Graduation

My baby graduated... Pre-Kindergarten from the Snow Hill Christian Nursery School. He's a big boy now and will be attending "big school" in the fall with his sister (who is now officially a third grader). Where does the time go?!

Which is the very question I asked myself at 4:00 p.m. last Friday, a mere two hours before the ceremony. Where did the time go? And how am I possibly going to make two teacher gifts in less than two hours! Answer: the flip-flop pillow. Quick, easy, and darn cute, if I say so myself (I later got confirmation on this).



Tutorial for these are over on the Fine Needle Points blog, and kits are available from the Fine Needle online store. You can stop by our brick and mortar shop to see one in person (I've made more since the initial two I made) - and pick out your own fabric combination.

Spring

I love Spring. The sunshine, the warmer weather, the green. What I don't like about Spring is the bugs. I've been spending many a day sitting in my living room looking out onto the fields behind my house. My husband's garden now proudly boasts sugar snap peas (which we've been eating), and the start of corn in two of the beds; cantaloupe, watermelon, and squash in the other bed. The side garden (yes, we have small plots all over the place), is chock full of lettuce and spinach with some carrots and scallions peaking through.

My knitting projects continue to accumulate - but I have been getting a few things finished. I have completed and worn the Carnival short sleeve top I knit using Kollage Yarn's new bamboo and cotton blend - Temptation. Lovely yarn! I also just knit the Calorimetry headband from Knitty using the Alpaca Yarn Company's new Swizzle yarn (100% alpaca). Both of these projects were in shades of purple (no surprise there).

Now I'm working on the Botanical Medallion Cardi from the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Vogue Knitting (it's on the cover). There is a KAL (knit-a-long) for this on Ravelry.

A Little Bit of Fabric

So we're now in Atlanta for Stitches South. Since the drive from Maryland is so long, we broke it up by staying in Charlotte, North Carolina. And since we were near Charlotte, Wendy insisted on taking me to "the biggest freaking fabric store I've ever seen." Never one to pass up on a good fabric store, I of course agreed to go.

Oh. My. Gosh. Mary Jo's Cloth Store. Click that link, take the virtual tour, don't drool on your computer. I found drapery fabric - on sale at $3.50 a yard! - for five "windows" in my house. I write "windows" with the little quote marks because all my "windows" are actually glass sliding doors. So my living room, dining room, and Kernie's room will all get new curtains sometime in this century.

Today we set up our booth at Stitches South. If you are anywhere near the Atlanta area and knit or crochet you need to come to this! Come say "hi" - we're in booths 327-329. See you there!!

Runs in the Family

Well, you all know I had to be thrilled beyond measure when Gracie took so well to spinning. We went to last Thursday's Sit and Spin/Knit at Upper Room Studio so my girl could get some more hands on lessons with the wheel from the Lilleys. She is doing much better with her drafting of the fiber to create a thinner yarn! It really won't be long now before she has some knittable fiber.

Now, as she can knit, but would much rather spin, who is going to knit that fiber? I know you're thinking me, but turns out Gracie's little brother (Kernie, soon to be 5) wanted to learn to knit. I gave him the basics of the knit stitch that Thursday night, using my current project. Saturday he marched into the shop, found some green yarn (his favorite color) and a set of kid's needles and informed me he was ready to get started on his own project. We found a more appropriate green yarn (right gauge for the needles) and went off to watch Gracie's last basketball game.

I cast on 12 stitches, knit a couple of rows, and let him have a go. We worked together to knit a row, then I would knit a row, and then together again. He definitely grasped the concept of what needed to happen. His coordination is really his only obstacle. He didn't do badly at all.

Yesterday, we were waiting for a function to begin and he was getting a bit antsy. I asked him if he wanted his knitting and he said yes. I handed it to him, turned to answer a question someone was asking me, turned back to watch as Kernie knit a stitch completely by himself! I was so proud, and he was too! "I did it all by myself Mom!"

