Things are just a wee bit crazy around here these last few days. James had his last day of work, and now he’s home, feeling great about his time off, and getting ready for the move. We have so much to do, we’re using project management software to keep track of it all. Craziness. This week was all about cars. We have to sell both of our current cars and replace them with 4-wheel-drive (or in my case all-wheel-drive) vehicles. I bought a 2002 Subaru Legacy (with heated seats!), and James a 4-wheel drive truck that he can take out into the Alaskan wilderness (I’ll keep my car to the 12 miles of road Cordova has).

Now there are 4 cars in front of our house–not something that totally excites the neighbors. James is in charge of selling the old cars, and he’s been doing paperwork and getting them ready, etc.

I’m also preparing simultaneously for a quick trip to my parents in honor of my dad’s retirement, and a big trip to Columbus, OH on June 5th to teach and exhibit at The National Needle Arts association trade show. Normally, I attend TNNA just to network and take classes. This year, I’m both exhibiting with Stitch Cooperative, and teaching two classes: Caps à la Carte (design your own crocheted hat), and It’s Easy Being Green–a class on understanding the ins and outs of the new green movement that’s taking place in the yarn industry. I’m thrilled to be teaching and exhibiting, I feel like I’m seeing all sides of the industry this year, but there are a million little details involved in getting ready for TNNA too. Some are fun–I got to help design a button we’re giving away (I designed buttons for my own pattern line too)–others are mundane like deciding how many tables and chairs we need for the booth.

On Sunday, while Selma and James were playing parents against kids soccer in the rain (Jay was the ref, whistle and all!), Heidi came over and let me take her picture in all of the garments in my pattern line that didn’t ever have live model photos. The overcast weather was perfect, and we got some nice shots. This one is the Hemp Shawlette, that I’ll be debuting at TNNA–it will be available on my web site after the show.

About halfway through the photo shoot we realized that Heidi had been looking off in the same direction for every photo, so we started to get a little more creative. We also discovered how much easier it is to look natural when you’re leaning against something.

(The Antique Lace Shawl).

Here’s an early shot, Heidi’s wearing the Herringbone Mesh Jacket:

Heidi liked wearing the Half Crazy Sweater:

At Robyn‘s request, I’ve written a blow-by-blow of my day, yesterday (Wednesday).

0555: “Mama–can I go downstairs?” Jay is patting me on the head, trying to wake me up. I poke James in the arm. His alarm clock will be going off in five minutes, so he gets up and takes Jay down to have breakfast. I’m exhausted because I had stayed up too late the night before obsessed with having a few minutes at the spinning wheel. I couldn’t find my carders so that led to me not starting to spin until after midnight.

0730: “Maaaaaaam! It’s time to get up!!” Jay shouts from the bottom of the stairs. James must have just left for work. I get up, shower, and dress.

0800: Kids have breakfast, and I’m making lunches.

0830: We get on shoes and jackets and walk the two blocks to the school bus stop. Jay and I ride the bus with Selma for a couple of blocks then get off at his pre-school. I drop him off and then walk back home.

0905: Back home. Put on water for tea. Go start a load of laundry, pick up from breakfast and morning kid mess. Remember an e-mail I need to send first thing in the morning, sit down at laptop in living room. Send e-mail then check inbox. Check Ravelry for rav-mail.

0945: Remember about making tea. Turn water back on to boil (it’s an electric kettle with an auto shutoff, thank goodness.) Make toast. (I eat sprouted grain raisin toast every day for breakfast, this may sound boring, but it’s delicious!) While eating toast, I make my two regular morning calls to my mom and my friend Lisa.

1000: Make my long commute–down the stairs to my basement studio. Call the landlord about the furnace *still* not working. Call the military transportation office at Fort Belvoir to find out why our move hasn’t been assigned to a moving company yet, wait on hold for 20 minutes and three different people saying “can you hold, please?” Finally get someone on the phone:

Me: “Hello, I was wondering if a carrier has been assigned to our move yet.”

She: Oh, well, no. It looks like it hasn’t been started. Normally, you would just wait for us to e-mail you, but since you got me on the phone, I’ll start it right now. (I got the carrier notification the next day!)

1030: Call 2 yarn companies who are providing materials for classes that I’m teaching at the National Needle Arts Association summer conference June 5. Both agree to send stuff right away. Cross that off the list.

