Camp LiSaLa

It all started over a sushi dinner with my friends Lisa and Laurel. I mentioned how my niece was going to Girl Scout Camp and had come home with her sit-upon and my sister mentioned this on her facebook page and all sorts of people chimed in about summer crafts of their youth. This began a conversation that had to go for almost a half hour of all the things we made.  We decided we needed a camp craft day to relive our youth and really I just love any excuse to play with googly eyes and pompoms.

First Lisa and I took a trip to the craft store where we went a little crazy picking up some supplies.

We did some tried and true classics like corn husk dolls jersey loop potholders, god's eyes and gimp lanyards (somehow managed to not snap a picture of the lanyards or god's eyes - I blame the Moscow Mules Lisa mixed up instead of taking responsibility for my slacking off on photo-taking)

I was disappointed when I had gone to the supermarket in preparation for craft day and they didn't have a macaroni letters. So I had to decorate my picture frame with this new fangled sparkly letters instead. But on the plus side, I was able to sneak some googly eyes on them.

Then our new pompom pals took a stroll in the backyard to sun themselves on a leaf and make some new friends.

A simply great day with wonderful weather, tasty food and drink, amazing company and googly eyes. Really what else could a girl ask for? I am thinking a second session of camp may be in order since this one was so much fun and we still have 990 popsicle sticks to use up!

Odds and Ends

I swear this recent sock-knitting binge is going to end soon, I mean it has to, doesn't it?  I was looking through my stash and figured I could eek out a pair of anklets from the leftovers of my Endpaper Mitts project.  The pattern is the Pom Pom Peds knit up in Valley Yarn's Huntington. I was so concerned that I was going to run out of the grey that I started the toe on the first sock a bit early and the sock is a teensy bit short. And did I run out of yarn, noooo, of course there's still some leftover.

I then had to decide on what to cast on next.  I was on ravelry playing around with all the new pattern categories and found this super simple crochet necklace.  I dug down into the big old Rubbermaid tub of stash and found this bag of gold and silver metallic yarns that my grandma had given me. To put in perspective how long this stuff has been kicking around her place I am pretty certain some of the thicker gold yarn was used to make my Barbie a very fabulous skirt/sweater set with matching set of luggage. In the bag there was some thin silver almost thread weight yarn and with some beads from the bead stash, voila! a super simple necklace made up of three strands. I like it so much I can actually see myself wearing it out of the house (I have a bad tendency to make jewelry and then never wear it - stupid, stupid, stupid).  Anyway, I am pretty glad to have actually use some of grandma's yarn - she will be thrilled to know I got some use out of it.

Too Hot to Knit

Hi, I would have written this post sooner but it's been hot and humid and sticky and icky for quite a few days now and I don't deal with heat all that well sometimes.  It makes me cranky and sleep funny and I forget to eat and then get crankier and a bit woozy because I forgot to eat. I am also pretty sure a large portion of my blood stream has been replaced with a mix of iced coffee and iced tea. Yes, I realize that the large intake of iced caffeinated beverages may have something to do with the sleeping funny thing but we'll ignore that for now -I am pretty sure logic does not survive in high humidity. But today is cooler and my CSA veggies have been washed and tucked in to their crispers so now I can post. 

I spent the 4th of July weekend up in Maine. Luckily I was not told about the recent bear sighting on my folks front lawn until after I was already up there or I may have begged off.  It was one of those "Didn't we tell you about the bear? Your brother knows about the bear." I get to hear about the trip to Costco so my Dad can get white fish but they forget to mention a bear!! Apparently some crankiness lingers....maybe I should have another iced coffee.  Anyway....I saw no bears just the usual finch and chickadees and a special treat. 

A robin had build her nest on the edge of the garage and we spend the first few days checking up her three baby birdies, we watched Mama come by with some tasty food, and then them venturing out on the ledge and stretching their wings.  But when we woke up on the 4th we discovered two of the birdies had their own independence day of sorts and had taken off.  Leaving just one little birdie, sulking that he had been left all alone.

Don't worry by the end of the day he too had left to join his Mama and siblings up in the trees somewhere.

Back in knitting news, I finished up yet another pair of socks. Seriously, they are the crack of the knitting world. I may need an intervention. This time it's Spring Forward  knit in TOFUtsies.  I think a solid colorway may show off the pattern better but I since this is mainly a non-wool yarn I am excited that I may actually be able to wear a pair of my hand-knit socks sometime before October although clearly not for a while.

Here my sock takes in the view of the lake from the deck. Trust me there's a lake out there past the trees.

My friend Lisa came back from Maryland Sheep and Wool a few months back with beautiful raw silk from Tess Designer Yarns and cast on right away to knit Summit. Turns out they have a retail shop in Portland. Cut to me spending a large amount of time admiring the beautiful colors and chatting away with the dyer herself (not Tess by the way), Melinda.  I really went in with the mindset to buy some of the raw silk to knit up Summit myself since I just adore the pattern and have had it queued since it that edition of knitty came out. But somehow I  ended up with this GORGEOUS 100% silk in this fabulous brass colorway as a belated b-day gift from my mom. It has less yardage than the raw silk so I may make a smaller version of Summit or find another pattern or just clutch it close to me muttering "precious" as I did for the first few hours after I got it.  Really the picture does not do it justice it is luminous and so amazing to touch.....

