Urban Edge New book by Shibaguyz

Go check out this fantastic new book, also follow them on the blog tour and they will be giving away copies of the new book.

http://www.facebook.com/ShibaguyzDesignz 

http://shibaguyzdesignz.com/

Just one ball of yarn.....

One seriously pissed off cat who holds a grudge

 + One 400 yard ball of yarn

=

I was on a trip with "the Girls" Sparkly Baubles, and Zoom Zoom last week. Zoom Zoom pulled out a great big tangle of yarn and told us her brothers cat, who is pissed off at her and holds a grudge got hold of it.  Well, I don't have to explain what happened, you can easily see for yourselves.  It took her 3 hours to untangle it and ended up with about 9 different balls of yarn.  In the end it will all knit up just fine, whats a little bit of cat spit in the mix.

March Already??

Where did February go??  We had 50 degree days and no snow for the month, Hello?? Am I living is the same Northern States I have spent my whole life in?  I did have a great design month. I have completed writing 6 patterns, crocheted up 16 + samples, and taught 14 classes in the last month.  As I sit at my desk writing this post I can look out and see 9 new skeins of yarn I have purchased that are just waiting to become something new and fabulous. I also went on a fantastic Girls retreat which I will tell you all about in my next post. (Which will NOT be a month away, I promise.)

Cassie's accident

     My daughter was in a car accident on Friday night. Before I go too far, she is fine, just sore and bruised up.  She works in a group home overnights and was on her way to work. We had some snow followed by freezing rain during the day and the roads were just a bit slick.  She was just starting to accelerate onto the High Bridge over Lake Superior and started to fishtail, as she corrected, the tires bit and threw the truck across both lanes of traffic and into the guardrail on the opposite side.  The guardrail did its job and so did the airbag!  She suffered some burns from the airbag exploding into her face and some bruises from the seat-belt, both of which are far better then going through the windshield or eating the steering wheel!  She will be sore for a few days and is a bit skittish about driving; but her dad made her get in his truck yesterday and go for a drive.  You just have to do it.
       My truck is totaled and was towed away from the scene, when the airbag went off it snapped something in the steering column and the wheel just spins all the way around. The radiator was also punctured and it was leaking radiator fluid all over. It would cost more to fix then it is worth, even though I just picked it up from getting new brakes and the heater fixed on Thursday. Oh well, life goes on.  I will miss my truck and the remote starter and the heated seats, wow do I like heated seats!! Did not know how much, till I do not have them. Something like this really makes you realize "things" are not so important in the grand scheme of life.  It is the ones you love that matter! I am so thankful that she is only slightly banged up and will heal in time.  I will get another vehicle and all will be well; but I could not replace my baby girl.  OK, that trip into sappyland is over, moving on.

Christmas presents

In November and December of last year, I sort of told you about the Christmas presents I was working on,  I could not say very much because some of my family members "claim" to read my blog and I did not want to let the cat out of the bag early.  I should have said one thing and see if any of them mentioned it, then I would really know if they follow me or not, hmmm something to think about.  I asked each and every member of my family and a friend or two to measure the length of their arm from the elbow to the wrist. For those of you who do not know; that is the exact measurement of your foot from heel to longest toe.  It really works, go ahead get a measuring tape out and try it, I'll wait..................................... (this is me twiddling my thumbs)............................... I see the shocked look on your face but I did tell you so. My family was convinced I was crocheting them all their very own straight jackets in their favorite color.  If you knew my family you might think I should have.... But now...

    DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

I made 19 pairs of socks for Christmas!!

Yes, you really read that correctly, and no I have not lost my mind (OK well maybe a little!).

I made most of them out of worsted weight so they were more like a boot sock or slipper and a few special people got sock weight.  I used the cuff down pattern from Karen Whooley's booklet I can't believe I am crocheting socks By Leisure Arts. It is available from Amazon or your local yarn store, like Yarn Harbor!  The smallest were a children's size 4 and the largest were for my Husband, (who is lucky I love him so much) he is a men's size 14!!

This was the very first pair I completed.
They were for the girl child.

Here is the whole group, before I wrapped them. 

I got over my single sock syndrome in a big way!!
Yes that is actually 36 socks!!!!

I ran out of what I was using for my Dad's toes
and my Mom's feet are so little I used the rest of hers to complete his.
See they were made for each other!

