Hiya, new SP! I’m looking forward to this exchange! I had to skip out on SP10 due to time constraints so now I’m all eager. :)

Follow the jump if you’re either my SP, or just really want to read a bunch about my taste in yarn…

p.s. a shortcut to the SP11 category on the blog, if you don’t want to read the rest of my yammering on: http://ziggurat.org/blog/?cat=79.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I haven’t discovered anything I really hated, though I didn’t really enjoy working with eyelash yarn on my Kitty Pi, mostly because it kept frigging getting tangled all the time.. I don’t really like fibers without any give (like cotton), because my hands and wrists get pained easily so it’s a little easier with wools. I don’t hate acrylic as a species; in fact, given that one of my current WIPs is a huge crocheted afghan, I have to say that Caron Simply Soft is a life (or at least wallet) saver. (Simply Soft is great. If you are shy of acrylic because of Red Heart Super Saver, seriously, go fondle a skein of this at JoAnn’s Fabrics. Nice stuff! And it makes a whole afghan an affordable project for me, so no complaints there either. That said, I do have a whole copier-paper box full of Red Heart Super Saver. Hey, they were $0.25 per skein at a garage sale a couple weeks ago. And I like afghans. I’m thinking ahead to the long, cold winter ahead, and my poorly insulated flat!) Don’t really have any use for funfur or stick-outy eyelash or weird yarns like that. I don’t really like the look of ribbon yarns. I like single/roving style yarns. I like bamboo. Dunno what else! I’m not really too terribly picky, I guess.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Well, there’s a little of this, and a little of that. I’ve been idly contemplating trying to make myself a knockoff of one of those swanky Lantern Moon needle cases, for putting my circs in, but I’m actually very lazy about sewing, and so I haven’t made it past the “oh, zippers are hard” part of the plan. :)

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I’ve been knitting for about two years or so. I learned when I was a kid from my grandmother, but gave it up promptly after that vacation, and didn’t pick it up again for 20 years. I learned again from Debbie Stoller’s Stitch ‘n Bitch, and a little help from my friend Kim. I knit Continental (more or less; sometimes I throw left-handedly). I really want to learn to knit backwards, so I can finish this stupid garter stitch scarf that I don’t like working on because it’s so boring and I have to turn it all the freaking time. I don’t do colorwork, or fitted clothing really, and I only recently took up lace, so depending on how you define it, I guess I’m probably intermediate.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes, yes, and yes.

5. What’s your favorite scent?
Vanilla, I guess. Though I have to say that lately I’ve found myself intrigued by coconut. I am at a loss to explain why, but it’s probably The Body Shop‘s fault somehow.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Eh. I don’t eat much candy. I always liked butterscotch disks, and English toffee though. I like licorice, so I’m the only person around who ever eats the black jelly beans (and I will steal them, as though there is some sort of competition, when in reality, I’m the only one who doesn’t throw them away). I like chocolate. Then again, who doesn’t like chocolate? I mean, what are the odds there on me saying I like chocolate? Sky blue, water wet, traffic sucks, chocolate good.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I do spin! I have two wheels now (a Babe Production wheel, and a Louët S15), which really overstates my skill. I recently took up crocheting for the sole purpose of joining this ripple-along, which means I can pretty much chain and dc (and a couple other things but not really). I make soap, occasionally rubber stamp things like greeting cards, occasionally paint a little, I collect fountain pens. I recently bought several dyes to try handpainting rovings for spinning. I’ve only done it once, but so far, so good. And I like baking and cooking. I’m trying to teach myself Indian cooking, because I love curries. And fresh hot homemade naan is the best!

I used to have a 1973 Ford Mach 1 Mustang that my dad and I were restoring, but then the garage was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, taking the car with it, and I haven’t had the heart to really think about it much since (I wanted that car pretty much since I knew how to say the word “car,” so it was pretty upsetting when that happened). I recently repaired my car with a shoelace. I’m still taking auto technology (“shop”) classes at community college, though; I don’t expect I’ll ever get ASE certified (because that requires two full years’ employment to sit the exams) or really do car repairs for money, but you never know. I always wanted to rebuild a vintage VW bug, so maybe someday I’ll actually do it? Anyways, it’s fun. Also, it cracks me up to knit during car class lectures.

This isn’t really a craft, per se, but I’m a pretty big Chicago White Sox fan, and I go to a bunch of baseball games. You’ll probably see a bunch of talking (read: complaining) about them over the next couple of months…

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 many different sorts of music. Except new country, and acid jazz. And boring faux-jazz Muzak. I don’t think I’m alone in saying Muzak sucks. Oh, I also really dislike bad alternative. Staind, I’m looking at you. — A pretty decent reflection of my taste in music can be found on my last.fm page. It’s not everything; it obviously doesn’t count things I only have on LP or the number of times I listen to things on my cd changer instead of on the computer, only MP3s, but hey, you can’t have anonymous computerized systems automatically track everything you do, right?

So far this year, I’ve seen the following bands live: Scissor Sisters, Modest Mouse, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire (twice), and Steely Dan. Shut up, I love Steely Dan!

9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?
I like more saturated colors, like royal blue instead of pastel blue. I like orange, and purple, and blue. Maybe not all at the same time. (Or maybe so. You know. I’m flexible.)

