Midwest Fiber & Folk, and Family

These past few weekends have been a tad crazy. Crazy in a good way though.

I’ve been working hard on my OWL for the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. Here’s a picture. I have maybe 10 inches left of knitting the lace pattern, and 8 for the cowl neck. The ‘sleeves’ are just an inch or two of ribbing. Yay for drop shoulders! And this needs to be finished by Friday, July 31^st to count. I should be able to make that if I work hard tonight and all day Wednesday.

I was hoping to wear this thing this last weekend…but we’ll get to that in a sec.

Two weekends ago I was at the Midwest Fiber and Folk show in Crystal Lake, IL. I was helping out my friend Bev and her knitted jewelry business Knitter’s Journey. She’s on Ravelry and she has a website showing all of her kits. Here’s a few pictures of the set up. This took more work than you could ever see from the pictures.

See those pretty baskets? Yea…we kinda forgot to pack those in the SUV. And we didn’t realize this until we were already at the show and setting up! Believe me…we couldn’t have all those bags hangin’ out without a basket. So we grabbed some pizza, drove the 2 hours home and then the 2 hours back and got up early to set up the rest of the booth on Friday morning. I think we made good time and got things set up nicely. Needless to say next time I think a checklist will be used to make sure that all things are in the car. ^_^

I picked up some yarn at the show as well as a few of Bev’s kits.

This green yarn is from Frontier Fiber Mill in Indiana. They have their own fiber farm complete with Alpacas and sheep and other sorts of things! This is 400 yds. of worsted Alpaca. It’s sooooo soft! I’m thinking mittens, though it might decide otherwise.

This here is 925 yds. of laceweight wool for $18. Pretty good deal huh? I love it. Sunset colors. This one might have to sit in my stash for a while before I decide what to do with it.

This next yarn boggles my mind. The lady that spins this yarn is blind. BLIND! That means she just feels the yarn. And her tag has Braille on it so that she can tag them herself. I should have gotten a picture of her and her husband. They are such a cute couple and he completely supports her. (She also had a pretty neat calculator that spoke to her so that she could take care of sales.) I’m making the Sylvia Cowl. It’s a light pink thick and thin yarn(ranging from laceweight to a light worsted). I’m really liking how it’s turning out.

Wow lots of pictures!

I left the festival early to go to Festa Italiana at the Milwaukee Summerfest grounds. I felt back for leaving Bev all day Sunday and for her having to pack up alone, but Festa Sunday is a family tradition. We attend church and walk in the procession into the grounds to get in for free. Once that’s finished we promptly walk out of the grounds and eat lunch at the Italian Community Center.

Lunch was a little disappointing. I mean…Italian Community Center…it’s been that for years! I’ve always loved their food, but this year the pasta sauce was terrible. I mean…it was like tomato soup with a little basil in it… I was sad. My German Fiance can make better pasta sauce than that! He actually makes great pasta sauce…so that’s not really fair. I swear he was Italian in a former life.

Other than a disappointing lunch it was a great day. I scored an Italian soccer jersey for $28! The last few years they’ve been rather expensive since Italy won the world cup in 2006. I’m excited for the games next summer. I make a point of watching soccer during at that time. It’s like how I only watching basketball during the College March Madness. I choose when to enjoy certain sports.

That was the end of that weekend. This weekend was an engagement party for Steve and I. Honestly, I was dreading this party. My father wanted to have this party so that people from both sides of the family could meet and socialize before the actual day of the wedding. Sounds like a great idea in theory…but I was scared that it would just be a big segregated party. Thank goodness for Steve’s parents. They really got in there and got to know everyone! I was so grateful that everyone was talking. My father’s brothers and sisters tend to stick to themselves and they were also very good about talking and including everyone. I don’t have pictures of the party…my mom was the paparazzi for that. I’ll have to ask her for some pictures. It was really a lot of fun.

Sunday was our annual Cefalu Family Reunion. Umm….but only half. There are two sides of the Cefalu family. Our side of the family, which is corralled by my cousin Dave for this event, and the other side. We only see the other side at this event every year. Mario is in charge of gathering this side of the family(can’t tell we’re Italian huh?). We missed the reunion last year to celebrate Steve’s Dad’s 60^th birthday, but I guess Mario’s side didn’t show and they did a repeat of that this year. I learned that Mario’s side of the family tends to get into feuds every few years. Not feuds with us, just feuds within themselves. So I guess it might be a few years before we see them again.

It was a good time. A huge softball game with players ranging from age 6 to age mid-forty-something. It was fun to watch. I was playing with the real little guys because of my shins.

Steve and I have started running in the wee hours of the morning. We already woke up at 6 in the morning, but now we have a 5:15 wake up call. It’s been alright getting up, but staying awake the rest of the day was pretty hard last week. This week has been better. My problem now is that my right shin hurts bad enough that I’m limp running…that does not seem like a good thing to me. Today we took a break because it was raining, we slept bad, my leg needs a rest, and we’re a bit lazy. I decided that if my leg feels alright later that we’ll take a walk…if it doesn’t feel better it may be time for me to get it checked out. I’ve already changed shoes, taken a break for a day or two and iced. It doesn’t seem to be getting much better.

This is what I'm busy working on at the moment.

It's much longer...That needs to be finished by tomorrow!! (wow...just realizing that tomorrow is the 29th...crap!)

and then my OWL...which is also a lot farther than this picture. I'll have to do a better update later...but this is what I have to work with at work...

This is a long post…maybe I’ll need to insert pictures here and there to make it more interesting. That really concludes my entry. I need to send some of these pictures to Bev…maybe I can get that finished here at work. We’ll see if I can access the pictures. If not… I’ll add them tonight or tomorrow.

Later this week…how work is screwing us out of money.

