I have always wanted to get a kaleidoscope to see how yarns blend for new colorways, or fair isle knitting. Found this great link. Had to try it with the yarn. If you ever wanted to know how some of the UrbanGypZ varigated stuff will knit up (or what you my yarn would look like on acid) , this might give you a little bit of an idea. Trippy…
Last week when I saw snow in the forecast for Christmas day, I was completely giddy with excitement. I have NEVER had a white Christmas (we usually spent it in New Orleans…in shorts). But Bruce and I were staying at home this year. And there was going to be snow!! On Christmas Day!!! WHEEE!!!
Well lets just say Christmas came early. And not only did it snow, but it snowed a total of 18 inches over the weekend. 18 INCHES. And just like when you open your Christmas gifts early, I am now totally unexcited about Christmas snow. Yep over it. completely. Ready for it to melt. Tired of being in the house. When lost power for 14 hrs, and that sealed it for me. I am so over the snow. Forget it, do not send me a white Christmas. Send me 65degrees, sunny skies. A balmy beautiful day to melt the flippin’ snow that is STILL covering everything.
I watched an obscene amount of TV (occassionally having to go out and sweep the dish). I watch TV and spun yarn
I watched more TV and spun more yarn
Spun from a beautiful Jazzturtle batt
I watched TV and I knit
I watched TV unearthed languishing projects
I watched TV and played with my new moonrover yarn.
Don’t you just love this stuff?
This is the other skien. I have no idea what I am going to make with it. I just occassionally take it out and pet it.
Snow bound for 4 days.
Bruce being the brave Philly guy, was able to leave for work yesterday. Let me just say I was SOOOO jealous of his adventure out of the house. No feeding the wood stove, no antsy dogs in the house. Just braving icy roads, and piles of snow on the sidewalks. Of course he had to take my car, and his is still stuck in the driveway. Loaded him down with a shovel and an industrial size rubber no skid mat (I don’t know it could come in handy). He did have to use the shovel to unearth the tire from an unfortunate driveway incident. Better than I would have done. I just do not know how to drive in this stuff. Trust me you would not want me to try.
Today I left with him. I have to work at the yarn shop this afternoon, but I opted to haul computer and all with me and just get the hell out of the house. Coffee shop, last of the Christmas shopping, lunch out. All day… out of the house…snow bound downtown…
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The editor-in-chief of craftzine.com, Natalie Zee Drieu, included my Baby Grapes lace yarn in her knitting and crocheting gift guide!!
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I kind of foolishly thought that yarn things would slow down once Christmas was done. HAHAHAH….Consignment for a new shop opening in Black Mountain, 3 new knitting classes to prepare lesson plans for, a newsletter I have yet to write, applying for 2010 shows, and making ready a sample cards to send to existing wholesale and consignments. I am actually glad to be busy. Between the yarn and the LYS, I have not had a lot of down time. An down time for me always seems to involve knitting, or spinning. I can’t complain. It is all worth it to be able to do what I love.
So today I am making Rivendell Socks out of UrbanGypZ SeaCell blend yarn, watching movies, while the white beans with sausage simmers and the laundry cranks.
Bruce has surgery tomorrow to remove a cyst on his knee. Dr. office knitting is the best for knocking the WIPs out.
Check out the awesome pockets
The bags are now up in the shop. Including the soon to be discontinued Malibu.
I have been on 20 year quest for the perfect handbag. I always thought I was quite the shoe whore, but lately it is all about finding the perfect handbag. My opinion about size changes with the wind. I vacillate between small grab and go and large totes that hold everything, but overall I tend towards the big totes that hold a lot, ideally with a smaller wallet size purse that I can pull out and use if necessary. More often than not, I have hurt myself overloading those big bags. And I have also been know to carry 3 of them at once–pocketbook, work tote and knitting bag. I don’t like spending more than $50 for a handbag, and my best handbag fu happens at TJ Maxx and Rugged Warehouse.