Size 12 feet!! Dang Teenage boys!!!

My brother's family all in their new socks!

BRRRRRRRR Baby its cold outside!

So the actual temp outside today is something like a high of -10.  Yes that really had a minus sign in front of it.  We are supposed to have wind chills of 40 to 50 below today and tonight! Goody! (can you hear the sarcasm dripping off that?)  WE have really been spoiled so I can not complain to much, doesn't mean I won't of course. This is actually one of the first days I have been able to wear my Will Steger Hand made Moose-hide Mukluks this whole season.  It just has not been cold enough to wear them.  I also get to wear my coat I made a few years ago.  We call it my Cowardly Lion Coat.  It is like wearing a blanket.  It is made of 21 different novelty yarns all run with a black Cascade 220.  It weigh's about 40 ponds but on sub zero days it is great!! I made fringe all the way around the entire collar so it looks like a lion mane.  One of my yarny friends called it a Fiber persons FUR!! I would have to agree on a couple of levels, first it is as warm as one and second it cost about as much to make!!  I have to wrap up in layers not only because of the temp but also because the fan on my truck heater has decided to work when it feels like it.  Today it did not feel like it. I think it decided it was too cold and would wait till summer when its warmer,  HA! Joke is on it!! Here in Minnesota, we run the heater most of the summer too!!!

My Mukluks. Kodiak is the name of this style
They take a few minutes to get into
 but they are worth the effort!!

Front of my lion coat

Back of my coat.
 It is wonderfully warm!

Full view of the back of my coat.

Associate Professional

Today I applied for my associate professional status with Crochet Guild of America. I am excited because this will really help me to make the move into the next year that I need. I have been working on setting the goals I would like to achieve in this next year.  One of the things that they will do is help to set me up with a mentor, someone who is currently working in the crochet professional world. I am excited for this, I think I have reached the limit of what I can do on my own right now, I need help moving on.  This will give me someone to answer questions, at this point I am not even sure of what questions to ask.  I sometimes feel like I am a puppy chasing its tail around in circles and when I finish I am really dizzy but have not gone anywhere.  I plan to do some great new things in the next year and this is just the first step.  Stay tuned and buckle you seat belt, this maybe a bumpy ride.

2012? Already????

So where has the year gone already??? I had a great dream about starting the year out with some profound words for my first blog entry, then I went back and reread the last year of blog entries and realized I really never have had anything profound to say, why do I think the new year will be different?  I am in the middle of several deadlines right now; I hope to share with you soon but I can't say much so far.  I just sat down and outlined my goals for the next year and that sort of made me want to crawl under the covers and not come back out till spring.

  I put on my big girl panties and hitched um up,

 I am ready to take on 2012!!

I did not make resolutions at the beginning of the year because I think they sort of set you up for failure. I will make goals, big and small to try to keep me on track.  The first of which was to get a blog post up, OK check that off my list!! Whoo Hoo!!  I am off to a great start!

I Hate Laundry!!!

