Psychic Knitter

I have a friend who's birthday is on Halloween and he is a big fan of the the holiday. I decided to make him a Halloween theme throw for his birthday this year. It was a lot of fun to design and sew. I was determined to get it done in time for our Halloween Cocktail party so I could give it to him then so he could enjoy it a bit longer than for just one day. I used a combination of solid gray and black squares and gray and black printed Halloween theme squares for the quilt and I like the way it turned out.Although I made one for myself last year, I am very tempted to make another one for our other sofa! It may have to wait until next year though. My cat Gypsy enjoyed hanging out on the quilt while I took a picture of it! Good thing he is not allergic to cats :) I did forego the Martini until after I finished with the quilt. Cheers to me!

back view of quilt

It all started this summer with the Leafy Washcloth pattern by Megan Goodacre. It was love at first site with this easy fun pattern.Plus, I love knitting wash cloths. They make great gifts you can give as a set, or as an add on to other gifts. I love including one with my homemade bath products. It was by accident that I discovered there can be other uses for this leaf pattern. I decided to make some fall color leaves to give as gifts to some of my friends. One night I was happily knitting a nice pumpkin color washcloth when about halfway through I realized I was not using the right yarn. The right yarn being a cotton yarn. Instead I was knitting with some Red heart I have in my stash for craft knitting. I WISH I could blame the martini I was drinking, but I can't since I wasn't enjoying any adult beverage at the time. I am just plain scattered! I decided to finish the leaf and ended up with this curled piece of yarn project. I went downstairs and steam pressed it until it was flat. It looked so nice that I decided to use it as a table decoration.I also think you could make several of these leaves and make a banner out of them using clothes pins and pinning them to an Icord. If you want the leaves to hang without curling, you could trace and cut out the leaf shape on cardboard and attach with glue.
So what about this Pomegranate Martini you ask? Simple. Just add a splash of Pom juice to your favorite icy cold brand of vodka after it has been shaken, not stirred. The Leafy Washcloth pattern can be found on Ravelry as a free download. Cheers!

Where have I been? Besides sewing up a storm, I have been knitting a lot of squares of late, a bit too boring to post pictures of until you put them together. My two friends and I have been making afghans for the volunteer organization we belong to. We all used to go to the weekly meetings and knit and chat with fellow volunteers, but we found that it was getting harder to attend the meetings due to some pretty full schedules of our own, so we decided to work on squares on our own time and then meet to assemble the afghan. The latest afghan was so much fun to put together! I actually created the color theme for the afghan so that I could knit the daisies for it. These are the smaller afghans designed for children. The larger ones are 39 squares which seems a bit daunting to us (two of us knit) so we leave the big ones to the group.
 I am now working on the next one which is a Harry Potter theme. It's the Griffindor colors of maroon and gold. I'm hoping to add a Griffindor lion on one of the squares. I like the idea of doing the Harry Potter themes because they can be used by both girls and boys! At the moment, I am furiously knitting some I cords for little bags I'm making for my Etsy Store, Toadwerk and also hoping to complete "the other mitten" which will then become part of a nice winter set for myself. More soon!

 This last weekend I did a vendor gig with my Etsy craft business, Toadwerks. Toadwerks specializes in making tarot cloth, knitted tarot bags and handkerchiefs. It is the tarot bags that have in the past month, had me longing for a Martini, or four, on a daily basis. Sadly, I could not afford the luxury of chilling out, when I needed to rev up my one woman production line. The paradox is that I sorely needed to chill out as the days got closer to the convention. I don't want to say that I was hard to live with, but I'm just saying that the cats were cutting me a wide path when they saw me coming. The day before the convention, as I was sewing on one machine while my embroidery machine was whirling away, I looked up and saw that my cat Gypsy was eying the embroidery machine and getting a bit closer to it than I was comfortable with so I went over and picked her up. Thinking that I was going to feed her to the machine, she did a kitty freak out that ended up with me having four nice long scratches going across my hand. Being the craft warrior that I am, I threw some ointment on my hand, wrapped it in gauze and continued on. My efforts and sacrificial blood letting, were rewarded with good sales on both the tarot cloths and the bags. More importantly, I was able to learn more about what the customers prefer in terms of colors and themes.It was fun to be able to sell my products in person to a target audience. Best part? It's Martini time once more! Cheers!

On this TBT I am going back just two weeks ago when I was on a trip to Portland Oregon. I had the good fortune to be there just a few days before the Rose Festival which means that the rose gardens were in full bloom.It occurred to me, as I was sitting and knitting under a beautiful pink rose tree, that I had just finished a fun summer shawl that could well have been inspired by the colors I was seeing in the rose garden. I used a ball of Freia Hombre Lace in Melon which I purchased at Rose City Yarn Crawl. The only thing that would have made the day more perfect would have been a Cosmopolitan Martini in hand.

