In June, I traveled to TNNA’s (The National Needlearts Association) trade show. Since I exhibited at the Winter show in Phoenix, I decided to exhibit again at the larger Summer show. Exhibiting is A LOT MORE work than just attending. For one, I could not pack everything in my car and had to think of more portable and transportable displays that wouldn’t cost a ton to ship or check in. A few things that made exhibiting this time easier: (1) I shared a booth with Pam Powers again and (2) my health improved after discovering several new allergies that had made my life miserable for almost a year.
Photo: Setting up the booth.
For our booth this time, Pam and I wanted something organic and nature-like, but at the same time we wanted something brighter. We came up with the idea of doing custom-printed curtains and a cherry/ plum blossom them to pay homage to both of our heritage. Pam’s ethnic heritage is Japanese (country flower: cherry blossom), and mine is Taiwanese (country flower: plum blossom). Being closely related, both cherry and plum trees have flowers that look alike. Thus, designed cherry blossom curtain panels and table cloths, which Pam arranged to get printed. My dear friend Denise (and very talented glass artist who makes the most gorgeous and high quality stitch markers), came along and helped us with our booth.
Photos: L: My trip started out rocky with an inconsiderate passenger who kept bumping me and stuck her nasty bare feet on my seat and too close to my leg. Ewww; R: Me & Denise’s luggage. They’re mostly mine, including that long box, over 5 ft long! You gotta love duct tape!
Our finished booth and some extra shots of my half below. I really wish that I had room to pack my good camera. The iPhone camera is pretty good, but not great, especially with indoor lighting. All and all, Pam and I were both very pleased with our booth. We received lots of wonderful compliments on it, which made all the hard work worthwhile. If you like our stuff and your LYS doesn’t carry our patterns, please tell them to order Crafty Diversions and Pam Powers patterns from our distributor, Deep South Fibers.
While TNNA always results in hard work and little sleep, it is also a wonderful time spent with friends and colleagues new and old. Some of the must-have food items when I’m in Columbus are multiple trips to Jeni’s Ice Cream, drinks, dinner and laughter with friends. One of the events to which I look forward is always the Designers’ dinner hosted by my friend and hostess with the mostest Marly Bird.
Photos: Top, L & R: My first food stop after setting my stuff in the hotel was some wonderful Plum Sake and Pear Riesling sorbets at Jeni’s. OMG it was so so good!; Center, L & R: With my roommate Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark and boothmate Pam Powers at Marly’s masquerade-themed designer’s dinner; Bottom L: Hanging out with Denise in the booth; Bottom R: My friend Stephannie Tallent and I have to travel all the way to Columbus to see each other. She lives in the LA area, not too far from my home. She’s showing off her wonderfully written and inspiring new book, California Revival Knits.
Photos: Top, L:Wendy Bernard (author of the fantastic Custom Knits series -buy it from her site; you’ll learn lots from her) and I never get to hangout outside of email, Twitter and Facebook. It’s always fun seen her, sharing stories and having a few drinks (or more); Top, R: Enjoying a nice vodka cranberry and wearing Friday Harbor; Bottom: On the last night in town, Denise, Pam and I (“The Americans”) had dinner with my dear friends and talented designers “the Brits” Ruth Garcia-Alcantud, Woolly Wormhead and Ann Kingstone. Man, we were loud!
Speaking of Woolly, make sure you come back and read my blog on Friday, Aug. 14 for a Woolly Wormhead book review and giveaway!
Time has just quickly flown by this summer and I have so much to share!
HAIKU, aka the #LessThan2WeekSweater
Shortly after a fun and successful trip to TNNA, I decided to once again partner with my friends at Anzula to show at Sock Summit 2011. And why wouldn’t I? I love Anzula’s products and yarns — that’s why I have worked may of my Liberation hats in Anzula Squishy (superwash merino, cashmere, nylon) and in Anzula Sebastian (superwash merino, seacell).
