stitch marker

an updated feather & fan

The re-written pattern for this bonnet is here:

Download juniperbonnet.pdf

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bonnet away

The vintage kitchen bonnet was sold {bye bye :-( }. It went out today, so I felt I had to make a few more for the shop.

The barkcloth one is especially luscious. Well, so is the blue circle twill boy-or-girl bonnet. And the sushi one is lighter and just fun as heck. I still love making these, so the business still makes sense. Check.

Oh, and today I sent out my stuff for an ephemera swap, and I bought this very cool simple folding TV tray at the antique/vintage shop. It's pretty tiny, so perfect for our eensy weensy house.

fairalong & running: in which i write the longest post ever such that it needs an executive summary and color coded subheadings i'm so sorry for that

I've had a few questions about the State Fair knitalong, so I'm going to post the answers, which means this may get a bit long. The key things to remember:

• You should join us - even if you're going to sew or bake or table set rather than knit.
• You could win prizes for joining on this blog by July 5th.
• And/or by coming to Abundant Yarn to knit along on the evening of July 6th.
• I will be at Abundant Yarn tonight.
• My runningdex updates are at the end. Aren't you dying to learn how much weight I lost this week?

What is this knitalong?

The State Fair Knitalong is for anyone who wants some camaraderie and friendly prodding to finish and enter a craft object in their local or state fair this summer. About 20 23 of us are signed up so far, and my cohosting yarn shop - Abundant Yarn in Portland, Oregon and on the web - provides a meeting place and 10% off in their cafe Monday and Thursday nights for those of us in town.

Sign up, knit, win

Sign up by leaving a comment on this blog. If you sign up to knitalong or craftalong (in the comments on this blog) by midnight Pacific Time on July 5th you will be entered to win prizes that will be drawn randomly from all knitalongers. This already includes anyone who has signed up previously.

More prizes for those who are in the Portland area:  Attend a mid-knitalong meetup at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks on Thursday 7/6 at 7 pm and you will also be entered into a door prize drawing for additonal prizes, including a few craft prizes handmade by me (cherry pie pincushions anyone?)

Answers to some questions

Can I still join?
Yes. You can join anytime up through the end of August. But if you want to be eligible for the current raft of fabulous prizes you must join by July 5th.

What should I knit/enter?
Last year I dipped my toe in by entering two small but well-crafted items, a baby hat and a felted bag. You should enter something you are proud of. Whether it was challenging or not to knit it should be good quality knittin'.  You can enter something you've already completed. Or if you want to make something over the next several weeks, the staff at Abundant Yarn are more than happy to help you choose a project. And they are nice. We like them.

What are the categories?
At the OR State Fair, hand knitting includes many, many categories (pdf). There are also many other types of crafts and competitions you can enter.

Does it have to be my own design?
While Ann designed her own incredible piece last year, here in my home state I was able to enter items made with commercial patterns.

Do I have to win a county fair first?
In Oregon, no. We are all equal in these parts, and free to do things like enter the state fair. But please check your own state's guidelines.

How do I enter?
If you live outside of Oregon, you will need to find out the dates and procedures for your own fair. Here is a list of links to state fairs in the US.

The procedure in Oregon is pretty simple. You fill out a form declaring what you are going to enter. Then you bring the actual knitted item to a drop-off location on a specific date in August (still to be announced). It gets judged, and then you can go visit it at the Fair the last week of August/first week of September and find out if you won a ribbon. You pick it up later at the location where you entered it (usually for Portland that's the Mill End Store). This year's exact procedures and deadlines have not yet been announced.

What are the deadlines?
Dates and forms for 2006 are not yet posted on the OR State Fair website. Last year, forms were due August 5th and all entries were to be delivered by August 16th. It may be similar this year, since the fair dates are nearly identical. But I just don't know for sure.

Is there a limit or entry fee?
In Oreogn, no. You can enter multiple items, and in fact you're encouraged to. There are volume prizes! And it is free.

What is everyone else entering?
Sarah is designing and knitting a cabled baby blanket. Jenni - whom I got to meet at Abundant Yarn - is considering entering her adorable baby hoodie. My friend Katie is excited to competitively table set. And I'm thinking this Katie should enter her gorgeous blue dress, that is if she can pry it away from her adoring daughter.

As we head into serious fair season, I'll start posting updates more frequently. And I'm looking for someone to design an e-ribbon for everyone who participates and enters something in a fair.

What am I, the hostess, going to knit?
Good question. With all the work and swaps I have going on in addition to this knitalong I just haven't thought about my own entry. I had several ideas, but I think I've settled on making a tiny, perfect baby bonnet with a new pattern - this time my own invention. Whee!

