Help for Haiti January 17, 2010

I am sure you’ve heard about the terrible situation in Haiti, after the recent earthquake. A lot of members of ravelry.com have decided to fund raise. Notably, a lot of designers have decided to donate a portion of the income from some patterns to aid the help in Haiti. I’ve decided to participate, and have put the Ravelling Lace Hat up as a “Help for Haiti” pattern. The price is $5.00, with 50% of all sales going to Red Cross International Response Fund. Thanks to the ravelry group, Lazy, Stupid, and Godless, who began a “LSG-a-Thon For Haiti“, the masterminds behind ravelry made it easy to find patterns that are donating to the cause. Currently, there are 962 patterns listed with some proceeds going towards Haiti (not all through the same charities).

So crafters, ravelers, go forth, buy up some patterns you know you want anyhow, and help those in need at the same time. I’ve decided that I will forever donate 50% of the proceeds from the sales of Ravelling Lace Hat to the Red Cross International Response Fund. It is the least I can do!

Ravelling Lace Hat

A bit of Catching up! December 11, 2009

A lot to catch up on! Here is a (picture heavy) post from October .. I am so late on posting!!

giant spiders!

Jason and Makenna spent some time finding just the right pumpkins for carving. We ended up with 5 pumpkins (two for Papa, and one for each of us).

picking out the perfect pumpkin

Me and Makenna

They had a lot of really cool things to see and do at Spooner Farms. I think we’ll definitely be returning next year! Not only did they have those cool hay bale spiders, they had a large musical pipe instrument set up for you to bang on and make ‘music’. It was a big hit with the elementary aged kids there. They had the pumpkin house for photos as well as a giant paper mache’ pumpkin and a few other things to see and do (corn mazes and other activities- we didn’t check them out oo much, Makenna was getting tired). They also had a really nice store, with candles, seasonal decorations, and yummy food stuffs. There was popcorn, doughnuts, caramel apples, roasted corn on the cob and other delicious smelling foods to tempt you. It was almost overwhelming!

Here are our pumpkins we carved, we sort of cheated and used one of those carving templates. Otherwise, they would have just been simple ’scary’ faces.

not so spooky jack o'lanterns

Makenna dressed up as a princess ballerina. Because of how cold it gets here, she is wearing sweats under her costume, and we decided to trick-or-treat in down town Puyallup, instead of after dark in a near by neighborhood.

Makenna, princess ballerina

And Makenna with her cousins. They joined us for trick-or-treating. The girls really had a lot of fun.

Kristina, the witch, Elizabeth, a fairy (Rosetta, I believe), and Makenna, princess ballerina

Jason and I went out with friends that night, to dinner and to see ‘Paranormal Activity’. We decided to dress up in ‘costumes” Jason was a priestly vampire, and I was his victim…

the vampire and his victim...

Sorry for the crap load of photos. I just never seemed to have the mojo to post these last couple of months! Nothing too exciting happened in November.. but we did recently re-do our bathroom! I’ll be sharing that soon, as well. (It will be a lot of photos as well.. though probably not as many as this post!)

Just a quickie October 8, 2009

Life has been… stressful.

The auction date for the house has been moved to October 13, which is better than the 9th.

The garden has given up the goods (a few ears of corn, and some tomatoes and carrots). We cut the sunflower top off to let it dry so we can harvest those seeds too. Maybe we’ll have a whole bunch of sunflowers to cheer up the yard, instead of just one

I am temporarily closing the etsy shop. I will probably be re-listing the fibers I have for sale directly through the blog. I will just need to figure out how to work with paypal to accept payments through here. Need to take new photos too. Perhaps I should make a light box…

Any local knitters are welcome to join me on Friday at 7pm, at the Northern Pacific Coffee Company, located on Garfield Street, just by the Pacific Lutheran University. They have food, and coffee, as well as beer. Nice atmosphere too. So come, join us!

Ravelling Lace Hat September 18, 2009

A new pattern, and thanks to my LSG tweasles, it’s ready for the whole world!

If you do find any mistakes, please feel free to PM me through ravelry, make a not here on the blog, or leave a note on the ravelry pattern page.

