Secret Pal 7 Questionnaire Answers

More than anyone (except my Secret Pal ) wanted to know about me:

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand?
If preferring natural fibers and avoiding Red Heart and Lion Brand makes me a yarn snob then I guess I am. However, there are exceptions - one of my favorite notions is "plastic can be redeemed by love" (found in this essay relating to Waldorf education) and I have occasionally fallen in love with a synthetic yarn, its colors and texture resonating with something in my spirit.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I spin and crochet.

3. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Some of my vast number of needles are in vases, some in see-through plastic pouches, others are residing in various UFOs kept in baskets and bags here and there.

4. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting on and off for decades - seriously knitting for the last 10 years or so. I think I'm probably an intermediate in my general knowledge and skill.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
No.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
Sandalwood, patchouli, violet

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
My sweet tooth is my downfall. I love dark chocolate, jelly candies.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
I'm not doing much other than spinning and knitting and crocheting. I felt/full a lot of knitted and crocheted items and I'd like to do more needle-felting. I'm hoping to learn to dye and handpaint yarn and roving and I'd also like to learn beading and wire work techniques.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
My favorite music is New Age, Celtic. I've been listening to a lot of Indian sitar music lately. Folk music, 60s rock and classical also amuse and soothe me. I'm pretty sure my computer will play MP3s.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
My favorite color family is purple. I can't stand aqua, teal.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Emptying nest. Husband, a daughter still at home who will probably be going away next fall. We have a dog, Clover.

12. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I wear lots of scarves, some hats, occasionally mittens. No ponchos, but lots of shawls.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
Wool and wool/silk blends top my list. Right now I'm loving Noro-Kureyon and Silk Garden and Iro. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and NatureSpun are perennial favorites as is Cascade 220.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Generally, I don't like synthetics and novelty yarn.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
My obsessions change constantly-right at this moment, I'm knitting socks in worsted weight wool.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Shawls and scarves and hats. I also like to knit leaves and spiral embellishments. My fulfilling creative endeavors are in the making of small pots and bowls and other rather impractical woolly objects - needle-felted spirals, roving-covered river rocks....

17. What are you knitting right now?
Purple socks with orange cuffs, heels and toes. A Clapotis scarf in Mountain Colors Mountain Goat. A scarf in Silk Garden and Lamb's Pride.

18. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes!!

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
No preference - I use what works best for my project.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Bamboo usually, but I love my plastic Denise circulars.

21. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have a swift and ball winder, niddy noddies for winding skeins of handspun.

22. How did you learn to knit?
I taught myself from a library book when I was a teenager.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
Nearly a year old. That is relatively youthful - I had 8 year-old UFOs a couple of years ago. Moths finally decided their fates.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
Betty Boop (gosh, is my advanced age showing?)
I'm drawn to turtles, bluebirds.

25. What is your favorite holiday?
Winter Solstice / Christmas

26. Is there anything that you collect?
Children's books, esp. books featuring intrepid girls or old women. And all the better if they do knitting, spinning or needlework!

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Creative Knitting and InKnitters are my only subscriptions. I buy all the rest of them at my LYS or bookstore.

28. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on?
I have an embarrassment of riches of all the above. I'm looking forward to Carol Cypher's upcoming book, Hand Felted Jewelry and Beads, which won't be out until spring.

29. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I would like to better grasp the concept of short rows, so I can use them in my own patterns. I've never done cables and I've been thinking it's high time I set myself to learning how.

30. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Love to knit socks. My foot is 8" around, 9" long.

31. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
09/29

And that's the end of the official questionnaire. I'd like to add:
I am allergic to cats
I love roses and irises and purple coneflowers, morning glories and moonflowers.
I read a lot (for fun I love mysteries and science fiction), write poetry (my favorite poet is Pablo Neruda ), belong to a food co-op, meditate and am drawn to many things that probably reside at the edges of Bell curves.