For this second Sock Summit, I designed a very nicely fitted tank top out of a new yarn – Anzula Haiku. I named this pattern Haiku as well. With the timing, I really had to get this pattern written, designed, knitted, photographed and published within 2 weeks! (Yes, I know I’m not exactly sane in this respect — my friends remind me of this almost everyday.) The result is a sexy fitted pattern written in 12 sizes with 8 separate bust fitting options for bust sizes C to GG (I used UK sizing references)!! If you do the math, that’s 96 different fitting options!! This is actually a top that will fit me and my 32G breasts! It’s a top that I’ve been wanting to design and write for some time. I have future plans to write additional garments in this style as well, because I really feel that having well-fitting garments is very important, and I want us to be able to knit garments that really fit our bodies.
I brought Haiku, individual Liberation patterns and limited print editions of my Liberation e-book to Sock Summit and for sale at the Anzula booth. Several patterns, including Haiku, sold out by the second day. All and all, it was a great show.
Gino’s Restaurant & Pico Accuardi
One of the many events I attended in Portland while at Sock Summit was one of Pico Accuardi Dyeworks‘ fabulous sock club luncheon held at my good friend and fellow Visionary’s restaurant, Gino’s. I was a guest and featured designer and shared my Septima Clark pattern with the club. The company and food were spectacular. I ate until I couldn’t eat anymore.
Being Deb’s friend and hanging out with her also meant that this city girl had other opportunities to eat at Gino’s and visit her farmhouse on Mt. Hood.
Left: Playing with baby bunnies at Deb’s farm; Right: Her naughty goats that like to steal chicken and rabbit feed.
Above: I also attended a cocktail party at the Pico Accuardi dye studio, where I was able to have a mini trunk show with the Liberation collection and my Weekend Shawl.
Sock Summit Flash Mob, Sock Hop & Fabulousness
There were many events at Sock Summit, including a flash mob dance. I recorded a rehearsal at the Opening Night reception, a spontaneous dance at the 1980s themed sock hop, and the “official” dance.
One of the events was the Foot to Fleece challenge, in which teams spun freshly shorn fleece (in the grease) and attempted to knit a sock. I didn’t participate in any teams, but I was the official cheerleader for the Pico Accuardi Dyeworks‘ Spin U team. Above (clockwise from top left): Sheep being shorn; sheep pen; the PAD Spin U team; Shannon Okey took a photo of me in my cheerleading outfit when I went to visit the Cooperative Press booth.
My favorite event was the 80’s-themed Sock hop! If y’all know me, you know that my favorite genre of music is 80s alternative and new wave. Bands like Depeche Mode, OMD, New Order, The Cure, The Smiths, Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, Pet Shop Boys, Information Society and Erasure rock my world. So you can imagine my excitement for this sock hop. My friends and I decided to dress up in costume for it. The irony is that except for the big hair (c’mon, I’m from Texas!) and bright red lipstick (of course my parents didn’t know), I really didn’t dress too 80s during that time. Sure, I had my share of hideous outfits, but I refused to succumb to the trendy fashions of the time (aka I was not that cool) and never even owned a set of rubber bracelets, nor did I wear large crosses (I did wear an ankh though).
Above Photos: 1. Party Banner; 2. Deb Accuardi, Me and Marisol Sanchez decked out a la Desperately Seeking Susan; 3. Me and Deb in our hideous but fabulous outfits. I even wore lots of blue eyeshadow; 4. Teri Sabah; 5. Crowd dancing; 6. & 7. Two ladies totally knew every single move to Thriller and led a group of people in the Thriller dance; 8. crowd dancing; 9. It got really hot, so I just had to get my hair into a side ponytail!; 10. Left to Right: Deb Accuardi, me, Teri Saba, Joely, Stevanie Pico, Misty, Marisol Sanchez.
Despite the fact that Portland and the Pacific Northwest apparently hate me and the allergy misery hell, I had a great time. (My allergies went into overdrive and went haywire by the end of Day 4 — Even though I take allergra on a daily basis and have been on immunotherapy for over a year, I’m still quite sensitive to allergens. I am very allergic to much of the flora in the region, like Alder, Birch and Cedar.)
