This and That

I really had a great weekend. I actually did not think about whether I would be getting that call to leave to go back to work somewhere. The dread is back today but the weekend was marvelous.

On Sunday, the Ravelry breakfast group met at Panera Bread. I wore my shrug since some of them had seen me knitting it and wanted to see the finished item. I was able to fix the rib. Would you believe that everyone loved it and felt that it should not be a hotel/bed jacket shrug but I should wear it out. I went to the grocery after the meeting and a couple of ladies came up to me to tell me how pretty it was. Maybe I will wear it out sometime. I know I want to make another one with different yarn. Probably my homespun and dyed.

While I was with everyone, the conversation went to a yarn shop in a nearby town that had a great selection and their own knitting patterns.
The burning question and conversation was who was going to the Homespun Party (indie dyers and spinners selling their wares). The Party was the next day from 2-6pm. It was an hour and a half from me so I was not sure that I would go. They were going to carpool if I wanted to come. I had been invited to go to the movies with a group of ladies, so I had another engagement and really did not need to go.

When I got home I decided that I would check out Y2Knit www.y2knit.com
in Funkstown, MD, owned by Susan Wolcott. They do have lots of their own knitting patterns and beautiful yarn. The problem is that they have samples of all their patterns hanging around which caused me to buy patterns that I do not need.

The only thing that I regretted was that there was no inviting place to just sit and knit like they have in Minneapolis. There is a front porch with comfortable furniture, it could be nice. I will have to check it out in the summer.

Before I went to bed, I emailed my movie friend and told her that I would not be able to meet her. I had decided to go to the Homespun Party. I missed the carpool and had to drive in my old rattle trap car to Takoma Park, MD.

When I got to the door of the room that they had for the yarn, all I could see was heads and bodies. I thought at first that it was a fire sale of some kind and I was in the wrong place. Someone moved and I saw yarn...I was in the right place. I am not familiar with the local yarn artist so this was a great introduction.

There was yarn by Yarn Love
Glitz spinning batts by Steph of Loop
Handpainted spinning fibers, patterns and yarn by Gryphon of Sanguine Gryhon
Yarns and fibers by Jennifer Heverty of Spirit Trail Fiberworks
Stitch markers and hand dyed yarn in bright and bold colorways with crazy names by Lindsey of Storm Moon Knits
Paula of Woolarina had hand painted yarn and wool roving
Amy O'Neill Houck of the Hook and I had her great original crochet patterns for sale
Yarn creator Terry Todesco of Crash into Eve had the most marvelous colors, I had to buy some handpainted roving and a skein of sport weight yarn that had silver sparkles. That is so unlike me since I do not normally like sparkly yarn. It had to have been the colors.
Arden Jewelry Designs shared a table with Terry were she displayed handmade jewelry and stitch markers.
NomNomNom provided the baked goods for sale with the proceeds going to Ravelry.
I did buy a DPN Wallet from Katie Fleck of Blue Kitty Designs. She also had circular needle rolls and knitting bags.
Erin aka Mama-E was there with her yarn and spinning fibers. C*Eye*Ber Fiber Warehouse is normally wholesale so this was a treat. She shared her table with Dawn Dornan from
Knitting Gnome were she had some marvelous stitch markers.
I purchased the book Knitspeak and had the author sign it. The books aim is to demystify pattern language. It is sized to fit in your knitting bag.
Dragonfly Fiber Designs offered hand dyed yarns and fiber.
I do hope that the artist will do this again. I am sure that there are others fiber junkies beside me and our Ravelry group that would love to buy from local artist. Word of mouth is going to make the next one even more of success than this one. The only thing is they need a bigger place. I may have brought more if I could have gotten to the tables to look.

After we left the yarn sale we went to Potbelly's for lunch to share our wealth. Ange was the winner. Almost everything in the pile was purchased by her. Maureen did not buy anything, not sure how she managed it.










Today I am going to work on my weaving loom trying to figure out what is wrong because I need to work on some gifts. It looks like there is a tie up problem. At least I hope that is all there is. I can weave the dishtowels on my Ashford or Norwood but I will not be able to make the throw.

As for my knitting, I am working on the Mr. Greenjean's sweater and a pair of socks called Nutkin's. This will keep me busy for awhile.

Until next time....

My Daughter, the Next Jackie Chan

Click on the arrow and watch my daughter in action.

The first person you will see will be my son-in-law and then my daughter comes in (she is in the pink shirt) kicking butt.

