Saturday, June 13th was World-Wide Knit in Public day. So, Renata and I hosted the 2nd annual picnic at El Dorado Park in Long Beach. It was a great day. We got there around 9:30am and set up the tables and pop-ups with help from Jamie and some others whose names I didn't get (sorry, I'm bad at names). We hung the All Things String banner between 2 trees, and our new banner - which has the WWKIP logo and 'All Things String' on it, from one of the pop-ups. We also had 2 folding signs that Renata designed and I helped make - we used them to point the way to our area.
There was a steady stream of people who started showing up - I think we ended up with over 40 people. Lots of goodies on the table. Denise W. brought her delicious cupcakes - I grabbed the first one.
We had a table set up for 'Free' yarn - anything people wanted to give away, and a table for 'Raffle Prizes'. Renata and I took some skeins from the Free table and moved them to the Raffle table - 4 skeins of Koigu, etc. :-) There were lots of goodies on the Free table - I limited myself to one skein of ribbon yarn in a blue/purple color. At the end of the day there was 1 bag of yarn left that will be passed on to Project Linus.
After the lunch, we had the Mystery Pattern Battle - started with 13 contestants, a few dropped out during the game due to wrong-size needles, yarn trouble, etc. The pattern was for a water-bottle cozy. I think most people had fun with it. We also had 2 spinning speed contests - one for wheels, one for drop spindle. And a speed crochet contest. Denise W. won the Mystery Pattern Battle as the first person finished, I called Gwen as the last one standing since we were running out of time and had to start the raffle.
Sabrina (the 13 year-old knitter) was one of the lucky raffle winners - one of the jugglers had a winning ticket and passed it to her. :-) She also won the fiber and lady-bug spindle - another person lured into spinning. :-)
Towards the end of the raffle, Margo arrived with 2 alpacas - Seven and his little sister. They were so cute.
We packed up and were home by 6:30. I spent the next day recovering. :-)
I got to wear my tiara all day, although I should have been wearing either my sun hat or more sunscreen.
Thanks to all who participated, and extra thanks to Jamie and Abraham for all their help, Melyssa and Su for the name tags and badge holders.
Here's a link to Jan's pictures.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Yarn Will
Another contest to enter! :-)
My Yarn Will is easy - I leave all my yarn, needles, etc. to Renata - leader of our All Things String group. She can take what she wants and divide the rest up among the group. If I ever get around to writing a real will, I'll try to remember to put that in. And also leave her a few bucks for the hassle of dealing with my stash. :-)
Happy knitting to you all!
My Yarn Will is easy - I leave all my yarn, needles, etc. to Renata - leader of our All Things String group. She can take what she wants and divide the rest up among the group. If I ever get around to writing a real will, I'll try to remember to put that in. And also leave her a few bucks for the hassle of dealing with my stash. :-)
Happy knitting to you all!
Needles won - Yeah!
I entered a contest on Craft Gossip and won a set of 15 circular needles from . Yeah. I started my first project on them yesterday. I really like the cables on these needles - they're thicker than the normal cables, so when I'm doing a project on 2 circulars, I'm not overtightening the end stitches. I got the 30" set. They're bamboo and feel very nice in my hands.
Thanks to Linda for organizing the contest. New needles for free - yeah!!!
Thanks to Linda for organizing the contest. New needles for free - yeah!!!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Prizes in the cereal boxes
Yesterday I bought a box of Frosted Flakes - I needed a sugar cereal for my Sunday breakfast - and it had a Star Trek LED light. It looks like the badge but has no pin on the back. I'll have to glue a pin back to it.
Anyway, I was reminded that when I was younger, the prizes in the cereal were buried inside the cereal, not nicely packaged on the outside like they are today. I'm sure it's easier for the cereal manufacturers to package it that way. However, they're taking away the thrill of tipping the box carefully to see if you could see and grab the prize. Since the prize had usually settled to the bottom of the box, this could take a few days. And of course, if you had siblings, it was a race to see who could see the prize first and grab it with their grubby little hand. You weren't allowed to dump the cereal out, nor to search it with said grubby little hand, but you could manipulate the sides of the box in order to get the best possible chance of seeing the prize at the bottom. Of course you usually ended up having to share the prize with your siblings - most unfair. :-)
Anyway, I was reminded that when I was younger, the prizes in the cereal were buried inside the cereal, not nicely packaged on the outside like they are today. I'm sure it's easier for the cereal manufacturers to package it that way. However, they're taking away the thrill of tipping the box carefully to see if you could see and grab the prize. Since the prize had usually settled to the bottom of the box, this could take a few days. And of course, if you had siblings, it was a race to see who could see the prize first and grab it with their grubby little hand. You weren't allowed to dump the cereal out, nor to search it with said grubby little hand, but you could manipulate the sides of the box in order to get the best possible chance of seeing the prize at the bottom. Of course you usually ended up having to share the prize with your siblings - most unfair. :-)
Monday, April 27, 2009
Back from my first SCA Event - Pentathlon
I had a busy weekend. I spent Friday with old friends from craft night. We used to meet once a month to play with rubber stamps, making cards, etc. That evolved into scrap-booking - however, since I have no children I didn't scrapbook. So, I knitted instead. The monthly meetings ended a year or so ago, and now we get together twice a year for weekends.
