Bar Knitting

You don’t have to drink to enjoy the view.

As many of you may already know, I have a local crafts Facebook group called “Colfax Stitch ‘n Bitch”.  In an attempt to increase participation, I added another meeting day to include the people who couldn’t manage Thursday evenings.  Sunday afternoons seemed a good thing.  I also wanted to change up the venue a bit and set up a poll with possible sites and threw in a red herring.  With my sense of humor being what it is, that was a given.  The red herring?  A local bar called The Red Frog that boasts the best mountain view that I’ve ever seen.  I haven’t been to that many bars, much less those that feature views, so, take my word for it.  It’s beautiful.  The Red Frog was chosen, so I posted it was, and quite a few people were excited about the event. There were some members who declined because it was a bar; I get it.  Otherwise, I thought I’d see a few new faces.

I like taking my bowl with me!

I showed up on time, made my way back to the patio and was surprised to see how busy it was.  In general.  The patio part of the bar is just that – open to the elements.  With only a roof, there’s no heating, no air conditioning.  You deal with what nature gives you.  It was 95 degrees F that day.  With the shade and a little breeze it was tolerable enough.  I saw the one remaining table available and I grabbed it up.

And there I sat for 30 minutes, knitting and drinking my virgin mango margarita.  It was delicious.  I expected someone to say something to me. A lively bar is not where you’d expect to find a middle-aged woman knitting, but all I got were some second glances and everyone went about their drinking and/or eating.  When a spot cleared up at the open viewing area, I quickly gathered up my gear, switched seats and continued to nurse my drink.

All-in-all, it wasn’t a bad time.  I rather liked it and intend to return either alone or with more people.  As for my group, I called them all wimps!  I may not have a group much longer….

Oh, God. It’s images like this that make me wish I could

look more like this poorly photoshopped pic again!

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It’s Here!

Red Heart has finally produced a yarn that is specifically for pooling.  Uniformity of color is assured, “engineered so that color repeats are evenly dyed for happier pooling” – as the ad says.  I was looking for this about two weeks ago when I went to Joann Crafts, but they weren’t carrying it yet.  I have to call them.  And yet….am I being silly when I say I don’t want it to become easy?  That means there will be no craft or hard-won hours to brag about?  That’s why I need to try this out.  As soon as it hit the shelves on my LYS, I’m getting some, and I will report the results.

http://www.redheart.com/yarn/super-saver-pooling

A Little Too Much

Hi, there, dear reader.  Glad you could drop by after my long absence.  It’s been awhile, I know, so let the excuses begin!

The last several weeks I have been caught up in spring.  This season makes me feel light-hearted and yet, ready to take on the world.  Out in the garden everyday, buying flowers, potting soil, and seeds, spring cleaning, clearing out the fountain and raking away the tons of pine needles that threaten to take over my roses, and in general, just being outdoors; enjoying the sun after months of a typical gloomy Californian winter.  Granted, in just a very short while, I will be posting about summer’s relentless, grinding heat and moaning for autumn; however, in the meantime, I will bask in this mindset and weather.

I finally finished the flame stitch bag and gave it a strengthening liner to turn it from a bag to a purse.  I didn’t do the pom-poms because I am really tough on my purses.  They’d need to be taken off after a week!  For the handles, I purchased some at Joann Crafts and Fabrics.  Attaching the handles did turn out to be problematic, but I went with it anyway!

I was supposed to get the $2.99 rings only. $65 later….eeesh!

With the temperatures climbing higher on the thermometer, all the fresh, new growth has attracted deer, especially to the aforementioned roses.  I’ve babied those bushes because they have to be; the pine trees block all but about 5 hours of sun, even on the summer solstice, so I’m always sure to prune them, nourish them, ensure they’re disease-free.  Anyone who has had a serious interest in roses knows how hard this can be.  With the drought conditions we’ve been having, my roses have become a food mainstay for the hungry deer.  To combat this, I’ve been using Must Garden natural deer repellent.  During the winter, it didn’t work so well.  The deer were starving.  So my poor babies were beat up. I didn’t think they would make it this year.  But lo, and behold, they’re blooming.  Not a whole bunch, but it’s a start.

Colors are Malabrigo Ravelry Red and Spun Right Round Newsprint

And now that we’re finished with my easy purse, I’ve moved on to another Malabrigo project.  I know, I know.  I love that yarn and it was on sale.  At least, today’s purchase was on sale….But I digress.  I’ve been working on a pattern for a sweater that I bought on Ravelry, Zweig, and I can’t wait to finish it.  I’m realistically shooting for November, when I’ll need it!  I intend to do some more planned pooling on a new brand of yarn – I will report the results!  I’ve also got some more fan art to do.  Never thought I’d be that kind of a fan at my age!  LOL  Life’s too short not to do the things you want when you can.

