Summer Lovin'...kind of

This summer I have been busy.  And I love it, but it's cutting in to my crafty time and that's bugging me a bit.

My biggest new addition to my life is dating.  I bit the bullet and joined one of the nicer (and more expensive) dating websites.  I had joined several of the free sites a couple years ago and was tired of seeing guys taking selfies with no shirts on in the bathroom mirror.  And the dates were getting progressively worse.

So I joined the fancy site the day after I got back from TNNA.  So far I've gone on 5 dates, and two of them were really fun. But that's a good thing- knowing what you don't like is almost as helpful as knowing what you do like.  I really haven't been in that many "relationships"- they're long, few and very far between and I'm getting to the age where that sort of thing doesn't really work.  So I'm dating.

Some of the highlights have been:

Finding guys who don't think knitting is the dorkiest thing in the world.
Guys love the ladies who wear ninja turtle hats.
Having something to do on Saturday nights.
Shutting down 3 bars in one night and going out with a karaoke duet from Grease.

Some of my very favorite omg bad moments have been:

Going out with a guy who hasn't figured out that he's gay yet.  Awkward.
Being told I'm really pretty...when it's dark.
Being told that my hair and eyebrows don't match.

I'm sure I'll be adding to the lists as this adventure in dating goes on.

And so we move on to the crafting...

I finished a few projects this week....let's start with some socks!

I love them.  They're plain Jane stockinette socks and have been living in my purse since April 2012.  Which is pretty embarrassing.  I went to knit night at Jessica's house on Friday with the crazy idea that I was going to finish a baby blanket and I ran out of yarn pretty early on.  I finished these socks instead, so it's still a win.  I love them and can't wait until a nice crisp Fall day to wear them.  The knitters at the nursery aren't sock knitters (yet) but they've been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over these anyway.  I think a few shall be converted this Fall when they see how toasty my toes are in that cold greenhouse. Yarn is Regia something or other, Erika Knight colorway.  I bought 2 set of the Erika Knight colors at Mass Ave a few years ago and still have the other left.  It will probably be a plain Jane pair of socks too.

Baby Blanket!  I've been carrying this project around since July of last year and finally took that one down this week. It's my design and I will be debuting it at the trunk show in Bloomington on Saturday. Which means I still need to weave in the ends, get it photographed with Jessica's adorable little girl, and then write up the pattern and have it printed.  I know the pattern will take a whopping hour to write and format, it's just getting motivated to do it seems to be an issue.

Naturally I have lots of other projects that I'm working on but the project count is a little bit down for the time being.  I haven't made any progress on the blue Chord Girasole since I last posted but that will be traveling all over the midwest with me this Fall for different trunk shows so I'm not too worried about that. 

I'm still madly in love with my Halloween cross stitching. (Just over 1/3 done) I can't get enough of the audiobook/ cross stitch combo and it's the ultimate stress relief.  By the way, the new David Sedaris book Exploring Diabetes with Owls is fantastic, the latest Sookie Stackhouse murder mystery book...not so much.  But I've been committed to the series for several years now and I have to know how it ends. I have a couple more lined up for after Sookie is finished though. 

I have 4 more oddballs of blue and green yarn that need to disappear into Party Girl's blanket.  I'm really very over this project, but I told myself I had to finish 3 more projects before I start my new quilt. And this one is way overdue to be finished.  I was thinking that I should finish my two cross stitch projects before I start the quilt too but I'm just too excited to get started.  I also rationalized with myself- I can't listen to audiobooks and quilt at the same time because I miss what's happening when I have the sewing machine going. So I'll just stick with the cross stitch/audiobook combo, the quilting/music combo and the knitting during every possible other moment thing.  But the baby blanket, socks, and the scrap monster blanket have been bothering me for a while. 

So that's what I've been making.  I'll flash a couple quick garden shots and then be on my merry way- I've got some Good For Ewe work to get done before the trunk show this weekend. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! 

Breathe. It's over.

