The San Diego Yarn Crawl 2017

This past Saturday I carpooled down to the San Diego area with a couple of friends for another fun yarn crawl! We met lots of cool people who ran the shops, made the yarn, or were fellow yarn enthusiasts like us. We visited six shops total, plus the Yarnover Truck (which, as you may already have guessed, is a truck full of yarn). There were many more shops we didn't see and the yarn crawl officially ran Thursday through Sunday! Now that's a lot of yarn crawling!

There was so much beautiful yarn and fiber that I couldn't possibly buy everything I would have liked to. I did stay within my budget and get three skeins or yarn that I absolutely love!

The name of the one on the left is exactly what you would expect it to be: Neapolitan Ice Cream, by Candy Skein. It is fingering weight. The other two are Rainbow in the Dark by The Fiber Seed, DK weight.

Stay tuned to see what what these skeins turn into. Also, the Vista Fiber Fiesta is coming up in October so there is even more yarn in my future!

-Assunta

OC Fair Entry Results

The Orange County fair was fun as always this year! My sweetie and I went once just the two of us and again later with some friends. There was lots of delicious (yet oversized) food, cool animals, and of course, lots of fun art! Of course one of the first items of business was to stop by the Fiber Arts building to see how my entries did!

I was delighted on my first visit to see a 2nd place ribbon on my mermaid tail for the crocheted blanket category!

None of my other entries had any ribbons on them at the time, so I figured that was it. Then on our 2nd visit, I noticed a Staff Award on my knit Captain America dress! This is a discretionary award given to exhibits that the judges feel deserve recognition. What a nice surprise!

Another favorite from the fair this year was the Fur, Feathers, and Fiber exhibit, which of course included a display of different kinds of yarn and fabrics, and the plants and animals used to make them. My favorite example was this adorable French Angora bunny. Not only is it a sweet and cuddly pet, but when the bunny starts to shed you can take the loose fur and make soft and beautiful yarn! How perfect is that?

I hope everyone is enjoying the last couple weeks of summer and getting ready for some fun fall crafts!

-Assunta

Orange County Fair Entries

The Orange County Fair is just around the corner! I actually forgot about it until the day before the entries were due, oops! Luckily I had a few things ready:

1) I enjoyed watching my favorite yarn from the LA Yarn Crawl turn into this awesome rainbow shawl! Lace shawls are pretty common at the fair and I didn't win anything for the one I entered last year, but I thought I would give this one a try just because the yarn is so cool. The pattern for this shawl is available on Ravelry (not my design) and is called Mother of Dragons.

2) Next, because I am such a super-hero nerd I just had to make myself this Captain America sweater dress from the book Geek Knits! Normally, I struggle with modeling my projects so I asked a friend--who is a model herself and an excellent photographer--for some help with the posing and picture taking.

My last entry is my mermaid tail, which you've all seen and which has already had a couple of pattern sales on Etsy and Ravelry!

Because the OC fair gets such a huge volume of applicants, there is a juried selection process before entries are shown at the fair. Then there is yet another judging process to decide which things actually win prizes! I find out on Monday if any of my entries are selected for the fair. Wish me luck!

-Assunta 

Catching Up

Even though I have been lazy about blogging, I have still been getting a lot of crafting done. This post will catch you up on all the news I haven't had time to share in the past few weeks.

First, remember that baby mermaid costume I made back in December? I gave it to my friend for her baby shower and this week she posted a picture of her beautiful daughter wearing it! While any outfit would look good on a model this adorable, I'm pretty happy with how this mermaid costume turned out.

I also finished knitting this chunky cabled blanket that I made as a wedding gift for some friends. I love cables, they are so much fun!

I also added a few new items to the Etsy shop, including more Edison lamp jewelry...

...my mermaid tail blanket crochet pattern...

...and my Lil' Cutesies doll mermaid costume crochet!

