Sock Jacket

Ok, another year has come and gone. The CGOA Conference was in Buffalo, NY this year, and again, it worked out for me to go to my second one. And this picture was my entry for the fashion show this past Saturday.  I have more pictures posted on Ravelry, under "missyboo." 

It's made with sock yarn called Twinkle Toes, from Dye Dreams.  It's a 50/50 mix of merino wool and tencel, and an absolute dream to work with. Yes, the pun is intended! ;-D

I was hoping to get this done in time for the Design Contest, but messed up on the yoke. Once that was straightened out, I had to re-do the sleeve caps to fit the new yoke. The deadline came and went. Ah well, that meant I got to wear it during the week instead!

That's Melanie Mays modeling the jacket for me. She's the one who twisted my arm into submitting it for the fashion show! Now for payment, I'll have to see about getting the pattern written up and send it to her! Arrggh! That means sizing!!!! She's not the same size as me! lol

I had just as much fun this year as last, but I sure did a lot more walking to get anywhere than last year! The hotel was on one street, connected to the Conference Center by a covered walkway that wound (how come it's not spelled "wownd"?) its' way all over before spilling you out into the Center itself. Or you could walk outside. I found that way much quicker!

I fully loaded up on classes again for the whole week like last year, and enjoyed them all. But I think my favorites this year were with Karen Klemp, doing braided cables and Aran cables in crochet. She's such a sweetheart!

I had sent Karen a message asking about her all-day cable class, and figured I would take it anyway to learn some new filler stitches. BOY am I glad I did! I was arrogant enough to think I would breeze my way thru because I do quite a bit of cabling. NOT!! I couldn't get any of the swatches done the right way all day! (blame it on full schedules!) But after a few (and I mean only 5) hours worth of sleep, the braided cables class the next morning was a breeze. Guess brain fog cleared during the midnight hours. :-D

Sunday Guild Meeting

We had a guest speaker at our guild meeting this past Sunday - Jack Blumenthal, Senior Vice President for Lion Brand yarns!  Woohoo!  What a nice man!  He gave some very interesting background into the company's background, such as it being family operated from its start in 1878 to now.   Jack was even kind enough to donate one of the Vanna White pattern books he brought for "show and tell" to our club library.

There will be some new yarns coming out shortly too!  Some new felting wools, some new colors in the sock yarn and Fisherman's Wool, some new holiday colored Homespun, and a sort of wool roving in naturals.

The first pattern I ever sold was to Lion Brand and this picture is of Jack and myself showing off the page with my pattern to Dee who was very camera-happy that day!  lol  Turn to page 27 if you have the Winter 2009 catalog, and my pattern is the middle picture of the three smaller ones on the top of the page.

Dee has the second one I made  as a "thank you!" present for her getting me mixed up in all this yarn "stuff". {VBG}  Hey Dee, got any shots of you modeling?

It's pretty versatile as to the way you could wear it - collar as "regular collar", collar opened up so scarf comes down more on the shoulder blades, collar flipped upside down, or even with the pockets turned to the inside!

I also took over as librarian for my guild, and I finally had a chance to get all the books and patterns organized somewhat coherently into a "catalog" for our members to look thru easily.  I took one of the binders with me to the meeting to get opinions on the storage.  Now poor Dee has MORE on her mind besides Cotton Candy! (evil grin and wiggly eyebrows!)

Well time to get back to my Twinkle Toes jacket.  I'm getting real close to finalizing that one!  Hopefully I'll make it in time for the July 15 deadline for entering into the CGOA Design Contest!  Wish me luck!

Have a good night.  :)

Odds and Ends for May

I was doing some catch-up reading on the forums in Ravelry today and came across a particular thread titled "Crochet Propaganda Posters". They are WWII posters revamped with crochet in mind. They turned out pretty neat looking! They are available as posters, mugs, T-shirts, magnets, and button pins. Check out the site from Michael Snow! See what you think! ;D

I've been working on a jacket to take with me to Buffalo for the CGOA conference in August, and I can't decide if I want to be selfish and wear it for myself during the week, or enter into the Design Contest. I guess that will depend on how soon I can get it done! Paperwork needs to go in a bit earlier than the July 15 deadline for the actual project. I bought the yarn at the CT Sheep & Wool Festival last month from the Dyedreams vendor.

