Holiday Handmade

Well, this weekend is a busy one. To start, I am at the first annual Holiday Handmade, presented by Fancy Tiger. The show actually began this afternoon, and for a Friday night craft show, it had an amazing turnout. Everyone was pleasantly surprised; after all, there are holiday parties, movie premiers, and the Parade of Lights competing with us.

I ended up with a 5' x 5' space, which was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I don't have enough product to fill the larger space. A curse because I have very little space to maneuver in. I found myself tripping over my supplies several times. It was a great night, though. I ran out of business cards and I sold a few items directly off of my body. I'd never done that before.

I'm actually writing this though to express my excitement at receiving a specific mention in Westword, Denver's version of the Village Voice or SF Gate. The blurb the editors included to tout the event referred to my RAINNy Day Cowgirl Hat. Check out the blurb here.

I will be at Holiday Handmade tomorrow, from 10:00AM to 6:00PM. It's a Capsule Gallery, 560 Santa Fe Dr in Denver (just south of 6th Avenue). Free parking, great coffee, and amazingly wondeful crafts from lots of people. And, on Sunday, you can find me at the Lowry Art Mart, hosted by the Lowry Apartments. That fair is from 12:00PM to 6:00PM.

Mention my blog for 20% off your purchase! I hope to see you there!

Can you believe they're going to let me teach?!

I know, I know, I said in my last post that I would be blogging more often. That was before I found out that I'm going to be the primary crochet instructor at the TACtile Arts Center. I was asked to design the course curricula and schedule. I've been spending my time writing both, and this is what I've come up with. So feel free to come down and take a few of my classes! And wish me luck; it's been a long time since I last taught anything. :)

Skill Refresher Workshop

Already know how to crochet but need help honing your skills? This is the class for you. We will cover how to read a pattern, the importance of gauge swatches, hook selection and material, fiber selection and substitution, and basic pattern modification. Please note: We will not be creating a specific project in this workshop; instead, we will be honing skills. Bring your favorite hook, a pattern you have been working with, and a skein of yarn. These materials will be available for you to borrow during the workshop.

Time: 1 hour session
Friday, November 2, 5:00-6:00PM
Friday, November 16, 5:00-6:00PM
Friday, December 7, 5:00-6:00PM
Enrollment Maximum: 8
Materials: Student provided - A hook, a pattern, a skein/ball of yarn. I will bring several spares for both demonstration and loan during the workshop.

Beginning Crochet

If you have never picked up a hook before, this is the class for you. We will cover the everything you need to know to get started: fiber and hook selection, tools needed, basic stitches, and simple edgings. By the end of class, you will have the beginnings of a sweet little scarflette - this season's hottest cold-weather accessory.

Time: 1 class, 3 hours with a 15-minute break
Saturday, November 3, 12:30-4:00PM
Enrollment Maximum: 4
Fiber/Notions: Instructor Provided, 2 oz.10-WPI/bulky-weight yarn, button ($5.00)
Materials: Size "J" and "K" aluminum hooks, darning needle, safety pin (I can provide for $6.00 material fee)

Intermediate Crochet

If you have some basic skills, but would like to build on your skills, this class is for you. We will cover increases, decreases, working in rounds, color changes, reading a pattern, and embellishments. By the end of class, you will have the beginnings of an earflap hat - the perfect thing to keep your noggin warm this winter.

Time: 2 classes, 2 hours each
Enrollment Maximum: 4
Sundays, November 4 & 11, 1:00-3:00PM
Fiber: Instructor Provided, 4 oz. 10-WPI/bulky-weight yarn ($7.00)
Materials: Size "J" hook, safety pin, stitch marker (I can provide for $5.00 material fee)

Advanced Crochet

If you've mastered hats and scarves and are ready to move up to more advanced projects, this is the class for you. We will cover textured, cluster, and lacework stitches, motifs, garment shaping, seaming, closures, and accents. By the end of class, you will have the beginnings of a lacy shrug - a fashionable, versatile layering garment that goes with just about everything.