Above: Left – I finally was able to meet Franklin Habit in real life! He’s a doll! Right – Met Sharon Fletcher of Stitch Jones.
After helping Anzula break down their booth on Sunday, Deb (who also has a fabulous podcast, At the Kitchen Table) and I headed for another fabulous dinner at Gino’s with Cat Bordhi and some fellow Visionaries, many of whom I also had not met in real life. We were celebrating the birth of Judy Becker‘s upcoming book, Beyond Toes: Knitting Adventures with Judy’s Magic Cast-On. Dinner was great, but the company was more wonderful. It’s always nice to be able to share experiences, thoughts and ideas with a group of creative, intelligent, like-minded people.
I spent a few more days in the PDX area, albeit a bit miserable due to my horrid allergies. I could not breathe or sleep well. The allergies dashed my short-lived fantasy of buying a small farm or a cute house gorgeous Oregon. I stayed with Deb and her husband at their farmhouse on Mt. Hood. The beauty of the surroundings and a great hostess made my stay much less miserable. I spent the rest of my stay helping Deb with her 2012 Knitter’s Datebook (coming soon!!) and teaching her the basics of InDesign and Illustrator.
Above: We went to the top of Mt. Hood, where there were still lots of snow. Deb’s dog obviously loved the snow, and we ended the day with drinks at the Timberline lodge: great view, great drinks, great company….ahh…
Unfortunately, it’s back to reality for me and I’m still playing catch-up. In the past month, I’ve had lots of pattern releases, but I haven’t really been able to post or blog about those. I just recovered from a major chest infection (in the end, I could not fend off the ill-effects of the allergies from Oregon) and am trying to get a project done for Vogue Knitting Live in LA.
I’ll be posting more details about some exciting news later, but here are some of them in a quick nutshell:
The Fall issue of Knitscene, for which I got the cover, finally hit the newsstands! My patterns Lepidoptera is the cover garment, and inside, I also have a sassy beret, Whittier Hat.
I will be debuting 2 new designs for at Vogue Knitting Live in Los Angeles on Sept 23-25! The garments will be shown exclusively at the Knit Culture booth. Knit Culture will be posting about the designs on their blog and I will be discussing it and revealing sneak peaks on my Facebook page and on Twitter.
This past TNNA was my 2nd Columbus and probably 5th (6th?) TNNA overall. Every show is a little different, but always exhausting, rewarding and energizing all at the same time. This year was different for me in that it’s my first show with a new distributor, Deep South Fibers. I also was walking the floor with a different purpose: shopping for yarns for my book projects.
Right after the show, I went straight to hot & humid Houston, Tx to visit my family as a Father’s Day present to my dad. So, my update on TNNA is a bit delayed and overdue. So, here it is…
Booth & the Show Floor
I brought many of my samples for DSF to display at the booth and spent some time working the booth and chatting with various LYSOs and yarn shop representatives. I was also able to spend some time with fellow DSF designers both at the booth and post show hours during dinner and some social bar/knitting time at one of the hotel lobbies.
Below are some photo highlights. The rest of my photos are in my Flickr album.
Above: My areas in the DSF booth. Top: I was right next to Designs by Romi, whose shawls hung to the right of my Issara coat and Weekend Shawl. Bottom: Table with my hats, some other accessories and my “posse” buttons.
Left: Ysolda Teague and Stefanie Japel at Ysolda’s photo booth. Both of them are also fellow DSF designers. Ysolda generously gifted me a copy of her wonderful book, Little Red in the City. I haven’t really had a chance to look through it in detail, but it looks really wonderful. I’ll have to spend some time examining it and giving it a proper review later. Right: The beautiful Kristi Porter signing “More Knitting in the Sun.” The hat on the table just happens to be my design contribution to the book, “Eloise.”
