Destashment

Youngest child is staying with us temporarily and his needing room to store his stuff got me motivated to finally clear out the rest of my yarn stash. 

I had donated most a lot of my yarn back in . . . 2018? 2019? So I didn’t think I had much left. 

 
I was wrong. 12 bins worth of wrong.

And as long as I was clearing out, why not deal with the books too? I sweet talked bribed Leia, Leanne and Jaclyn into helping pack up my spinning, weaving, crochet and knitting books, then donated them - all 11 boxes worth - to the spinning/weaving guild’s annual sale. 

One bin of spinning fiber went back upstairs; not ready to let that go yet after all. Friends took another bin to share and my pal Reyna took 6 big bags of yarn to sort and share, including with her physical therapist, who is just learning to knit. So pleased this is all going to new homes where it will be used. 

What Friends Are For

aka "Doing Our Part For The Economy."

We're not calling it 'shopping' or 'enabling' or even 'enhancing the stash'. Thursday's Craft Shop Crawl was done strictly as a way to show our support for local shops; it was our patriotic duty. Yeah, hubby didn't buy that one either. But the three of us had a great time visiting yarn shops - my $3.53 total-price-including-tax haul 

book stores, both new (Mysteries to Die For) and used (Bookaneer) -$5 used book with some great projects 

 

a new-to-us quilt store called Cotton and Chocolate (how perfect is that??) -where I picked up a few items, including the sew-on tags below, and their extensive list of classes.  Definitely plan on going back to C&C.
Then we hit Joann's, where I cleaned up on the remnants rack again, getting most of this for 75-80% off. Over a yard of fleece for less that $3.50? Quilt-able cotton fabric for $1.00? I'll take it! It'll join the growing pile of Christmas gifts-in-the-making I have stashed in the closet. 

Our last stop was our great local bead store, Creative Castle, because they had the great good sense to stay open until 8 pm. I was shopped out by that point, but my buddies made up for it. 

All in all, it was a fun, patriotic day. And a great warm-up for our trip to Vogue Knitting Live on Saturday . . . .

Lace and Strudel

Took a quick trip northward Friday for a strudel and yarn fix, but ended up with a lace and tatting fix instead (and strudel, of course). Village Spinning and Weaving (since it's our local weaving/spinning shop, we just call it John & Marsha's) has about the best supplies of craft books I've ever seen, including an entire shelf on bobbin lace and both shuttle and needle tatting.

I've wanted to learn tatting for a while now, but getting a needle tatting demonstration at TNNA turned it into an obsession. I picked up a how-to book and needle, along with a knitting pattern, bobbin lace pattern book and a pretty pair of hand-painted lace bobbins. Notice what I didn't get? Yep, no yarn or fiber. I was really proud of myself for sticking to my goal of use-it-up, aka I have too much yarn to use in six lifetimes.

And that feeling of accomplishment lasted until I made just a quick stop at Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara on the way home . . . . where I picked up this - What makes L&L a must-stop location is the fact that they carry completely different yarns than my LYS, including Habu (stainless steel and silk yarn?? oh, yeah), Kauni, and every color of Madelinetosh Pashmina imaginable. Totally irresistible stuff.

And speaking of Kauni - my Pi Shawl is coming along nicely. Only 15 rows to go until I hit the last increase row, which will put my stitch count at 576 per row for the last 60 rows. So, 13,509 stitches down and only 38,880 to go.
Almost wish I hadn't figured that out.

Books and Yarn

But no yarn books, darn it.

Hubby organized a book and yarn store crawl for today's date day. First stop was the Iliad Bookshop in N. Hollywood, which advertises having 100,000 books in stock. Hubby thought he'd found the motherlode -

click any picture to enlarge

multiple shelves of books on watches and more shelves on woodworking. (The white book with no name on the spine is on Cartier watches.) As for me? Bah humbug. Their entire selection of textile craft books consisted of two crochet books, one knitting book and nothing on weaving, spinning, bobbin lace or any other textile arts. Oh well, the hubs was very (very) pleased with his finds.

Lunch was at a small deli we found by accident; it was next door to what was supposed to be a yarn shop (bad Google) but was actually a hair salon. Marv's Deli has been in business since 1954 (a very good year); the chicken noodle soup was good and Herman piled the freshly cut roast beef super-high on the sandwiches. We each ate half a sandwich and brought the other halves home for dinner.

