Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Spring Sale is Tomorrow!

I know it's been insanely awesome weather-wise this week and there are tons of great outdoorsy things to do in Portland, but if you start to feel like you might be getting a little too much Vitamin D for a portlander & you're tired of squinting, you should stop by Crafty Wonderland's Super Colossal Spring Sale tomorrow:

 

Here's a little preview of items I'll be selling, my booth will be near the main entry!:

 

Stop by and say hi! Or get there early for a chance at the Goodie bags, really early. People are there earlier than I am as a vendor, it's crazy! 

Happy First day of Spring!

  

Happy First day of Spring! I haven't posted for a bit, I've been pretty busy lately. One of the things I've been up to is trying to take a lot of walks. More exciting right now, with spring starting up. The pictures above are from Washington Park, but the cherry blossoms all around town are starting to bloom. None on the waterfront just yet, but it won't be much longer!

  

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day. The PSU Farmer's Markets started up again just in time & we were able to get some really yummy vegan treats from Petunia's. I also convinced Chuck to make us a Shepard's Pie. He decided to make it in our skillet so we had a lot of leftovers. I started knitting a really tricky light green sweater, while wearing other green things I made. I definitely did not get pinched, but I made up an appropriate Etsy treasury just to be sure.

   

And I've been doing various crafty things lately. I finally got started on the Craftsy Block of the month on Leap Day, but so far I've only done one of the blocks. I'm way behind! I really enjoyed the first one though and I'm confident I can catch up sometime soon. I'm planning to stick with just a few solid color fabrics which I really like the looks of so far. I've also been rephotographing items for my Etsy shop for a more consistent look. I still have some of that left to do. And lastly I recently did a set of wedding invites for my cousin. I'm really happy with how the turned out, and hopefully I will share more of that project here soon! (Chuck bought me tulips very similar to the ones on the RSVP cards, which strangely seem to be Mutant Siamese Tulips. Interesting or Scary?) 

Sewing: Mug Rug Swap

A month or so ago I found out about a craft swap from Craft Social via Marlo M. of I Make Cute Stuff. Although I've never done a craft swap before I promptly signed up for this one on Swap-Bot. I thought it would be great sewing practice and I figured it was about time I try out a craft swap! The requirements were to make a "mug rug" a sort of coaster large enough for a Mug and some treats on the side, at a minimum of 4"x6". Here's what I made:

I used a sample upholstery fabric and some remnant fabric I collected somewhere along the way. I started by sizing the central square for one our mugs, which hopefully a pretty universal size, and worked out from there. I think it ended up being about 6"x10", roughly. I'm pretty happy with the results, though there's always room for improvement! I hope it's found a happy new home.

This swap certainly did motive me, and I sure will continue to do so, especially once I received my Mug Rug:

Holy Cow! There are things going on here I would not have thought of doing with fabric in a million years. Chuck & I both spent some time last night inspecting it's clever construction. (I don't know if I've ever mentioned here, but he sews too, and is probably a little better at it than I am.) It reminds me just a little of the Robie House pattern (though I've been finding that true of anything with repetitive diamonds.) Plus I love the colors. This came from Carolina Moore of Expect Moore. She definitely has skills with fabric! Maybe some day I'll get there too. For now I'm seriously considering attempting following the tutorial for Yo-Yo bangles she posted. Very cute! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you're spending it with someone very very nice! Here's a bit of what ours looks like:

 

The pixelated pop-up card from minico, via Craft was perfect for Chuck. (He was probably less thrilled about the confetti, but I like it, and he had fair warning!) I snapped up heart shaped cake pans as soon as I saw them at the store a few weeks ago. Loosly inspired by this William-Sonoma cake, but it had been too long since I'd made the Raspberry Blackout Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance, my favorite! And PromisQous wine makes me laugh, especially since the label is a definition of the word...I couldn't resist. Lest I take all the credit, Chuck did help out with the cake icing and is making dinner, and also got me some lovely treats.

