Tools of the Trade Revisited

Last night I had the pleasure of participating in another home craft show at my friend Leigh Ellen's house. Just like last time, it was a treat to meet some other artists and to see customers interact with my wares. And I made a good amount of sales!

I had lots of fun chatting with the artist set up next to me - Alizah, who makes lovely hammered jewelry. One thing we discussed was the cost prohibitive-ness of starting a new craft. That made me think of my latest spinning obsession and that I'm pleased as punch to have spent very little on my spinning gear (which leaves more pennies to spend on lovely batts and rovings).

So here is another Tools of the Trade posting, but this time about spinning:


1. File Holder Lazy Kate (free)
This broken file folder holder was destined for Goodwill until I realized I can suspend my drop spindle between the sides to wind yarn into a ball.

2. PVC Niddy Noddy (free)
Using these directions, I made my niddy noddy from PVC pipe I scrounged from the basement. The pipe is from a display rack Chris made for me a long time ago (I spray painted the rack gold for festivity's sake).

3. Drop Spindle (free)
Another perfect gift from my uber-crafty mom.

4. Pestle Nostepinde ($1.50)
My nostepinde (ball winder) is a pestle I got from the fabulous Daiso shop. At least I think it's a pestle because the packaging was in japanese. (As a side note, I love to shop at Daiso and look at the great packaging graphics of angry sponges yelling at dirt and happy containers welcoming left-overs.)

Do you have any "Craft Gear on the Cheap" tips to share?

It's November???

Whew, we survived Skeleton Theatre! We ran the show on Halloween and the following evening. Technical difficulties prevented us from starting on time on Halloween but after that the shows went very well. Here's some pics:


If you are interested in some behind-the-scene pics, you can check out Chris' flickr stream.

I didn't have any time to sew during the mayhem, especially since my sewing studio moonlights as the guest room and our very good friends from LA flew up to partake in the skeleton fest. However, I did sneak in a little spinning here and there amidst the cooking of lots of food, making of t-shirts and figuring out how to velcro a light sabre to a skeleton's hand.

It's a lovely carded batt from Enchanted Knoll.

I have a feeling that I won't be spinning for a while, though, because I just looked at the calendar and it is NOVEMBER! I think my mental calendar stopped at Halloween. Now I'm in scramble mode to get ready for the holidays...and my birthday! My birthday is at the end of the month and I'm planning a little treat so check back later.

I hope you had a great Halloween!

Crafting in Colorado

One of the stops on my big trip was a visit to my hometown of Boulder, Colorado. I got to spend time with my family, eat lots of my Mom's delicious cooking and see my best pal who recently returned from a Foreign Service tour in Sudan.

And I got to try something new! My mom, who is a crafter extraordinaire, had her spinning wheel out and I got to spend some time with it. (Do you know how hard it was to not type, "take it for a spin"?)

I've always been fascinated by spinning wheels. I remember watching Disney's Sleeping Beauty with rapt attention when she was inexorably drawn toward her slumbering fate but I was much more interested in the spinning wheel than the princess. And spinning wheels have such lovely anatomical names like "maidens" and "mother-of-all" and "the footman." So after finally figuring out the scotch tensioner, I sat down to spin. It was quite tricky and an awful lot like learning to drive a stick shift (although I didn't crash into a gas pump my first time out alone-TRUE STORY!)

Here's my results:


Definitely what on author diplomatically called "novelty yarn". I'm not sure it is knit-able but it was delightful to spin. I think I need to practice more with my drop spindle before my next trip to Colorado.