Since my friend Tonwen/Rae was going to be honored at an SCA event on Saturday, I decided to go to my first SCA event. Renata arranged for Kim to lend me a dress. Thanks Kim! I traveled to Van Nuys on Friday night with Medb/Renata. We were staying on Friday and Saturday nights at Howard Johnson's in order to take some of the stress of the event away.
It's called Pentathlon, and it covers all the Arts and Sciences covered by SCA - Society for Creative Anachronism. This group is devoted to recreating the best of Medieval and Renaissance life. People enter their items on Saturday for judging. They have 1 hour to set up their exhibit/exhibits. You can enter one item or many. To win the First Prize, you need to have the highest score from at least 5 items in 4 categories. So, people who wish to win, enter several items. There were also dramatic presentations, musical presentations, dance, etc. Those were going on during the day and anyone could attend as audience. Alas, the food competition was only for the judges. After the setup, those not judging were over in the Artisan's area where people set up pavilions and pop-ups to present their crafts. I was with Medb/Renata at the calligraphy/costume pop-up. I sat and knitted during the day and talked to Serafina/Sabrina. (I've tried to put their SCA name first, then their real name).
The winds were heavy and broke a pole on the tent next door which happened to be owned by the King and Queen. So, their tent lay on the ground for the rest of the day. Then, JonThomme/Thomas had barely set up his pavilion, when a plastic tent-stake broke and in seconds his pavilion was down. Luckily no-one was in it, and there wasn't a flame going at the time. At that point, Conchobar/Ric took his ropes and stakes and tied down the pop-ups we were under.
The Whole Hogs of Damocles was the name of Tonwen's team - Medb, Conchobar, Elidh/Cat, JonThomme and his wife Eva (sp?). They created a model of a bog and buried a doll in it. The doll was made of balsa wood and rawhide and clothed in garb complete with miniature shoes (Conchobar). Also included in the burial area were miniature beads (Conchobar), a spindle (Elidh), Nalbinded socks and hat (Medb) and a miniature comb (Jon Thomme). Eva did a castle complete with cabbage fields and six sugar pigs for the pastry competition. Tonwen did a research paper. Each person did full size items for entry in the appropriate category also. They won the People's Choice award and the Team competition. Yeah! Jon Thomme also won a Queen's Favor for his full size version of the comb - made from horn.
Saturday supper was at Red Lobster after Claim Jumper said it would be a 3 hour wait for a group of 8. Red Lobster has the best biscuits.
Sunday I went to church, taking Renata to see her first Catholic Mass.
Sunday morning was for viewing the exhibits and placing small tokens (beads, etc.) by those exhibits you like the best. We stopped in Michael's to pick up tokens. I used small strings of seed beads - purple. Sunday afternoon was Court when the awards were presented.
Sunday supper was at Claim Jumper - since we got there at 4pm there wasn't a very long wait. We were back at Rae and Renata's by 8:30 or so - I helped unpack the car and then drove home.
It was a great weekend, I had lots of fun, and no, I do not plan to join the SCA. :-)
Since my friend Tonwen/Rae was going to be honored at an SCA event on Saturday, I decided to go to my first SCA event. Renata arranged for Kim to lend me a dress. Thanks Kim! I traveled to Van Nuys on Friday night with Medb/Renata. We were staying on Friday and Saturday nights at Howard Johnson's in order to take some of the stress of the event away.