TNNA ended yesterday afternoon, and after a super fast break-down and a very fast drive home, it was really over.  I still have a few things to put away but I'm pretty much done with trade shows until next TNNA. And that's just fine.  The past 2 months have been devoted to working at the nursery and TNNA prep and I'm looking forward to moving on to the next thing... which I haven't quite decided on yet.

*To the non-knitters out there: TNNA is a needle arts convention, the biggest in the US.  It was my third time there but first with Good For Ewe.

So first I'll show you the very few pictures I have from TNNA...(you aren't really supposed to take any pictures inside the trade show)

I finally got this hat done!  We sold the pattern and the kits and have plenty leftover which I will take to trunk shows this fall. Thanks to my good friend Meghann and her lovely Lucy for modeling.

The Good For Ewe booth with myself, Meghann and my mom.  My dad met up with us for the last day of the show.  My parents are not fiber crafters and were bored to tears. 

Meghann and I chatted with Stephen West for a while.  He even picked out a hank of Kettle Steps to take home with him. 

Jeni's Ice Cream.  I went once with my mom and once with Meghann.  If you ever get to Columbus Ohio, make Jeni's your first stop. 

My loot from the show.  When breakdown begins at the end of the show, you grab your oddballs or some cash and ask other vendors if they're willing to make a deal so they have a little less to take home. I got some fabulous orange merino and patterns from Baah Yarns, some omgamazing yarn from Zen (they were across the hall from us, Neville (one of the owners) and I hung out at the reps meeting and he let Meghann and I each have a hank.  It's amazing yarn, the Zen Yarn Garden people are super kind, and if you ever see one of their beauties at your local yarn shop, grab it.  But of course make sure you're getting some Good For Ewe yarn too. :p

I also scored a yarn bowl from Pawley Studios (also super kind people) and my mom snuck over and bought me the matching mug when I was away from the booth. The knitting pirate is actually a tattoo I've been wanting for about 10 years but I'm too afraid of needles to get it.  So the Yarrrn bowl will suffice...for now. 

The brown yarn is Yak from Myak, a newer Italian company.  The woman in the booth was quite pregnant and came wandering in to the Good For Ewe booth and wanted to trade some yak for some Claddagh- my merino and baby llama tweed to make baby clothes.  I'm always game for a trade, so she's taking some Claddagh back to Italy, and I have 3 hanks of Yak.  I haven't a clue what to do with it, but it's going to be pretty fabulous when I get to it. And that's my loot.

Some other highlights of the TNNA trip:

Jess and Casey from Ravelry wandering into the booth and hanging out for about 10 minutes, talking about Bob and other dogs. 

Ysolda thought my booth was cute.  She told us twice. 

Picking up a rep that used to be a friend from Lantern Moon.  He's new to repping but I know he'll do great, and I'll be his first company to sign him on.  So I think that's pretty cool for both of us. 

Stacy Charles (who I met in February) remembered me and told me I could email him if I ever needed to bounce an idea off someone about a new product or marketing approach. 

Standing in line for lunch with Jess and Cat Bordhi and then sharing a waffle with Jess.  Casey remembering who Meghann and I were at the end of the show and waving goodbye at the end.  We did a fangirl squee as soon as we passed. 

I'm so glad Meghann, a fellow yarn dork was able to come to the show with me.  My mom was there the whole show but the significance of some people and events were lost on her.  It was nice to have someone to be starstruck with. 

So...the show's over.  What now?

Good For Ewe work is never done.  I've got a few orders to ship out and a few patterns I'm still working on.  There are 6 trunk shows on the books for this fall, and I'll need to prepare for those next.  

The first pattern I'm taking down is this baby blanket of doom.  I actually really like it, I'm just over the ribbing pattern.  It's been on the needles for almost a year now. I'd like to have it finished and the pattern written up for a trunk show that's happening in 3 weeks. 