Above: Why yes, that is the great Barbara Walker! She was there for 1 day and I introduced myself to her again (I first met and chatted with her at Sock Summit 2009) and showed her my “Barbara G. Walker” hat that she so graciously allowed me to honor her by naming it after her. She was so humble and said to me “I am so honored that you named it after me. I’ve never had a pattern named after me before.” Seriously, Ms. Walker? Believe me, it is I who feels blessed and honored! The sample I’m holding up is the one worked in Tactile Fiber Arts Tencel-Merino.
Left: Super fun and lovely lady was a fan of my hats and tried on most of them! She’s from Amitie + Passion in Quebec, Canada (address: 4 rue Jacques-Cartier, Sallaberry-de-Valleyfield, QC J6P 4T4). She’s wearing “Septima Clark” and I’m wearing “Eleanor Roosevelt.” Right: Janet from The Salty Sheep in NC, trying on “ Issara.”
Left: Holy Cow! My first magazine cover! I can’t wait until Knitscene’s Fall 2011 issue hits the newsstands! The design on the cover is Lepidoptera. Right: Sarah Bible of Ravelry looking super fabulous with her very important WIP.
Left: I finally “officially” met Norah Gaughan at the Berroco Yarn Bar (fun, right!?) Pictured are Stefanie, me, Norah Gaughan and Amanda Keep. Right: Teva Durham, who I credit to really encouraging me to write a book last year, signing her new book, Loop d Loop Lace.
Designers’ Dinner & Social Time
Part of TNNA is networking and socializing with your friends in the industry, old and new. The networking included dinner, lunches, ice cream/coffee and knitting in one of the hotel bar/lobbies everyday. One of the events, a Designers’ dinner organized by Marly Bird, was the highlight. Marly went all out in finding us a lovely venue for over 60 designers and getting some wonderful sponsors who contributed some gift bags that made us feel like A-list rock start Hollywood celebs. To thank my fans and blog readers (and really, I can’t keep all this stuff), I’m giving away most of the things in my goody bag, including a Namaste bag! I’ll post the details in my next blog post.
Left: I dined with some friends that I’m always delighted to see, Kate Oates, Stefanie Japel, Robyn Chachula and Simona Merchant-Dest. Right: I was absolutely delighted to have finally met Woolly Wormhead, who is an absolute delight and a fellow DSF designer. I was also very happy to meet Carol Feller and Ann Kingstone, who traveled from Ireland and the UK, respectively. We had some great laughs over drinks and dinner over some silly things, like the different UK and American terminologies.
Whew! I’ve never made that many links before, and still, I know that there are many others that I forgot to list, and even more folks that I wished that I had more time to chat with. Please forgive me if you are one of those folks.
Some of my friends at the Stitches Pajama Party. From L to R: Cindi, Denise, Holly, Barbara (front), Kristie, Rhonda, Elisabeth and me
One of the really fun things about Stitches is getting to meet new people and celebrating that and our mutual obsessions. One of the events to which I was looking forward was the Pajama Party hosted by Kimberly Reynolds, aka somebunnyslove. When she did her first PJ party at Stitches South last year, I participated by donating coupons for patterns in her gift bags. This year, Kimberly was giving away door prizes and I was more than happy to participate in both providing donations and also attending the party.
Were you wondering what was on my pajama tops? I decided to "brand" myself with a herd of Crafty Diversions sheep! They were a pain to put on and make, but fun to wear and show off.
From the beginning, I had planned on giving away a limited edition printed copy of Liberation and some yarns from my stash: 2 skeins of Canopy Fingering from The Fibre Company (distributed by my friends at Kelbourne Woolens who also just wrote the fabulous book Vintage Modern Knitting) and a skein of some yummy 60% merino/ 40% cashmere yarn that I hand-painted in rich earthy shades of orange (one of my favorite colors). Then I thought, since I was collaborating with and working at the Anzula and Unwind booths, it’d nice if we all collectively donated a prize. Of course, I was so busy with my deadlines before Stitches, that I didn’t have a lot of time to organize better until nearly the very end. Thankfully, Sabrina of Anzula and Stephanie of Unwind were great working with me and my last minute deadlines! Once I had their commitment, I then thought that maybe we needed a bag to put all that stuff in and should just make it all an all California donation contingency, so I asked Laura of Slipped Stitch Studios if she wanted to participate. 🙂 (I met Laura a while back when I went to teach her knitting group how to dye and paint yarn.) What did we all donate? A prize that totaled $350 in value!!!!
