Happy Halloween!

I broke out of my crafting comfort zone yesterday to do a little sewing. From Scratch. That's right, no pattern! I don't have any problems making clothing out of yarn. If I mess it up, I know that I can go back and start over. But with a sewing machine? If I mess it up, there's no real fixing it. Once you start in with the scissors on the fabric, if it's cut wrong, say sayonara to the project. So I'm quite proud of what I was able to accomplish in a couple of hours this time.

I grabbed a tutorial off of ThreadBanger about making a hoodie based on a fitted Tshirt that I already owned. This is a great little tutorial. I absolutely love this kind of stuff - Inexact, guess as you go projects. I'm not sure why I was unafraid of this, I'm usually terrified of sewing clothes. I can quilt, but sewing is not my forte.

So, I started with some black velour fabric out of the stash that my Mom donated to her favorite charity, me, and with a fitted Tshirt out of the closet:



Added in a little help from my Mom's Westie:


And eventually got to this:



A cute little shirt for just a few hours of time.

Please excuse the blurry pic and the dirty mirror. (It's hard to photograph yourself in a dirty mirror wearing black velour when your usual photographer is at school being studious.)

I did mess up one part though. The all important hood. It's just not a hoodie without one of those, ya know? Somehow, and I don't have a clue how, it came out too small. So Widget the cat now has her witchy costume (or would that be her Widgey costume?) for tonight:


And let me tell you, she's just thrilled to pieces about it. Can't you tell?

Tummy Troubles

Well, we now have a name for what's been ailing the Eldest. Poor thing is suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He got it honestly from family members. At least now we can concentrate on minimizing the symptoms from it.

I've been scrambling all day. I ran to the store to get last minute Halloween costume accessories, then it was off the to first doctor to get lab results. Next came checking the kids out of school and then running to the new doctor.

The Youngest is not at his best at this point. He had a 20 minute nap, a lunch that was two and a half hours late and now he's at the manic stage that all two year olds hit after a day like today.

In a couple of hours I shall be dumping the whole load on their father and racing to choir practice.

One day I might have time to knit again. I did do a few minutes of spinning this afternoon, but there's not much to show for my efforts. :sigh: Maybe after Halloween is over...

The Haul

SAFF this weekend was a Fiberholic's worst enemy. Every direction that you turned was fiber, and more fiber, and more. There was no such thing as the "social drink" of fiber at SAFF, oh no. This was the full blown, fallen off the wagon, someone please take my keys cause I've drunk too much (and purchased too much) - Oh Hello Occifer- of a fiber festival!

I might have spent a little too much cashola there too. Um, *shifts eyes right and left* don't tell the hubby or I'll have to lie to him again. 'kay?

Anyway, here's the haul:

1. 8 oz. of Cloverleaf farms Merino Top in Riverstone:


2. The next time I get the urge to dye some wool, I'm gonna play with this, the Lanaset starter set.


3. Exotic fibers - I found Camel fiber, Tussah silk, bombyx silk and a little clear and gold "flash" as well. I was really surprised at how soft the camel is.


4. Meet the alpacas. On the left is the gorgeous black fiber from an alpaca named Sambo and on the right is a deep chestnut brown from an alpaca named Sherman. Normally, being from the deep South, I would avoid anything named Sherman like the black plague, but I couldn't keep my hands off that rich chocolate color!

5. Pre-dyed Cotswold Curls! I'll use these in needle felting and in spinning.

6. Toys! At nine o'clock is some free stitch markers we scored, at 12 is a little tool for making a kind of frog closure and at 3 you have some needles for needle felting.

My Mom thought she was just coming along to keep me company and got totally caught up in needle felting and had to get the stuff to do it. She started with the needles and then I grinned evilly as she paid for it and said, "you know you're gonna have to by roving now." I've done my job as a non sober fiberholic. Yep, she's off the wagon now too! mwa-hahahahahahaha!

Oh, and by the way - It's way too freaking cold here for this time of year! 36 degrees this morning - in October! Brrrrr!

Outside kitty (named Cammie) would like to brave the three dogs and two other cats and two rowdy children and come in now please!

SAFF, My Birthday Weekend and a Broadway Musical!

I successfully survived both SAFF and my 39th Birthday weekend.

I don't mind telling everyone this is my 39th, because this is the last birthday that I will ever have to acknowledge. The rest of them will strictly be known as anniversaries and I will be 39 forever and henceforth!

Friday got off to a rocky start. We managed to leave at around 3:30pm, but you have to remember that this is in Atlanta traffic and it was raining for the first time in over a month. Because of those two factors, people were driving on the highway with their heads up their behinds and having wrecks. The trip that was supposed to take three and a half hours took us five and a half hours and we didn't get our supper and margaritas until after 9pm.

Saturday was sweet! We saw several people from our LYS, The Whole Nine Yarns, wandering around. The crowds were in an amazing mood. Everyone, and I do mean everyone was so friendly and happy. The colors and textures of the products for sale were spectacular as well. I swear that I managed to "pet" everything that I could reach and those things ranged from the alpacas and angora bunnies to roving, yarn and sweaters for sale.


I found some of the most amazing art that I've ever seen. This lady does hers with needle felting.

This example is of puppets. All in the following pic are made by needle felting and the detail work is amazing. It blows my mind that she used a tiny needle and some loose bits of roving and got these. You can see more of her work here. Check out the dinosaur one. As always, please click on the pic to enlarge to see the detail work of all three pics.


These two pieces are astounding:


And this one needs to be in a museum somewhere:


The alpacas were just adorable. Check out these three lounging around:


This one has freckles on her snout:

We even got to feed a couple of them:


The alpacas also made the most amazing humming noise as they communicated with each other. The hubby and I had already decided to get some in a few years and raise them for their fleece, but now I'm absolutely committed to it. I must have them!

And for an extra overdose of SAFF cuteness, check out this 4 day old goat that was there. It was the size of a travel coffee mug. ( I know that, because there was one on the ground next to it.)


By the way - I've been trying to write this for approximately 3 hours. In that time, we've had three power outages, homework tears over a report for school and the Youngest (fascinated by the first fire in the fireplace that he ever remembers seeing) throwing his chocolate donut and paper towel into the fireplace when I wasn't looking.

Anyway, the best part of the weekend happened on Sunday (on my actual birthday) when I got to see this at the Fox Theater:


All-in-all, a fantastic weekend.

Edited to add: I'll show you all the loot I got from SAFF tomorrow!