So now my children are geniuses (bit biased) and fiber artists in the making (bit more substantial proof of that one)! I'm just beaming!!

Weekend Getaways

Well, I've just returned from another FABULOUS weekend away. And since I failed to blog about the previous one, I'm going to back track to get you all up to date.

The weekend of the 16th, I went to Lancaster PA with 3 girlfriends on a little fabric hunt. You may wonder why in the world I would be looking for fabric when I have a basement (a.k.a. my shop) full of quilting fabric. Simply put - I can't (and won't) have it all. Let's put it in perspective: I probably have about 1000 or so bolts in the shop and we went to one store that had 12,000 bolts. Yes siree Bob, that's a whole lot more. Besides, while what I carry in the shop I generally love, there are fabrics out there that I really like, but I know won't sell here. So I picked up a yard or two of a few fabrics (trunk load).

I think one of the best parts of the weekend was that I got to help my friends pick out fabrics for their projects and I could calculate how much they would need. I'm a math junkie. I love to calculate. It made me feel important and loved. Plus I could live vicariously through their project without any expense on my part!

That's the very short re-cap of Lancaster. Now onto my most recent weekend getaway which was more local. The Fine Needle co-sponsored a Knitting and Spinning Getaway at Merry Sherwood Plantation in Berlin Maryland this past weekend (March 20-22). There were eight of us who stayed the weekend at the bed & breakfast, and a bunch more who joined us for a Yarn Tasting on Friday night, classes on Saturday, and a lovely brunch/knit-in/fiber faire on Sunday. Roving was spun, yarn was knitted, and friendships were formed. It was delightful!

Spinners must check out Berlin's new fiber shop: The Upper Room Studio, who was also a sponsor. Monika taught a class on fingerless mittens in the morning and in the afternoon taught spinning with her mother, Lisa to four adults and one young lady who is now desperately wanting her mother (me) to buy her a spinning wheel. Yes, Gracie has caught the bug (specifically the ladybug spinning wheel). Not only did she sit and spin for the full three hours of the class, she continued for another hour or so before dinner and an hour after. Her knitting tolerance is about 10 minutes, so the fact that she spent so much time spinning was wonderful. I was quite proud, and can assure you all that there will be a wheel in her very near future. Perhaps there will be some "Gracie made" wool for sale in a few years!

If you missed out, then make sure you head over to The Fine Needle's web site and sign up for out newsletter. You don't want to miss out on the next getaway!! Also be sure to check out The Fine Needle's new blog: Fine Needle Points, where there will be upcoming posts about this past weekend and future events!

Sock Yarn

We've received two lovely shipments of sock yarn in the last few days: Poems Sock Yarn from Wisdom Yarns and Nichole from Schaefer Yarns. I immediately cast on with the Poems and am just thrilled with the result! Anyone who has knit with the sister yarn - Poems (worsted weight, 100% wool) already knows how lovely the color knit up. Let me tell you that the sock weight version is equally - if not more so - beautiful! The pattern I'm using is called "Lacey Gracey" and produces a lovely design.

All these yarns will be added very soon to our online store, but in the meantime are available right now at the shop. Don't delay (there is already a noticeable dent in the Poems Sock inventory, and I don't expect that the Nichole will be around long either!)

New Fabric! New Yarn!

Both UPS and FedEx were here today, and this is what we got:

Hope yarn from Kollage

• DK organic cotton (natural color only)
  
• Chunky cotton (blue, yellow, pink, light green)
  
• Worsted organic cotton (natural color only)

Temptation yarn from Kollage (it's new, cotton and bamboo blend. Only 2 colors so far so I can make a sample before the rest of it arrives, but I'll let you see it/feel it/lust after it now)

Fabrics from Andover & Makower, including some Civil War era prints, a few novelty pieces, and my favorite footprints in the sand.

Remember that this month all Christmas fabric is 50% off (February only!) And all Phildar yarns are $2/skein (great for baby/children projects)!

Keep on crafting!