braided

So, like many of you, I have been perusing Anthro's new looks for fall '10. And I stopped in my tracks when I saw this particular photo. Dude. A knitted/braided headwrap.

And then, as I was skimming through my Google Reader, I happened upon more braidy wonders at one of my favorite blogs, Knight Cat.

And, so you know I immediately thought 'I need to knit something like that.' And so I experimented with cables and braiding and what-not.

And came up with this pattern, which you can download for free ... Braided on Ravelry. For you! Knit away! You'll surely find a zillion occasions to wear this rad ear-warmer/headband when things get chilly in your neck of the woods.

Market Day (in photos)

The best part of participating in Market Day is the people you meet, talk to, and become fast friends with. I've loved getting the chance to hang out with all of these creative local people and all of the cool things they make. Here's a little photo-filled recap of last week's Market Day, in case you missed it.

 Market Day co-founder Scott Kubie was in charge of spinning the vinyl during the show.

Two of our scooter friends Luke Healey and Thai Luong stopped by, cameras in hand.

And I finally got to hang out with this extremely awesome and talented girl, My Bach.

She took some pretty fantastic photos of the Market Day vendors while she was there. (Like this one. She shoots film, people! Very cool.)

Here's my friend, Lara Newsom of Handmade Pretties, working on some custom orders while she hangs in her bat cave. (Ha ... we just call it that. Lara makes so much stuff that sometimes you can barely see her through all of her amazing hand-sewn awesomeness.)

And my pal Dani Ausen/Awesome, being awesome.

Darby of DarbyCakes, with her always delicious cupcake flavors, kept us fed.

And Van Holmgren, a very talented local artist. I purchased a series of snake prints from him and have my eye on several of his paintings.

Meanwhile, my booth looked a little bit like this. Piles and piles of hand-knits, which was a good thing, because it was a chilly day and people were in the mood for big chunky scarves and cowls. One young woman said that when she saw my table, she wanted to wrap herself up and snuggle into the scarf pile. It was such a fun day, and I already can't wait until the next show at the end of the month. (If you've never been, you should definitely try and make it to the next one ... October 30th, if you want to mark your calendar!)

First Friday

Need something to do tonight? All of my most very favorite East Village shops are open a little later tonight. Check out all of the special events above! Jeff Bonker art reception at Raygun, craft night at Vitae, felt flower/bow hairpin make+take at Domestica, Basemint reception at Ephemera and so much more. Gotta love it. (Happy Friday!)

hello october

Well friends, last week was the official first day of fall and it's really feeling like the seasons are changing around here. September has absolutely flown by and even though there have been pumpkins and skeletons and candy corn in the stores since August, I feel like October has completely snuck up on me!

 

I wanted to thank my awesome September blog sponsors (who are still linked up on the right-hand sidebar ... check them out.) Would you like to advertise during the month of October? Click on 'advertising info' for the deets or email me at jgeigley [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested. Thanks so much and happy fall.

falling in love

Just a few knitting patterns that are blowing my mind this fall. Like this Magnum Reversible Vest/Wrap by Karen Clement.

Magnum Capelet #3 by Karen Clements

Greenwich Gauntlets by Lion Brand Yarn

Felted Little Loops Pillow by Lion Brand Yarn

Felted Loops Pillow by Lion Brand Yarn

Felted Pleated Bag by Lion Brand Yarn

Felted Loops Bag by Lion Brand Yarn

Glitter Shrug by Lion Brand Yarn 

And now that Renegade is over, I've officially started this adorable vest project for Lo. The pattern is called Milo by Georgie Hallam (check out that cutie little model from Tikki's Milo on Ravelry.) 

 

I decided I had to go the Noro route for this little vest, and I picked up three skeins of this colorway (#267) in Kureyon at Knitted Together. This yarn was calling to me; it really was (although the colors look so much better in person.) I can't wait to have more time to work on it.

I'm using this pretty color of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky to make a Sideways Grand Cloche (by Laura Irwin.)

And I have three skeins of Malabrigo worsted in this awesome Mariposa colorway. I've been obsessed with this yarn for a whole year now, but cannot seem to pick a project. Any ideas? (And what's on your needles this fall?)

Market Day

After a long summer break from Market Day, I'll be back at it today. (And I'm pretty happy about it ... I've missed it a ton.)

It is knitting season, after all, and time to pick up a new cowl or scarf or hat for the kiddo before those first few cold days hit. I don't even have to tell you ... that cold weather is coming at us fast.

Grab the fam and head downtown to see us! Or stop by after you hit up the farmers market. We'll be hanging out from 9:00 AM to 2 PM and you can find directions right here. Hope to see you!

somebody's getting married ...

Last week, just a few hours after my friend Erin and I had driven home from Chicago, we hopped a plane to fabulous Las Vegas. Lucky me got to accompany Erin and her fiancé, Brian, on their Vegas wedding trip. I went along as a friend, a (wanna-be) photographer, and to run errands or get things or do whatever I could to make things easier. Although I barely had to do a thing ... these two were the most chilled-out about-to-be-married couple ever.

I took a million pics for them, and also had some fun doing their invites for their hometown reception after they had returned. (Which looked like this.)

Once we were in Vegas, these two had to get all the required paperwork filled out for their marriage license. As I waited outside, I spotted this tree ... with hundreds of initials carved into it. And the newest addition reads BH + ER.   :)

We all stayed at the Hard Rock (no, I did not stay in the same room :) ) and Erin had an appointment for some fabulous hair and makeup at the Brannon Hair, right there at the hotel.

After Erin got all gorgeous, we split up to get dressed. (Yup, I wore Converse and a dress.) I came down to the first floor on the elevator to meet up with them, and basically saw this...

