Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool 2010

I can't believe Rhinebeck's Sheep & Wool festival was a week ago already! Where does the time go?
Rhinebeck was great; I brought my children kids with me (they're starting to get so big that the word 'children' doesn't seem to fit as a description of them). We went on Sunday and the weather was (singing) "fan-tastic!"

Upon arrival we met up with my buddy, the HHCC Prez, Grace; and with Mary Beth Temple and her daughter LANKYLoopy. Within minutes we met up with Doris Chan, Diane Moyer, Leslie of WoolMountain, Sarah, and several other crochetaholics.  It was like old friends gathering together, excited about all the delicious fibers around us.  I fulfilled my promise to Doris, giving her a bottle of Jones Family Farm wine, for my appreciation of her Ling Collar pattern that won me so many ribbons and awards this year.

I then armed my son, Dee Jr., with my point-n-shoot camera so he can take pictures for his new blog, http://bearclawphotography.blogspot.com/ -- for an 11-year old kid with no photographing experience, I think he has a natural eye for capturing beautiful shots.  Hopefully he'll upload the Rhinebeck images to his blog soon.

In the meantime, as we strolled from building to building, basking in the Indian Summer day, my daughter Mini~Dee, and LankyLoopy enjoyed spending the day together.  It seems they were both drawn to the neon-colored yarns -- a lot! Together with Dee Jr, they also found the maple syrup cotton candy a deelight.  :)

I treated myself to three skeins of Boxelder Beetle by Sanguine Gryphon; a fingering weight yarn in a most lushious orange, made of 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon.  The booth/shop owners wore the coolest gowns, and their yarn was just devine!

The day passed very quickly, and just prior to leaving the park grounds we bumped into Lily Chin.  To my delight I saw a lot more crochet than I have in years' past.  I take this to be a good thing, and am looking forward to Rhinebeck 2011!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

A Good Type of Busy

Has it been a week? I've been busy, very busy indeed! So busy, in fact, I haven't even opened up my latest order from Amazon that contains new-to-me crochet books! It is a good-type of busy, and well worth the wait in opening that box! LOL

In the meantime, I'm really proud of my CGOA Chapter -- The Happily Hooked on Crocheting Club -- which recently celebrated it's Ninth Birthday! NINE YEARS of CROCHET FUN!! The Celebration took place last Sunday; visit www.TheHHCC.org to read all the juicy details.

My coffee cup is empty; break is over. ;)

Friday, October 8, 2010

Frightful Fun

I gave myself a good fright today ... actually this story started last night -- and -- I was the one who initiated it! You see, I had taken my mannequin heads out to prepare to bring them to my CGOA Chapter's Anniversary meeting, and while doing so, I decided to have a little wicked fun: I placed one of the mannequin heads in the kids room while they were eating dinner.

Shortly after dinner the kids went in and got an instant giggly-fun-type of scare.  No screams; just one of those really loud gasps of unexpected pre-Halloween scares. Then came the giggles -- they instantly decided to pay the fright forward by attempting to scare their dad.  Unfortunately (for the kids) Mr. Dee was paying attention and did not get scared at all!
This morning, being coffee-less at the time, I decided to move the mannequin head the kids had intended to scare Mr. Dee with over to the kitchen table. The kids headed off to school, and I went about my morning activities.

While I had the house to myself, quietly working on my secret project, I had completely forgotten about the mannequin. Do you see where this is going? About an hour later I managed to give myself a good fright when the mannequin on the table caught the corner of my eye! (Yes, I did let out a little yelp of horror;  LOL)  Had the kids been here when that happened they'd be rolling on the floor with laughter!

As I posted this experience on my Facebook account earlier today, I found it interesting other designers have used their mannequins (in one way or another) to also give a good fright to themselves and others.

