~ENRICHED~

Moved over to beta blogger

2006-11-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

I've moved the blog to the new beta blogger. It's too bad i couldn't merge this one over there, but this will work :)

The New Improved Enriched Blog

And hey..i'm going to knit 30 hats this month for the hat challenge plus put the patterns up over there :) Join me!

Hattage and Metal Podcast

2006-11-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Well i'm more or less back in the saddle after a weird summer.
I've been knitting and crocheting quite a bit. And doing more altered art.
Life is not going too smoothly at the moment with not working but i'm learning to deal with things.
I've been making knitted and crocheted hats for Rabbitch's Hat Challenge where hopefully there will be enough hats for the homeless of Vancouver.
So far:

The deadline is Dec 1st so i'm sure i'll have more.

Kent's also knitting a hat :) I'll get a picture up of him tonight knitting.

We did his podcast yesterday. Anyone interested in a metal podcast?

http://www.archive.org/audio/xspf_player.php?collectionid=MassHypnosispodcast2_0

Hmm what's with the time on this? it's 12:40 pm lol

~laurie

Long time no post :)

2006-09-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

Well it's been quite a summer over here at chez Enriched. I started a new job and ended up quitting it after 2 months due to the complete unprofessionalism of the work place. Seriously, people being fat fascists, people cutting their toenails (!) at work, and general unbecoming crap that i just hate. Enough said, and summer is over. So back to my Real Life and blog :P
Knitting has been somewhat sporadic . I did make a few baby things and a cool purse but still havent solved the Digital Camera Dilemma. Will do shortly though.
I had hoped to get over to Seattle this past weekend as the Yarn Harlot was there but couldn't manage it.
Other travel plans are somewhat on hold as well as we plan a wedding for next summer-ish. Yes ours! What we want to do is go to Europe afterwards ( He especially would like to be in Wacken Germany in early August for the huge metalfest. I've explained the crowdedness of Europe in the summer and so far that means we may set the date for early August - yay that here in Victoria its fairly nice in summer )
That's pretty much a short update. Oh..except we've had people staying with us for 2 whole frickn months. It was supposed to be 2 weeks! This weekend is supposedly the moving out time but we haven't heard anything about them finding their own place yet.
Let me tell you boys 'n girls, have we ever learned a lesson. Helping folks out is great. But making sure there are very sturdy boundaries is extremely important. We didn't make any really because we were told it was only for two weeks. And somehow it kept getting extended and we didn't take ahold of the monster and tie it up ..we just kept thinking 'well we still want to be friends after this so we'll just put up with it' THIS DOES NOT WORK PEOPLE! Not when the friend's 3 yr old spits on you, bites you and calls you names. Ok rant off but listen up in case it happens to you :)
My good friend Andrea in Vienna sent me this today - if you knit check it out !

http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/supergran/

A beautiful day

2006-06-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's a gorgeous monday morning here on the west coast. It is supposed to get much hotter later in the day but i'd feel guilty complaining about it when our weather is usually so good.
The knitting workshop at Hemp went great yesterday ! The women that came were all interesting and funny and easy going. Well, except when they got tense about the knitting :P. I found it really fun and hope they did too.
We've decided to have a knitting circle hopefully at
the Spiral Cafe a couple doors down from Hemp and Co. on sunday afternoons. Sounds idyllic to me :)
I can't get blogger to upload pix today, so for the knitting content of the day i give you a copy of the knitting workshop paper with 2 cloth patterns.One is very basic, the second a tiny bit more challenging for a new knitter. Enjoy!

Knitting with Hemp

Knitting Abbreviations:
CO : cast on
BO : bind off
K2tog : knit 2 stitches together
Sl 1 : slip the stitch
YO : yarn over the needle

