Art Star Craft Bazaar

If you're in Philadelphia this weekend, you should definitely stop by the Art Star Craft Bazaar in Northern Liberties.

It is this Saturday and Sunday, June 2nd and 3rd. For more details, please link here. The girls who own Art Star are really nice, and one of them is a great hula-hooper.

I will be stopping by to see my girl, Aimee, the brains and creativity behind Betsy Ross Patterns. Hopefully, she has one of her "Twirly Skirt" patterns in stock so I can snap one up and have an excuse to buy more fabric! Aimee is one cool lady, you should go and meet her. While you're at it, ask her the capital of Tajikistan, she has a mind like a steel trap.

I also think you'll like my friend Leya from Curious Bird. Especially my friends obessed with owls...(Sherry!)

Don't forget to get a cupcake at Brown Betty before you leave. Um, and perhaps one for your friend Marissa...

Red High Heels

I know a cowboy who could use some cheering up. He's in the midst of chemotherapy, and told my mom,"Girl, I'll be fine. I bought myself some red high heels. I'll be the cutest one in that hospital."

He loves the song "Red High Heels" by Kellie Pickler. I didn't know the song, but read the lyrics and figured my friend would get a kick (no pun!) out of a drawing full of red high heels.

Fun shoes for when he's feeling better...



I thought he'd like "shit-kickers" with spurs for those tough days.



And some kitten heels for loungin' around the house.



I wish health and happiness to you and your loved ones, too!

Discipline: Unfinished Projects

After finally finishing my sweater, I've been attempting to complete my unfinished projects.

My travel knitting has been toe-up socks in 2 different colorways of Koigu. See below for the true colors of the charcoal and medley of pinks and golds.



One was accidentally knit in zero sized needles instead of ones, so it's a little deformed, but will fit my narrow feet fine.



I started the Clapotis last summer only to cast it aside when I took a knitting hiatus. (I went to the Philippines and it is too hot to do anything but eat ube ice cream and sit!)

The Clap is getting some love now. I've been looking forward to working with the silk noir from Great Adirondack in these warmer months. The colorway is 'Chagall' and is delightfully bright and slightly garish. I love dropping the stitches to make those gaps, it never stops being amusing.

I've been dying to finish this February Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman so I can give it to a new baby. Unfortunately, I lost the third ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky.

Do you think the yarn store has it? No. How about Ebay? "Yes!" they said...and then refunded my money when they were wrong. Do babies wear capelets? (wink)

In the meantime, I thought the new older sister of this baby would enjoy a little purse. I like to make sure the older ones get a little something too, especially jealous 2-1/2 year olds! This was a fifteen minute project using some left-over scraps of the adorable dog fabric I had from my quilt.

Only after I finish these projects, am I allowing myself to start any lace shawls from my new book, Victorian Lace Today. This book is like a geode, ugly cover on the outside, beautiful gems of projects inside. I'm serious, go look at that skirt on the cover. I'll wait here.

These pictures aren't the greatest today, but I'm no Sulu, and need to finish these projects already instead of taking more pictures!

Enjoy your long Memorial Day weekends, my American friends. I'm hoping to eat barbequed food and ice cream all weekend.

Adjani's Quilt

Adjani's quilt is all about the details.

Like Ethiopia and The Red Sea outlined in cotton floss...

As I mentioned before, this quilt is for my friend's new daughter. This little girl is so special, her mom flew all the way to Ethiopia to get her, and bring her home to Pennsylvania.

My friend is the type of person who will get a kick out of a quilt that symbolizes the journey. It's kind of silly, tactile and charming, which is why I like it so much.

I'm smitten with the colors and imperfections of the hand quilting. The small stitches are tight enough for little fingers not to get caught in them, but fun to touch. The embroidery is free-form and a bit sketchy. This is a child's blanket after all, and it is meant to get used and get dirty.

Here is the end result. I think it went pretty well, and was very fun and surprisingly easy to make.

Technical information:

The fabrics were all purchased from Purl Patchwork in New York. Both patterned fabrics are from Freespirit Fabric's Lighting Bug by Heather Ross. The brown fabric may be found here, yellow fabric here, and the solid blue cotton here.

