A Colorado Spring(s) 5 April 2010

Well, I’m here in Colorado Springs, Colorado visiting my dad for the week. So far it’s been beautiful, if not a wee bit windy. I didn’t realize they had such gale force winds here! Although it may be windy, the views from his house are certainly picturesque, and I’m just in awe of how beautiful nature can truly be.

We have some plans while we’re here, but for the most part Kris and I are just enjoying the views and relaxing. I’m happy to have a lot of spare time to spend on knitting, and I’m hoping to finish up a couple of projects during my time here. I just cast on for and have worked a few inches of a lovely pair of fair isle socks, which are my first colorwork project, and I also cast on for Ysolda’s Ishbel shawl as part of a knit along at Yarn Love. I know I won’t hardly put a dent in the socks, but I’m hoping to get my Ishbel finished. Here are some photos of my work so far:

I’ll also be here in Colorado Springs for my birthday, and I get to choose what I want to do for the day. I did a little research on Ravelry and found a yarn shop that’s part of a llama farm up in Black Forest called Table Rock Llamas Fiber Arts Studio. It’s a short drive away, and I’m excited to check out the goodies that they have.

Other than my knitting interests, we’ll also be heading up to the Air Force Academy and Pikes Peak. I’ve always loved Pikes Peak, and since Kris hasn’t been up to the top yet we thought it would be a good excuse to go. If only the winds would die down!

Well, I’m going to run off to work on my Ishbel! Until next time, happy crafting!

Much Love for Yarn-Love! 10 June 2009

Hey all! I’m back from a great weekend full of fun at Hersheypark and crocheting! I stopped over at Yarn-Love in Hummelstown on Friday night and I had an absolute blast. I met a lot of wonderful women who love their craft and who share my passion for everything yarn based. I enjoyed seeing all of the knitters there and loved that they appreciated me as a crocheter. I think I was the only person actively crocheting while there, but I did talk to some ladies who crocheted in addition to knitting. All the knitting talk did get me thinking about dusting off the old needles and taking up knitting again. I think if I would refocus myself on the basics that I could make a lot of beautiful things.

I did get to start working on a cute amigurumi octopus while I was at the Yarn-Love stitch night. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of it right now, but I’ll be sure to add one here once it is finished. One of the ladies saw me working on it and let me check out a great book called Amigurumi Knits that she had brought with her. It had so many cute patterns and I loved how something that was originally a crochet thing was so easily transposed into a knitting thing. I’ve had that book in my mind since Friday night and it’s another reason I’ve been thinking of picking up knitting again. So who knows, perhaps you’ll be able to read about my re-adventures in knitting here soon!

I’ve also finished up some of my dishcloth sets and without much further ado I will let you check them out in this wonderful picture (which is not so wonderful…I took it with my phone and the colors aren’t quite right…I’ll try to add a better one later!).

So for now it’s back to work on my amigurumi octopus. I hope to have pictures up this weekend. Until then, happy crafting!

Vegas Vacation! 5 May 2009

Wow it’s been a while! All it took was one little vacation and I’ve jumped the tracks (or so to speak!) with the whole blogging business. It seems I’ve jumped the tracks on the whole crafty business a little bit too.

So we had a wonderful vacation out in Las Vegas. It was chilly, but we still had a great time gambling and going to see Elton John, who is perhaps the best performer I’ve ever seen. I didn’t forget about my craft while we were there either. I found some beautiful natural stones at the Rainforest Cafe that I’m hoping to use to make some pendants. I just need to do a little practice work with my wire wrapping so that I can make the stones look their best.

I also did some crocheting, and I was fortunate enough to be able to sell one of my bath scrubbies in flight! I can’t even begin to describe how important it is to have others see you doing your craft. A little crocheting was all it took to create great conversation with my two aisle mates and create a sale that hopefully creates a customer for life! I was so pleased to be able to hand out business cards to both of them. I’m hoping that it will help generate some interest and possibly some business.

But since that time I’ve been a little lacking in creativity, mostly because I haven’t had a lot of time. I’ve had some stuff going on, but I still wish I would’ve tried a little harder to set some time aside for myself to be creative.

So I’m ending with a question for everyone tonight. What do you do or what do you suggest to overcome the lack of time or just the lack of creativity in general?

Until next time, happy crafting!

Baby Time 1 April 2009

I’ve been working on a beautiful crochet project of a baby blanket with a matching hat from the Stitch n Bitch book “The Happy Hooker” since late Sunday. I had made this project about two years ago and it came out nicely using the Red Heart soft yarn. This time I decided to use Lion Brand Babysoft yarn because the color selection was much better for what I was aiming for.

I started off with the hat and realized the yarn was a bit too thin for the look I wanted. So I doubled up the yarn using the inside and outside ends of the skein. The project came out beautifully by doing this, except when I went to make the braids for the blanket I realized I didn’t have quite enough yarn! I’ve been mulling over what to do since I wanted to give this set as a gift tomorrow night. I asked the girls at work what they thought and they said it looked great without the braids, and they wouldn’t have known they should be there if I hadn’t told them so.

So here’s the finished product. I think I’m going to leave the blanket braids out and call it a lesson learned (meaning next time make sure I buy enough yarn!!!).

Now I’m off to work on some jewelry. Hopefully I’ll have some posts to show off my new creations in a couple of days. I wanted to add some of my new jewelry and some bath puffs to my etsy shop today, but I need the sun to come out of hiding so I can get some nice pictures of the items.

So for now, happy crafting!