I was really excited to start a new quilt after the trade show, but Esther the sewing machine called it quits halfway through the last curtain.  I'll get a new one after I save up a little more money and finish a few more projects.  It's absolutely killing me that I have all the fabrics washed, ironed and cut and I can't actually start my quilt top. Maybe it will force me to finish the lingering projects faster. 

I've also been in the mood for a cardigan lately.  I will need a green one or two for when it gets chilly at the nursery this fall.  We'll see.  I've got to finish this baby blanket, a circular afghan, a beaded shawl, a dog blanket and a pair of socks before anything new gets going.  I'm counting on you, dear readers, to hold me to this. 

Look what I can do!

One of Good For Ewe's first customers (actually, my very first customer) is a little basket shop in Greenfield, Indiana with a yarn room.  I've been telling the owner for about 2 years how I'm going to take a basket class...after I finish a few more projects.  And then I was out there last week and she was dyeing some pastel reeds that were really talking to me.  So I signed myself up.  I also talked to my web-girl, Lauren, and signed her up too.  So bright and early this morning I picked her up and we headed out to Greenfield.

I'm not sure why I had been putting it off- I guess I didn't realize what a fast project it was and didn't need yet another ongoing project.  Margaret was a really great teacher and was so helpful in showing the steps for right handed weavers (Lauren) and left handed weavers (me).  As she started the next step she explained more about the "anatomy" of the basket and why this step is important and why it goes like this.  We started with a quick lecture on reeds- what they are, why they're used, how the plant becomes a basket and how to take care of it when it's done and woven.

First we made our base...

True to Paige-Gauge form, mine was way too tight and she made me loosen it up.  I protested a bit- what if I wanted it that tight?  I was glad I changed it though, setting the foundation for a much larger basket than the one I was attempting to make.

Then we wrapped a twine thing around the corners and started pulling the reeds up to make an actual basket and not a flat, woven wall-hanging.  The first couple rounds were stressful- the warp reeds wanted to lay back down and the weft reeds had no idea what was happening and just wanted to curl up at the angle of their choosing.

*I'm using loom-weaving terms.  Does that work for basket weaving?  I don't know enough about basket terminology to use it, so I'm just going with the weaving I know.

Got a few inches in and it was time to start adding our colors.  She suggested 3 and we were supposed to break up the colors with natural reeds in the middle.  But I've never been much of a pattern-follower. She saw my color choices and strongly suggested leaving out the dark blue, but I told her that I really loved the orange, and I needed the blue to complement the orange.

I'm sure she thinks I'm a little bit nuts and should probably have gone with 1-2 colors, but this is my basket, darn it! (Later on my mom called it my Easter basket and my friend Greg called it my Gay Pride basket)

A few more rounds of the natural reed and we began the top, which you really need 5 hands to do.  Since I only have 2, it was awkward and time consuming, but all in all, I'm really pleased with my first basket.

The very open weave at the bottom....

Was easily hidden by a knitting project! What a surprise!

So...I really had a great time basket weaving today.  If you're in the Indy area, I highly recommend Willowe's Basketry & Yarn Haus as a place to start.  The class was a great deal for the supplies you use and the attention you get- there was 2 of us for 3 hours and she was there working with us the whole time.
I'd love to do a little more basket weaving in the future, but I don't see it taking over my life the way knitting has (and quilting is starting to). I mean seriously- how many baskets do you need?  But if you have 3 hours to kill and want a project that you can actually finish in one sitting...this is the way to go.

Shaken Up

So there's been quite a bit going on in my life in the past month, and while change is great and I love the way things are headed, it means I'm not getting a whole lot of crafting time, and even less for writing about it.

I turned 25 at the end of May.  I know that's still young but I had a goal- or at least an idea of how my life would be at 25.  I would be the owner of a successful small business.  Good For Ewe is on the right track but it was a slow year.  I'm super thankful for my part-time job seasonal job that has turned into a full-time year round job.  They are also aware of my real business and that during my busy season I can't be there 60 hours a week and my flexibility is....non-existent. So I'm not horribly off there at least.

