The visit to the fairgrounds last night was very… very, very sad. The vast majority of the entries were uninspiring (to be polite). There was an afghan that looked like it had been on someone’s bed for the last 10 years, a very nice cross stitch piece that was obviously a kit (don’t know if that was against the rules or not but come on!), a 2^nd place quilt was one of those preprinted fabric panels sewn onto a back… and one of the gourds was an apple gourd, painted like an apple. There was a pretty lace apron… that was stained.

***OK – so that fabric panel quilt was legit – when I was retyping the full category list for posting there is a category for printed panel… but still***

On the bright side, there was some very nice black & white photography, the 2 smocked pieces (by the same person) were cute, and there was a darling crocheted child’s dress with a beret.

To make the whole dismal affair even drearier, the items were all just kind of tossed up onto metal retail shelving that looked like it had been salvaged from the old Roses store when it closed 15 years ago. I mean, come on people! Goody’s just went out of business a few months ago.  Are you telling me in this town of doctors and lawyers galore that no one could scrape up a bit of dough to buy new-ish displays from them? They were cheap as hell!  Cindy M got 20 torso mannequins for like $15.

I was heartily disappointed.

I’m thinking about speaking with our county extension agent about the whole thing.

And I’m a bit more determined about the ’37 Projects’.  In fact I’m starting a new category on here just for that.

I’ve decided that for # 4 (Counted Cross Stitch Sampler) – I’m going to do an homage to the Mario Brothers… ‘cause they’re awesome.

For # 3 (Counted Cross Stitch Picture) – I’m going to look into that photo to cross stitch conversion software… If it’s cheap enough I may take some photos of a gothic still-life type thing and turn that into a cross stitch pattern.

I may have to talk to my man Eric D about setting up a 37 Projects page…

NOW I CHALLENGE YOU ALL!

I want you to match me! I know 37 projects is a lot – and I doubt I’ll actually DO 37 projects… but we need a better Crafter presence at these Community Events. So I want you to make a list of the categories you are interested in participating in and match me Completed Object for Completed Object! There’s only 1 entry per category but a lot of craft types have several categories – (there’s at least 6 for cross stitch and 10 or 12 for quilting, etc).

So come on! Get started! Send me your lists and progress reports! Send me pictures of your FO’s and I’ll post them here! I’m thinking there might even be a $50 gift certificate to the craft store of your choice in it for the winner…

It’s the 1^st Annual 37 Projects Challenge!

Ok – so apparently I’m a dumb-ass and have never really put much thought into the local fair as it relates to Crafters. Leave it to my boss to point out this stupidity to me (in a roundabout way) and ‘lo he hands me the Agricultural & Industrial Official Program & Entry Schedule for the 2009 Hopkins County Fair.

So I paged through looking for the Rabbit Show… and found Crafts!  Lots and lots of crafts! I’m going to try to convince Cindy M to go with me tonight to check out the goodies on display… Mwahahahaha.

And since I’m a compulsive list maker, here are the categories I would like to create an entry for (and yes this list is stupid long).

So that’s 37 projects right there! (Not counting the growing stuff… the gourds are growing right now for next year!). That would give me a week and half (roughly) for each project. I wonder how many I can actually get done before next year’s fair. Anybody out there want to match me project for project? (It doesn’t have to be the same category – just match the number amount – I can supply you with the full category list).

It could be a Challenge!

My husband made a mistake… and now the livingroom is paying for it! MWAHAHAHAHA! (That’s the universal evil laugh, for those of you not in the know). It started simply enough – “Hey Judy, we need to find some bins or baskets or something to keep your yarn in, in the livingroom.” “What a good idea sweety – then the dogs won’t be able to steal my projects anymore”.  This conversation combined with his, “I want to move that other bookcase in the livingroom – it’s not really doing anything in the dining room…”

Led to all the yarn and collected fiber being in the livingroom! MWAHAHAHAHA! Extending my crafty reign of terror from the attic into the heart of the house! MWAHAHAHAHA!

