When I crocheted up my sample for my Mountain Top Beanie design, my older son tried it on and really liked it. This is the kid that wears a stocking hat almost all year long. He asked me if I would make him one, I offered the one I had made for the sample, but he felt the colors weren’t right for him.
Thus a plan was hatched to take him to the Longmont Yarn Shoppe to pick out the color he wanted. The yarn is Ella Rae Lace Merino Aran. It is a super soft and cushy 100% Superwash Merino and all the colors have that rich-toned hand-dyed look to them.
I thought we would make it down to the shop long before the summer break was over, instead we finally got there this past Wednesday during my monthly Causal Crochet get together at the shop. Thing 1 and I had been at his Middle School earlier that day for his locker assignment and to get his school photo and ID.
Once we got to the yarn shop he looked at the various colors in the Ella Rae and picked this fun one that combines purples and greens. Worked up in the beginning swatch the colors reminded me of a vineyard.
I’ve been working on this hat every time I had a spare moment for the past 3 days and finished it late last night. Overall I think it took me about 3 hours of crocheting time. That’s counting a couple of times when I had to pull out some of my work due to not keeping track of my stitches.
I almost ran out of yarn at the end. I actually had to fudge a little on the last stitch, but it still looks good.
These were all I had left after weaving in the tails.
I think he is very happy with his new hat. He is 13.5 years old and actually wears an adult size hat already. It’s a good thing my niece and nephew are both having babies this coming year, I need some little ones to crochet for again.
Now I have to make a hat for my poor husband, he was promised one for Christmas and it hasn’t materialized yet. Whoops.
If you want to make your own Mountain Top Beanie the pattern is available here in my Ravelry Shop. The pattern has detailed written instructions as well as 2 stitch charts for those that are more visual. The pattern also includes instructions for making a child-size or infant-size hat. I’ll also be teaching a project class for this hat at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe, Saturday, October 29th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. if you are in the area.
As many of you know, I was in Charleston, South Carolina for the CGOA conference earlier this month. I flew out on July 12th for an all day travel day to get there and returned on the 19th. You heard a little bit about my travel adventures last post. I’m mostly recovered from all of that and finally getting the promised post up about my fun adventures at the conference.
It was a great time seeing my crochet friends from all over the US and even some from out of the country. I was absolutely crapastic about taking photos at the conference though. I was producing the fashion show for the “CGOA Grand Finale Fashion Show & Banquet”, and it was a wild time getting everything coordinated and organized. More about that later.
Tuesday evening was just about getting unpacked in my hotel room and reunions with all the other folks as we all began to arrive. Some more would be showing up over the next few days, but by 10 p.m. that evening I had seen many of my dear friends. A big group of us had gathered for drinks, deserts and cold food in the hotel restaurant. The restaurant was having technical issues with their stove, so cold options were all that were available.
The laughter with friends was great though. Best way in the world to recover from the travel tiredness. My journey to get to Charleston was actually quite smooth. My dear friend and roomie Jan did not have a good travel day. Her flight coming to Charleston had all sorts of delays, but she eventually made it to the hotel and I grabbed her off the shuttle from the airport to hug her hard.
Wednesday morning was a fairly easy start. Neither Jan or I had any commitments for early morning, so we slept in a bit then grabbed breakfast and saw friends there. A little later I went over to the conference center with Tamara to help Jessie and Lorene with setting up the room for the judging of the Design Competition. Jan decided to venture out exploring around the hotel area.
That afternoon I joined up with Jan and the two of us found a comfy spot in the lovely hotel lobby/atrium beside a gentle waterfall fountain to crochet and talk. Jan was taking a class that evening, so we decided to go out of the hotel for an early dinner.
We walked to the Bonefish Grill just down the road and ended up having a wonderful meal. We even managed to time it well enough that we didn’t get soaked in the early evening rainstorm. The rest of Wednesday evening sort of passed in a blur as more friends got to the hotel and I prepared my supplies for the class I would be taking the next morning.
My first class at the show was with the talented Linda Dean. She kept teasing me about being nervous that I would be one of her students, but I knew that it would be a very instructive class. This was her “Re-Invented Broomstick Lace” class. Linda had some lovely samples to show us the various ways you could work up the techniques with simple changes. I really enjoyed the class and look forward to experimenting more with the things I learnt in it. My little class sample swatch looks a bit sad, but that is no reflection on what Linda was teaching us.
That afternoon I helped with the Hooked for Life booth set-up. Mary Beth was teaching and both of her other helpers had some back injuries, so I volunteered to be the one climbing up and down the step-ladder and lifting boxes of things into place. Once that was all done I stopped by the Registration desk to pick up the garments and forms for the fashion show.
I took them all to the room we had been given to use for setting up for the fashion show. I dropped off the garments and then I zipped back to my hotel room to clean up for the CGOA Business meeting and Conference Kick-off that evening.
