Fingers Crossed

I don't want to jinx anything but it's looking like my roommate might be on the verge of obtaining a full-time job with benefits -- woohoo!  Send your positive thoughts his way, if you please!!

A Different Knitting Technique

Several years ago I met Berta Karapetyan, the owner of School Products Yarn in Manhattan.  Of course, at the time I didn't realize who she was but I've since figured out she's a very knowledgeable knitter and here's her video demonstrating her Eastern European knitting techniques.  I'm going to give it a try and see if it relieves the pain I've been having in my thumbs lately.

Substitutions

Today was my Door to Door Organics delivery day.  They usually have some leaf lettuce on the list and I change it out every time, usually for fruit.  I should just put it on my do-not-send list.  Instead I asked for more of the Starkrimson Pears -- they are SO good!

I was supposed to get some bananas but they weren't up to snuff so they didn't send them and instead credited my account.

Yesterday I had a different substitution.  My regular barber went on his honeymoon Saturday for a week and I desperately needed to have my hair done this week before I leave for my business trip.  Kyle set me up with Lyle (not making this up, I promise) who also works at the Berkley Chop Shop.  Kyle left very explicit instructions for Lyle and assured me everything would be fine.

I don't know when I've had a more nervous cut & color.  I felt bad for Lyle and I suppose threatening him with great bodily harm if he stained my face was not the best way to start the process.  My pet peeve is having someone be reckless with the hair dye and getting it all over my skin, leaving the tell-tale sign for all to see.  I'm pretty sure Lyle broke the record for slowest cut & color.  I was there for 2 hours and 15 minutes and I was his last client of the day.  On the positive side, the shampoo was great -- massaged the heck out of my scalp.  Too bad the water rolled down my back, soaking my t-shirt.  No biggie.  The color turned out fine and the haircut looks fine, so all is right with the world.

I really appreciate Lyle taking care of me.  I think he was out of his element but he was a trooper and I'm sure he was relieved when I left the shop.  Tomorrow when I wash my hair myself I'll be able to tell how well the cut & color turned out.

Shaping Up

If you're like me, you've got a few areas on your body that could use some toning.  OK, in my case, everything needs toning!  I found a cool website to assist with that.  Or at least it gives me ideas -- now I need to execute them!

Whipped, Again!

Today was the second day of this year's Sheep & Wool Festival.  The weather started out cloudy and turned sunny by mid-day.  Thank goodness!  We were all very fearful that the rain showers would come and ruin the day.

Traffic was light but I did have a few more sales.  I had visits from several friends:  Barb, Eddie, Tracy, Kate, Janet, Ann, plus a few return customers.  Overall the day went well.  It took me 65 minutes to pack everything up and get on the road home -- a record for me!

I bought this super cute candle from the folks at Bernie Bee:

This special onesie for my favorite grandson:

And some basic laundry soap:

Both items were from Sleepy Hollow Herbs in Armada.  I tried the laundry soap tonight -- so far, so good!

Here's a satisfied customer of mine who chose her very own felted cloche:

I have a busy week ahead, capped off with a business trip where I foolishly booked a 6:15 AM flight on Saturday -- WHAT WAS I THINKING?????

So Much for the Weatherman...

All the weather forecasts for today pointed to one outcome -- chilly, rainy day.  Bah Humbug!  I think the temperature hovered around the upper 60s for the high and the sky was blue with clouds appearing only in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, I think the doom and gloom forecast kept many people away, including most of my knitting friends -- missed you!!

My friend Kirstie and her family came, bringing me good luck, as sales were relatively steady all day.  I sold 9 knit hats, 6 felted hats, 1 felted bag (OLD inventory!) and one woven scarf.  Definitely a good day and hopefully tomorrow will be fruitful, too.

I took a couple of photos after the day got going and missed an overall shot of my booth space so hopefully tomorrow I'll think to do that before the crowds start appearing.

The Curtain

This is the curtain that's been taking up my time of late!  I started on it Sunday night and finished it Monday night!  Marathon work for me.  I started with 3 1/2 yards of curtain fabric plus 3 1/2 yards of black out lining fabric from Haberman Fabrics, here in Royal Oak.  They've got the best selection of "good" fabric and nothing's too good for my grandson!

I cut the fabric in half-ish and sewed it together to get a width of 108".  That's a lot of fabric!  There was a lot of sweating and slogging and even a couple of swear words.  I don't have a sewing room (YET!) so I really struggle with big projects.  I even took the curtain to work so I could use a large table to even out the edges before I finished it late Monday.

After work on Tuesday I drove out to see Baby Denver and have my son-in-law Mike install the curtain rod so I could hang the curtain.  I didn't get to hold Denver much -- he was snoozing away most of the time I was there.

After we ate dinner, Denver woke up, expecting his dinner.

He let us all know that he intended to eat - NOW!!

Monday night I stopped my sewing long enough to run over to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick out a curtain rod. I snapped this photo with my smart phone and Holly chose the rod on the top.  Isn't it nice that phones make this happen??

Here's a close up of the fabric.  The stitching went a whole lot better once I started using the walking foot.  Thank goodness I remembered what the gal at Haberman's had told me!  Don't look too, too, closely but the first three rows of stitching were done using the walking foot and the bottom row, uh, wasn't.  Big difference!

I'm so glad to have the curtain delivered so I can get back to knitting for my weekend show.  The weather is now looking really crappy -- low 60s with rain.  I can hardly wait.  NOT!!