Time: 2 classes, 2 hours each
Schedule TBD
Enrollment Maximum: 4
Fiber/Notions: Instructor Provided, 6 oz. 14-WPI/DK-weight yarn, button ($10)
Materials: Size "H" hook, safety pin, stitch markers, darning needle (I can provide for $5.00 material fee)

Specialty Classes

Ever looked through the local fiber classes and wished that cool knitting class was available for crocheters? Here are a few classes that will be coming soon:

Felted Bags
Felted Slippers
Crochet with Wire
Crochet with Beads

The Come-Back Hat (Button-Flapped Alpaca Hat)

A little over a week ago, I received an order from a Swiss Etsian for my Stripey Flappy Baby Hat. I hadn't received payment with the order, so after a few days, I sent along an email and an invoice requesting payment. To my dismay, the order had to be cancelled... but an opportunity for custom work was opened.

The specs were actually pretty precise, and for that, I was thankful. Creme-white and peach, natural wool, pearlized button flap closure and a matching button on top. Circumference to 23" and buttons no larger than 1.5".

The biggest challenge was finding peach. Peach is considered a summer color, so most of the yarns in peach are in linen/cotton blends or lighter weights like fingering or DK. This hat was going to Switzerland. I checked the average temps there, and discovered that the average temp ranges from 30 in January to 65 in July. It's cool there. A warm fiber would be needed.

I found the color I thought I wanted in an alpaca blend. Double-bonus, since alpaca is light in drape and weight but extremely warm (some would almost say too warm). When it finally arrived, it was more of an apricot than a peach, but I realized it would have to do. I set about on the hat.

As you've probably guessed from my blog and store, hats themselves are easy for me, and I had this one done in about an hour. The flaps required a good deal of experimentation. My model head is a 21" head, so I had to ensure that I made the hat and the flaps big enough to accomodate a 23" head. I also had to make sure the stitches were large enough to double as adjustable buttonholes.

In the end, I came up with a wonderful hat. For the life of me, I can't get the hat to photograph the color right - even with a grey-balance card. It still looks orange to me on the screen. But in the hand, a peachy-apricot alternates with a creamy white, and it looks delicious.

So, lessons learned:
1) Alpaca, even the smallest amount, will warm up your lap to an uncomfortably warm level when you're working with it
2) Shank buttons are harder to place than standard buttons
3) No matter how hard you try to match color, your monitor will never display it properly.

This hat goes up in my shop today for approval. If you'd like a hat like this, just drop me a line and we'll talk details!

I Got Screwed (Corkscrew Earflap Hat)

As I may have mentioned, I'm trying to destash my stash by making a lot of different projects. And my choice, as I also may have mentioned, has been hats. It's funny, really, that I like hats so much, because I actually hate wearing them.

In any case, I've been wanting to play with corkscrew fringe for awhile now, and I figured what better way to do that than with a hat. I knew that the screws would make the hat top-heavy, so ear flaps seemed a logical choice.

I had light and dark purple acrylics in my stash, and I went ahead with making my basic hat. I added flaps, then got to work on the details. As my dear mother-in-law once said - you don't pay for the whole, you pay for the details. And she's right. A simple hat becomes unique when details are applied.

I decided on a dozen screws - 6 for the top and 6 for the ties. I didn't want braided or ponpomed ends - that just seemed silly. So I used slip-stitch reinforced triple chains for ties and added screws to the ends. Then I added the screws to the top.

The finished product was supposed to be for an older child - 19-21" circumference, but that can also fit a petite adult woman. The hat stretches quite a bit, so it may even fit me (I have a 23.5" head). I'm ridiculously proud of it, even though it is just a hat.

Lessons learned? None really, other than
1) I love making hats
2) I hate making corkscrews

As always, look for this sweet hat in my Etsy shop very soon!

Hot Blue Choker (The Fashion Denver Promo Choker)

Ah, promos. Flowers seem to be the common thread between all of my promos. So when the need for a promo for Fashion Denver's Biannual Show and Market came up, I knew a flower would be involved.

My original idea was to mount tiny flowers to big bobbies, but I just didn't have the time to learn how to make that. I decided instead to raid my yarn stash, whereupon I stumbled on some scraps that were donated to me by NorthStar Alpacas. It was beautiful two-ply alpaca yarn with a strand of angelina (no relation) interspersed. I had some blue and some tan. So I decided to make a choker.