See for yourself!
The loot all laid out on the table before we packaged them up. Impressive, eh?
The flyer that explains and details all the items.
Sabrina of Anzula and I got there early to set up the prizes. Can you see us drooling? We kind of wished we could win our prize package!
Aside from all the lovely prizes (in addition to ours), there were lots of cute PJs and slippers. One of the funniest PJs was worn by Benjamin Levisay, CEO and head honcho of XRX/ Stitches. There were also some really fun slippers.
He has X-ray vision! ::gasp::
Left: Sheep slippers my friend Elisabeth made to match her sheep PJs; Right: Monster slippers by the winner of our $350 door prize.
She's a WINNER!
Above: Here’s Lisa Haas (lisaha on Ravelry), the very lucky winner of the great $350 bag of yarns, patterns and accessories from me, Anzula, Unwind and Slipped Stitch Studios. Below are additional photos of the Pajama Party at Stitches West:
It’s not like I haven’t been to Stitches and am not new to the long line before the market door open, but I am always a bit taken aback by it. On Saturday morning, I took these photos as I was coming down an escalator. TONS of people! If you’ve never been the beginning of the line wraps around and starts to the far left of the escalator. Right photo below shows me walking about 20 feet past the escalator. The end of the line goes all the way into the back hallway, almost to where the convention center connects with the Hyatt Regency.
The market on Sunday is always the slowest, but look at all these people waiting to see if they won a prize. It’s simply incredible:
Then it was time to go home…I had planned to leave at around noon, but since I was so busy the other days, I spent extra time talking to and checking out vendors that I didn’t get a chance to see. We ended up leaving about 2.5 later than I originally planned. I took a different route home (went up on 101 from LA, took the 5 on the way home) and though all that dairy farm cow manure smell was intoxicating (to say the least!!! I almost barfed in the car!), the drive was mostly gorgeous.
I’ve always had a fondness for Austin, and it’s not just that I lived there for several years and attended UT-Austin. There’s something very special about this town. As with the world, nothing is static and today’s Austin is quite different from the Austin I knew. However, there’s still a fundamental element that is very Austin-like, much like the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan.
Thus, when I found out that there would be a Ravelry event at The Knitting Nest in Austin through my friend Sarah, and she invited me to tag along, I decided to make an impromptu weekend rendezvous that involved 3 very loved things on my list: knitting/yarn, friends and Austin!
Sarah, her hubby and her cute son were kind enough to put up with me and give me a ride to/from Austin. I wasn’t sure how transportation would work out while I was in Austin, but I did have a car rental planned. In the end, my dear friend Tedd insisted on driving me around whenever I needed/wanted.
The Knitting Nest, Princesses of Ravelry & American Cancer Society
The event at The Knitting Nest was to honor the “Princesses of Ravelry,” Mary-Heather (rainydaygood) and Sarah (onestitchshort) and a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society via a silent auction with items donated by yarn companies, designers and local Austin businesses.
I donated two $25 gift coupons for Crafty Diversions patterns and a copy of my Liberation book. All of the donated items found great homes and I can’t wait to see the knitted items by the winners of the silent auction!
Overall, I had a great time hanging out at the shop, bidding on the silent auction and meeting lots of new knitters/crocheters!
