2 Mustaches and a Beard of "Flaming Marshmallows"

bEpisode 18

Production scheduling

1. Events
   1. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23^rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
   2. The yarn discover tour is running September 9-24. This is pretty much a 2 week yarn crawl. I can't wait an excuse to go to yarn stores I normally don't get to Hurray! More info can be found at www.yarndiscoverytour.com
   3. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10^th, 17^th, and 24^th. I'll be at this event on September 18^th. Be sure to drop by the Algonquin Spinning and Weaving Guild's booth. There will be crafts for kids I have it on good authority that they will be making yarn and woven bracelets. Not sure if B will be able to pull this off but we'll try. I hear I know the lady helping out with the crafts pretty well. <It's my mom...>
   4. Newly scheduled and the event that I’m most looking forward to! I will be attending Session one of Camp KIP April 21-24 2012.
2. Production
3. What's in my Tea Pot
4. QC Inspection
5. Shipping
6. Materials Sourcing
7. After 5

II Production

Knitting has been my primary focus this week and it's been moving along in starts and fits.

1. Twisty Sister Cabled Hand Warmers by Kate Gondwana. It's been a while since I did anything cabled! These are for a friend who asked for some fingerless gloves. The deal was that I get to pick the pattern and she get's to supply the yarn. Big mistake... I should have let he pick the pattern and pay for the yarn... Because she presented me with a pound of red heart acrylic. <Sigh> I just cast this on tonight I'm through the set up rows and I just started twisting cables. So far so good!

III What's in My tea Pot

1. Choice Organic Teas Lemon Lavender Mint
   1. I found this one while Nate and I were out killing some time in downtown Kent. We stopped by a local coffee shop called Scribbles and I picked this up with my Latte.
   2. Refresh yourself with this calming, caffeine-free cup featuring accents of sun-blessed lavender. Our sophisticated blend combines these blossoms with layers of mellow lemon and crisp mint for a fresh, yet soft-tasting tea that will elevate your sense of well-being. (Caffeine Free)

3. Ingredients Organic Spearmint*, Organic Lemongrass, Organic Peppermint, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Lavender, and Organic Lemon Oil  *Fair Trade Certified
4. I like this one. But I can;t say that I taste the Lavender. I taste mostly mint with a bit of lemon that hits in the back of the throat. This box will get drunk but it's not a must stock in the house at all times tea.

IV QC Inspection

1. It's baaaack... Spiral viscous is back on the needles. This Sunday was brunch with the knitting group and I had nothing on my needles. I'd been intending on getting the spiral viscous back on the needles soon and as I had nothing better to work on I pullout the spiral viscous This pattern is really called Spiraluscious by Anne Hanson. I've been attempting to knit this in Bamboo and Ewe sock yarn I had in Bamboo and Ewe Purple. I know it's purple but it's a UFO! The last time I decided to frog this it was because I notices a jog in the spiral and I couldn't let it go. Usually I'm not a perfectionist knitter. I will fix mistakes but I take the view of if it isn't noticeable and no one besides myself and the designer will be able to find it I may leave it alone. As long as knowing the error is there won't drive me nuts. The jog in the spiral was driving me INSANE. SO when I pulled out the project with my not cards. ( I like to write out my repeats on note cards and flip through them as I finish rows. It helps to remind me of what row I'm on and saves on ink) I checked the pattern repeats for the body and everything matched up. Since I was traveling with the project I noted how the two moved stitches were to be accomplished. I thought I was set for every eventuality. Only when I sat down at Panera and pulled out my yarn to cast on did I realize the only thing I didn't write down was THE NUMNER OF STITCHES TO CAST ON! Joe has really been earning his stripes as a fiber husband this week. I had to run outside and call him on my cell phone and gave him a quick crash course in how to find what I was looking for on the pattern. Even though he was ale to give me that magic #. (96) I still couldn't get the first 2 rows to come out right. This is not a hard pattern. I should be able to sail through this. But for some reason it's just not happening. I'm making this one a goal and I'll be casting it on yet again sometime this wee.
2. I never go out to Knit group without a back up project. My back up project for this week was the Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel (another freebie from ravelry) This scarf is very much on the line of my Embassy scarf but I was searching through ravelery looking for something to do with 2 skeins of Lion Brand Moonlight Mohair in Rain Forest. I got these as a gift. I would never have bought this for myself but sometimes things that I would never buy or myself turn out to be really great. SO I was surfing projects made with this yarn and I saw the drop stitch scarf and it was one of the best idea I saw. I hat this yarn. It's hard to work with the mohair fuzz gets matted up and tangled and it hurts my hands. I'm going to frog this wind the ball back up and offer it up at the next stash swap.

