Girl on the Rocks

Stitches West is overload March 9, 2009

Stitches west proved to be overwhelming as always. Helping out in booths was a great way to prevent me from doing too much shopping. And it allowed me to surround myself with lovely Pigeonroof goodies on Friday, and all kinds of crafty goodies at Urban Fauna on Saturday. I did a miniature loom demo in an area that was not conducive to the audience seeing a tiny loom (and the chairs were bolted together so they couldn’t scooch in). But I think several people were able to ask questions and take a closer look. Several of them ended up getting looms, so I was able to get the work out that tiny looms are rad!

I peeked in on my fiber at the UFS booth, trying its hardest to jump into the hands of passing customers.

While I was helping at the UFS booth, I tried needle felting. Jamie always has a little needle felting demo area set up, and usually I resist. I am not that into making things tangled, but she had these neat-o cookie cutter like forms so you could make shapes (see the center of the photo below), so I gave in.

Photo from maryjanesattic

It was pretty fun! Much funner than anticipated. I am blown away at what a small amount of fiber it takes to embellish something with felt. Spinners, save your scraps and you could make a felter have a stash that will set them for life. I am also impressed that Jamie’s needle felting kits include everything you need to get started – fiber, needles, and a natural foam pad.

I took off on Saturday to do some shopping with friends. I spotted an infamous and highly controversial rolling cart on its own in the wild:

So what did I buy? I already knew that I wanted a Tiger Cascade spindle from Carolina Homespun, so I made that purchase as soon as I arrived. On Friday, I got some CPH buttons from “Buttons!” (*jazz hands*). On Saturday I got two bags (6oz each) of Border Leicester/mohair from Toots LeBlanc. That’s it! Major restraint!

Felt Club Holiday 2008 – this weekend! November 11, 2008

Well, I am hitting the road. A minivan filled with my friends, my moustaches and my fiber will be headed down to So-Cal for the Felt Club Holiday 2008 Event on Sunday Nov 16th. I am still wondering how I will fill a 10′ x 10′ space without Abby’s bags and wallets. Also I wish I had a classier way than a wooden drying rack to display my roving… I doubt I will pull anything together in the next few days..

I didn’t remember seeing any fiber or much yarn when I was a shopper at last year’s event, so I teamed up with a couple of other felt club fiber vendors to try and encourage lovers of the fiber arts to stop by the event.

Traveling Rhinos, Beemiceelf, and myself will give you 10% off a $25 or more purchase at each of our booths. Hopefully this will help to offset the $5 entry fee…

And of course all of my moustache and woven items qualify for a discount too. If you see anything you might want me to bring, let me know!

Hope to see you there!

Coaster shopping November 3, 2008

Bottle cap coasters
Rettocamme
$24.

Super Mario Perle beads
lostmitten
$22.

Screenprinted
summersville
$24.95

Recycled skateboards
2revert
$40

Felt floppy disks
thegeekery
$28

Block printed bingo
1girl1boy
$22.

Together at last April 30, 2008

I have finally created the perfect product to unite my love of the Fiber Arts and my fascination with disembodied moustaches. The ‘stache for your stash, or a ’stache sachet, if you will (the anagram was irresistible).

There are two versions available. The Stash ’stache is filled with the natural moth repellents cedar chips, and lavendar with added pennyroyal essential oil to protect your yarn and fiber from bugs. A variant on the original contains only lavender and can be used as a traditional sachet – perhaps finding a home in a drawer with your unmentionables.

Abby, Ingrid and I printed up the bags on my gocco. They have a ’stache on one side and “Girl on the Rocks” on the other.

Head over to my shop and pick one up!

Toot toot! March 27, 2008

That’s the sound of me tooting my own horn! My kitchener stitch markers were featured this month in Knitty’s ‘”Cool Stuff” (scroll down to the very bottom and don’t click the picture). It is always nice to know that someone likes your stuff.

And I am not the only one selling stuff….

Abmatic opened up an etsy shop where she is selling the famous tweed chicken and highly acclaimed recycled vinyl wallets. For the wallets she uses repurposed vinyl banners and tyvek mail envelopes for her materials. They are slim, durable, and recycled. She’s sold several to friends and they COME BACK for more!! You should check out her shop. If you want to get something from her shop, and mine we will combine shipping (just let us know in the ‘notes to the seller’ section). So start shopping!

It’s a Halloween miracle September 22, 2007

For a limited time, my mild-mannered moustaches have been transformed into Halloween monstrosities.

The curly handlebar moustache sprouted fangs and took off looking for blood. The western ’stache is completely zombified and stumbles around in search of brains. Portions of a black and brown moustache have been cobbled together to make a Frankenstache (this one is by far my favorite).

I am so excited about these pins, I teamed up with my friend over at madeinatreehouse.etsy.com, and will be including one AWESOME tube of ‘Lip Balm for Zombies’ with your purchase (flavor will vary) for a limited time. The lip balm is delicious, by the way. I have a tube and I use it all the time.

Aren’t they cute? Hooray for Halloween!

