A New Hampshire Knitter

In just over two weeks, I'll be vending at the Fiber Marketplace hosted by The Yarn Sellar in York, Maine. This is the... fourth year? that I'll be working this one, and for some reason, I'm really quite nervous about it. I have a large percentage of inventory that just will not sell, and I want to mark them down, but then I feel weird about charging full price on the new inventory. And then I though, well, I can always just sell as sets and mark the clearance ones lower than the new sets, right? But "allowing" my customers to break sets has always been a practice of mine, and accounts for a decent percentage of sales- would that change for the better if I stopped allowing that?

I remember, several years ago, sitting in the basement of my favorite LYS grumbling because I had just messed up the project on my needles... again. I remember throwing the mess of yarn and needles into my bag, trying (and I'm sure failing) to reassure another knitter there that I was sure all my issues with that pattern were user error. That was several years ago, and every time I browsed through my queue on Ravelry, I'd come across this beautiful pattern, I'd sigh, and I'd move on. Last Saturday though, some yarn and needles jumped into my hand, and before I knew it, the shawl was just falling off the needles, growing with every row. I'm not sure what it was. My skills as a knitter haven't improved much since then (in fact, I'm pretty sure it's been years since I've knit any real lace. It's been all hats and cowls and toys while I was spiraling down the craft fair scene.) Maybe it's just timing. Maybe the stars aligned. Maybe I ...

How's everybody doing? For me, today was one of those perfect crafting days. It's President's Day, which means work was closed, and it was snowing, but it was one of those snows where it was big flakes falling gently with no real accumulation (Probably an inch on the cars- nothing on the pavement. Even in my plow-happy complex, the plows didn't come out for it.) So, on a day with no work and picturesque snow, what's a girl to do? Craft, of course! As much as I love making quilts, I hate binding. Hate, hate hate them. Which is why I have 4 quilts done, but needing binding. (That number goes up to five if you count another quilt that is done, except for the quilting and the binding.) So, with this perfect opportunity of a day, I decided to take the bull by the horns, and do something about those unfinished quilts. And I didn't set an unreasonable goal either: if nothing else, but the binding was attached, I would be happy. But what's that saying?...

So, a year ago September I did something I swore I would never do again. A swap. To be fair to this one, this one seemed pretty straight forward. You take a single piece of fabric, cut 50 6 inch squares, send them to the organizer with a self addressed stamped envelope, and you get back 50 6 inch squares of varying prints. Even though I had jumped in feet first, I was a little worried about coming up with my initial fabric. I didn't want to feel as though I had sent in a sub-par fabric, and I was trying to tighten up the budget. (I had just started using YNAB and using that software had shown me just how broke I was.) After about twenty minutes passed before I remembered I had 4 yards of a lovely red plaid buried in stash closet that was just not selling on eBay. Seemed like a perfect opportunity to get rid of it pass on the love. My initial plan was to use the blocks in a disappearing 9 patch- one of my favorite charm pack blocks. I had spent over an hour (before cof...

About two weeks ago, a turkey breast jumped into my cart while at BJs. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea; I've never made a turkey before. I don't even own a roasting pan. But I had this six pound turkey breast, and decided to make something of it, and cooked it in the Instant Pot.  (Seriously. I love that thing so much.) I decided to coat the bird using poultry seasoning, no real measurements were taken, just sprinkled the spices on and rubbed it in. I put it on high pressure for 35 minutes (using the rule of thumb of 5 minutes per pound plus 5 minutes. It took 15 minutes to come to pressure, then the 35 minutes at pressure. and then between 12 and 17 minutes at NPR. I believe it was closer to the 17 minute mark. But, all in all. 70 minutes to cook a bird, and I didn't have to watch it every five minutes.*   (For those of you without an Instant Pot, a Natural Pressure Release is when you let the device come down from it's high pre...

Every year, I say to myself that I'm going to commit to the Tour de Fleece- a challenge hosted by Ravelry to coincide with the Tour de France that happens in July... every year? Wikipedia says it happens every year, so that's what we'll go with. Not unpredictably, however, within a day or two, I give up. Although, "give up" denotes a conscious decision to do so. Usually I forget that I'm doing said challenge. This year was not so different. I joined a challenge through a Ravelry group for a local yarn shop, and I actually kept to it for longer than usual- 10 days! Here's some pictures of the beauties I've spun in the meantime...  These two were my first attempt at plying. You really can't tell from the photos, but they were rather horrible. This is a single ply, from the same braid as the plying attempts. (It was the braid that would not quit.) These pinks are not as eye-searing as the photo would make it look. This is, I thin...