I would be in a fabulous relationship and living with my fabulous partner/fiance/husband in  our adorable little cottage in Broad Ripple which we would work on during the nights and weekends because fixing up an old house is something we both have always wanted to do. The reality is: I can't afford to move out of my parents' house because I spent all my savings on starting a company. And Rob and I had very different ideas on this whole living situation, but that doesn't matter anymore as we broke up on the 3rd day of our Paris trip.

I was going to adopt an adorable little rescue dog that I could stick in my giant purse and take to the Farmer's Market with me.  Never mind that it's been  years since I went to a Farmer's Market but that was going to be something that started happening when I turned 25.  I think I won this one...I have the world's coolest cat Madeline and my mom recently adopted a little tiny rescue dog who is adorable and high-energy and not something I necessarily want to deal with all the time. I love her to pieces, but I'm glad she's not my full-time responsibility.

I would have read all the Salmon Rushdie, Faulkner, and David Sedaris novels in existence by now, as well as be an expert on all things Shakespeare.  

Eh- I'm mostly there with the Rushdie and Sedaris. 

I would have well-behaved hair and wear fabulous dresses and high heels everywhere.  Seriously?  Am I Carrie Bradshaw?  I did shake things up here and cut off most of my hair- and I love it.  It takes a whole 10 minutes to dry and style and I won't feel so guilty about changing the color all the time and damaging it. And I bought a few new dresses for good measure which I do wear as often as possible. 

The reality is that life is not how I envisioned it would be at this point.  And I'm really really okay with that.  I work 2 jobs but I love them both.  I'm single but I have some really great girlfriends, and yeah, I'm the last single girl left of them but they're still super supportive and are helping me get ready for my first big trade show with my new company that is small but growing.  I do wish I had my own place but I'd rather spend my money on paying back loans and putting some in savings right now. I'll get there soon enough. 

So...moving on.  I went to Paris! I had a really nice time there, despite the weather being terrible and breaking up with Rob on the third day.  We have been growing apart since he started grad school around Thanksgiving, and I got to see him *maybe* once a week.  So it's sad but it's not like my life has changed dramatically.  There has been someone that I've been talking to but I'm not sure if it's going anywhere.  Perhaps after the trade show I'll sign up for an online dating site.  But I'm rambling...Paris. 

We went for a friend's wedding and it was chilly, but lovely.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

And lastly, what I've been making lately...

Okay- I'm heading out for a quick run before work.  Need to lose that 4 pounds I picked up in Paris (curse you, Nutella and Banana Crepes!) 

Holy Cow it's May

Time has been flying since I started working at the nursery.  I love it there and I absolutely love being swamped between the two jobs and trying to make things work with Rob and looking for my mom's lost cat, but it leaves less and less time for things like knitting, working out and sleep. Yesterday I met my aunt for dinner and I beat her to the restaurant and it occurred to me as I pulled out the perpetual sock in progress that it was the first I've knitted in days- and that's really weird. And oddly okay.

So let me show you my big project right now- it's a dress. At the nursery we are having a fashion show at work where a local boutique comes in and dresses up a bunch of models in clothing that's appropriate for working in a garden, we hand them a houseplant and send them down the catwalk. One of the people putting together the fashion show had seen a dress form made of chicken wire with real flowers blooming all over it forming the "fabric". And that's how she wanted to finish the fashion show.

Scott, our marketing guy and one of my best buds at work instantly said "that's a Paige Project!" and I was given a budget and a deadline for a dress made of flowers.  Artificial flowers though- he wanted to use it as a display after the fashion show was finished. I was a assigned a model, given her measurements and set on my way.

I figured I would make the dress in 3 layers.  The first would be an opaque fabric, light but sturdy and green for the background.  I chose a plain jane quilting fabric. I essentially made a tube top with some heavy duty elastic on top that flared out for the skirt.  There isn't much shaping to it because I didn't want to spend hours and hours on the bottom layer.  She will wear it for an hour- tops- and this will work just fine.