Completed. Finished. Done!

In January, this sweater was just a figment of my imagination.



Approximately 600 bobbles later, not anymore! Um...That's not an exaggeration either.



The pattern was Tyrolean, by Sarah Dallas from Rowan's Vintage Knits.



Knitting this was certainly a labor of love. I knit both fronts and both sleeves at the same time, and highly recommend doing that. Not only since it makes the pieces identical, but because I hate backtracking.



I still have the embroidery to finish, but I consider this sweater completed. I'm proud that I finished it and did the proper thing by re-doing the back when it wasn't the right size.

And thanks to the recent cold spell, I didn't even need to wait until September to wear it!

Maryland Sheep and Wool

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest was a riot. For those of you who aren't familiar with MS&W, it's basically a livestock fair for fleece bearing animals. About 34 years ago, spinners and crafty-type people started attending to pick up cheap fleeces to spin and weave.

Now it's a huge event, with knitters, spinners, crocheters, etc. mingling with livestock, farmers, dyers and vendors. Lisa, Regina and I even got to chat with a charming retired farmer while waiting in line for pulled pork sandwiches.

For the most part, there was a sense of camaraderie, easy conversations and curiosity from both 'sides'. Some of the booths were quite small though, and not for the claustrophobic.

I attended with my renegade knitting crew -- The Degenerate Knitters. Pictured from left to right: Lisa, Regina, Jennifer, Rhonda, Sherry and myself.



We saw teeny tiny goats.



Alpacas!



Millions of sheep. (As well as some rather large sheep parts that were quite shocking for a few of us city-girls!) That's a picture for another day!

This sheep in particular seemed to like me, and had little dredlocks. When I called to him he came over and took a picture with me. Then he bleated at me and I almost dropped my camera, I was so startled. Isn't he cute, with his tongue sticking out?



We ate our share of funnel cake. I was initially opposed to sharing, but Mom taught me good manners after all. It was quite windy, and in this picture, I actually have confectioner's sugar all over my clothes and face.



These alapacas were shorn. Can you guess which one we nicknamed 'Ringo Star'? Isn't he a little rockstar?



It was a long day, but I had a great time. One of the favorite vendors was not able to make it, but that was probably better for my budget anyway. I actually only bought 4 skeins of yarn, a decent amount of food, and some lovely handmade soaps. It's great to support local businesses, meet the owners, hear them talk about their products, and pet lots of yarn and animals. (With frequent handwashing of course!)

Here are my prize-winners, two gorgeous skeins of 100 percent cashmere. They're hand-dyed and from Just Our Yarn. A better picture of the variegations and true color can be found on their site. Each skein has 500 yards, so I can make a huge shawl with these 2 tiny skeins. I'll have to pick something really special. Suggestions welcome!



I was done shopping, but saw this machine washable and dryable laceweight yarn from Tess' Designer Yarns. For $10 a skein, in one of my favorite colors, I could swing it. Some of you may scoff at seafoam green, but I'm glad it's back in vogue. I love this color combined with cherry red ballet flats. And if you're still not loving the seafoam, you can call it 'cobalt teal light', like the paint color instead.

Now I just need to finish up some projects and I can play with my new yarns!

MOM = WOW

This is belated, but the sentiment is not. This is also a sentimental non-knitting post. So fair warning! Crafty stuff soon, but I'm not famous, so it doesn't matter! (That's us at Ft. Lauderdale beach circa 1980.)



I am so lucky to have the mom that I do. She truly is one of my best friends, and something is not real until I can share it with her.

To me, my mom is fearless. She left her country and entire family in the Philippines to come to grad school in Hawaii at 21.

When things fall apart, she is always there to cry and laugh about it and eventually pick up the pieces.

My mom taught me how to sew, let me make little purses on her sewing machine, and bought me a Fisher Price loom that I still wish I had. The title is because I once made her a pillow that spelled out M-O-M in cut-out letters. When you turned it upside down, take a wild guess what it said? Wow. I know! And she still puts it out every Christmas.

What else makes my mom so special?