Ravelling Lace Hat

New pattern for a hat or tam. A pretty, two color lacy hat. You’ll need worsted weight yarn, in two colors. Approximately 60 grams of the main color, and 20 grams of the contrast. If making a tam, you will need about 100 grams of main, and 30 of CC. This pattern if fully charted.

Please note… when knitting the set up chart and chart A, you need to knit a round as the stitches appear (knit the knits and YOs, and purl the purls) after each row of the chart. The other charts are knit as is, no other rows.

SOCKS August 22, 2009

I finally took the plunge and got over my silly ‘fear’ of short row heels. See, I am the type of knitter who doesn’t like to rip/tink. SO if I make a mistake, I will fix it or leave it, so I was scared of screwing up a sock heel, since I would have to rip back to redo it. (whoa, that’s a crappy run-on sentence).

I finished a pair of traveling ribbed socks with Dream In Color Classy, in the color Some Summer Sky. No photos, as my camera is MIA. The socks were too tight for my feet, so I knit the foot short enough for Makenna to wear as house socks. I might re-visit the pattern (it was one I made up), and eventually write it up to share. The left overs might be enough for Cable Footies or may just end up as a hat for Makenna.

I am also in the planning stages of another pair of worsted socks; they will be knit with a cable panel/gusset up the back, and be (hopefully) knee high. Sort of a bastardization of kilt hose. I won’t be able to really offer the pattern, as the cable chart is not my own. I will however, share the how-to, though you’ll need the book with the chart in order to actually knit the socks.
Up next, I will be finishing my moms bee strip socks (Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Bee Stripe), then knitting Jasons plain grey socks. His will be toe up, with 1×1 ribbing on the arch, a few random stripes using left over Seahawks sock yarn, and then 2×2 ribbing on the leg/cuff. He originally asked for short socks, and now decides he wants them as tall as I can get from two balls of Fortissima (100 grams for his size 10.5-11 feet).

Eventually I’ll get to some socks for me Probably the Embossed Leaves using some Koigu KPM in a nice dark green semi-solid. Or Monkeys using some other KPPM I have stashed.

For those of you who like sales.. Jimmy Beans Wool has Colinette Jitterbug on sale (I scored two of the Salty Dog colorway) Pretty colors!) for just $12.30 for 100 gram skein. Those will probably become Reims Stockings

(Pattern links are ravelry.com pattern page links)

Market Survey August 11, 2009

I have been thinking about branching out and (hopefully!) opening up a shop in my local area. The branching out part will happen this spring, and the physical shop is a future goal

To help focus my plan, I created a market survey, and would appreciate it if you would take the time to answer the questions. Just a quick note, it is about dyeing and fiber, so proceed with caution

Survey Link

Dogs, Fiber, Festival August 11, 2009

Sumner Arts Festival was a lot of fun to attend! My festival companion, Jill, had her beautiful Samoyed with her, Topper. She spin beautiful yarns from his undercoat, which she brushes or plucks (but never cuts). It spins up a bit fuzzy, but over time, from wear and washing, it gets an amazing halo all over, so much so, that you cannot see the stitches anymore! The crowd loved Topper, and would joke about spinning his fur, and then be almost shocked to learn, that yes, Jill does! The yarn is lovely, and the mittens she brought to display were incredibly fuzzy and silky. I think I need a Samoyed! lol (PS, if you are looking for the yarn that was displayed at the Sumner Arts Festival, it was not mine, but Jills. Please leave me a comment and I will forward her contact info to you)

I did sell a bit of fiber, but don’t have my supplies available to put up in etsy (Jill held them for me to keep them out for sale on Saturday, as I couldn’t stay past 2pm), so the shop sits empty for now. I also got almost 4 ounces of Falkland spun up, and it is lovely to spin! So soft, and has great crimp. The single will be chain plied, and along with some pretty Crown Mountain Farms Superwash Merino fiber I have in Wish You Were Here, to make Makenna a sweater.

I also have a really big idea as far as fibers, yarn, and dyeing goes. I’d share more.. but I don’t want to let it all out, and then not deliver the goods.

