bippity boppity boo brain

Yesterday, I posted a pattern for my felted hat, and realized when I was on my way home, that I had a temporary lapse of memory. I had to call my brother and make him delete it. I was stuck in traffic with thoughts of customers casting on 55 sts. I felt a minor heart attack coming on. Thank goodness for little brothers, especially ones who don't mind getting up from the dinner table to help out a sista!! At any event, I will post the pattern sometime today or tomorrow. In the meantime, happy anniversary to me and Teddy.... 4 years feels like 4 days when your happy in love.

mission accomplished...

My mission last night was to knit and felt a hat, so that I had something to needle felt this morning, and I did- not that it's a ton of knitting or anything, but I had to factor in cooking dinner, bathing the babe, reading to her, and putting her to bed - as we all know takes HOURS (just the putting her to bed part- someone else doesn't like sleeping either, I wonder where she gets that)!!! So, by the time I got back downstairs and ready to work, it was 10:30 -11 ish. Tonight, I will add some beads to the flower. I couldn't find a pattern that I loved on line or in the shop yesterday, so I made it up as I went along. I wanted something fedora-ish, this is pretty close (I think), whatever it is, I like the way it fits a lot. It was still a bit damp this morning, but who can wait for it to dry? I certainly don't have the patience for that!!! Especially when it comes to needle felting - my new obsession. I will post the pattern soon!

this and that...

Very happy to announce the arrival of the most yummy smelling wool wash ever!! I am a fan of aquae and flora myself. I can wait to use it, I might even get the chance tonight with my felted fedora hat that I am working on for tomorrow's needle felting get together in the shop. Some of us will be meeting here bright and early (well- around 10am- early for us night owls) to drink some joe and needle felt together, sounds like fun to me. Stop in, and bring your felted bags.
This week, I had a meeting with the "Dream in Color" rep, and yes, I ordered the "Classy" weight in a bunch of colors. My rep has her own button company called "bull's eye buttons', so I grabbed a few for the shop... They are cute, perfect for baby sweaters.I started a little something for Scarlett out of the Malabrigo worsted, I can't stand looking at and not knitting with it. It's from the Debbie Bliss for Juniors book. Adorable... The yarn is so soft- it just glides through your fingers. I figured this would be cute for her birthday, or she could wear it on the plane to Disney. I love this color- Geranio!! Unfortunately, I have to finish knitting this hat (only 2 rows done so far) and have it felted for tomorrow morning, I am drinking an ice coffee as we speak, and then I will speed knit and stay up tonight as long as I have to. But I will have something ready for tomorrow morning if it kills me!!!!

Billows of color...

Yesterday, I decided that I would knit the "Earth Stripe Wrap" on the cover of the latest Rowan magazine- a little treat to myself. I love the colors of Kidsilk Haze, and I know I would wear this everywhere, it's so beautiful. I laid out the colors and now I am really looking forward to starting- it's a pretty mindless project.I thought I would get a chance to cast on and get started yesterday morning. Scarlett was at school, and I figured what the hey, until this happened...As soon as the roving from Ashland Bay walked through the door, a woolly radar went off and the girls came in and rummaged through the colors to get started on their bags- yeah. I love the energy right now in the shop, everyone is feeling so inspired, and really feeding off of each other's enthusiasm about of all of their new projects, whether it's felting or knitting. When it comes to the roving however, little goes a long long long way, especially when you are needle felting, wisp of color is sometimes all that you need. After biggie poppa got off of work, he picked up more cubicles and put them up for me, what a guy!! And now, it looks like this...Finally, to top it all off, I taught 2 new pottery students who were just remarkable. They both felt so relaxed and I think it really came quite naturally to both of them. It warmed my heart to see how much they enjoyed it, but more so- how seriously they took it and how hard they tried. Class ended at 5pm, and they left the shop feeling really good. That made my day...

You've got time to lean, you've got time to clean...

Well, I have absolutely so time and I'm bushed, but boy did I clean. I just brought 3 ginormus boxes to the dumpster this morning, all crap!! Now, I am refreshed and ready for the fall. More cubicles will be put up this week for the Ashland Bay merino, the malabrigo shipment has been priced and put out, Scarlett's room is sifted through and sanitized, and now I am ready to concentrate on work stuff. I received a LOT of Malabrigo today in both chunky and worsted (20 bags!)...
It looks nicer out, than in the bags. A few of the colors sold out before I was able to get it all out, they are pretty irresistible, especially color way "toureg". A few colors in Louet's Kidlin came in (and went). Jessica was in this morning with her felted "Sherwood Forest Bowl" from Nicky Epstein's "Knitting Never Felt Better". It's unbelievable, the flowers were needle and wet felted onto the bowl and she used Rowan's Big Wool for the bowl, which by the way felts great, nice and nubby!! I just emailed her about how many things I have to knit (another bag immediately), and she has all of her projects laid out in her craft room in order of importance. I think it's a riot, this urgency to finish our projects, I love the energy- who gives a *&%# about the bills!!She filled it with pine cones, what better way to celebrate the arrival of fall!! Last night I finished bag number 3. I brought it today, and sure enough my friend, Dori loved it, and purchased it for her daughter in LA. Yeah!!a closeup...

My brain is mush!