Combattitude is an innovative style of exercise fighting and has made its way from movie screens to Columbia, MD. "Combattitude," a combination of fighting arts and movement, was designed by Washington, D.C., native Chuck Jeffreys, a professional stuntman, actor, Hollywood fight choreographer and martial artist with 40 years' experience in several styles of fighting. This is a true cardio workout with the feel of sparring without causing injury. By practicing reflexive strikes and presenting targets with Fisticue boxing gloves, which present a bright red bull's-eye when opened, you are suppose to develop and improve self-defense skills.
http://thecffa.com/CFFA.html

Would you believe that I was going to the class when I was home. Unfortunately, I live an hour and half away so getting there is most of my day when I am home. You can not imagine how much you sweat.

I was so excited. I finished the Norah Gaughan Elodie. I was quite pleased and had planned on wearing it to my knitting breakfast group on Saturday. I had blocked it and thought all was well. I hung it up to take a picture for the blog and Ravelry and alas....the ribbing on one side of the collar is too short. Now I have to unravel the collar on that side and redo it. I doubt if it will be ready for the group since I have two conference calls for work on Friday and things to do tomorrow. I told myself that this was suppose to be a house jacket and not a shrug to wear out. It did not work. I will have to rip it back. I thought you might like to see it before I rip it back.....
Darn, darn......!!!!!! Rip, rip!!!!!!!!

My daughter and son-in-law just brought a house. I am going to check my weaving yarn stash tonight to see what cotton yarn I have to weave some dish towels. I like to use cottonlin or 5/2 cotton. The color of the walls in the kitchen is wine/burgundy. I really do not think I have anything. What I plan to do is weave 7 towels and then embroider some kind of days of the week type thing. I have collected a lot of the little chef embroider designs, each towel will have a different chef. How does that sound?

My son's job brought new furniture so he brought over two of the bookshelves and a table for my sewing machines. What I had before was so flimsy that the table would shake and vibrate when I was sewing. He had left some tables in his room that he had purchased from IKEA so I claimed them. We put on adjustable legs and now the cutting table and the ironing table are waist height. It finally is a place that I enjoy working in.

Just Wanted to Say......

My daughter and son-in-law just brought there first house. I am so excited for them.

I actually have gotten quite a bit of knitting and spinning done. I plan on dying the yarn I spun this weekend. The problem is that I can not decide whether to make it one color or multicolor. I will probably decide when I am mixing the dyes.

I also just made a quick headband that I had been planning to make for a while but when I received a gift of 2 balls of Noro Kureyon, I decided to just do it.

Well, this is short but I just wanted to tell everyone Happy Easter.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Good to Be Home

I am happy to be home even through I do not think it will be long. The weather will not co-operate and stay calm. The good thing about my job as a catastrophe claims adjuster is that I get to go to different states, meet new and exciting people and visit shops. However, I am always on call and can not relax or make plans when I am home because I can get that phone call anytime during the day or evening and have to leave.


On my way back from Florida, I stopped at three yarn shops. My favorite was The Knit Wit & Gifts located at The Shoppes at Brentwood in Wilson, N.C., they offer knitting supplies including imported fashion yarns and gifts. I could not find an email address but the contact numbers for the shop are 252-291-8149 and 800-291-8149. I fell in love with the shop, the owner and the yarn. I went in to look at the yarn and came out with yarn and a gift for my daughter.




The shop is on two floors, has comfortable sitting that made me want to pull out my knitting and stay. The good part is that it is not out of your way if you are driving up or down 95. I am not sure if that is good or bad. This is a truly a shop that will be on my radar when I am heading to Florida to work or vacation.



I also stopped at a shop not far from home that I did not know was there. This shop is in Haymarket, VA. The sign is on the front of the building as you are driving down the main road, however the shop is on the 3nd floor facing the rear of the building (the front of the building you can only see 2 floors). I could not find it at first and almost got back into my car chaulking this up as a "no show". At the last minute, I went to the back parking lot and saw that their was shops on the 2nd and third floors. I am happy that I made the effort. It was almost closing time so I could not really explore but the owner did not act as if she wanted me to leave so that she could close. It is close enough to home to warrant another visit when I have time.





The shop is located at 15125 Washington St. Suite 316, Haymarket, VA , phone 703-659-1062. The store carries needlepoint as well as yarn for knitting.







Since I have been home, I have to admit that I have not done much but it has only been a week. The company my son works for was brought out and the company moved to another location getting rid of the old furniture. My son got me some bookcases and a table. Next Friday, I am renting a van to get the items and will be redoing my sewing rooms.


On Friday, I met with my knitting group the Western
Maryland Ravelers at Panera Bread in Frederick, MD for breakfast. It was nice to sit with the group to laugh and knit.