Our garden is doing great, as far as the corn is concerned. I think our soil was not quite right for the radishes and carrots to thrive.. and the tomatoes are doing fine, though with the drastic switch in weather, I am nt sure they will ripen in time to actually eat them!

Sorry for the lack of photos, my camera has decided to hide from me. I think I need to set out a bribe for the house brownies/elves/faeries. They seem to like to hide things from me!

Sumner Arts Festival! August 4, 2009

I am so excited to share this with you! The Moonspinners Guild received an invitation to participate in the Sumner Arts Festival this year. We can spin, crochet, knit, weave, and sell our wares in our allocated spot.

Why am I excited? Because I will be bringing my fibers with me and have them available for purchase, in person. I will also be bringing my Babe wheel, and keeping my daughter entertained while enjoying the weather on Friday. If there is anything not sold after Friday, I will also be there Saturday, until 2 pm. The etsy shop will put in Vacation Mode until Monday.

We will be at the Ryan House, which is located at Sumner ave and Main Street, near where the Car Exhibit will be. (Map page link). Come by, say hello, support local artist! It runs from 10:00am to 9:00pm on Friday and from 10:00am to 7:00pm on Saturday.

Vegas, Baby! July 7, 2009

(pictures will be added later)

We are back from our trip to Las Vegas. We stayed at Treasure Island, which was a very nice hotel. Our room was on the 29th floor, with a view of the strip. We were able to watch the Sirens of TI show from our room, and see the fireworks explode at almost eye level, it was a very cool experience!

I kept trying to scheme on how to sneak home the huge, soft, perfect pillows home and the amazing top comforter as well. I have never slept so well! Jason loved the way the complimentary soaps/lotion/shampoo/conditioner smelled, so much so, that he joked with the housekeeping to leave extra. When we came back that evening, she did. He is now the proud owner of about 7 bottles of each, and 14 bars (2 kinds) of travel size soaps. Guess what we will be using next time we travel? It is great stuff!

We (sadly) didn’t get to watch the TI show at street level (or tour the ship- for TI guests only) as we always seemed to just miss a show, or had other plans during show times, but did make the effort to view the Mirage Volcano show. That was fun and really HOT! We also checked out the casinos/decor at Caesars Palace, Excalibur, Luxxor, Harrahs, NY NY, and admired the exterior of Paris, Palazzo, and .

The pool was not too impressive, compared to the other hotel pools we saw, but nice enough. It was CRAZY busy on the 4th, and our friends kids did a dance off at the pool.

Fremont Street was definantly worth the trip too, as the light show was amazing (Queen! and 3 live bands) and it was fun walking and listening to live music, getting a few drinks, and people watching. It was neat to actually be out front of some of the famous casinos seen in movies (Gold Nugget, ect..)

We missed out on the only fireworks show on-strip. It was put on by Caesars Palace. We were mislead by the front desk that only off-strip casinos were doing fireworks, but as we were walking the show started and we got to watch them from a distance (we were standing on the sidewalk, by the Sigfrid and Roy commemorative heads/statue thing) It was impressive from that distance, I cannot imagine how loud and awesome it would have been had we been out front of Caesars Palace during the show.

Overall, though, for other reasons, the trip was ok. I think Vegas just isn’t for me. I am not a gambler and the group we were with kept foisting the kids all off onto us. It made us feel like the fifth wheel on a double date, and none too excited to hang out with the others. we avoided them after we got left with the other kids and no way to contact the other adults, and the 3 kids ended up needing to sleep in our room for the night. Gee thanks! I think I will be avoiding group vacations from now on :/ I had been really looking forward to this trip since last fall. It was a bit of a disappointment because of the behavior of the people we went with. I might give Vegas another chance.. I’d still like to stay at Caesars Palace or Paris Those casinos are pretty!

Little Discount for June June 18, 2009

absolute jeanius
free shipping for the rest of June to celebrate my birthday, just enter the “code” in the notes section when you check out and I’ll refund the shipping cost!

CODE: LSGBDAY