Guild Retreat

Guild Retreat was earlier this month. (I'm apparently behind on posting) This was my view for most of the weekend. Just imagine more people.

Like this.

And this. We had some great times. Poor Jess and her yarn of doom. I have no idea what happened to this skein, but they had that whole thing moving. Essentiall the chair and Janet acted as part of the swift. I got video too.

It was great because we changed it up a bit this year. We went to Cedar Lakes and were able to stay the whole weekend. And we didn't have to bring food, because they have a cafeteria. It made things so much simpler.

And it wouldn't be retreat without goodie bags and door prices. A bit of the spread can be found below. I got some great fiber from Bearlin Acres. A cute bag with silk yarn. And a new case for my interchangable needles. I'm very excited it has the needle sizes on the pockets. It will make the organization a lot easier.

And I took my bags to sell and I sold enough to buy shoes. Not just any shoes. But my Sketcher Shape-Ups that look like black mary janes so that I can wear them to work. Thank you everyone. I've even gotten a few new ideas for bag designs while at guild. I think I have gotten the pattern and construction figured out. Now I just need to make a couple.

Steeking

So I have made another sweater. Yay! This one took exactly one month to finish. yay for bulky yarn. And it is just in time for lovely 90 degree weather. But I will still wear it to work. Oh but the best part about this sweater; I steeked it. For those playing at home, that means I cut it, down the middle, all those stitches. I was mildly terrified, but I had several women at guild who had done it before and they held my hand the whole time. And threw me chocolate. I liked the chocolate.

Here is the sweater before. Everyone kept telling me how much they loved the center detail. It was actually seed stitch for the selvage stitches. It was not helping my resolve to actually go through with the cutting.

I was a little stressed about cutting a sweater I had just spent a month on. Yay for support!

Almost done! All done and with a shiny new zipper. I was going to do a button band, but with the ribbing all around the bottom, I thought it needed something a little stronger to hold it closed. It is a bit roomy and the bulky yarn doesn't make it the most flattering thing ever. But it is warm and I wish I could wear it now.
Oh and did you like the skirt. Got home from work yesterday and had to go to a dinner that night. I didn't like anything I owned so I made a skirt. I love having a craft room.

Whatcha doin'?

Not much really. I've been working on bags and sewing and working on a bunch of big projects that seem like they will never be done and working on projects that are presents or for a swap so they are secret.

But I did think it was about time that I took some updated pictures of my Sock Yarn Blanket of Doom. And cool new feature of Ravelry, I am going to share the project page. It has more pictures and more information about the project. You can click here to see more about it. Lots of lovely people have donated sock yarn for this blanket. But I could always use more if you have it laying around. About 5 grams of yarn will make two squares. 5 grams of yarn makes a ball about the size of a walnut. So I don't need a lot. But I do have a pretty healthy amount of yarn accumulated so far.

Like I said before, a lot of sewing has been going on. I'm trying to get a good stock of bags done before the retreat, maybe try and sell a few there. But this project is just for me. A lady in our guild had done something similar to her wheel. Essentially it is just a padded pillow for the treadle. But she made hers and essentially upholstered it onto the treadle. Well, I didn't really feel like stapling fabric to my wheel. I sensed that would hurt resale value a bit. So I designed one I could take off. It has two velcro straps on the bottom to hold it on and my favorite design element is the non stick stuff on the bottom. You know that foamy stuff you cut and put into your cabinets as a liner. Well I cut a rectangle out of it and sewed it on as part of the bottom lining. That sucker isn't going anywhere. I tried it out last night. I am in love. Do you think these would go over well in the store? I would have to do them as a custom order depending on the size and shape of the treadle and where the hinge is. Maybe I'll see what the ladies in guild think.

Oh and more bags should be going up in the store soon. And I hope to get about 8 more made this week. We shall see. I heart this fabric.

Contest Winner

I would like to thank you all for your kind comments. I am working on getting a banner for the shop, especially since I can also use it for advertisting on Ravelry. My photoshop and design skills are limited, so I'm working on it. :) I promise.

As I received the emails from my blog, I entered everyone into a spreadsheet and they received a number (so it isn't the same order as how people commented) and then they received another number when they said they blogged or twittered. And then I used Random.org to draw a number. And now what you have all been waiting, very patiently for, the results of the drawing.

Drumroll...

And that number probably doesn't mean much to you, but on my spreadsheet, that is: Amy, who is KnitterofHats on Ravelry. I will be contacting you shortly about the bag. Congratulations! And again thank you all for looking and your feedback. Keep me in mind if you need a project or drop spindle bag.

Trying not to get high while crafting

Here I go starting an Etsy store and I get distracted and don't post anything for people to actually read. Sorry about that.

I'm sure you noticed the interesting title. Well that is exactly what I had to do last month. Ann, a lovely lady from my spinning guild, had some beautiful fabric with her at the meeting. She said she made it by drawing with sharpies on the fabric and then dropping/painting/dribbling rubbing alcohol onto it. Inconceivable! So I had to try. I dug out some scraps of white fabric and got to work doodling. I definitely need a better workspace for it. She said she used a sheet of plastic to work on. That would have been a good idea. Oh and this craft requires excellent ventilation. Just imagine the fumes of sharpies and rubbing alcohol. I opened the window quite quickly. I need to play more to try and get some better results, but I think it turned out pretty well.

This was the first thing I tried. It has a lot of color, because I wanted to see what colors I could get from the different markers. Most colors are made up of many other colors and I didn't know how it would break down when the alcohol hit it. So this one was an experiment.

This one turned out pretty well. I think I got the right amount of drawing on the piece. so there wasn't a lot of white space, but everything stayed rather separate. I think this piece is going to be turned into a project bag. Maybe it will end up in the Etsy store.
This last project was fun. I had a piece of sheer material that I had from when I tried to do some wet felting (fail). I had done a small test piece and really liked the way the colors ran. So I had a big piece and decided that I would turn it into a shawl/wrap. I have a couple weddings to go to this spring and now I just need a dress. So I colored on it for a while. But then came the dilemma of the rubbing alcohol. I was working on a pretty small surface and I knew that the alcohol and color would get all over the place. So I moved to the bathtub.

Ta da. I think it turned out great. It could have used a bit more color, but the white keeps it light and sheer. Now I just need to finish the edges and find a dress to match. Small note if you want to try a piece this big. Line your bathtub with something. Sharpie is still permanent even if it is in rubbing alcohol. I pretty much bled the design through. But I did get most of it back off. Except for the blue. Oh and another thing, bring a fan. The bathtub pretty much collected all of the fumes. I went in for a closer look as I was finishing and nearly passed out.