Seriously – I love these boxes from Wal-Mart – I bought 12 more last night to use in the studio upstairs. The 2 shorter boxes on the 2nd shelf are full of tools – needles & hooks and things.  The bottom 2 shelves are fiber from the rabbits and that loose ziplock bag is felting fiber from the buns also.

Hubby’s reaction was shock & awe, and “Well I didn’t mean ALL your yarn…”. Little does he know… more lurks in the depths of the studio! MWAHAHAHAHA!

So I’ve been knitting the Felicity Hat pattern by Wanett Clyde of the Ebony Butterfly  – I found the pattern and tons of advice on Ravelry .  And I must say I love this pattern! I just finished my 4th one in about 30 days! Everybody’s getting hats for Christmas – so you all better put in your color preferences now!

The 1^st one I made with 1 ½ skeins of Bamboozle from Crystal Palace Yarns in the Seascape color way (it was 40% off! I love sale yarn!).  I have to say this is a great yarn – I was worried when I cast on that it was going to be one of those yars that keeps pulling and splitting but I just tied a little knot at the very beginning of the yarn before I cast on and Voila! No problems! I want to find more patterns for this yarn because it was super easy to work with.

Anyway – that itself turned out too small.  My own fault – I don’t believe in swatching and I knew ahead of time (thanks to other Ravelers) that this pattern tended to run small – but C’est la vie! I cast on 80 stitches with 9” size 7 circular needles. I had no idea how to use circular needles – I just kinda guessed and it took me a good six rows to figure out that I didn’t have to purl! So that’s why the bottom edge looks a little funny. Switched to size 8 needles (and wow I see why that stupid set of needles was on sale for a buck – it’s awful!) where the pattern said to change. The problem occurred when toward the end I thought I knew what the pattern of decreases was… and I was wrong… so when I pulled the top together there was a rather large hole. Anyway – I’m just going to give it a Pompom! That’ll fix it.

The 2^nd one was made with 1 ¼ skins of Mosaic Twist from Yarn Bees in the Iced Fruit color way. (Sale for $2 a skein! Oh Yeah! It’s my b-day!) This was really thick yarn and combined with the tiny size 7’s throughout… oh my hands are still sore! That hat turned out nice but is pretty stiff – definitely a good winter hat.

This 3^rd & 4th have been the best so far.  The yarn is Cameo from Yarn Bees in the Titian Jewel color way (the orange one – not sure what the colorway on the blue one is) – also known by my husband as hunter orange.  Either way it’s super soft and since it’s 100% polyamide (I have no idea what that is…) it’s really drape-y. I used 7’s throughout again (‘cause I hate the 8’s I’ve got and I can’t find a 16” anywhere – they are all 29” long!) and I cast on 100 stitches.  I knitted instead of purled the first row and I’m adding an extra row in between the increase and decrease rows to make the hat longer. I love the yarn – although the fuzz makes the increasing harder.  If it didn’t have the fuzz I’d consider it for a sweater since it’s so soft!

Now I’m working on some matching arm warmers to match the blue & orange hats!

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention 7’s and 8’s and 16” verses 29” – fear not! For I shall be starting a ‘Tool’ tutorial that will talk about… well tools!  All the tools of the crafty trade, be they rocks or rocket launchers; if we can figure out how to craft with it – we’ll mention it here! I have a feeling I’ll learn quite a bit myself!

I met a local Raveler this past Monday (the 13th) – Mariaknittedit, and had an impromptu spinning lesson.  Ms. Maria is in the process of setting up a private fiber studio called Black Dog Studio. I went to her to critique the fiber I collected off 2 of my buns (most of it is woefully too short but when the mercury hits 100 – them’s the breaks) but in the process I was sent to the wheel myself!

Here’s the fiber we worked with from Moto, a lovely rain cloud gray:

And this is what Mariaknittedit spun out:

Then we carded some together with some white Merino wool and I spun this:

As you can see there are lots of little spirals in it where I totally overspun it (big feet move faster than my hands apparently) but still! If we had to have yarn I could make it! It would be ugly and weird – but we’d be warm! (at least till it all came apart because, you know, not a skill I’ve got down yet…)

And Ms. Maria is fabulous – hopefully I didn’t scar her too badly between my awful spinning and just plain weirdness.