Sarah's Crafty Calendar - Summer Edition

So I was chatting with some of my knitting friends and mentioned how there were some crafty events coming up and totally confusing myself on which one was on which day and where so I figured I'd organize myself so I don't miss anything as I recently did with the Coolidge Corner Art Fest :( and share the details with my peeps.

Sowa Open Market - every Sunday crafty delights in South Boston/South End. While there are some local farmers and bakeries who set up there really is not a lot of food so get lunch at some place fabulous in the South End first. (May I suggest the crab cakes at Stephi's on Tremont?)  Check the site to make sure they're not closed on holidays and for directions and parking (yes, parking!) details.  Oh, and for some folks who I know head to Rhode Island quite a bit, they do have a sister market in Providence.

Boston Handmade Marketplace - July 10 Union Square, Somerville. I've never been to this small market but there be live music and demos from the Common Cod Fiber Guild (of which I am a member) so go learn how to knit or spin or appreciate wooly goodness!

Art Beat - July 17th - Davis Square Yes, it's going to be hot it always is, but just cool yourself off with a mango lassi from Dali and enjoy the music, crafts, activities for kids (if you're into that kind of thing) and food. Yummy, yummy food. Davis Square restaurants set up shop in carts on the street so you can get your Redbones pulled pork sandwich while walking.

Boston Bazaar Bizarre Summer Fair - August 21, Union Square Somerville I believe this is their first summer fair but their winter show is always such so fun and have artists I really like that I am excited they are doing a warm weather fest. 

There all nice and neat. 

Seriously, another Knit Chicken?

Clearly I have a problem.  (And to my sister who had the thought "Just one?" a second ago, I'll get you for that, beware you may be forced to laugh at something so hard a beverage comes out your nose.) Anyway, back to my problem, it's the damn knit toys!  I can't stop making them.  I see this pattern by Susan B. Anderson for chickens and I think that's a cute pattern. But nothing I really need to make. But then looking through the projects on ravelry I see the chicken made with these great charts that a ravelry user has been so gracious as to put up on her blog. 

There is something about the colors and the wing pattern that reminds me of this set of chicken knick-knack things that my grandmother used to have on top of her fridge and suddenly I really wanted to make this bird. Ah, nostalgia.  The fact that I happened to have all the colors I needed  just hanging around in my stash made it a done deal. 

Since the last thing I need is another stuffed animal in my place and he's a bit too country to fit with my style the chicken will soon be crossing the road and traveling up to Maine to enjoy the simple life of my folks place there. 

The charts are available here at rav member, ElleM's blog. You still need to buy the original pattern, the blog just has the charts for the stranded design.

I would say this is the last toy I will be knitting for a while but my mom just asked if I'd make a toy for the grand-daughter of one of her friends.  And seriously can I stop knitting toys for longer than a few months? Apparently not.

Oops, I Did It Again

Crazy as it sounds, well at least to me, I knit a second pair of socks. And again,I enjoyed it, this may become a habit.  I dug down into my stash and found my Flying Happy Jenny yarn.  I think this yarn had been waiting to be made into socks and I just didn't know it until now. It is Knitpicks Bare, that Jenny had dyed for me a few years ago. 

Based on recommendations from my sock-loving friends I knit Charade, a super popular sock pattern.  It's a a free ravelry download so click here to check it out. You know why it's a super popular? Because it's a really good pattern. It's easy to memorize, keeps you interested, looks great, an all-around good pattern.  I made a few tweaks just to adjust for my weird feet and they fit amazingly well.  I also made the cuff a bit shorter because I don't really like tall socks and I used an eye of partridge heel just because I kept reading people mention it in the rav forums and wanted to see what the difference was between the other heel I did.  I think it's just a bit prettier and I am sure there is something about how the heel wears but since it's 80 degrees here I am not wearing these soon to test that out.

A Place to Hang my Hat

Just over a year ago I saw this diy project for cute hooks on Design*Sponge, one of my favorite design blogs.  I figured that seems like something I can do and put it in the back of my head for future reference. 

Then I went to Brimfield last May and picked up the vintage hooks I could use for this.  Spring turned to summer, summer to fall and yada yada yada.  Last month I finally got to a big old home improvement store to get some wood and have it cut to size.  Annoyingly none of my small hardware stores sell lumber or cut it down if needed.  Oh  did I remember to buy screws to fit in the hooks while I was there? Of course not, back to the local hardware store I go.  Then I had to buy cute paper. I had seen something I liked at Paper Source and now of course it was gone, so I checked another store, also gone.   Grrrr.... For a straight forward project with not many materials I sure was was hitting a lot of stores.

So I took to the internet and started looking for pretty wrapping papers, I wanted something with red and it seemed everything was Christmas-y or just fugly.  Then I came across Smock Paper  located in upstate NY they print on bamboo paper and are amazingly eco-conscious and most importantly have gorgeous stuff! I checked to see if any local stores carried their products and turns out there were a couple including a really cute paper store that I had no idea existed in Beacon Hill, Rugg Road Paper Company.  After looking at all their yummy papers I still ended up going with the Blossom paper from Smock.

Really, buying the materials was so much more of an ordeal then the actual project.  I pretty much followed the tutorial to the letter except I did decide to seal my paper with Modge Podge.  Yet another trip out for supplies since all I had on hand is gloss Modge Podge and I really wanted a matte finish.

I modge podge, I drill, I screw and I am done! All ready to hammer to the wall.  I take out the tool box and I don't have nails long enough! Seriously?!? One last trip to the hardware store and now it is really done! Yay!!!