I’m not sure what the numbers were, but the first 100 or so folks coming to the meeting received an awesome gift bag. The bags themselves were from Crochetville. They were a gorgeous purple lightweight backpack with a zipper pocket. The bags were stuffed full of yarn, crochet tools, crafting booklets and loads of coupons. I think everyone that received one was amazed and pleased with them.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the brilliant idea to take a photo of all the items in the bag together until much later, after I had emptied the bag and tucked the various goodies into my suitcases. This is a pile of all the yarn that was in my giftbag that evening.
After the meeting it was the market preview. A great crowd of folks happily waited to get into the show floor when the doors opened. Jan and I decided to drop off some of our stuff back at the room first. We missed the opening ceremony, but managed to have plenty of time to look around in the market place.
I bought some yarn and 2 tools for winding yarn (one for me, one for Jan) that evening and spotted some other booths to investigate when it wasn’t so crowded later that week. Jan bought me the fun ruler with colorful sheep on it.
Back at the hotel after the marketplace closed, Jan and I said “hi” to all the folks hanging out in the hotel lobby bar area but didn’t hang around long as we both had classes the next morning. In fact we would be taking the same class – Vashti Braha’s “The Starwirbel Way: Shaping & Spiraling Star Stitches”.
This class was sold out and I was very glad that I had been able to get into it. I always enjoy her classes because Vashti always knows her subject in depth. She had experimented and broke down the intricacies of the Star Stitch. I hunkered down in the class and happily crocheted away on the lesson.
Even in a simple worsted yarn my class swatch is rather wonderful. I had the best time experimenting with the increase method Vashti taught us and increasing the hook size I was using to see how the fabric would change. I am going to really enjoy playing with the star stitch more now.
Photo courtesy of Bonnie Barker
The rest of Friday after noon I spent working on prepping for the Fashion Show. I got the room arranged to my satisfaction and started laying out the items for the show in some sort of order. Later on I met with Tamara and Lily to strategize for the show and a couple of our models joined us so we could assign and fit garments. Bonnie Barker came and set up her photography equipment so we would have good photos of all the items modeled in the show that Saturday evening.
Friday evening was the “Excellence in Crochet” ceremony where the Design Competition winners were announced and Doris Chan received her Lifetime achievement award. I helped model some of the garments that won the Design Competition. There was another gift bag at this event, more yarn and fun stuff.
That evening after the awards were all presented Jan and I headed out to dinner with Karen Whooley at Bonefish Grill again. I was so happy with that restaurant and will be taking my family to the nearest one here in Colorado soon. The food was delicious and there were loads of Gluten Free options on their menu.
Saturday I spent was pretty much all day preparing the fashion show. I took a brief break for quick shopping in the marketplace with Jan when she was on her lunch break between classes. I had spotted a couple of items that I had wanted to take a closer look at the evening of the market preview. That allowed me to go right to the booths that had what I wanted. Got some wonderful yarn, buttons, fun little sheep tools, and of course a marvelous set of Tulip hooks from Vashti’s booth.
These 2 shawl pins were both gifts from other friends at the conference. The pink one really made me chuckle as I had almost purchased it for myself when I saw it in the marketplace.
Then it was back to working on getting all the fashion show garments ready for the evening. There was a bit of last-minute frenzy with the wearables that won prizes in the Design Competition, but most were sorted out. The banquet went by in a blur as I hustled to get the last few items ready. Despite some of the behind the scenes craziness I heard that the fashion show was great. That is the problem with producing it, you don’t actually get to see the final product.
If you weren’t able to come this year, or you were there and would like to see the fashion show again check out the CGOA Facebook Page. The fashion show was “live-streamed” and you can watch the videos. I have watched them and they give you a fairly good idea of the fun that was on stage, though nothing beats being there.
I couldn’t have pulled the fashion show off without all the other folks that helped with the behind the scenes work. Of course one of those was my marvelous right-hand woman, Jan (Janet Bates). There was also Chel Rattray, Jenny King, Nancy Smith, Deb Seda-Testut, and Bonnie Barker. And our wonderful volunteer models, they did such a good job.
One thing not shown in the videos is the drawings for Door Prizes. I won a copy of Margaret Hubert’s 2nd edition of “The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet”. Margaret even autographed it for me later that night. In fact the entire conference was made extra special by the generosity of all the wonderful sponsors that contributed door prizes, products for gift bags and funding for conference events and competition prizes.
Some of the other fun stuff from the various goodie bags.
After the banquet and fashion show finished everyone hung out in the hotel atrium/bar area not wanting the conference to really be over. Jan and I were staying in Charleston until Tuesday so that we would have a chance to tour around the city. I’ll share more about that in a later post.
