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Michelle Brady

@dolorsitametish.bsky.social

LA-based graphic designer, knitter, appreciator of laughter, birds, Taskmaster, No More Jockeys, etc…

296 Posts152 Follower78 Folgt
Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 3w ago

Final week of Tour de Fleece! Nearly 20oz of yarn spun, 1.6km or 1 mile of finished yarn! But counting the singles for TDF credit of how much yarn went through my fingers on the wheel: 5.4km or 3.35miles. Woo! I've discovered I love Manx Loaghtan wool and I might need a sweater's worth, oh no!

The final shoebox of yarn! Left to right: two hanks of 3-ply Rambouillet/Columbia in a natural grey-brown; 2-ply hank of yellow-to-blue gradient Polworth; 2-ply hank of light blue-brown blend of Romney, Romeldale, and llama; 2-ply hank of a warm brown Manx Loaghtan; a very large 2-ply hank of Cormo, Zwartbles, Manx, and peduncle silk; a small collection of dinky samples of the various blends above!The final two spins for Tour de Fleece! One ounce of 2-ply Manx Loaghtan in its natural warm grey (it's so sproingy!) and a 2-ply, 4.25 ounce hank of Cormo, Zwartbles, Manx, and peduncle silk I blended together on a whim! It broke my niddy noddy! The devil's ivy continues to look a bit sad, alas.Some combed top I've dizzed off my hand cards for the final blended yarn, and some bits of the fiber before blending. From the top: nearly black Zwartbles, dark golden brown peduncle silk, warm brown Manx Loaghtan, and white Cormo. It's only about 5% silk if my math is right (my math is almost certainly not right) and I didn't think it was doing much when I was spinning the singles, but whilst plying it I could really feel it! I hate mulberry silk but this stuff is a delight!
Molly Knight@mollyknight.bsky.social · 4w ago

Embarrassed and furious that many Dodgers are at the White House right now. It’s a stab in the back to Los Angeles and their fanbase. Their ownership group should know better. Shame on them. Credit to Mookie and Kiké for opting out.

Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 4w ago

Tour de Fleece week two! 6.5 oz of...sport-ish weight? Maybe DK? Yarn, anyway! (Someone teach me how WPI works please, it's so arbitrary.) I promise that's a different hank of Rambouillet/Columbia, and the blue is a blend of Romney, Romeldale CVM, and llama I carded up myself!

2 finished hanks of handspun yarn sitting on a red portable record player with some rather sickly devil’s ivy around. On the right, a medium-dark brown/grey. On the left, a light blue with some soft brown.The original pack of wools from English Blue Ribbon farm. Blue, white and oatmeal colored fiber beautifully wrapped up in brown paper and a fabric ribbon, waiting for me to make a mess of it with my hand cards.Somewhere around 32 fluffy nests pulled off my hand cards filling up a long rectangular cardboard box to overflowing. They are light blue and fluffy as heck!The twisted hank of finished blue yarn in the same cardboard box, taking up so little of it compared to the overflowing fluffs. Spinning wool is just putting air into and then taking air out of wool.
Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · last mo.

Week one of Tour de Fleece got me 7oz of fingering weight yarn! 3oz naturally colored Rambouillet/Columbia (combed top from Leaf Livestock) in a 3 ply, and 4oz Polworth (hand-dyed braid from FatCatKnits) in a 2ply. More of the grey this week, and hopefully some hand-carding experiments!

2 finished hanks of handspun yarn sitting on a red portable record player with some rather sickly devil’s ivy around. On the right, a medium-dark brown/grey. On the left, a gradient from dark blue to blue/grey to icy blue to soft yellow. Three wooden spinning wheel bobbins of medium dark brown/grey wool waiting to be plied. One has a sticker that reads “protect queer kids”The original braid from FatCatKnits in the color Marisol. I spun it end to end, and did a 2-ply with a plying ball to maintain the blue-to-yellow gradient. The polworth is such a soft, delightful fiber to spin, it basically spun itself!An in progress shot of the gradient singles on the wheel, almost halfway through. You can see the icy blue transitioning into the pure yellow.
Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · last mo.

Tour de Fleece starts tomorrow, but I’m planning a fairly boring spin, so here’s a peek at the warmup spinning I’ve been doing. I’ve named the Turkish spindle ‘Mert,’ and I think the finished yarn will be called ‘How do you make brown?’

