Making Stuff, Week 3: Spikes.

I got back into a groove this week now that things have quieted down in other areas of my schedule and I’ve started a couple of new projects and made progress on others. To start with, I dyed more of Benz’s white fleece red for the commissioned yarn I’m working on that will be plied with his black fleece. That has to dry fully before it’s carded and spun, which gave me a great chance to get some other things started.

Now that I’d finished the sage-green alpaca/Tencel yarn I needed a new project for my Lendrum. I’m not ready to spin the yarn for the Silverton Sweater yet — I want to card all of the batts I’m going to need first. This way I can see if there are any variations in the batts that would require me to do some mixing or breaking up in order to spin a consistent yarn. And since I’ve only washed, carded, and blended half the fiber I need for the project that meant I could start another one.

I poked through my fiber boxes and found two batches of fiber I’ve had for about four years: roughly a pound of super soft chocolate brown alpaca and one pound of natural, undyed Corriedale. I remembered that I wanted to spin the two together for a sweater but had never decided on just how. I thought that a 2-ply sportweight yarn that was made up of one alpaca single and one Corriedale single would be really nice, so I took that with me to Saturday’s spin-in and got one bobbin of each spun so far.

One alpaca bobbin and one Corriedale bobbin.

I’d never actually spun Corriedale before and it definitely felt very nice. It was easy to spin, and though it’s not as soft as Merino its hand will be tempered a bit by the softness of the alpaca it’ll be plied with. I’m letting these sit and set twist while I spin another two bobbins, one of each. Then I’ll ply those since that will use up the four bobbins I currently have for the Lendrum (not counting the plying bobbin).

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The Trance of the Wheel

There are people who thrive on showing their unique-snowflake-ness to the world through the flashy display of their fringe hobbies. There is a kind of hobby-exhibitionism that these kinds of people revel in, a “look how strange I am, doing these strange things! Isn’t that strange? I’m so gosh-darned unique!” attitude that tends to get under my skin. It’s something I’m hypersensitive about because one of my hobbies — belly dance — requires a certain amount of willing exhibitionism, of diva and performer, to even fully engage with it on even the most basic level. And I am not one of those people.

Though not as much as belly dance, spinning falls into that category of odd hobby that people tend to find a little hippie, a little fringy, and a little weird. Because of that I’ve always been a little shy about spinning in public until I fell in with the Eastside Spinners Guild, a group of spinners that meets every Saturday, alternating between Starbucks here in Issaquah and Fortunato’s Wine Bar in Woodinville. Most people bring their spinning wheels and a few people bring regular drop spindles. I really wanted to join in even though I’ve always been a little self-conscious of spinning yarn in a public place (although I carry a spindle with wool in purse, I usually won’t do it in public — it’s generally reserved for lunch-time spinning in a secluded corner at work). I finally did join in a few weeks ago and have enjoyed the get-togethers I’ve been able to attend, and having so many other people to spin with I feel less like a weirdo doing some crazy hippie thing.

But what’s really strange is that I tend to attract all the people who want ask us what we’re doing. I have no idea why. There are usually at least ten people there and on days like today, twenty. All of them are equally capable of answering questions and all of them are just as friendly. But for some reason, they tend to pick me. And contrary to what I would have thought I thoroughly enjoy this.

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Making Stuff: Week 2

I’ve decided that since I do a lot more than spinning it would be a much better use of a weekly blog post on making stuff to, you know, make it about all the stuff. I knit, I spin, and I’ve even developed a little dabbling interest in making jewelry over the last year, so why limit it to spinning? So this week we’re just going to consider last week’s post a test run and continue the weekly theme under the title of “Making Stuff.”

I haven’t had as much time this week as I normally do because we’ve been really pushing hard on a deadline at work. (A little side note: did you know that the game I’m working on has been announced? If you haven’t already, check out Monday Night Combat at Uber Entertainment. We’re all pretty excited.) But I did manage to squeeze in a half hour or two here and there this week, and most of that was spent getting to know my new Lendrum.

Oh, my Lendrum! I’m so excited! Last week I bought my first-ever new-for-me spinning wheel, a Lendrum double treadle with all the accessories — plying head, fast flier, lazy kate, the works. For almost ten years I used a borrowed Louet S10 that dated from the 1970s. It was a great wheel, but really only great in the sense that I was ignorant of how other wheels felt and having learned to spin on this one (after graduating from a drop spindle) it was what I was used to. That doesn’t mean I look back on it as a bad wheel, quite the opposite. But it had its quirks — including a vicious knock that happened every rotation, something I tried for years to get rid of but could never find and fix the actual source — and began to feel limiting once I’d been spinning for several years, and I frequently looked in envy at the newer, more modern wheels that other spinners I knew were using.

