Knee deep in cupcakes

There's a lot of things I've been meaning to do lately. Things like take my old nail polish off, a laundry load of towels and white rags, brush Madeline's teeth, clean out the closet for things that don't fit, and of course, blog.

Since I got back from Florida I have been beyond swamped with knitting orders. Specifically- cupcakes. I took all of my knitted things that I had made for the craft fair that didn't happen and I'm not selling a thing- except cupcake hats. And every time I sit down to do something that's not a cupcake hat, I get this very guilty feeling that reminds me that people are waiting for cupcakes.

It's not that I don't love to make cupcakes. Okay, that's a lie. I'm so over the cupcakes. I had intended to make one or two to use up some of the stash yarn and now people won't stop ordering them. I love having the extra cash on the side, but I have been knitting nothing but these darn baby hats for weeks and I want to knit my things- not to mention get started on Christmas knitting! Plus I'm really not banking that much on cupcakes, they're by far the most expensive and time consuming things I make for sale. But today the most tragically glorious thing happened: I ran out of the "frosting" yarn. And I went to Joann, the only place in town that sells that yarn. And they're out (I bought all they had last week). And so even though there's a giant waiting list for cupcakes, I'm done for a week, or until my online order arrives. Until then, I really hope people look at the dozens of *other* items I have for sale. Please? Buy my blankets? And my ogre hat? I really don't want to bring them back home again.

So what shall I do with my glorious few days off of cupcake insanity? I'll think of something...

A little song from Florida!

Martinis and knitting and sunsets on beaches,

Cross stitch and naptime and tartes made from peaches,

Mani's and pedi's and playing with string-

these are a few of my favorite things!

Ahhh, October

Today I am 7 days away from giving Madeline a little kitty sleepy-pill and boarding a plane to go see my Mom in Florida. Today I am also 30 days away from my very favorite holiday, Halloween. I don't have anything more to say about Halloween right now other that it's coming, and I'm pumped.

But my vacation to Florida has induced quite a finishing-spree, and I couldn't be happier with my progress. Last night at Quarter 3 Emergency Knitting night, I finished a crazy-shawl that I started on the airplane to Vegas on July 3rd. I worked on it diligently the whole time I was there and on the flight home, realized that my stitch count was 50-something off on the row that you pick up all your stitches and add the lace border. I did what I shouldn't have done, and stuck it away in a dark corner until 3 days ago. I tinked back, read the directions thoroughly, and guess what- it worked. I did add an extra 12 stitches which happened to add 2 lace pattern repeats to the left side but whatever. It worked. Here it is blocking.

The pattern is called Lazy Katy and is translated from German. See on the right side of the shawl there's a purple part that starts out with a couple stitches and gets a little bigger, ultimately changing colors and making up the body of the shawl? You start there with a couple stitches, adding two and then decreasing one stitch per row which is how you end up with that funny shape. Then you do a bunch of YO's at the end and that separates the body from what's about to be your border. Then you pick up 2, YO across the short side of the shawl (I kept trying to pick up 1, YO across which threw me off quite a bit) and then you've got your asymetrical border picked up wit 32 pattern reps on one side and 17 on the other (it was supposed to be 15 but I'm such a maverick :p). After that picking up border stitches business it was over in 2 days and now that it's blocking and Madeline is outside and can't pull the pins out, I really love this shawl and am frankly embarassed at how long it took me to finish it. This yarn had originally been the start of another shawl, but I wasn't pleased and since this is part of the dwindling English stash, I wanted to be thrilled with the end result. And I am.

I also made a kitty rug/blanket for the girls so that I could use up a ball of novelty yarn that's been taunting me for a while. Here is the ball, the bed pre-felting (future pair of socks included for scale) and post-felting. It's had a cat on it fairly consistently since I pulled it out of the dryer, so I am once again, very pleased with the result.

