Bad vibes, stress and knitting! Oh my!
So right after the Ravelry event I got pretty sick. I must have felt it coming on. It was so bad I couldn’t get any knitting done. I would have been content to sleep all day long…given I wasn’t barfing at the time.
So I spent an entire weekend being ill, then my little boy got it, then my little girl got it…
Then other weird stuff started happening in all aspects of my life. Weird as in “not good”.
To be honest, life had me pretty disgusted. I had no urge to knit. I had a fear…and you can call me crazy if you wish…but I felt like if I even touched my sweater I would transfer some sort of bad vibes to it. I wasn’t prepared to do that. It is my first self-designed sweater.
So I had a talk with my friend Kate at work. She had this fabulous idea for knitting when bad stuff is happening. She said I could knit an “anger blanket”.
Yes, an “anger blanket”, but I imagine it can be knit for any kind of negative feeling or bad vibe you might have. Keep it around for all those times you want to choke someone out with a pair of circular needles, if you are depressed, hurt, grieving…whatever yucky feeling you might have.
Once you’re done, bless the thing, or have it blessed by someone less negative, and donate it to the homeless.
Bad vibes turned into something positive. I like the idea. I am going to do it.
So, everything above postponed my self-imposed knitting deadline. I want to report that I did finally finish my sweater…and it looks great. I think it is my fourth official sweater…and it is the first I designed myself. I can’t wait to wear it…with only positive vibes.
Knit in True Love Fiber Sock in "Bruise"
Party, Party, Ravelry Party!
Ravelry folks are in town? It’s the anniversary of Unwind’s opening? Sounds like the perfect reason to have a party!!
Manos, Manos, Manos!
Still pretty quiet before everyone arrived...
The cool thing is that there was a VIP party beforehand that we got to attend. It was great fun. We got a sneak peek at all the fun stuff before everyone else. Manos, Namaste bags… all sorts of stuff! I had a plan going in, and anyone who knows me well knows I can stick to a plan. 
Me and Meilan...and a bunch of people waiting outside.
See, I know sometimes these things can be overwhelming, so I knew what I was going for and kept my blinders on to everything else. It was kind of like my Stitches approach. Go with a list, do not deviate from said list…it was the only way I could keep within my budget. Of course I did see plenty of eye candy that made me all wide-eyed and crazy looking, but I was a good girl. I only really looked at the Manos color cards. I picked my color and I did two laps around the shop before I went up to the register to order and pay for it. 14 skeins in Bing Cherry. I also found a full punch card when I opened my wallet. That means $30 off my order that was *already* sale priced. I had a *moment*. I believe I actually started jumping up and down and giggling loudly.
I bought enough Manos del Uruguay to make this:
It'll look awesome in "bing cherry"...
I can’t wait until it comes in. I have it slated as my next project.
So, I said it was pretty overwhelming, right? Hopefully Penny doesn’t kill me for this one, but sometimes she is so cute that I just can’t help myself…
I believe there was some swearing happening right before this photo...
Little did I know at the time, but I was coming down with something. That and the crowd inside would explain why I felt like I was burning up. I ended up keeping Emily company at the front door and working on my sweater. It was chilly outside, but it was nice to sit and get some knitting done.
Flo, Meilan and Patty outside chatting.
Emily and I...
I enjoyed playing “bouncer” with Emily. Don’t mess with us ladies…..we carry pointy sticks!
The funny thing about this whole night…and I am not quite sure what I was thinking (for now I will blame the fever that came the next day) but I didn’t even think to go introduce myself to the Ravelry folks. I saw Mary-Heather a few times…and I think saw Jess and Casey once, but I didn’t get any photos of them. Blogger FAIL!
I did have fun though. And it’s getting me primed for Stitches West in February.
A Non-Knitterly Christmas?
I can’t say this Christmas was about the knitting. I did make some sort of promise to myself at some point that I wouldn’t be knitting any Christmas gifts. Just put a cute little face in front of me asking nicely and I turn into a puddle of goo and will agree to anything.
How can you say "no" to this?
So the kids loved their hats….but why not? They picked everything out, down to the style and mommy whipped them right up. They were even done *before* Christmas! Holy crap, I made a deadline! Goooooooo ME!
So…I thought I was a pretty good girl this year…
I didn’t get any yarn…..
No needles……
No notions…..
No fiber-y batts of fluffy goodness….
But I did get an interesting present this year…
Huh?
