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