1100: Write a blog post about my house’s rebellion against me. Remember I need to send a crochet chart to a contract crocheter who’s working on a cashmere shawl design for me. Then forget.

1130: Work on tech editing some patterns for a friend’s crochet book. E-mail the completed edits to her.

1230: Stomach growls. Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of soy milk for lunch. Wish there was something more interesting in the fridge. I do have a fond nostalgia for pb&(grape) jelly because I had it every day for lunch in grade school. While I’m eating, I work on a graphic for a button I’m making to give away at TNNA.

1300: More tech editing.

1415: Grab socks that need to be overnighted to magazine that’s publishing them. Weave in ends. Attach a tag and put them in a ziploc, grab mailing address and head to post office. Notice a group of high school kids all wearing polo shirts in a decidedly non-preppy way, is this a new trend? (UPDATE: I found out today-Thursday-that the socks didn’t arrive on time-is usps express mail always so unreliable?)

1550: Meet Selma at the bus stop. Make her a snack (peanut butter, honey, pretzels–her request, perhaps the peanut butter love is genetic).

1630: Pick up Jay at preschool. Take Selma to Yoga class. Jay and I connect with a knitting friend Hannah, who’s son is also in yoga. We walk into Old Town Takoma and I order takeout for the kids and me, and order Jay a lemonade. We chat a while, then walk back to the yoga center.

1745: Selma comes out of yoga and we eat dinner in the park. We are planning to go to the Art Showcase at Selma’s school. Jay has an accident, (very unusual for him, but I should have seen it coming since he just drank a whole glass of lemonade.) I’m not prepared.

1800: Call another parent: “Can Selma go with you to Art Showcase?” It turns out they’re already in town eating at the Mark’s Kitchen (where we got our takeout). Drop Selma with her friend Aaron and his Dad who take her to the event.

1830: Bring Jay home, get him ready for bed, brush teeth, story, rocking, put him back in bed after a “pop-up.”

1900: Begin work on a hairpin lace sample shawl that I’m making for a class I’m teaching on Saturday at A Tangled Skein in Hyattsville. Realize I love the Clover hairpin frame (I’d never tried it before, and it’s compact and has holes in the pins to hold your guidelines. Brilliant).

2000: Heidi, Emily and Lorraine arrive for craftnite. We were planning on making crafty luggage tags but I convince them to let me teach them Hairpin Lace so I can practice for my class. Heidi has brought ingredients to make a yummy snack–melba toast, pesto, and buffalo mozzerella. Emily brought brownie muffins. Lorraine goes into my kitchen to make tea and got attacked by tea boxes when opening a cabinet. I should have warned her that the house is out to get us.

Here’s the headband Heidi Made:

Heidi is an amazing crocheter and knitter–she’s an artist who ads her own flair to every project, and started designing the moment she got the hairpin lace in her hands. I taught her the most basic stitch, and she immediately added double crochets and back-loop single crochets as well as her own take on a crochet edging. Definitely take a look at Heidi’s blog and the adorable raglan tops she’s making–she’s made about 3 or 4 for herself in the last month and they’re all gorgeous.

2030: Hillary arrives and she learns hairpin lace too.

2200: Friends finally leave after another fun and funny craftnite. I continue to work on hairpin project until I get too sleepy.

I think that our house is kicking us out. Our phone has been intermittently going on the fritz, every time it rains, as a matter of fact. And last week our furnace broke. Someone came to fix it, but a few days later, it broke again. Oh, and all the rain we’ve been having flooded the basement (i.e. my studio), so rugs are piled on top of boxes and things that I had to move to allow the carpet to dry. Argh. We do have to be here at least another 6 weeks until the movers come, so the house and I are going to have to reach some sort of détante. Maybe a little feng shui is in order.

Meanwhile, I have a new hat design in the works… here’s a quick snapshot. I hope to be doing a photoshoot of this and a few other new projects this week that we’ll be debuting at TNNA in June. The yarn is a sock yarn from Pagewood Farm. It’s a hand-dye on a lovely sock base that is great to work with–this is part of a trio of knitting patterns I’m doing with Pagewood Farm that will include a scarf and a purse.

This weekend we had a break from many, many days of torrential rain on Saturday, and we took advantage of it by going to see the US Women’s soccer team beat Canada at RFK stadium in DC. We had front-row seats, and the kids really got to see the action. A few of the players were moms and their kids got to run out to the field and bring them flowers for mother’s day. Afterwards, some of the players came and signed autographs.