Barely spoiler free July 28, 2007

Sorry I haven’t been around in a while… hope you weren’t worried about me after the earthquake we had a few weeks ago…. I survived! It was the biggest one we’ve had since I have lived here, and it was a real shaker. The biggest avalanche I found was my desk at school.

While I was neglecting this blog, I got a mention on Apartment Therapy for my recipe cards – shout out to Apartment Therapy! Thanks! Speaking of recipe cards I got a few recipes as thanks via email today. Thanks Vicki! Oh! And one more LOOONG overdue shoutout to Joan over at AnthropoMorphCo… When I was frustrated at the lack of cute recipe cards, I mentioned to her that her veggies would be perfect for recipe cards. So she made some! And they are sweet!

You can pick some up in her etsy shop.

Let’s see what else have I been up to… well, I followed this advice(scroll down) to prepare myself for the release of the new Harry Potter book. I’m mostly muggle and have only read one book (desperately bored at my parents house one Christmas). I recently saw the new movie (in which Harry is an intolerable Skywalker-ish whiny teen. Enough with the orphan drama). But after brushing up on the ol’ Potter storyline I knew what to do when I ran across a copy of the book. I picked it up and read the last two chapters. HA!! Now I am a big spoiler waiting to happen.

Finally, when i would have normally been posting here, I was playing with colors over at COLOURLovers. Ever since I went King Salmon fishing, I have had some colors stuck in my head. This was a much easier way to get them out than trying to dye yarn or roving See how this

made me think of this

. Of you go play over there, i am ‘girlontherocks’ so send some votes my way….

Oh! I just remembered that I haven’t entered anything for Whiplash this month… I think I can sneak in just under the wire. Off to craft!

Etsy shopping – Gifts for knitters/spinners July 9, 2007

Sometimes the things that I find on etsy are so good I have to share. Most of the goodies in this post will appeal to knitters or spinners, but I have another gift idea post in mind and it will be coming soon.

The softest fiber ever
Okay, maybe it is not the softest alpaca ever, but it sure is nice. A whole hunk of soft grey alpaca from North Star Alpacas.

One of my favorite things about this fiber is that I get to know exactly who it came from.. Oh, not just the seller, the actual animal. Thanks Chewbaca!

The best stitch markers for tiny needles
I was admiring the complete adorableness of Jeremy’s Monkey post when a little set of stitch markers caught my eye. So tiny, so simple, so cute. So I ran over to Hide and Sheep and hooked myself up with some. Here they are on US #1 DPN’s.

See how they are totally not in the way? And they are virtually snag-proof. Genius. They are available for a pretty large range of needle sizes, and arrived packaged in a handy little tin.

Oh and they are such a deal. RUN over there and get some.

The gift set that no sock knitter can live without
In an act of shameless self-promotion (hey, it is my webpage) I bring you the Sock Knitter’s Gift set. It is one of my Sock Knitter’s needle cases (Where DPN’s, and circular needles live in perfect harmony) paired with a set of Kitchener Stich Markers for a wicked good price.

You can have your choice of needle case. Speaking of my shop… I am having a SALE!! Free US shipping, and 10% off of everything until Midnight Pacific Tuesday July 10. I am too lazy to re-price everything, so you will need to wait for an invoice before sending your payment.

Sock Needle Case May 30, 2007

A few years ago I made a lot of knitting needle cases. Downsizing apartments makes dealing with more than about a half of a yard of fabric at a time difficult, so I quit sewing as often. I do however, have just enough room to make one of my favorites – Sock Knitters Knitting Needle Cases.

I designed the cases to hold skinny crochet hooks (for provisional cast-ons and dropped stitches), double pointed needles and circular needles. You can even toss in a tape measure, stitch markers and a little ball of scrap yarn for casting on. They are small enough that you can take the whole case with you and your portable sock project.

See the notes in this photo for details on where to keep everything…

I listed a few in my shop, along with some newly dyed merino rovings.

Okay, I am of to scrounge for contest prizes… I am trying to think up something good….

I didn’t buy all of it… May 28, 2007

While we weren’t talking I did some shopping/trading on etsy. I thought I would share my finds with you since some of my friends claim that everything on etsy is crap. Okay, that’s not true. They said there is a lot of crap on etsy which is true, so I will help you wade through some of it.

What have we here…. clockwise from the top:

• Fork easel from Whimsylove. More about this later
• Crochet covered button from Jezze. This is so special it is going to live on my favorite lime green wool jacket. Cechk out her shop – she now has cool looking prints too…
• Chapstick for Zombies from my old friend at Made in a Treehouse. Homemade chapstick is delicious. And this one says “mmmm… brains” on it. you can’t beat that.
• Donut keychain from Sweet Honey Complex. For some reason I thought it was much tinier, but I still love it.

And in case you are wondering what that fork easel is for….

Holding my new recipe cards, of course!

Saturday Night Specials
On Saturday nights, many etsy sellers offer special discounts. It is a little clunky and you sorta have to work for it, but you need to watch the forum (bulletin board) for the announcement. Then individual sellers post their sales there. I have found several great sellers this way.
If you are new to etsy, tell them I (girlontherocks) sent you….