Knit & Crochet Show recap

I took a much needed day off from work last Friday and headed off to the Knit and Crochet Show. I didn't take any classes... just went to shop, take in the atmosphere and spend the day with my friend Jane.  The showroom floor was certainly smaller than my first show in 2007, but probably about the same as the one I attended in 2008 (last year they moved the Summer show to New York).  The vendors were many of the usual suspects, with a few new ones tossed in and a few others noticeably missing (no Webs booth this year!). 

I was very selective and limited my purchases to those that I really wanted or were terrific deals... 

I bought the Kusha Kusha scarf kit at the can't-leave-without-buying-something Habu booth (the scarf sample is hanging in the center of the picture below). The "kit" consists of 2 cones of 1/20 silk stainless steel and 1 cone of lace merino, of which I picked out my own colors (purples, of course).

My only other yarn purchases were a couple of deals that were too good to leave behind... A single skein of Mountain Colors "Mountain Goat" in a beautiful fallish colorway called Sunburst.  Sure it's just one skein, but it was in the clearance bin... how could I resist?  It'll work up into a cowl or something small.  I also grabbed two hanks of super soft Peruvian Alpaca that were a mere $11 each, one in black and one in a "stormy skies" colorway. 

I also picked up a beautiful coral pendant, which I forgot to photo ... as well as a little birthday gift which is currently in the hands of the USPS on it's way to the recipient.

TKGA hosted a hat silent auction to raise money for charity on Friday.  I didn't bid, but snapped a few photos of my favorites...

Kate Lemmers' was my favorite design (I'm trying to find out if she has the pattern available for sale) and Kaffee Fasett's was, well, funky of course..

I couldn't resist snapping a shot of this cutie...

These are a couple of my favorites from the CGOA contest.  The bag only nabbed an "honorable mention," but I voted for it for the Attendees Choice award.  The train blanket was absolutely stunning...

At the 2008 show I met a wonderful lady and blogged about her and her unique Koala Caddie yarn aprons.  Mary and I had got to chatting about business and I mentioned Etsy as an outlet for her product.  She hadn't heard of the site before and was going to check it out.  Flash forward two years... she was back at the show and I was happy to see the hustle and bustle at her booth, as well as an expansion to her product line.  While I was admiring her great work, she was busy attending to customers.  I certainly didn't expect her to remember me or anything, so I continued to walk along until I heard someone yelling my name.  When I turned around it was Mary, with a huge hug and thank you! 

 

Mary was so excited to see me and I was so excited to learn that I had left such a great impression on a fellow crafts-business-women!  Truly a heartwarming moment.  Mary told me Etsy was working out great and she had sold 60 Koala Caddies in one year alone thru the site.  She now sells pick-up pillows (small magnetic "pillows" to help you easily pick up dropped pins, scissors, etc) and personal pillows (pictured above right).  The personal pillows are the perfect size for traveling and I plan to get a custom doggy fabric one from her soon!

In between the shopping, Jane and I sat down to lunch and a little knitting time.  She had been asking me to teach her how to knit socks for awhile, so what better time than a knitting show, right?

Jane knits and crochets, but this was her first time working with DPNs, so I got her started and off she went... knitting round and round on her very first sock!  I managed a couple of rounds on my Duckies as well (maybe this will get my sock mojo flowing again). 

Jane finished up the ribbing and is well on her way thru the stockinette leg... I think she'll be calling me to help turn a heel soon!

A day off from work with great friends and fiber... what could be better on a Friday in July?

No, I Won't Sit

After a 3 day weekend, its another mundane Monday ... and time for a little ranting blogging catch up!

Thursday night was the Extreme show in Boston, which was great! I should've brought my camera, but didn't... so crappy cell phone pics it is...

 
On Saturday night, we headed North to the sticks to catch Boston with Styx opening. The show itself was great - both bands were amazing, however the venue and people left a lot to be desired. Here's Styx...

I spent most of the time watching their set with a bunch of over-the-hill jerks behind us screaming non-stop for us to sit down (nevermind the fact that people in front of us were standing). They never even asked once nicely or normally, but instead just started screaming rudely and acting like they owned the joint as soon as they walked to their seats. HELLO? You're at a rock CONCERT dumbarse! If you want to sit down, go rent the DVD and stay at home. And if you're going to be outright rude, you bet your sweet arse I'm going to be standing up even when I don't really want now (evil laughter inserted here... people are so stupid, I may only be 5'2" but being a Boston girl with an Irish/Portuguese temper, you really have no idea). Jerky boy even went so far as to go to a security dude and ask him to tell me to sit... he looked at me, I said "no" and he just shoke his head and walked away (probably laughing). Ugh. Some guy in the next row came back in between bands, double fisted with the beers and loudly proclaimed, "Just so you know, I'm going to be STANDING for Boston." Ha Ha. My new drunken best bud...



