Posted by SewPixie on July 13th, 2008 in Crochet, Knitting, Yarn

Greetings blog world! I’ve just come back from a fabulous retreat here in town. Tempe Yarn and Fiber had their 2nd annual retreat this weekend and it was a blast. The fun began on Friday night where we chatted and knitted, crocheted, and spun.

There was a yarn tasting also where we got to sample different yarns and work up a swatch while we heard about the yarn. Each yarn was paired with a movie that went along with the name or the look of the yarn to make things fun. At the end we voted on our favorite of the yarns, and the winner was announced like the Academy Awards. We also each got an amazing tote bag and water bottle, plus other goodies!

The workroom closed down at 11pm but I wound up staying up in my room and making a doll cardigan from one of the tiny balls of yarn form the tasting. I did manage to watch Oceans 13 at the same time so that was cool.

Saturday we went to breakfast then headed to the workroom for more fiber fun. I had probably 3-4 projects on the table at any given time and just switched back and forth. The first night I finished a neckwarmer with some of my handspun. Saturday, in addition to the doll sweater finished in the wee hours of the morning I finished another doll cardigan, a sock, a slipper, and an Arizona Scarf made from Tango yarn which we received at the yarn tasting. It was really cool to meet new people and look at all the great projects everyone was working on. I also borrowed the spinning wheel for a bit and worked on some merino wool roving I brought.

The activity for Saturday was a white elephant give away. It was fun because all of the white elephant items were divided into paper bags that the grandchildren of the shop owners. They were so cute! As our names were drawn we picked one of the two bags currently up for grabs. I wound up with the 2007 knitting calendar (the kind with a page for each day with a pattern). It will go nice with the crochet one I had a couple years ago. When we signed up we also received a small length of beaded ribbon and were challenged to use it with a project. I put min into the center of a crochet flower that I made into a hair comb. There were some other really awesome projects like a wire crocheted bracelet and a cell case form handspun.

This morning we had breakfast (nice buffet at the hotel) and went shopping for a bit until going to the yarn store. They had special hours just for those who went to the retreat (they are normally closed on Sunday). Candace and I hung out there for a bit then I went home.

I can’t wait for next year!

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Posted by SewPixie on June 19th, 2008 in Knitting, Yarn

Just when you thought I had plenty of crafty hobbies I have taken up spinning. Candace noticed a beginner class at Tempe Yarn and Fiber so I figured what the heck. Well, the first night I sucked. I hated it. I wanted to throw the fiber across the room but as I keep saying it would not have slammed so there would have been no use. But I became obsessed. I went home and looked up videos, consulted some spinning friends and dreamed of drafting the fiber perfectly.

Here is the first bobbin I spun. Thick and thin, lumpy and bumpy, corkscrews everywhere! Everyone says that once you get good at spinning you can’t get it to look like this anymore even if you wanted to.

Then here is my second bobbin. I did pretty good at first, but then yesterday it was all lumpy again. Meh.

One of the billion nice things at TYF is that Terry an dCandy have decided that it is good for the beginner spinner’s morale to have one of them ply the first skein so we can see that no matter how horrid we thought our singles that the yarn would still be neat. Candy plied my skein of plum and teal. Look..yarn!

Since I don’t need a ton of scarves I decided I wanted to make a bag. So last night I broke out some size 11 needles and did a stockinette pattern rectangle. This afternoon I make a fabric bag lining for it and attached a magnet clasp and handle.

Jamie was working on a scarf from her pretty blue and white handspun yesterday and I’m not certain if Candace has started to work with hers her. The instructor will be a bit surprised I think as we haven’t even had the second class yet. For now I am practicing on the wheels at TYF, but I am going to try all of them that I can so I can decide which one I want to buy. So far I like the castle style and started on the Kromski Minstrel. I worked a bit on the Kromski Sonata yesterday as well which is also castle style but is more portable. It comes with a ginormous backpack.

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Posted by SewPixie on June 17th, 2008 in Daily Life, Knitting

YAY! Vacation! Our vacation time rolls over at the end of August and silly me had 12 flippin’ days to take. So I cam taking this week off, some days in July to go to Indiana then a few other random days.

My plans for this week are to get the house cleaning under control (a perpetual quest, I have no idea how one woman, 6 plastic girls, and 3-4 pets can make such a mess!), go to TYF to practice spinning, go to TYF to work in my Mystery Bag, attend My Fair Lady at Gammage, put together an eating and exercise plan to put a halt to my ever-growing self, sew dolly bags for the shop, sew dolly bags for Shawna. *whew*

This past Saturday was World Wide Knit in Pubic Day. A little meet up was scheduled in Jerome so Candace and I took a road trip up there for the day. We stopped first in Cottonwood to visit with her grandparents and to drop her pups off. Her grandparents are so awesome! Made me really really miss mine. I did notice some similarities that need investigating! Do your grandparents have any of the following in their home (or if you are an awesome grandparent, do you have these items):

• Soap tray in the bathroom in the shape of a bathtub
• Fridge magnet in the shape of a small straw hat complete with ribbon and dried/fake flowers
• Address book that is in a box type thing with the alphabet down the side and you use a slider to pick the letter then push a button and it opens to that letter.
• Several yard sticks\meter sticks in a holder by the door that is most commonly used for entry

So with a quick stop at a yarn store in Cottonwood we headed on to Jerome. Wow! It is all up in hills and stuff. Man was I tired from walking around there with it so steep.