Thy leaves are so unchanging We're now two months away from the first of two craft fairs that I'm working this year. Both of them are bookending the Thanksgiving holiday, and obviously, the minds of consumers will have already moved well past turkey comas and football to tinsel and snowmen. As such, I've decided to introduce a Christmas line in this year, the main feature being, well, Christmas trees.  That's the bottom half of it, anyway. I modified it a bit to make it one piece and in the round. 'Cause I STINK at seaming. I go out of my way to avoid seaming when I can. And I think the pattern calls for beads and other decorations to be added after the fact, and I'm adding them as I go, using some beads I found in the back of my closet when I recently cleaned it out.  I have enough of these beads to make two trees, and I have quite a bit of silver and gold colored beads. (Seriously people, every time I see those beads, or even think the w...

Happy Friday! I've recently decided (recently meaning within the last couple hours) to do a "No Spend Month" Challenge for the month of September. Am I crazy for doing this? I kinda feel a bit crazy. I went onto Pinterest, searching for hints and tips and whatnot, and quickly fell down the rabbit hole. (To be honest though, "Went to Pinterest" and "fell down the rabbit hole" are a bit synonymous.) I suppose the decision to do this started brewing a couple months ago- I created an account with YNAB (You Need A Budget.) They're not paying me to say this, but I seriously love it. It's $50 a year, but I've already saved over that each month. What's cool about it is it is extremely similar to the envelope system, and I can pretty much SEE every dollar I have- which is something a notepad and a pencil can't do all that easily. But it's hard to say exactly HOW MUCH I'm saving- because while the regular, known, expenses a...

I remember growing up, certainly in my elementary and middle school years, where summer vacation was like a long, lazy pause in time. Not so much by the time I got to high school, when I had band practice and band camp and a part time job cashiering at a local supermarket, but when I was young, the summer days dragged forever, never ending until Labor Day came and suddenly Mom was waking me up at way-too-early-o'clock to catch the bus and another school year was beginning. I miss those days. Now it seems like as soon as summer gets here, we're preparing for it's end. The days go faster and faster until suddenly another whole year's gone by and we're back to where we began. I haven't written in awhile, mostly because I didn't know what to say. More accurately, I felt like I didn't have anything to say. I knew what I was feeling but I didn't know how to express it. Earlier today, I decided to just take out the metaphorical blank piece of paper an...

I've talked before about my kitty, Molly. She's a very sweet tuxedo that usually looks like she's pleading. Or, due to the white patch on her upper lip, sneering. Usually pleading. Normally, she doesn't care all that much about yarn, or fabric. That being said... Today, I was updating photos for two of my etsy listings- a dropstitch scarf and a half circular shawl and then she decides to care. Although, not that she'll show her face. In the year and a half that I've had her in my life, she's very rarely allowed her face to be photographed. Ever.

I recently got the quilt back from the quilters! Wednesday afternoon, I got the call that it was ready and I went and picked it up. And it was GORGEOUS. So today, under the watchful supervision of Molly (above), I attached the binding.  Even though handsewing, in my opinion, looks better, it comes out all sucky when I try. So machine sewing it is.  (Doesn't that quilting look fabulous? I'm really happy with it.)

Orange and blue are not colors I would have instinctively put together. In fact, the (perceived) contrast) was why I bought the fabric- I planned on doing a specific quilt, and I thought the contrast would have looked REALLY good. (and, let's admit it, different than my usual color schemes.) But when I went to print and start the planned quilt, the pattern had disappeared. DRAT! I had to come up with something else to do with all this fabric. Which didn't work with ANYTHING else in my fabric stash (except, of course, the black and gray I bought for the original quilt.) But I had decided I didn't like the gray with the orange and blue. But then I saw this other quilt. To be honest, I'd seen pictures floating around Pinterest before. It was interesting, using half square triangles (which was a new concept/technique for me), and maybe a Someday quilt, but I was seeing it in a different light. I was seeing it in Orange and blue. Keep tuned for the re...

My kitty, Molly. Who is an absolute sweetheart. Don't you want to just rub that belly?

Here in New Hampshire, we were just hit with an average of 30 inches of snow. That was last Tuesday. Today, it was snowing again. Just flurries; enough to be seen, not enough to accumulate. I was leaving my office this afternoon, running some papers to the courthouse, and a guy next to me mused; "It's snowing. That's different." Completely sarcastic, but it still rang a chord. Usually I love winter (usually, winter means I can deck out in handknits), but this year? Totally over it. The snow, the gray skies, the dry skin... I'm done. Just keeping my eye on the prize: which is, a cruise to the Bahamas, leaving May 31. This is only the second time in my 29 years that I've looked forward to leaving winter for warmer climes- the last time being after a week of no electricity. I know I'm not the only one with these feelings. Therefore, I have decided to share with you. From now until May 31, 2015 I am running not one, but two sales. First, my stitch marke...