One of them, Kate Sobrero, who was carrying her son, Keegan, tossed Jay one of her signed Jerseys!

Of course, he had to put it on, right away.

If you’re a Heroes fan, you’ll appreciate this adorable Mohinder amigurumi doll created by Violet Anchovy. I love the sideburns.

She based it on Kim Werker’s Amigurumi Dude pattern at CrochetMe. Oh, and she’s made a Sylar one too!

Kim Werker has a great post about the comeback of big glasses à la the 1980s. Kim, I have to say I agree, and in honor of your courage in posting your glasses photos, here are mine:

Hmm… Kim and I had almost identical glasses and bangs. We went to high school only about 90 miles apart from one another (we didn’t know each other) so that could explain the coincidence. Was this Upstate New York style, circa 1989?

If you had fun at the Homespun Yarn Party (or you didn’t make it), you should c’mon out to the Takoma Gazebo (in old town) for the Old Town Knitting and Craft Fair.

Here are the official details:

Event: Old Takoma Knitting and Craft Fair
Date: Sunday, May 18
Time: 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Location: Old Takoma Gazebo – Red Line Metro to Takoma Station, four blocks North on Carroll Avenue
(across the street from House of Musical Traditions)

Join some of your favorite local yarn dyers, including Mama E’s C*EYE*Ber Fiber, Storm Moon Knits, and Woolarina, plus designers, writers, jewelers, and crafters for an afternoon of wool-inspired bliss. Designer Amy O’Neill-Houck will be signing copies of hers latest book, The Color Book of Felted Crochet. Also enjoy the Takoma Park Farmer’s Market which will be open from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

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I won’t have any of my handspun (below) for sale, since I’m spinning just for the fun of it, but I may bring my wheel, to demonstrate my novice abilities!

Here’s a quick round-up of my Sheep and Wool week which started on Wednesday with a class!

This is Maggie Casey–here she’s spinning fiber right off of a comb. For years, I’ve ignored the lure of the spinning wheel, but somehow the impending move to Alaska made me change my mind. I signed up for Maggie’s two-day beginning spinning class, and I was hooked. Spinning is fun. Really fun. Also, learning to spin has taught me a lot about yarn, which I’m sure will inform my knitting and crochet work. Making yarn is cool–and I actually have no aspirations to make yarn for any knitting or crochet projects–I just like playing with the fiber. I liked it so much that I asked for this for mother’s day:

James, being an avid cyclist, I think was partially convinced to buy it because my new toy contained an actual wheel. (When I first told him I had signed up for a spinning class, he thought I mean the exercising kind!) When I told my dad about the wheel, he said, “Wow, you’ve really gone over the edge.” I have to say I agree, but I went over happily.

I chose the Lendrum wheel after trying Maggie’s. I loved how it spun and she advised me that it was easy to care for and right for the kind of yarn I’d like to make. (On the thinner side, good for crochet).

The first day of the class we learned about carding and about preparing fleeces for spinning, then we learned about “woolen” spinning. Woolen means that while you are spinning, you let the yarn twist between your front hand (which controls the twist) and the back hand which is drafting (drawing the fibers apart. Woolen spinning is bouncy, elastic and soft. Woolen yarn is made with “carded” fiber. It’s Maggie’s favorite kind to spin. It’s good for soft things but because it’s fuzzier, woolen yarn can pill and wear–maybe not a great choice for say, socks or even fancy textured work because the stitches don’t show up as well. I liked spinning woolen too because we got to learn the “long draw” method which is a dramatic way of pulling the fiber back about an arm’s length–it’s a fast way to make lots of yarn, and it’s not as hard on your body as other methods.

The next day, we tried plying yarn. I had tried plying at home with some yarn I spun just to see if I could, in preparation for the class. In the class I found out plying is great for fixing some imperfections in your “singles” (the yarn before it’s plied)–for instance, you can possibly straighten bits of over-twist, something I do a lot as a beginner.