L – R: (1) Mary-Heather and Sarah, the Princesses of Ravelry wearing the most awesome personalized crocheted crowns by the very sweet and talented Allison of CraftyisCool; (2) local spinner doing a demo and selling her handspun Buena Suerte yarn; (3) very cool wall in The Knitting Nest illustrated by Franklin Habit
L-R: (1) Stacey (owner) and Sarah having a nice chat; (2) shoppers checking out the silent auction items; (3) yummy chocolate princess cupcakes
L-R: (1) Lots of Longhorn yarn (Cascade 220, Lorna’s Laces and Cacade Luna) for future gifts for my UT fan friends; (2) Hank, one of the 2 adorable Knitting Nest mascots; (3) Shoppers checking out the knick-knacks at the checkout desk
Clockwise: (1) Silent auction table featuring my donated items; (2) Shoppers checking out my section of the silent auction; (3) Super fabulous knitter Debra won the silent auction for the Liberation e-book showing off the yarn she bought to make Alice Paulfor her lucky niece.
Out and About
I spent my evenings hanging out with my good friend Tedd, who knows how much I love to eat! One evening, we ate at the trailer at The Liberty Bar. All I can say is NOM! (Tedd and I met the summer after my freshman year at college. Even though we don’t see each other or get to talk much, I still regard him as one of my best friends and as much closer than even the brother I never had. Tedd is a musician/former and best DJ ever/graphic designer, and he and his wife are the artists behind Lucid Eyes.)
The rest of my time with Tedd involved catching up and lots of drinking and staying up until 6AM, though I cannot hold my liquor the way I used to, nor can my body handle the staying up all night thing well anymore either. I also was able to meet up with my second cousin Elena, who I had not seen in over 10 years! Right before I left Austin, I was able to lunch with another good old friend, Eric, who is the lead singer behind his indie band Johnny Hi-Fi. (I really love their newest LP: Love Sold Me Out. One of the songs in the album was written for and used in his gf’s documentary on domestic violence, Recovering Irma.)
L-R: (1) Super yummy food from the trailer in the yard of The Liberty Bar. I forgot the names of all the dishes, but they were all yum!; (2) Tedd and me; (3) With my cousin Elena, vet extraordinaire
L-R: (1) Enjoying a Chocolate-Espresso martini at Halcyon bar in downtown Austin; (2) Later that night, we went to some club where Tedd’s friend bought me a very strong apple martini and made me do a shot of Crown Royale. Notice the drinking theme?; (3) With Eric, photo taken 1 month ago when his band played at The Key Club in L.A.
Tedd, Elena and I took a bicycle ricksaw from one venue to the next. I was amazed our bicyle-driver managed to pedal the 3 of us in one cart up a mini hill!
Last night, I made a last-minute decision to join my friends at the theater for a Sound of Music singalong. It was a blast! If you haven’t gone before, you should go! You can’t help but sing along. The lyrics are on the screen, similar to what you see when you sing karaoke. I think what would make this experience even more fun and hokier, is if they add tacky karaoke club lights and sellubg alcoholic libations couldn’t hurt either.
They even put the latin words of the song the nuns were singing in the beginning! That one was hard to sing and follow along.
I’ve seen the movie several times in my life (though I won’t ever come close to qualifying as an avid fan), I didn’t ever notice if there were any sweaters or knits in the movie. This time, I paid attention. The only knits I found were finely knitted white cable knee socks worn by the kids and a black and white tie that appears to have been finely knitted in garter stitch worn by Captain Von Trapp. The movie has lots of felted hats though.
For you knitters, here are snapshots from one of my favorite bits in the movie. C’mon, is it really a surprise that I’d like the cute mountain goat puppets?
In addition to the drunken karaoke bar effect, I think to get the full experience next time, we should dress in lederhosen, knickerbockers, drindls and habits.
If we didn’t have cats anymore and I could get a hypoallergenic dog (yes, I’m bit allergic to my own cats too, but it was a bit late into the pet-parent thing before I realized the allergy), I’d steal one of my friend’s super-sweet labradoodles. She recently had a knee replacement surgery, so I went over to her house to visit with her and really had a hard time not committing an act of dognapping.
