Finger Puppets

Last week the HDH girls ventured out to Summerfest to enjoy opening day. We all enjoyed some good eats, good drinks, great music and even a marriage proposal, but perhaps one of my favorite parts of that night was what we found walking around from tent to tent...

...FINGER PUPPETS!

While AGAIN these were knitted, we clearly could crochet some of these. Perhaps they'd make for some nice gifts for our friends with little kids. Or maybe we should make these for the WI State Fair coming up. So far, I've personally failed to start a project to submit.

If you login to the LionBrand site and search finger puppets , you even can find a pattern for a Barack Obama and a John McCain one to make!! Looks like the possibilities are endless!

Heather was so excited she had to put one on every finger!


Don't you want to make one??

What in Yarnation!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a trip to Minnesota to visit a fellow hump day hooker who lives outside the Milwaukee area. It was a great weekend filled with consignment shops, wine tasting and a cute little yarn store called 'What in Yarnation!' Being a hooker who gets all my yarn from either Michaels or Jo-ann's I was immediately impressed upon entering and actually exclaimed, 'wow!' One of the six or so ladies knitting in the corner responded by saying, 'wow is right,' after all shouldn't that be everyone's immediate reaction after walking into a store for their favorite hobby?

This store was awesome! There were many different kinds of yarn, some that I've seen before, but most that I haven't. There were complete finished products to show off their patterns and the yarn, much more than the little swatches that most stores have. They were helpful and knowledgeable. They even had a wooden yarn ball winder... I have never seen one of these before, and I enjoyed watching them wind my friend's skein. But overall, my favorite part of the store was a small corner where ladies were chatting and knitting (crocheters are welcomed too!). I would love to find a store like that by us, and I intend on scoping out some places!!

I loved this store, and especially the sign they had out in front!

In fact, here's a list of places I'd like to go:

Knitch (Delafield) - They also appear to have a knitting/crocheting corner (http://www.knitch.net/index.html)

Yarn House (Elm Grove) - While they don't have a website, the reviews on Google look good.

River Boutique and Yarn (Brookfield) - They also seem to have a knitting/crocheting corner (http://www.riverboutiqueyarn.com/)

If you're ever in Cannon Falls, I highly suggest visiting What in Yarnation!

Dear Crocheting, You're So Last Summer?

I normally get quite annoyed when the differences between knitting and crocheting are brought up. It probably has something to do with the reason knitting is so much more mainstream, and THAT got me thinking about other things I hate that are mainstream. While I do enjoy some mainstream pop/rock music, I prefer stuff that isn't heard on the radio. One of my favorite bands from college was Taking Back Sunday, and one day while listening to the radio on a run I heard one of their songs. I was taken back, how could THIS SONG be on the radio! What a bunch of sellouts! (same thing happened with NFG and the Plain White T's.) I got so annoyed that I changed my ringtone from Taking Back Sunday to something different, I didn't want to be like everyone else. Then a few months later that song and band were long forgotten and that song was their number 1 or 2 hit wonder on the radio waves. That's when I re-professed my love of all things Taking Back Sunday. So long story short, this gets me wondering, will I one day be upset when I get old and all my old-lady friends are crocheting? Will I embrace them and show them how it's done? Will I finally be able to accept that knitting really isn't a "bad cousin" to crocheting? Probably not, but hopefully many years from now I will remember that if I ever give up on the norm that is crocheting, that I'll come back to it when all my friends have arthritis in their hands or just forget to crochet, because they can't remember what they like to do, due to dementia!