Peacock colors

I was looking for a change-up in my life and decided to get some color streaks in my hair.  I couldn't love it more. 

What do you do...

When you have this many crochet hooks? 



Well, one can never have too many crochet hooks...







 So you get a couple more...
I traded this one (made from purple heart wood, with copper wire inlay) for some computer work and new business cards for Allen Berry, "The Spindle Smith"- He was one of the vendors at the wool sale. Allen makes beautiful drop spindles, carved wood buttons and these delightful crochet hooks. (sorry, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of his drop spindles and the gorgeous carved wooden buttons)

The top one is made from Mahogany, the middle one (see close up above) is made from teak, and again, the purple heart one.  $18.00 each - I thought that was a very goooood deal. 


Yes, we had a really good time at the Wool sale.  It is so much fun to get new toys!

And now for something (not so completely) different...

 Last fall at the Artisan's Faire I participated in,  our friend Lydia bought some of my yarn and asked me if I could make fingerless gloves for her (grown) daughters for Christmas presents. 

Well, I love Lydia to pieces and was only too happy to comply.  In fact, I decided to go one step farther and make little cowls for the gals to match the gloves.  
 


In this set, for the cowl, I dipped into my stash of "little balls of yarn" and used bits and pieces of left over yarns from other projects, the turquoise from the gloves, next was some yarn that had turquoise, blue and golden brown from a baby sweater I made a few years ago, (which matched the golden that I had left over from making the other set - see below), then some navy, that had a little of the gold color in it from a hat I made for my sister, plus some light turquoise (which was some of the first yarn that I ever spun!) and then finally another couple of rows of the original color.

 


I don't think the colors could have gone together any better if I had planned them to be that way. 

 For as many crochet books and magazines that I have, I ended up making up this pattern from an afghan pattern that I found - and added two silver buttons to keep it closed. 

This was a "small" version of my favorite scarf - Mosiac Scarf's Little Sister - I used some Ferndale Fiber Potluck Roving called "Golden Pear" that I got last year at our friends fiber sale.  It is not a color that she makes on a regular basis, so I was lucky to get it. 

I was spinning it at the Artisans Faire to demonstrate how yarn was made.  Lydia bought it right off the wheel!  After I made the gloves, I looked at the gold with some brown alpaca that I had spun up and decided that they were a natural together.

It made quite a pretty ensemble, don't you think?  I just put one brown wooden button on this one - The roving was fairly soft and of course, the alpaca was absolutely dreamy. 

I hope that they are enjoying their gifts as much as I enjoyed making them. 

Artisans Faire

 Last Saturday I did an Artisans Faire with my yarn and some crocheted items.  I also invited a couple of friends to bring some of their knitted and woven items because I didn't feel like I had enough to fill my table.  - my yarn and other items are on the card table on the right - the other three ladies had the table on the left, with stacking cubes. 

 
If you click on the pictures they will biggify a little and you can see all the different yarn I had to sell.

I sold 5 skeins out of 20 - well, make that 4 skeins out of 20 and the one that was on my spinning wheel...

The other artisans were pretty happy with their sales though

This lady had lotions, lip balms and scrubs. 

There were several very fine jewelery booths.

My friend Linda put together this pretty basket for a door prize from all of the artisans.

Our friend Jim was there as a featured musician with his Nyckelharpe - it is a traditional Norwegian instrument. I also had my guitar and played for about 1/2 hour.  I can't believe that I used to sing and play for three hours with only two 15 minute breaks.  That would kill me now!!!

One of the vendors was called "The Bag Lady" - Turns out she went to high school with some friends of mine -  2 degrees of separation....

At this point, I'm not sure if I will participate in the faire next year - it is a LOT of work, setting up and taking down, being there all day, etc.  - I made enough to buy some Christmas presents for my sisters, pay for Chinese take-out so I wouldn't have to make dinner -Got lots of nice compliments on my yarn, but, that doesn't pay for the fiber to spin...