Next year the conference is going to be in Chicago, Illinois. A nice central location and if I understand correctly it was where some of the very first “Chain Links” were held. CGOA is also returning to its roots in that this will be a “Chain Link” show again by being all crochet guild. Not held in tandem with the TKGA (The Knitting Guild Association). It would be great to have a massive turn-out of CGOA members to celebrate with us all.
Was a busy weekend for me. I’ve been working away on the crochet design I showed you last post, but also drove over to Estes Park for the Wool Market on Saturday. I was a little late getting out the door because my boys didn’t want me to leave. They are so funny about me taking off for the day. They basically ignore me when I am home all day, but when I leave it’s lots of hugs and worry about when I am coming home. Figures I would have goofball kids.
The drive over to Estes Park from my house is gorgeous, I was tempted to stop a couple of times to take photos. I didn’t though since I was meeting my friend Brenda there and was already late. It rained on me for part of the 40 minute drive, fortunately the rain was gone by the time I reached the fairgrounds where the Wool Market is held.
Brenda was already in the Vendor Barn, which is actually much fancier than one would normally consider a “barn” to be. I walked thru looking for her and caught up with her at the Stitchin’ Den booth. Brenda is allergic to animal fibers so she was checking out the massive display of Intrelacements Rayon yarn that the Stitchin’ Den had at their booth. The choices of colors were almost overwhelming.
I fell in love with this gorgeous blue colorway called “Sturgeon Bay”. Unfortunately they didn’t have it in the large hanks, but they did have 2 of the 500 yard hanks. I’m not entirely sure what it will be when I crochet it up, but it will be a gorgeous color whatever it becomes.
Brenda was having too hard a time deciding on which color to purchase, so we decided to walk around and look at some of the other vendors and displays before she would pick out her yarn. We found this cool display around the corner from the Longmont Yarn Shoppe booth.
Seems like there were a lot of vendors with hats on display. I tried on this hat and Brenda took my photo so I could see what it looked like. I didn’t purchase it though since my hat collection at home is getting a bit out of hand, and I wasn’t that “in love” with it.
My friends at Bijou Basin had a booth and I stocked up on some more of their wonderful “Allure” fiber wash. Love this stuff and have just about finished the large bottle I purchased last year at the Wool Market. I also couldn’t resist this fun T-shirt, since it made me laugh when I saw it. I love fiber themed T-shirts and I purchased a large enough one that I can wear it over my yoga pants that are basically my uniform at home.
I had passed the Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins booth on my search for Brenda earlier and this bag had caught my eye. I’m a big fan of Laurel Burch’s artwork. So when Brenda and I were exploring we went by there again and I had to have a closer look at the bag. It’s a handy size and I finally succumbed to temptation and made it mine.
The bag has all kinds of fun little details, like the zipper pull for the bag is a Laurel Burch cat. The outside also has 2 pockets on the ends that are the perfect size for my phone.
I really like that the interior of the bag is mostly white and there is a generous sized zippered pocket. This bag will work well as a project bag and can do double duty as my handbag for the conference show this summer.
This fun little ceramic piece is a felting tool. It acts as a mini-washboard for wet felting. I’m thinking it is going to be perfect for some of my felting projects that I will be playing with this summer. I also liked that it looked a bit like an insect.
So I didn’t get thru the Wool Market visit without spending some money, but I stayed fairly close to my budget. At least I only bought 2 hanks of yarn. Funny thing after my ode to wool last post, I didn’t purchase any wool fiber at the market this year.
Now it’s back to crocheting on my latest project and tackling some “spring” cleaning since the warm weather finally decided to show up. I spent part of today working in the backyard. There is a Juniper bush that needs to come out and I was prepping it for himself to take the chain saw to it. I suspect I will be feeling some muscles I haven’t used in awhile tomorrow.
I’m a bit late with my week-day post because I’ve been having too much fun the last couple of days. This weekend was the Interweave Yarn Fest and my friend, Mary Beth Temple, was teaching there then came to my house for a visit. I just said good-bye to Mary Beth this morning so I’m getting caught up on my blog now.
Saturday I drove up to Loveland to check out the Yarn Fest Marketplace. Mary Beth Temple and I were getting together for dinner after the Yarn Fest was closed for the day. But before that it was time to have fun in the Marketplace. I took this duty very seriously and got straight to work when I walked in the door.
My first stop was at the Brown Sheep Wool Company booth. I had been in touch with them earlier in the week and had asked them to bring down 4 pounds of their mill end fiber for me. I am practicing my needle-felting sculptural skills and that 4 pounds should keep me busy for a while. I also purchased a couple hanks of their super bulky Burly Spun to play with, both for needle-felting and crochet.
I took all those purchases out to my car and then returned to the show floor to continue my shopping adventure. My dear friend and fellow designer, Brenda Bourg, was there as well. We met-up and walked around the marketplace together. Interweave Crochet magazine was having a preview of the pieces going into the June issue, so we went to watch that.
