Sock Summit Recap

I was not as prepared for the sheer exhaustion that I would encounter from being 3 time zones away from home and on my feet on a concrete floor all day! I really meant to take more pictures and blog like crazy, but um, that was NOT possible, much to my dismay. I'm still recovering in fact. I went to work today and well, let's just say I should have stayed home and slept. Everyone I encountered would have had a much better day!

Anyway, on to the recap!

Here's a picture of the finished booth:

Isn't it so cute? We had a 'backyard' theme with clothes wire and pins to hang the yarn with, picnic table fabric and a cute little bit of fabric from IKEA for the 'grass'. There were many comments on how fun and colorful the booth looked!

Things went well and we had a lot of fun and I have all of YOU to thank for it! Without you, this wouldn't have been possible; thank you so very, very much! <3Queen Bee. I really couldn't stop myself. It was the only real splurge, but seriously, I *needed* a new bag (har). Someday I will have some of their panniers for my bike. And there I go drooling again.
Fabric Depot was having a giant sale while we were there so I also scored some fabric. I could NOT pass by the Alexander Henry owls or the 'save the earth' canvas. I feel some cute projects coming on!


And finally, the yarn. I snagged the last two Zombie BBQ from the Loopy Ewe booth and got some gorgeous colorways from Blue Moon: Tlingit, a mill end of some variety, and ST2.


We did go to the Rav party and there are some great pics from that, but they're on another camera, so I'll get them in the next post.

Stay tuned for new colorways and some of the Pin Ups in the Etsy store!

Sock Summit Day 1

Hello from the Sock Summit!

Things here are awesome, exhausting, wonderful, scary, and just plain WILD!

This is Cheryl and Darilee helping to finish setting up at the verylastminute. Seriously.


This is the line of knitters waiting for the market to open as we're racing to finish:

My mom took the one of all the knitters. I think she was a tad shocked.

Yesterday was super busy with lots of errand running, picking up boxes, setting up the booth, racing to IKEA for more stuff, and some how managing to fit in a visit to Queen Bee Creations where I found this gorgeous wallet. I've needed a new one for a while, and whoa, this was totally the one.


Since the market didn't start until 4:30 and today was my only day to do any site seeing, we drove up to Mt. Hood. Mom, Darilee, me, and Cheryl at 3000 or 4000 feet:

We tasted wine, shopped at a farmers market, and ate an incredibly refreshing lunch at a cute little bistro in an adorable little town called Hood River. A lot like Athens, only hipper.

And finally, me and Liz of Mackintosh Yarns just after the Opening Reception. We might have had a beer. And lots of laughs and few tears. Steph and Tina are hilarious together and told us all the story of how the Sock Summit came to be. Someone videotaped it, so I'm sure that will be up soon.

More pictures tomorrow! We're having a blast, but we're SO tired too!

Running to stand still

Hi there! Long time no see! Or chat. Whatever!

I've spent the last month in 'dye, dye, dye, reskein, label, inventory' mode for the Sock Summit! Everything is finally out to the Portland area (thanks Stacey!) and I can relax! So I've taken this week as a breather, but Saturday I'll be dyeing the last colorway for the Mythos club and Nate will reskein it all while I'm away so it will go right out to club members the moment I get back. Yay! I'll have sign ups for a new club at the Summit and then I'll present it to you all when I get back!

In case you missed it on Ravelry, there's a Dye for Glory competition in which all Rav members can vote on skeins dyed by vendors at the Sock Summit! There are a TON of gorgeous colorways, so if you haven't gone to vote, please go. You won't be sorry (but your credit card might). Hurry, voting ends tomorrow!!

I dyed up a new line of colorways called Pin Ups using the cashmere/merino/nylon sock base (YUM!)! These are inspired by and named for classic and new pin up girls and I think there's a ton of room for fun and creativity with these colorways.

