I got to meet Hine Mizushima, one of my fiber art heros, for the first time. Here’s a quick iPhone pic I took of her section of the show:

All of the pieces in the show were amazing and really different—here’s a look at the sculptural works of Kit Lane.

Moxie was nice enough to squeeze me into her sold-out workshop on Saturday. I had never tried needle felting before, and it was so much fun! It’s really like working with clay in many ways. I gained a new appreciation for the incredible pieces that these artists create, and I went home with this little bug and a photo of me and Moxie:

(We’re standing in front of her neat-o pieces in the show, but you can’t really see them in the photo.) Moxie was an excellent teacher—if you ever have a chance to learn from her, I recommend it!

The needle felting show is up through the end of March at gallery hanahou‐check it out if you’re in NYC!

Hine Mizushima:

Kit Lane:

Yoko Nomura:

and Moxie!

I can’t wait! The opening is next Thursday, March 3rd. There will also be a needle felting workshop with Moxie on Saturday, March 5th. See full details at the gallery website.

I’m at that stage in the design process when I’m daring to hope that it will turn out just how I want, but at the back of my mind I’m fearing that I may need to rethink it entirely…

Either way, I’m looking forward to finding out what the new year will bring.

I’ve had a bit of an obsession lately with knitted lettering, so I got out some Cascade 128 to make big squishy letters for this project!

The Santas tucked into the letters are Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi Santas made with worsted-weight yarn (Cascade 220).

Look closely and you can see a few more Santas peeking out of some vases below.

I hope this has brought smiles to the faces of some passers-by in the past few weeks!

The BUST Craftacular in NYC on Sunday was insane and a little intimidating (nearly 300 vendors were there, and I only had half a table), but totally worth it. It was so great to see some familiar faces, to meet some of of you blog readers for the first time, and to hang out with the awesome Toasty Time crew with whom I shared a table. Sadly I didn’t take any pictures there—I was just too busy!

But as promised, I have more pics from Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle from the previous weekend. Here I am on the first day, feeling awkward about having my picture taken right before my first-ever craft show.

My sister-in-law Jenna took the following shots. She’s a professional photographer (check out her amazing work on her website), so really I should be trying to trick her into helping out with all the events I’m involved with.

(Yes, that is a naked brown Santa that you see there on the tree.)

I was definitely more relaxed by the second day of UCU, and just had fun knitting a little and hanging out with Jenna and my mother-in-law and all other other cool crafters and Seattlites.

So my first two experiences with craft fairs were very good! I think they will be great to do as special events once or twice a year going forward.