And here's another little picture: I got a French children's book in the mail the other day. My good friend and penpal of 14 years has become an illustrator. She's always been artsy and her letters are absolutely saturated with...just, art. Her writing is spectactulary elaborate, she doodles all over the envelopes, and she's just one of those people that could sneeze and have a painting fall out. I'm so envious of her talent. I've bought a few paintings of hers and had her send them here, and this summer she sent a "portrait" of me quite randomly. It's a woman sitting, having a cup of tea in a hand-knit sweater, reading a book. I've had it framed and it's so cool, I'm probably going to design a room around this picture. (I do send her little knitted things in my letters in case you were wondering). But this week in the mail, I got a copy of a French children's book that she has illustrated, and it's absolutely stunning. It's the first book she's illustrated, and I am so ridiculously happy for her. And I'm really thrilled that she sent me a copy! Here it is with the sock that WILL be finished before I go to Florida (I've just turned the heel and picked up the gusset stitches yesterday).

And lastly, a huge thank you to Jen and Jasmine for helping me frog a double-stranded CPH last night which I've been putting off for 3 years. I have grand plans of a Fall cardi that should wait until I finish a baby blanket, a sock, and a woven scarf, but will probably be started today because today is the start of Quarter 4 knitting. And I'm so excited to have finally reclaimed a sweater's worth of Rowan Felted Tweed that I'd like to have a cardi as soon as possible. You know. It's a knitting thing.

Smitten With Mittens

So those lovely ladies in my Sunday afternoon knitting group are probably tired of hearing about how smitten I am with mittens (I've been craving a pair for months now!). So I bit the bullet and finally made a pair. And then I wrote the pattern. And now I'm going to tell you about how Alpaca With A Twist is doing a mitten knit-along in October using 2 hanks of Mojito (but if you shortened the ribbing you could totally make a pair out of 1 hank). And should you feel like participating in a knit-along for which there would be prizes, you should email paige@alpacawithatwist.com for more information and a free pattern. But for now I'll just show you pictures of my mittens and Macy the Wonderpug (disclaimer- not my pug).

Craft-astrophes and Feasts

So you know that crazy big craft fair that I've been furiously knitting for? I missed it. The lady putting it together gave me the wrong date, and then called the day after (which I thought was the day before) and yelled at me for not showing up at my booth. I checked my email and sure enough- she had given me the wrong date 3 times. Here's a baby hat that I made for the fair that I think turned out especially cute.

So does anyone need a baby blanket? I took them to a boutique-y place where they look lovely on the shelves, but I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped there either. They called and raved about the cupcake hats and a scarf and the baby blankets and requested more hats, but when I went today only one hat had sold. So now I'm REALLY in the hole having paid for 2 booth spaces and of course all the of yarn I bought to make the blankets that I've been cranking out for 2 months. So that's what's happening on the knit scene.

Thank goodness I go to Florida in 12 days. Not that I'm counting or anything.

I also went to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon this weekend, which is always one of the highlights of my fall, which is my very favorite season. I went with Bam Bam because we're trying to be friends and I really wanted someone else to drive so I could knit mittens on the way. More on those later. Anyhoo, we walked around, we ate a variety of apple-based products (meat on a stick isn't really my thing) and we chatted with lots of people. I was wearing one of my favorite knitted wraps over a big fleece to stay warm, and I had the good fortune to run in to many knitters in this fashion. I had a lovely time talking to people and it turns out that I've been buying witchballs and almond soaps for years from a dyer that I'm working with through work. Small world, eh? Anyhoo, got more of her lovely soaps and a lovely witchball to add to my collection. In my dreams of my someday/grown-up house I have them lined up in the kitchen window like a curtain. I also scored some fun beads that I will make in to ornaments and a little hook that you put on a wall with a sheep on it. Someday, in my grown-up house, I will hang that sheep hook on the wall and it will hold something fabulously woolly. Here's a blurry picture of my finds from the Feast, as well as some fiber-related pics from the event. I didn't buy anything fiber related this year- my usual roving lady wasn't there this year. I hope she's back next year, I've got a crush on her BFL. Bam Bam got a lecture from a dyer there on the wonders of natural dyes, and he seemed genuinely intrigued. Which is odd, because when I explained it, it was the most boring thing ever. Bam Bam also had a near death experience at the Feast. By that I mean I nearly killed him- he whined to every knitter that we chatted with about how I won't make him socks. Really? You got drunk and destroyed my kitchen and now you think you deserve socks. Like I said, we're trying to be friends but I'm not sure I can handle him.

