checklist

Things I have left to do for the craft fair (off the top of my head):
-come up with a design concept for the booth
-make some bag/hat racks
-label and price painted yarns and knitted items
-stuff and sew mice
-make an inventory of what I'm selling, so I can track what sells
-finish a few hats and bags
-write up small bag pattern
-put together and write up 100 yd hat pattern (kid size of some variety)
-xerox patterns
-figure out how much to charge for handspun
-make labels for handspun
-get a bunch of small bills and change
-make signs or other eye catching display items for the booth

What I've made:
-4 wine totes
-5 or so felted bags
-3 dozen hand-dyed 100 yard skeins
-6 or so hats
-20 catnip mice
-a dozen or so dishcloths
-3 scarves

What else I'd like to make (in the next week - ha):
-small felted bags
-hats
-skeins of handspun

early!

Nothing like getting to work at 7:30 to give you time to update and surf the Internet. My brain isn't awake enough to do much else quite yet.

Went to The Folk Art Studio in Bowie last night (and look! it has a webpage now!) for bulky Lamp's Pride and a kiwi bubble milk tea, complete with whipped cream and green bubbles. Mmm, my favorite variety of "green tea." I purchased a skein each of dark green and pink LP to go with my various purples and a pair of size 11 16" circulars. I am 16" into my third wine cozy, and I think I'll try my hand at Nalgene holders next. I also did a thorough search of my house and have found seven ready-to-felt mice. I almost put them back in their hiding places to see if they would multiply more extensively -- I could've sworn I'd only knitted three or so.

I'm in the process of designing labels for my yarn skeins. A rough picture:


Modeled after business cards I ordered:


Thoughts? Comments?

Craft Fair Countdown

First, big thanks to Paula for my fabulous birthday present! It's featured here and is so wonderful!

I'm knitting like a crazy person for the craft fair:


Saturday, October 2, 2004, 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Columbia Heights Market Place at 14th & Irving Streets.

I've done a bunch of mice recently, and two felted wine totes. I have to pick up more bulky feltable yarns, since everything I have left at this point is purple, and none of the purples really go together as well as they could.

I have also been dyeing. An insane amount of dyeing. I now have 3 dozen brightly colored (and fruity smelling) 100-yard-ish skeins of wool. Half of them have been bundled up and are ready to go, and the rest I'm probably going to have to rinse again, to try to at least mellow out the kool aid scentedness.

How much would you pay for 100-ish yards of one-of-a-kind, feltable yarn, which will come with a free pattern that I made up?

Tonight is the meetup, but I don't know if I'll make it. I may go out to Bowie's Folk Art Studio and grab some more Lamb's Pride, and a kiwi bubble tea.

I'm still daydreaming about the post-fair knitting. I now have 7 balls of Aurora 8 - two lime green, one forest green, and four eggplant. I don't know what they'll be, but they're so pretty and soft...

the perfect work bag

Just one of the many projects that's on hold until after the craft fair (the afghan is the other big one that I can't wait to start). I've been conceptualizing a work bag in my head for a couple of months now. It all began when I realized that my current bag is a) too heavy; b) boring and black; c) dressed with too many pockets that aren't suiting my needs.

My perfect work bag will be a felted bag, probably striped, but possibly just with different blocks of colors. It will not be variegated, I don't think. It will probably at least complement my lunch bag (which is also the Fiona bag), which is burgundy with a black trim.

It will need to hold the following: altoids, keys, planner, clipboard, wallet, mp3 player, glasses/sunglasses, a knitting project, with room for other incidental things.

It will probably have a specially-sized mp3 player pocket, plus a front pouch pocket, and a big middle compartment.

It will probably not be knitted in Lamb's Pride, since it's got the mohair halo thing going. It will probably be worsted weight. Maybe I'll try Cascade, since I've still never knitted in it.

Someday, I will knit for myself again, and not for the craft fair.

In other news, the knitting circle that I'm starting up at my campus (UMBC) begins next Friday. I can't wait.

hat madness

I have a big head, as heads go, and I think that it makes me automatically knit big hats. I just finished a hat with Takhi Baby that's even too big for me, which means I know it won't fit most of the populace. I'm hoping to felt it just a little bit, and call it normally-sized.

I have also done quite a lot of Kool-Aid dyeing recently:


All of the skeins are right around 100 yards, and will go into felted bag kits for the craft fair. Me, my giant bottle of vinegar, and my packs of Kool Aid have been banished to the basement and an extra microwave, as the smell gets a little overwhelming.