What a dream to work with!! It's called Twinkle Toes, and it's a 50/50 split of merino wool and tencel. Tencel is "a cellulose fiber made from wood pulp in an environmentally friendly process. It is strong, smooth and absorbent and naturally inhibits bacteria growth. Best of all, it has a beautiful sheen suggestive of silk." ~DyeDreams site

I also managed to make a baby blanket for a friend of my mother who became a grandma for the third time.  Two hats were made for the new baby's older siblings also so they wouldn't feel left out of the gifting process.  I'm not so sure about the boy's hat tho.  I made it using Caron's Paint yarn, and I think it may be a bit too feminine coloring for an 8 year old.  Aah, well, time permitting (next week) I'll see if I can whip up another, more "masculine" one for the waif.  :)

There was a bit more, but the potatoes are calling me to say they want off the stove if we're going to eat them for dinner tonite!

Have a good night.  :D

CT S & W 100th Anniversary

Yesterday was good.  Met up with Grace from my crochet guild and we drove up to Vernon, CT for the 100th Anniversary of the Sheep and Wool Festival.  We were invited to set up a booth and do some demos on different aspects of crochet, and we had a pretty full table for most of the day.  We also had lots of items for display made of many different natural fibers - corn, soy, bamboo, cotton, wool, and silk to name a few.

In one corner of the barn we were in was a stand for two alpacas.  They were both boys, about 1 1/2 yrs old.  Oh, what cuties they were!  One white, the other a beautiful chocolate color.  "Brownie" was quite the character.  He kept trying to get "Whitey" to play by ducking his head down to Whitey's back knees to get him to play, but Whitey was having none of it.  He was too busy humming and trying to stay in front of the fan blowing in their stall.  Neither wanted anything to do with being petted by anyone.  :(

There was also a stand set up for two llamas, again a white and brown one.  There was a sign posted on their stall saying Please don't Touch"  and most people seemed to "follow" those directions pretty well. 

Then there was the most adorable dwarf goat, all of three days old.  The poor thing was rejected by her mom, so essentially she became an orphan.  What a pretty shade of blue she had for eyes!  She was perfectly content to be snuggled and stroked to sleep.

We had a lot of people stop by to admire the items we had set up for display, ask questions about crochet, and watch demos on crocheting with unspun roving, using silk hankies, and Tunisian crochet.  But I think the "hit" of our display was a gorgeous free-form jacket made by, and generously lent to us by one of our more famous members, Margaret Hubert.  Lots of ooo's and aaah's for that one, Margaret!

Oh yes, my bowl of stew was delious again this year!  mmmmmm!

Have a good day.  :D

9...8...7...6...5...4

NO, I'm not counting sheep for sleep!  I'm counting the days until the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival!    This year marks their 100th anniversary, and my CGOA chapter was invited back again to help celebrate.  Yay!  We were there last year with items to display, and to give some demonstrations on doing basic crocheting and using unspun roving.

They will be taking part in a knit/crochet the world's longest scarf campaign, and you're invited to add your inches at$10/inch.  That should be interesting!

My mouth is already watering for some of the best stew I've had in ages, too!  I don't know which was better: the aroma, or the taste!  But I was mighty glad it was HOT!  It was not a very nice day when we were there.  Rain, wind, and about 48 degrees.  I'm hoping this year it's warmer!  Either way though, I'll be packing mittens and Kleenex!  lol

...3

more days until the next chapter meeting, and we'll be having a sock workshop with Kim Kotary.  She'll be showing us more about the socks from her latest book, You Can Crochet Socks.

This is also the third time around I've tried to figure out what/how I did the pink top for Missyboo a couple of years ago.  (heed my warning ~ take notes as you do these things!!!)  But....I think I now have success!  A few more rows will give me the answer!  If it's a "Eureka!" moment, then the lower half is eesy-peesy! 

Have a good night.  : )