So lately, I have been trying to figure out ways to rearrange the shop in order to accommodate the new arrivals for fall. Let's see, Lorna's Laces, Blue Sky's Suri Merino, Fleece Artist, Rowan's Cocoon, Malabrigo (lots and lots), and oh yeah, I forgot, a TON of merino top from Ashland Bay, which apparently has already shipped (yikes). I wrapped up my gloves for Tilli Tomas and shipped them out on Thursday. My first published pattern, how fun!! Margaret, my genius sister from another life, came up the with "La Dolce Vita" for the gloves, perfect if you ask me. I can hardly wait to see the gloves after the photo shoot. Unfortunately, these things take some time, and waiting has not been my best feature.
I don't think Scarlett is too good at waiting either. Today, we picked up her Sleepin' Booty dress for the 3rd birthday - vacation to Disneyland this October...Despite all of the the mental chaos I have at the moment, I have to say, the one project that I would really love to start, is the Lillith Shawl/shrug by Louet. Kidlin Pixie is so pretty just on the skein, knit up- it must be beautiful. I just placed an order for more yesterday, although, I do love the chocolate brown...

Beads and Things

Last night I added a few seed beads to my felted bag, I think you have to be careful not to take it too far. Yesterday, Tom and Dori (of the Stirling Hotel), stopped by for a hug and a hello. Dori took one look at my bag, and asked me to felt one for her daughter, Jesse. Jesse lives in LA and was just signed an incredible record deal with Verve, so exciting!! She is an amazingly talented folk singer, big things are headed her way for sure. I balled some pastaza in a wheat color for her, she's kind of a hippie chick, so I think this is a good color for her bag. I am looking forward to playing her cd's in my shop.

Project #2 of the night, was wrapping up my beaded fingerless glove (I little something I am knitting up for Tracy at Tilli Tomas). The anxiety was building as I was binding off, unsure of whether or not this would fit me, but sure enough- ahhhhh, it was cozy and comfy indeed. At first, I thought that the beads under the palm of my hand would feel uncomfortable, but not at all. The ruffle keeps the beads from even touching your palm at all. I think these are so cute- Tracy loved them- YEAH!!. I am going to have to order this combo in black. It was a bit difficult taking a picture of something on my hand but here it is, I gave it my best shot. The kits will be available soon!!


Finally, Wannabe, if you're listening, the reason why I couldn't link text in the blogger world was because I was using Safari. Well girl, I swung a rope straight out of Safari, and hopped on the spiky tail of Mozilla. Now, I have all of these incredible options, I can't believe it!! But thanks for your help anyway...

Bag #2

This was the most fun ever. I am going to ball up more wool for bag #3. Not only was this a blast to work on, "Singles"-one of my favorite movies of all time, was on HBO. In other words, Saturday night between 12 - 2 am, Justine was a happy camper. I feel like, I finally found my real niche. Like this could be the most fulfilling thing I have done to date. I just hung up with Jill from Ashland Bay, and the roving will arrive next week!!!!

Whistle while you work....

Isn't that from Snow White? We don't have that one yet (I'm really not a big fan of Snow White). Scarlett is still so totally hung up on Cindawella and Sleeping Booty (yes I said Booty). Anyway, I am workng as fast as I can, knitting more bags to felt, just so that I can needle felt on to them, and felting more bracelets just so that I practice my beading. I called Carol Cypher this morning to let her know that we have 18 students for the next felting workshop. I swear, speaking to her is like a tall drink of water after a hike through the desert. She is so wonderfully refreshing and makes you feel like there is nothing wrong in the world. I let her know that I now have a major felted bracelet obsession...I did these last night, after I ran out of the manos I was knitting with (for a felted bag). The night before last, I started beaded theses brooches for Scarlett's teachers- I hope they like them. They're cute- the drop beads are really pretty. I went bead shopping (thanks to Joanne) in Princeton to "A Place to Bead"- that lady is soooooooo nice...
I spoke to my MIL last night and told her about the new colors of Art Yarns' Ultramerino 4, perfect for her new sock fetish. So here is a picture of the colors that came in yesterday. Hi Mesa girls! They refer to themselves as yarn whores, don't we all.

I hope everyone have a fabu weekend, I know we did. We gardened up a storm. It's our first garden together in our first house, it's really kind of sweet when you think about it. We planted roses, morning glories, mums, and all sorts of fun stuff. Scarlett hung out with her friend "The Wolf", a 5 lb. chihuahua. She is so used to hugging her 55 lb. bull dog and her 80. lb pitbull, she looks like she is going to squeeze poor Wolfie's head off in this picture.I decided to get started on the felted flowers that I want to give to her teachers before they move her up to the next class this month. I beaded one of them last night, but then carried away needle felting my purse. I LOVE THIS BAG!!!!!! I LOVE NEEDLE FELTING!!!!!!!!!! I am balling more Manos for another one today. I used the Cascading Fuschias Market Bag pattern from Noni, but knitting all of those felted flowers? I don't think so. Needle felting leaves so much room for creativity (it's the painter in me), there is such freedom, when all you have is a needle and a mound of colors to play with. I used Manos instead of cascade, I just loves the way it felts, all burly and nubby. I added a ball of kidsilk haze to it to give it is little fuzz. I really can't wait until Ashland Bay comes, I am hoping to recieve the color binder today. Since we're talking about felting, Robyn came in with her glorious shibori mohair wonder. I love it, Scarlett modeled it her own special way outside. Originally, Robyn purchased a few balls of Madil Kid Seta for a shawl, but got frustrated like so many of us when attempting to knit a shawl out of mohair (why don't you just try to move a building- HARD!!) So i suggested doubling it on a size 9 needle (much better) and turn it into a shibori spectacular, and that she did. I think I am going to have to one one, it is just so soft.

I hope everyone has a restful and safe holiday!!