There is less than a week until the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza. Even though my stitch markers didn't move well at Indie Emporium, I have high hopes for them this coming weekend. This audience will be completely different, for starters. This time it is a fiber specific event and the people who are coming should actually know what they are!
Despite not being very down in inventory, I decided to have a production day to add variety to my stock. It started out as me thinking, oh I'll just make a few today while I have some time.
Then I got going and decided I was having fun, so why not have some Chai and make some more.
Riley helped by pushing me off the sofa more than once. Ripley did too, but I didn't catch a picture of him doing it.
By mid afternoon I had opened new beads, fixed myself a tray of grapes and cheese, finished off the chai and was grooving at a pretty good pace.
By the time I needed to get up and get going for my evening plans I had made 15 new sets, which totaled 77 individual stitch markers. I have to admit, I still LOVE the giant pearl sets, the last couple of those sets got me a lot of compliments. And I like the clear bead sets for their clean looking style, although they are hard to photograph.
I am very excited about this coming weekend. I hope to sell lots but also to meet some great new fiber people. These events are always so much fun because of the sense of community among spinners and stitchers. I hope if you are in the area that you join us.
In honor of my super stitch marker production day, I am giving away a set of markers this week!! They are a set of medium markers with amber beads. They will fit up to a size 15 knitting needle comfortably. So here is how you enter:
Leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about fiber or craft shows.
Easy.
For additional entries you may:
Become a follower of my blog and leave a comment saying so
Blog or tweet this giveaway and leave a comment telling me which. If it's a blog, leave a link to the post.
Post about this giveaway on facebook and leave a comment with a link to the post.
Leave a separate comment for each entry, max of 4 entries per person. A winner will be chosen using a random number generator. Contest closes Wednesday night and winner will be announced on Thursday.
:-)
Posts
I love our hodgepodge Christmas tree and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
They are a healthier version of candied sweet potatoes. They were first boiled in apple juice then cooked with a light orange juice and maple syrup glaze. Yum!
That is my cousin and his family's new puppy! Her name is Remmy and she's the cutest little thing. She was so exhausted after running around all day meeting new people. They've only had her about a week. 
I actually finished a commissioned cowl. The color was the only thing the client really specified, so I had fun with it. I'm calling it Quadrants and I'll post the super easy pattern soon. Hopefully tomorrow. 
I need to get a picture of it on someone so you can really see relative size. Its a super soft and fluffy yarn and should be cozy wrapped twice and SUPER cozy wrapped 3 times. I need to block it because one section rolls. It doesn't really bother me that it does though, so hopefully it won't bother the recipient either. 
How, you might ask? Well, I made the La Petite Fluer hat, which is a free Ravelry download. It is super fast and made on size 11 needles. I held together 3 strands of dk weight yarn, 2 in different shades of pink and one white. This hat is super stretchy and the 3 colors add a lot of dimension. And the whole thing, start to finish, can be done in about an hour and a half, and that includes time out to eat snacks and cake and weaving in all your ends. So really, I'd say its a one hour hat if you are able to focus.
I did not make the flower that the hat pattern has a link to. I thought it was pretty enough on its own. But I do think it would look cute with the flower as well. 
I figured since I went back to this one particular booth 3 times to look at this cameo necklace that I might be sad if I didn't buy it, so I did. I also ran in to SheezKrafty at that booth, I think it was my second time over there. I went back to a booth full of TONS of hair dooeys to get that little black lace bow with the black feathers. So cute. Here comes my sadness though, one of the other hair bows I bought is already missing! I hope it just fell out of my bag in mummy's car, otherwise I am very sad. It was a flower and feather combo and very cute. 
I also picked up a couple of dresses today. The grey one I bought really early in the day. Its fantastic and can go office or party. I wiggled into it right there in the booth and fell in love! I am so glad I bought it. And then late in the day, almost at closing I found the cream and lace dress. LOVE again!!! Some tights, some boots, long sleeve t-shirt or sweater and it will be perfect. (in the spring it will be perfect all on its own) And yes, there in the bottom right you can see I was enjoying a slice of leftover baby shower cake while examining my purchases. 
I actually made the pumpkin immediately after Indie Emporium, before I started in on the special order. The pumpkin was super fast to make and came out really cute. Now, I admit that I have always avoided knitting toys. I guess I just figured that with all the little parts some of them had that there would be a lot of finishing work, so I really would never finish them. And I think that might actually be true of knitted dolls and other things with arms and legs, but the pumpkin was easy. So I think for now I will probably stick to fruits and vegetables, maybe that way when I am inspired to more complicated toys I will have it ingrained in my brain that toys are easy. Because it's all about your attitude, right? 
First up was a seed stitch cowl and a pinch hat in black. The customer did not want any embellishments on the hat, so its plain-jane but I think the simple look comes out very classy. The cowl is long enough to wrap twice loosely and three times for super-snuggly warmth. The seed stitch shows up nicely on this bulky but super soft yarn.
Next up was an off-white set. Once again she chose the pinch hat design free from any embellishments. I had grown weary of seed stitch on the black cowl, however, so I ended up doing a swirl design on the cream colored one. I am hoping that she likes it once she sees it! If not, it will be back to the seed stitching for me and that one will end up for sale on my web page. This cowl is also long enough to wrap twice loosely and three times for super-snuggle.
So there it is all together. Both sets are super soft and I am very happy with them. Now, time to call the customer!