After the Feast we met up with my best friend in the whole wide world, Ben. Ben, who has earned several knitted hats and wears and loves each of them, understands my frustrations. I think I might make him another hat. Anyhoo, we all had a wonderful Thai meal on campus at Purdue and then went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery places, which is a regular Paige & Ben activity. Bam Bam made a travel mug, Ben made a non-travel mug, and I went crazy and made a bowl. I find myself using bowls more and more as they're great ways of storing current small projects, especially if there's beads involved. Here is my bowl (pre-fired) with a current sock project that WILL be done before I go to Florida in 12 days. I also have a small list of other projects that WILL be done. Want to know why? Because I'm going to start some fabulous new ones on the flight down there.

Did I mention that those new projects are going to be fabulous?

T minus 5 Days

I am now five days away from my craft fair, and I'm starting to feel pretty good about it. I made a cupcake hat today (new yarn, bigger pain in the butt but much softer- might be worth the trade off) and will hopefully finish 2 baby blankets tonight while honoring HBO night. I'm super-pumped about the new season of Boardwalk Empire. I also finished a little sugar-plum hat yesterday (pictured here with Apple and Pumpkin) and after a few more little projects, should go in to the this craft fair feeling pretty good. I just hope it's nothing like the craft fair where people told me that the blankets were cute, but they wouldn't pay more than $20. It's hard to be nice when people expect you to sell a blanket to them at even below your costs. Want something cheap? Walmart is down the block. I sell things so that I can buy more yarn and put a little away in savings- if I wanted to give something away I'd take it to Goodwill and then write it off my taxes.

And in case you couldn't tell, I'm REALLY excited to have this craft fair over with! I'm putting together my totally selfish knitting bag for my trip to Florida on the 9th (I like to get things done early and then have it ready in case I think of things I need to add to it). So far the plans for trip knitting are a Baby Surprise Jacket out of the beautiful sock yarn that didn't want to be a shawl, a pair of cabled mittens that are also made out of sock yarn, maybe the start of a new sweater but I'll only take one or two hanks of yarn, and then my fabulous Halloween cross-stitching that I'm itching to get back to! Bam Bam also thinks he's still getting a hat and socks. The socks are not happening. But I've already put the yarn and needles and pattern in a bag and in the queue for knitting, so that might happen before the end of the year. But I'm certainly in no rush to get to that. I'm just excited to have the leftovers to add to my sock blanket.

Plus on a selfish knitting side note (I keep thinking that I'll be better about finishing things if I announce that I'm going to finish them on the blog) I intend to have the shawl I started in Vegas DONE before I start any of my Florida knitting. I really just need to figure out how I'm supposed to only have 50 something stitches on a side that is clearly over 130 stitches. And then of course do the crazy lace piece once I get a more appropriate number of stitches picked up.

Oh, oh! And then do you want to see another project I'd like to do? Check these pillows out- they're fabulous! I've been really crushing on these Kaffe Fassett pillows I saw in my Martha Magazine. Tapestry isn't normally my thing, but I said I'd never do any holiday-specific cross stitching either and look where that got me. Here's the link (www.ehrmantapestry.com). Just be prepared to hide your credit card before clicking- so many pretty things!

Well, I'm going to go try to finish a couple more baby blankets while Madeline works on her bikini body. Happy crafting and have a wonderful week!

Spoken Too Soon

It's bound to get out eventually, so I'm just going to put it out there and be done with it. Bam Bam and I split up yesterday. We really didn't date all that long before we got engaged, and once we started getting in to the knitty and the gritty, we realized that we have entirely different ideas on a lot of "the big things", you know- financial management/responsibility, how much is acceptable to drink, how many animals is too many animals, why the house needs to be clean if you have a lung disease and a couple cats, etc. It wasn't a nasty or overly dramatic break-up, but it's over now and that's okay. We both have a lot of working out of our individual kinks before he and I could functionally be with other people. I also have a lot more things I was hoping to accomplish before I became part of a couple for good, and he and I just didn't share the same goals and ambitions. So it's over and we're okay.

And I'm really looking forward to MY pair of charcoal worsted weight socks to wear under my stiletto boots this winter. And I totally just booked a flight to go see my Mom in Sarasota for the second week of October, so I'll be pinching my pennies for a little yarn shopping since I've been super-frugal in the personal arts & crafts department this year. Plus a little sunshine in October would probably do me some good.