VBS and some funny

I haven't been doing much knitting as I've been spending my nights at VBS with Grace. So instead of pictures, I will leave you with a blonde joke Tiffany sent me.


A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway.
Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the
wheel was knitting!
Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the
trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled,
'PULL OVER!'
'NO!' the blonde yelled back, 'IT'S A SCARF!'

Fiber Apostle

So I was going to have this fun post about how I have become a fiber apostle while out running errands today... But my Loop batts just arrived. I'm gonna go spin. I'll tell you the funny story later. :)

STORY ADDED:

So since we had Friday off, it became designated as Errand Day. So I made plans to get my car inspected (past due of course, but I had originally been scheduled to do it before it ran out, but I forgot my insurance card). Since I was up that way, and my ring needed inspected, I would run to the mall and do that. And I needed some fabric for VBS robes. Something light, because all the fabric I had probably would have killed me after about 10 minutes of being in the sun.

So I started with Joann's. I found some great fabric. Very excited. I also found some very interesting felt by the yard. It is embossed with designs. I got blue with a fleur-de-lis pattern and magenta with a sort of floral design. It looks very cool and mostly I just want to play around with it to see how it will look as needle cases. Plus it was $2.00 a yard. Yay. I also picked up a remnant piece of their wool/nylon blend felt. I want to see how it compares and to see if it is worth the extra $3.00 a yard. They didn't have any 100% wool though. So I take these huge bolts of felt to get cut and the lady asks what I am doing with it. So I tell her I do needle felting and make needle cases out of it. So she asks me what needle felting is. And about 5 minutes later I stop talking. Some how we get on the topic of spinning and she mentions how her friend used to have a buffalo farm and would spin their fiber. She said when they shed their winter coats she used to walk along the fences and pick off huge pieces that they would rub off. **drool** I seriously need to make some friends who have fiber animals (who don't use their fur).

Then I went to get my ring cleaned/inspected at the mall. As I was waiting, I overhear two of the sales associates talking about yarn and crocheting. So I start sidling over to them. They ask if I want to see anything and I confess that I can actually heard them talking about yarn and was curious. Well, one of the girls says she was wanting to learn how to knit and was trying to find a place to learn. "Well," I say. "There is a SnB that meets every Thursday at the Java Joint by Marshall. We are mostly a younger group (she was college age-ish) and we are glad to teach anyone whatever they want to learn. There are people who crochet, knit, spin, loom knit, cross stitch...pretty much any kind of stitching. And there are some girls who just come for the bitching part." And again 5 minutes later I pause to take a breath. I even managed to get info about Ravelry in there. Spreading the good word.

And then, while I was sitting in the waiting room on my car, I was knitting. And the older ladies next to me asked what I was doing. So I was talking about knitting and making Christmas presents, and how knitting can be good for your hands (keeping them moving and such).

So I feel like I properly represented the wide world of fiber arts. I left all the spinning to Aimee. She was representin' at SnB with her wheel out. She had several people stop and try to figure out what she was doing and she did a good job of demonstrating and explaining at the same time.

So that is why I felt like a fiber apostle, meaning an ardent supporter of a cause or movement [Greek apostolos a messenger].

Breaking the Mojo Curse

I have found one thing that has broken the crafting mojo curse. I was watching Ace of Cakes on Food Network the other day. And I had also been reading the Geek Central Station blog that day and looking at their free patterns and thinking about what I could make with that pattern.

Well I came up with this:
My interpretation of Duff Goldman. I am so excited with how he turned out. I plan on doing as many of the staff as possible. I think I am going to send the finished Ami's to them when I'm done. I don't know what I would do with them, plus I think they would get a kick out of seeing them.

Crafting Mojo

In attempt to get my crafting mojo flowing again I have been doing a couple of things. First, I am starting on some Christmas presents. They are something I usually have to push myself to get done so the feeling isn't any different. I don't do well with deadlines and crafting. It begins to feel like work. I love making things for people, though. So I do it all the time anyway.

