Hill Country Yarn Crawl to my nearest store

On Thursday this week I travelled with two of my Yak & Yarn group friends to our nearest Hill Country Yarn Crawl participating store: WC Mercantile in Navasota, Texas. I had to wear my cowboy boots of course and take my overlay crochet Peacock Tail bag which I've been showing off a lot lately.

The staff were lovely and the store spacious with lots and lots of wonderful yarn to touch, much of it local. I put my name down for a door prize, picked up my two exclusive patterns: the knitted Lampasa Cowl, crocheted "Balcones Escarfment" and started squishing... As I type this I've just received messages in my Ravelry account for the patterns so I have hard copies AND they are also now in my library. Thank you SuperSteph!

I was so happy with my haul! I bought two skeins of Gussie by Austiana  (merino/silk light fingering weight, top left). This was a local featured crawl yarn with 25% off. Along the bottom of the photo are my three skeins of Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic Lite mercerized cotton in Christmas colors to make overlay crochet stars. My friend Erin who is fantastic at working out which colors go together helped me chose. And finally I couldn't resist Wild and Wooly Woolworks and Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn. Crochet socks are ALWAYS a good thing.

Lunch was a yummy chicken sandwich at the Java Hot Spot Café and we visited Martha's Bloomers Garden Store and Tea Room too. I didn't even get my crochet hook out of my bag despite being a passenger - far too much chat! And we timed our road trip to perfection making it back to Houston for kids finishing school. Can't wait to get started with my new yarn!

Hill Country Yarn Crawl

Woah! Look what arrived in our post this week - a yarn crawl on the front cover of our AAA members magazine (that's breakdown cover). Fantastic! My husband commented "I can't escape!"

 

The 10th annual Hill Country Yarn Crawl takes place at 19 different yarn stores in Central Texas from October 7th-16th. I really need to start planning how I can get myself along to at least a small part of the action.

I have never been on a yarn crawl before but according the website it works as follows: purchase a Yarn Crawl passport for $15 either on the website or at a participating yarn store. With this you receive a commemorative stitch marker (and bag for the first 1000 participants), two exclusive patterns at each store you visit and a 25% discount on the yarns for those patterns. There are prizes and the more stamps you collect (one per store) the more opportunities you will have to win. And if you're on Instagram there are prizes for those posting photos with the hashtags #hcyc2016 and #crawlhawl16 I love it!

I am excited about seeing many of the lovely folk that I met at the Houston Fiber Fest in June this year. Independence Farmstead Fibers are offering private tours of their mill for the first time to the crawlers this year. WC Mercantile will be hosting Blue Bonnet Alpaca Ranch both weekends of the Crawl. You know I can't get enough of alpacas and Navasota just happens to be my closest stop.

Anyway do head over to Hill Country Yarn Crawl website for more details. There is also a Yarn Crawl Facebook page. I just checked out the hashtag #hcyc2016 on Instagram and the stitch marker looks amazing. I can't wait for mine to arrive! And there are already lovely photos of the mystery knit along and crochet along on there. I have just bought the latter and will be playing catch up!!

Enjoy the yarn crawl y'all!

Houston Fiber Fest is THIS month!

I am going to Houston Fiber Fest later this month. I'm super excited because it's the first time I've EVER been to an event like this. The Fiber Fest is on Friday June 24th and Saturday June 25th around 20 minutes from me at the Berry Center in Cypress. This is the second year of the event and everyone I've spoken to who attended last year told me that it was a total knockout success.

I have been given various bits of advice on attending an event like this:

• Get there early to avoid missing good shopping opportunities (Friday if possible or early on Saturday)
• Go around ALL the vendors first before starting to buy.
• Wear something that I made myself to show off 

The vendor hall is free to enter, there are classes for a fee, sit and stitch, shopping of course with over 40 local vendors, swaps, a talent display..... Gosh!

I am hoping to meet a lot of other crafty folk there too, maybe some people I've only met online before. And there is a meet up table in the atrium with a different theme each hour. Marvelous!  I'm going to be there for the crochet meet up on Saturday at 3pm for definite so please join me if you're attending! 

I've also bought a $10 ticket for the Thursday night trunk show and lace project presentation by the incredible lace designer Romi Hill (at a different location).

They have a rather cute knitalong too, the mascot of the Fiber Fest Lester the Leicester available as a free pattern on Ravelry. Of course we are in Texas so he wears a cowboy hat and boots! Isn't he just adorable?

 

So head over to the website to read more on the Houston Fiber Fest and there is also a Fiber Fest Ravelry Group with more information. The organizers very kindly provided the images for this post. So thank you!

I promise to write all about my first Fiber Fest experience in a future post. I hope to see you there if you're local!! Counting down the days now....... And if you have any advice for me on how to avoid being completely overwhelmed (which I'm sure I will be!) just let me know in the comments below!

April is the month to #stitchawaystress

Interrupting my knit or crochet Texan series to tell you that April is Stitch Away Stress month. I must actually get around to scheduling these sorts of events into my calendar rather than realizing it's happening a few days into the month!! Maybe I'll get more organized next year or maybe not!

In observance of National Stress Awareness Month, the Craft Yarn Council have created the #StitchAwayStress campaign with knitting and crochet. All this month on their Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter pages, there are fun and unique ways to use these crafts to unwind, learn more about their stress reducing and mood boosting effects. There are also giveaways and more. Yay!