Between looking at the various items being shown I notice Brenda’s gorgeous hot pink shoes. I was teasing her that I might be sneaking off with them. Just needed to find an event where she had to take off her shoes.
Lisa Souza and her lovely yarns
I was also excited to meet the talented Lisa Souza at this show. Lisa and I have been friends on the internet for some time, but had never met in person. Her booth was a glorious display of color and texture that was truly drool worthy. Despite my yarn diet I ended up adopting some hanks that were too lovely to abandon.
The 2 larger blue toned hanks will grow up to be a crocheted wrap some day, they are a yummy blend of wool and silk. I’m not sure what the little purple hank is destined to become. It is an incredibly soft silk/cashmere blend that was really just pure indulgence on my part.
While Brenda and I were exploring we came upon a booth that wasn’t really a yarn craft, but intrigued me greatly. I love making and wearing jewelry. I want pieces that have some durability, after all I do live on a mountain and have a very active lifestyle. This booth was all about making jewelry pendants and charms.
They had jewelry quality glass pieces of various shapes and sizes with trays to turn them into pendants or charms. As a demonstration you could do a make-and-take pendant. One of the ladies there, Karen, helped me turn my logo from my business card into a pendant for a necklace in less than 2 minutes.
I’ve always wanted to have a necklace with my logo on it, and now I do.
I was so excited about the products they had I purchased a number of them to make some gifts and experiment with in my art studio. I will have to share more about my results of working with these materials in another blog post. But if you want to try them out for yourself before then you can visit their website over at: CraftFantastic.com.
Brenda and I took a break about three to sit down for crochet time and chat in some comfy chairs in the lobby. Then she needed to leave to head back home, while I went back to the marketplace. Mary Beth joined me in the marketplace after her class finished up for a few more rounds of shopping.
We stopped by “The Recycled Lamb” booth and talked to the owners. While we were standing there a glowing basket of yarn kept calling my name. I finally succumbed and ended up purchasing one skein of this teal-toned silk, I think it may become a lovely necklace/cowl with beads when I work with it.
The thing I tend to be looking for at events like this are buttons, and my last purchases of the day were 2 beautiful glass buttons from the very talented Jodie McDougall. This carp button is my favorite and I don’t know if I want to use it or just keep it on my desk where I can see it every day. Doesn’t he look like he is really swimming in there?
The Yarn Fest marketplace had a lot more vendors this year than last year and I bet it will be even bigger next year. So you might want to keep an eye on the Interweave website to make plans to come to Yarn Fest 2017. It’s a lot of fun, especially the shopping.
I’ll show you what I’ve been up to with some of that lovely wool fiber this weekend.
Wednesday was my first full day back home from this year’s Winter TNNA Trade Show. And you all got to hear how that turned out. We are still having frequent moments of “sad” missing our Tango boy, but there are happy thoughts too. Like how much fun I had at TNNA and how gorgeous San Diego, California was.
View of hotel pool area from the lounge.
That was where the show was held. The TNNA Winter show has been in San Diego before, but I wasn’t able to attend that one. I really lucked out with the weather. It was below freezing and horizontal snow in the air when I caught my flight in Denver, when I landed in San Diego it was 60F and sunshine (with palm trees). A lovely change from home. Just the day before it had been pouring rain in San Diego, but I missed out on all that.
Once again Karen Whooley and I roomed together. This was the view out our hotel window. Not too shabby? Right? We were staying at the Marriott Marquis right on the harbor.
The weather was nice the whole time I was there. Of course most of the time I was on the show floor inside the conference center checking out the yarns and new products, so I didn’t really get to enjoy the weather until I went outside to walk back to my hotel or go out to dinner with friends.
I came home with a bunch of yarn and some nifty products. You’ll be hearing more about those in the coming weeks. But for now the above photo gives you a taste of everything that came home with me. I’m going to be a very busy designer and teacher in 2016.
I took 2 classes at the show this year, and will be sharing more about those later as well. I really love to take classes at TNNA even though they are usually at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings. That is an hour of the day I would really prefer not to be attempting to absorb new information. But needs must.
Tuesday was all about packing up and traveling home. I had stayed a day longer than I usually do. I didn’t want the mad rush when the show ended on Monday to get the last bits of goodies packed and then make it to the airport in time for my flight. I think I may be staying that extra night from now on.
I got a good night’s sleep, then took my time organizing and packing all my stuff from the show as well as my dirty laundry. Even got some more visiting time with my good friend Tamara and we grabbed lunch together at the airport. I liked her beer bottle so much I took its photo and she gave the bottle to me.