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Single, two cats, one of whom is smart and evil, and the other who is ridiculously cute and dumber than a box of rocks. I’m serious. The rocks found the food dish before he did.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Scarves, hats, definitely (Chicago winters taught me it’s better to look stupid and be warm than to be cold and also look stupid because my idiot self didn’t wear a damn hat.). Mittens, qualified yes (I usually prefer gloves). Ponchos… isn’t that trend dead yet?? (That’s a no.)

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Well, by number, it’s socks. I knit socks on the bus and train on my way to work and school, and when I go places I have to stand in lines (grocery store, post office). And at baseball games, lately. I usually knit them on circs because it’s pretty traumatic when you drop a needle and have to wait until the end of an inning to ask the person under whose seat it rolled to let you grope around on the ground underneath them (and just hoping no one steps on it in the meantime), but, DPNs are okay. Once you get started. At first, though, they make me want to commit needlecide. (I don’t know how you murder needles, but I have to cast on another toe-up sock shortly and it might make me figure it out.) I am really liking my MS3 though, once I figured out I have to mask off the entire pattern except the row I’m actively working on, plus tick it off on the chart when I’m done. And the lifelines. The lifelines are key (though they started getting much less use once I figured out the chart-masking thing). I might do another shawl after I finish this one.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Um, a pair of Baudelaire socks (with yarn from my SP9!), a Clapotis, a Mystery Stole 3 (even though it’s no longer a mystery). And innumerable hibernating WIPs I am steadfastly ignoring for various reasons. And I’m crocheting a ripple afghan.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yeah! They’re the best.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I’m doing my MS3 on my first pair of straight bamboo needles, and I really like them because they’re so lightweight. (I just wish they were slightly pointier.) My sock needles are either Brittany (wood) or bamboo DPNs, except for one pair of 00 stainless steel ones I just bought recently for no apparent reason since I have no sock yarn that requires 00 needles, or they’re Addi or Inox 16″ circs. I prefer circs for heavier things (like my Clapotis), because my wrists can’t support a lot of weight for long, like on straight needles. I have a lot of aluminum straights, though the heavier ones are annoying.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yep to both! I’m totally spoiled.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Well, I have exactly one (mostly) complete Fibre Trends Felted Clog (to be) that was going to be a Christmas gift last year… it didn’t really go according to plan, obviously! I also have a very boring bouclé shawl that I haven’t touched in … well, probably a year. I have a sock that’s been languishing at the heel flap stage for ages, because it’s turning out too small but I was unwilling to rip it back, which really just makes me an idiot because it’s holding a pair of my nice Inox sock circs hostage until I do!

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I don’t really have one. I’m not very fond of Thanksgiving, because a few years ago I fell and broke my wrist, and had surgery on it the day before Thanksgiving, and spent all of the holiday miserable and watching the clock until I could take more vicodin. I’m pretty much still holding a grudge against Thanksgiving. I like pumpkin pie, though.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Cat fur, evidently. Um, I’ve got a pretty decent sized music collection, both LPs and CDs, and a number of DVDs. I try not to acquire a lot of stuff, because I have a smallish flat and I like it not to be cluttered.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I have no subscriptions… see above re: fear of clutter! Though, I have toyed with the idea of subscribing to Interweave Knits. I have thus far denied myself that subscription because I have a tendency to bring magazines home, put them on a shelf, and never read them. (See the most recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine. I know I put it around here someplace…)

I don’t know about patterns. I tend to be a sort of seat-of-the-pants knitter, mostly because it’s very easy to do that with socks. I have a few sweaters I might like to knit, but I’m not really eager to commit myself to a big project until I finish up with my Clapotis and my MS3. If I was going to, though, I’m intrigued by Wicked and a few other things.

As for other things… I saw someone the other day who posted to her blog about using a CD spindle case to hold balls of yarn. I am tempted to ask all the guys at work if they have any, and if they do, to save them for me! It just sounds like such a good idea. And I don’t have any empty spindles of my own, darn it!

Yesterday my damn cat stole my row counter! I only have two of them, and they were both in use, until Kiyoshi stole one yesterday. He steals anything tubular (lip balm tubes, pens, … row counters!), and I can’t find the freaking row counter anywhere. I looked under everything, and no luck. So, I am now giving serious consideration to buying 10 of the things next time I go to JoAnn’s fabrics just to make sure he won’t steal all of them. Damn cat! I want my row counter back!! He’s lucky he’s cute.

21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?
I’d like to learn to knit a toe-up sock where the toe doesn’t look kinda pathetic, but that’ll probably come with practice. — I’d like to learn about how to alter sweater patterns to make things fit better. I’d like to work more on lace things, though I’m not exactly sure what I’d do with a bunch of finished lace shawls, other than maybe give them away to people.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yep. :) I wear a US size 9.5/10, UK 8, European 42.

23. When is your birthday?
Not until January! Man, was I mad when I was growing up about having a birthday in the middle of the winter. I never got to have pool parties or go-kart parties! I still resent January.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what’s your ID?
I am! It’s so neat! I’m niqui. BTW, if you’re not on Ravelry, but you’d still like to see my yarn stash and projects pages, let me know and I’ll post some screenshots. Once I figure out how to take screenshots, anyways. I always forget which keys to hit! :-)