They recommend unwinding by stitching and squeezing away stress with an adorable Lemon Stress Ball pattern from one of my favorite all time designers Twinkie Chan. There are pdf patterns of crochet and knit lemons and a video tutorial here on the Craft Yarn Council Website. How handy! Here is a crochet lemon I made earlier. The pattern was excellent of course!

 

In New York City on April 18 the Craft Yarn Council will drop over 2,000 lemons made by knitting and crochet guilds across the country on people filing their taxes at the James A. Farley Post Office in Manhattan.  Pam McKenzie in My Central Jersey writes

"Personally, I'm not sure I'd appreciate being pelted with knitted lemons at any time, but especially if I am filing my taxes. I find taxes incredibly stressful as it is. If someone handed me a knitted lemon, though, it might make me smile."

I love the campaign. I'm going to be following the hashtag #stitchawaystress for sure. I'm feeling motivated to get hooking so I can join in the pelting fun!

Knit or Crochet Texan [Part 1 of 3]

I really admire the mission of the Knit British podcast which is to Love Local Wool. I'd love to buy only British yarn but it would be a little tricky living in Texas although I do buy British when visiting friends and family on our summer jaunt to the UK.  But what if I wanted to knit or indeed crochet Texan? I think this topic is worthy of a series so this will be the first of three blog posts devoted to yarn industry folk local to me.

Local indie dyer: Inner Loop Dyeworks

My first thought is of local indie dyer Beth Bowers based right here in Houston. The store where I teach stocks her gorgeously vibrant skeins and I made a wonderful crochet shawlette from one of her exquisitely hand dyed yarns purchased in last year's trunk show. The yarn is called Heights and the colorway is Jewel Box. The pattern is the Rowan Berry Shawlette by Laurinda Reddig.

 

 

 

Local event: Houston Fiber Fest June 24-25
Where better to find local yarn folk than at a local event? This annual event takes place in June rather than July this year so I'm going to be able to attend. Hurrah! I took a little gander at the vendors list from last year. And there are so many I can include in my Knit or Crochet Texan series!

Local ranch: Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch
This caught my eye because the bluebonnets abound right now and I am more than a little obsessed with alpacas. Did you see my post entitled dreams of an alpaca farm? The ranch is around an hour from Houston, in Navasota, and they actually sell alpacas and run events too. On April 16th they have a Bluebonnet fiber tour which includes a visit to the alpacas and a yarn dying class. Just my kind of thing!

I'll pick out some more Texan yarn industry notables next week for you!

March is NatCroMo National Crochet Month

I first found out about Crochetville and National Crochet Month listening to Mary Bird talk to Amy Shelton on her Yarn thing podcast six months ago. At the time I was thinking, "Wow, this is incredible". Of course, I forgot all about it in the interim but on Tuesday I spotted #natcromo in my Twitter highlights and I managed to climb on board the Crochet Express on day 1. Yay! 

You board the train by joining the Facebook group National Crochet Month The Crochet Express is Crochetville's month-long virtual passenger steam train trip taking us on a whirlwind tour of crochet designers, crochet-friendly local yarn stores, and yarn companies.

The Train Staff comprise: Amy Shelton as Conductor and Donna Hulka as Ticket Agent both of Crochetville and Tammy Hildebrand of Hot Lava Crochet.

 

There is a lot going on but I'm particularly enjoying the train stops at the websites of crochet designers and looking out for the daily giveaways. As a passenger on the train you can also post your favorite finds of the day and share your current crochet projects. How fun!

Anyway without further ado I invite you to jump on the train with me: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nationalcrochetmonth/


 

Blissful Craft Retreat

Last month I attended the annual craft retreat at the Cenacle House in Houston. What bliss!

Until last year, I had never attended a religious (or otherwise) retreat of any type. However, the idea of a whole day of crafting contemplatively won me over. The Religious of the Cenacle (Cenacle Sisters) are members of an international Catholic women’s congregation founded in France in 1826. In the midst of a praying Christian community, people of all faiths are invited to an awakening and deepening of their experience of a loving and compassionate God.

We spent the day crafting while talking about our personal experiences of craft, listening to craft-related prayers and contemplative passages.  This was my second time at this annual crafters day of prayer.

A beautiful part of one of the contemplations stayed with me. It's taken from "Frayed Faith Stretched to the Breaking Point" by Donna M Williams.

"....It is in the fraying that bits of ourselves, wisps of our experiences are worn off and carried where we know not.
It is in the fraying that bits of other women, wisps of their experiences are worn off and catch on the threads of our lives.
What poverty! What richness!
To allow ourselves to be unraveled and exposed to unknown possibilities;
To allow the fuzz of another to attach itself to the weaving material of our lives....."

Last year's retreat gave me the inspiration to start our Yak and Yarn group. I enjoyed the fellowship of the other crafters so much that I couldn't wait a whole year for the next Cenacle craft retreat. It was fantastic telling the retreat leader, Sister Roselle Haas aka the knitting nun, how her retreat the year before had inspired us to set up our own group to continue our crafty fellowship regularly.

I just found a resource listing several craft retreats on Knitters Review 2016 Knitting and Fiber Events. Perhaps you will find something on there that will appeal!!!

I'd love to know if you've attended a craft retreat before and what kind of experience you had. Just share it in the comments below!