Girl on the Rocks

Wait, when is Christmas? December 17, 2008

Oh, just around the corner. Well crap. It snuck up on me. I have been so buy with work lately that I haven’t had a crafty moment to spare. A major deadline passes at the end of this week, and I have already started thinking about what I will do when I take the week of Christmas off to craft.

Some things I want to do…

• Make hard tack candy - I love clove candy canes and I can’t find them anywhere out here. I used to make hard tak candy all the time, and this year I am really jonesing for some cinnamon and clove. (Separate, not mixed together).
• Make a tiny japanese santa Found via Mochimochiland. Hmmm… the link seems to have disappeared now, but I downloaded a free cute santa pattern (yes, I said cute santa) from the website of designer Gera, but it is gone now…. Sorry I can’t share!
• Work on a vintage crewel pattern How I acquired these is a story for another day. Let’s just say I have several vintage crewel patterns new in the package that I have been dying to try.





• Spin some fiber It is taking over my apartment and must at least be tamed into yarn.





• Major gocco project - top secret. Involves so much work it doesn’t really sound fun right now.
• Take a trip to the East Bay Depot This would likely be counterproductive as I would probably end up with more material or partially completed craft projects, but I haven’t been in so long and I wonder what they have.

Not that I promise to stick to your suggestion… but I might! I can’t decide where to start. What do you think?

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Is the Holiday Craft fair season over yet? December 11, 2008

Almost… One more this weekend. I was invited to peddle my wares at the first ever Knit One One Craft Fair. Knit One One is a local knitting studio offering classes and space for knitting and spinning meet ups. They are very close to my house (and next to a delicious bakery), but somehow I have never paid a visit. I went last weekend to check it out and it is beautiful and cozy. I am so excited to hang out there for the afternoon. I don’t have much space so I’ll be heavy on the knitting buttons and stitch markers and light on the fiber. Let me know if there is anything you would like me to bring so you can see it in person.

And the previous craft fairs…

Felt club was great…

And so was the SF Bazaar Bizarre (I snuck that one in there and forgot to post about it. You really should sign up for my mailing list if you want reminders). I shared a booth with Abmatic and was next to Sweet Meats. I window shopped for meat all day and brought home some prime cuts. I also had some enthusiastic moustache customers.

You want to know a secret… I am not sick of craft fairs yet! I love writing receipts and processing credit cards… I have a new found love for my credit card ka-chinker thanks to a bit of handy work from a crafty friend. I can’t wait for the summer fairs to roll around!

Felt Club Holiday 2008 - this weekend! November 11, 2008

Well, I am hitting the road. A minivan filled with my friends, my moustaches and my fiber will be headed down to So-Cal for the Felt Club Holiday 2008 Event on Sunday Nov 16th. I am still wondering how I will fill a 10′ x 10′ space without Abby’s bags and wallets. Also I wish I had a classier way than a wooden drying rack to display my roving… I doubt I will pull anything together in the next few days..

I didn’t remember seeing any fiber or much yarn when I was a shopper at last year’s event, so I teamed up with a couple of other felt club fiber vendors to try and encourage lovers of the fiber arts to stop by the event.

Traveling Rhinos, Beemiceelf, and myself will give you 10% off a $25 or more purchase at each of our booths. Hopefully this will help to offset the $5 entry fee…

And of course all of my moustache and woven items qualify for a discount too. If you see anything you might want me to bring, let me know!

Hope to see you there!

Happy Election Day Celebration Sale November 4, 2008

I am a permanent ballot-by-mail voter in California. I was able to lounge around my apartment and vote at my leisure…. But I paid a price - no sticker. Apparently many other mail-in voters drop their ballots off at their polling place on election day, and get a sticker. I didn’t think of that…. I took matters into my own hands and with help of Whirlwend who posted a graphic, I made my own! In badge form, nonetheless.

Several twitter crafters report using whirlweds graphic, label paper and packing tape to make shiny replicas for themselves.

In my area, I spied at least two different types of stickers:

Amanda directed me to a picture of Ohio’s sticker:

What does your sticker look like? Snap a picture and send us a link!

I hope you were able to get out and vote today. To celebrate Election Day, I am offering free US shipping in my etsy shop. Just leave a note that says “I Voted” and I will refund your shipping.

Coaster shopping November 3, 2008

Bottle cap coasters
Rettocamme
$24.

Super Mario Perle beads
lostmitten
$22.

Screenprinted
summersville
$24.95

Recycled skateboards
2revert
$40

Felt floppy disks
thegeekery
$28

Block printed bingo
1girl1boy
$22.

Socktober - Self striping yarns Part II October 22, 2008

A continuation from Part I - some of my favorite self striping sock yarns

The last two of my favorite self-stripers hold their own with creative color combos that always look good to me.

Sknitches

Photo courtesy of flickr user Wannabeknittin’

Take sknitches for example. Yes, I am clearly a fan of blue and brown, but don’t these socks look so good? Sknitches also has a wide array of non-striping yarn in beautiful colorways, so if you order from her site, you can get a great mix of sock yarns in fabulous colors.

Ravelry Yarn page

Knitterly things

Photo by Flickr user Wooly interlude

Some of the first handmade self-striping yarn that I ever heard about was Vesper sock yarn. As a spinner, the shop’s curator also has a beautiful assortment of hand-dyed roving. It can still be kind of a challenge to snag the sock yarn, but it seems like there are shop updates many Wednesdays, and the Ravelry Group can a be a useful guide to shop stalking.