RaineMara
My flight home was very pleasant. I had fun seatmates, Raine and Mara, who were game for modeling my lovely cloche’ that I purchased in San Diego. I’ll have to get a good photo of me wearing it soon.
I’ll have more fun posts for you with details on the goodies I collected and the classes I took over the next few months. There is a lot happening this spring in my design and teaching work, so be sure to stop by again.
One of the things I have celebrated on my blog are the number of good friends I’ve made over the years of being online. Most of these friends are fellow crochet enthusiasts. One of my online friends is “Maven”, we met thru a group on Ravelry back in 2008 and have continued to stay in touch thru Ravelry, Facebook and Twitter over the intervening years.
We have even met in real life. It was a couple years ago, when I took my trip to NJ and NYC to visit Jan. It was far too short a visit, but really fun to finally have a face to go with the name.
Maven likes to collect yarn when she travels and she purchased some yarn in Tallinin, Estonia on her trip there in May 2012. In May 2014 she decided to crochet a shawl with it while traveling in London and Paris. She picked the “Festival Shawl” pattern designed by Lyn Robinson. This is a pretty point-up triangle shawl.
Unfortunately it was not coming out the way she wanted, but it turned out the yarn was really difficult to frog. It is a rather toothy wool that likes to grab onto itself. She decided to put it in time-out for awhile in June 2014.
Maven had posted photos of her project and we had talked about how to fix it. I had suggested doing some surgery on the original UFO, then finishing the shawl with how-ever much yarn she had left. Or she could try using hair conditioner on the project and seeing if she could gently un-ravel the project that way.
She wasn’t sure she was up to either of those fixes and jokingly suggested that she should send it to me to mess with. Of course, I thought that was a great idea, Blog Post!
This joke kept getting tossed back and forth between us, finally she decided to take me up on the offer for real. Tuesday of this week I got the box in the mail. There was the expected project, but Maven also included some interesting chocolate goodies. She knows what a chocolate fiend I am. I am not planning on sharing any of these.
Initial look at the project made me think that crochet surgery could work quite well. But I wanted to get a really good look at the project in the light of day before making my final assessment.
I could see changing the direction of wear and loping off the original bottom point might work. That would mean the shawl would be more of a crescent shape than a triangle. But would Maven like it, and want to wear it?
I even went so far as to begin the set-up for crochet surgery. In this case I used some size 3 crochet cotton thread and a blunt yarn needle.
I carefully wove the thread into the base of each stitch of my chosen row. The idea being once I had secured that row I could then cut the yarn on the previous row and un-ravel it or otherwise remove it.
If you decide to do surgery on your crochet this is the basic approach. If I had continued along this line with this project I would have left a lengthy tail at both ends of my secured row when removing the previous row.
Then I would have used some of the yarn in the remaining ball of yarn to crochet a chain that captured the base of each of my secured stitches and created bridges between them where needed. After that it is just a matter of treating that chain like a normal crochet foundation and crocheting any additional stitches off of it for the neckline of the shawl.
Once I had the thread in place though I kept looking at the project and was concerned that the finished object would not work for Maven. I wanted her to be happy with whatever I came up with and it really didn’t look like this would fit the bill.
What about frogging it? The last row on the project was un-finished, so I looked at it to see how difficult it would be to un-ravel. It came apart easier than I had expected. I realized that frogging the project and returning the yarn to Maven was a real possibility.
I hadn’t even tried the conditioner or de-tangling spray yet. So I began to very carefully pull the stitches apart and wind up the yarn as I went.
Early on there was a break in the yarn, so I folded the ends together and used a long slip knot to secure them. That way when Maven goes to work with the yarn again the color gradients won’t be interrupted.
One of the tricks when un-raveling a fussy yarn like this: take it slowly, one stitch at a time. I occasionally used a small crochet hook to hold the top of a stitch open as I gently persuaded the yarn to release. Other times I pinched the base of that top loop between my thumb nail and fore finger.
Whenever I ran into a spot that wouldn’t come free I would gently tease the fibers loose. Yes, this takes a bit more time. So only work on frogging a project like this in bits and pieces so that you don’t get impatient.
Now, some of you may be wondering why I could frog this and Maven can’t. I think 2 factors were in play here. Lack of humidity and very cold temperatures. I live on a cold dry mountain, Maven lives at sea-level on the East Coast. It was really cold the day the package arrived, 27F in fact.
If you are trying to un-ravel a project and are having difficulties with the fiber grabbing onto itself, try popping it in your freezer for a bit. A de-humidifier can be helpful too.
Now I have turned this project into a big ball of yarn. It’s ready to go back to Maven for her to crochet it into something new.
Last weekend was lots of fun. I was teaching at the Scotts Bluff Valley Fiber Arts Fair in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. I hope to be teaching there again in 2016 and will let you all know as those dates and classes are decided on. Hopefully more of you can join me there.
