Knitter's Studio

Trunk Show at Knitters Studio, I was packing up today and turned around and here was a picture!

After a long Friday I decided to go to the "Little Door" restaurant just a few doors down from Knitters Studio. It was great here are a few shots of the fun.


The Bobbin I'm going to bead



I got home Friday with a purpose I have to make beaded yarn for a client at Knitters Studio for a project so I drove home as quickly as I could. However driving through LA is always exciting. They close Freeways at night to do construction and many accidents can also make driving on the Freeways exciting but not in a good way. Having said that I got home and the hour was late, 11:00 before I started beaded yarn. Shortly after I started making beaded yarn Mike came out of the bedroom and told me to go to bed, the hour was late and the machine was loud. I aggreed. I decided that I would finish in the morning
Lavender Moon beads waiting for yarn

The partial skein I got before my "live Coo Coo" clock demeaned it bed time

Best laid plans.... Steve's cousin spent the night. Look at Cleo's face! She is mad that "her" couch is "full"


My new BEST Friend "Hope" with her new favorite yarn!


A customer came in with a skein of beaded yarn she bought some years ago. She could never find "the pattern" (as Shelli at Knitterly says-"to honor the yarn enough") having had taken Sally Meliville's class a couple of weeks ago I suggested that she knit it with Kiogu and she chose this color-way. Sally suggested that one do one of the yarns in garter stitch and one in stockette, so this knitter is going to try it with each yarn (swatching) and finally feels like she is on the right track! ( and she saved a lot of money as the prospect of buying another skein was scarry!)


I have met so many new lovely friends and got to catch uo with old friends. Elise and Roberta were both in yesterday. Fellow Sally Meliville class mate Claudia came and (I know I'm a yarn crack dealer sorry) got addicted to the yarn and went out high on yarn. Today is my last day there, but I'm going to Tulsa on Thursday! Can't wait to see all the my very particular friends there! Ellen is hosting me this time and I get to sleep in the Cabana!! along with a cat (sorry Cleo) and close to the Mini horses!! A short week or so after my trip to Tulsa I'm driving to Petaluma (Watch out Knitterly!!) and then onto Oregon where I'll be helping Becky pack and move to her new house!!


She signs the papers on Monday and then my daughter has her own house. Proud you bet!

The other item of news is Emma and Don's new baby..
(Granda Gazelle it's hard to read I know!)
This is new babies code name... remember Mark was Henley Hornbrook (which is like the next exit) Don and I somehow came up with these two names so we are hoping that by giving this new child a girl code name.......well you understand but if we should get another Henley Hornbrook it's fine. Emma is due on April 1st and we are all excited

How can this be? Mark is blowing out his candles! Can it be that yesterday my little darling was born.


We had long chats last night about red cows, ted tractors and Sushi with "eggs" (Roe) that are.. yes red. He said he was 5 yesterday, and there were 5 red cows, yeah that's my boy!!! He was really chatty and then I got to talk to Emma for a long time. I miss them all so much....sigh but soon I'll be taking Mark to the park (we both aggreed swings rule at the park slides not so much) Emma is well and we don't know what kind of baby we are getting (just like the old days) but we both aggreed that we are excited, (Emma is not exactly excited about the getting only about the having) So if you are near Tulsa next week come and see me and if you are reading this on Sunday evening sorry you missed me at Knitter's Studio!

Last Weekend

I had a mental health weekend, and while it is great fun to take time off it does put a strain on the yarn production but this past weekend I went for it. Saturday Mike and I went to the Quail Botanic Gardens near San Diego CA. Sunday I went to San Juan Capistrano back to the Tea Garden on Los Rios, with the Friends of Blair Club.....
Here is the love of my life (sorry Mike he's just way cute) Mark, when asked what he was drawing he said Sushi! What almost two year old loves Sushi? Becky Rose......Good luck Emma and Don!

We are going backwards now to Sunday.. A meeting of "The Friends of Blair Club". our desserts!

Tea Sandwiches

Salad with tea

Ummm scone which I had some of and saved most of the rest, knowing that the dessert was coming

Presents

Here are the club members. Blair Cathy and Kathy and Liz

I can't remember if this was at the Quail Garden or the park next to the Tea Garden but isn't this just too California?

