Yoda, On His Way to Third Grade

Yoda, on his way to third grade. Hope your day is full of spooky fun!!

(Felted Baby Yoda hat, upsized for big boy. Details on Ravelry.)

Drop Everything and Knit This, STAT!

Unless you have been living under a rock (and I say that in the most loving way, since I live there most of the time) you might have noticed that cowls seem to be HOT.

I had sort of noticed this cowl phenomenon, but not really paid attention. Then, the other week when my mom was here, I was showing her how to use Ravelry, and being the Diaper Lady that she is, I thought she might have an interest in cowl patterns. Well, if you search for cowl patterns on Ravelry, you come up with 20 pages for crying out loud! And many of the patterns are free!

I found this one that I like a lot. It called for sport weight, but I added one 12 stitch repeat and used some leftover sock yarn. (Being that I have a dump truck load of leftover sock yarn on hand.)

Just a couple of soccer games and a movie or two later....and you have this funny looking lumpy tubey thing. (About 9 inches long, stretched.)

Block it out (using a hair dryer, to speed up the process if you are really excited!)

Voila! Blocked measurements 8" wide by 9" high.

Just the right amount of scrunch, not too much flop. You will notice that it doesn't even match what I'm wearing, so excited was I to snap a photo and break the news of this fantastic project.

See? Excited! I predict a bevy of these in my future. Match every outfit! Give them to friends! Make it the Official Teacher Gift of 2008! I won't leave you out, Mom!

The pattern is free and don't tell me you don't have 36 gm of sock yarn in your favorite color (or you could go all mavericky and use the sport weight that the pattern calls for), so go. Bedeck thyself in cowls and be happy.

Pattern: Razor Shell Neckwarmer

Yarn: Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn in Crimson (36 gms)

Needle: size 2 Addi Natura (I knit loosely and use 2 sizes smaller than usual)

Mods: cast on 108 instead of 96 to compensate for using fingering weight instead of sport.

Distracting You From the Lack of Finishing

Would you just sit down and knit us some neckbands, already??!!

To distract you from my recent lack of knitting content, how about something bright and shiny, like a vintage chair re-do?!

Behold, the great vintage chair I scored at a thrift/antique store in Indiana this summer while visiting my mom. (James Dean Gallery and shop in Fairmount for my Hoosier buds.) It just needed a little elbow grease and TLC.

And some Amy Butler yardage wouldn't hurt, either.

I plopped it down into its new spot and all three kids immediately shrieked: MINE!

Here it is in its new setting. (with Sophie and cow taking an increasingly rare afternoon nap.)

Is this little fabric cute or what!? (Psst... I just noticed that it's on sale here--don't call me an enabler!!) I know it's official name is "Frest Start" but don't you think around the office they refer to it as "retro tvs"??!!

Signing off now to go knit some neckbands.....have a great weekend!

Yarn Con Rocks Chicago

Yarn Con totally rocked! I had so much fun. The above photo is kind of messy, but it is the only one I got of the whole room. Can you see the windows at the far right side of the photo? My booth was right under those windows, and you can kind of see Blogless Carla's head right next to the windows as she was tending my booth and I was off galavanting and taking bad photos.

Below you can see my booth in its pristine pre-customer state.

The chip-and-dip candy corn display was a huge hit!

And one more close up of the yarny goodness.

It was so fun to get out of my suburban mom world and downtown to the land of the hip. Picture the Stitches crowd, add piercings, babies in slings, some pink hair*, and a liberal sprinkling of Obama buttons (pun intended), and you've got Yarn Con. Oh, and let's not forget the handknits. Hands down, Wicked was the most popular knit I saw. (Honk if you were wearing Wicked!) And let me tell you, that sweater looks great on everybody! Must move it to the top of the queue!

It was fun to see what the stylin' knitters were wearing. I started getting delirious and addressing the handknits. A lady walks by-"Hello Central Park Hoodie!" Two gals walk into the booth--"why, hello February Lady and Wicked".

As far as the vendors, there was quite a bit of yarn, celebrities, bags, some jewelry, and other yarny accessories. You can see the whole vendor list here. I just got to do a quick once-around before the show started, and then I was so busy in my own booth, that I didn't get to really study what was going on in the rest of the room. (BTW there was one room last year--the first year--and this year it had expanded to two rooms. Next year--the world!) If I didn't vend, I would definitely drive downtown to attend. However, I will certainly apply again next year, I would love to do it again.

A huge shout out to everyone who was there! The friends and customers I got to see again or meet for the first time. Ann, Bonne Marie, Jan, Theresa, Rachel, Adrienne, Angela, Franklin, Stacey, Jen, Dee, Gretl, Linda, Judy, Laura, Laurel, and organizers Sara and Natalia. I hope I didn't forget anyone. It was such a blur, and I am still trying to sort it all out in my mind-putting the names with the faces, blogs, and etsy names.

Another big shout out and a big thank you for Blogless Carla for being my assistant. I couldn't ask for a better helper! MWAH!

p.s. If you were sad because you missed out on the Candy Corn last week, I just put the last couple of skeins in the shop.

* I fit right in! (But that's a whole other post.)