V Shipping

1. The Summerflies Shawl by Holly and Ella Knits done in my Indian Rose Zauberball. This pattern is gorgeous and blocked out like a dream. The knotted open work is GORGEOUS I'd like to use that stitch as the body a sweater and the namesake butterflies are ingenious. This shawlette knit up super fast and I love the colors in the yarn. I wore it out and about this weekend and got plenty of compliments. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the picot edge. I think it's a bit busy but I have a lot of color going on so it could just be my interpretation. I would knit this one up again in a heart beat but I think the stitch patterns used would lend themselves really well into a baby / toddler sweater.
2. 

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   Okay so here's where the knitting got a bit crazy thins week... Nate wants one of those hats with the beard and mustache attached. I looked around and couldn't find and free patterns I liked and the one I did find was 17.00! But I did find a beard pattern and a few mustache patterns and all the hat patterns I wanted. SO Nate decided the base hat he like best was the Ribbed Hat Pattern By Judy Gibson http://tiajudy.com/ribcaps.htm he wanted the beanie style and chose some Lion brand wool-ease in variegated denim out of my stash. The pattern is super easy and super fast I finished the base hat in one night. I really like this pattern and the hat looks good on me too! So I may have one of these in black for this winter. So now that I had a hat I needed a beard we used Chelsea Slater's Short Beard pattern and again dove into the stash for some brown acrylic to match his hair. The pattern is pretty straight forward it's just garter stitch and shaping. The hard part was the mustache. Chelsea slater doesn't provide a link to the mustache in her picture but recommends a crochet mustache. The est one I found as an amigurumi pattern by Tara Murray http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2011/02/crochet-mustache-pattern.html. This was my first Amigurumi project who knew it would have been a mustache!. Since I was attaching the mustache to the hat I didn't stuff it. But as I looked at it I thought it was a bit to large and hard to breathe through so I went back to the net and found The Knitted Mustache by Holly2 on http://www.instructables.com/id/Knitted-Moustache this one turned out to be little less thick and easy to breathe through but I curls and I didn’t want to knit a second one to “line” it for fear I'd be back at square 1. So Here I am with three completed may patterns and nothing connected together yet. It'll come together sometime this week and I'll post pics. Nate seems to be pretty happy with all his design choices. I think he may be even a little impressed at the speed that things are running at. My only issue? What to do with the left over mustache!

VI Material's Sourcing

With all the knitting this week the spinning has taken a bit of a back seat. I did decide to ply to 50/50 romney alpaca blend against itself into a 2 ply. I started plying the “red” ball. My last foray into the realm of the center pull ball wasn't all the successful so I took a page from Abbe Franquemont and did the Andean Bracelet plying method. Which is a bit rough on the skin if you wind your bracelet too tight, but plies like a dream. Definitely wot having the “Claw Hand: while winding.

VII After 5

The beginning of this week was a bit crazy... Daycare called me on Monday to say that B's eye had swollen up. Joe is allergic to absolutely everything and it looks like he's passed that on to B. So after figuring out that it was most likely hay fever I gave him some benadryl before bed and expected everything to be good in the morning. That wasn't the case. B's eye swelled up Golf Ball size during the night. SO we had to take him in to the doctor. At that point I was pretty sure it was a bug bite but the doc couldn't fin any evidence of it and thinks it's just another allergy and out him on a steroid and an antibiotic to be safe.

Ever since the cook out last week B has been obsessed with grilling out add in that he saw a TV show where the kids camped out with smores and B has been in full “I wanna go camping mode.” Unfortunately I had promised my tent to my friend the bride for the long weekend. I would have just set it up n the back yard and had a camp out back there. we cooked burger and hotdogs on the frill and afterward cooked marshmallows on sticks. B has been talking about making S'nore's all week. And no that the time is here where's he at? Running like a madman with a raw marshmallow in each hand while the dog chases him. I was prepared to dodge flaming marshmallows and sticky fingers the running and the yelling... not so much. :) Though Joe did almost fling a flaming marshmallow of his stick at me...