I submitted the following colorways in the Dye for Glory competition:


In Watercolors, I give you Marilyn:


In Tertiary, there's Hedy:



In Kettled we have Gypsy Rose:


Fun, eh? I love them all so much it was hard to pack them up and ship them to Portland. I also realized after packing that I didn't take pictures of the rest! But I'll do that as I unpack, promise. There are seven more and they're all really stunning! And there are more to come! The Etsy store is currently empty (it's so sad and lonely!) but whatever I have left from SS09 will go up right away and I'll be taking orders for everything that sells out.

I've also been knitting. I picked up the Ishbel pattern the other day and cast on right away. This is Dream in Color Smooshy in the In Vino Veritas colorway that I found at Stitches South a few months back. I think it's coming along nicely.


I've posted a few of my languishing WIPs on my Ravelry page. I've had them all in a basket for a while, so this week I sorted things out because the clutter was getting to me. There's at least one sweater that's almost finished and two more that need some love. I also cast on for another Shedir hat because I keep giving mine away! Then I have a pair of socks that I can't post because they're a surprise for my raffle winner. I'm to the heel on the first one though and it looks great!

I've also been doing a bit of impromptu baking. I found some GIGANTIC peaches at the farmer's market last weekend so I waited until they were super ripe, juicy, and a little squishy and cut them up for a big old fashioned peach cobbler. Oh. Em. Gee. It was sooo delicious. Not too sweet, just right.

It didnt' last 24 hours. Seriously.

Next week I'll be at the Sock Summit, and I plan to take TONS of pictures because I know so many folks can't make it. I hope to be updating daily here and on flickr so you can see the booth and the market, the World Record attempt, the Ravelry meetup, and the Luminary Panel. There's soooo much going on that I don't think I'll be able to make it everything, but I'm going to do my best!

I'm totally nervous, but really excited too! I can't believe it's here so fast! SQUEE!

dyeing and sewing and baking, oh my!

I have maybe been a little busy.

Sorry this shot has to be in black and white, but there are a few skeins of club yarn at the top and it can't be seen yet! This pile of yarn to be wound represents about half of what I've dyed, which is about a third of what I plan to dye. Maybe a shade more. I hope Nate is saving up some podcasts to listen to, because he has a serious pile of work to do.

My mom will be here next week to help me out and I'm going to teach her how to dye as well. She's SO excited and I'm so grateful. We've needed to spend some time together for a while now and it will be great to see her. This might mean that I need to work hard on my summer class project before she comes so that I won't have to worry about it while she's here. Crap.

In sewing news, I kinda fell down at a store I found in Atlanta called Intown Quilters. Oh my hell at the deliciousness to be found within. Every Amy Butler fabric I've ever seen and some I must have missed, along with Heather Bailey, Anna Marie Horner, Michael Miller, Alexander Henry, Jay McCarroll, etc. with a capital E.

My friend Laura picked out this fat quarter collection of yummy lime green, black and white. We had both been eyeing it but there was just ONE. So she bought it and pulled out two that she wants me to make as bags for her and I get to keep the rest! IEEE!


These are the FQs that I bought myself. If I have time they'll become notions pouches for the Sock Summit, but if not, maybe they'll go in the etsy store.


And for the finale, I bought the fabric to make an Emmaline Apron. Holy whoa is that thing cute! And SEXY. I don't think anyone will miss me at the Sock Summit if I'm covered in lime green and teal. The sash and ties are a solid lime green, naturally. I've cut out all the pieces except the bias strips. That's blowing my mind for some reason. I'm going to start sewing tomorrow anyway. Heh.


On a final note, check out my first squash!!! We grilled it and a few others (store bought) with our very thick pork chops this weekend and it was SO delicious. I have one more that can be picked and I realized as I watered this evening that I have several little green roma tomatoes, so I'll be watching for those to grow and turn red.


My next garden pick will be the kale. It's long and curly and so gorgeous that I don't want to cut it, but it's time! I'm going to make Zuppa Toscana with it this week. YUM. I can hardly wait!

Since planting our garden we've become avid food blog readers. There's so much inspiration out there! It's a wonder I'm not gaining weight just reading them! A friend (Alison, who blogs here and dyes yarn here) pointed me to this one since we have the Breadmaker's Apprentice book and wow do I want to do this bread-along thing. Like we need that much bread in our house, seriously. Worst case scenario is that I could send it to friends right? Right?