After plying we learned about “worsted” spinning. Worsted yarn is made from combed fiber. Maggie showed us how to use combs, and then she showed us how to comb using our carders. I loved taking a small lock of fiber and coming it, then spinning it–seems like instant gratification–you don’t have to prepare a whole skein’s worth at a time, and you can sort of “design” the yarn as you go by choosing different fibers and colors. Spinning worsted, you don’t let the yarn twist at all between your hands, and you draft the yarn by pulling forward with the front hand (the opposite of what we were doing the day before. This was a little hard for me to do after having spent so much time with the woolen spinning, but I finally got the hang of it. I especially liked spinning “over the fold” where you take a combed lock of wool and fold it over your index finger, spinning it from there. Worsted yarn is much smoother than woolen and therefore is good for cables, socks, things that require durability over softness.

Today I finally washed the yarn I made, and it’s drying in the sun. I’ll get a proper photo once my camera battery has charged.

So, on Saturday at the festival, I spent the morning in the Cloverhill Yarn Booth where I was selling my patterns–what fun! Jolene, the new owner of the Cloverhill Yarn Shop put together a booth of *all* indie yarn dyers and spinners and invited me to sell my patterns. The booth had a great location and drew big crowds. After lunch, James and I bought the wheel, then we all went home–so I didn’t look at the booths at all. Luckily, we came back on Sunday.

Saturday night, we went to the Ravelry Party. I’ll let you read Emily‘s round-up of the party. Also, Martha has a great photoset on Flickr. (Pay special attention to the photo of Barbara after she had set her pattern on fire–only my mom thought to dunk the pattern in a drink–the rest of the folks at the table were too busy looking for their cameras so they could take a picture for their blogs!) Emily and I showed up in time to help out handing drink tickets and raffle tickets to the party-goers. My mom was a “bouncer” keeping people out of the main area until it was time to come in. The party was such fun–it was great to meet so many ravelers in person, finally.

On Sunday morning, we were exhausted, but we went on back. The weather was milder, the crowds were thinner–it was lovely. I looked at all the booths, and had a great time buying bits of fiber. I wasn’t in the market for yarn, but couldn’t resist some Savannah (a organic cotton/wool blend from the Fibre Company that was on sale).

Here’s a slide show of all my photos.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Last Tuesday, at SSK (Silver Spring Knitters, our local group), I coerced Heidi into modeling my newly completed hat.

The cap is a summer version of a hat I wore all winter long. (I’m obsessing a little bit about hats right now, lots of deadlines for sweaters, vests, socks and minutely crocheted shawls, and all I want to do is make hats.)

After we had settled back in…

We had some unexpected (to me, at least!) visitors:

You may recognize James, I’m holding Jay, and in the bottom right corner is the back of Selma’s head. (Note they all have dressed for the event–James in a nice jacket, Selma in a skirt and crocheted shawl, and Jay in his Spiderman Jammies–everyone picked out their own outfits, I hear.) They had come to surprise me and James had worked quietly with the Martha, our group’s fearless leader to arrange their visit. James said something like this, when he arrived:

“In the military, when someone has a big achievement, we like to make a fuss, have a ceremony and give them a plaque to commemorate the event. Amy’s first book was just released in March, and to celebrate Jay and Selma and I had this put together.”

Then, they unveiled the coolest surprise ever:

James wrote to my publisher to ask them for a cover of the book, and they sent him one! Then he took it to our local frame shop and worked with the framer to come up with the perfect frame. I love it. And I was so touched that James took all that time and effort to say publicly that he was proud of me. What a sweetie.

Mary Beth Temple crocheting comedienne and author of The Secret Language of Knitters has started her own Internet Radio Call-in show! For some reason, she saw-fit to invite me as her inaugural guest, so tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. you can tune in and call in with questions for Mary Beth and Me. If you can’t listen live, they show will be archived and will be available as a podcast on iTunes.

You can use this button to get right to the show’s page:

Or, tomorrow, during the show, you should be able to use the widget below to listen right from my site.

My new Favorite Song: Lace for Boyz written by HizKnits and WonderMike

Last night I had to rip out almost 6 inches of the round-yoke cardigan, because of 1/2 a stitch. Yes, I mis-measured my gauge by 1/2 stitch and that meant, by the end of the yoke I was over 30 stitches off the mark. However, I was not heartbroken, on the contrary! I enjoyed making the yoke so much, I was actually excited about doing it again. (I know, I’m a little crazy).

Today I’m prepping for the Caps A la Carte crocheted hat class I’m teaching tomorrow at A Tangled Skein–students are going to be designing their own hats, fun! I think there might still be a spot or two left if you’re in the area and want to sign up. Just call over to the shop.