Fortunately for me, Google didn't mislead us about the Stitch Cafe. It was alive and well; a small shop with a nice, upscale selection of yarns and friendly staff. I found one yarn that needed to come home with me - Zauberball Starke 6. There's only 437 yards in this ball (and at $34 I wasn't buying two) so I think this will become a small shawl, just enough to keep my neck warm.

Doubt I'd go back here though; I've been spoiled by Anacapa Fine Yarns, Loop and Leaf, and Unwind where they wind your yarn for you; let you look at books before you buy them; and don't have 'don't do this' signs up all over the store. I'm glad I went, glad I found a yarny treasure, and glad I have local yarn stores that I love.

Books!

I'm working to deadline on a super secret project - so instead of a crochet project, how about some crochet books?

A knitting friend showed me her copy of 'Around the Corner Crochet Borders' by Edie Eckman (here) and it was all I could do not to rip it out of her hands and keep it for myself. The book contains 150 border designs, with written instructions and charts.

You know how, after awhile, borders or motifs or whatever in whichever book all start to look alike? Not in this book! Ms. Eckman has some very pretty, original borders that I can't wait to try. See all the little sticky flags? It's almost easier to count the designs I didn't flag than the ones I did.

Today's mail brought copies of 'Creating Crochet Fabric' by Dora Ohrenstein (here) and 'The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet' by Margaret Hubert (here). I've already made the 'Juliette Shawl' from the first book (here) and I want to try 'Anna', the Tunisian jacket also featured in the book. You can see most of the book's projects on Ravelry here. I haven't had a chance to do more than glance through the book, but I'm looking forward to reading it in depth.

I have a real aversion to books that claim to be the "complete" guide or the "bible" on a specific craft. I've found that, more times than not, the claim is unfounded and the book disappointing. So I wasn't expecting much when I starting flipping through a copy of the 'Complete Photo Guide to Crochet'. I was wrong - this book is great.

I'm a fan of Ms. Hubert's work (some of her patterns are here on Ravelry), along with that of several of the contributors, including Prudence Mapstone (!), Myra Woods, Nancy Nehring and Jennifer Hansen. The book is oversize so the pictures and charts are larger and easier to read. It's beautifully photographed and has several interesting sections - 'The Lacis Story', and specialty crochet methods: tapestry tunisian, Bruges lace, freeform, hairpin, broomstick and more. "Linked stitches" and "Tunisian and Shells" especially caught my eye.

I can't wait to sit down and read this one, cover to cover. I don't think it's the "ultimate reference" for crocheters (as the book jacket claims), but it definitely gets a top five spot on my list of 'must have' reference books.

Frog Bag

Look what I found at Barnes & Noble today* - Isn't that the perfect project bag? As an added bonus, look what's on the reverse - I love dragonflies.

The bag is made of heavy canvas so it should hold a lot of goodies. We tested it out to make sure - books, one of my favorite magazines (it's from the UK and very pricey in the States), and an early Father's Day gift for hubby. He's reading it on the couch as we speak, enjoying a hot, lazy SoCal afternoon.

*Got it for $8.95! with my discount card. I {heart} bargains.

Books by the Pound

I've put myself on a yarn-diet for the new year - trying to use up some of my stashed yarn before I buy any more. Since I'm not drooling shopping at yarn sites I've had more time to check out books and patterns . . . which has lead to lots a few of them following me home.

This is the first Japanese crochet book I've ever purchased. The patterns are all charted - fortunately for me - and most are gorgeous. There are at least 6 things in here I want to make immediately.

And this - is my 13-pound treasure. Almost dropped the package when it was delivered yesterday, it was so surprisingly heavy. A two-volume treasury of handwoven, overshot coverlets that was half off its usual $160 price. How could I resist? Can not wait to dive into this one.

Library Girl

It took two trips to Ventura, but all 32 boxes of library books and magazines are out of storage and in my house. Now I just need to get them organized and computerized (on LibraryThing) so they can move back out again. The 'cleaned up' look didn't last long, did it?

I heart Messy

It drives Dick crazy but I really do like clutter. I know some of it is laziness; it's easier to pile than to file. But if I have too much open space, it makes me feel like I need to buy things to fill it up. So, mess = economy.