Lastly, I crocheted this blue teddy bear sleep sack for my new little nephew, who is expected to arrive this summer! It was from a free red heart pattern, which you can find here is you are interested. The original pattern also has a picture of what it should look like with a baby in it, which I can't show you yet.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

-Assunta

The LA County Yarn Crawl

When I first got my Electric Eel Wheel (see previous post), I was having a problem with my yarn breaking as quickly as I could get it started. Fortunately, I sought help from Alexandra of Alexandra's Crafts. She was doing a spinning demonstration at Needlepoints West up in LA during the Yarn Crawl a few weekends ago. She had a similar electric spinning wheel, although it was from a different manufacturer. She was very friendly and helpful when I explained the trouble I was having and she told me to loosen my tension and try a longer stapled fiber. I did both and have been happily spinning ever since!

Alexandra also makes gorgeous yarn and fiber. I just couldn't resist picking some up! Her luxurious merino, bamboo, and silk blend is on my spinning wheel right now and I'm very happy with how it's turning out.

Here is the fiber, along with a sparkly rainbow gradient that I tried to resist and ended up going back for. It's just too pretty!

What kind of craft supplies do you find hard to resist?

-Assunta

The Electric Eel Wheel

A few weeks ago I recieved this awesome little gadget in the mail: 

It's called the Electric Eel Wheel, and it's a very light and quiet electric spinning wheel! I helped fund it through Kickstarter. If you've never used Kickstarter (and I hadn't before this) you can make a monetary pledge to support a project that you find worthy. If the project doesn't get enough support, nothing happens and you keep your money. If the project is fully funded they build it, and supporters get the thing they paid to support! In my case I got the wheel, 11 bobbins so I can really spin a lot of yarn, and all the handy tools that go with it! It comes with a wall adapter and one for the car (which I will only use if someone else is driving, I promise) but my friend bought a rechargable battery pack on Amazon for hers and I am thinking I might get one too.

I won't go into too much detail about the wheel because I am not the manufacturer, but if you want to learn more about it the website is here. All I can tell you is I like it a lot so far and it was very highly recommended to me by my friend, who also had the previous generation.

Stay tuned for future spinning projects!

-Assunta

Mermaid Tail Blanket

As a child, one thing I always wanted to be was a mermaid. Since I am also always cold, I couldn't resist getting in on the mermaid blanket trend. It seemed like the perfect way to keep warm while feeling like a magical creature!

I used pieces of a couple of different patterns to create my ideal mermaid tail. What do you think?

I posed with is by the pool for fun, but it's really just for feeling cute and warm while I read or craft. I don't think it would do too well in the water!

Just keep swimming until next week...

Assunta

Pussyhats Galore!

This isn't a political blog but I don't think most people would be too shocked to discover that I support women's health care. As a knitter, making a bunch of Pussyhats for the Women's Movement seemed like a great way to show support!

So far I have made 11 of the iconic Pussyhats for friends and family. Some were paid requests, some I gave as gifts. Now these hats have finally made it to my Etsy shop! I know they are in high demand, so if you knows someone who is looking for one, please encourage them to stop by! 

A special thank you to my Momma Cat who just sent me two more giant skeins of pink yarn to continue the crusade!

-Assunta

Rapunzel Cowl

Some of you may remember that last year for Christmas I recieved some gorgeous merino wool from my sweet and thoughtful in-laws.

After a couple trial runs with other wools on my drop spindle, I felt comfortable trying to turn it into yarn.

I came up with a 2-ply DK weight, and the colors in the yarn reminded me a lot of Rapunzel's dress in the movie Tangled.

After several more months of thinking about what the perfect crochet or knit project for this yarn might be, I finally settled on this modern re-telling of Rapunzel's outfit: a cowl in the shape of a thick braid like the one she sometimes wears in her hair!

I chose a button with a sun-like shape because the symbol of Rapunzel's kindom in the movie is the sun.

What do you think? Is is fit for a modern Princess?

-Assunta

PS- If you would like to knit a version of this cowl, the pattern is now available in my Etsy and Ravelry shops! 

