Girl on the Rocks

Christmas Craft Marathon December 23, 2009

Just like last year I am planning to fill my Christmas break with wall to wall craft time. Last year was a huge success that culminated in the addition of the owl embroidery floss organizer to my product line. I have several projects up my sleeve and was hoping that you would help me prioritize them.

Projects I am considering:

• Latch Hook rug Vintage. New in Package. And I already have the tool!
  
• Punch Needle embroidery: I purchased PlanetJune’s punch needle embroidery e-book and Moon pattern ages ago. I finally found a punch needle, so I’d like to give it a try.
• Crochet blanket I want to add a least a few hexagons to this languishing crochet project.
• Spinning My apartment is full of fiber. I would like to convert some of it into yarn.
  
• Wee knitting
  • Boot toppers
  • Acorns and tinier acorns
  • Hedgehogs: This one is the cutest but I already have the pattern for this one
• Needlework pattern Just like last year I still have some vintage crewel patterns that I would like to stitch up. Now I also have an Amy Sedaris cross stitch pattern (from Lauren at Sweet-meats) and a few recently procured Japanese cross stitch patterns to try out.
• Marshmallows I like to make homemade marshmallows. Last year I experimented with some homemade marshmallows with bourbon in them, and I would like to perfect the recipe this year.

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Here’s what’s happening July 2, 2008

After nearly a month of not blogging, i thought i should let you know that I am still around.

I’ve done a little knitting

Ravelry Project Page

A little spinning

California Red locks from A Verb for Keeping Warm Raverly page

and…. i adopted a kitty! Introducing… Bean!

She’s mouthy (like me). This last picture is a video…. Click through to hear Bean!

insane number of kitty pics in my flickr stream.

Event Report – Color: A Fiber Festival April 29, 2008

Saturday was a perfect day in Berkeley: Sunny and 75. It couldn’t have been a better time for Color: A Fiber Festival. I was a vendor at this event together with A Verb for Keeping Warm, Tactile Fiber Arts, and Pigeonroof Studios. (But I couldn’t have done it without Abby and my table wouldn’t have looked the same without her tweed chickens, so thanks!). The Verb and Tactile ladies are fiber show pros, and they have a ton of product. In my typical style, I am less professional and little more garage sale-y, but I try my best. I still could not resist capturing some of their setup in action. I took a photo of my little table.

I loved hanging out here and meeting other Ravelers and especially several of my blog readers. Hi Ladies – leave a comment!! I was tickled every time I met someone that I recognized from their Ravelry avatar.

The festival provided not only an opportunity to shop, but also several free classes. I taught two rounds of “Weaving on small hand looms” and was so happy that I had so many participants! A big high-five to everyone that was in my class! I hope you left with lots of ideas and that you aren’t all bidding against each other on ebay right now.

And just because I was selling doesn’t mean I wasn’t buying….

California Red Wool

Icelandic, Gotland and Wensleydale Wools
I sure hope there are more Color: Events in the future. Seriously, it was SO much fun. Thanks so much Sara for your awesome organizational skills!

Links

• I started a flickr Group so if you have photos on Flickr, send them over.
• There is also a Color: group on Ravelry
• Looms to go Ravelry Group

Fiber Festival Fun April 8, 2008

Just around the corner, on Saturday April 26th there is an exciting little fiber festival. Color Fiber Festival is taking place in Berkeley and will include fiber tastings (materials fee only) and free drop spindle classes. Several local indie dyers and crafters will be there including yours truly. I am looking forward to browsing some Pigeon Roof Studios fibers – can you imagine how nice it will be to see a bunch in one place?! I am particularly excited that A Verb for Keeping Warm and Tactile Fiber Arts will be there. They have the NICEST naturally dyed fibers. I’ve spun up all of my Yak and I need more!

You should definitely check out the session/class schedule – there will be fun things to do all day. I might sneak in there with a few weavette/weave-it demonstrations, and I’ll even let you give one of my looms a try!

If you have an hankering for anything in my shop, let me know and I will bring it and you can pick it up! You can even get recycled vinyl wallets from Abmatic as she’ll be representing with me.

Did I say how excited I am about this?? There is inside and outside space available so you can come and shop for fiber, hang out and spin, and even get lunch nearby! I hope I can sneak away to try out some fibers from Rare Wool Breeds.

So, will you be there?

Stuff for me. March 6, 2007

I have been throwing a bump of roving into the dye pot at a rate of about one a day, just to get some stuff dyed. I had the intention of putting it in my etsy shop, but I like them so much I think I will be keeping them.

The bottom one is inspired by dandelions. I am thinking of submitting it to the Yarn Museum Flora gallery if I get it spun in time.

Even though I have deprived you of the opportunity to shop for roving, if you really want to do some shopping, I have somewhere to send you. Threadless.
Hurry over there cause they are having a $10 sale.

You might like this sheepy one:

and my nerdy friends might like this one:

I like the subtle use of a unicorn…

And my students should like this one:

It would have helped them identify the 8 planets in the solar system for their midterm exam. Yes, college students in a class called “the Planets” missed that question.

Pre-spinning complete July 25, 2005

This weekend we finished spinning the yarn for the pre-knit portion of the sheep to shawl competition. here is some of it still on the wheel

And here is some of it on my couch surrounded by rolags.

now all we have to to do is knit it up!

Some photos and cool links February 21, 2005

Beware… this is a long post
First, here is a photo of my stitches haul. it is mostly bulky misti alpaca. while taking this photo i realized that still cannot believe how light and fluffy this alpaca yarn is. usually i think that alpaca is kinda ropey, but this stuff is great. Second, a photo of my self-striped yarn. i knit some of it up to see how it looks. that part that is knit up is 6 different colors and is 2-ply. we learned how to make the color changes in the 2 plies match. the top of the knit swatch is suppsed to be puffy yarn with thin binder, and the puffy yarn changes color. then still on the bobbin you can see a little bit of the stuff that i navajo-plied. apparently almost every spinner knows how to do this, but it was new to me. you basically finger-crochet your
yarn to turn 1-ply into 3-ply. there is a cool video on it here. i wanted to share the resources i used to make my first toe-up sock, since meg asked, and since they were all free! I was directed to these instructions by
b, since she seems to know what she is doing in the sock department. The casting on is from an old article in knitty. i chose the “easy toe” and it went pretty well. the toe was definitely the toughest part. i wouldn’t want to do it on the commuter train or anything like that – requires too much concentration. but once i was past that i was home free! to make the rest of the sock (especially the heel) i relied on wendy’s toe-up sock pattern. my foot was really a lot smaller than
the pattern, but it was easy to size the sock because i just kept trying it on!

Be sure to read la principessa’s ‘Honest yarn store review.’ i feel like everyone has visited at least one store that fits this review….

And finally, cheryl and i were discussing crafts as art, and i was telling her that using the term “craft”
isn’t cool anymore, according to this radio program i heard. The show is invisible ink , and they had an episode entitled “In Defense of Crafts” that has
a lot of cool knitting content. here is a link to target="NewWindow">show #63 if you have real player, half an hour and want to listen.