Now we are a week ago on Saturday. Mike and I took a wonderful ride on Saturday to Quail Gardens. They had many plantings of Succulents. Mike was thrilled with these marvels. We came home with a plant which when planted I will take a picture of then



Jan got her Meyer Lemons which I picked in showers. I planted the Meyers Lemon for her as her efforts growing a lemon tree in Oregon failed. So now I have her tree here.
Today I went to Knitters Studio for the trunk show. Pictures are going to be above this post tomorrow!

The next day

After the rains on Tuesday I thought we might be done but just after I blogged the heavens really opened up and we got (I measured) 3 inches of rain in about two hours. It was just like home! Of course all my Southern California friends are blaming me and my Oregon friends, whom are enjoying sunny warm weather are thanking me.....

This is in front of our house (boat LOL) those are waves coming over the side walk and up our drive

Some enterprising drivers


by night fall it was back to normal. Thursday it showered and Friday it was wet in the morning but nothing like the week. The weekend weather although cool was amazing as only Southern California can look after being "power washed".

Meanwhile Steven and I worked and took a full inventory and filled orders out of our stock. Glad to say that most of the orders are 80% filled and going out this week.
Our new friends include, A Colorful Yarn, Denver area CO, Nimble Fingers Houston TX, In the Making Birmingham AL. The Hen House in Spring TX, yarn is going out to these folks this week so if you live in these area's stop by and check out their new yarns.

catching up

Last week in between recovering from TNNA and taking a mind bending class from Cat Bordhi I went out to the garden and did some pruning. Which was timely as you will see later. I loved the class from Cat and wanted to take another one but my brain fatigued from the riggers of TNNA caught up with me so I spent the day organizing paperwork all to do with TNNA. Then Mike had a long lunch on Saturday and we really trimmed and pruned. The Aprium tree has been pruned so that it is all reachable by me, no wasted fruit. I have several more roses to hack at but as you will see that's not possible this week.

This was a winter's day in Southern California that I spent sipping tea and knitting in the garden soaking up the sun to try and recover from the excesses of the weekend


Cyrus in "his chair"

Cleo loves to roll in the warm concrete

The Pink Lemon Tree covered and near harvest

The Meyer Lemon Tree... a gift in the making for someone special...later word on that

The rose now able to catch some sun now that Mike has trimmed and hacked the surrounding overgrowth

On Thursday I got yet another call from a local yarn shop that my glove needles that I had ordered (in Jan. 2007) were still there and could I pick them up. I have tried to go and pick them up but every time I have they aren't there and so I think that somehow we are both mistaken. Then another six months go by and I get a call to come and get them. So Friday I drove to the beach to try and pick up my needles. Judy (sorry if this is wrong) greeted me and I explain I was there to pick up the long lost needles, she went to the back to find them comes out and hasn't got them "Am I sure I haven't picked them up?" Yes I'm quite sure off she goes in the back and then starts to enlist everyone in the search for the missing needles... time passes which just makes me laugh and then I realised that last year at this same time Mom and I were in trying to pick up the needles, this was the last yarn shop Mother ever went to..... But then the needles are found!

Here am I accepting the needles...

Last year I took a knit to fit class with Sally Melville at this shop and guess what she came back this year and I took a neat stitch class with her on Sunday. Yeah I love Sally and we had a great time in class, I understood way more in this class and learned lots, coupled with my class with Cat I am now on knitting overload. Just as class finished the clouds opened and the rain we so needed started.......

Monday we got a pretty good rain so I plied some Camel/Silk and set the yarn I had done in the weekend. Tuesday it came down. There is nothing like a real rain in California, and being from Oregon I know something about rain. It doesn't rain a lot but when it does watch out! These are pictures of the rain yesterday



This is one of the trash cans floating down the street, I wish this was a video so that you could see the fast progress, I had to go and rescue them before they were much farther along.

Our "river" on the corner..


Today it is raining but not as hard as it did yesterday, not as much as it is suppose to tomorrow. It is excellent knitting/spinning weather! I made chicken soup the other day while watching the rain but Steven said instead of taking knitting classes I should take a soup making class :(. I'll have to put that on the list. Happy Knitting and/or Spinning as this is the season to enjoy staying inside!!!

Moving On

My brain is fried. IF TNNA wasn't enough, I decided to take a knitting class from Cat Bordhi today and going back tomorrow.
I made some resolutions this year. 1. Take a class from Cat
2. Learn to make gloves properly
3. Learn to knit the JoJoland Swirl Shawl (which has been on the list since 2008) but I want to use my own yarn.
TNNA turned out well in spite of all my fears, and while I wasn't overwhelmed with orders, I now see I won't be overwhelmed with work either allowing me time to take care of myself. Hence two days of knitting workshop.