Boston was great (as always) and the addition of Michael Sweet on this tour was amazing! As if we hadn't dealed with enough idiotisms from the locals in the sticks of Northern NH, while we were waiting to exit the parking lot (in bumper to bumper traffic) the dumbest of the dumb threw her truck in reverse and backed right in to us. Then acted like it was no big deal... why would we want her insurance information? why would we want to have the bumper she just scratched to hell painted? I guess in the sticks those things don't matter... after all, they're rude enough to scream at you to sit during a rock concert, why wouldn't they just enjoy playing bumper cars?

A much better show of hospitality was had at The Knit & Crochet Show in Manchester, NH last weekend! I bumped in to many friends and met some wonderful new people too, including the amazing ladies behind KOALA Caddie {side note: I will update with contact information later as I can not locate any information on the web and have her business card at home}.

Koala Caddies are unique craft aprons that you truly must see in person to understand and appreciate their versatility. While I personally can't see myself using one, I can see them being an excellent knitting/crochet bag for many others. I talked to the owner for several minutes about business and urged her to venture to Etsy. Of course, my favorite was this super cute "Knitmare on Elm Street" version (I did purchase a yard of the fabric online and may have to enlist one of my seamstresses buddies to make me some sort of project bag soon!)...

I both spotted a few projects I loved... namely the Mermaid jacket, which I oohed and ahhed over last year too.  However I simply can not justify the cost of the kits (and the yarn isn't even that nice)...

I did make some lovely purchases though! I picked up some beads and supplies, a very pretty handmade glass button (that I couldn't get a good photo of to save my life) and some yarn... not alot, but what I did buy was what I loved!

2 skeins of Maple Creek Farm bamboo/merino/silk in the colorway Chocolate Mint Truffle. Each skein is 500 yards and one of them may be destined for a Virginia Shawl

2 skeins of Tess' Designer Yarns... Super Socks & Baby in a pink/blue/purple/green/yellow colorway and Baby Bunny in a beautiful blue color...

I spied Mary Beth Temple stocking up at the discount yarn booth!

It was a fun afternoon with shopping, talking, networking and just plain fun! And of course, it was great to see MBT and Little Loopy again before they headed back to Jersey. We're not sure if the show is coming back to NH again next summer or not, but we're hopeful...

Stash Enhancement at TKGA Show!

Yes folks, I did end up spending more than I had planned on at the TKGA Knit & Crochet Show on Saturday, but still had huge restraint! I could have done sooooooooo much more damage... ooh, SO much more! There was a stunning jacket kit that I absolutely adored, but alas the $200 price tag wasn't in my budget. Nor was the $62 skein of some unusual fiber (it wasn't yak but it was something in that unusual category). So I tried to not set my credit card ablaze be good and only purchase things that were out of the ordinary and not something I could readily pick up at my LYS. Here's what I came home with...

See all the unusual fibers there? HA HA - just kidding. That was the goody bag from Coats & Clark that the first 500 pre-registered attendees received. Its not bad and does include a nice skein of Moda Dea washable wool in what I think is a new shade! Now for the real stash...

I purchased 3 kits... one to make super soft (and from what I'm told, amazingly warm) silk mittens, one for a drawstring bag (knitted with beads - also from AffectionKnit but I couldn't find it on their site to link) and finally, an elegant scarf (also with beads). I tried to show you the gorgeous hand dyed yarns that came with these kits in this pic, but it does not do them justice. Also pictured are some Norwegian pewter buttons, a set of size 7 Fiddlesticks (oh my gosh - these needles are amazing... rosewood with coconut at the top and mother of pearl finish on the ends ... not only do they look great, they are fabulous to knit with as I cast on a dishcloth last night just to test them out!), some absolutely amazing (yet extremely affordable!) yarns from Habu and 2 books - One Skein Wonders and The Secret Language of Knitters. Yes, I do already own the One Skein book - and some of you may even know that it is one of my favorite books - but the editor, Judith Durant happened to be at one of the booths signing her book and well... well, if your are one of the people I get to spoil in my current swaps, you just might be getting my previous copy! HA HA. And guess what? In chatting with the lovely Judith, we found out that the second installment, 101 Designer One Skein Wonders is coming out this fall (and I've already pre-ordered my copy thru Amazon)!!! WOO HOO! Use the stash!!! Here are some more photos from the show...