A close up of a mottled purple-brown turtle of singles wrapped reasonably neatly onto a mini cross-armed or Turkish spindle with some purpleish roving. I suppose in this instance the answer to the question is “…purple?” rather than “…blue?”A similar turtle on the same spindle, but with a surprisingly rainbow-adjacent gradient in this small spot. I don’t especially like this particular braid of Malabrigo Nube, but it has its moments! I suspect when I ply it’ll turn to a purplish mud though, we’ll see!
Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Adding John Kearns to the list of people to appeal to for a green card marriage because wowee would I love to marry into that surname. "Y'know the one, the graphic designer with the 'lorem ipsum' tattoo? Michelle Kearns." "Uh, yeah, I sure hope she does!"

Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Had to learn how to make flipbooks for work, so obviously for practice I made a wildly impractical flipbook of my favorite Taskmaster task and then gave it to Alex Horne when I was in London. As you do. (Guz and I have so many questions for you about these balloons of yours, Alex.)

Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Thanks again for everything, England. I saw so many friends and saw so many comedians and nearly broke my museum curse and lightly explored your West Country and only had two meals from Pret because I had adult supervision this go around and (arguably) met a robin for the first time!

A composite dodo skeleton on display at the Natural History Museum. It's articulated and underlit and facing the right with fancy stained glass windows behind it. London loves to hide the thing I want to see most in a museum, and thankfully it let me meet this guy (after talking to 3 different docents about it). I've wanted to see a dodo skeleton for decades and it's more incredible than I imagined. A young boy came into the 'Treasures' gallery with his mother as we were leaving and went, "...is that a DODO?!" and dashed over to it, and he warmed my cold stony heart even more.A very busy photograph of many skeletons and small beasts trapped in jars or behind glass at the Grant Museum of Zoology, a very academic-dark-wood type of museum. Place is just packed full of dead little guys. Its claim to fame is the Jar of Moles, which, of course, was not on display when we visited. Would recommend even without the moles.Mark Watson at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. He's wearing a red shirt and holding both a microphone and glass of wine in his right hand. He's brightly lit from the front against a black background, and photographed somewhat poorly from below and to his left. The second time that week I made a menace of myself by offering up that I was visiting from Los Angeles (sorry Taskmaster S22E1 audience) but what can I say, my country did bring you guys Pringles. Phenomenal show from a lovely man. (I've finally completed the set and met all three ATLs and they are all a delight.)A photograph of the underside of stairs and escalators, with industrial pipes and concrete and rivets. The theme of this trip was "How is this country so old and why is its architecture so insane especially the Tube oh god it just keeps GOING." While my pal Amanda was pointing out buildings older than my country, I encountered an empty Westminster Tube station at like 11pm alone on my way to an airbnb after seeing John Kearns and I was too flabbergasted to take a proper photo until I was at the bottom because for about 2 minutes I thought I was in a Terry Gilliam film. I can't with London, why is it like this.
Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A youth offered me his seat on the Tube. I’m choosing to believe it was because of the suitcase and not because of the fact I am old and looked exhausted from my adventures. Love you too, London, great to be back!

Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 4mo ago

My new hobby is watching Uber drivers fail at finding the 110 North. I'm 3 for 2 this year. (Tonight's driver missed the freeway twice, narrowly caught herself on the third try, and thankfully avoided both the last-resort roundabout of doom and Dodger Stadium on game night at 9pm.)

Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I've just gotten into Banana Ball, and in this game I've seen 4 people steal 1st, a dude hit for the cycle, a lady pitching, a "Beat It" dance off, a Mr. T man-anana cheerleader, and a light saber bat. If the Dodgers visit the White House I'm converting 100% to this pristinely whimsical sport.

Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 7mo ago

If you ever find yourself wanting to feel like the most powerful person alive, I highly recommend buying a massive 1kg cone of yarn and knitting an all-over cabled sweater. In this case, the Book Club Pullover. Bonus points if you ladder down and re-twist a few cables.

The start of a hand-knit cabled sweater in a grasshopper-ish green color, spread out in a quilted bedspread. The front and back have been started, the neck hole in the center. It is moments away from being joined in the round. It will admittedly look less lumpy once finished and blocked, but wow does it look impressive if I do say so myself.
Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I'm normally a pretty monogamous knitter, but given the state of...everything, I've got enough WIPs going that I've somehow lost my US size 4 interchangeable needle tips in my 400 sq ft home just when I need to stress-knit-at-1am-during-a-bullshit-military-invasion the most.

Michelle Brady@dolorsitametish.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Just a reminder to my fellow SoCal-ers that if you're driving in the rain – especially the sort of atmospheric river that might, I don't know, flood your aunt and uncle's house Christmas Day – turn on your headlights please for the love of everything.