Plain Garter Stitch Diagonal Cloth
Needles : size 4mm or 4.5 mm
Row 1: Cast on 2 stitches, knit these once.
Row 2: *Slip 1, Yarn Over, knit to end.
Continue in this manner, beginning each row with Slip 1, Yarn over.
You will be treating the Yarn Over as a regular stitch on each row.
Knit until the cloth is half the size you want.
Knit one row plain. ( remember to slip the first stitch)
Next Row: Slip 1, Knit 2 together, knit to end.
Repeat until you have 2 stitches left. Knit 2 together.
Slipping the first stitch of every row in a piece of knitting gives a firmer tidier edge.
Lace Edge Cloth
Needles : size 4mm or 4.5 mm
Cast On 35 stitches.
Row 1: Sl 1, Knit to end
Row 2: (K2tog)2x, * (YO K1) 4x, (K2tog) 4x *, repeat * * to last 4 stitches, ( K 2tog) 2x
Row 3, 4 , 5 : Sl 1, Knit to end.
Row 6: (K2tog) 2x, * (YO K1) 4x, (K2tog) 4x *, repeat * * to last 4 stitches, ( K 2tog) 2x
Row 7 : Sl 1, Knit to end.
Repeat Row 7 until it's as long as you like. Bind Off.
Optional eyelet row: About half to one inch ( 1.5 to 2.5 cm) before you want the end of your cloth.
Eyelet Row: Sl 1, K1, YO, K2tog Repeat * * to end
Next Row: Knit. Bind Off.

Online Knitting instructions:
http://learntoknit.lionbrand.com/

http://www.learntoknit.com/instructions_kn.php3

Free patterns : just a couple to start with
http://www.knitty.com/
>www.straw.com/cpy/free_patterns.html
www.magknits.com/

Podcast links : remember to listen to podcast you don't need an ipod!
http://scifiville.typepad.com/knitcast/
http://www.cast-on.com/

Blogs: there are many many knitting related blogs online.
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

http://freeknittinglessons.blogspot.com/ (mine)
http://www.glittyknittykitty.co.uk/
Laurie Dolan White http://www.enriched.ca/ http://freeknittinglessons.blogspot.com/

I've been a busy girl!

2006-06-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

Too long between posts but i've been very busy. Started out by getting a kinda flu bug thing. Then somehow, after doing a 3 day freelance job got two fulltime job offers.
One i took! Next week i'm back in fulltime employ thank the gods. With benefits and all. Perfect hours ( 8 to 4 :30 same as Kent), weekdays. Happy thing really.
Of course at the same time i have a big offer of knitting for a shop and actually getting paid for it. I'm going to try to do both since they are allowing me leeway with choice of patterns ( all my own)
Sunday is the workshop at Hemp and Company. I'm really excited. Apparently we've had tons of interest. I'll report Sunday evening :)
On the knitting activism front please view this site and consider helping. Or doing something of your own!
redsweaters
I'm going to teach people to knit of course. But i've been kicking around some other ideas too.
Like maybe a knitted tshirt or jacket type garment protesting the 'war'. I don't know why it bugs me so much to call it a war. I feel like its a military action.. a bullying. And complete Bullshit by Big Brother.
I've decided to make this blog my main blog. So there will be more frequent posts! Peace ~laurie

Catching up on the week

2006-06-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

This past week has been very busy with unpacking and sorting. Let me catch you up on the 'real work' i've done.
Altered art stuff - clockwise from midnight ... pinup altar - an entry for Inspire me Thursdays this week. Was once a ring box. Please click here for more detail
The altered art cards are just not photographing well. I have to get a new digital camera before this drives me crazy!

Next, another crappy picture: really crappy actually. It's a vest and shorts set for my oldest's new baby who is imminent :) and a boy! I'm writing up the pattern and making another two for my other daughter's baby girl and my son's baby daughter too. Thats my week sorta... applied for a couple of jobs, worked on podcasts. Writing out patterns for the Hemp Knitting Workshop taking place Sunday the 25th at Hemp&Co in Vic West.

In podcast news, i have begun a plan! And joined a yahoo podcast group. I'm also working on our websites and hope to have those up and running soon.

Bleh im exhausted just reading all that lol! I am going to knit now. ~laurie

Inspire me Thursday

2006-06-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

Yes another inspiring website! There's also a Flickr group too. I have to say, it really helps my creativity to have 'challenges' from different art type communities :)
Anyhow, the challenge this week on Inspire me Thursday was to make something both artistic and useful.
I had a few things laying around and really needed a little garbage bin in the bathroom.
The pictures are up at my Flickr space as Blogger seems to be having problems.
Take a look at My flickr . I love maps and this was a great use of our local one.