A Snuggie? What?! Say it…..I know I did. WTF, right? Everyone I know is aware that I am ready to lead the charge in the “Anti-Snuggie” campaign. I mean, not only does it scream “I’m ready for the Kool-Aid now”…it isn’t made of natural stuff. I mean, this thing is quite literally, plastic. What?! No wool? No Alpaca? Not even cotton? ::faints::
So I sliced open the box and looked inside….
Awwwwww...
I got money for Stitches West in February. Yay!!!
Oh, and I got the Snuggie too. ::rolls eyes::
Holy *@!%! It’s Christmas already?
Man have I been a busy girl! It seems like December just flew by!
Well, as much as I said I was going to avoid Christmas giftie-type knitting, I just couldn’t. I say it every year and I always make *something*. This year I was prompted to get off my butt by my son. Even at 4 years old, that boy can appreciate Mommy’s crafting. He came up to me one night and flat out said “Mommy, I want a hat!” Thank goodness he asked for something easy! I walked him back to the stash and let him pick out his own yarn.
Of course, this also means I have to make a hat for my little girl too. She also visited the stash for some yarn.
So, in the midst of the Christmas knitting…I was working on my own projects. I finished my Vaya Shrug first…
Vaya Shrug on the duct tape form
Then I started and finished my Whisper Shrug…
The Whisper, in an unfinished state...
I don’t have any pictures of it completed yet, but it sure looks awesome blocked. I even bought some Habu Silk to make another…
Then I started a sweater that has no name, because it has no pattern. I am mixing and matching and making it up as I go along. I am knitting it with True Love Fiber yarn in Bruise that I got at Unwind. I am needing to get creative because I have two balls in one dyelot and one ball in another. So far it is looking pretty good.
I love this sweater!
OH….and that etsy shop I keep promising to start? Well, I am working on it, despite my not having put anything up online yet. I have been carding batts like a mad woman. I am sure poor Wendy would love her drum carder back…one of these days I will have to get one of my own.
The Drum Carder of DOOM!
I have gotten my fingers injured a few times while cranking these things out, but they look oh so pretty!
Alpaca and wool with a little glitz
Wool with a little carbonized bamboo and some glitz
So much to do this week. I am sure I will have more completed projects before Christmas actually gets here!
When asked to volunteer…
Recently I got an email for Stephanie at Unwind asking for volunteers to help teach knitting during the Magnolia Holiday In The Park. Basically, people from all over visit different shops in the Magnolia Park district and collect stamps for different things. This year Unwind participated by offering free knitting lessons.
Well since Stephanie knows I am always up for a challenge, she scheduled me to sit and teach this cute 70-something couple. Where is the challenge? They were both deaf.
Boy, was I bummed I couldn’t remember the ASL I took in college. I can barely finger spell!
They were lovely people, and super funny! It was a challenge to try and explain how to get started. There was a lot of writing notes and back and forth…and when the husband had a hard time getting the hang of things (he was also a lefty) the wife wrote that it was because he was old.
Our twenty minutes turned into an hour. After she got the hang of knitting a few rows she wrote about how she and her husband had both been deaf since birth. She explained to me how she grew up watching her father read the paper and her grandmother knit while everyone listened to the radio. Then television came and she still couldn’t figure it all out. She explained how happy she was when closed captioning was rolled out. I told her about my friend Juline, who works as a captioner.
It was really a fascinating night.
So…what have I *actually* been knitting. I started a Whisper Cardigan…and I just finished Little Miss Green Jeans for my friend Wendy’s soon-to-be little girl. 
Sooooo cute!
Happy Halloween!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so there isn’t much to report knitting-wise. I have been having some fun though!
Got caught by DOG!
So, since I have been slacking when it comes to the blog again, I thought I would try a video blog post…
Happy Halloween!
Project Runway - Unwind Style!
After coming back from the retreat Saturday night I was in for some serious work. My lil’ girl was sick, so at midnight, while the boys in the house were passed out, we ran to the local grocery store for tylenol. Poor thing had a fever of 102. I ended up staying late to make sure she fell asleep and that the fever was going down.
This is where the excitement began.
It begins here because my late night turned around to bite me in the butt! My husband, who was passed out while my girl and I ran to the store, got locked out of the garage, and tried calling up for help, decided to let me sleep in. He was trying to be nice…and didn’t realize class started at ten.
I woke up at ten AFTER ten.
I have never moved so fast in my life. I grabbed as much as I could carry, hoped I had everything needed, and hit the road.