One of the major sponsors for the event was the Brown Sheep Company. I have used Brown Sheep yarns for years in my felting projects. My favorite thing about their “Lambspride” yarn is the color doesn’t fade away with heat felting, which means I can depend on my finished project having the same colors as the yarns I picked out. And I love that they are a “Made in the USA” product.
Andrew Wells
At the fair this weekend attendees could sign up for a tour of the Mill where the lovely yarns are created. Brown Sheep is a family owned business and our tour guide, Andrew, is the most recent generation working there. You can learn more about their company history by visiting their website here: BrownSheep.com.
“Bumps” of clean wool fiber ready to start thier journey to being made into yarn.Fluffy wool fiber ready to be spun.
It was really fun to see all the stages the fiber goes thru from clean fiber in “bumps” to the almost rope like fluffy roving that goes into the spinning machines. A lot of us on the tour found the rope like look of the fiber ready to be fed into the machines very beautiful.
Now, of course there was yarn, and being I was at a Fiber Arts event some yarn had to come home with me.
While at the fairgrounds I met one of the vendors that is actually from my neck of the woods. ShelleyLyn Designs. She hails from the Longmont area and had some lovely knit products as well as patterns. Of course I was drawn to her beautiful hand-spun yarn and had to adopt 2 hanks of this gorgeous pink and black yarn. I’m thinking I’ll be coming up with a lovely hat or headband to wear this winter when the cold-weather “blahs” are making me wish for summer again.
At the end of the tour at the Brown Sheep Company there were mill-ends of yarn and fiber that could be purchased. A few balls of yarn needed to come home with me again.
When I initially spotted this ball I thought the color was a gray. Then I got a closer look and realized it had a wonderful combination of lavender and 2 different greens called “Green Envy”.
I got these 3 balls with something pretty for the Fall season in mind. I’m often drawn to the warm fall colors, though I don’t wear them as frequently as I used to.
These 2 balls of Navy yarn are either going to be a hat or slippers for my youngest son this Christmas. He isn’t quite as avid about hats as his Dad and older brother, so I am waffling on what I’ll pick for his Christmas gift.
Meanwhile, one of the projects I was working away on before leaving for the fair, is this lovely new Shawl design. I made this shawl with Brown Sheep’s “Wildfoote” luxury sock yarn. It was a perfect choice for a lace construction that I wanted to aggressively block.
Peggy of Brown Sheep was delighted to see the shawl when we got together at the fair on Friday. She was threatening to take it away with her, but I did persuade her to let me hold on to it so I can get the pattern published first. This pattern is going to be available the 25th of September. But it needs a name and I am stuck on 3 different ones.
Fleur de Lis Shawl
Royal Veil Shawl
Mountain Whisper Shawl
I thought it would be fun for all my readers to help choose which one of the 3 I will use. So I’ve set up a little survey for you to vote on. Everyone that votes will get a coupon code to use for 15% off the pattern the first 3 weeks it is available. Voting will start today at Noon thru 10 p.m. September 22nd.
Update: Well the survey site I chose isn’t working properly. So change of plans, vote in the comments below: Tell me which name you like best (can only pick one) and I’ll send you the coupon code thru your email (codes will be sent next week after the voting ends). Please don’t share the coupon code with others.
I’ll post the winning shawl name and the link to the pattern in my Ravelry shop on Friday, September 25th. No matter which name wins, all who vote will be a winner. Just be sure you go to the survey site to vote to get the coupon code.
I’ll leave you with a bit of poetry from William Shakespeare, who had Juliet speak some thoughts about names in “Romeo and Juliet”:
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear perfection for which he owes without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee take all myself.”
Most of the time I’m talking about yarn or silly mountain adventures. But tonight I am reflecting on the hidden part of being a designer.
Designing is in its nature a fairly solitary occupation. Especially when you live on a mountain over 45 minutes from any yarn store. Online communities have certainly helped with finding like-minded yarnie folks to bond with. But having someone in your life that helps keep all the pieces together with kids, home and career is a true gift.
Our Wedding Day Portrait
Fortunately I have been very blessed in my choice of a life partner. 17 years ago we said “I do” to each other in a ceremony on a mountainside with friends and family. It was a day of laughter, tears and tenderness. It has been 17 years of discovery and growth together and I hope we have many more to come.
He has never been discouraging about my passion for yarn, hooks and creating. Sometimes he has no idea what I’m talking about when I am excited about a new yarn or stitch pattern, he still smiles at my happiness. Being that he is a geek like myself, he really appreciates my rhapsodies on geometries and design math. He even remains calm when I tell him we need to go to Kansas to visit my Dad for Father’s Day, with less than a week to plan the trip.
Fittingly, my gift from him this year, was 3 DVDs. One being Season 7 of the Big Bang Theory. Yay! The other 2 movies are also ones I have been wanting to see. Further confirmation that he “gets” me. He surprised me with this gift this morning.