Now off to have a lovely evening listening to Raphaal Sadiqq, Sharon Jones, April March and more lovely music to be determined! Happy Valentine's Day! 

2011 Knitting Project Recap

Sweaters

  

Whisper Cardigan - The construction of this was so neat, making knitting with tiny yarn pretty fun. And it's a really satisfying light sweater, which is sparkly, my favorite!

Lotus Blossom Tank - Accomplishments in Lace knitting! Yay!

Leaf Yoke Top - Two similar color & types of sweaters in a row, but this one was much easier...and sparkly again, yay!

In 2012 I might have to make a point of making myself full sleeve sweaters. I made Chuck one once but somehow I'm always drawn to 3/4 length of sleeveless projects for myself. They do use less yarn, which is handy, but full long sleeve is probably something I could use...

Socks

  

No Sweat Socks & Lindsay Socks and Freshman Cable Socks for Chuck.

Chuck bought me a whole bunch of sock yarn earlier this year and I'm still working through it. And so far all it's gotten him is one pair of socks! I'm working on it, his birthday is coming up soon and I'm a good chunk of the way through a nice pair of brown cabled socks. 

Little Things

  

Magic Slippers
Ribbed Baby Jacket (aka Zoe's Smoking Jacket)
Knot Necklace

Babies to knit for means smaller projects, but I also got interested in some very small quick necklaces this year. Quick & satisfying finished objects for when things are busy.

For the Shop

 

 

Triangle Cats, Gadget Cozies, Two-tone fingerless mitts, Knit-o necklaces & more! I finally started knitting up some stuff for the shop and craft shows, and it all went over really well. I'm still recovering from my last bout of knitting for the holiday craft show...but it won't be long before I'm knitting more and hopefully coming up with some cool new designs for the shop too. Meanwhile, I missed knitting for myself so much I've got 3 or so personal projects going on at the moment, but the are all pretty small....so I'll be back on this soon!

Stashed

 

Or maybe not! I did stash a lot of yarn this year, thanks to really great deals at a Knit Picks warehouse sale,and the sock yarn mentioned above. And I've pretty much figured out all kinds of fun stuff to knit up for myself with this stash. That could keep me busy for months! There are at least 3 or 4 sweaters worth of yarn there, plus all the socks. Okay, so I'll have to find a way to balance personal and Etsy shop projects this year, but that's a good problem to have!

Thanks Crafty Wonderland!

 

I had so much fun, sold well and learned a lot! Can we do it again next weekend? Well, that might be a bit much. It took me a few days to recover (hence the lack of posts the last few days, sorry about that!) and I've still got a few small bruises. Carrying all this stuff via transit can do that to ya. 

 

I'm happy with our booth layout too. We decided to set it back so people could come in, do their shopping, and we wouldn't be staring them down from the other side of the table. We were a bit cramped off to the side, but I think it was worth it. The day went so well, I sold out of mitts and scarflettes! Right now I just have a custom listing up in the shop until I can get some more mitts knit up. That should be soon, though I might take a few more days to recover and prepare for Christmas!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, only one more day to enter!

Crafty Wonderland is this weekend!

The illustration for this show is my favorite yet! I'll be there, in Booth 183, next to the I Heart Art booth. I'm so excited! Come and see me, and get there early to try to get one of the Goodie bags! Oh, also you could RSVP on facebook if you plan on going. Yay!

Speaking of Wreaths

I wanted to have some Christmas-y-ness for Crafty Wonderland this weekend, so I made up a bunch of these knit wreaths. My grandma has been suggesting for a month or so now that I make some ornaments to sell, even going to the trouble of sending me a few really cool crocheted snowflakes my aunt made a while back. At thanksgiving I noticed a cute crocheted wreath on her tree too, and decided to do my knit version of the idea. Maybe next year I'll try to make some snowflakes if I can figure something out. For now these fit with my current enthusiasm for wreaths. I made a dozen or so, and perhaps I'll make more if time allows!