Let me just start by saying I HATE DOING LAUNDRY!  I understand the necessity for it, none of us can wear something till it gets dirty and just throw it away and go buy more.  I really do get that.  I just hate the whole process of doing laundry.  So last week I had no clean socks and actually had to buy some, I knew laundry day was not far off. Our washing machine is broken so I have to go to the laundry mat right now.  I won't even go into why it broke but I think it has something to do with me felting a few items in our front loader and stopping it and prying the door open. (apparently, the manufacturer does not like when you do that)  Ahhemm, we won't talk about that because my DH may read this and if he did not already figure out that is the reason the glass front popped out and smashed to the floor, I certainly do not want to be the one to alert him. But I digress, anyway when you are down to that last pair of undies that you hate, you know the ones, they have the waist band that has stretched out so much you rely on the waistband of your jeans to hold them up, when you get down to those you know it is time to make that dreaded trip to the laundry mat.  I have a thing about throwing away dirty underwear, it just seems wrong so I wash it and then when it comes back I hate to throw it away because, well it's clean and I might need that pair when I am desperate.  Now I have no problem throwing away my husband and sons ripped and nasty panties!! Figure that out Sigmund Freud.
     I started out by loosely sorting my clothes into piles and then bagging them up into garbage bags. Oh yeah I was way beyond baskets at this point. As I was hauling my bags to the hallway so the boy child could load them into the car my darling husband looked into our room and said, "I am really glad I do not have as many clothes as you!" I responded, "Yeah well I only have to do laundry every 3 months!" (I am not so sure I won that one.)  I hinted around to everyone that it would be great bonding time if someone came with me but I guess they all decided we are bonded enough because they all suddenly scattered with really important things to do.
    I got to the laundry mat with all my bags and a few baskets, in which I carried the laundry soap and dryer sheets, loaded it all in and started to get myself all set up, I had put my big girl panties (OK, really they were granny panties) on and was ready to tackle this chore all by myself.   I loaded 7 normal size washers and 1 super sized one, I was trying to get the door shut on the big one when I looked up at a guy who had been reading and he was staring at me.  I could not get the door to latch and he said, "Yeah, I could not get that one to latch either."  So, do you think he could have mentioned this BEFORE I loaded my garbage bag full of clothes into it????  Now we are not talking kitchen can bags oh no, I have heavy duty cinch sacks with flex-steel so they do not burst when you stretch them.  (did I mention I have a lot of clothes and hate doing laundry?) I unloaded it, mumbling curses on him, his family and his dog. I am not usually that mean to animals but this had started to become quite an ordeal.
      I went to the change machine and it happily sucked in my $20.00 bill and I took my change and started plugging washers. I got to the end of the change in my hand and still had 3 washer to go.  I am sure I looked like a deer in headlights, I looked all around and started digging through my purse and unbelievably came up with $8.75 in quarters.  Who knew??  That still left me .25 short. I considered asking Mr. Helpful if I could give him small change for a quarter but decided against it.  I dug and dug in every crevice of my purse and low and behold I came up with a green quarter with half a stick of chewing gum stuck to it.  I don't even remember the last time I had gum in my purse!
     I got everything going and then had to go back and put soap in each washer, I almost soaped someone else's but caught it at the last second.  I then had to go to the grocery store to get something quick for supper and change for the $50.00 I had so I would have more bills to change into quarters for the dryers.  I got back just as the last washer stopped.  I went to my friend the change machine and fed it another $20.00 bill and it gave me more quarters and some gold dollars.  That is all well and good but the dryers do not take gold dollars. I looked around quite confused for a bit and spotted the "other" change machine, it takes gold dollars and turns them into quarters. REALLY? That's all I have to say about that.
      I fed the dryers and got everything going in circles and the world was a happy place. I had brought several crochet projects with me because I thought I would have hours to sit and work, others were reading, sleeping, knitting and watching football, I managed to get 1 row done and then I had to feed the dryers again. I did not want to have to feed it the whole $1.50 if it stopped so I was running from end to end, because of course I could not get 8 dryers all next to each other, checking time and how dry things were.  How do I own so many tank tops??? Well to be fair I guess I never throw them away. Hens the black "Jets" tank, bonus points to anyone when even remember the Jets!! I think I made it home with all the socks I left with. There were of course a few that did not mate well when I got to the end of the pile but it is OK I tend to wear mismatched socks some days just for fun. I did however find one in the washer when I was loading, (I think it might have belonged to Mr. Helpful but I just put it on top next to the soap dispenser, I also saw one on the floor and one in the parking lot, none of those were mine and unfortunately they also did not match any of the ones I was missing mates too, I checked.
    4 hours, 1 row of crocheting and $49.00 later I got everything folded and back into the bags plus the basket. How did my pile get bigger by getting clean? I got home, dragged all my clean laundry up to my bedroom and have I ever mentioned I hate putting laundry away?? That is for another days rant!

Needle Felting Class

I had a wonderful needle felting class at Yarn Harbor last weekend.  We had 6 people in class who all made two different Christmas ornaments.  We made a round ball and also a flat hanging one.  We learned a few different techniques for needle felting and blending colors.  It is always so wonderful to see what everyone makes.  No two pieces are ever the same.

http://craftside.typepad.com/

Go to this fantastic site    http://craftside.typepad.com/ for an opportunity to win some great prizes and check out some great other projects.

Where did November go????