I went shopping and picked up the new Interweave Crochet and Spin Off. I even bought some batts from Loop on Etsy. I have been dying to buy some of her creations and I was finally able to. Oh my goodness, if these don't inspire me to do some spinning, I don't know what could. Of course it was bought with the intention of developing a rating on Etsy so I can eventually start selling things. That was clearly my only motive. :)









With that in mind, I also did some needle felting. The gals in my knitting have really been encouraging me to sell some of my needle cases on Etsy and I think I am going to listen to them. I've taken pictures of a couple designs I've done. Most of them will be DPN/Crochet hook cases. The one with the red flower is actually big enough for regular straight knitting needles. I might make a DPN case to match it. I have been using the felt you can buy by the yard at JoAnns for the base fabric. It is thicker and stronger than the small 8.5X11 sheets you can buy. And I can cut the cases bigger and do more stuff with it. I just need to go get a bigger variety of colors. It is a wonderful coincidence that I just got a JoAnns ad in the mail that has their coupon commotion stuff in it. It has at least one coupon every day between 7/20-7/26 (I think). So if I acquire it slowly I can build up quite a stash. But I could use some suggestions or comments to give me a few more ideas. I like the Celtic knotwork. And I've been looking at a lot of stained glass designs. Those seem to translate well to needle felting.

I think my dog is turning into a cat

Remember this pose from the cat? Well her influence seems to be spreading.






Awwwwww. I'm just shocked she didn't move when I went for my camera.

I feel like Eeyore

And I’m not sure why. I’m in a bit of a slump. In crafting and life in general. Due to an accounting error on my part (stupid inability to subtract properly) I have $100 less in my checking account than I thought I did. So that kind of freaked me out today. We're ok I just feel stupid. Then I feel like I am in limbo just waiting for things to happen.
So this post isn’t all Eeyore like, I finished my shrug. This turned out very well. So soft and snuggly. And Ashes was trying to help me take pictures. Awww.








And I started a pair of socks which I am really excited about. Actually, I’ve already finished the first sock and have started on the second but this is all I can give you. The design is actually from the founder of our SnB group. She is hoping to submit it to Knitty and they don’t like to have pictures of the project out there already. It is totally fine with me. They like the designs in their magazine to be a surprise and if someone said that they were being published on Knitty and they already had pictures of the design process and finished object on their blog, people would be able to figure it out. So it just means you guys don’t get eye candy for a bit.


But after these socks are done, I don’t really have anything waiting in the wings that I am super excited about. I have a couple projects that I am in the middle of. Three shawls and a scarf to be specific, but I have no drive to finish them. Maybe I should start thinking about Christmas presents. I could consider it Christmas in July. Any requests?
There is one project that I am sort of excited about. I want to start it, but I feel a bit odd about it. I have these grand ideas to make my future daughter (very distant future) a complete, well it started as a tea set but has grown into an entire food set. Knitting, crocheting or felting. I actually have the felting machine out and the felt is out too. I had to make a bigger DPN case because I added to the collection.

But part of me doesn’t want to start something like this until we are, well, settled in the place where we plan to have children. I can’t really justify making then packing and moving something I might not even use for 5 years (just an estimation). But it is the only stuff I’m even sort of interested in making right now. And it helps that I have the supplies sitting in my living room. Maybe I should just make them and sell them on Etsy.

MSACF

On the 4th and 5th, I took part in my fiber guild’s demonstration and activity at the Mountain State Arts and Crafts Fair. I had so much fun. The fourth, it rained all day. At one point we had to do a massive rescue and hay laying down to prevent us and our stuff from sinking into the mud and water. There were a surprising number of people there for how much it was raining.

On the 5th the weather was much better. It was sunny but not too hot. Unfortunately from the day before, there was mud everywhere. My shoes still need washed off. Funny enough, out of all the beautiful crafts and pieces of art there, all I bought was food. Kettle corn, apple butter, fudge, sorbet. You can see where my priorities lie.