Montavilla Farmer's Market

It's that time again! The next three Sundays, plus one in October, I'll be at the farmer's market on Stark and 76th. Stop by between 10 and 2 and say hello!

I'm a quitter

I started this beautiful shawl (ravelry link) with my Dye For Glory entrance SemiSolid Peacock. After doing the first section of lace work and starting the second chart I'm ready to be done. I don't have time to knit that big of a piece! So I'm taking suggestions on a quick knit for shawls. I want to use the Merino Tencel yarn for a sample in my booth, I think the yarn will have a fabulous drape. Some thing I'm not quitting is my three sock samples. I started these all at Sock Summit and I'm to the gusset on all three! There just plain socks, but it's so much fun knitting with the yarn. I really like how the colors are coming together. The bottom sock is Rose City, the top left is Peacock, BaaaBoo yarn, and the right is Peacock on super wash merino.

Something else I'm not quitting on is e sleeping through the night. After having too many nights with not enough sleep I decided it was time to try sleep training again. I'm doing a modified version, what works for us essentially. e sleeps in a bed right next to ours so when he wakes up now I shush him back to sleep or pick him up and bounce around until he's back down. Before I would just nurse and go back to sleep. I realized he was waking up for nothing when I was able to get him back to sleep with no nurse in just a few minutes. This is night three and it's going really well. He's even going to bed earlier. I know there might be a bad night here or there but for now it seems to be working. It seems like developmentally he was ready for this step. He just got these slippers from Nana Kelley and he loved wearing them around!

There hasn't been a lot on the weaving front, but I did get it warped and started weaving last week. I'm not crazy about the tension. I'm thinking about stopping by Ruth's Weaving Studio again to get some pointers. Here's what it looks like all warped. Excuse the messy table in the background! I just realized that it wasn't totally set up in this picture, but you get the point!

Want to know the new places you can find Knitted Wit yarn and fiber? If you are ever in St Paul Minnesota visit The Yarnery. I had the chance to meet the lovely ladies at Lantern Moon's vendor party before Sock Summit started. e actually introduced us, he's pretty good about meeting EVERYbody in the room! I kept running into the ladies at the show and they stopped by at the end to bring some yarn home with them. And if you get to visit Diva Yarn and Trim in Porttownsend Washington you are a lucky duck! Lois, the owner, is a dear. She brought yarn and fiber back to the shop, stop by if you get a chance! She took some treasures. There's a few more places you'll be able to find Knitted Wit soon. Details to follow! I have been trying to put more in the shop too take a peak over there.

drive by blogging!

So my work schedule is in flux and now I won't have a day off for me until Thursday (instead of tomorrow!). So I thought I'd show you what a few other people are up to. Maia, one of my favorite people to see at shows, is doing this with some of my Spinning Socks Fiber. It's a Colonial SuperWash that is a dream to spin. I can't believe how fast she is! It makes me want to jump on my wheel and crank one out. Michele just caught the spinning bug and did this yesterday. She used Silky Merino, a 50/50 blend of silk and merino in Hydrangea. Gail stopped by and snapped some photos of the booth. She is amazing! It's always great running into her. While Courtney wasn't there, her mom and dad did a great job of rounding up some goods and stories! It was great getting to meet them too. Her loot is here and I can't wait to see what she makes with the Rose City yarn. I'll be watching here to see what happens with School Supplies and Take Steps. It's so exciting to see my little yarn babies out in the world! I better run, e is on a destructive path!

The Decent

Well I survived the Summit. It was a pretty amazing weekend, I think I'm still decompressing in a lot of ways. Some really great contacts were made, a couple new yarn shops are carrying my yarn and fiber! Hopefully an online store soon as well. I think I'm still overwhelmed by it all. I was able to see friends that I only see at shows, great to get some hugs. I also met people I only see online. The collision of virtual and reality is a strange thing. Let's not forget all the famous people I saw! Anne Hanson, Stephanie, Tina, Barbara Walker, Ann Budd, all the members of ST1 and 2. I'm sorry for the lack of links and pics. I think my brain is a little on survival mode! I'll get back here in the next day or so to add some more info and specifics! Thanks for all of you that stopped by the booth!

one more thing

So I forgot a few things from my last post. I was getting pretty tired, what can I say! I'm a big believer in stating your intent or purpose. From that I can create a positive future for my self. I don't want to be all silly about this but if I don't say what I want to come out of Sock Summit how will people know? So what I would like Sock Summit to accomplish for me: i would love to have a designer like my yarn and want me to dye for a few of their patterns. I would love to gain wholesale accounts. I would love for this to solidify me as a legit business. I would love for an online shop to carry my yarn. I would love for the people I'm featuring in my booth to be equally successful. I feel like there is something for everyone for sale in the booth! I would also like to get into a few more shows and hopefully this will be a spring board for that. So hopefully I will be successful enough at this show to continue dyeing. If you're in town stop by and say hi! Booth #223.

where does the time go?!

So my sister in law had a beautiful baby boy. She did an amazing job and is continuing to do one now as a mama. It's been almost two weeks!

I guess the world might not know, but we've been having a HEAT wave here in Portland. Day nine of above 90 degree weather. There were several above 100. On one of those days the family headed up to Trillium Lake on Mount Hood. Gorgeous. It was a magical little lake. No motor boats are allowed so it was very quiet that way. There weren't a ton of people so there was space for everybody. Swimming in a warm lake looking at Mount Hood was incredible. Sadly I don't have pictures loaded on flickr yet so just try to imagine until I get them up! I have decided that one weekend a year all the Kelley's are going camping up there. It was so close and easy to get to. There is also a foot path all the way around. It just seems like the perfect place to make some great family memories. Especially now that there is a cousin!

So the big thing around here lately is Sock Summit of course. I've been dyeing my fingers to the bone and reskeining. I have one more day left, tomorrow, to get everything ready. Then I work tuesday plus get a hair cut (it's been a year and a half since I had a real one)! On Wednesday we'll pick up the Uhaul, pack up, head to Deb's pre sock summit lunch, then to the convention center!!! Then Thursday the market opens and the real fun begins. I'm so excited to meet everybody in person. Stalking ravelry lately has been great but real live people will be fun. In the middle of all this fun e might go to Oma and Grandmama's house for a sleep over. It would be the first night e's away from us. I'm nervous, can you tell? Anyways the non stop fun of Sock Summit is coming up. Stop by and say hi if you attend. I'll try to take lots of pictures and tell you all about it next week!