My love affair with Portland Oregon continues and the feeling is mutual I know, because The Rose City greeted me with warm sunny days that lasted (just 2 rain days) for over two weeks.
 I finally got to attend the Rose City Yarn Crawl this year! I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had. Suffice it to say, that I came home with enough yarn to knit with for the rest of my life! I am hoping to use it up this year so that I have an excuse to shop until I drop, again next year! I got to visit some old favorite yarn stores like "Close Knits", "Happy Knits" and "Pearl Fiber Arts", and to discover many fun new stores including my favorite new store, "Twisted"! Twisted has a real Portland  feel and look to it and the staff is very fun! The following is a picture tour of my yarn crawling through the Rose City...

It began with joining the RCYC Mystery Knit Along! I finished my shawl in while in Portland and blocked it in the hotel room. It was fun to see everyone's interpretation of the shawl. I should have taken pictures!

I picked up my bag the day before the yarn crawl started. I even ordered ahead to make sure I got one.

The goods! A basket full of local yarn!!

I discovered Black Trillium at their trunk show at The Knitting Bee. I was surprised that I stopped at just 3 skeins, but it was only my first day. The skein on the left is called "Hedwig" and it will be a shawl. http://blacktrilliumfibres.com

At Twisted I was able to decide on just one beautiful handmade yarn bowl from JAMPDX.. I really wanted at least three of these beautiful bowls.

I joined in on the Friday night party that Happy Knits hosted. Lots of good food and drink AND Three Fates Yarns in all of her awesomeness. I bought this pack of gradient pinks to make a polka dot cowl!

I'm glad I was dedicated to making it to all 15 stores on the crawl. If not I would have missed Wool n Wares in West Linn. This friendly shop offered the weary yarn crawler bottled water, candy and oranges, not to mention the Knitted Wit Trunk show! Her color selection was incredible and beautiful. I bought some of her mini skeins that she calls Gumballs, to coordinate with the skeins I chose. I also picked up a few skeins of some lovely local alpaca and a few other goodies as well.

For Yarn's Sake in Beaverton had author Larissa Brown there on Saturday. She was signing her new book "Beautiful Wreck", a tale of  time travel back to Viking times. Lavender Sheep was there with some specially hand dyed yarn especially made for Larissa's book. I finally managed to pick out a skein. Luckily they also had special small skeins in little bundles so I got one of them as well

It wouldn't be Portland without Voodoo Doughnuts. Northwest Wools (Portland's oldest yarn store) had the pattern for the yarn crawl and this nifty kit which was a must have. I really had to resist the urge to ask, why not pink? :)

At The Naked Sheep Yarn Store I got to sit with author Anne Berk and learn Annetarsia! I hope I remember! If not, I have the book

This past week here in Denver we had the "Yarn Along the Rockies" yarn crawl. This year's crawl included 24 stores ranging from as far north as Lafayette, to as far south as Colorado Springs. I had initially decided to hit just two or three stores and ended up visiting a baker's dozen. Along the way, I visited some old favorites and made some new discoveries as well. I did not limit my purchases to just yarn. My purchases included, stitch markers, dragon scales, fancy knitting needles and alpaca earrings. I clocked many miles traveling up and down the Front Range and was thankful for a wonderfully fun book I was listening to on Audible books. I was also glad to be able to share the last day of the trek with my husband. We combined yarn crawling with a wonderful lunch in Boulder a an incredibly good pub called "Fate". While all of the stores were charming in their own way, I just had to take a few pictures at a cute store in Lafayette called "Mew Mews". The store is named after the cat who is as sweet and friendly as can be. I offered a swap of three of my cats for her but the owner said no deal. I had to settle for a picture.

The WIzard

In the corner of the store stood a knitted figure about 6 feet high. It was simply incredible. The details were astonishing. When I looked closely there were tiny mice being held in one of his hands, no doubt food for the snowy white owl he held in his other hand. I have seen this fiber artists work before at her booth at Denver Comic Con and never realized that she was based out of this tiny store in Lafayette. I met some lovely store owners and had some fun conversations along the way. I would have to say that my favorite "yarn crawl experience" was at a store called "A Knitted Peace"

MewMew

(http://www.aknittedpeace.com) They were so well prepared to welcome the many visitors. I was particularly thrilled to see a huge cooler full of icy water bottles that were a welcome treat on such a warm day. Their pattern was beautiful and available online or as a quality printed pattern. When I purchased my yarn crawl bag it was full of goodies that included some things that were useful to the yarn crawler such as a pen and paper pad so you could note down your favorite yarns and such for future purchases. I also appreciated the discount coupon they included in the bag for use on a return visit. Best of all was the incredible yarn selection. I'm pretty sure I bought too much yarn but how could I resist?
As far as my own knitting projects go, I have finally finished my sweater, or should I say jacket? It turns out that I made the wrong size so instead of a sweater I have a nice boxy jacket. I have since cast on the same sweater pattern, this time using Cascade Heathers in a yummy purple. I am determined to get it right. I also finished enough squares to make a youth blanket for an ongoing community project I work on and have since begun another one, this time with a pink theme. This next one will be slow going as I have to devote my knitting and crafting time to get ready for the Denver Witches Ball where I, along with my friend, will be sharing a space in the vendor section! I'm very excited to be able to sell my hand knitted tarot bags and tarot cloths plus other magical items to a kindred collection of people. Spending so many hours in my craft room may necessitate making my martinis by the pitcher, this time stirred, not shaken....

Future blanket