Post-itis

OH HI THERE!

I'm still alive, promise! And I am going to try to blog more because I really miss it!

Our dyeing for the Sock Summit is moving along slowly but surely. I found some spin issues with one of the yarns and have had to send it back, so that's totally got me freaked out, but more is coming and the dyeing will go on. Fingers crossed.


I'm also doing a bit of sewing too. I've almost forgotten how much I enjoy a productive sewing day. I'm working on some notions pouches and some cute little box bags for the Summit, and I hope to have some in the Etsy store eventually too.

Just the beginning of the notion bag pile which includes a ton of Amy Butler and some Kaffe Fassett:


A sample box bag:



I might accidentally have acquired a quilting bug this month. It is not unlike the swine flu. Except when it is. It caused me to trip and fall and buy jelly rolls of gorgeous fabric to make throw quilts for my couch. DARN. But they'll keep me warm, I keep saying to myself, and they'll be prettier than the ratty old blankets I've been using! Yeah, that's it.

Our garden has really taken off too! We have some gorgeous plants that are growing very well and, um, rather quickly. We already harvested our lettuce and chard and it was DELICIOUS.

This is our first squash flower. I took this last week and now we have about 12 more flowers. We might be overrun with squash pretty soon. Just a guess.

My friend, Caryn, gave us four more roma tomato plants. There was no room in the SFG so we planted them in their own pots. The one last one has a second squash plant in it as well.

Again, this picture was taken last week and I swear that squash plant has doubled in size since then. It's totally crowding out the tomato plant in the top left and overshadowing what's left of the chard on the right. The tiny green spots are all pepper plants and an eggplant. All growing a bit slowly, but it might be that the squash is sucking the life out of everything else.

Oh, and see the ant hill at the bottom? Right up there ^? They will not go away. I spray organic stuff and they just move over a bit. Fuckers.

In addition to growing our own food in these lean times, I've become a coupon whore. Publix has buy one get one free items every week, so I save up my coupons for stuff I need, then I go and raid their BOGO stuff. As evidenced below:

I spent $19.68 (stuff I didn't have coupons for, sadly) and saved $42.50. It's like winning the lottery!

Leave me a comment if you're interested in learning more!

Hope you're all having a great short week!

WINNERS!!

I want to thank you all SO VERY MUCH for donating to my Sock Summit raffle! Thanks to you guys and some generous friends, Lotus Yarns will be in Portland for the Sock Summit in August!!!

I'm extremely excited though admittedly a little nervous. This will be my first show EVER and I'm traveling a long way to do it, but I think it will be tons of fun! At the very least I hope to meet some of you and make lots of new friends!

So, on to the winners shall we?

I set up a spreadsheet with all the donators listed the appropriate number of times for their donation, then I cut them all up and put them in a big old dye pot and had Nate act as my lovely assistant and draw names!


Oh hi. I printed really tiny and it's a really big dye pot. Har.


Ok, winners! Pretend there's a drumroll....


Prize #1 - One pair of socks, handknit by me for you! Janette Smith!!


Prize #2 - One skein of the Lotus Yarns Hydroponic colorway handdyed by me! Claire Eymin!!


Prize #3 - 10 skeins of Noro Kureyon in color 185, generously donated by allnoro.com! Kendyl Young!!



Prize #4 - One handsewn box bag in Amy Butler fabrics from the lovely Carrie! Courtney Denney!!



Prize #5 - 10 balls of Elspeth Lavold Calm Wool (003-ashes colorway), donated by Main Street Yarns! Lauren Botelle!!



Prize #6 - One skein of Wollmeise in the Wilder Mohn colorway donated by the fabulous Erica! Heidi!! (whom I do not have a last name for, sorry! but you were the only Heidi, so there's no confusion!)



Prize #7 - 8oz. tub of whipped Shea Butter donated by Kim! Kristen Rengren!!



Prize #8 - Blue Moon Fibers' SilkySocks in Lunasea, donated by Renee! Mary Rogovin!!