Oh then Namasté bags became a blip on my radar. I remember the first time I had seen a Namasté bag in my LYS. No way could this awesome bag be made specifically with knitters in mind. So hip, so colorful, soft vegan leather (soft as butter) and tons of knitter specific pockets. The price was not horrendous, but just out of what I consider a good price for a handbag. But let me tell you, I have spent 3 times that price trying to find a worthy substitute. Before I launch into the quest for the perfect handbag saga, Let me tell you my criteria:
Must be under $50: Yeah, I am a cheap bitch. Sue me. And I can actually breech the $50 mark IF I find a truly exceptional bag. Like love at first sight, too painful to part with because it met ALL of my criteria PLUS that one thing I never imagined possible kind of love.
It needs to have some serious organization pockets: Like keep my shit so organized, it practically hands me my keys/cell phone/tampon on command. And the pockets need to work for me. What works for the handbag designer does not always work for me. And let me just say that most designers must wear a bluetooth device. That tiny little pocket inside the purse meant for you phone? Not so good for me because a) half the time it never makes it into said pocket, b) that little pocket is sometimes hard to find when you carry as much crap as I do.
I gotta love the way they look: I can totally make a lime green bag work with my entire wardrobe. I am not afraid of color. I am not afraid of mixing color. I am also not afraid of bad vinyl. Give me unapologetically vinyl anyday (see unapologetically orange vinyl bag below). I am, however, afraid of bad vinyl posing as leather. Metal studs, rings, and buckles? So rock star. Love them all. I even have a secret lust for funky lamé. But as a rule I stay away from large lamé bags for fear of looking too post menapausal. I won’t buy it if I am waffling the tiniest bit. And I know what I like when I see it.
So here are some of the bags that I bought because I would not get the bag I really wanted:
The red tote of awesomeness. This is my favorite bag. It is seriously red, has excellent pockets, divided center, good leather-like fabric. I bought this bag to sooth my heartbreak over the nonpurchase of the Namasté bag of my dreams. My chiropractor hates this bag.
The adequate orange tote. I got this bag when I decided I needed something as wonderful as the red tote of awesomeness. Not as good pocket wise with the exception of the roomy side phone/keys pockets. it has this weird tie closure design thing that is in the way. And the leather like is becoming more sticky and naugahyde like with wear.
The grey noisy bag of mediocrity: I thought this bag was way hipper than it actually is. The metal and cut outs are so rock and roll. But man is it noisy. No good pockets and a dark cavernous interior that sucks my keys into its vast black hole at the most in inconvenient moments. I have been known to completely dump it’s contents onto the pavement looking for my keys, swearing I heard them jingle (or wait was that the noisy metal rings?) I have also decided the color reminded me of Buick interior. It is starting to feel like a bags you might see at Boca Bingo night. Might slip this baby into the good will box.
The shiny pink bag of cuteness. Oh if only this bag were a bigger version of itself so I could haul the knitting in it. Then again, as I mentioned, i am a little afraid of wearing large amounts of lamé, now that I am over 40. I fear large lamé bag is a slippery slop to MawMaw wear–rhinestones, lamé, AND animal prints. {{{shudder}}} Pink cutie bag is barely big enough to hold wallet, keys and phone. It is my go-to bag when I have hurt myself carrying my larger totes.
The unapologetically orange vinyl bag. I love the style of this bag. I got it for $7 at Rugged Warehouse and it looks like it was worth every penny. The pockets suck, and the trapazoid shape makes it next to impossible to find my phone or keys. So if you have been calling me and it appears that I have been screening my calls, it is really because I am carrying the orange vinyl bag and need more than 5 rings to find my phone.
So basically I spent $157 to avoid spending the $70 on the Namasté bag that I really wanted. The other week I was working at the LYS when the Namasté bag order came in. It was like Christmas, opening that box and pricing the beautiful bags. I decided right then to stop this handbag madness and get what I really want. Oh which bag to choose?
Then again, I decided to go one step further. Yeah I might get 2 bags…But even better, I placed an order. Not for 2 bags, but for a small line to carry in the shop for the holidays!
The first box came this week…Oh. My. God. It is hard to decide. I am leaning towards the Hermosa or the Malibu. But I got 5 styles, which will hit the shop on this week(probably Thursday, I’ll post an anounce here when they go live). Take it from me, avoid the quest, get the bag you really want.
