Blast from the Past!

It has been a nice break from everything in the past weeks. My work room finally has been reorganized and things I haven't seen in ages have emerged in the archaelogical dig! Amazing what was tucked away in all the cubby holes!

In the process, I discovered a lot of millinery supplies and old ribbon embroidery designs of mine too! So, because there are lots of hat bodies and unblocked felts in my stash, I decided to re-create some of my embroidered hat designs and post a few photos. Hope you like them! I have always loved hats and it seems like I always come back to them.

Lovely Festival Day

The weather was perfect and the setting divine for this lovely little Festival of Arts at the Pasadena Waldorf School on Saturday. It was wonderful to see lots of old friends. I have been doing Waldorf School shows for a long time and it amazes me that some of the kids are now graduating from college! It is always good to see them coming back to visit. There were some fabulous artists at this show with beautiful items to tempt festival goers.

I have included a few photos of the grounds of the school which is just magical for a school environment in my opinion. The hollyhocks were just starting to bloom which are one of my favorite flowers. There is a picture of my booth and a darling little girl in one of my rag hats, just precious as well a photo of part of the campus. It was just a glorious day that had me smiling and joyful.

Festival of Arts upcoming!

Come and join me at the Pasadena Waldorf School Festival of Arts on Saturday, April 25, 2009, 10A-5P at 209 E. Mariposa St, Altadena, CA (exit at Lake on the 210 fwy and go north towards the mountains, turn left at Mariposa) It is a beautiful setting for a show with lots of wonderful trees and a lovely old Craftsman home. There will be lots of great entertainment as well as talented artists and crafts including paintings, glass, jewelry, spinning, felting, knitting and crocheting as well as handmade dolls and toys. Best of all - admission is FREE!

I love doing shows at this school because it is always a delight and they do things with a definite flair. You will be able to see some of my brand new designs as I will be offering knitted and crocheted hats, garments, bags, handspun yarns, spinning wheels and drop spindles, hand-dyed wool rovings, fibers and hemp and wool/mohair yarns to sell. It promises to be a lovely day with good weather and lots of fun. Hope to see you! I included a few photos of items I will be selling.

Bad, bad blogger

I have been a bad, bad blogger and haven't posted for a while. I do have an excuse though - five new knit designs! Wahoo! All it took was a little hermit mode for me to rekindle my creativity. I have sent most of them out for professional photos but I do have some new pics so you can see at least a little of what I have been up to these days.

The weather has been a bit chilly and so that has kind of kept me indoors. No housework, a little soup making and lots of knitting and crocheting with some spinning thrown in for good measure is the perfect recipe for happiness in my opinion. It has certainly reinvigorated my spirit! Also, I have been knitting from my stash which has encouraged experimentation and the results I will leave to your imagination until the photos come back.

Hope you like the new little leaf capelet and some new photos of some of my favs. I must get back to the sketch books and see what direction to go next.

Men Who Knit in America

A dear friend, Kyle Kunnecke (above photo, at the LA County Fair with sweater in early stages) is preparing a book on Men Who Knit in America and I would like to invite all of you men and women who knit to participate in his information-gathering survey at www.knittingmeninamerica.com

Aditionally, you can get in touch with him at knittingmen@yahoo.com Kyle is an amazingly talented man and I know he will do a great job on this project! Sorry, I could not make the link work but I did get a photo of Kyle up!

Survival

The past week or so has been challenging to put it mildly, most of which was due to outside forces. It pretty much peaked on Saturday evening, when my anxiety maxed out and medical problems were adversely affected to the point where I ended up in the Emergency Room from about 10P to 9:30A the next morning, making it impossible to function in any useful way due to the effects on my health. I ended up back in the doctor's office on Monday with continuing and scary symptoms. The doctor lectured me on the effects of stress on my medical condition. He advised cutting back on things that create the kind of stress that caused the physical meltdown on Saturday night.

At this point, it seems like a good idea to scale back on the things that do not create a sense of peace and joyfulness and focus on the things that do. Therefore, I am taking a sabbatical of sorts and just spending some time doing what I enjoy which will, of course, include creative ventures not tied to someone else's expectations or deadlines. Hopefully, this will result in a restoration of sorts. I do not want to lose the joy of creating but do feel it is time to become a hermit again and stay away from organized gatherings for a while.

So, now it is time to take a deep breath and take some time out for myself and focus on the work that I truly love. Life is too short to waste.

Bee's back view and spinning demo

On February 12th, Michael allowed me to show the Bee to this young lady who was visiting from out of state (Dorayme on Ravelry) and as you can see, they bonded. She spun on the Bee and compared it to the SpinOlution Mach 1 and also a Schacht Matchless. In the end, the Bee was the perfect fit for her and she did pre-order one. The SpinOlution Bee comes out officially on March 1st so none are shipping until then. The wheel I got to use for a demo did not have the on-board bobbin storage/lazy Kate installed yet but those will be included when actual wheels are delivered. Unraveled, my favorite knitting shop, in Monrovia, CA was gracious enough to lend their store for this demo. Thanks Christine! We had a wonderful afternoon spinning and playing with wool and cotton.

Additionally, in the course of spending my afternoon there, I acquired beaucoup amounts of Maggi's Knits linen/cotton blend - what a wonderful yarn, where has it been all my life? It is delightful to knit and creates a lovely fabric. I ended up getting several colors with an interesting design in mind to take advantage of the drapey loveliness that is linen. Then, as FayLynn (the usual instructor) was sick, I ended up staying to help out with the Thursday evening drop-in class. Afterwards, my husband and I went to dinner at Chang's (our favorite Thai restaurant)and then went on home. After checking emails and filling PDF pattern orders, I fell asleep at about 1 o'clock in the morning. So, needless to say, I am dragging my sorry self around today but that's what happens when having too much fun at my age. It doesn't stop me from doing it but it just takes longer to recover!