Ravelry Yarn page

Speaking of ravelry groups…. a long time ago I started a Ravelry group for those that love stripes - Better with stripes. Pop on over and say ‘Hi’ if self-striping yarn is your sort of thing.

Socktober - Self striping yarns Part I October 10, 2008

Another socktober is upon us… Last year I didn’t do too much sock knitting during Socktober… but at least I thought about socks a lot. There is the slim possibility that I will cast on for sock this month. I can guarantee that I am not going to finish one sock, let alone a pair. So I’ll just have to write about socks.

Through the wonders of the internet, an intrepid knitter has at his/her needletips an amazing selection of sock yarns. The indie dyeing community is expanding everyday with beautiful new color combinations and dyeing techniques. I do a little dyeing myself, and I am usually on a tight budget. This makes justifying yarn purchase a difficult task. If I spring for a $20 pair of socks (that might spend a very long time as yarn) it has to be something good. I have two favorites that I can justify purchasing at almost any time: Socks that Rock and indie-dyed self-striping yarn. You have probably already heard about Socks that rock, so let’s talk about some of my favorite indie-stripers.

Lovesticks

Lovestick’s yarn makes an awesome striping pattern using three colors… Two colors make wide stripes separated by a thin stripe of a third color. Here - just look:

Photo from Flickr user Sock-a-holic

And my favorite thing about her shop… she has Sport-weight yarn. Perfect for a quick pair of socks.
Ravelry Yarn Page

Twisted

I first found Twisted on etsy, but she has since graduated to her own site. There is always a wide variety of base yarns available from sport weight SW merino to merino/bamboo or merino/tencel blends. I like nearly every colorway that Meg has produced, and I don’t think there is anything else like her subtle striping effect. Now she even has coordinating mini-skeins of heel and toe yarn available with come of her colorways.

Photo from flickr user Meg of Twisted

I use the Twisted Ravelry group to stay in the loop about shop updates and fiber clubs.
Ravelry Yarn Page

i have too many favorites for one post, so stay tuned for one more installment

Upcoming Shopportunities October 8, 2008

I can’t believe that I have waited this long to tell you… There is going to be another Color: A Fiber Festival in just a few weeks. It is at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley CA on Saturday October 18. If you didn’t make it last time, and you are in SF Bay area and have any interest in yarny or fibery pursuits, you have to stop by. There will be a few local vendors (including me!) so you can pet before you buy… Uh, I mean pet the fiber, not the vendors. There is also quite an assortment of very affordable classes from drop spindling to weaving on hand looms. What’s that you say? Tell you more about weaving on hand looms - sure thing!! I taught a similar class at the last Color, in the spring. I think everyone had a good time learning how to weave on some of my vintage weave-its.

Picture from flickr user Mrs. Knitwit

This year it is still just an intro to weaving, and students will get some practice, pointers, and a list of helpful resources. Students are welcome to borrow my looms for the duration of the class. BUT this year I will also have looms available to purchase. I have a few Hazel Rose Multilooms (readily available perfect substitute for weave-its and weavettes) and I will be letting go of a few of my vintage weave-it looms.

Sign up for any of the classes through the webpage, or check out the Ravelry Color group for more info (the ravelers are planning a potluck!).

Okay.. enough about fiber. Let’s talk about junk. It’s here… My favorite garage sale of the year. The El Cerrito city-wide garage sale. It is THIS Saturday, October 11 from 9 am to 3 p.m. A participant list will be posted on the City of El Cerrito webpage so that you can plan your shopping strategies. Keep in mind that you have to pay a small fee to be published on the map, so those are the serious garage-salers. Many more houses have sales and just don’t bother to pay to get n the map. This year, the neighboring city of Albany is having a sale on the same day, too. That’s a lot of shopping. Here is some of my loot from a few years ago. This year I am hoping to find an ice cream maker and a set of small bowls… And any random pyrex would be an awesome find. What are you gonna look for?

Something creepy for every day this month… October 2, 2008

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, hands down. With the arrival of October, I can’t stop looking forward the last day of the month. I have hopes to finish up a long-standing and halloween-appropriate Secret Project but I can’t make any promises. In the mean time, I can remind you that almost everyone you know is in need of a Monster Finger Chapstick cozy.

I am pretty sure that Moon’s Creations is a big fan of Halloween, too. Just like last year, each day in October will mark the debut of a one-of-a-kind halooween-themed amigurumi bunny.



Freddy Kreuger MoonBun Photo from flickr user Moons_creations

And the best part… they are available for purchase from her Etsy shop. I am the proud owner of the Bride of Frankenstein from last year’s series, and I have my eye out for a friend for her this year.

Plan B August 26, 2008

I have been unhappy with my ripple afghan for a while now.

I haven’t ripped it out since I didn’t know quite what I would do instead.

Now I have an idea… Inspired by the multitudes of fantastic hexagon blankets on Ravelry () and in the Hexagon love flickr pool, I want to make one too.

I’ve got the book, so I gave it a try…

I think I am going to rip out the ripples and proceed with the hexagons. I am not going to aim as high as a queen sized blanket - more of a throw. And if I change my mind, I can easily add more hexes to the end and/or sides.

But, what do you think?

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