No Pics Again

I now have ideas in my head for the Yule gifts, stockings, tree skirts, sockies, oh my! But it's all waiting until after Saturday. Cheer America! will be in town and the Boosters have provided the concesssions for the last three of their competitions. I'm secretary of the Boosters. Hence I will be working the concession all day.
My toe up socks are almost complete, 3.5 inches of ribbing and I'm done. Those are for me because they're by hand. It's nearly impossible to knit goods by hand and still make a bit of money.
Several months ago, T mentioned something about being debt free. This idea has stuck in my head and now I'm trying real hard to reduce our credit card balances. Wrong time of year to do that! But I'm gaining slowly. The balances are shrinking slowly and I have made a few bucks here and there (and expecting a bit more). My goal by this time next year is to have no credit card debt, just the house payment! I best get knitting and selling myself!

Nervous Mervis

Why would I be nervous? Headed to my second craft show tomorrow. The last show I did bombed!!!! Turns you off from making any effort to try another one.
Last year I tried Indian River and told lots of people about it. Indian River is supposed to be one of the largest, best shows of the season. Right, I sold 1 item for $2.50 last year. EEEEK. That worked out to be a huge loss for me.
This year I'm down sizing (I think) heading to Onaway, and I advertised! We'll see if that makes a difference.
Also, locally, there seems to be 'craft show wars'. I know from experience how much the Indian River show costs for a booth--too much for me. Now I see that all the area meeting halls are hosting their own shows, with a much lower table/booth cost. I think I'll try to hit a few of them also.
I'm gonna go simple this year. I get a table and 2 chairs. I'm gonna cover the table with the afghans and rugs I've made and fill baskets with my knits. I've made a sign, printed some business cards and will also take SOME orders for Christmas delivery.
Wish me Luck!

November in Northern Michigan

This is what we woke up to this morning. Snow on the ground. A nice dusting to make the world look fresh.

Knit-wise I've been zipping through Tempting II from Knitty in a wonderful alpaca from Knit Picks.

This weekend our local machine knitters club will be dying yarn and I'll be dragging along some newbies. Gotta get some of the youngers knitting! (Gosh I never thought I say something like that.)

Tuesday was the first day of my afterschool knitting class. I had five students, 12 to 16 year olds, very excited about knitting. In the 50 minutes we had together, one finished 3 rows, one finished 1 row and the other three were well into their first row.

That seems odd to me as I grew up in a crafting family. Many American families have no concept of doing for themselves; growing food, making and repairing clothing, WOW!

Saturday was Great!

On Saturday, my machine knitting group met at a newer local yarn shop and textile studio/bed and breakfast run by a woman and her mother. How wonderful! They have gorgeous hand painted yarns old and new. What's great is they both worked in the textile industry for years and are both a wealth of information.
The owner recently moved back home to care for her mother and open the bed and breakfast/textile studio. Her mother works with the likes of Bill Blass in the 70s.
They both knit and weave and sell their beauties locally. They also make kits, offer lessons and do finishing work and knit custom items.
I was so glad to find them and asked if we could have a meeting at their studio. We like to support local businesses as much as possible.
I made 8 dishcloths today, finished my socks, and worked on Tempting II Alpaca.
Recently I have been researching making my own laundry soap. That will be my next experiement.

Reality Shows

Ok, I'm done with them. Can't anyone think of anything better?

Fair Results

Well, I managed a quick trip through the open class building on Wednesday evening before the tractor pulls. I counted 9 blue ribbons and 3 red ribbons on my entries. My daughter also got a red ribbon and my mom received red ribbons on the quilts I entered for her!
As for the tractor pulls, I got a fourth place and fifth place in the classes I ran in.

Gettin' Ready

Two more fair entries are complete. I've finished and trimmed a knit-weave rug and a childs striped sweater. I need to press all the sewn items and make a purse to full and an afghan. That completes the entries for the first fair.
The next fair is a week later and I really need to raise the bar for this one for hand and machine knitting and sewn items. The money I make from these fairs is going to pay my way the Grand Rapids Area Machine Knitters fall workshop in October.!!

Long Time, I'm not dead yet

Well, it's been a bit since my last post to say the least.
If I may, I will brag and eventually post a few pics.
R has graduated from high school with a 3.945 making her Salutitorian of her class.
J got married.
I did some well deserved imbibing then actually took a week off work.
Now I'm make stuff to enter in the local fairs.
I'll be posting more often now that the nest is empty. HA!!