See you in the funny pages!

1st Annual Local Yarn Store Appreciation Day

I do enjoy a good excuse to get to my lys, and today was a fine example.  I packed up my tote full of the Flame Stitch Bag  crochet project, and set out in the beautiful Saturday spring afternoon to the Ben Franklin Crafts Store in Grass Valley, 16 miles away.  When I got there, a very large group of knitters were sitting at a U-shaped table set up and I was fortunate enough to find a seat at the end.  Best spot – sweet!  Since I don’t frequent the weekly meetings, I felt a little isolated, but soon started chatting with those around me, and now I’m committed to going back next Friday evening!  Another nice surprise was when several members of my weekly Stitch ‘n Bitch in Colfax showed up.  Hi Diane and Tammi!  I had made this the weekly meeting.  Thought I’d mix it up a little.

Anyway, what did me in today was the 20% off LYS bag.  Buy it for $4.99, and get 20% off your yarn purchase for the day.  I was fine with this.  I could resist, I could.  Really.  That is, until, the young woman next to me was wearing a sweater that was just gorgeous.  And she told me it was a pattern in Ravelry, and I had to have it.  *sigh*  My bank account is now $85 lighter (to include a new circular knitting needle) and I now have another project awaiting my attention.

I had to get more of that beautiful Malabrigo color appropriately named “Ravelry Red”.

Yup. I did some old school cross processing – so last decade!

Cute cookies – of which I did not partake! Still trying to think differently about my food.

Our own language on cookies – how cool!

So what did you do to show your LYS a little love today?

Oh, My Word!

Have you been as busy as I have?  I’m sure you have, if not more so!  My last post was in November, and here it is, one week before Christmas.  At least the last post was a freebie crochet pattern, so that’s good.  I had a visit with my mother after Thanksgiving and we had a grand time; I finished the Coffee Shop Wrap, which took way too long to make!  Nothing wrong with the pattern, I just couldn’t get into it.  I do love it, though.  Wearing it as I’m writing this post.  Thinking of making some more – have lots of fans!  In the interim, I’m making a slouchy using the leftover yarn.  It’s cotton, and I’m thinking it won’t hold its shape, hence, the slouchy!  I’ll post when done, and if you want, I’ll get the basic numbers and graph to you.  Yea, there’s coffee cups on it.

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Since I most likely will not be posting before Christmas, I would like to wish everyone a good time this holiday season, no matter what your preference is.  I do not know all of the holidays being celebrated around the world at this time, but I believe they’re mostly in the northern hemisphere.  Everyone needs a break from winter!!

See you all in the funny pages.

Donner Pass Beanie Pattern

One of the hats I made to sell this crafts fair season. Easy to knit up and comes in toddler, child and adult sizes.  The colors I used reminded me of the leaden skies and snow that we get in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

Enjoy!

https://nittinninja.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/donner-pass-beanie1.pdf

 

 

To Etsy or not to Etsy?

I’m going full tilt trying to get a Christmas inventory set up for either;

a. Etsy
b. Local Crafts Fairs
c. Consignment shop

To break it down, they all have their pros and cons. Let’s start with Etsy.

~ Worldwide competition where items are offered for less than I can purchase the yarn, 1.8 million sellers as of 9/5/17, and monthly fees.  This would seem to be a dismal market for a small crafts maker such as myself and I’ve read in more than one article that finding a niche market is what  a successful entrepreneur does.  I don’t do that.  I make what moves me at that time.  The are two things that offsets all this negativity is that it’s relatively cheap to sell and one does have a larger market.

Now onto Local Crafts Fairs

~ Nasty weather, low turn-outs, long hours of exposure to said nasty weather, seller’s permits and insurance are all part of selling directly to your customer.  Having said that, the big draw is that you are offering a product and the buyer is looking, handling and appraising the product right there.  No waiting for shipping, no information given at the electronic checkout, it’s just look, like, buy.  There’s a lot to be said about this approach in our instant gratification society.

Consignment shops

~ High cost of sales, the disposition of the shop owner and their willingness to display/market your product.  These would all seem to be a major deterrent, but if you are in with a shop owner who has high foot traffic, this can mean $$$ for your Christmas budget, UNLESS you get paid after Christmas.  With me, that would not be a problem, as I don’t have small children in the house.

So there you have it.  And now that I’ve written it, down, it seems I will not Etsy again; at least, not at this time.  It looks like the crafts fairs and consignment this year!  Thanks for hearing me out, you guys!  What do you all do?