Ruth Tillman of the Enchanted Square and I are offering our new crochet class again: a super easy and super adorable wrapped candy! Just in time for the holidays! All you need to know is how to crochet a basic rectangle to turn your home (or yourself) into a sugary holiday wonderland, and we will teach you how to crochet this rectangle from step 1!

This will be a really fun project, especially for beginners. Our class will be on Tuesday night, December 3rd, from 7:00pm – 9:30pm, at Urban Bazaar in San Francisco, for $30.00. Check out the class listings here and mark your calendars! I’m also going to bring some holiday nibbles that we can eat with toothpicks, so as not to get our crafty hands dirty!

Hi Gang!!!

It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive:

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Seattle!!!! Please go to Schmancy this Friday night, November 15, 5-8pm, to celebrate the launch of Kristen’s new super awesome crochet book, The Wizard of Oz Crochet. I have two patterns in the book, so you’ll have to pick up a copy to see which ones ;). This thing is actually a KIT which comes with a hook and some yarn, so it’s a super great gift!

If you’re in Seattle, please go and take photos of the very special Oz-inspired crochet painting I just finished. I ran it over to Fed Ex and didn’t have time to take any photos of it. Sad!! So you have to go and take lots of photos for me :).

Last weekend, we vended at DesignerCon with Yummy You! This was the first convention I’ve ever vended at, PLUS, it was the first time I had ever had a Yummy You! booth anywhere!

I LOOOOOOVE doing events in L.A., because I know way more people there than in S.F., and it’s so fun to see all your buddies come out! Greatest buddies ever!

I have quite a few photos, so I’m going to post things in chronological order, starting with Friday, when Manda and I flew into Burbank to set up the booth with my business partner.  I think it will be funny to refer to my partner as Charlie, like Charlie from Charlie’s Angels, because he doesn’t really like to be “seen.”

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So I was typing out a blog entry about yarn swifts and ball-winders (non-yarn people are like….. YAWNNNNN…. hehe), when I stopped to check my Instagram.

Manda and I are leaving tomorrow for Pasadena to vend at DesignerCon with the Yummy You! booth, and she asked if I wanted to meet her at the mall so she could pick up a few things. We ended up at H&M. I’m trying not to purchase so much crap, but I got sucked into the shopping vortex, a little bit. I tried on 3 things and kept these two.

While in the dressing room, I mourned my bare knees. I know that everyone is probably like, “Your knees look fine.” But you know how it is. We all have certain parts of us that we find awful no matter what anybody says, and my knees happen to be one of mine (there are others, but today is about knees). I think I have really big knobby knee caps, with some flub hanging over the tops of them. I tried to shift around before taking the photo, to minimize gross-knee-effect. I don’t know if I figured it out. I am also bow-legged. I am unfortunately also really hot and sweaty most of the time, but I still won’t usually wear shorts or dresses without tights or leggings underneath. CUZ MY KNEES.

Anyway, I snapped a photo in the dressing room anyway, cuz I always think those are kinda funny and intimate.

This moment reminded me of something someone told me years ago. I remember I blogged about it then, but I can’t find that entry (don’t even know if it was Livejournal, or what!). It was about how I walk around town and see people’s plants in their windows and think that their plant arrangements look really good, and that I don’t know how to arrange the plants in a nice way. The person I was with said, “Your plants look fine. You just don’t realize it because you see them all the time.” This was a very casual comment and not meant for discussion beyond that moment about plants, but it’s something I keep remembering.

Sometimes we forget that we are intriguing, cute/pretty/sexy/handsome beings. That people see us differently than we see ourselves. And even if you feel dumpy and gross and fat-kneed, you are still a beautiful mystery to someone else. I think it’s a good reminder for ourselves. Over and over again.

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On another strange note, Manda tried on some stuff as well. She came out in this dress that looked perfectly fine, yet, kinda like, not HER. The only word I could think of was “sporty,” since there was a stripe/panel down the middle. I said, “There’s nothing wrong with it. It just looks kinda SPORTY. If you love it, go for it. But I can’t put my finger on why I think it doesn’t look like YOU.”

She said, “Maybe … it’s … TOO YOUNG.”

WHAT. COULD IT BE TRUE? ARE WE GETTING OLD? TOO OLD FOR H&M?

I’m not sure if that was the answer to why her dress looked so odd to both of us, but once she let that question out of her mouth, I just kept wondering…. IS IT TRUE!??!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m clearly a big supporter of “age ain’t nothin’ but a number,” and I know that people can wear whatever the heck they want as long as they feel good in it. But sometimes these questions creep in, especially as you approach your 40s and still shop where teenagers shop. “Do I still feel good in this?!”

I have no deep conclusions from that situation. It was just… I don’t know. It made me stop to think for a second!

It also made me want to go shopping next time and put together an outfit that I think is a grown up outfit, what my perception of a 37 year old lady is! Hmmmmm………