These are pictures of the flat coat labradoodle (not as hypoallergenic), Leura, who is just a doll and attention whore:
Bicycle
It’s been a looong while since I’ve been on a real bike. I had stayed off of them because I have terrible lower back and sciatica issues and I couldn’t find anyone local to ride with me (hubby not into it at all). Lately, because I’ve been working out and working on strengthening my lower back, I decided that it’s time to get a new bike! It’ll help break up the monotony of a gym workout and I’ve got a partner in crime in Mr. Fireman. (For those of you who don’t Tweet or follow my tweets, Mr. Fireman is my workout buddy and is a fireman/paramedic, hence his nickname.)
Because my godparents’ family is essentially KHS, it would not be right for me to ride any other bike, nor would I want to. It’d be like Steve Jobs’ kids using an Android instead if the iPhone. So today, I met up with my godbrother at the KHS warehouse to pick out a sample bike for me. The sample bikes are already assembled and cheaper, and I’m certainly not that picky, especially since I’m getting the bike on a discount anyway. Because of my back issues, my godbrother recommended bikes from the Comfort Series. Initially, I was leaning towards the 7-speeed Smoothie in a bright blue (darker and more teal than the one shown below).
However, we later spotted a celadon/ sea green road bike in the KHS Urban Series that seemed like a really good option for me as well since it also fits into the comfort line and doesn’t require me to bend over when I ride. After taking them both for a spin inside the warehouse and in the parking lot, I loaded up the Ladies’ Cidi 8-speed into my car and took it home. While the choice was difficult, I ended up choosing it for its comfort, ease and versatility. I would have loved it more if the bike was orange or red, but it’s not like I dislike the color (celadon green was one of my wedding colors), and beggars certainly can’t be choosers.
Below is a photo of the road bike my godbrother was picking up for his cousin and the KHS racing trailer.
Yarn Bombing?
I’m thinking that maybe my bike is looking a little plain. Should decorate or yarn bomb it like these lovelies? 😉 What do y’all think?
This one is more functional, though the yarn around the tires might make riding a bit hard. It's a bit From: http://thepicaroon.blogspot.com. Click to go to site/article.
OK, so maybe yarn bombing is not such a good idea on my own bike, but I think some small yarny decoration to personalize it might be cool.
I recently celebrated another birthday. How old you ask? Well, I turned 29 (again)! Actually, my friend Zona, who is the same age as me, suggests that we Benjamin Button it a few more years back and tell people we’re 24 or 25. That’s a little over a decade for me and I really don’t know if people will believe that unless it’s in a dark room and they have beer goggles on.
For my birthday, I got dressed up and a couple of friends and I went on our once a year excursion to a night club, where I made sure to engage in the requisite debauchery and danced the night away. It was quite fun and I got reasonably drunk, but my body (especially my poor feet that suffered in the name of fashion) and stomach was in recovery for nearly 2 days. At least I didn’t get totally wasted nor did I suffer a hangover.
A Few Secrets
Lately I have been busily working on a few secret projects. At last count I have 5. I don’t think that Marly aka YarnThing or the folks at Bijou Basin Ranch will get mad if I give you a little sneaky view of a test swatch of one of the projects. Besides, I want y’all to drool over the luscious pile of yarn that I have here. Extra hint: That swatch is for a hat project called Mahika. Whitey Coyote is trying to be nonchalant there and pretending to be a disinterested observer. What she’s really thinking is “when she turns her head, I’m going to grab and run!”
Another secret project in the works is for a book. This particular project is a small one, but I am excited to be using lots of colorful yarns in the Louet Euroflax.
My last secret project is a coat that I just started working on for a publication that I’ve been trying to get into. After a couple of rejections, I finally got accepted this time. Getting into this publication almost completes my list of magazines that I want to say that I was published in. There’s one more, but I haven’t even tried to submit to that one yet. 🙂 I don’t have any photos or juicy teasers to share with you on this last secret project. So unfortunately, y’all will just have to be patient and wait! I’ll give you a tidbit though: It has reversible cables!
anne kuo lukito 