Pretty, New Carpet

We finally got both of our bedrooms painted a cool, calming gray after the color explosions that were there before, but before we were actually able to sleep in them, we had to do something about the horrible, dirty old carpet that covered the floors of both rooms. Last Friday, we had beautiful new carpet installed. I can hardly believe how much better the bedrooms look, feel, and...smell! Now we can actually sleep in our bedroom.

Before:

After:

Happy to be sleeping in the bedroom at last,

-Assunta

Edison Bulb Jewelry!

This is what you get when a lighting designer makes jewelry...or when a crafter works with light fixtures all day. When I found these tiny glass bottles, they reminded me of perfect little Edison lamps. All they needed was a filament, a metallic base, and a chain or ear wire to display them properly. I gave them all those things and I love the way they turned out! 

Everything you see here is now in my Etsy shop, except for the round earrings on the right. My mom ordered those as soon as she saw them. I plan to make more soon, so don't despair if those were the ones you wanted too. All of the metal is hypoallergenic: the necklace chains are sterling silver and the ear wires are surgical steel. 

Happy weekend!

Assunta

A Busy Weekend

This past weekend was fun but busy, with lots of painting and crafting!

First things first: the sun finally came out again and I was able to take a picture with my rainbow sweater!

Next, here are some pictures from painting this weekend. I still haven't found my good camera in our moving boxes or figured out if I can take a wide-angle picture with my cell phone, but you can at least see that our bedroom walls are now a cool gray with white trim, as opposed to many different pastel colors with hunter green trim. I'm so happy with how much better they look, and we're almost ready for new carpet! We also hired someone to scrape the popcorn ceiling a couple weeks ago, and that was also a huge improvement.

Master bedroom after:

Guest bedroom after:

Closet and bedroom doors to hallway:

Master bedroom before:

Guest bedroom before:

Isn't it amazing what a little paint can do? 

And, just because I thought it was pretty, here is a picture from Newport Beach on Sunday night. We made it down their for a quick walk right after sunset.

I hope you had a great weekend too!

Assunta

Rainbow Sweater!

This is going to be a very short blog post because I have been spending a lot of my spare time painting bedrooms. I will try to have pictures of that for next week. In the meantime, here is my rainbow sweater, which I have finished and is now blocking! I'll try to post a picture of myself wearing it later when it's warm enough for short sleeves again.

Have a great week!

-Assunta

Out with the Old...

Sometimes celebrating a new year means saying goodbye to things that aren't working anymore. The same can be true of a new house! Since our escrow finally closed at the end of December, my sweetie and I have been having fun doing some demolition work on parts of our condo that we don't like or that need to be updated. 

One of the first things to go was the built-in furniture that you see behind the bed here. (This picture is from before the previous owners moved out.)

Here are all the pieces of that furniture after we deconstructed it. The room already feels much bigger!

Next was the soffit in the master bathroom. It housed a lens for a fluorescent tube light that we won't be using anymore, and was much sturdier than it needed to be anyway. It also detracted from our nice, high ceilings.

Adam and our new reciprocating saw made short work of that. He has since cut it down all the way to the wall and patched and textured the wall so it's ready to paint. Will still have one more soffit to take down in the other bathroom.

Speaking of paint preparation, here I am getting ready to sand down some doorframes so that we can paint them again without them getting too thick.

Here is one of our door frames before sanding (left) and after (center). It is so nice to see natural wood under there! It turns out this green paint (that seems to have been the unifying theme of the house) comes off much easier than expected. The image on the right shows a chunck of paint I took off a door in one piece, just by grabbing it and pulling. I only really needed to use the sander for some stubborn spots, and for the layer of paint below the green one.

Another thing we need to do before we can paint is get rid of the popcorn ceiling. The contractors are coming today to scrape it and I can't wait to see how it looks when they are done! We want to do most of the work ourselves but decided it was worth it to hire this one out.

Are you making any changes this new year that you are excited about?

-Assunta