Hygge--Let's Crochet And Read!

Hygge’ (pronounced ‘Hoo-ga’) is a Danish word, which means cosiness.

Designer Kirsten Ballering, Haak Maar Raak blog, has been working with

Scheejies to plan this lovely Scandinavian themed crochet along.  The CAL features

crochet and cross stitch will begin Wednesday, February 15th and run for

14 weeks.  Each Wednesday a new part of the pattern will be released

The patterns are available in English UK terminology as well as US terminology, Dutch and Swedish.  Esther from It’s All in a Nutshell blog will be one of your Hygge friends helping you learn new skills along the way.

Absolutely smashing!!

Here are just three of the books I found on Hygge!  there are many more!

Who knew that the Danish had a really

 cozy way of life--guess the Danish did. 

Relaxing...................Planning for 2018 Spin-in!

We have moved further down the beach--Panama City Beach!  We are taking a few days to enjoy some 'down' time after the excitement of Spin-in.  The weather is on the winter side! for Florida, but the snowbirds love it--better than their northern weather of snow and ice!
I'll take this time to show off what I bought at spin-in:

I only wish you could run your fingers through this yummy stuff!

This roving is from Sunshine Knit Designs

I couldn't resist this special edition yarn

from Gale's Art

I got naked so I can dye a solid color

One of the features for the year was our challenge kit--

$5 for the package that contains natural fibers

This will be fun to spin and design a garment to bring back for 2018

Really ready to break out the wheel to spin

this Alpaca/silk blend (70-30)  Can we say

Yummy!

Saying Good-Bye!

It's always tough saying good-bye to our spinning friends--yet, another year of January spin-in has come and gone.  Everyone is packing up their prize purchases, along with their wheels and sundry equipment.  The dates have been set for 2018--January 24-27--we are always the last full weekend in January, beginning on Wednesday before (did that make any sense?)  Skits are being schemed and hatched.

My partner in crime dressed in her green theme outfit

My hat sits comfortably on the beads we'll use

for 2018 theme--"Baubles, Bangles, beads!"

In her free time, partner in crime spent playing with her

new wheel--A little Gypsy spinner.

I think she should have gotten a commission from the maker--

because everyone loved it and wanted one!

So, I'm using this lovely spinning wheel towel as my crying towel!

We are over for another year--Go Green in 17 has come to an end.

Last Day--But STill Fun...............................

What is this?? The table is loaded with gift bags.

Participants are asked to bring at least one door prize to share--

each person usually brings more.  Each day everyone

receives at least one door prize--it's one of the fun

things of the event!

This is the head table with my partner in crime 

calling numbers for the door prizes

One of the show and tell features was this hand dyeing

project "What I did last summer?"

She used only handspun wool and natural dyes--

well documented!

Here is the list of her natural dyes--what a

focused campaign I must say!

This was left on my chair at the head table!

My mascot for the event--Green is

his theme for sure!

I took some time to walk around the room to 

see what was going on--spinner skeining her

finished plying

And yummy yarn in a basket waiting to be spun

hand spun wool--knitted into a scarf

the looks of a finished scarf on the back of a chair

One participant even brought their walking wheel

And we have little spindles too

It is always interesting to see the wheels

that participants bring

And one lazy spinner!  Oh, but this electric spinner 

is good for those who have feet troubles and 

"look ma!  no plug ins needed!"

another good day spent with spinning friends!

Day Four--We're Still Going Strong.......

One of favorite parts of the day is show and tell.

it is a chance for anyone to flaunt their talents.

Since the theme was "Go Green in 17", we had several

who took advantage of the color to give us a true showing.

Here we see a handspun vest and hat 

How about a project that took a couple of years?

Hurray!  All done and lovely to look at and wear

How about this handspun natural colored fleece--

oh, WOW!

Rosemary is always energetic and shows off her finished

handspun shawl 

This is not handspun, but one of her favorite patterns to knit

Leslie model her wonderful soft handspun wool 

afghan!  Can you believe?  Ready to wear over body or

around body

Ruth loves to do colorwork--she knit the sweater she was wearing

plus the two hats that are really warm

Kim is very knowledgeable about antique spinning distaffs.

She has made her distaffs from 3D printer--definitely true to

ancient designs.  Kim is known around the world for her

distaffs--she recently was asked to give lecture at Italian conference.

Here is the shawl she knit from her handspun alpaca/silk fiber

that was spun from her distaff

Here we have her first handspun silk, which

she wove into this beaded bag

Handspun wool woven on her loom gave her

this wonderful shawl

Sparkly scarf!  Oh, yeah!  This is so wonderful

up close and personal.

Now, let's shop!  The fiber that abounds

among all the vendors.

roving!

sparkly!

lovely spindles

Fun fibers to spiin

Colorful plied rovings

Even eco dyed wearables

we can see all the fruits of the fibers that

are created by participants

Natural colors are your favor--there are plenty

Of course, green green!

Here is the back of Ruth's colorwork

Woodworker has given us wonderful natural wood

products

Who wouldn't want to spin with these hand carved spindles?

Oh, my--how can one choose?

Here is one booth that features patterns to use for your handspun

natural wools = lovely knitted scarves

Estonian shawls from handspun--

What a Day!  And we have just begun!