I am so tempted to post another wordless Wednesday. Call it writer’s block. It is not that there has not been a lot happening. I just not sure I am able to form witty, and interesting sentences. So you’ll have to settle for photo captions.
Getting into the rhythm of shooting, listing, making. Next ETSY update on Thursday 9pm, Urbangypz.com update, Friday afternoon sometime.
I seem to be on a shawl kick. And I really do not wear shawls. This is a short row scarf pattern that I modified to work with silk garden. Been knitting a ton at the shop between restocking and helping customers.
SAFF happened and I fell down hard.
The car before I set the debit card ablaze. Note the bag of ginormous ziplock bag and collapsable hand cart you know just in case.
The car after I went nuts. Yes people that would be 7 fleeces. SEVEN. Then again I make yarn, right? I have been washing wool for a couple of weeks now.
Also got some really cool roving and batts
And some sock yarns (this is the yummy Miss Babs sock yarn, I just about bit the arm off a poor knitter for)
I also got buttons, a needle gauge pendant, more yarn, And well…
An electric wheel. Oh. My. God. I love this thing. I can crank the handspun SOOOO fast. I can spin in bed. Or in the car (with an adapter. !!!!)
While at SAFF, I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by Miss Natalie from BarknKnit Podcast. So I guess technically it is not a wordless Wednesday if I can direct you to about 15 minutes of a chatty me? Right?
When I first saw Knitting Socks East and West on the bookshelves I was not at all interested. Really. I think I was turned off by the weird toeless socks on the cover. Not interested…
I am eating my words. This is an awesome book. In search of new sock books and trying to keep up with patterns that could be knit with my sock yarn, I got a copy of this book, and fell in love.
I have been quite the fan of Japanese knitting books for a couple of years. the patterns are all in a chart form and very easy to figure out. There a re a few ETSY Sellers who sell them here and here. My favorite publisher is Onari. I have no less than a dozen pattern books and could easily pick out 2 dozen more. It is a sickness really and I am okay with it.
This book even uses some of that sweet white cottage photography and school girl styling that gives the japanese books their charm. I love that the patterns vary in yarn weight and length. Demi sock to leg warmers. I actually would like to knit them all. I even think the toesless thing is growing on me.
Check out all the great WIPs from this book on Ravelry.
Don’t hate me, but I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping. Okay, yes, my husband is Jewish. So while it may appear that I get off easy, I do give him a nondenominational winter holiday gift because I seem to turn into a giddy 12 yr old girl on December 25th. But seriously, I inventoried the gift stash, and I think short of a few straggling goodies, I may be done. And the best part is every item I purchased was from a handcrafter or a small mom and pop shop. It feels GREAT!
Turning Point Clay Studio at the John Campbell folk School Fall show. This may or may not be your Christmas gift…I’m just saying…
Okay, this buy handmade does hit home because, well I have a small yarn business. Asheville is full of great small businesses. For the last couple of years, September has been a nail-biter for so many of them. The economy has really crunched the little shops around the corners with many of their customers either opting for cheaper big box stores, or not spending at all. I have even noticed how my sales seem to be a bit slower than this time last year. So in an effort to help out some of my fellow merchants during the crunchy months, I started my Christmas shopping really early. Like September early. And in September, I also vowed to only buy from small businesses and hand crafters this holiday season. To my surprise, I am not spending more money than I would in the mall (ok, that is if I ever went to the mall, I am not a big fan of the mall). So this season, rather than getting a bunch of prefab stuff, my family will be getting a good quality hand crafted gift, or specialty item that the shop owner completely loved and identified with when they decided to put it in their shop. And because I started ridiculously early (well for me, I am usually a Dec 24th shopper) I have had time to select items leisurely as I attend local craft fairs and browsing shops.
Axcents Pottery at the John Campbell folk School Fall show. This, also, may or may not be your Christmas gift…
There are a few organizations that promote small business. Please join me joining them. Buy hand made, support small business. Buy handmade this holiday.
