Holla Knits guest post

Today you can find me over at Holla Knits, offering up a guest post where I dish about my awesome job.

The Holla Knits launch is just a few weeks away - if you haven't signed up yet, what are you waiting for?

Save the date: HandmadeMN

Since I've just scheduled my kids' summer activities through August, it's probably not too early to have you save the date for the May 5 HandmadeMN Spring Market.

The Spring Market features 25 awesome Minnesota artists (including me!), swag bags for the first 25 attendees, and drawings for two gorgeous gift baskets chock full of handmade goodness.

Saturday, May 5, Ballentine VFW, 2916 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis (in Uptown), 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Come support local handmade!

March Phat Fiber preview

I know February is a short month, but it feels like March is here much too soon. And my kids' spring break is less than two weeks away (I'm already bracing myself for this one). I'm contributing once again to the Phat Fiber Sampler Box - if you haven't tried to snag one of the boxes yet, you are really missing out!

The theme for March is "Blinded By Science." Not too much of a science geek myself, but one of my favorite science-y memories is taking trips to the local college planetarium with my dad. We went every year at Christmas to see a program about the star of Bethlehem.

My inspiration:


Translated into yarn:

God, is it hard to capture both a deep blue/black and sparkle! I may need to rephotograph these skeins... Anyway, it's a brand new yarn base - Twinkle! Twinkle is a sock weight yarn, 75/20/5 superwash merino, nylon, and stellina. Just a touch of silver sparkle :) I'll be debuting Planetarium and a few other new colors of Twinkle when the Phat Fiber preview video airs in mid-March.

You can check out what other Phat Fiber contributors are working on in the Ravelry thread and their inspiration boards on Pinterest.

The Help

I've been working on a guest blog post for Holla Knits - kind of a "getting to know you" sort of post - and one of the questions Allyson asked is "Are you a one woman show?" Initially, I was thinking: Yes, I do everything but the really tough accounting (love ya, Jerry). Looking through some pictures, I've realized I do have a pair of unpaid interns. They work for room and board, and help with many aspects of my business.

Quality control.


Photography.


Packing (and unpacking).


Actually, it might be nice to be a one woman show.

It's Fiber Arts Friday! Link up your fiber adventures with the Wonder Why Gal and see what other fiberistas are up to.

Yarn Along

Reading: A Chicken in Every Yard, by Robert and Hannah Litt (guess what I'm thinking of doing this spring?)

Knitting: Convertible Baby Bloomers, by Carina Spencer. The yarn is a Pagewood Farm dk weight that I've had in my stash for what feels like forever. The pattern is one that I purchased about 5 seconds after I found out I was having a baby girl, but have somehow managed to not knit until now.

Embroidered Yoga Bag

Or, how this will motivate me to go to yoga class.

I've been practicing yoga off and on for about 10 years. Going to practice lately, I've noticed some pretty cool patterned bags out there - and have been tempted to buy one. Back in the early days of internet retail shopping, I bought a large yoga bag, which was pretty plain, but very serviceable. It's large enough that it fits my large mat, wallet, phone, and other stuff I seem to always have with me. I could probably even squeeze in a knitting project, if I really wanted to. So, I love the bag - but it's plain.

Having recently purchased a slew of embroidery thread, I was inspired to make changes. This is a freehand design - I did the flowers first, then traced outlines stems with tailor's chalk before embroidering them with the stem stitch.


We'll see if this actually gets me to yoga tomorrow...

Making yarn while the sun shines

I love to dry everything outside - it just seems like such a fresh, natural way to finish off the yarns.


That, and my living room is the alternate location.