October 11, 2007
Every year at Christmas, I have my kids make some sort of craft. They enjoy making a homemade present that they can give to their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Last year, I bought plain wood ornament frames at the craft store, and the kids painted them. Then we put in their wallet sized school pictures and voila - instant gift.
I came across these instructions on how to make a pinecone ribbon ornament and I love it! I don’t know that I’ll all of my kids make this, since the end result would be 3 very similar ornaments for each relative, but I think at least one kid (probably my oldest?) will end up doing this as her gift project. It’s very similar to a pot holder I made when was in the 5th grade at school. That project required basic sewing and lots of folding little pieces of scrap material into points, and ironing them to make them flat and crisp. Unfortunately, I don’t recall how to make the pot holder, so the pine cone is a good substitute.
10:40 pm
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September 24, 2007
Lots of things happened this weekend, some good, some bad. I’ll start with the good, since it’s not going to depress me to type it out. We had family over for dinner, and my sister (not Cheryl, the other sister) came bearing yarn and knitting needles. Turns out she’s been trying to teach herself to knit for a year from books and pictures, and she was over it! We sat down on the couch and I taught her the basic knit stitch and got her set up with knitting rows to practice. I even broke out an old project of mine and sat for a while to knit. Make all of the little old lady jokes you’d like to make, but it’s so relaxing. I’m trying to talk my sister into joining me at one of the beginner project classes at Knit N Knibble in Tampa.
9:14 am
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April 19, 2007
The folks behind this Alpaca yarn website have launched a new tool called a yarn project estimator. If it works as well as I hope, it should eliminate needing to make a swatch before starting a new project!
10:52 am
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March 22, 2007
When I started knitting a few years ago, I mistakenly thought that I’d be able to find lots of yarn and supplies locally. After all, I’d been scrapbooking for several years prior to that, and I knew of lots of local scrapbooking stores - surely all hobbies are created equal, right?
Not even close. I know of ONE knitting store in the whole Tampa Bay area, and it’s quite a hike from me. Wal-Mart sells yarn, but…ick. Scratchy, itchy, cheap stuff. Michael’s sells yarn, but that’s not close to me either. There’s a Jo-Ann in town, and I’ve found a few things there, but again, the store selection is limited. I made a baby blanket with yarn I bought there, but I’m not inspired by anything else I see. I’ve stayed away from online yarn buying right now because I was a toucher - I like to fondle the yarn before I pay for it, and I can’t do that online. But I’ve heard people raving about alpaca yarn, which is made from an animal called the alpaca (similar to llamas) and is comparable to cashmere, but much more affordable. Suddenly, I don’t need to fondle my yarn, as long as I stick to buying alpaca online. One great place that sells only alpaca is www.alpacadirect.com.
Brentwood, CA (PRWeb) March 14, 2007 — Alpaca Direct (http://www.alpacadirect.com), an online provider of Alpaca apparel and knitting yarns, today announced strong demand for luxury knitting yarns like Alpaca, Silk and Pima Cotton. The online retailer has seen a strong upward adoption of higher quality natural fiber yarns as more knitters take on challenging heirloom projects while participating in this rapidly growing national pastime.
Quality alpaca yarn is lightweight, soft as cashmere and warmer than wool. American knitters are beginning to discover the many unique benefits of Alpaca Yarn. This natural hollow-core fiber is lightweight and thermal regulating, making it a perfect fit for creating versatile sweaters, ponchos and socks that can be worn throughout the year. “The response has been phenomenal! When our clients discover alpaca, they become lifelong customers!” says Kelley Hobart one of the founders of the Silicon Valley dot com venture. Alpaca apparel and yarn has been somewhat of a secret among Alpaca owners since most retailers have not offered natural fiber alpaca products due to its exclusiveness and limited availability.
In addition, most of the Alpaca products available have not been designed for the North American fashion market. “We teamed up with American designers to introduce the public to fresh colors and styles combined with the incredible natural benefits of alpaca. Combining incredibly high quality products with easy online shopping and fast shipping has been a winning combination. Our goal is to educate the consumer market about alpaca apparel and yarn. Most people do not realize this natural fiber is soft as cashmere but much warmer and 5 times stronger than wool.” Alpaca Direct is addressing the market by making the entire line of Alpaca apparel available online, in popular American styles through a highly usable retail website. Most retail web sites are very difficult to use and have a high abandon rate. To solve this issue, the software design team at Alpacadirect has focused on usability of the core shopping experience. This focus, combined with old-fashioned customer service like free shipping and quality gift wrap aims to set new service level expectations for online retailers.