And the billion dollar question. Did I get lighter & faster this week? Hit continue to learn.

unknown grandmas

Sarah & I hit the pavement with our crafts over the past two weeks, with a table at Crafty Wonderland and a free spot on the sidewalk at the Alberta Art Hop. And...

I think I got this selling-in-person thing out of my system.

I've been told so many times by people who see my baby sling or things I've knitted for Binx, Oh God you should sell those!  Well, if I had 10 bucks for each of those people, I could have made back the money I spent on all this month's speculative crafting. But I didn't really cover my expenses.  Just barely.

Some have posited that it's because our stuff is a bit too crafty. And by that I mean that these are the wearable art of the babysphere, one-off onesies and bonnets and slings that are made by hand with vintage and thrifted fabrics, from tablecloths to sushi curtains.  They're kind of loud-colored, and folksy, and handmade looking. Not slick like screen-printed onesies or tees.

They're what Sarah and I call the "Unknown Grandma" aesthetic.  Made of materials cast off by grandmas now gone, and found by us at their estate sales or at Value Village.

For example, this little onesie patch mixes new fabric bits with some black cherries from Goodwill and a puff from a bag of thrifted puffs made by someone who gave up before completing their quilt.  In that sense, I feel like I'm finishing something that began a long time ago and has come somewhere entirely different from where it set out to reach. And that seems really cool.

But it's more than you can convey when you have a second of someone's attention at an art fair. It seemed at the Portland events that a lot of people thought our stuff was cute or wonderful, but couldn't imagine it on their own child.  They talked themselves out of buying it.  Often out loud, in front of us. Children would want something, and their parents would say they had to walk around the whole fair before deciding, then not come back. 

Or parents would tell their children they didn't look good in the bonnets. Parents, for shame! Children look beautiful in bonnets. They all do. It's a rule.

And yes, boys wear them too. (Girls aren't the only ones with the sun in their eyes, for Pete's sake). And no, you shouldn't ask your husband if he thinks that's okay.

I think I will expand olive & bea to sell more than bonnets, and just put things there when I  want to enjoy making something for which I don't have an intended recipient. Like my recycled sweater bags. [Note: Girls aged 8-12 loved these. In case of gift needs, make a sweater bag or buy of mine for 10 bucks. :-)]

This has been a fun experiment, and I'm not at all upset by it. We sold about 3 items a day, and had a blissful couple of days in the sun at the Art Hop watching the boys play at the crepe restaurant's sandbox and all over the sidewalk. The friendliness of the event and everyone who owns businesses on that block could not be beat. So it was worth it for the experience.

Now back to crafting because I feel like it, and getting in touch with my inner grandma.  She may not go over big at the craft fairs, but I like her a lot.

the bonnet revolution

Is apparently not upon us.

Sarah and I had a blast yesterday, together with my friends Eden, Laura, and Kim, as well as Sebastian and Truman. We worked all day at crafting, making bonnets galore out of vintage fabrics and measuring tape ribbons, and tiny log cabin quilt patches attached to onesies and t-shirts. Sarah made fabric eggs and bacon that rock, and mei tei slings with horsies and glam dots on them. Kim made luscious balls of handspun yarn in orange creamsicle and candy cane colors. All of this work was for fun, sure, but also because we had a table at Crafty Wonderland today.

Let's just say it was a slow crowd. We sold 2 bonnets over the 5 hours we were there and Not. One. Other. Item. Meanwhile, it was all I could do to force myself not to buy about four times that value of stuff from other vendors. I stuck to my guns and left with my $40 gross intact. But what a bunch of work! Whew.

We're actually hoping to do it again next month, just to see if it's different. Neither of us have done a craft fair before and we had a great time. We're just hoping it'll pay for itself next time. We heard from other vendors that these things can be a lot more lucrative, and it seems other artists there had a slow day today too. No one seems to understand the ebbs and flows much.

[The beautiful photo above is by Sarah.]

little finishes

Finally, my tiny ankle socks!

I used Socks That Rock in the seal rock colorway, and used Alison's free ankle sock pattern. But I cast on 64 stitches on size 1 needles, did the heels and toes on 32/12, and I added a lace cuff taken from the Waving Lace socks pattern in the Spring 2004 Interweave Knits.

I like 'em. They are a bit too short and I may add a row of crochet to hold them up in the back. Also, my short row heels and toes are still hole-y after many miserable, fiery failures practice runs. But they are very comfy and warm and cute. I'm going to add several more shots of them into the blue moon fiber arts flickr group (Which is, right now, having some kind of identity crisis and shows no photos in the pool, but in reality there are about 20 or 30. Please join and add more and hopefully flickr will be back in line soon).