Close up of the goods.... The gorgeous hand dyed from the AffectionKnit kits on the left, the buttons, needles & scarf kit on the right.



 Signed books for the collection...


Mary Beth Temple ... we just sort of happened upon her signing her just-released book and what a hoot she is! If she happens to be near you signing, go check her out (and remind her she shouldn't sit in coffee when wearing a white skirt...)! She blogs too! I started reading the first few pages of the book and so far, 4 paws 2 thumbs up! Think of Mary along the lines of a Yarn Harlot type of comedy... knitting comedy if you will. I can't wait to read on in the book ... and and get this, she's a dog Mommy too!!! :-) I can't believe the number of fellow knitting (and crocheting) dog Mommies I'm meeting thru blogging lately - its amazing (and I'm not referring to "dog owners" - but true dog MOMS - and those of us who are know there is a big difference)!


Here I am with the lovely Judith (thankfully I found this nifty healing brush tool in Photoshop today that helped to remove some of the awful, awful bags under my eyes... boy were these pictures a horrible wake up call today... anyone got some good beauty cream tips/advice??)...

It was a wonderful day spent with friends and family! Sue came up from CT to go to the show with me (while Matt and his Dad worked on the dog's fence... woo hoo! They got a really great start on it too!)... again, loving that healing brush tool!

Sue is really into beautiful lace shawls and boy were there lots of gorgeous ones to drool over!

We bumped in to lots of other friends throughout the day, including Heather who was my enabler at the Habu booth. I really wasn't thinking of buying anything there until she came by and started raving about it... then I had to have a closer look and ended up with this...

The photo of the booth really doesn't do those amazing garmets justice, but hopefully it gives you an idea. The yarns... yummy, yummy yarns... I got 1 tiny (no joke its about the size of maybe half of the palm of my hand) skein of 100% cashmere (the green) and 2 skeins of the silk/mohair blend. These will mostly likely be for feather and fan scarves. The burgundy color cones to the left at 100% merino wool which will probably turn in to some lace shawl or wrap ... and the lilac color is the silk and stainless steel blend (also destined for a lacey shawl of sorts)! Yes folks, silk and stainless steel - how very cool and unique? Matt was even impressed!


We met this lovely sea lady while walking around...

 

Yes, a felted mermaid that is life size - very cool! Joanne said she was at The Knit-In at Loon Mountain, but I have to admit... I missed her there!

These were some of the garmets on display near the entrance...

 

It was an absolutely wonderful day (even if I did have some sore feet aftewards)... and I got to come home to a half-finished fence for the doggies. WOO HOO! I can't wait until its finally finished and ready for use, but we're much closer now. Matt's Dad even offered to come back up after their vacation next month to help some more (thank you Dad & Sue!!!). Maybe that means Sue and I will have to do a little yarn crawl that day... hee hee.

In doggy news, we picked up our newest houseguest, Bella, on Friday evening. What an absolute love bug and energetic pup! If you know dogs, you know that terriers are known for their energy... multiply that by oh, about 100 and you get Miss Bella! Yes folks, she's either in GO-GO-GO mode or she's crashed out completely... there's no in between with this little cutie pie. She immediately fit herself right in to our pack as soon as she came in and has been romping and wrestling with the big dogs non-stop. When she's not wrestling, she's chomping on a bone or playing with a squeaky or some other toy. She loves the marrow bones we have around, as well as the Orbee toys ... and the squeakies and the balls and the Bobos and the ropes... see a trend here? Yes, this lovebug just loves anything and everything ... and shows you nothing but love and affection in return! It looks like she already has an adopter ... and get this... its yet another Nicole who only lives about 10-15 minutes away! I'm going to be stopping by Nicole & Ryan's place tomorrow to do a home visit and then we'll proceed from there if they are interested in adopting. (I swear there is something ironic about me adopting out to fellow Nicole's - Dustee's mom is also a Nicole and only lives about 10 minutes way too!). So here's my dose of cuteness for you from the first few days of Bella in our lives...

She's always smiling...
 

Two peas in a pod... or Daddy's lap anyway!

 

She loved Bobo so much she chewed his ear right off ... oops!
 

Hanging with her foster brothers & sister...

 

Of course I have plenty more pics, but I'll save some for later... plus this post is getting kind of long... are ya still with me? Huh people??? Still out there???