At first, I wanted to create a choker that would fasten with a rivet snap, but I didn't have enough yarn to make it the right diameter. Then I was going to tie it closed with ribbons, but I didn't have matching ribbon. So I settled on a button closure.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the choker closes when you place the center of the flower over the wooden button. I wanted to add a leaf, but I was on the clock - I cranked this little thing out in about 15 minutes, took another 5 to block it, and was, for the most part, satisfied with the result. Really, the only improvements I can think of are crocheting the button into the fabric and adding a leaf behind the flower. But all in all, for a last-minute project out of scrap yarn, I'm incredibly happy.

Lessons learned:
1) I can come up with something original and cute on short notice
2) I love working with handspun yarn
3) Shank buttons can go on like beads

This piece will never see an Etsy listing - instead, it will be raffled off at the Heatwave show tomorrow along with some wonderful pieces by AnnushKa Designs, Little Bitsys, and She's Crafty. Checkout the 'mart tomorrow at noon at Cervantes!

Mad as a Hatter (More Baby Hats)

Well, my re-application to EtsyKids was denied. I won't go into how there are team members there that have fewer kids items or a smaller kids:other ratio than I do, and will instead focus on how I keep making more hats.

I have a yarn stash to destash, and baby hats work up quickly. And cutely. So I fashioned a few more sun hats to indulge my destash addiction. I don't have much to say about any particular one, other than I like them all.

Lessons learned:
1) It's hard to make different hats with the same basic design
2) It may be the wrong time of year to be selling sun hats

A brief post, I know, but I just wanted to share my new creations. Baby sun hats: oldies, but goodies. They'll post over the next few days in my Etsy store.

Feeling Fruity (Baby Sun Hats)

Okay, I'm the first to admit that I've been offline for awhile. Between mothering, having family in town, cleaning up the aftermath of having family in town, friends in crisis, and trying to find time to network in my day job (you know, the one that will pay the bills), creativity has had to fall to the wayside.

But in the process of cleaning up the apartment, I had to organize my yarn stash. And I was appalled at how much yarn I had amassed that was just sitting, doing absolutely nothing. I'm sure my stash isn't the biggest or the most colorful, but in a one bedroom apartment, and belonging to someone who prides herself on never buying more that she'll use... it was an abomination at best. And so I set to work creating.

I decided on baby hats. As my dear husband points out, I excel at hats. For some reason, they're just something I can do really, really well. And I wanted to be a little different. I started out wanting to make an apple hat, but then I did a search on Etsy and found several. My daughter was wearing a watermelon onesie at the time, and so I decided on a watermelon. Again, a search on Etsy yielded several watermelon hats, but I noticed that none of them were sun hats. All of them were rolled brim or beanie style hats. And none of them represented the rind accurately.

I set to work with my first two hats: a red watermelon and a pink watermelon. The red is the original. I added the pony beads as an afterthought; I realized that seedless watermelon just wasn't all that cute. The pink I did because I remembered my daughter had a pink and green fruit dress. I thought it was covered in watermelons. Turns out, it's covered in strawberries. And that's how the strawberry hat was born. The last hat was a pomegranate. I don't know why, other than I didn't see any other pomegranate hats on Etsy. So I figured, "Why not?"

All the hats but the red watermelon have their beads crocheted into the fabric, making them more child-safe... but you should still keep an eye on a teething baby - they're little jaws are strong enough to crack metal beads if given enough time. And all color changes are carried through under the stitches, so the body of the hats are all done in one continuous piece. The strawberry features a bendable stem, thanks to a piece of pipe cleaner inside the stem, and the pomegranate's arlis' end was sewn on after the fact. Each one is sized to 0-6 months, depending on the baby. Brie is almost 3 months, and they are just slightly big on her. But then, she has a small head.

Lessons Learned:
1) I have too much yarn
2) Baby hats are incredibly fun to make
3) Crocheting star patterns is much easier than I realized
4) Doing color changes simultaneously with increases is relatively difficult
5) It is easier to add beads as you're crocheting than it is to sew them on after the fact

Look for these very soon in my Etsy store (as I must post them quickly in order to make myself reeligible for EtsyKids membership).