We found the knitting shop, Knit 1 Bead 2 and even received a gift for being the first there to mention WWKIPD! We set ourselves up at the park and I had some lunch at Haunted Hamburger. Yummy stuff. They were very packed but the nice people let me do a to go order. In all about 8 people showed up. It was pretty cool.

Okay off to clean. More later!

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Posted by SewPixie on June 8th, 2008 in Daily Life, Knitting, Yarn

I have been a bad blogger once again. Actually, I never am much of a good blogger but eh. Some may notice the time on this entry then wonder if I have been to bed yet. Those of you not in the know…I am a notorious late sleeper. Yesterday I didn’t get out of bed until 2pm, though in my defense I felt a bit ill. Well, Napoleon (my ferret) started sneezing around 5am and I am such a hypochondriac about the furry kids that I had to investigate. He is fine now, probably a little cold or dander in her nose or somesuch. I cleaned out his room\cage though and out in fresh linens (I don’t use bedding like with hamsters or something), water, food, etc.

I have been knitting like crazy lately. Candace, Suzanne, and I all joined the Mystery KAL at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. It doesn’t start until Wednesday so I am on pins and needles with my gauge swatch all ready to go. We know it will be a bag and use four colors of Cascade 220 Superwash and that is about it. Major kudos to Terry and Candy for designing the pattern and the mystery. Upwards of 60 people are signed up for the KAL! I chose the Petroglyph colorway, Candace chose her own colors, and Suzanne went with Monsoon.

I did still manage though to finally baste my latest quilt. Now just to freemotion the quilting and bind it.

I also bought a new camera. I got a used Nikon D40. I still have a ways to go in learning just how to use it but very slowly some of my knowledge from high school photo class is coming back to me. I really like the pictures I am getting form it though. I am keeping the Canon though since I don’t want to take this big camera with me everywhere.

The pets are doing well. We had a bit of a scare with Kitaro a couple weeks ago. B moved again and the housemates let Kit into the backyard and he got away. Freaked me the hell out since it is clear across town. His tag still has my number on it so thankfully a nice person found him and he got back to B’s safe and sound. He got a firm talking to by me when he was home next. That dog!

I am still going strong with my Blythe 365 project. I restarted Crafting 365 again a while back and am about 50 days into it this time. Whew.

Other than that…trying to clean the house as usual. My oldest niece will be in town next weekend so that will be awesome to see her. Also next weekend, Candace and I are going up to Jerome for Knit in Public Day. That should be cool. I’ve never been to Jerome but hear it is funky and artsy. Woo! Oh yes! And I have my flight booked for Indianapolis at the end of July. I didn’t take as much time as I had wanted all at once due to schedules at work but I am flying out Saturday the 26th and flying back on Wednesday August 2nd. Even with that vacation I still had oh about 12 vacations days left so I am also taking random days off here and there. I am so terrible about not taking my vacation days. I will be getting a head start next fiscal year though as I will be going to California in September to visit Deana since I’ve known since before Kindergarden. Yay!!

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Posted by SewPixie on February 11th, 2008 in Crochet, Knitting, Yarn

Okay so I am dumb and have no idea how to make a print-screen from a Mac so I can’t show you now, but I put my name on the list for Ravelry just now. There are 6,405 people ahead of me in line.

Other than that I need to blog about the Blythe meet this past weekend in Tucson, my progress on “Operation Wholesale Order”, work, knitting class, house cleaning, and kitties who sneak out of the house!

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Posted by SewPixie on February 3rd, 2008 in Daily Life, Knitting, Yarn

This week has been really busy at work so I have had a hard time keeping up with with online pals and housework!

Candace got a good idea to take knitting lessons so we signed up for two sessions at the local JoAnns. I have some needles and have made a scarf but that is about it so I am really excited. The bamboo yarn I picked up for class is so freaking soft!

Other than that I have been working on “Operation Wholesale Order” as well as getting some bags done for the Etsy shop plus goodies for a couple of swaps I am in.

This month is going to be crazy busy so I need to get organized!!!!! I’ve got some big project due at work, Blythe Meet in Tuscon, Knitting Class, Machine Quilting Class, Shipping out the ‘big order’ and getting ready for Georgia!

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