Hello again

Let's catch up shall we? March was crazy month.

On the day of my last post at the beginning of March, C3 thought it would be a good time to start crawling. And standing up. And driving me crazy. It's taken me a month to figure out a way to contain her to one area for most of the time while still allowing her some space to explore. Here she comes crawling over to me now:) My favorite baby age is that time when they can sit up on their own but they can't crawl away yet... with her it only lasted 4 days.
Four blissful days, and then she was off.
T.R.O.U.B.L.E

In some continuing education news, this past month I got myself a present with some of my birthday money. Here is my Little Meggie with my first kick-spindled yarn. At first I thought it was more even awkward than the drop spindle but now that I've moved on to my second attempt at kicking I'm really happy with it.

It's nice to have both hands free for a little while before I have to wind it on the spindle. I think the yarn is more uniformly spun too. Eventually when I grow up and get myself a real spinning wheel the girls will have a lot of fun with the Meggie. I actually got a nice chunk of merino roving recently to let them practice with the drop spindle soon. M1 has been especially interested in my spinning lately since she's doing her farming unit in school this year and they have spent a lot of time discussing different fibers and textiles.

In March I also managed to finish three new sweaters. Two of which feature Rachel-Marie's Autumn Patchouli handspun yarn. The most beautiful yarn!
One of which has already been sent to it's new home in Canada....
And this one that sort of matches...
And this one I made from a Hobbledehoy batt that I spun pre-Meggie...
So far I've made 8 sweaters this year! You can check out my progress each month in my Year of Sweaters flickr set.

Well, I think we're all caught up now. This month I'll be a better blogger, I swear. There will be lots of exciting things happening here in Lumpkin Land soon. Next week the girls visit the Pittsburgh school so we can finally decide if the Lumpkins will set up a more permanent shop there this Summer. And there are lots of other Lumpkin plans in the works too- as usual:)
We'll talk again soon...

Slime and Sun

Let's start out with a little something distasteful and grim for this Friday the 13th shall we?
Last night the baby got some sort of belly bug and she threw up all the contents of her belly (and then some). That really was so sad to see. I wanted to sleep with the light on just to watch her and make sure she was OK- that idea was vetoed. She wouldn't nurse she just sort of retched every 5 minutes and then passed out. Finally a few hours after her final hurl she woke me to let me know she was ready to refill the belly and so far she's been fine ever since. I just have this awful fear that we will all be stricken now. When M1 was almost a year old she got some sort of bug and did the same thing for a night and then a couple of days later I was in class at the time and I had to leave early because I felt so nauseated. I picked up M1 from her Nanny Nan's and rushed home to find that her daddy was home from work early too and we both were so sick that we had to call my parents to come get M1. I have a very vivid memory of my parents calling to check on us and we were both laying in a heap of filth and trying desperately to crawl (really crawling) out to reach the phone but we missed it. I have never felt as weak as that moment when I was stricken with the M1 plague as we call it. A couple hours later that night both sets of grandparents were all raging with the plague too. It was so horrible- always of reminds me of this classic tale. That was more than 8 years ago and every time one of the kids starts getting sick I'm still convinced it's the return of the plague! Well, how's that for a spooky tale of bile and retchedness?

Moving on...
Before the sad events of last night, we had a pretty nice week. We got a little preview Spring around here and it was very welcome. I actually got to take the little ones out without a jackets for some fresh air two days ago. C3 loved playing in her pen for a couple of hours. Babies find traffic noises to be calming I think. And M2 got to burn through some of her endless energy thrashing around in the sunshine...

As for the biggest Lumpkin, she made me very proud using my sewing machine for the first time ever. She's usually very reluctant and somewhat scared to try anything new especially if there is even a minuscule chance that she might hurt herself in any way. I knew she'd do fine. And her first project? Little surprise valentine pouches. We came up with the idea after a friend of ours brought these cute little felt pouches full of favors to her birthday party. We opted to use paper because it comes in lots of cool valentine patterns and it will be easier to tear open. I sewed up the sides will she was at school and when she came home she stuffed the them with stickers, tiny Nerd boxes (our favorite), and some tiny paper heart confetti. I explained how everything worked and she had took some practice runs on some scrap paper and then she took over and sealed each little pouch on the sewing machine all by herself. (proud much?)

Tomorrow we head out to Pittsburgh for "Mid-winter break" (it's some sort of Waldorf invention I think, and I love it). I'm not taking my sewing machine in an effort to pay some good ole' fashion attention to my own little pack of Lumpkins. Not that they need it or anything. I'm going to try out the vacation mode on Etsy for the first time. I'm also very confident that a weeks vacation will be enough to inspire me to list the rest of the items I've been stalling on for so long when I return.
On tap for next week
(and the reason why I'll likely gain 30 lb and develop a soy allergy if we move to Pgh):
vegan pizza
vegan ice cream
vegan blt
followed by
vegan belly ache
(see above)

I'm going to do a little Valentine post tomorrow if I get a chance.
See you then!

HANDMADE ARCADE part 2

Ok, it's Wednesday and I'm due for a shop update. I've imposed this work schedule on myself to insure that I at least get the basic needs of this little business met throughout the week. So from now on it goes like this:

Mon.....ship orders
Tue......blogging
Wed.....shop update
Thu......blogging
Fri........ship orders
Sat....\ off
Sun.../ line

Don't worry there won't be a test.
Technically yesterday was a blog day but we'll make up for it today.