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This Week in Spinning: Week 1

Taking a cue from my friend Jamie’s most excellent blog (highly recommended reading) I decided to start a weekly blogging project based on my yarn spinning. I don’t need to do it for motivational purposes — I’m pretty productive when it comes to spinning — but I thought it would be a great way to mark my own progress both creatively and in skill level. And it’s just kind of fun.

This weekend was actually pretty awful. For the first time in a while I had a weekend without any prior commitments, and I was going to spend early Saturday with the Eastside Spinner’s Guild and then head to work the rest of the day, and most of Sunday, so that I could bust through some work I need to get done for an upcoming deadline. But I woke up Saturday with an odd sense of motion sickness; I had some vague nausea and every time I moved my head it seemed to make it worse. As the morning went on it only got worse, and all I could do was lay down — any time I sat up I felt nauseous, and if I stood up my heart rate immediately skyrocketed and I felt like I was either going to faint or worse (you know, that nausea thing). I couldn’t read, I couldn’t spin, I couldn’t knit. I was trapped on the couch doing absolutely nothing, which is about the worst state to be in for me. I was horribly sick all night and didn’t begin to feel better until about three o’clock this morning. I decided to pass on going anywhere today since I was still pretty oogey-feeling when I got up and didn’t feel remotely normal until about five o’clock.

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Building a Fiber Studio

For years I’ve always stuffed whatever fiber- and spinning-related things I’ve collected over the years into whatever nooks and crannies of my house or apartment were available. I never consciously dedicated a room as a fiber studio, even if I stuffed its closet to overflowing with all of my bins of fiber and yarn and various other supplies. I always just hauled my spinning wheel out from wherever it happened to be — which was always whatever corner was available in a spare bedroom — and brought it into the living room, and I’ve been doing that lately with my drum carder, my wool combs…so it’s time to devote some actual space to this pursuit.

There’s been a thread lately on the Spin-List group I’m on about fiber studios and whether people have actual dedicated space for one. Some do, some don’t. Some have rooms in their houses that they’ve crammed as tightly as possible to the rafters with shelves of fiber, tools, and equipment. Some have an actual structure somewhere on their property — usually a converted barn or, in one case I read about, a converted milking shed — where they can set up something as private, spacious, and dedicated as a painter’s studio. I envy those people because I think someday I’d like to have a small studio — an actual small building — where I can spend my time when I’m working with fiber. It could happen someday!

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Looking Back at Two Years of Health

Just about two and a half years ago I wrote a blog post about the ongoing health issues I’d been experiencing to that point and all of my run-ins — mostly bad, some good — with the medical establishment to try and solve them. That post is far and away the most linked, commented, and viewed post on my site, and I thought it was time for another update, two and a half years later. The story has developed more and I want to chronicle this for myself as well as other people.

I was frank in the previous blog post I mentioned above and I’ll be just as frank here, talking specifically about what’s going on with my body in all its gory detail, because the frankness of my last blog post seemed to really be helpful to readers, and there’s no sense in hiding this kind of information when you’re trying to write honestly about these things. So if you’re not interested in reading the intimate details — read: I’m going to mention periods! Specifically mine! — you probably should skip this blog update. (Also, it’s absurdly long.)

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Silverton Sweater: Test Spinning

I spun up two of the batts I’ve been making for the Silverton Sweater project. Just to document this process properly and recap a bit, here’s a quick shot of my boy, Silverton, a little wet and leaf-covered, just the way he likes it.

Look at that smile.

Here’s a one ounce batt that consists of roughly 60% Silverton’s fleece, 20% Merino wool that I dyed blue, and 20% white Tencel.

60% Silverton. Make that 60% of AWESOME.

I test-spun two of those batts. With the first batt, I pulled off pieces and spun it over-the-fold with a supported long draw. I knew this would ensure a truly woolen yarn, which would give it softness and loft. With the second batt, I pulled the batt into roving and then spun the roving with a modified worsted draw — instead of really short pulses, I let my front hand pull the fiber a bit longer than you normally would in a true worsted draw, while also pulling the fiber supply back a bit, and then I smooth the single with my front hand down to the drafting triangle and repeat. Here’s a shot of the finished yarn from the second batt, plied 3-ply. It’s not the best light, but it’ll do for now.

A short section of 3-ply test.

Tonight I knitted that yarn into a test swatch with some impromptu cabling, since I know I want cabling in the final sweater.

Beautiful!

I absolutely love the blue tweedy look combined with the beautiful natural color of Silverton’s fleece. And it’s very soft. This is the semi-worsted yarn, and tomorrow I plan to swatch the true woolen yarn to see which one I like better for the final project.