We are in Kansas visiting family. Our anniversary celebration has consisted of playing at a city pool with my niece, her little ones and our boys for hours this afternoon. Then a lovely dinner at the Outback Steakhouse with our boys and my Dad. Father’s Day will be spent with my Dad and will include grilling burgers and sausages on the new bar-b-q that my brother Cy and I bought for him.
Of course, a blog post on here would not be right without a lovely box of yarn. These goodies came last week from Plymouth Yarn. I am having designing raptures and have already started swatching with the Linaza (lovely mix of Alpaca, Linen and Tencel).
Hope you all are enjoying your summer. We are certainly getting a reminder of what a hot summer can be like by visiting Kansas in June. The boys and I all are a little pink from our afternoon in the sun. But we are enjoying our little taste of Hot & Humid, since we will be headed back to our mountain Monday.
This weekend was the Estes Park Wool Market, and this time I took my family with me.
Saturday, my friend Brenda was meeting us there with her husband and grown son. Every time I go to the wool market and see all the fiber bearing animals, I keep trying to think of a way of having some of these critters at home. But I grew up on a farm and I know just how much work is involved.
One of our first stops was to watch the Sheepdog demonstration. Then we went to see the Llamas in their barn. The boys were delighted to meet 3 yearlings and their owner, Sandy of Lockwood Dreamstar, told them that llamas like to touch noses with you.
The light was a bit low, so my photos were somewhat blurred.
This handsome fella was so soft. Sandy was very kind and educational about llamas and the boys were thrilled to get to pet a llama.
After our visit with the llamas we went to watch a sheep shearing demonstration. It was hard to hear the folks that were giving the demo because their sheep were being very noisy. It was lots of fun though to see how gently and quickly the shearer worked. At the end, the amount of fleece that came off each sheep was impressive. Most impressive was when the shearer told us that he could shear as many as 170 sheep in a day, and he had done as many as 262 on one of his busiest days.
Then we headed to the Paco-Vicuna, Alpaca and Rabbit barn. There we got to see how an alpaca fleece is sorted out in preparation for spinning into yarn. Brenda caught up with us in this barn, but the boys still wanted to see the bunnies. Brenda and her family left us to our exploring and I arranged to meet her a little later at the Vendor Barn (where the yarn and lovely hand-dyed fibers live).
I stopped to visit with a lady that had 4 beautiful French Angora rabbits, she had examples of their fiber that she had brushed off them during the day. The boys were exploring further and they fell in love with a little French Angora bunny that was for sale. He was a lovely butterscotch color, and though I was tempted as well, I knew better. When I said “no” it was clear that we had waited too long to feed the boys their lunch, both of them were in tears and very upset.
After the bunny incident I sent all my men off to have lunch and go to the little amusement center across town; go-carts, miniature golf and a gigantic slide that you ride down on rugs. I headed to the Vendor Barn to meet up with Brenda. I tried to be good and resist purchasing any yarn. But there were some beautiful hand-dyed hanks that I couldn’t say no to. I have very little resistance when it comes to yarn.
This lovely yarn from Bonkers Hand-Dyed Yarn inspired me with it’s color. Don’t be surprised if my hair ends up some of these colors, I’m going to be taking this hank into my next appointment with my stylist and see what she comes up with. Traci the owner/artist always has a wonderful variety of yarns and fibers in her booth. You can visit her website at www.tracibunkers.com to see many of her wonderful products and artwork.
I saw a number of vendors there that I know. I was really excited to see Galina Khmeleva as I have been wanting to purchase her Orenburg Knitting DVD ever since I took her knitting class at the Knit & Crochet Show last summer. We had a lovely chat and I purchased the treasured DVD. You can also download her class on the Interweave website.
Brenda and I stopped to explore the gorgeous colors of yarns at Jeny Originals, Yarns & Handwovens. Turns out she also has a shop in Laramie, Wyoming (one of my favorite towns) so the next time I am up there to visit I definitely need to stop by. One thing I really enjoyed is that the tags on her hanks are the her husband’s photos that she takes inspiration from for her colors.
I couldn’t resist these 2 hanks and I think they will become something very lovely. The multiple colored one is seacell/silk and incredibly soft, the other is 100% silk and seems to glow.
I said a quick hello to my friends at the Lambspun booth. I had a giggle because this is the 25th anniversary of the Estes Park Wool Market and Lambspun was one of 5 vendors that have been there every year. So they had a banner in their booth that said “25 year Survivor”. As I walked around the floor with Brenda we spotted the other 4 booths. If you have never gotten a chance to stop in to visit the Lampspun shop in Ft. Collins you really need to treat yourself. I think of it as the Ali Baba den of yarn.