Since I never tried blocking, I got advice on how to block my Elodie shrug and also how to read the part of the pattern for the collar that I was having problems with. Now, the shrug is blocking and drying. I hope that it will dry today, so I can start on the next part.

Just got a call from my daughter, TeAntae, that they found a house. I am going tomorrow to look at it. I thought that I was going to sleep late. A good thought.

Talk to you soon

Midnight Knitting and Whats on my Needles

I had a chance to go to Midnight Knitting with a great group of knitters here in Jacksonville at Knitwitz. I am a person that goes to bed at 8:30 but I made it. Of course I had the help of Starbucks and lots of good companionship.

We paid $10.00 for the food and drinks. Met some lovely ladies and one very nice man but he is an "ENABLER" so you want to stay away from him. I was doing good just knitting and talking, then I made the mistake of looking at this pattern of a fantastic felted overnight bag from NORO. He got up and went to see the price and then brought it back to me to look at closer. The pattern is 2 color, you will knit 36 inches wide and 27 inches tall just to get the finished felted size.

I brought the pattern just to keep him quiet. (If you believe that).

The night was going on nicely and a lady came over to show me the handdyed roving by a local dyer. It was so pretty. I went over to look and saw two different colorways that I liked then I went back to my seat and my knitting. Before you know it, the "ENABLER" struck again and came back with one of the colorways that I had been looking at, for me to feel. You would probably say that I should have resisted and really I tried but I found that I was standing in line buying a pound of it.

This is merino top from http://www.creativelydyed.com/ .

It will take me two days to wake up but I had a ball and would do it again if I had the chance.

I told you that I would tell you what is on my needles. I finished my slinky socks. They were fun and I plan on making another pair. I also finished the Bainbridge neckwarmer that I made with some of my handdyed, handspun yarn. This goes with the hat I made and showed you in one of my previous post.

Now I am working very hard on the Norah Gaughan Elodie shrug pattern. I am using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Salmon Berry Red. It is my plan to use this as a bed jacket. One of the problems with traveling all the time is that a robe heavy enough to keep me warm in hotel rooms with uneven heating, takes up valuable space and gets in the way. I wanted something to put around my shoulders that would not fall off while I was spinning, weaving, knitting or reading in bed. A shrug seemed the perfect solution. There is an error in the foundation row of the pattern but I found out about it on Ravelry and went to the website to get the errata. The color is very rich. I had people come up to me all evening to look at my progress. They said that they were sitting across the room and it was so very pretty.

I will probably start on a pair of socks today because I need something small to keep in the car and the shrug is getting large.

I am still spinning on the merino super wash that I am trying to spin up and hopefully get dyed for a present for my daughter.

As to what I am reading, if you have not had a chance to look at the book, Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning by Judith MacKenzie McCuin, you should take a peek. She came to my weaving guild and gave a talk. I was impressed and everyone, but me, was buying her book and having her sign it. The title was just not calling my name and there was too many people around the table for me to look at the book. Then I started listening to podcast that kept talking about it so I used my gift certificate from Amazon and brought it as well as "The Yarn Lover's guide to hand dyeing by Linda La Belle". Judith's book has made me very excited about spinning and dying. Her plying and dying section has got my creative juice aflame.

Until next time, keep crafting

I Have Been Ravelryed

I am working in Jacksonville, FL., probably for 2 months. Thanks to www.Ravelry.com, I have a way to meet new friends everywhere my job takes me with nothing more than a click of my mouse.

I had planned to meet up with a knitting group, The Black Purls. They meet at a coffee shop in St. Augustine on Saturday's. Unfortunately, I drove around and could not find a parking space. I was so discussed that I left. On the way back to the hotel, I remembered another group on Ravelry that meets in Jacksonville at a shop called KnitWitz. I decided that since I could not find a parking space, I would check out the shop. After having to call for directions, the GPS could not find the street, I finally arrived at the shop that turned out to be about 20 minutes from my hotel.

As soon as I walked in the door, I knew that this was going to be a great hangout. I am anxious to go back on Wednesday evening for their knit-in.

Some of the ladies had brought their spinning wheels and was spinning, a group had CD spindles and was learning how to spin, and another group was knitting. Everyone else, including me, was just wandering the shop.

Also on Ravelry, I joined the Western Maryland Ravelers that meet at Barnes and Noble in Frederick, MD, at the FSK Mall two Friday's a month to sit, knit and be a part of a group of other knitters. Here is a couple of pictures of some of the group that met the last time I was able to meet with everyone. What a joy it is to be in a group of like minds. There is some spinners as well as knitters. Several people have come to my little section of Ravelry and left comments about my knitting. I do hope that there will be a place for weaving, on the site, one of these days.













