You can never have enough...

Bags!  I couldn't say no to this cute sheep bag, especially since it was 1/2 off!  Sorry it's a little blurry.  As I eluded to last time, we've been working on a project here.  I was thinking about the booth at OFFF and how people will be buying (hopefully!) lots of things and needing a bag to put their new treasures in.  I'm a fan of reusable bags, another reason I couldn't say no to the sheep bag.  So I got some organic, fair trade bags

And Eric came up with a stencel.  The design matches my new labels.  Did I ever show you those?  I think I solved the problem with uploading photos so maybe I should get to that. Anyways, the design:

I'm sure you can use your imagination to picture the design on the bag.  We still have some kinks to work out with the stencil, but very promising!  

So if you want to get one for your self you can come to OFFF or you can buy one at the shop! (as soon as they are there!)  The bags are priced at $3.50 each or FREE!  with a $35 purchase.  

If you are free tomorrow and in the Portland area you can see this

We'll be selling from 10-2 at 76th and Stark across from Mr Plywood!

There's a crying baby so if I left anything out tell me and I'll post next time.

Slightly Rested

See Betty, I'm in a picture!

Vacation is never really a vacation anymore.  Having a baby sort of detracts from rest.  But totally worth every second!  e has a tooth!  On friday it finally popped through.  I think more are close behind.  He did pretty good for having a tooth come in.  I've also learned the importance of a nap. Enough about baby though!

I started knitting!  Ahh.  I'm knitting my first color work piece too.  Endpaper Mitts (Ravelry link) I think they are looking pretty good.

You can see the new office space in the background!  A little messy, but an improvement.

I'm probably knitting too loose to air on the side of caution.  But I also didn't have the right needle size to make the size that would fit me.  I think it all works.  I've done one full repeat of the pattern and have started the second, I'm not sure what I think of the colors I chose.

I might reverse it on the next mitt to see if the pattern shows up better.  I almost wonder if I messed up the pattern because it's not coming through very consistent.  I was knitting this while on the train with my mom and e.  Trying to hold a conversation and make sure e was adequately entertained!  We'll see what the next pattern repeat reveals.  I decided to knit these as samples for the booth at OFFF.  Now that I'm back I feel like I need to dye everyday to get it all done!  I need to call my baby sitters!  

More to come later about the trip, e is now international, and about a treat that will be at OFFF!  E's working on somethings that will be in the booth!

busy busy busy...

As a bee!  We're gearing up for a trip to Blaine for a family visit.  It's also my ten year reunion.  So many things to say about that but I'm sure you can imagine all the emotions that go with it. We're taking the train up and down which will be quite an adventure.  E will be staying home and working so we'll miss him quite a bit.

Other things keeping me busy is Knitted Wit.  I've slowly been posting things which is fun.  Etsy has gotten a lot faster for posting, it's nice not to sit here waiting for things to load!  I'm also gearing up for the sock club.  Quite the tall order, but looking forward to the exposure.  

I'm really enjoying the little office set up I have going on, I promise I'll take a picture to show you. Pretty modern.  All that HGTV paid off!  

I'm worn out so this might be my last post until we're back from Blaine.  I hope you are enjoying the last bits of summer!

Baby it's hot!

I am melting...yuck.  Well the camping trip was a bust.  The camp ground we wanted to stay at didn't have running water, neither did the back up option.  We didn't bring out filter to use for the river running by so we left the area and went to a camp ground that was a little fancier.  We then realized that we forgot E's medicine so we needed to get back as early as possible so he could take it.  Then on our way home I wanted to stop at some kind of farm since we were on the Fruit Loop but none of the farms were open.  GRRRR.  The positives (which I'm really trying to focus on) are we realized how to pack better and what we really need to remember.  e didn't really enjoy so much time in the car seat but trooped through it pretty well.  

Another positive of coming back early was redoing the craft/e room.  I got some new furniture via craigslist and ikea.  What a difference.  No photos because I'm still organizing and there's some bags of junk laying around.  But I'm stuck home due to the heat so I keep chugging away on it.  I'm also hoping to photograph some yarn and wool for the shop.  Now that I know how to use the camera a little better I think the pics will look nicer.  

It's also been nice getting some quality time with e.  I think we're going through a little growth spurt/teeth/major motor skill changes.  He is now rolling onto his tummy, getting his right arm stuck and moving his legs like he's trying to crawl.  That's a lot to accomplish in one move!  