Finally

I get a weekend at home! Though I did have to ask for it. We were planning on going up north to the cabin this weekend with Steve's parents...yea...wasn't really feelin' that. We just spent last weekend in the Wisconsin Dells for his Mom's 60th birthday. I had fun, but I really don't need to see a million people every weekend. It's not even that I haven't had that much time to knit, it's really that I want to spend more time with Steve...alone... We spend every weekend running around with either my family or his and next weekend we're going to be hanging out with friends from Michigan.

Then we'll at least have one weekend where hopefully we have nothing going on. Then it'll be the Festa Italiana weekend and then the Engagement party/Family Reunion weekend. I swear...it's almost like school can't come fast enough for me. I love the break and the fact that for the most part it's warm outside, but I feel like this summer is going to fly past.

On better news, here's what I've been working on.



Making some headway with Steve's jacket. I did also find a zipper and I'm very excited about that.



I'm excited about these, they are fun to make. The pattern only has written out instructions and it's starting to drive me nuts so I will probably be making out a chart pretty soon and sending it to the person who wrote the pattern so that she can make it available to everyone. They are the Regina Mitts on Ravelry. I'm too lazy to link those right now. So I guess you'll just have to deal. I think I might go work on my Aeolian Shawl....even though that won't get me any points for the House Cup. I'm just not really feelin' it this month...

Drunken Post

Well...

I'm a leeettle drunk-ish right now. Also a little tired. I can't seem to sleep lately. It's hard. It's a good thing I have work or I would become nocturnal like I did when I was without job or school for about 4 months...bad idea. I just like the night better. I guess it just fits who I am. Though most of the things you can do at night involve sitting around or midnight bowling...lol.

I've been working on knitting a lot lately, again. The House Cup has really kept me going. I have to step it up a little though if I want to get 25% of my sweater done by the end of June. Good thing there isn't a lot going on.

My parents are trying to plan an engagment party for me and Steve. That should be interesting. My parents can't seem to plan things very well. It's a little over a month away and the only thing we know is the weekend that we're having it. Supposedly having it that is...ugh...I have a feeling that this will be a nightmare. But I can't really say no, can I?

Well yea...We'll see how that plays out. Things are going well though. No complaints for the most part. It's exactly a year before Steve and I are going to be married. At this point we will be in a hotel room all by ourselves and married...awesome! I think I will be very glad when that is over. And that's basically because of our familes, but I've gotten the vibe that most brides feel that way. I'm just scared that I have a year left of feeling that way.

Probably time for bed before I say something that could get me in trouble down the line when someone finds this that shouldn't, but that's the risk of putting your opinion online...

Update

So things have been interesting. I've finished a pretty good amount of projects and that's made me happy, but it's all because of the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) on Ravelry.

I have no finished my shawl yet...that kinda went on hold after the sorting and new classes for HPKCHC.

I was sorted into Slytherin! And I'm also on the Quidditch team as a beater! It's all very exciting.
Here is what I've been working on!

For Ancient Runes I'm working on a Rose filet.


For Charms I'm working on Quetish's House Crest bag (in slytherin colors of course)


For Herbology I made a super cute mandrake with an Ipod!


I made a really neat hat for Arithmancy (fibonacci sequence anyone???)


A washcloth with a Dalek on it for Muggle studies.


And a sweet hat that I can stick my ponytail out of for Defense Against the Dark Arts


And...I have also started an OWL. This is a 3 month long project. Hopefully I will be able to get cracking at this soon.


Other than all that crazy stuff things are going well.

Lauren finished her sweater! I have been mentoring her while she is learning the Mattress stitch (i think that's the name...invisible stitch up the side of a sweater?) And she did a great job! Here's a picture of her with her sweater! (now that it's finally getting warm outside...she just needs to add some kewl buttons.)


And...I lied...there is more...

I had an allergy test today. This is what my arm looked like 30 min after the test was finished...it's all shiny from the lotion they used to help make the itching go away.

I have found out that I am allergic to grass, weeds and TREE POLLEN! all the spots on the top row that are big are from tree pollen. The largest one on the right is from Birch trees. I now understand why I was so miserable. (thank goodness we too our birch down this last weekend)

I also got some shoes from this great Lady named Bobbi from HPKCHC. She gave them to me just because they didn't fit her feet and they do fit mine. She will be getting some yummy yarn in the mail soon!

pink isn't usually my color, but these are super sexy shoes and they will get some use!

That's all for now!

Practice Shawl

As most people from knitting know... I'm working on the Aeolian Shawl from Spring 2009 Knitty. So far things are going well. I wanted to make a practice one because I think it would be a great thing for me to wear at the reception for my wedding.

I'm making this shawl in Knit Picks Gloss Lace. It's a great yarn!! I love working with it. I'm also using size 6 beads instead of 8. I've already decided that for the wedding I'm not going to put beads on during the yucca chart. Just too many beads that will be directly on my shoulders (Beth was right...it is rather cold)

but anyway! Here are some pictures of my progress. I get to start working on the next chart!! My 12 repeats are complete! Hope you enjoy!

UGH!!

Ok,

So maybe if I can keep up with this thing will I put it on Ravelry and actually let people read it. It's been over 3 months since my last post. Though I did get engaged and have another wedding to attend/help with and now things are starting to wind down before spring break.

It's not like I don't have things to blog about, it's just that I don't really find it fun to come home after a day of work sitting in front of a computer and then go and do it all over again on my blog. Stupid work and blocking things. We'll see...maybe I can find a way around it.

Anyway...I have plenty to tell, but I'll wait until I have kewl pictures. I just got a new sewing machine for my birthday! So I'll have plenty of crafts and stuff to share!!! Yay!

That's all for now. Back to work and then knitting group tonight! These people are awesome!