Prize #9 - Blue Moon Fibers Socks That Rock in Flower Power, also donated by Renee! Belinda Toby!!





Please email me with your shipping addresses, and Janette I'll need to get with you on a pattern and yarn!

Thanks again, everyone, for participating and helping me move to the next level. I really appreciate all of your love, support and encouragement!

More updates on the Sock Summit progress as I nail down decisions. I'm trying to keep it as frugal as possible and I'll also have cute little things that are NOT yarn at the booth. They are so cute but I'll blog about those later!

For now, I'm just so happy to be going that I squee at least once a day!!

xoxo

Blog Raffle!

***This raffle will run through the end of April and I'll be drawing winners on MAY 1!!!***

Hi there. I'm interrupting this irregularly updated blog to bring you a contest for lots of yummy prizes!

Yarn type prizes. For yarn type folks. LIKE YOU. Yeah, you. Hi there. Did I tell you how hot you look today? Mhmmmmm.


So here's the situation. I've been invited to be a vendor at the Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon, in August. YAY! I'm super excited! This will be an incredible opportunity to get my name and company out there to more knitters and really make my dyeing business dreams come true! Dudes, this is SO BIG for me. I can't even put it into words what it means to be invited.



But I need your help. Things are very tight and getting there is going to be unbelievably hard on us financially. As in, I *can't* do it without help. I also work for a (broke as hell) state university that is threatening furloughs, which could make this impossible.

This is where the prizes come in!

Every $5 donation gets your name put into a big pot. At the end of the contest, I'll pull out names for the following prizes:

Prize #1 - One pair of socks, handknit by me for you!

Prize #2 - One skein of the Lotus Yarns Hydroponic colorway handdyed by me!



Prize #3 - 10 skeins of Noro Kureyon in color 185, generously donated by allnoro.com!


Prize #4 - One handsewn box bag in Amy Butler fabrics from the lovely Carrie!



Prize #5 - 10 balls of Elspeth Lavold Calm Wool (003-ashes colorway), donated by Main Street Yarns!

Prize #6 - One skein of Wollmeise in the Wilder Mohn colorway donated by the fabulous Erica! (p.s. I want to keep this REAL BAD.)


Prize #7 - 8oz. tub of whipped Shea Butter donated by Kim (who is starting her own biz venture as I type)!

Prize #8 - Blue Moon Fibers' SilkySocks in Lunasea, donated by Renee!


Prize #9 - Blue Moon Fibers Socks That Rock in Flower Power, also donated by Renee!

I'm working on a few more prizes, so keep checking back! If you'd like to raffle for something specific, please note it in the comments!

Thank you so very much for your donation. Your support means the world to me!

All donations over what I need will be divided equally and sent to my local homeless shelter and rape crisis center.

what i did on my spring break...

Ok, so it's only the first official day of spring break, but I do still have to work so I got busy doing the things on the list in my head.

I've always wanted a garden, and now that time are a little tougher (or a lot!) for everyone, I decided to go for it. I want to be able to grow my own vegetables and have them available whenever I want right out of my own yard instead of from China (or wherever else they might be imported).

Unfortunately our yard is nothing but Georgia red clay. Grass doesn't even grow here willingly. And our 'yard' is not very big and mostly a hill. Not much room for a garden.

So I bought a book called Square Foot Gardening, read it last night, and then went to my local nursery and Lowes to get what we needed. We ended up having to call a friend to help us with the plywood because it wouldn't fit in our car! Thanks Jacob!

Nate and I picked some plants we know we'll use including 4 different kinds of HOT peppers (all Nate), carrots, squash, lettuce, parsnips, beets, eggplant, kale, swiss chard, onions, tomatoes, basil and marigolds (so pretty!).


Nate is a better box builder and general drill operator than me, so he took over building the box. It was super easy and we had it together in just a few minutes.

p.s. This is the flattest spot in our yard. Directly above is a hill and directly below is a slope that goes down another 20-30 feet to a creek. But we do have loads of trees, so it kind of makes up for it.

