorter straight needle. Bamboo for wool, Addi turbos for cotton... or, more honestly, I'll use any needle I can find when I want to start a project, with the exception that I won't use long straight needles for anything at all and I'd really rather avoid aluminium.

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

Yes, both.
Actually there are two ball winders in the house, one swift and an assortment of niddy noddies.
What we do not have is a skein winder, though we do have a warping board and a couple inkle looms that will do the job if necessary.

17. How did you learn to knit?

My mother taught me when I was little. I gave it up when I got bored and picked it up again in college when I couldn't find any crochet patterns worth their salt.
(I love that phrase. It's such a gem of an image from a time gone by. My mother once showed me a book all about the history of salt (Beneath the Salt, I believe the title was).)

18. How old is your oldest UFO?

Much younger now that I sewed up that sweater I knit in 2003.

19. What is your favorite holiday?

And the trite and slightly snide answer to this question is:
Memorial day.
Because it's the reason I often get a 3 day weekend for my birthday!

20. Is there anything that you collect?

Books, yarn, state quarters, unfinished projects...
Um, right now I'm moving and don't need any more knick-knacks.

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

Books I want: Poetry in Stitches, One Skein, Mason-Dixon
Magazines I get: Interweave Knits, Spin-Off

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

Well, I learned intarsia last night at Knit'n'Knuth.
And knitting backwards down the row to avoid purling at work that afternoon.
Mostly I pick up new techniques as they are required for a project I want to do. I'm not really intimidated by them.
I suspect entrelac is next.

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

Yes.
Um... I'm going to cop out on this one.
It's listed in my SP7 posting
I wear a size 9.5 women's shoe.

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

5/27