AHHHHHHH! How did it get to be December 1?  I know, one day at a time.  Well these days seem to have been zooming past at a speed faster then 24 hours at a time.  Deadlines! Deadlines! Deadlines! oh yeah throw in the fact that Christmas is only 3 weeks away, Thanksgiving came and went, eldest child moved back home, lots of classes taught and lots of massage clients........ CALGON take me away. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy and actually do my best when I am under the gun and have to get things done, but it seems like there has been no time to breath in the past few weeks.  I have not had time to post a single blog or even tweet very much.  I am not making excuses just explaining the facts. "The facts, ma'am, Just the facts."  I will make every attempt to do better this month but I can make no promises!   Today is my ONE YEAR anniversary of being in my new office space. I think it was a fantastic move for me and my businesses.  I have plenty of room to do massage, a waiting room, and space to set up my sewing machine, winder, swift, and many many skeins of yarn.  As I was writing this I looked around my office and realized I have all of those other items set up and in various stages of use right now.  I am making Christmas gifts for my family members. I can't yet say what it is because they are all getting the same thing and some of them "claim" to read my blog so I do not want to let the cat out of the bag.  I have 17 of the same item to make.  I have completed number 11 as of today!  I am getting there.  I am also making items for sale at Art in the Alley. Unfortunately this is the time they will sell the best so I need to get items done and on the sales floor asap.  I also have a few items I cannot discuss till later in the year but lets just say they need to be done and in this month as well. Again, I am not complaining I am just sayin"!  OK RANT OVER!! I will take a deep breath and move on! Tomorrow is a new day!

MAMA gots new shoes!

 I bought myself a new pair of shoes yesterday. They are Dansko Professional in Red Patent leather. I got them from Richard N's Shoes store in the Miller Hill Mall.  They are so bright and shiny!! I love them.  All the "boys" in my life have had the exact same comment, "There is no place like home!"  They just don't get style and fashion! Dansko shoes are a bit pricey but well worth it!! They are made in European sizes, they have a great round and deep toe box for wide feet like mine. They also give fantastic support for standing all day.  I own at least 4 pair, some of them I have had and worn for 10 years or more!!! you should check them out. They also come in really fun and funky styles!

Fiber Art Scarves

 Fiber Art Scarves.

Bags of yarn I am going to use.

The process for making a fiber art scarf is really fun. First I lay out long sheets of Sulky.

SULKY WASH AWAY STABILIZERS

• Temporary Stabilizer
• Easy Removal with Water
• Great Transfer Medium
• Ideal when you do not want any stabilizer to show on top or bottom

Sulky Solvy, Sulky Super Solvy, Sulky Ultra Solvy,Sulky Paper Solvy, Sulky Fabri-Solvy and Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy (click on any of the links to go to Sulky webpage.)                      It come in rolls about 6 inches wide.  I lay out a sheet of it about 5 to 6 feet long, depending how long I want my scarf. Don't forget about fringe.  They look great with long fringe at each end.  I lay some pieces long and straight and some I curl all around. When I have enough strands laid out I wrap the sulky around to meet itself and pit it together, I use safety pins for this instead of straight pins; this just holds the strands in place while I am sewing.  To make it easier to transport to my sewing machine I rolled them all up to look sushi rolls.  I then used sparkly thread for some of them and thread that blends in for others, to sew random grids throughout the entire scarf.  The sewing can be in straight lines or wavy lines, you want to make sure you hit all the little bits that are sticking out so there are no loose pieces. I used a medium zigzag stitch to do this.  I sew up one side and down the other, then wavy lines across the entire piece.  I pull the pins out as I am sewing so I do not break a needle, well at least more then one.  After the pieces are all sewed up you take them to a sink and run warm water and swish them around. Yes, swish is a craft technical term. The Sulky just dissolves away and the hang them up to dry. you may need to fluff (again, technical term) the fibers some after they dry.  I am selling my Fiber art scarves as well as a few other items at Art in The Alley in Superior WI. You should make the trip over there!! It is well worth it.  If you are looking for some unique art or wearable art this is the place you want to check out.

I lay out the fibers on a table.

Here are several of the yarns and ribbon I am using.

Several fibers scarves all piled up.

Some ribbon and sparkly yarn for scarf.

This is a scarf all laid out on the sulky,
 ready to be pinned together then sewed.

All my materials.

One of the scarves all wrapped up in the sulky,
after it has been sewed. It now needs to be washed.

Grid sewed through the scarf.

Here are some completed scarves.  They are now hung up to dry after the sulky is rinsed.

Close up of a scarf section.

Green Scarf

Scarf rolled up, it looks like sushi.

All rolled up.

close up of a blue scarf