I hope that you have had some great family time in the last week, as I certainly have!! I ended up with 4 days in a row off and with the last months craziness around here it was GREAT!! I slept in everyday and had a hard time getting up this morning. I guess I was getting used to it...ahhh sleep, glorious sleep!


Well now it's time to get back in the swing of things around here and boy am I ready to move forward!! There is so much I want learn this coming year, but I really want to concentrate on my sewing/quilting.

I am having a hard time focusing on one project at a time and have discovered that unlike knitting, sewing requires a bit more focus and a neat sewing area.

I am really happy with this fins and my hand sewing

I knit Huck the Dead Fish Hat by Thelma Egberts for his gift. I used fabric for the tail and fins and learned so much doing it! I want to be able to ultimately combine my 2 skills into one finished garment, but still have some learning to get there. I look at every project as a chance to learn and grow and while the hat isn't perfect, I made it filled with love and that's what counts right?

I am happy overall and would love to make this again!

I would make a bigger dorsal fin if I did this again, but am really happy with the movement that the fabric lends to the tail! It really swishes along...even though it's a dead fish :D ha ha!!




I definitely need practice sewing the tail to the hat and used my machine for this one, but if I do this again I am going to hand sew it, as I wasn't thrilled with the outcome.

I did consider making some sort of binding to cover the sewing, but decided that it is better as is for this project.




If you are curious as the colors and yarn I used it was Lorna's Laces Greenline Worsted (discontinued) in Tahoe and Zombie BBQ, although you could easily use Lorna's Shepherd Worsted in the same colors now which I've linked to for you above. I carried the yarns up the inside of the hat, as I am not big on weaving in the ends and will always take the easy way out. I just changed colors in a random fashion and loved the pattern, as it was super well written and easy to follow.

For now that's it, as I am off to cut some fabric orders for all of you!!

As always happy knitting, crocheting and sewing!!

Jeanne

We survived and should get buttons, or T-shirts made saying exactly that! Phew we are a tired bunch of Little Beans for sure! Thanks to all of you who stopped by and said hi and of course the volunteers who worked with us, WOW, we wouldn't have gotten through it all without you!! Thanks so much!

We got down to Santa Clara mid afternoon on Wednesday and here we are unloading stuff out of my truck. As you can see the silliness has already begun! We worked on putting our booth together until 6:00 when we had to get out and go do some knitting, or hot tubing, or just put our feet up it was Little Beans choice on that one.

Sandy and I retired to our lovely room in the Hilton right across from the show (good call Laura) and knit the night away. Amber went hot tubing and then Laura, Victoria and Amber met up with Della of Della Q accessories and visited for a bit. Ok nighty night!


Here is our booth in the process of coming together and I think we all felt like it might not happen, but in true Jimmy Beans Wool style we pulled it off with time to spare!

The show always opens on Thursday night for a preview and we had this booth put together and up and running by show time at 5:00!!


Here is Sandy the cube builder! Watch out for that mallet, ha ha!! Go Sandy go!!!







Toni, one of our favorite (pic on the right) customers and budding inventor of the Yarn Pull Eze, which is now available for preorder on our site and was at the booth demonstrating this great little gadget for passersby!

She was at the end of the booth that featured the Trendsetter Cha Cha yarn and free pattern from 2 Askew Designs and she did a fantastic job of helping out! Thanks Toni you are the best!

A quick side note on the Cha Cha we did an instructional video on how to work with this fun ribbon yarn and you may want to take a quick peek before you cast on!

We had some fantastic discontinued Crystal Palace yarns with us and they just flew out of the booth! CPY Aran Marl is a 102 yards of knitting/crocheting pleasure. Also there was the CPY Sequoia yarn, Aran Print, and the CPY Kaya yarn too! All of these great yarns were a huge hit and we did bring back just a bit of each one, so you may want to take a look and get on board before we sell out.



Iris the Gourmet Monster made her debut at the show and I can't wait to knit her up!! She is so cute and was a huge hit with our customers! I love the Revelation yarn by Lorna's Laces yarn and I think I will knit my Iris up in Zombie BBQ, what do you think?

Here is Amber well, just being Amber with her sassy little attitude! Gotta love her for sure and she was so awesome to work with at the show too!

Victoria was a dynamo and lifted, toted, and sold with a vengeance! Victoria you are my idol and so cute too! I didn't get a good picture of her at the show because she was moving so fast, but here she is to the left with her usual great smile and fantastic can do attitude!

We were all amazing if I do say so myself, but of course I am a bit biased when it comes to us little beans, ha ha! We met so many of our out of town customers and hugged, laughed and just enjoyed getting together!

One morning Sandy and I came to the elevator and found this little 'Yarn Bomb' on the phone there! Knitting strikes when you least expect it to!

Then there was my personal favorite, Colleen, who rides a Harley with a side car and is 82! Of course she is a knitter too and since I ride my bad girl Harley we hit it off with a laugh and a hug!


Well I am sure I could go on and on about all the knitting celebrities we met, the beautiful things we saw and just the general fun we had, but I better get back to work and catch up here in the shop. I must say that the little beans we left behind to hold things together did a FANTASTIC job and the shop was in great shape when we came back! THANKS!!

As always happy knitting and crocheting! Jeanne