Every now and then I get the bug to clean and straighten. This time it was brought on by the need for room to store the 30 or so boxes of Guild books I'm picking up on Sunday. Some fool generous soul volunteered to be librarian until elections in October. I'm planning to put all the books on LibraryThing so our members can see what we have, then farm boxes of books out to members until we get a permanent Guild home. I'm really looking forward to the challenge. (Question - does anyone know of an online tracking system for magazines, similar to LibraryThing? Still trying to work out a plan for our years and years worth of spinning, weaving, crafting mags.)

So this - is now this. Pretty impressive, in a short-lived sort of way. (And all the yarn is listed in my Ravelry stash. Just need photos of 4 things and it's up-to-date.)

Book Junkie

I'm a bookaholic and lately I've been on a buying binge. I love finding treasures, especially craft books, - click the library list on the right side and you can see some of my books - and I've lucked into some great stuff on Ravelry, Amazon, Amazon Marketplace and AbeBooks.

My favorite find (this week, anyway): Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes. Bertha developed these miniature overshot patterns - over 100 original designs - about a century ago and the Rhode Island Handweavers Guild published this oversized compilation last month, with color photos of each design. I've been wanting to try my hand at overshot. Most of the patterns are for a 4-harness loom, which means that, in theory, I could weave these. Maybe this could be my summer project?

I bought these next two from a fellow Raveler - a self-published copy of 'Handbook of Timesaving Tables For Weavers, Spinners and Dyers' and 'How To Make Braided Rugs', published in 1977. I've never made a braided rug, and I probably never will, but if I ever get the urge some night at 3 a.m., by golly, I'm prepared!

This next one is Gigi's fault. I loved her baby blanket (go look; it's worth it) and thought it would make a beautiful shawl. I'd seen this book before and passed on buying it; the photos inside just don't do justice to the pretty patterns. I had to chase it down on the Internet - now that I want it, it's hard to find. Of course. Now I need to find that alpaca I was saving for something special.

Christmas in July

Even Mother Nature got in on the act today, rocking and rolling to the tune of a 5.4 earthquake. I've been through a number of quakes since we moved out here in 1968 (when I was but a wee lass . . . ) and this was one of the strongest I've ever felt. As in 'it's time to get out of the house' strong. A few seconds of gentle waves to get your attention, and then several sharp jolts that seemed to just go on and on. Fortunately, no damage here and only minimal damage - and no injuries that I've heard about so far - in the wider SoCal area.

So why Christmas? Look what came in the mail today - my order from Interweave's hurt book sale back on July 9. I've heard a lot of complaining in some forums that Interweave's prices weren't that good, shipping was too high, and - my personal favorite - the books weren't 'hurt' enough so obviously they were overstock and Interweave shouldn't have sold them at discount. Huh??????

But it did get me wondering, so I moseyed over to Amazon to check their prices. I'd have saved the $8.95 I paid in shipping but even with that, I still saved over $17 on the five books. My best deal? Wrap Style which retails for $21.95; Amazon had it for $14.93 but I bought it for just $5.49. With no damage that I can see.

I do love a good book sale!

Books, Part 2

2 copies - brand new - $1.79 each. One for me and one for the raffle table at Guild this weekend. Score!!

Books!

Hello, my name is Elisa and I'm a book junkie. It's been 6 hours and 47 minutes since I bought my last book. I'm especially defenseless with on-sale craft books. I know I'm weak, but how could I resist books on the 75% off table at my LBS (local book store)?

The discount table is always my first stop at any bookstore. It's hard to find craft books - especially fiber arts books - on clearance, but today I really scored. I got Vogue Knitting's Weekend Knits for $2.59; Vogue Knitting Accessorize for $4.04; and for the grandkids, Eric Carle's Grouchy Ladybug for $3.36. I also bought Very Busy Spider, even though it wasn't on the 'deep' sale rack. I'm a sucker for good kid's books and Addy's going to love these two.

In Tour de France news, I've started on Goal #3 - making a knit baby sweater for Leia Kalise, who's due August 20. I had two balls of Plymouth Dreambaby DK in my stash - one pink and one a multi-color with pinks and purples - so I cast on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. I've made this once before, in a toddler size for Addy, so there shouldn't be any surprises. I'm hoping it will be a fast knit and I can finish by the end of the month. Can I bind off before the Tour ends? Probably not, but it should be close.