This lead me to thinking about those old black & white classic movies and television programs which I love to watch this time of year. Alfred Hitchcock, one of my favs, instantly popped into my head when I decided I wanted a "scary" looking crochet hook as my new profile picture on Facebook. I grabbed my camera and  played around with a few concepts in my head until I created an image that I really liked; I hope you do too as I turned it into a CafePress shop: http://www.Cafepress.com/Crochetween

I can't help but to laugh ghoulishly at the thought of crocheters haunting their favorite local yarn shop while wearing one of the T-shirts.  Whahahahaha!   ;)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Bringin' It Home...

Mr. Dee and I took the trek to Massachusetts yesterday to pick up the crochet entries from the Big E.  Without the kids, this gave us great quality time to discuss various crochet topics, such as which location (Minnesota vs. North Carolina) I should consider submitting my CGOA Class Proposals.

Upon arrival we learned more about the Special Awards:

SPECIAL AWARD FOR CROCHET

    Dee's Pushmi Vest & Ling Collar
  • NEW Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) website: http://www.crochet.org/  One award for Best Wearing Apparel entry. Award consists of one certificate for a free year of membership in CGOA.
  • NEW Plymouth Yarn of Bristol, Pa website: http://www.plymouthyarn.com/  One package of 100% Galway Wool Yarn for Best Use of Pattern Work and/or Color Change
  • Webs/Valley Fiber Corp of Northampton, Mass website: http://www.yarn.com/  One award for Most Creative Use of Traditional Crochet (stitches must be used in original clothing or accessories design)


I won two of the three awards:  The Best Wearing Apparel, and The Most Creative Use of Traditional Crochet for the "Ling Collar."  My fellow HHCC'er Elaine, won the Best Use of Pattern Work and/or Color Change for her original Flower Dolls (picture can be seen here on the HHCC's blog).  This was the first time I've ever won a Sponsor Award at The Big E, and this was Elaine's second time.

In reading how the Pushmi~Pullyu vest I designed for my son, and how the Ling Collar scored, the Collar actually scored higher, with points taken off for color.  Why it earned a Red Ribbon, and the vest a Blue, I'll never know.   However, I am very thankful for the Special Awards and want to thank the CGOA and WEBs for sponsoring them.  As to what I will purchase with my WEBs gift card? I'm not sure yet.  :)
Dee's & her CGOA Chapter's entries @ the Big E.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

"Hip, Hip, Crochet!" with the Lion

Along with participating in the "Feel Good" kickoff on the CBS Early Show, I also got to visit the Lion Brand store for the very first time with my fellow CGOA Chapter members.  As I don't go to the City often, this was a treat I was long looking forward to.

We traveled across the City via car, had an early lunch, and then walked the short distance to the Lion Brand store.  It was just before 11:30 AM, and the store would be opening in mere minutes.  This afforded us time to check out the front window display featuring Lady Liberty.

This store front resonated with me: it merged crochet and knit work together in the shape of the United States; joined together in the afghan wrapped around Lady Liberty's shoulders; and with squares at her feet being collected from customers for Warm Up America.  Togetherness.  Lion Brand did not exclude crochet, or use crochet as a mere footnote.  It gave crochet equal billing.  As it should be.

This theme was echoed in Lady Liberty's crown too; notice in the image on the right how the crochet hooks and knitting needles come together to create the seven spikes in her crown (for those that like trivia, the spikes represent the seven oceans).  Who ever designed this window for Lion Brand did a great job!

Once the store opened we were greeted with a lot of eye-candy ... yarn, yarn, yarn!  Yes, we can purchase Lion Brand yarn at nearly every big box craft store, but not all carry all of the Lion Brand lines -- and/or colors!  So to see it all in one place was fantastic! 

I had some questions of which the staff was more than happy to help me with getting the answers to.  I purchased some Vanna's Choice, and some Cotton Bamboo from the LB Collection.  And for being a CGOA member, they took 10% off my purchase.

I'll be sure to add visiting the Lion Brand store to my stops the next time I'm in the City; this yarn manufacturer (and now retailer) knows how to make this crocheter a repeat customer.