The next layer that went on was a big fat roll of tulle in a neon green color.  The original goal was to attach a netting and loop the flowers through, but I couldn't find one heavy enough plus I ended up using flower garlands instead.  It does provide a little extra something between the fabric and the flowers and I think it was a nice detail.

Next came the flowers.  I was making a top of plain pink flowers and then making a big full skirt of azaleas and gerbera daisies, and was going to break it up in the middle with a sparkly orange belt/bow. I spent a lot of time listening to Pandora and tacking on flowers, but it was coming.  And Scott our marketing guy was thrilled to see every little progress picture and that really helped me keep working on it in a timely manner. 

I also had a very helpful assistant throughout the whole project.  She's going to be a very sad cat the day the dress leaves the living room floor. 

Here is the dress, ready for it's test run.   I'm not the person who is going to be wearing it, but I put it on anyway and had Rob take some pictures so I could look for bare spots. I only found a few and fixed them quickly, and took the dress to work the next day. 

*The belt is a little low on me.  I figured that since our model was over a foot taller than me, the belt would hit her exactly right.  It turns out our model is the leggiest woman in the world and I had to get rid of the belt entirely and fill that spot in with more flowers.  Which I had to buy more of. And wait for them to get here. And I'm stuck. 

So here is the dress now.  I need one more length of azalea garland and about 20 minutes and I'll be finished.  When the model tried it on, Scott and I agreed the skirt needed to be fuller from the inside, so I need more tulle to make her a big poofy slip too. I'll try to make it to the fabric shop today so that won't be a big deal and hopefully those flowers will arrive today so I can turn it in tomorrow or Sunday, have it off the floor and collect my paycheck. And I'm totally cutting the orange belt fabric up and putting it and the green leftovers in my next quilt because I'm cheap like that. 

So that's been my main project for a while now.  I also have a really big trade show coming up for Good For Ewe, and time not spent on the dress or working at the 2 jobs is spent preparing for that.  I completely lucked out though- and I have so many fabulous knitters and and crochet-ers helping me with the little yarn samples for the trade show.  I've still got to make the actual set, and that will be more sewing than knitting, but I'll get there.  I have a set up in mind, and I'm hoping to start next week.  I'd love to be done before I leave for Paris on the 28th so it's one less thing to come back to. I'm also knitting a few little things for the display but those are the least of my concerns.  They'll fit in a carry-on if they need to. 

I've also made a trade with a guy at work for a table for my trade show.  You can rent big plastic table for $150 for the 4 days you are there.  Or you can buy one for a lot less than that, and since the show is only 4 hours away I'll be driving and not shipping it there.  I am concerned about space issues, so I wanted a smaller, round table- like a Bistro set, without the Bistro price. Then this guy at work was showing me some of the things he's made lately- he's a wood worker when he's not selling trees (which doesn't sound Kosher to me but whatever). So I mentioned that I would like a little table for my trade show and he said he'd make it.  I asked my price and he said he would do it all from reclaimed wood and use the tools he already has if I would fix a couple pairs of torn shorts for him.  

I am clearly the winner in this deal. I will need to buy patching fabric, thread, and heavier-duty needles, but that's going to be way cheaper than a table.  And it will mean that every single thing in my booth is handmade, and to me, that's really cool. 

I do have one more little project- my Halloween cross stitching. I finally joined audible.com last month and last month my free book was The Great Gatsby.  The movie comes out today and I wanted to re-read the book before I saw the movie, and it was free on Audible if you join.  So I joined.  Plus I get a new audiobook every month and that's well worth the $15 a month membership. And the real reason you're getting that story is because I cross-stitched most of the time I was listening to my book, and I hope I get to keep up this stitching/reading thing for a while.  I can totally handle a book a month! unfortunately, Gatsby was a really short book and I didn't really get that far in the project. 

And finally...garden shot! It's small but it's organic and it's all mine!