I think I fixed the comment bug Shannon if you want to try again.  If not, will you tell me?  I'm also going to try putting some pics up to see how long it takes to load.  I'm going to try them smaller and you can clickety-click-click to make them bigger.

Aww, we have pictures!  These are the ones I was going to put up a week or two ago.  These are all going to be available at Twisted and in the shop once the photos are taken.  I really like how these turned out.  Perfect for socks, lace, mittens, whatever you dream up.  I've also been thinking about making pairs of colors for mittens that were featured in the fall Vogue issue. There area number of mitten patters out there using color work.  If you are interested let me know.  I like mixing up nutty colors.  I'm off to soak in some cold water.

What day is it?

Time is flying by and I can't seem to make sense of it!  Today we (e and I) sold yarn and roving at the market!  I've been pretty busy getting ready for that and over all, getting ready for OFFF.  And tomorrow we are off camping.  This is probably the last time we'll go this summer and E is making a three day weekend out of it.  The big family vacation!  Wee.   In years past we usually take a week off and go on a little road trip.  Two years ago we drove the whole Oregon coast, from Astoria to Brookings.  Beautiful.  This year I think we're headed to the gorge and going to Hood River.  Then south a little, but hitting the Fruit Loop before setting up camp.  E is going to pick up flowers, probably sun flowers, and paint.  I'm hoping for some lavender for future sewing projects.  

On the craft front I've been spinning my fingers to the bone.  We just got cable, the first time in both my adult life and E's of having such a luxury!  I told him if e and I figured out breast feeding we could get cable.  I figured since we weren't buying formula we could kind of afford cable.  The only time we watch cable is when we're on vacation and stay in a hotel!  I feel like I've been on vacation in my own house!  That's one of the reasons time is going by so fast and I haven't been around.  HGTV sucks me in and it's hard to break away.  Enough about the telly.  I have two big yarn cakes I need to ply and one bobbin to finish up tonight before we take off for camping.  I want to take two empty bobbins for the trip and I'll ply next week.  I'm starting to get a little frustrated that I don't really have time to knit any more.  I think I've been spinning so much because I actually finish the task.  I get a quicker gratification for starting and finishing something than knitting.  But usually in the winter the spinning slows down and I want to snuggle on the couch.  I'll also be back on the bus which is all knitting all the time!

I'm off to get ready for camping and I'll be back with some great photos!  I'll leave you with this, e is now three months old!  He was a week and half in this picture!  What a sweetie.

Well I was going to leave you with a photo.  Does anybody know why blogger sucks at uploading pictures?  Do I need to make the picture smaller?  This is why I haven't shown the pictures of the labels.  I know it will take forever.  Dang.

Life at a fast pace

We're trying to keep up!  Camping was great.  We learned a few things, missed a few items we forgot, but most importantly we had a good time.  I even got the same amount of sleep I would've if I was home.  Not too shabby.   That was our test run, this next weekend we're going for two nights, and not in Oma's (grandma in german) back yard!

I just realized that I don't have pictures ready for the label show and tell.  So a little tease

ready to play

(He's into taking two hour naps now!)

Earlier I had snapped pictures and was ready to snuggle in and write a post, and wouldn't you know it e woke up from the nap!  Here we are now at another nap ready to play.  

Thank you for the anniversary kindness.  We had a raging time at the outlet mall buying nursing tops for me.  That was E's present to me.  I know, romantic.  

So here is the knitting question I eluded to earlier.  I have a blanket, the log cabin-ish one, that I need to add on to.  I can't remember how I was doing it.  See how the stitches aren't ridges?

When I was doing it right I would cast off then add the new color with the garter stitch doing the right thing.

Now I can't remember how to start a color with out the garter ridge being disrupted.  You can see in this picture all the seams looking correct.

Next time there's knit night I have a feeling I'll be bugging Michele!  I might have to get in line though!  That's George up in the corner from George and Martha.  Some of our favorite books! 

So I also was going to talk about the new labels and dyeing.  I'm going to do a post on the process of getting the yarn all ready for market so I need to take some more photos.  I did get some dying done yesterday while grandma was here (yay for grandma's!).  I really like the way the colors turned out.    We're going camping tomorrow so give me a few days to get back with the label story. 

Today

Three years ago, on a tuesday, we were doing this

Now, we're doing this

and a lot of this

Happy August 2nd

(actual crafting content coming up: the label is finished, 

I need help with a blanket, and I'm dyeing tomorrow!)