Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Deadlines Are Not For the Faint of Heart
Aiieeee!! I have three days to finish knitting, photograph and compose a pattern. Sigh...I've been so busy trying to squeeze in knitting time in between Holiday prep, I have been having knitting night mares.
So--I am not planning on sleeping much these next three days. I hope to see you on the flipside of December with actual projects I can share with you ;-)
Happy Thanksgiving! (And for my non-American readers--Happy November 27th!!)
This past Saturday Anne and I got to do one of our favourite things: show out of town knitters the yarny sights. Since most of the gals visiting San Antonio, stay downtown, we always take them to the Blue Star Brewery. They have homemade root beer. And terrific chicken fried steak.
Then we went to the new Yarn Barn location. (The shop lost its lease and was sold to the lovely Lisa about 6 months ago). I love the new shop. It's a lovely, cozy house.
I really love their new signage; it's so cute.
It's a cozy, multiple room shop. They kept their needlework room--it's got a table for work as well. A knitting table is in a far back room...surrounded by windows. I am looking forward to spending time there.
And yes, some yarn walked home with me.
front
back
I am envisioning a shield themed scarf. It's Handmaiden Sea Silk, and it is luxuriously soft. It should be; it's 70% silk, 30% seacell.
Next stop: Yarnivore. The kids played while I was seduced by this:
And this:
Although, I nearly hyperventilated when I saw Nancy Bush's Knitting Lace of Estonia. True knitting pr0n. Absolutely beautiful. Anne bought it--I am holding out for Christmas and or my birthday, hint hint!! Grin. It's gorgeous and FULL of nupps! Woot!
It was a fun way to spend a Saturday, full of knitterly goodness.
For those outside of Texas, Kid N Ewe is a fiber festival in Boerne, Texas, about 30 minutes north of the outskirts of SA. (San Antonio is so large it can take you 45 minutes to an hour to travel from one side of town to the other). This year, was my first opportunity to go. Last year was the first time I had hard of it and I already had a craft fair I was participating in.
Jamey had to work, so the kids tagged along, with three of my knitterly mates. Next year, I am leaving the ankle biters at home, somehow. We didn't get a chance to go to the animal barn where they were showing, sheep, alpaca, and other fiber producing animals. But we did find some random Alpaca's penned near some yarn.
Mic begged me to let him feed the alpaca, but I didn't think this was a petting zoo. But the handler did come by for a bit to talk to the kids. It gave me a few moments where I could look at yarn without the kids pestering me to move on and when are we going to see more animals?!?!
I was also on edge most of the time because it was a far bit crowded and crowds always make me cranky...so between that and the kids...I am surprised no one got hurt. Grin.
I saw loads of friends...gals from my local group that i hadn't seen in a while, gals from my Texas group that I haven't seen in a while because of distance--it was awesome! The booths were amazing--so much yarn and fiber!
My favourite booth was the Buffalo Gold booth...it was my entire reason for going to the festival. I wanted needed to get my hands on some of that glorious fiber. I really enjoyed talking to the owner. It was a brilliant meeting. And already my knitting bunnies are gnawing at my brain for what I bought:
It's their newest offering, a mix of bison, cashmere, silk, and tencel--lace weight. It's going to be a joy absolute thrill to work with. I think I'll start working something in the new year.
I also picked up yarn from a booth representing a new yarn shop in Comfort, called The Tinsmith's Wife. I couldn't decide which yarn to take home--so yeah I took home both.
I kinda regretted the two sock yarns because at the next booth I saw some beautiful lace weight, but no more mulla. But, oh both of those socks yarns are just so gorgeous. But, one ball is for socks, the other for arm warmers...I think the top one with the orangyness is going for the arms.
A few days prior I also picked up some more yarn from Yarnivore.
I really like this kid mohair--it's the only mohair that doesn't itch me....and give me hives.
I think its destiny is a stole. It's been whispering...
Seriously, folks, even now looking at the picture I am about to add to this blog post, I am thinking, "I swear I already blogged this!" Yes, there is a good reason I am knitting my self a crayzee scarf.
I finally got my shite together and properly organised and stored my yarn. Before it was all crammed into a big grey tote, with the yarn itself put in shopping bags. And some of it was in a among a big pile of stuff at the end of my bed. Not good at all.
This big dresser:
WAS filled with my prior obsession, cross stitching. I had all my fabrics, floss, needles and patterns tucked out away in those drawers. Then I met yarn and needles and, oh boy, I never looked back...I have barely picked up embroidery since then. Now, it took me a while to actually get a decent stash. For along while I subsisted on my mom's gift of acrylic (I store it in totes in the garage) she no longer had use for (she had already discovered Yarn Barn, and slowly I got a respectable stash. I decided last month that geez, why am I storing my beloved yarn in a tote haphazardly in bags when I have a dresser like this one?
So in my needles went:
The other top two drawers hold my crafty accessories, scissors, papers, glue guns, ribbon, ya know, craft. The other drawer has a few other larger accessories and some patterns.
The next two drawers hold yarn!!
I put all the yarn according to color and weight into gallon sized ziplocked bags and squeezed all the air out. These are store side ways--the drawer is deep with yarn.
I also have my cones I got from my friend whose husband is all too happy to destash for her, with her permission of course. This is most of my yarn, all vacuum packed and safe. I might have to get those true vacuum bags but for now this works.
On the bottom drawer has a motley assortment of UFOs that are on the back burner, pattern books, and yarn stash. That top item? Yep the Mystery Stole number Three...I still need to fix that ripped yarn.
The other drawer--more non yarn stuff--fabric and what not.
The cross stitch stuff, got put into totes, some stored under the bed and some out in the garage.
I have a sneaky thought...what if I make y'all wait for the yarn pr0n from Kid n Ewe?? I already have a long post here...and Kid N Ewe does deserve it's own post. However, three posts in one day, well that just seems extreme. Yeah, I think I'll make ya wait...
sneak peek
Mwhahahaha
Oh, one more thing: Super Secret Project--it's fantastic! And I have high hopes.
Ask my mother, sometimes my grasp on reality is tenuous. Honestly, I thought I had blogged recently, I thought I showed all y'all pictures of my new yarn organisation, and my loverly yarn I got from kid n ewe. It turns out, I had merely thought about doing it and then promptly forgot just because I wish it to happen doesn't mean it does. (Okay sometimes that works, but apparently not with blog posts--grin.)
One of my favourite quotes always has been a gem from Albert Einstein Phisto: Reality is optional. Edit: I am confused. Albert actually said: "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
Okay, now that I have got your attention: you will get the blog post I thought I wrote. Just give me a moment to compose it and add pictures; yes lot's pf lovely yarn pr0n is on its way.