Toenails Without Tears

The adaptability of alpacas to new experiences just amazes me every time I see it. It seems like dogs and cats, whose surroundings and daily routine seem far more susceptible to change than that of alpacas, take several events of a specific type occurring over and over before they’ll get used to it happening. Alpacas, on the other hand, seem to only need to experience something once before they figure out if it’s harmless or not.

Take The Mysterious Broom, for instance. A few weeks ago we picked up a large push broom to keep in the barn because the boys throw their hay around when they eat with wild abandon, and so every morning when we feed them we sweep up the mess to discourage vermin and keep the boys from cushing down in it and getting it stuck in their fleece (because I’m the one who has to clean that out later). The first time we brought out The Mysterious Broom the boys were eating in the barn and they immediately panicked, flailing around and clumsily bumping into each other in their rush to get out of the barn. OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT THING?! It’s some…big…brown THING! And they’re pushing it toward us! Get out! Get out while you still can!

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Spinning Project Catch-Up

Having mentioned the various spinning projects I’ve worked on over the past year I thought it would be good to show a few of them off in more detail, including some I didn’t mention recently. And as I said before this has been a banner year for me in terms of spinning — I’ve got my own fiber supply now, I’m spinning more intentionally, and I’ve jumped into dyeing, combing, and drumcarding.

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a beautiful Golding drop spindle, given to me by Matt’s mom. I always like to have a spindle project going even though I do the bulk of my spinning at the wheel because spindle projects are so portable. I still had some of Cinnamon’s undyed combed top that I’d carded with soy silk in a roughly 50/50 blend; I figured this was the perfect spindle project. I didn’t have a ton of it and figured if I could spin it laceweight then maybe I could make a small project with it.

The finished alpaca/soy silk blend, with the Golding spindle used to spin it.

I’ve got quite a few spindles and I won’t hesitate to say that this is by far the best one I have and have used so far. It spins for what seems like forever and it’s incredibly light. It doesn’t store much because it’s so small, but on a spindle this light I’d primarily be doing laceweight projects anyway.

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Game Industry Observations, Ten Years Later

With a new decade comes the realization that I’ve worked in or around the game industry now for over ten years. Wow. There are questions people have frequently asked me over the years and one of those is whether I’ve ever thought of going back into science and the answer is yes, of course I’ve thought about it, but I love what I do now and don’t plan to leave this line of work any time soon. Other questions I’ve frequently been asked inevitably revolve around my gender: how do I feel about being a woman in a male-dominated industry? Does the ubiquity of porn-star-like female game models ever turn me off of gaming or working in the industry? Do I wish there were more “girl games?”

Kotaku’s article today about the ten most influential women in gaming of the past decade got me thinking that these questions seem so antiquated now and that our industry doesn’t really get a whole lot of credit for the advancements it’s made in the last ten years, not just in terms of gender but in terms of sheer quality and maturity. If a site like Kotaku had tried to make a similar list ten years ago they would have struggled to find ten women at all that could be called influential in gaming, and what women they’d have found would likely have been Internet celebrities roughly in the same camp I was in when I worked at GameSpy ten years ago: women who wrote about games or had some kind of online personality cache but couldn’t be said to be involved in their development in any meaningful way. Yes, women in game development ten years ago existed, but they were extremely few and far between.

Now we’re so commonplace that I feel like the subject of women in games — words crammed together so frequently over the years that, when pronounced, seem like one word, womeningames — is hardly a subject at all. The issues that women in the game industry have to face aren’t non-existent to be sure, but how many industries that have traditionally been male-dominated can claim to have seen so much gender distribution in such a short time period? Maybe there are many (to be fair, I haven’t researched it) but having been a part of it for ten years I feel like so much has changed for us that doesn’t get recognized: more games are featuring better designed female characters, both in terms of their visuals and their places in the world and story, and more women are showing up across all aspects of game development: programming, design, art, you name it.

And while a huge percentage of people are still under the misconception that games are strictly for kids, our industry has made huge leaps in the maturity level of our product. I’m not talking about simply the “rated M for Mature” aspect of our games, though that certainly is also the case — like movies, there’s a segment of games designed for adults that contain a lot of blood and violence. But the presentation of games has also matured. First-person shooters with only a shred of a backstory, just enough to give the game’s world a reason to exist, had their place over a decade ago and continue to show up as fun, throwaway shooters. Now we have games like Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, and more that have the depth and presentation of a movie or contain content designed to evoke feelings in you via the one thing that games are good at above all other media: putting you in the driver’s seat. We may not always get that right but how long have movies had to evolve compared to the game industry?

So be proud of what you do, fellow game developers. I feel like the next ten years are going to be just as exciting as the last ten.