So, Handmade Arcade was swell. Really really swell. I have never had so many people see my wares at one time. Thousands of people! And everyone stopped to looks at everything and had great comments even the people with no kids. My display was a huge hit. I'm so glad I took the extra hours away from sleeping to get it done in time. It was a beaut. The music was great, the people watching was even better, and the vegan cinnamon rolls were the BEST! It was really helpful to be able to hear what things people thought about everything I make. Some things people wanted patterns for making themselves, some things they wanted in bigger sizes, sometimes the just wanted more variety of colors. I can't wait for next year and I can't wait to apply to some more big shows in the Spring.

Here are some pictures of the event...

(check out the lighted sign!)

(my helpers for both days)

I also got to meet some other makers. Finally met the Lemons over at Lemon Cadet and got to talk baby shop with Beth. I also got to meet Sarah of 'Charlie and Sarah' she's a fun little chatterbox. She kept calling M2 'the model' from the seamonster collar picture and acted all starstruck, which made M2 giggle a bit. And we met Cosy of Cosy Knits Literally. And Jessica from Cityspun (who I'm ashamed to say lives in Lancaster and we've never met!)
I did some trading and some purchasing and ended up with a nice pile of goodies.
yarn from CitySpun and Cosy Spins, a recycled baby dress from Sweet Pepita and a Bean Romper from Lemon Cadet.

The whole trip to Pittsburgh was wonderful (besides the late night drive home). I can't wait until next year!
Look out for Thursdays post when I reveal more secrets about Lumpkins and the approaching Holidays!

See you then;)

Inventory

I saw this lady doing it a couple weeks ago and it inspired me to take inventory of my own wares now that this weekend is my second show since the baby was born. It's an event at the YWCA called Women 2 Women. It seems like a nice event to attend even if you're not a vendor. There will be tons of wellness activities in addition to the food and marketplace. From their website:

The YWCA Woman to Woman event showcases women-owned businesses in Lancaster County that promote wellness and empowerment. More than 300 women from all walks of life attend Woman to Woman to sample offerings through workshops and personal services. A marketplace featuring local women artisans and food from local restaurants provides a place for participants to connect with other women throughout the day.

It should be a pretty fun event and I'm excited to get a chance to practice my new set up for the following weekend in Pittsburgh at the Handmade Arcade.

So here goes with the inventory so far:
12 hand spun pod sweaters
2 NEW Pod Skirts
7 organic cotton newborn caps
10 merino balaclavas in various forms
10 merino child-sized sea monster collars
8 organic cotton/bamboo batiked plush Lumpkins
6 cotton/wool Scrappy Lumpkin playsets
and a bunch of older things.
There are about 600 things that I'd like to get finished by next weekend, but I'm trying to remain realistic about what I can still make at this point in the game, so I'm not too crazy and disappointed.

I still have to do some tagging and pricing and a couple display/lighting issues to finalize at least in time for the Arcade. I'm really excited about it! Next week at this time I'll be packing for the 'burgh and I'll probably be freaking out. But for now I'm still working my chilly little fingers to the bone. Little Lumpkins everywhere (meanwhile the house has gone to pot)

Everyone come out to W2W this Sunday at the YWCA!

cozette

Well we named the baby. Here's the announcement I finally got to make this morning. She'll be 8 weeks old on Friday and she finally has a name! For the purposes of this blog she will henceforth be called C3 with her sisters M1(Mab,8) and M2(Mae,4). It sure feels good to be able to call her by name although I have to admit it's hard to get used to not just calling her baby. Soon enough she'll just be Cozy to us. We are still in Pittsburgh for couple more weeks so the shop is still closed for now, but feel free to window shop until September! The holidays are coming up fast and i'm working on lots of new items this year. I have to figure out a way to travel with my inventory or maybe just have two inventories. Stuff I make in Lancaster and stuff I make in the PBG. Or better yet, maybe just pick a city permanently, that's an idea!

We have been obsessed with Phelpsvision-
I mean the Olympics. oops. I love the hype! Swimming is so fun to watch. At least for me it is. I can practically smell the chlorine. In related news, I'm about 20% finished with my Ravelympics project.
I'm freestyle knitting another kiddie vest in the Freestyle Free For All event. I am only really knitting while I watch TV at night- and that's usually Olympic coverage lately so it's very fitting. I'm using a commercial yarn instead of my usual KDG variety since I was out of Lanc when I discovered the Ravelympics so I wasn't prepared. It's pretty yarn, but I have to say that I miss the lumpy bumpy texture of the handspun. It really is my fave.

My parents visited this weekend and we took them to the Zoo and Phipps and we took a scenic drive up Mt. Washington. It was a nice couple of days. M1 went to Outdoor Discovery camp here last week, which I highly recommend for parents looking for a nice simple educational nature day camp for youngsters. It was her first camp experience and she loved it. Her favorite part? Digging up leaches in the pond...gross me out.

I probably won't get a chance to post again until I get back to Lancaster, unless something amazingly exciting happens. So, until then, have a great time winding down your summer. I hope you end it on a high note. That's what I'll be working on too.

(M2 overlooking the gritty city)