Diana White from Wyoming Equality Fiber Works had some great artwork. I had to have this T-shirt that says “My Sheep Shirt” on it in letters formed by sheep. When I showed my family my purchases that evening both boys wanted their own sheep shirts so I began to think about going back to the Wool Market on Sunday.
My last yarn purchase of the day was at the SeaColors booth. This booth was full of wonderful soft squashy yarn in delicious muted colors. I purchased 2 hanks in a lovely rose-coral mixture. I’m thinking a nice transitional piece for spring-time. The softness and loft of this yarn will definitely lend itself to crocheted cables. You can learn more about Nanne and her farm and yarn at www.getwool.com.
My last stop of the day was a visit to my friends Ron and Theresa at the Buffalo Wool Company. I was resisting purchasing yarn there, since I have a couple skeins I’m working up a design for spring in already. But I had to have a pair of these adorable earrings that are tiny hanks of Buffalo Gold yarn on silver findings. The deal was sealed when I found a pair in magenta.
I had definitely done my bit for retail therapy and felt very virtuous since I had resisted purchasing a bag at one booth. The bags were beautifully constructed and colorful, my 2 weaknesses. They were priced reasonably for the quality, but I talked myself out of it. Next year if they are at the market again I may not be able to resist.
Sunday, my oldest son wanted to go back to the market to explore the Vendor Barn. He and I headed over to Estes Park after lunch. Once we got there we went over to the building where the “Sheep to Shawl” competition was happening. Across the way was the Children’s Tent and he wanted to try learning to spin with a drop spindle. He made about 5 feet of thick/thin yarn and had a good time. It was fun for me to have a review of spinning with the drop spindle too.
As we were heading back toward the Vendor Barn he wanted to say “hi” to the 3 young llamas again. We stop by for a little bit, but only 2 of them were in their stall, the 3rd one must have been in the arena being shown. We headed back down the path and decided to visit the bunnies again.
Alpaca/Angora yarn for a hat
This time we talked to the same woman with the 4 rabbits I had met on Saturday. We asked lots of questions about having rabbits and the care they needed. We stopped at a table that was selling some angora blend yarns and my son picked out a hank of alpaca/angora that I promised to make a hat from for him. The color is nearly black, so it will be a definite labor of love.
Finally we made it to the Vendor Barn and headed over to Diana’s booth again. We picked out shirts for both boys. The white one with the bright colors is for my oldest son and the light gray one with purple is for my youngest.
We wandered around the vendor floor then. My son was attracted to the artwork and fascinated by the various drum carders. One nice woman at a booth demonstrated to him how they work.
When we found ourselves at Carl and Eileen’s Bijou Basin booth they weren’t busy so we got to visit for awhile. Carl regaled us with stories about their Yak herd and their dogs. My son was completely enthralled and I was petting the yarn.
I didn’t purchase any yarn from them this time, but I did get a couple bottles of their new fine fiber and fabric wash “Allure”. A small bottle of the Woodland Mist scent, and a large bottle of the Fragrance Free. I’m really looking forward to trying this wash product. Unlike some scented products this one did not make me sneeze, and the fragrance free may be the first I’ve encountered that truly had no scent at all.
Our last stop of the day was to visit Ron and Theresa at Buffalo Wool Company. I had forgotten to get a photo of them when I had stopped by the day before. We tried to get a photo of the 3 of us, but our photographer was a little short being he is only 12.
After all the fun with Ron and Theresa we headed out the door to drive home. The smell of the cinnamon roasted almonds was a big temptation though, so we got a little packet of those to share on the drive. On the drive home my son told me this had been an “Epic” day. I think I got some mom points and he is looking forward to next year’s Wool Market. Must run in the family.
The date for next year’s Wool Market is June 11th and 12th, so you might want to plan a visit to Estes Park to come play with fiber and have fun with friends. Estes Park is a beautiful place to visit and adding fiber and yarn to the visit makes it even better.
Well, I’m a bit behind again. Today I was at the Interweave Yarn Fest.
Toni, Brenda, Me and Marcy
Got to see lots of crochet friends, though once again did a terrible job of getting photos of everyone. The picture above, with the lovely Interweave ladies: Toni Rexroat and Marcy Smith and my good friend Brenda Bourg, was one of the few that I managed to get. I also got to see briefly Lily Chin, Darla Fanton, Marly Bird, Robyn Chachula.
Also had to adopt some beautiful yarn. Lovely silks and silk blends from RedFish Dyeworks. I’m going to be creating something luscious in this gorgeous stuff for sure. I was also enabling Brenda and she ended up buying some of the silk lace, can’t wait to see what she comes up with using it.
After the classes were out I snagged my dear friend Mary Beth Temple and we went off to dinner. Kind of blew away an entire day playing, but it was an inspiring mental health day.
Mamas2Hands 