I made it to my duct tape dress form class a half hour late, unshowered….hair not combed. I felt bad because my partner in crime, VivaScrapper, had already been paired up with someone else. Since one of the ladies didn’t show, I got paired up with Lisa Limber, the teacher. It turned out to be a good thing because she started to tape me up with lightning speed and before I knew it, I was ready to be cut out!
I was told I looked like an anime character...
Since I don’t mind being the guinea pig, she demonstrated on me how one cuts this duct taped craziness off. She cut straight up the back…and once it was off I taped the seam up a few times.
One of the other students has been cut out...
There is my dress form, waiting for stuffing.
The part of the base that goes inside the form.
Since I was busting a move to get everything done, I finished a little early. It helped I didn’t have a partner to tape up though. Turns out that all of us were low on polyfil to stuff the inside of these things, so I volunteered to run to the closest JoAnn’s to pick some up.
My trip to JoAnn's
I bought the last 12 bags of polyfil they had. These things are huge! I couldn’t fit them all in the cart!! I dropped a bunch in the parking lot trying to get them out to the van. A few people stopped to help me pick them back up.
I made it back to Unwind just in time for lunch. Woohoo!
After lunch we started the second portion of the class. We talked about garments we brought and what we liked and disliked about them. We also talked color. I got the stink eye for picking up some teal yarn. The girls would love to see me break out of *that* color rut, especially since they can’t understand why I always pick that color when I walk around wearing garments that are much crazier in the color department. It really is my “safe” color. There were some really good color suggestions though. Navy and plum…and I found some yarn I would like to knit a hoodie with…
So pretty, and the ladies think it looks like a good color for me.
Vivascrapper is knitting a “Fauxdie” with it. You can see it there in the background.
So the class was a success, and now I have this dress form hanging out in my living room. Maybe I’ll dress her up for Halloween.
Here we are!
CogKNITive Fiber Retreat - The Haul
It was long after dark when I got home. Amazingly enough, I carried everything upstairs in one trip. My wheel, my travel bag, and all my goodies. So, here is what I brought home!!!
The contents of the goodie bag!
Red Fish Dyeworks Tussah/Camel. I could pet it all day...
24 oz. of Freckle Face Fibers Merino in "Mythical" and 4 oz. of wool/bamboo/nylon blend
The 24 oz. of fiber hopes to be a hoodie someday…
BeeMiceElf roving and my new spindle. That red one has cashmere in it!!
Some Pagewood Farms roving and Lorna's Laces Sock in "California Poppies" from Unwind.
And soap from Wolfe Farms!!
I am so excited to get some projects started!!!!
CogKNITive Fiber Retreat - Afternoon Session
Shari waiting for lunch while I snap a picture...
So after a very good, but very long lunch, we bought fudge…starbucks…and headed back to the retreat. We didn’t get there in time for Mindy’s class, so I brought out the wheel and started spinning my new fiber!
Alexis, Me, Jo and MeiLan doing our thing...
Jasmin...spinning
Look at that new FreckleFaceFiber I am spinning!!!
So I spun and spun until about 6:45 p.m. and then headed for home. I made it home in record time. The 2 1/2 hour trip, according to Mapquest, only took me 1 1/2. I updated my facebook status to warn my husband about how much I was bringing home with me.
This was my backseat right after lunch...
The back of my van before I left.
It’s time for the CogKNITive Fiber Retreat!!
First thing in the morning we got our goodie bags…which made us a little giddy…
We also had a pow-wow by the pool with Dr. Gemma starting off the festivities with a strategy and some raffle prizes.
Mei Lan and Alexis knitting and crocheting
Dr. Gemma and Alexis
Raffle time and surprises!
They had some really awesome raffle prizes, including beautiful spindles (the one above donated by Yorkie Slave on etsy.com) and gorgeous fiber (from FreckleFaceFibers and Red Fish Dyeworks). As a surprise, Jasmin and Gigi of The Knitmore Girls!!
Then the festivities began….shopping, shopping and more shopping!
Vendors!
They had some really awesome vendors. Above there is (from left to right) the folks from Unwind (my LYS), BeeMiceElf, Wolfe Farms and Red Fish Dyeworks.
After shopping there were classes. Jo was teaching drop spindle in the hallway (as we had a hard time finding a large enough space to accommodate everyone). It was great to see so many people wanting to learn to spin! There were so many people there that Alexis, Tika (from the “Gives Good Knit” podcast), and myself offered up help when folks needed it.
Look at all those spinners!
More spinners!
I even did some spinning on my new spindle.
And this all happened before lunch!
This place had the best turkey, bacon, apple sandwich.
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