Good thing we got ourselves a bundle of yarn before Malabrigo went on backorder for pretty much the whole season. We've been getting calls from all around the country from folks looking for just one more skein of something they need to finish a project with. We still have a few skeins but only a few, of Rasta and Aquarella. The rest of what we had made it into our projects.

This morning's event was classic Phoenix February perfection: we hung out with teensy puppies in the park, alongside booths with baby goats in the very best weather. There's a new booth at the Farmer's Market - Claudine's Kitchen and I die for her Lebanese labneh. I'm obsessed, her food is amazing.

Onto the photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kathy, who runs the Roadrunner market, also picked up her custom order today: black snowboarding hat with lime green dreadlocks in a mohawk down the middle, a first for me. Way too bad we didn't get a picture of that before it went to its new owner!

One more February Roadrunner and then we break until April's Sunnyslope Art Walk.

This season has been explosive and pleasantly relaxed all at once for me. As the season draws closer to New Years, we Bewilderknitters show up with our booth at every Roadrunner Farmers Market on Saturdays. It's really a joy being there. Early mornings allow me to bundle up in feather down and gloves and experience winter. We have been running the booth for so long that set-up and break-down is easy. I know just what booth to go to first thing to get my morning Toddy coffee, and then I go to Bill's booth at Kissed by Fire, where he has awesome breakfast burritos with his terrific salsa! And I'd be remiss to not also mention the Wei of Chocolate booth, which has flower essence infused chocolates, need I say more?


The farmers market is sponsored by Chipotle, which is swiggity-sweet. Also, did you know that Roadrunner Park Farmers Market has won New Times Best of Phoenix for their produce? Cora did, and she bought practically enough kale to fill my entire van last week, then promptly went home to spend six hours juicing it on Sunday!


This season is our first of having actual displays of yarn for sale. Yep, we've hinted at it in previous blog posts and mentioned it in passing on our Facebook page: in addition to our handspun yarns, we now offer the yarn we use for sale at our booth. We carry what we use in our products, which now allows us to share another side of our experience with other knitters and crocheters.

We even put together knit kits with patterns and the huge needles we like to use are in the kits too. Along with some cute felted Bewilderknitty mushroom charms! If you're a knitter, do swing by to see what colors we have in stock. The Knit Kits help projects knit up quick and also make a good gift by themselves.


The yarn moves pretty quickly, so follow us on Facebook to get an update every time we get in a new shipment.

Cora's boyfriend Dan comes to the events on Saturdays and brings his pugs, which Karen's kids are abundantly happy about. The pugs look pretty pleased, too. Pleased Pugs.

We also get to wear knitted hats ourselves at these chilly events. Lately the temps have been around a high of 65! Karen wore her striped ribbed hat.

And I tried on one of my magic hats.

Here's Cora beside her spinning felted jewelry stand.

And here's some general photos of the booth last week. I didn't have my fancypants camera, but "the perfect is the enemy of the good," so here goes nothing:

Finally, here is a photo of a very lovely customer who bought my magic hat and scarflette set called "Star Child." She looked so lovely and the whole look really suited her. I was so glad to get a photo before they left the booth!

I want to thank all the lovely shoppers at Roadrunner Park along with all of the terrific vendors who keep coming out with their delicious products. I'm so glad we have a culture like this to participate in in Phoenix!

Welcome back winter! As the weather started to cool down, we Bewilderknitters amped up our knitting to prepare for the new season - Fall 2011. We started at Sunnyslope Art Walk, which is the event we traditionally kick off the season with. We were next to Holly's Incognito Designs and also Lisa Takata who was spinning behind us. 

We take time in the off-season to improve the booth by executing one or more of our ideas. There's not enough time in the day to act on every single idea we have, but we do what we can :). Shay worked with Dan on the new awesome center slab of wood, which we really appreciate. Dan is a co-owner at Better Than New where he refinishes furniture and creates new furniture too.

See our new wood slab in the center?

Karen's felted purse and bangle matched her top that night!

The view of the Sunnyslope booth from behind the table

The following weekend, we took our annual camping trip up North and did a big knitting circle in the woods. Meanwhile the guys played a game of beanbag toss in the background. There was also some on-the-fly macho Bewildervan fixing. It involved Shay under the van with a zip tie and a screwdriver and magic hands. (I haven't introduced our van in the blog yet, but he is Spud, the amazing 1985 camper van VW Westfalia who spends the winters trolleying around the Bewilderknits booth!) There was also a bit of kayaking.

Karen working with Cora on a seam.

Adrian's focused aim.

Cora knitting in the shade of the van's awning with Dan's competitive toss in the background.

My campy-knitty-drinky setup.

My very long yarnbow scarf in progress!

Karen's bin of yarn goodies

Moon rising over us at the Rim

Glowing campfire embers

Karen's Almost-Shoplifted Scarf!

Continuing to gear up for the season to once again be in full swing, last weekend we had our first two-events-in-a-row stint for the season: November's First Friday at MADE followed by the Roadrunner Farmer's Market the next morning. Weather was amazingly wintry on Friday night, and we held out until rainfall. Luckily we managed to pack everything up before it was pouring like mad, and we got respite from the heavy rain by standing under the van's awning while packing everything up for the night. 

We also had our first shoplifter! He stole Karen's baby alpaca scarf while we were setting up. I chased the culprit down and stole it back. I'm a lot more bark than I am bite, but I think I made him feel really bad as I scolded him with a guilt trip and took it back! 

The spread on the left table

Fabulous hats of the moment, some are now gone!

Cora's five button cowls

My very Sesame-Streety scarflette

Vintage buttons don't have to match, they just have to coordinate.

Spalted Wood buttons on Cora's gold, sparkly scarflette

Into the Woods scarflette

Mossy knoll scarflette

I can't remember what they were excited about, a videogame on the cell maybe?

Muahahahaha - these are now mine! Thanks, Cora :)

A wall of loopy scarves

Bewildershrooms

Wall of Scarves

Pretty Cora

Cora's felted earrings

 The next morning, first thing we showed up at Roadrunner Farmers Market early in the am. Weather was chilly and windy, loads of folks came with their dogs and it was a good relaxed time for all.

Dan manning the cell phone video game while Karen knits

Manning the booth with Cora

Karen's coat rack of purses

A very lovely hat by Cora

One thing we all like about Roadrunner is the laid back speed of things. You can come as you are, even sleep deprived and looking crazy, and it's all good.

Plus, we see a lot of dogs and kids. No other event we do has so many of them. It's super family-friendly. This works well for us because kids are drawn to the bright chunky colors we have in our booth. We have similar taste.

A view from behind the booth table

Pretty little visitor

The mirror has two faces

Another cute visitor

Two cool customers walking by!

All in all, despite our preparations, I don't know if it's ever possible to feel fully ready for the season. The To-Do list just continues to grow, and there are always new ideas and decisions to be made. We do have some exciting new things coming to the booth this season. Come see us and ask what we're up to. We appreciate everyone who comes to the booth and we work to always bring something new to the table. We have some Burly Spun and Malabrigo yarns for sale in our booth, and more where that comes from!