It's called Pentathlon, and it covers all the Arts and Sciences covered by SCA - Society for Creative Anachronism. This group is devoted to recreating the best of Medieval and Renaissance life. People enter their items on Saturday for judging. They have 1 hour to set up their exhibit/exhibits. You can enter one item or many. To win the First Prize, you need to have the highest score from at least 5 items in 4 categories. So, people who wish to win, enter several items. There were also dramatic presentations, musical presentations, dance, etc. Those were going on during the day and anyone could attend as audience. Alas, the food competition was only for the judges. After the setup, those not judging were over in the Artisan's area where people set up pavilions and pop-ups to present their crafts. I was with Medb/Renata at the calligraphy/costume pop-up. I sat and knitted during the day and talked to Serafina/Sabrina. (I've tried to put their SCA name first, then their real name).
The winds were heavy and broke a pole on the tent next door which happened to be owned by the King and Queen. So, their tent lay on the ground for the rest of the day. Then, JonThomme/Thomas had barely set up his pavilion, when a plastic tent-stake broke and in seconds his pavilion was down. Luckily no-one was in it, and there wasn't a flame going at the time. At that point, Conchobar/Ric took his ropes and stakes and tied down the pop-ups we were under.
The Whole Hogs of Damocles was the name of Tonwen's team - Medb, Conchobar, Elidh/Cat, JonThomme and his wife Eva (sp?). They created a model of a bog and buried a doll in it. The doll was made of balsa wood and rawhide and clothed in garb complete with miniature shoes (Conchobar). Also included in the burial area were miniature beads (Conchobar), a spindle (Elidh), Nalbinded socks and hat (Medb) and a miniature comb (Jon Thomme). Eva did a castle complete with cabbage fields and six sugar pigs for the pastry competition. Tonwen did a research paper. Each person did full size items for entry in the appropriate category also. They won the People's Choice award and the Team competition. Yeah! Jon Thomme also won a Queen's Favor for his full size version of the comb - made from horn.
Saturday supper was at Red Lobster after Claim Jumper said it would be a 3 hour wait for a group of 8. Red Lobster has the best biscuits.
Sunday I went to church, taking Renata to see her first Catholic Mass.
Sunday morning was for viewing the exhibits and placing small tokens (beads, etc.) by those exhibits you like the best. We stopped in Michael's to pick up tokens. I used small strings of seed beads - purple. Sunday afternoon was Court when the awards were presented.
Sunday supper was at Claim Jumper - since we got there at 4pm there wasn't a very long wait. We were back at Rae and Renata's by 8:30 or so - I helped unpack the car and then drove home.
It was a great weekend, I had lots of fun, and no, I do not plan to join the SCA. :-)
Monday, March 30, 2009
Back to scraping walls, hoodie is finished - yeah!
I finished the hoodie at the All Things String meeting last Tuesday and have worn it and washed it. I like it a lot, it's snug and warm. The edging of the hood curls under, so I just curled it under all around. The sleeves are raglan as opposed to the straight sleeves on the original pattern.
Now that I'm recovered from the virus, I've started scraping the walls again - such fun. :-)
I did manage to finish off a couple of UFO's, so the pile is shrinking. One of them needs some yarn to sew it up, so I'll have to make a trip to Velona's, another has yarn somewhere in this house for sewing up - I just have to find the yarn.
Now that I'm recovered from the virus, I've started scraping the walls again - such fun. :-)
I did manage to finish off a couple of UFO's, so the pile is shrinking. One of them needs some yarn to sew it up, so I'll have to make a trip to Velona's, another has yarn somewhere in this house for sewing up - I just have to find the yarn.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Mostly recovered, 5th Kiva loan
Well, it was a virus - the doctor said - Fluids, Tylenol for fever, 7 to 10 days duration. No antibiotics. I didn't start feeling like I was going to recover until Day 8.5, then I was still a little weak for a few more days after that. Not fun at all.
Now, I'm exercising again, working my way back to my normal state of health.
My Kiva loans repaid enough so I could make another loan - Yeah! It's so much fun - I usually check once a week to see how they're doing.
Knitting is going well. The hoodie is almost finished, and I'm poking some of my UFO's in an attempt to clear some of them out. I think my next big project will be either a shawl (with some lovely yarn I got in Solvang), or a clapotis (with some yarn I got in Colorado mixed with some rayon ribbon). Such fun decisions.
Now, I'm exercising again, working my way back to my normal state of health.
My Kiva loans repaid enough so I could make another loan - Yeah! It's so much fun - I usually check once a week to see how they're doing.
Knitting is going well. The hoodie is almost finished, and I'm poking some of my UFO's in an attempt to clear some of them out. I think my next big project will be either a shawl (with some lovely yarn I got in Solvang), or a clapotis (with some yarn I got in Colorado mixed with some rayon ribbon). Such fun decisions.
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