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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