Oh, and...It was really sunny and bright yesterday, and we were going to the farmers' market, so I whipped up a little sun hat for Sebastian using a 49 cent thrifted hat and some fancy hand-stamped cotton tape ribbon made by abby. The two look awesome together.

This was a 15-minute project, while he napped. And now he has a sun hat that actually fits, just in time for the gorgeous weather we've been having, and I have even further justification for my junk ingredients buying.

bonnet squirrel bonnet

There's something about this photo that I love.

And something deeply satisfying about the fact that today I finished my seal rock socks. It's been a while since I finished a knitting project. Binx has started a new pattern of going to bed later at night, but taking 2.5 hour supernaps in the morning. So today I sat outside in the sun and finished the second sock. As soon as the sun shines again (tomorrow, crossing fingers) I will take some photos.

For tonight, there's just this new bonnet. The fabric and ribbon are thrifted, from knittn kitten (it's embarrassing how often I check in there). You can see the lining and button on the back here.

Sewing is so much faster than knitting. No wonder people like it.

getting the hang of it

My sewing is improving by leaps and bounds. I had so much fun making this bonnet yesterday, and even winging the pattern myself. And it came out so effing great, I put it in my shop. I was going to try to put elastic around the back opening, but when I got there I decided to do this instead. I love this chunky clear plastic button so much, it was almost too hard to part with to put it on the bonnet. It's over an inch across.

This fabric is vintage, 1960s, polished cotton. It's like a dainty oilcloth, with a slight sheen and stiffness to it. Very perfect for this carton-shaped bonnet, because it holds the shape.

Sarah was here with her sewing machine, too, and we had our own little sweatshop going in my studio, with Truman in the pack and play and Everett outside happily taunting the dog. It was so much fun (well, probably not for the dog). And Sarah reached into her bag and pulled out the perfect fabric for lining this little hat: olive green silk!

I am so making more of these. I already cut out the next one - vintage polished cotton with a huge strawberry print, lined with tiny flowers. Now to find the perfect ribbon...

Happy Easter!

a little shop, luv

I've had this on my mind for a while. I've been designing (many) and actually making (a few) little bonnets that are not for anyone in particular. Just because I love them. I'm working on some fabric ones, too, and a knitting pattern for a cool one.

Today I opened a wee etsy shop to put them out there for sale whenever I have one that has no home.

This is the first. A deep chocolate and apple green, Juniper style feather and fan bonnet. All cotton (Jo Sharp, fyi).

I'm calling my little bonnet shop Olive & Bea. It's named after my grandmother Olive who taught me to knit, and Beatrix, the little girl I was going to have before I found out Binx was a boy. I don't know if I'll ever sell a single bonnet, but I'm so enamored with them I just had to try.

So, speaking of luv...the other day at Abundant Yarn (where I spend so much time I really ought to be on the payroll), I was eating my favorite snack in their cafe - apples and peanut butter. I eat this at home, and I love that they have it on the menu there. A glistening white plate with sliced green apples and a tiny bowl of peanut butter. Yum. Much to my embarrassment, I looked down and suddently realized it was green and brown.

As Sarah said, boy when you get into something you really get into it.

twin obsessions

With my leftover Blue Moon Fiber Arts superwash worsted merino in the Spinel colorway, I made this bonnet from the Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern on page 108 of The Opinionated Knitter. I used size 6 needles to get a tight stitch, and it's a bit big but comfortable on his 10-month-old head.

I made a couple adjustments. Instead of a (chokeable) button, I picked up three stitches at each mitred corner and did a (less chokeable) i-cord. And instead of sewing up the back, I picked up all the ridges and then did a 3-needle bind-off with the bonnet held inside-out. If you follow the pattern from the book, these mods should make sense. This is what the back looks like, and this shows the color a bit better in the sun.

I think it's adorable! Iwant to make more. I don't know what I love most - the chubby blue i-cord bow, the sweet angles on the sides, or the way it frames his little face so sweetly even when he's miserable.

Thanks to my two new obsessions, I've started two flickr groups. Please join blue moon fiber arts and baby bonnets (handmade or not) and add photos, so I don't waste away alone in my lonely little flickr groups. Because a flickr loser - that's really bad.

now part of my ideology

I love this  little bonnet.  There isn't a single thing I don't love about it. It was one of those classic little patterns that are fun and fast, the roughish cotton denim yarn was a neat new experience and if I do say so myself a stunning contrast with the Victorian looking feather and fan, and there should be no question that little Juniper is a girly girly girl in this getup.

Also love-worthy:  the ribbon is reversible grossgrain from Paper Zone.  Let's just savor that for a moment: Reversible. Grossgrain.

The specs are here in this post, because everyone should knit one of these.  They are now part of my ideology.

I hope some of you decide to make these.  They're little gems.