Eiffel Tower Gloves

Ooh la la, Do I love these gloves! They are soft and luxurious and just that little bit glitzy. Tres Chic! As the name implies, I was inspired by the famous icon of the fashion center of the world, Le Tour Eiffel. Can you see the little Eiffel Towers? I used the same Angora that I used in my Dust Bunny sweater and I love the feel of them.

I am not sure my pictures do them justice. I'm not that good at closeup photography. I'll try taking a few more pictures and see if I come up with something better. I will be posting the pattern on Ravelry soon.

Chicago, Chicago that Toddlin' Town

I seem to be spending a lot of time in the Chicago area. I was there yesterday for YarnCon, and I'll be there again in May when I teach and vend at the new Hands On Retreat.

YarnCon was fun, easy and interesting. So fun to see the crowd skewed towards younger knitters. You know, we knitters always tend to wear our wares at these events. At Stitches and other established knitting events, you tend to see age 50 and older women wearing lovely shawls and fair isle sweaters that show off their years of knitting experience. But at YarnCon, you see 20 and 30 somethings wearing funky hats and colorful scarves made in wild handpainted yarns and with innovative stitches or quirky patterns (like space invader scarves and guassian hats).

The event was easy for me because it was just one day and not far to travel. It's certainly a lot easier to do than the typical 2 or 3 day fiber festival, although it was a bit of a challenge to unpack the car and be set up in an hour. My husband tagged along to help. He's a trooper, but it would have been more fun if one of my knitting buddies could have come along. . . They would have appreciated the booths of the other vendors. There was handpaint everywhere. I didn't shop though. Too busy. That's a good thing.

I have not yet blogged the other Chicago event that's coming up for me. I am so excited! I'm going to be both an instructor and a vendor at Hands On, which takes place in near Midway airport in May. I will be teaching both knit with wire bracelets and "Mitten Masterplan." I really love knitting mittens. I've developed a class on designing your own mittens that I've taught at my local yarn shop and now I will be teaching at this new retreat. Although it is a brand new event, Hands On is a mitten maker's answer to the Sock Summit, and I feel so lucky to be teaching there!

I tend to give away as gifts or donate most of the mittens I make, so I don't have many mittens on hand for Hands On,but I've got until May to make some more. I'd like to have a variety to show my students--super simple to difficult, colorwork, texture work, children's and adults. I'm very, very excited about a pair of gloves I just designed. I have just one glove done, so I'll hold off from posting pictures, but they are going to be beautiful. They are made with leftover angora from my Dust Bunny sweater, so they are soft and elegant as well. I can't wait to finish them and show them off.

Well, this is a bit of a rambling post. If you have any interest in mitten knitting. Check out the Hands On site. If you are interested in attending, sign up now! Registration began Friday night and some classes are already sold out. They are not maintaining a waiting list, so book now!

Pictures - Finally

I got some pictures from my sister from Wisconsin Sheep and Wool (See September's post) Here you see: 1) Me in my booth - and my cousin who stopped by to say Hi.
2) Like I said, it was sheepy.
3) My puppy love, Winston. I hope he found a new home.

Wooly Headed

This is just a quick post to explain what I've been up to. Busy, busy, busy is all. Too busy to blog. I was at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend. It was my first time as a vendor at this event. It's definitely the sheep-iest of all the fiber shows I do. I loved the sheep and the sheep dog trials. In fact, I fell in love with a border collie puppy named Winston who was looking for a home. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and snuggled in my arms and fell asleep. I knew it was never going to happen, but I did actually call the DH to see if I could bring him home. Of course, we would never get a dog. We are cat people and our cat is not dog friendly (or other cat friendly for that matter). I must have been under the influence of all those sheep at WI Sheep and wool because I was certainly being wooly headed.

No pictures from Sheep and Wool, sad to say, I still haven't found my camera charger. I may need to buy a new one. My sis was at the fair to help me (Yes,the same one who helped me in Madison--proof that she still loves me after that little sisterly adventure). She took a few pictures. If she sends me photos, I'll post them here.

I do have other things I should be posting pictures of. I have a rather large finished object, The Many Buttoned Vest from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests was started and finished since my State Fair post. Well, it's 99% finished because I don't have any buttons for my Many Buttoned vest. I'm envisioning some celtic looking brass buttons, but I have yet to find them.

I have been crazy busy with school (i.e. my job) and school (i.e. grad school). The only reason I'm writing now is because I'm taking a 5 minute a break from writing lesson plans. (Uhm, okay, 20 minute break, and yes, it's because I'm procrastinating on writing those lesson plans.) Sigh . . .better get back to it.