I just have to complete the toe on the socks I started knitting while I was on my Europe trip. They were finished when I realized that one was much, much, longer than the other and had to rip back. I was not happy about that. On this trip, I only brought UFO's with me and my spinning wheel. I am hoping that I can get these done so I can stop feeling guilty.

Okay, I brought more yarn when I went to KnitWitz, ....I will not start a project until I finish what I brought. Now, keep in mind, this store has handdyed and handspun yarns from local dyers that I can not get anywhere else. That is bad!!!!!

What Crappy Christmas Gift Are You?

A knitting friend, Rhonda, had this on her website so I thought that I would check it out. Found out something else about me...

You Are Socks!

Cozy and warm... but easily lost. You make a good puppet.

What Crappy Christmas Gift Are You?

CRAFTING IN THE NEW YEAR

I have started my 2008 stash busting. I refuse to buy anymore yarn until I get some of what I have down to something that is a little more manageable. Well...until the Maryland Sheep and Wool.

I would not call this a New Year resolution because I never keep them so I felt that maybe this year I would just say that intend to use up a lot of my yarn.

The first hat called the Nehalem Hat by Oat Couture, www.oatcouture.com, can be made with either DK Weight or Heavy Worsted Weight. You also have a choice of brims, cable or ribbed. It was fun and quick to make. The only adjustment I made was that I did not have any beads so I used three crochet corkscrews. I wear my hair in braids for most of the year and is hard to find a hat to get all that extra hair under. This hat is perfect for that.


The yarn is very soft Berroco Foliage. It is a thick and thin yarn so I used the DK weight instructions but the the size 9 needle of the Heavy Worsted pattern.
Worked out beautifully.


Crocheting the corkscrews for the Nehalem Hat made me want to crochet a project. I learned to crochet years ago and made my daughter's coming home outfit from the hospital. The only crocheting that I have done in recent years was teach a co-worker how to crochet because she wanted the Martha Stewart coming home poncho. This hat is a free Lion Brand pattern.



It is just called Suede Cap. I have some suede yarn left over from a purse exchange that I was in. The yarn is by Reynolds and is called Cabana. This was quick, quick.

I am off to a good start I feel.

Happy New Year-2008 Has Great Promise

TWAS THE MONTH AFTER CHRISTMAS

Twas the month after Christmas, When all through the house,
Nothing would fit me, Not even a blouse!
The cookies I'd nibbled, The eggnog I did taste....
At the holiday parties, had gone to my waist!

I remember the marvelous meals all prepared:
The gravies and sauces, the beef "nicely rare".
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese,
And the way I NEVER said, "No, thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt,
And I prepared once again to do battle with dirt,
I said to myself (as only I can),
"You can't spend a winter disguised as a MAN"!

So---away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip!
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished,
'Til all of the additional "ounces" have vanished!

I won't have a cookie, not even a lick!
I'll want only to chew, on a celery stick!
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot, and quietly cry.

"I'm hungry...I'm lonesome..and life is a bore
But isn't that what January is for"

Unable to giggle, No longer a riot!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD DIET!


(author unknown)

A Great Christmas

I had a most fantastic Christmas. The first 5 pictures are from a calendar that a family friend gave me. Don't you think that this is terrific!















My son got me the Keurig Single Cup home brewing system with the cup maker so I could use my own coffee. It works great for coffee or just hot water. I am loving this .









My daughter got me the The New Pathways for Sock Knitters book. I had been looking at it and wanting it but just had not gotten around to buying it. Feels good to have it now.











I am still in awe and smiling because I HAVE MY WOOLEE WINDER. I know it will not make my spinning better but no more stopping and starting to move the yarn, now it will at least look pretty on the bobbin. Get ready for some fantastic spinning...well...maybe not fantastic.













My friend Vicki sent my favorite coffee, Creme Brulee, this beautiful sparkly yarn and goodies. There were more goodies but this is all that made it home. I made this scarf for Vicki from a pattern at Garn Studios-Drop Design. It can be knit in a day with bulky yarn. I also made my daughter a black one and a grey/blue one for me. I lose my scarves when I am working so this one will work just great.








Okay, I am through bragging. Hope everyone had as great a Christmas as I did.

For the next year I plan on concentrating on my spinning and weaving but will keep a knitting project with me for when I can not get to my loom or spinning wheel.

I have great plans for the New Year.