It's September 10th. There are now 105 days until Christmas. Holy crap, only 105? Sure, 105 days seems forever away- after all, it's triple digits. But for a crafter, 105 days is nothing, It's under four months, and most crafters, even the "selfish" ones, feel the urge to make something for everyone for Christmas. Normally, I quelch the urge. My handmades go unappreciated, and unused. And I make things to be used. And appreciated. This year is different- I'm broke seven ways to Sunday- I can make my expense, but that's about it. So I'm crafting if I can. I still got a chuckle and an appreciation for this article though: The Ugly Truth.  Because even to the broke among us;  some people deserve coffee cups.

I'm not sure about the amount of coverage this story is getting nation-wide, or even world-wide, but here in New England, the story of Market Basket is dominating the news cycle. It has been since June 23rd, when Artie T, or "the good Arthur" was ousted as CEO of Market Basket. Why was he ousted? It wasn't for the reasons most CEOs are ousted. He was let go because of greed, pure and simple. He was let go because his cousin, Arthur S, is full of greed, hatred, and revenge. The warehouse workers and truckers were the first to stand up and fight for our way of business, and our way of life- because at Market Basket, we are a family, and we feel like our family is being destroyed not from within, but from outsiders. While I don't have much in the way of spare money, I do have yarn- and I do have (some) free time. That is why I am proposing this- I am knitting a stuffed giraffe, and placing it up for auction/bid/whatever. Proceeds go to the warehouse fund, whic...

I hate binding quilts. Hate it. I know hate is a strong word, but that's how I feel about binding quilts by hand. It's tedious, and they end up loose and floppy. However, I didn't think I had a choice. However, I had a stack of quilts all done, ready to go. All they needed was the binding to be done. I had already attached the binding, it just needed to be sewn down. That's it. Well, like any crafter on a budget, I watched a couple youtube videos. And I found one that really worked. And, within hours, I had all three quilts bound, washed, dried, and posted onto Etsy . I was SHOCKED at how easy it was. Any quilters out there? It really is amazing.

I have a slight problem. I want to KNIT ALL THE SHAWLS, which isn't a problem, as I have a lot of yarn designated toward shawls. However, what makes it a problem is I also want to KNIT ALL THE SOCKS. (And yes, I have a lot of yarn designated for socks.) As it is, I've got a couple shawls on the needles. The Eden Shawl , which I wrote about earlier this week. That's officially on hold- I've only got a few inches left, I did, however, cave and buy a couple skeins from a Raveller in Canada. So, I'm waiting on that delivery. On pins and needles, of course. I really want to finish that one, and block it. I chose a very lovely color for that. Knitpicks Stroll Sport, in Baltic Heather.  I also haven't touched my Follow Your Arrow, which was a Ysolda Teague mystery knit a long, since clue 4 came out. It's just sitting there, in a huddled, lonely mess.  Same with Esjan , which my knitting group did as a knit a long... I did rece...

I moved! I had wanted to post earlier, but life got in the way, as it usually does. I'm all in, mostly settled, and I think my favorite feature of my new condo is my "hobby room."  Here's the overall view- the view from the door. It's supposed to be the master bedroom, but really? How much room do I need to sleep? The "small" bedroom has plenty of room for my bed and my "office." Besides, I take up more room crafting than I do sleeping or studying. The yarn stash and the "hobby closet"- it's where I keep all of my smaller hobbies- my spinning wheel and fiber, my beads, puzzles, my camera, toy and bag making supplies. My sewing tables. The taller table has a cutting mat on it. The shelving unit  and totes hold stuff I'm saving for the craft fairs this winter. My bookshelves... for my books, regular and knitting and quilting, as well as a way of organizing WIPs. My futon. For overnight guests. At...

For my birthday last December, two of my coworkers bought me the knit pattern a day calendar. Most of the patterns I discarded, not anything I found interesting. However, there was one shawl pattern that I fell in love with, and HEY! I had an (extremely close) equivalent yarn in stash, in the exact yardage required. YAY, right? (pattern called for KP Wool of the Andes Sport, I had KP Stroll Sport) Those of you who are friends with me on facebook know the rest of the story. Those of you who don't, however, here it is. The gauge on the pattern calls for 4.5 stitches per inch in stockinette, using size five needles. I cast on, knit for awhile and then measured (I have a tendency to not knit a swatch, I figure after a couple inches of knitting I can measure then. Besides, it's a well known fact that swatches lie.) It took awhile, but I finally got gauge- on size US8s. I didn't think too much of it- seeing how my original gauge on the size fives matched the recommended...