She made my brother Andrew and me the coolest Halloween costumes every year; an astronaut suit, a Star Trek suit, a hula dancer and a mad scientist.

She volunteered at our elementary schools and was extra sweet to classmates of mine that didn't have the greatest home life. One of them would even give her hugs and say,"Mrs. Huber, you smell SO good!"

She broke her ankle really badly in the Philippines on the top of a mountain, didn't get any pain relief for 8 hours and hardly cried. She is so brave!

She's led my family through some really tough times, like when my brother was in rehab. If anyone could have loved her more fiercely that me, it was my brother. They had the most special bond and he would have done anything for her.



She can speak three languages. English, Tagalog and Visayan.

She will run into someone she knows no matter what city, country or continent she is on.

My mom encouraged us to try new things, whether it be gymnastics, tennis, diving, hockey, water polo, or bass.
My mom has been a college counselor for high schools in Florida for some time now. People come up to us in public all the time to tell her, "I wouldn't have applied to college if it wasn't for you, and now I'm applying to med school."

She taught us manners, respect and that all people are created equally.

She's hilarious! I love hanging out with my parents and Andrew when he was around. We had the most fun just being silly.

It was just Andrew and me, but in 2000, they rescued an exchange student from Sweden whose sponsor family was atrocious. This is her 'adopted' son Daniel on the boys' graduation day! And now, we have family in Sweden too!



Well, and my best friend, Brooke is pretty much her second daughter. I'm not even allowed to do puzzles with them.

Last but not least, some woman once made an extremely ignorant and prejudiced remark outside of a favorite eatery. My mom not only told her she was wrong, but also why.

And that's my mom. She's the coolest, the cutest and like my classmate used to say, she smells really good!

Tendencies of Procrastination

I am a procrastinator when it comes to sending birthday presents. This is why I've become a huge fan of buying presents online. I don't have to feel guilty looking at the present for two weeks because I haven't been able to go to the post office.

For Tracy's birthday, I wanted to get her something cute and unique to brighten her day. I had such a good experience buying these for myself, from the lovely Susan of Sulu-Design. And though her blog, I heard of Tyra Made.



Now that Tracy received these, I can post pictures of the earrings I bought for her from Tyra Made's etsy shop. Tyra was nice enough to let me use her pictures from etsy since I have not seen the earrings in person. They went straight from NYC to Chicago.



Tracy loved them, I look like a good friend, and the problem is solved!

Pineapple Zimmerman

I'm reading The Knitter's Almanac for the first time. After about two pages, it clicked why there is such a fuss about the revered Elizabeth Zimmerman. What an amazing and inspiring woman!

I love the conversational aspect of her writing. It feels as we are old friends, and her sensibility is refreshing. "Gauge is approximately 5st= 1 inch, but babies come in all sizes" is one of the tidbits of advice that did me in, and scared me at the same time... The descriptions for her patterns are not very detailed, but in making it that way, it enables the reader to use their wits to figure it out themselves.



Thanks for everyone's advice about knitting superstitions. I have decided to start knitting a baby sweater, but not necessarily for anyone. I first saw the pattern on Brooklyn Tweed's blog, and thought it was gorgeous. (Here's a picture of a finished one by Elliphantom Knits). Since then, I've wanted to knit one mainly for the process. We'll just call this a "swatch" for now. And if someone happens to have a baby in the next week or so, perhaps they'll get it.



The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in a lovely cherry red that is machine washable and on sale. That button is just there for show, but it's a bit too "matchy-matchy" for me.

The model below has been named, Pineapple Zimmerman. She was too cute not to be a model, but the sweater is a little big for her. I've actually finished the first sleeve, but don't have a picture. So far the pattern is easy, fun to knit, and easy to memorize. I highly recommend it.



I'm off to Maryland Sheep and Wool tomorrow, and will be getting up very early to witness the madness at the Koigu booth. I've paid all of my bills so that I must stick to my budget, no matter how cute those alpacas are...but my car is big.

Then we are off to Aimee's house to celebrate her birthday and Cinco de Mayo! Hope your weekends are fantastic as well.