What a month!

I started this month feeling pretty puny.  But there was way too much happening to keep me down for long.  First was the San Mateo county fair.  I think everyone should get involved in their county fair in one way or another.  Of course, my way is all about crochet!  But, they have a category for everything:  flowers, homemade beer, woodworking, and all the different needle arts.  And don't forget the livestock.  Pig races and all!
I'll let you pop over to the chapter's blog to catch up on what we did there. 
The Sunday after the closing of the fair, we were involved in the 1st annual Oakland Fiber Fest.  What a great day!  So many nice people came by our booth.  and it was fun to check out the other booths at the fest.  I spent some time with Gracie of the Lace Knitters Guild.  She is going to teach me to tat.  I have my grandmother's tatting shuttle, but have never learned how to use it.  She showed me a quick stitch and I am going to try to practice it a little between now and then.  You can read more about the fest at the chapter blog.
Probably the most exciting thing that happened to me this month is I was contacted about being one of the reviewers for the CGOA Masters of Stitches program.  I am so honored to be on such a team of highly skilled crocheters.  My first portfolio arrived over the weekend, and is the first thing on my agenda tomorrow to work on.
Been a busy month.  And I feel so much better at the end of it than I did at the beginning.
BTW, I am working on Peter Franzi's Swellegant Elegance Sweater in Saucon Sock Yarn, color Loganberry, for moi`.

I'm so excited!

The San Mateo county fair opens tomorrow.  My CGOA chapter will have a table at the fair for 5 days where we will be demoing some different stitch patterns.  We have a couple of take and make projects for people to do at the table.  We will have a daily raffle for kits for patterns and yarn to crochet. We will be handing out info on our chapter, on CGOA, Project Linus, and Warm up America and the Oakland Fiber Festival.  Should be a full and busy 5 days.  I think I have everything together that we need to take.  I sure hope so!
I spent 2 days this week setting up the displays for the knit and crochet entries.  That is the first time I have ever done this kind of volunteer work.  Very fun, but also very tiring!  I pretty much had free reign in how to display the items.  The folks in charge were very helpful in providing supplies I needed, dress forms, styrofoam heads, etc.  I am very anxious to see what people think of the way the displays are done this year.  I found out that they have not had a knitter or crocheter volunteer before to help.  No wonder we find an afghan inside out or a hooded scarf upside down.
If you are in the Bay Area this next week, come by our booth on Sat, Sun, Tues, Sat or Sun, and say Hi.

And the winner is:

drum roll please- JD from St Louis

I liked the Tabard part of JD's suggestion, so kept looking for the other part.  Finally, after studying the history of this garment, decided this is a classic timeless piece.  So, please welcome to my pattern line, Timeless Tabard.
I will have the pattern in my Ravelry store within the next day or two. Thanks to all who helped me find a name.

I spent

Way too much money on this afghan.  But I fell in love with the yarn,.  I can't find the label right now, but I think it was Ella Rae baby cotton, which is 80% cotton and 20% nylon.  Then I edged it with Knit One Crochet too Ty-Dy socks yarn.  Both are very nice, but I sure can't afford to do this very often.

So, I'm saving this for my first great grandchild, someday far, far in the future.
This is an original design using one of my stitch books.  I first did it in some very fine baby yarn that I had laying around then I saw this cotton and fell in love.  I have written the pattern, but it is a little different for each of them because the first one was probably category 1 yarn and this one in more of a category 2.  This one is just a little larger than the first. 
I now need to wash my swatch (I know, should have done that first) to see how it will hold up.  Put it in the bucket for the fair.

I hope he knew

how much I loved him.
I met Peter (Penguin) at an Indy car race at Monterey about 15 years ago.  At that time I lived in So Cal and had no idea how important to my life he would become.  We saw each other at the occasional race over the next few years because of mutual friends.  When I finally moved north about 10 years ago, he opened his heart and his home and his friends to me.  He was always there if I needed to move my whole house or just a big pot in the yard.
He drank and smoked too much, but he didn't have a mean bone in his body.  In fact, he really didn't know how to say no to anyone.  He took great pride in his beautiful yard.  Was always puttering and planting, mowing and weeding.  Putting in a walkway or building a gate. And Christmas!  OMG, at Christmas, he did love his lights!  The house had more lights than an airport landing strip.
He started getting sick a couple of years ago.  They tested & tested.  Couldn't find anything wrong, but managed to puncture his bowel doing a colonoscopy. It has been all downhill from there.  He never really recovered from that and then was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer not all that long ago.
I regret we didn't make the Giants game or the Reba concert that we always talked about. I regret that I didn't make the effort to spend more time with him this last few months.  I talked to him on the phone, but that is not the same as sitting in the back yard sharing a beer.
And I'm angry that a disease like cancer can take such a good person from his friends and family and leave perverts walking the streets. It's not fair and I don't like it.
Peter's leaving this world has left a huge hole in my heart.

Amigurumi Class a lot of fun!

I had 2 ladies sign up for my amigurumi class at PYA on Sunday.  They were both in Peter's Intro to Crochet class on Saturday.  When I found out what their skill set was, I had to kinda rethink how to teach them.  I created this lovely lady for the class project, hoping they would be able to complete her in the allotted 3 hours.  Not quite, but with their limited crochet knowledge, I was so impressed with how much they really did.  They have the sc down pat.  Also very good at increasing.  They had done a couple of rows of dec before we had to leave, so hope they are doing OK. The thing I was the most impressed with was they both caught onto the pattern reading in a snap!  Deena is a knitter, so does have pattern reading skills, just learning a new language.  Mona is a new knitter, so is learning both languages at the same time.  I've always said the hardest thing about learning to crochet is learning to read patterns. I heard from Deena and she still seems enthusiastic, even tho she hadn't had any time to work on Hilary.  Haven't heard from Mona, so hope she has finished her project.  BTW, this pattern is called Bad Hair Hilary and she will be available for purchase in my Ravelry pattern store.

Amigurumi, anyone?

Amigurumi is the Japanese name for toy making that a lot of us have been doing for years. I was asked to do a class at Piedmont Yarn this month, so decided I should brush up.  I also wasn't 100% positive that there wasn't some new thing going on that I didn't know.  So I borrowed from the store the book "Tiny Yarn Animals" by Tamie Snow.  If you are afraid to make creative decisions on your own, this is not the book for you.  The pictures are very good, but there are no assembly instructions.
Well, I did 2 that I thought were cute.  I did the owl as instructed, but made a couple of changes to the turtle.  With all her feet, the turtle is front heavy and falls over, so I eliminated the back feet.  Now she stands up just fine.
I will not be doing anymore of these.  You need to crochet very tightly, and my poor old hands just couldn't take the pressure.  Cramps! and more cramps.

Going to take them in to the store on Tues when I go so they can be displayed and hopefully inspire some folks to sign up for my class.