State Fair

I went to the State Fair yesterday with sisters Liz and Donna and Liz's grandkids Alex and Marcus. What a great time! The State Fair has something for everyone, and each of us had an agenda. I, of course, had to see the knitting. Donna, who once owned a horse and has been in equine withdrawl ever since she gave it up, had to visit the horse barn. Liz wanted to spoil her grandchildren, and Alex and Marcus were determined to be spoiled. We all had our wishes granted.

I was glad to see Knitting has moved out of the cavernous Wisconsin Exhibition Hall to the cozier Horticulture, Culinary and Craft building, but I do wish the Fair would do something about the display cases and how they display the craft exhibits. I make this same complaint every year. Knitting, quilting, sewing, and woodworking are all jumbled together in the display cases with no apparent rhyme or reason to the arrangements. I wish they would group the winners by class and category so you could easily see what separates the Blue Ribbons from the rest of the crowd, but alas, I don't think the State Fair people read my blog! As usual, the vast number of knitting entries reflected older knitting traditions and simple but well executed patterns. The top winners were definitely worthy of their awards though. I was especially impressed by the colorful and intricate first place socks.

We all enjoyed the horse barn and were lucky to visit at a time when the horses were being taken out of their stalls to be readied for show. The Percherons, Belgians and Clydesdales were breathtaking. We even had a chance to see the Budweiser Clydesdales pull their wagon, complete with Dalmation dog riding shotgun.

Our visit was centered on the interests of Alex and Marcus, ages 4 and 7. We rode the Skyglider and visited the tractor exhibit, which included 100's, if not 1000's of matchbox size tractors on display, tractor tricyles for the kids to ride, and a kiddy "tractor pull" competition. It was little boy heaven! We watched as Alex rode a camel and Marcus rode a pony, and both children bungee jumped on a trampoline.

We did our best to support the economy. We ate corn and corn dogs, funnel cake, ice cream sundaes and creme brulee. All of us bought some sort of souvenir--Donna bought colorful leashes for her grandkids, Liz got a purse, the boys got toy cars and light up guns, and I got craisins, goat cheese, cranberry mustard, and a badger t-shirt. What can I say? When you say WI-SCON-SIN, you've said it all!

Fiber and Folk 09 - The Report

It's hard to believe I've been back from the Fiber and Folk Festival for a week. I'm always a bit wiped out when I come back from an all weekend show. So after a few days to recover, take inventory, do paperwork, I'm ready to blog about it.

I absolutely love this show! I love the vendor mix and the folk music. I couldn't believe my good fortune to catch the music of Peter and Lou Barryman. I used to go see them at the Club de Wash (are they still in business?) when I was a student in Madison many moons ago. It brought back old memories and made me feel young, although most of the songs they sang were about growing old. I'm right there with them! Sigh!

My friend Rosa accompanied me on this trip. A shout out to Rosa for her energy, enthusiasm and easy going personality! What can I say about someone who doesn't complain when I insist that I have to drive back to Milwaukee upon arrival in Crystal Lake when I discover that I forgot to pack my display baskets? She is up for sainthood. AND, I must say, that woman is a knitting machine! She knit 5 kits while manning the booth without batting an eye!

Thanks to Rosa helping me, I was able to teach a class on Friday. I had 8 students, and they were all very enthusiastic about the class. They loved the fact that they walked away with a finished bracelet. Here are pictures of their finished work.
I'm very proud of all of them.

These pictures come courtesy of one of my students. They are the only pictures I have from this year's Fiber and Folk because I packed my camera, but the battery was dead and the charger was at home. Memo to self: make check list before packing for shows, include display baskets and charger for the camera.

Fiber and Folk Kick Off

I'm just about set to leave for the Midwest Fiber and Folk Festival in Crystal Lake, IL. The Fair lasts Friday through Sunday, but there is a preview evening for students on Thursday night. I enjoyed this fair last year, but I worked it alone and didn't get to see anything besides my booth and the bathroom. This year I will be taking my friend Rosa with me to help in my booth. I couldn't do it without her because I will be teaching a class on Friday afternoon. I packed lots of additional kits, probably too many, but I can't help myself. I keep buying beads and yarn, and I have to sell it so I can buy more beads and yarn. I'm excited that I have a spot in the gym this year. Last year I was in the tent outside and hot sticky weather with thunderstorms in the afternoon kept the crowds down. Air conditioning is one of those niceties that we tend not to appreciate until its not there. Well, better run. I have 100 or so kits to label before I pack the car.