Launching Breezy Day Handbags June 29, 2008

I sent in the application for the Syracuse Peace Council’s Plowshares show in December.  http://www.peacecouncil.net/  It is a local sale featuring mostly local artisans and I am hoping to get a small booth there.  My Mom is here to visit and she saw the garage from the International Fiber Collaborative and said “Oh it looks like a quilt” and then “Oh it is a quilt”  It was great to see a reaction from someone who hadn’t seen it before.  It is really exciting and beautiful to see.  We are heading off to quilt stores this week and she will be helping me learn how to put in a zipper and do some art quilts.  Can’t wait to get started. 

New Cotton Purse June 22, 2008

This purse was made using Araucania Nature Cotton http://www.araucaniayarns.com.  It is a yummy soft yarn with bumplees (I know this isn’t a word but it has thicks and thins and it creates a texture that is bumpy but not big bumps, thus bumplees.  I am making a second purse using the light color which is not a describable color (it isn’t grey, it isn’t soft pink, but almost a pinkish hue in the light, but maybe it is pale blue) As the background with blue anchors.  Will post when it is done which will be very soon.  I have set asside some of my purse making to make a sweater that has been a UFO since last summer.  This sweater is knitted from the top down with a raglan sleeve using Louet’s Euroflaxn yarn http://www.louet.com/yarns/euroflax.shtml.  It is beautiful to knit on which is wonderful because it is a very fine knit using a size 4 needle.  Love the texture of this flax yarn, but I understand that once washed the texture is to die for.  Cannot wait to see what it looks like when it is done.

Two new bags June 15, 2008

These are the two purses using the Debbie Bliss cotton yarn.  They still need to be lined and finished.  Don’t you just love the little pink skulls?  My friend and fellow purse knitter, Michelle called the larger bag “Cupid” because of the scrolling pink hearts.  They are not lined in this photo and are much sharper now…

A trip to Mission Rose June 5, 2008

Mission Rose Knittery and Quiltery http://www.missionrosequiltery.com/is a local yarn and fabric store, just a couple short miles from my work.  Every time there is a month with five Thursdays they have a 20% off sale.  So…of course I had to go.  I purchased some fabrics for a collage I have had in my head for about 3 years, and some purse lining fabric and also this dark grey, almost black cotton yarn with a mauvy pink contrasting color.  One of my co-workers was admiring my organic cotton purse and said she would love something like that in these colors, so in hopes of a sale, I purchased the yarn.  I have enough left over for a slung purse, like the one I always carried in college, just big enough for money, keys, an ID and of course now a cell phone and maybe an IPod.  This second purse is black with pink skulls, so cute and hip, when I finish I will post it.  This Debbie Bliss yarn http://www.debbieblissonline.com/ is lovely soft and doesn’t split. LOVE IT!

Joe the Body Pillow June 1, 2008

My friends Steve and Erin are pregnant with triplets, they have told me in the past that the pillow is so big and takes up so much space in the bed like a third person, that they named it Joe.  They hunted for a pillow case and could not find one, so Steve asked me if I could make them one as a surprise for Erin and somehow put the name Joe on it.  I went one step better and embroidered a face on it….