Then he attached the plywood bottom.


And we have a garden box! It's sitting on weed paper if you're curious. (not that kind of weed.)


And now for the fun part - mixing together the dirt! We started with blending the compost. At the very bottom is cow poo, then on the left side is mushroom compost and the darkest stuff is worm poo. Mmmm.


Then we added peat moss and vermiculite and stirred it all up.

Yay! Real dirt!

We filled up the box with dirt and added the lattice grids. The idea is that you plant each square foot with something different and the grid helps you divide up the box into equal squares. It's also super cute!

Finally, we have some seeds in the dirt and cute little markers so I know what the hell I'm looking at when I go out there. I was able to plant seven squares today and the rest have to be grown inside for a while.


In a few weeks I should have some super yummy vegetables! So. Excited.

Next up...painting my bathrooms! (not quite as exciting.)

A Few of My Favorite Things

We are busy little bees over at Chez Lotus! I've gotten really slack about updating though because it's easier to just Twitter stuff quickly or bitch and moan on Ravelry. I know, I suck. :P

One of the things I'm working on is a website for Lotus Yarns (which I might have to rename because of some Chinese company, but maybe not...GRRR. we'll see). Learning Photoshop is fun and time consuming so I hope the final product will be made of awesome! So far I have a basic main page, but I'll be adding purchasing software (a store) and a gallery of colorways and finished products. Woot! None of this is online yet. Boo.

Speaking of shops, we've been working on a pretty serious shop local initiative, at least at our house. Athens itself has had a cute little "Shop Your ATH Off" slogan around town (pic here, thanks Bill!) and so we've joined in.

Shop local...why? For me it's about keeping money in my town if I can. That includes relatively big boxed stores (since they employ people who live here) AND locally owned shops. For Valentine's Day, Nate bought me some gorgeous opal earrings and a matching necklace from a super cute little downtown store. I bought him some books on baking bread from Borders and together we got a few baking supplies from another local store.

My sweetie made us whole wheat bagels, which is very time consuming and almost not worth the effort, but man are they tasty.


Another crazy thing I'm trying: Green smoothies. Call me nuts. They taste pretty good to me. The only downside is that the ladies on Ravelry are making me want blenders I can not afford. Le sigh.

And believe it or not, I AM KNITTING. I'm almost finished with this pair of socks in Shibui Sock Pebble (or Sand? I can't remember). The colorway is pretty but I really hate the pooling. Doesn't matter though, I'll be wearing them anyway since I've finally made toes that AREN'T square OR pointy. It's a knitting miracle.


I'm also working on two sweaters and a cowl, but I forgot to photograph them this week. Oops!

And before I forget - YARNY GIVEAWAY! Carrieoke is collecting donations for Athens Literacy Council and she's holding a drawing for handknit socks, a handknit cowl, and Lotus Yarns superwash fingering yarn in a CUSTOM COLORWAY made just for YOU! Sweet, eh?

Aside from Photoshopping and knitting, this is a new favorite thing. Add water, lemonade, or actual sweet tea and whoa. Not for the faint of heart. This will knock you on your ass if you're a lightweight like me. Whoops.


Another favorite thing? YARN. I culled my stash this week in preparation to anonymously give to the LSG RAK thing on Ravelry. I realized there were many things I loved and some of them will never see the light of day if I don't give them a better home. There's some Yarn Pirate, some Noro Kureyon Sock, several lace weight yarns, and a few things I've dyed myself. I'll miss you dear yarns, but now I have room for more. Ahem.


Finally, not a favorite thing:

Viral rashes. OMG with the itchies. More pictures here on flickr, this one in particular is very tame. I was sick with a pretty bad cold a few weeks ago and this is the aftermath. I've never had a rash like this before, so I freaked out a little and ran screaming and begging to my doctor to make it stop only to have him say, "I have no idea what this is". Thanks dude. He referred me to a dermatologist and I got a shot and two weeks worth of drugs. The swelling and itchiness is gone but the red spots remain for now. It's amazing how insane just itching can make a person. Whoa. I'm lucky I didn't hurt anyone.