First Entry to the Amazing Lace project

2006-06-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

This picture may look crazy, but it's pretty much how i feel after this weeks insane move to the new apartment. Too many silly things happened to relate again!
In any case this is a picture of the Llaurie's amazing Lace Team. Wendy "Miami dk" cotton/acrylic blend in plain cool white. I've begun the gauge process and am working out the pattern. This yarn and i have been having discussions for a while. I see it as a lovely lace peasant top. It seems to see itself as a baby layette. We'll see who's will is more iron :).
Honestly i usually post more but i'm exhausted ( no doubt you can tell that by the pic, even though i was kind to myself and my vintage wool and used a glamour filter) ~laurie

Felted Balls?

2006-05-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

Yep we are in the midst of preparing for the move June 1st.
Of course, this means i managed to obtain a fleece and have to clean it. Have to - 'cause ya know it smells bad...how come people don't bathe the sheep before shaving them? Wouldn't it make the de-fleecing a pleasanter experience?
Anyhow, i now have a fleece and need to learn to spin. But i wanted to try felting unspun wool too. So here my dears, is the chronicle of the try. ( i hear Yoda" Do or do not, there is no try" Whatever!

So i cleaned and picked over a small amount of fleece.

Then took some flowers from a bush outside and boiled them up leaving a nice purple colour to the water. Also did some lemon balm too thinking it would make a nice green. Added vinegar to the water as a mordant.

When i saw that the green was not being picked up by the wool, i threw in a pack of orange koolaid. Put both bowls in the oven for half an hour to process the dye. And got this:

insert swearing of your choice

Good thing i like orange. I rolled up the balls and tried felting them by hand . Nope. Put them in the bottom of socks and washed and dried them in large loads of laundry according to these instuctions for lovely felted balls.

http://gfwsheep.com/feltballs/feltballs1.html

Got a pile of fluff.

Finally i found a pair of very thin socks ( prev had used the bf's white sox) and tried again. Now i have 3 balls that are semi hard. Punny?

sigh

I'm going to wrap them in some different colours of Lopi and try again. I'll let you know.

I wonder why the blue didnt take? It certainly seemed strong.

Refining

2006-05-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

Take one bought-on-sale-for-5bux ugly lamp. Give the shade a base coat of white.
Or ask your helpful MetalHead boyfriend to do it :)

Then give it a coat of coppery red metallic paint.

Knit or crochet a cover with red hemp string.
Mine is mostly just knit every row,
with a yarn over thrown in once in a while.
I really like the texture, the uneveness and homeliness of the resulting very stretchy knitted fabric.
Stretch it over the dry painted lampshade and sew the side edge.

I then took a few lengths of the twine, added 10 beads to each and tied a knot in each end. Tied them around the post of the lamp thusly:

This was pretty effective. The beads are more see through and shiny in real life.

So one very boring lamp turns into something pretty damn cool. I'm calling her the Betty the Boudoir lamp. :)

Entered it into the whiplash contest cuz it's all about colour this week.Since today was a holiday i actually got a chance to finish and enter! woot ~laurie

Abbey knits :)

2006-05-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

Desire to knit is hereditary!

Lest you think i have forgotten!

2006-05-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

Nope, haven't forgotten the blog. In fact, i've gotten a 'real' website that has the enriched.ca domain name! I'm working on setting everything up so it's a big learning curve.
I've been working on some knitting and got invited to facilitate a knitting workshop at Hemp and Co. here in Victoria. In Vic West actually, right close to where i live.

I knit up this curry coloured washcloth as a sample and am going to make up some more complicated samples too. Hard to know what kind of knitters will be there so i want to make something to cover all bases.
We've found a great apartment too - just around the corner. Moving day is June 1st.

quick baby shoes, quick post for now

2006-05-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

Life ..it's working against my keeping this up to date. I'm hoping tomorrow lets me blog in peace and quiet!
Made these tonight - crappy pix since my regular digital cam is broken. They are actually a nice mauve colour - knit from Paton's cotton club on size 4.5 mm needles .