It was mind bending for me today. I read the instructions wrong three times and had to start again twice. I didn't get my sock past the toe but I now understand way more about toe up socks than I ever did before.
Tomorrow is a stitch class. There is graph paper involved it may get scary.

While I was working away on socks the phone must have kept ringing as I have many messages to return, and if you are one of those people I promise Friday I will get to work.
I just need a few days of fun, although I think today was fun it was very challenging for me.....

Now one to some really good knitting!

For my friend Sarah Anderson's birthday I gave her a very modest skein of ICE she knit it up into this lovely scarf!




Barbara is a customer at Loop and Leaf. She is getting lots of coupons for "Body Candy". This project evolved from the Vogue Eyelet Cowl that I knitted in Cashmere/Silk beaded Fire and Ice. Barbara could wear it as a shrug and liked that idea so well she knit one large enough to do all these neat things! Beyond great job Barbara!





Thanks so much for your wonderful pictures. If you are interested in making this yourself call Celeste at Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara Ca. for directions.

Thank you for all your kind thoughts towards my Brother in Law. I got news tonight that he is going home today or tomorrow and is much better!! Thank goodness.

Cleo has been happy here but we have a stray cat living around our house in California. This straggly thing is starting to be friendly, so do we need cat #5? ummm NO.. another problem for another day.
Becky is looking forward to moving into her new house. We are so proud of her doing it all on her own.

Steven was a hero this weekend. He is strong and tall and nice. People like Steven, well he is likable. He worked very hard this weekend at TNNA and helping me pack up TFC and driving it all down to Southern California. Thanks Steve

Today I woke to rain. Not hard rain, just enough to make everything good and wet. Love it. Just as I was missing the Pacific Northwest. I wore the socks Paula made me for my birthday. Cat said they were well knitted, not that Paula needs to hear it but since she didn't have my feet to measure I think the fit is fantastic. Now I know more about fitting socks it amazes me that so many of my hand knit socks fit. Another testament on how forgiving hand-spun yarn really is.

Janell Laidman posted some nice things about TFC yarn, thanks Janell!

Now it's really time to go to bed, early bed is part of the homework for tomorrow! Happy Knitting and/or Spinning!

The National Needle Arts Long Beach Show

Friday dawned with a huge migraine. I was completely unable to get anything ready to get down to Long Beach Convention Center to set up the booth. Steven packed things as I was able to get them ready and took his cousin to help set things up while I took a little nap. When Mike got home, Alexandra was already there helping to do the last minute skeining and labeling. We all then went to set things up. Steven and Mike worked on the lighting and the shelves, Alexandra worked on the dressing out of yarn.
These two pictures of our progress......


The completed project

Many people have asked me to dye commerically spun yarns, but it never has interested me, so I talked to Alexandra about it and she was very interested. Here is her yarn with 14 little hand knitted socks from each color-way. I think it is the best!

I'm surprised at how weak I still am, so Alexandra came to spin and help out today. Steven made endless cups of tea, took orders made meals and generally took care of everything.

We have fabulous neighbors and so many nice people came through to look and fondle really good yarn.

Janell Laidman came by to have a sit on the couch. Renee, the yarn editor of Vogue Knitting, stopped by and fondled yarn. Melissa Leapman came by and picked yarn up for another neat project with Fireworks yarn. Many many others. Tomorrow we hope to meet more new friends. Steven starts another term at College tomorrow. Even though my Brother in Law didn't want me to blog about his grave illness I hope you will send your love and prayers for his recovery.
He is in the same hospital as I was in November. I really wanted to see him tonight and so went straight from the Convention Center to the hospital. It was so reassuring to actually see him.
Mike spent today in the back yard hacking back at the overgrowth, and the driveway is littered with the efforts. The front yard looks great and if I could have seen the back I'm sure it is the same. I look forward to doing some work out there as well.
Wednesday I'm taking a knitting class with Cat Bordhi, I even had to buy special yarn for it! I'm so looking forward to taking this class and hope my knitting skills are up to it. I'm planning on taking more classes this year, a JoJoland scarf is in my future as well as a pair of gloves.
Several Trunk shows are booked and I will soon list them after tomorrow. Tonight it is time for bed, tomorrow is another day!