“Our goal is to target a specific market niche, usability test the shopping experience and refine our approach based on user feedback.” Specialty apparel retail sites like Victoria Secrets and LL Bean have been leading the growth segments in the elusive e-commerce market by using a similar online strategy. “It is all about the basics… Great products, competitive pricing, excellent customer service all delivered in an effective online shopping experience,” says Mrs. Hobart.
About Alpacas Alpaca are native to the high Andes Mountains of South America. Domesticated for centuries by the Inca of Peru, their precious fleece was worn only by royalty. Alpaca produce over twenty natural shades of a fiber that is soft as cashmere and stronger than wool. This unique hollow core fiber is extremely light yet retains the ability to warm its wearer against even the harshest winter chills. Alpaca are still very rare in the United States with the current US alpaca population at about 50,000. The average female alpaca sells for between $15,000 and $40,000 dollars in the US market.
About Alpaca Direct Alpaca Direct is the latest e-commerce retail venture launched out of Silicon Valley. Located in Brentwood, California, USA the site was extensively tested in a state of the art usability lab and offers a wide range of high quality Alpaca apparel and gifts.
Contact: Bianca Ruehlig 925-308-7655 Alpaca Direct # # #
It’s easy to find what you need by weight, fiber, or brand, and not only do they sell yarn and fiber, but you’ll find patterns (something my local stores are sorely lacking in), needles, and even instructional DVD’s. I think I’m inspired to start a new project!
5:57 pm
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January 18, 2007
Remember that baby blanket that I started knitting this week? I’m probably about 1/5 of the way done on it. Man, baby blankets are a LOT bigger than the scarves and dishclothes I’ve made so far! At least I’ve solved the problem of who to give the blanket to, once it’s completed. Jim reminded me that one of his buddies just had a baby girl. We haven’t seen her yet, so hopefully this blanket will be done by the time we’re invited to meet her. That means I need to start sitting down EVERY night to work a little bit on it. Using the circular needles isn’t hard at all - I had to reason to dread it. They are a little twisty from being packaged up though, and I wish that darn plastic connecting the needles would just lay straight!
8:20 am
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January 15, 2007
The knitting went really, really well last night. I got quite a bit done - I’m unsure of exactly how big a baby blanket should be, but I’ll keep going til it looks right. Now, I’m going to be near the craft store at some point this week, so I’m going to see if I can find suitable sock yarn. I’m not sure that Joann’s sells anything like that though.
5:58 pm
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January 14, 2007
I pulled out some yarn tonight that I bought a LONG time ago, and never did anything with. (That pretty much sums up most of my yarn purchases!) My yarn, or rather the bag it was in, was dusty, so I’m having an allergy attack now.
I also pulled out my circular needles and after some hand holding from my friends Cass and Ang, I moved from “thinking about knitting a baby blanket” to actually knitting the baby blanket. Keep in mind, I know of no pregnant woman, nor am I pregnant, or planning to get pregnant. So I’m going to have a lovely pink baby blanket, and no baby to give it to!
Once I get a handle on the blanket, I’m trying socks.
11:35 pm
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December 23, 2006
This morning the carpet cleaners were knocking on the door at 8am, so we dragged ourselves up out of bed and made ourselves scarce for an hour. We mostly lounged in the den with the dogs and blogged. Not a bad way to spend a morning, but once the cleaners left, I went back to bed! Poor Jim had to go to work though. You KNOW the last few days before Christmas are the most fun days to be in retail. HA!
I wanted to take the kids to a movie today but the girls are going shopping with my mother, and the boy has a friend over, so I don’t know if that plan will work out. Not to mention it’s 1:30 and I’m still in my jammies. And cripes, I still have a few presents to wrap! The house is mostly clean and ready for guests though, so aside from wrapping a few last minute items and coloring my hair, I don’t have much to do on my to-do list. Oh, I have to finish a scarf that I wanted to give to Gracie for Christmas. I’ve been knitting and watching Lord of the Rings on TNT.
1:36 pm
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December 21, 2006
Here’s Lola modeling the newest scarf:
I knitted it on size 10 needles, by casting on 13 (my favorite number!) so that it would be long and skinny. The yarn is Sensations Spirits in Spirits Blue by Joanns. The main color is a sky blue, but it’s also got flecks of white, taupe, and chocolate brown in it. I picked it because the person I made it for once told me sky blue was her favorite color - I didn’t realize that the other colors, along with the blue, were exactly the colors in her blog theme! Isn’t that odd how that worked out?
6:17 pm
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December 17, 2006
My head is feeling better, but my back is KILLING me from wrapping presents yesterday afternoon. 4 hours of bending over my coffee table and the lower back is burning. At least everything is wrapped, so today I can just clean the house and watch my last DVR’ed episode of Heroes.
Oh! I finished the newest scarf last night so I’ll be able to mail it tomorrow. It came out beautiful, of course!
10:23 am
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