There's a much better pic and a link to the pattern here:
http://auntieamandaknits.blogspot.com/2006/01/more-baby-knits.html
I love that she painted the buttons she had with nail polish! I used some clear silvery large beads for buttons since that's all i had in the house at the moment. They are much cuter than pictured here and are on their way at this moment to the baby they are for :)
~laurie

Pattern up! Podcast down but coming!

2006-05-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

Corianne shawl pattern link is in the sidebar under it's flickr. Useful pattern for beginners. The podcast won't be ready until Friday afternoon. I've sorted out the hows and whats and have come up with a good schedule for myself.

Finished shawl, more podcast ponderings

2006-04-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

I put pix of the finished Corianne shawl at flickr as you can see in the sidebar. Pattern follows shortly ~ i just haven't figured out where to put it yet. After trying a few knitted edgings i used a crochet one. I like the bumpyfunkiness of it . It's easy, even if you are a beginning crocheter.
Podcast is slightly delayed. New microphone! I've been working with audacity and for some reason its making my voice less clear . After i iron out that glitch i'll put it up, hopefully tonight. Note the new rss feed button. And also you can leave me a kinda voicemail with odeo.(see the sidebar again) Try it out!
Next line is just me checking to see if my podcast service is working right
My Odeo Channel (odeo/7959ca4366cd11e7)

Podcast decisions, knitting a shawl

2006-04-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i began a shawl made of Bernat soft boucle in cream. It's for my youngest daughter and needs to be extremely washable, therefore the crossing over to the AcrylicDarkSide. I knit it in garter stitch on 12.75 mm needles, loose but not too loose. One ball made the basic triangle shape . Today i'll be knitting a wide lace border on 6mm needles.This one looks great to me :

found here:
http://www.knitting-and.com/homework/leaf-edging-for-counterpane.htm

I'm a sucker for swatching :) and will prolly do 10 test trys before deciding on said border.

Basic shawl - cast on 3 stitches, increase one stitch at the beginning of every row until its the size you want ( this one is approx. 70" wide and 40" long so far without the lace yet) I'll post the pattern when i'm done.

My favourite knitting plan is to have projects that are part simple and part pay close attention. Hence the simple triangle and the more complicated lace.

Podcast news: new one should be posted later today.(nope will be tomorrow due to real life interference) I'm trying to decide whether or not to stick to the same format every week. For now i'll play around with it and see what comes naturally. Listened to a wide variety of casts this week and found a lot of interesting ones. Remember - you don't need an ipod to listen!

Short Podcast Intro :)

2006-04-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a little podcast intro. I was a bit nervous ... no surprise there i guess. Thanks Littlejoanie and Linda for critiqing!

ways to give away lessons?

2006-04-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've been pondering how to approach this. Here's the list of ideas so far:

1) Put up ads on bulletin boards.

2) Post at places likes craigslist and freecycle.

3) Get a busker's license ( necessary where i live in beautiful Victoria BC) and just go downtown and knit...with a sign "free knitting lessons" The bf (see masshypnosis link) thinks this is a little too over the top for now...but he's supportive and excited about the whole thing. I think it's doable and would be interesting. Before anyone thinks i 'asked his permission' , we both try hard to say exactly what we feel individually , then act on what we want to do. Takes energy but is worth it.

4) Call the local outreach center and see if they'll take a knitting volunteer.

Check later for my first podcast!

An idea

2006-04-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

I've kinda had this inspiration . What would happen if i just teach people to knit..for free? All kinds of people but especially impoverished people.

And just what do i mean by impoverished? I don't mean only those marginalized by lack of money. I think that lack of money is only one way to be impoverished.

There are those who have no creative outlets due to societally pressured busy-ness: they are impoverished.

There are those who have such a restricted view of themselves that they no longer believe they can learn anything new: they are impoverished

They are who are content to suck the non-confrontational, non-thinking corporate teat of mainstream milquetoast media; again, impoverished.

I can't solve world poverty. I can't solve much of anything really. But i can knit and teach knitting. And maybe while i'm doing it, i can grow. I can be an uplifter . Not a do-gooder. I don't want to make anyone my project. I just want to share knitting.

This will be a journal of the journey - the who/what/when/where and how of free knitting lessons.

The Why? Because creativity is the opposite of impoverishment.