Brian got his tux from Atomic Garage, a vintage shop in Des Moines, and it was completely awesome. But there was my friend, Erin. Looking positively beautiful in her wedding dress. (And when I saw her, I started to cry!)

We jumped in the car and headed off to the 'Welcome to Vegas' sign, where their wedding actually took place. (Yup, right there under the sign!) It was just the two of them and their love; solid, genuine and true. You could see it in their faces.  Even through the happy tears, it was clear that these two are completely in love.

 

After a heartfelt ceremony that was short and sweet, we went to the legendary Neon Museum, a.k.a. The Boneyard.

We had the whole place to ourselves, and we took a lot of photos.

 

Yup, pretty much the most amazingly fun wedding photos ever. Completely colorful and happy, and totally them. (Want to see more? Here's a set on Flickr.)

We ended the wedding day with a trip down to Fremont Street under the lights and made a stop at our favorite hangout, The Griffin. But it wasn't over ... this was just the beginning of Erin and Brian's new adventures as a couple, a team, a family. I've known these guys since they started dating six years ago, and I could not be more thrilled.

Congratulations, my dear friends.

Renegade Chicago (day two!)

So, while Renegade's first day was a bit rainy, Sunday was perfectly warm and sunny and we felt like the crowds were even bigger and better because of the gorgeous weather.

This would be crazy marching band #2. (I found out that the band I blogged about in the last post was the incredible Mucca Pazza and the band above is Environmental Encroachment.) Super fantastic.

And I made sure to check out the Renegade store itself; I loved the new paintings on the exterior of the shop.

On day 2, I ventured out a bit more. Here are some of my favorite things I saw along the way.

Rad Vespa silhouette plate by Le Papier Studio.

And Vaya messenger bags. I've been drooling over them online for ages. I'm in love with the yellow/blue/green one.

Lots and lots of super cool gig posters and t-shirts, of course.

Check out these pics of some of my completely adorable shoppers.

Along with lots of blog readers/internet friends who stopped by ...

... like Simone and Sarah and Mandi and Denise and lots of other pals. (Thank you so much for saying hi!)

On my walk down Division, I finally found the amazing yarn shop (called Nina) that everyone had been telling me about all weekend. They kept saying 'look for the huge knitting needles in the window' and ... yeah, wow. What a shop!

The window display was installed by local artists and the 'yarn' is made of paper receipt tape that has actually been knitted. The huge needles are paper maché.

I instantly befriended the sweet owner and girls working there that day, and everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful. (Well, maybe they liked me because I came back twice in one afternoon, and each time I scooped up a few more skeins.)

They carried lots of my beloved Twinkle soft chunky and every weight and colorway of Malabrigo and Spud & Chloe you could ever wish for. It was too good to be true. (I'll definitely be going back the next time we visit Chicago.)

As a little treat to end the day, I made a quick stop at Star Fruit. Extremely tasty (mangoes and strawberries!) and the perfect way to end a busy weekend.

And before I knew it, the whole thing was over and it was time to say goodnight to Renegade. I made some illegal maneuvers to score myself a temporary parking spot under a tree in an alley, and Erin and I tore down and smooshed all of my display stuff back into the Prius. (We were confused because yes, all that stuff barely fit the first time, but now with a much lighter load, it barely fit the second time!) We beat the rush and dashed straight out of Chicago as the sun went down. Why the hurry? We were getting ready to drive most of the night and early morning hours to get back home to Iowa, do a quick load of laundry, pack up a second bag, and then hop a plane to Vegas for Erin's wedding. (More pics of that this week!)

upcoming events

Here's where I'll be this fall and winter ...

Market Day – Saturday, September 25, 2010 from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Market Day – Saturday, October 30, 2010 from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Market Day – Black Friday Holiday Show, November 26, 2010

Craft Saturday – Holiday Show, Saturday, November 6, 2010 from Noon - 6pm 

(downtown at the 4th St. Theatre)

Knitting Classes at Ephemera Stationery Studio

Check out Ephemera's monthly 2010/2011 class schedule here.

Renegade Chicago Recap (day one!)

I'm officially back! Renegade Chicago was an amazing experience and I'm so glad I went through with it. The things that I was nervous about (like loading our stuff and parking) ended up being a lot easier than I had anticipated and everything went better than I could have ever hoped for! We had loads of fun.

My extraordinary friend, Erin, came along with me to help out and I owe her a ton of thanks. I never could have done it without her.

My booth kind of looked like this. 

And here are some pics from Saturday, the first day of Renegade, which started off in a pretty rainy way, but ended up to be cool, comfortable and sun-shiny. We enjoyed a great turnout both days!

(Bonjour!) This guy biked around the area with bread and wine for sale.

The biggest thrill was this group of hometown girlfriends who decided to make a weekend trip to Chi-town and totally surprised me. Coolest thing ever.

And another weekend highlight was hanging out with these three rad ladies of Urban Posture. We asked to be booth-neighbors (since we're all from Des Moines) and I'm so glad we did. We helped each other whenever we could and shared a lot of good conversation and laughs all weekend long. Weirdly enough, Friday night after we drove into the city, Erin and I decided to grab dinner in the Oak and Rush neighborhood, and we ran right into these girls in downtown Chicago! Totally random and quite awesome.

One of my most absolute favorite things about the whole weekend was watching the crazy marching bands. I just totally dorked out over them. (Ask Erin.) I can't help it; I loved high school marching band. I want to be in a band like this. (Really, really bad.)

 

I came home from our crazy week of adventures (I'll explain more about this later) and noticed this quick photo feature (see my scarves?!) on the Renegade blog recap ... super cool. Check back in the next couple of days to see how the rest of the show went. And to see some extremely rad photos from our trip to Vegas, where my friends Erin and Brian got married last week. (Yup, I know. We pretty much had the most exciting seven days ever!)