The weekend of the 21st (yes, Harry Potter weekend, and yes I did get the book at midnight and finish it before the weekend was out) was spent up in the Berkshires which lent itself to more driving practice, and you guessed it- craft shopping. While Joann's did not satisfy my palate in terms of fabric, I did come home with a Built by Wendy pattern, as well as many other supplies ranging from foam and felt to thread and cover buttons. Very exciting indeed.
However, other than Mr. Potter, the highlight of the weekend was spending time with my grandfather... and building the newest addition to my crafting family. A swift. When I arrived home I ordered a ball winder online and just this Monday I was finally able to enjoy some blissful yarn winding time.
she's a little crooked but she was made with love and care and I'm so excited by how these two new toys work together! Winding up beautiful little cakes of yarn is such a breeze... and such fun! Granted my setup is a little... erm, makeshift... right now, but maybe someday I'll have a table to use for these things.
Anyway. Tracking back a bit, last Friday merited my first trip to Purl Patchwork downtown to spend a gift certificate from my birthday. And what a fantastic place this is! I was sad that I deterred myself from purchasing from superbuzzy during the last update, and this really lifted my spirits. While the store is small, bolts of gorgeous fabric- ranging from Japanese to Amy Butler to anything you might desire- are piled high. It's such eye candy!
Anyway, I came away with a nice little addition to my ever growing fabric collection.
and yes, those are the ever coveted little Japanese hedgehogs... oh how they set my heart afire ;)
However, I did not stop at that. Saturday we took a trip up to Ikea for dorm shopping and came home with quite a nice little haul. I think my favorite thing was Ikea's "yarn store" which demonstrated storage and other furniture for small business... but it was so great! I didn't get to spend long mulling over fabrics because we had other clear purposes, but as you can probably tell from the picture above, I did not come away empty handed in that department.
With all these new fabrics in tow you can imagine my desire to cut into something at once. The Japanese fabric still being too precious to me, I broke into my piece from Ikea to create a cloth grocery bag.
This baby is strong! And he has a lot of character. Unfortunately his lining (from Germany) is quite bulky and so he does not fold into his pocket like he should. However, I love him and took him for a test run recently.
Something about carrying this baby around makes me feel very hip... hahaha. And I love how miserably he clashes with many of my outfits... I really do love it ;)
Well, this post is getting on now... but I promise I'll have more exciting things to show you soon. Including another new baby who excites me more than you can believe! Oh just you wait and see ;) hahaha
