Happy Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!
I will be eating food, drinking beers and hanging with good friends in Philly.

(Celebrate you're freedom by entering to win some free goodies from Alchemy Hour)

The Night Market

Last Thursday the Food Trust here in Philly held the second Night Market of the summer.  I have been dying to go to one of these events, but there is always some reason I can't get to one.  There was no excuse this time as the Night Market was being held in my neighborhood.  It was an amazing experience and I wish the Italian Market did this on their own once a month during the warmer months.  There was 60 food trucks and food vendors along with a small crafts section of local artist, and live music.  It was a great night.

P.S If you haven't entered the Alchemy Hour Giveaway you should!

Alchemy Hour Give Away!

I am hosting an Alchemy Hour give away this month to celebrate my official opening of my newest yarn shop on Etsy.  One super lucky reader will receive a one of a kind small project bag and a hank of wool and silk lace weight yarn.  


The Goods:

Dot Art Small Project Bag 

This small drawstring pouch will protect your project and hold your yarn, needles and any other notions you may need. The bag is fully lined and has two inner pockets prefect for holding stitch markers, tapestry needles, double points or any other small knitting or crocheting accessory you made be using. Two drawstrings make closing you bag easy and keeps all your items safely within the bag.  

The colorful print is the best part of the pouch.  It is based off Australian Aboriginal Dot Art and the way the pattern moves and the colors used really make this fabric special.   The interior of this bag is lined with a teal batik fabric that reminds me of water falls and warm rain.  

Bag Stats:

8" tall x 6 1/2" long (at bottom of bag)x 4" wide
Opening at top of bag: 20"
Inner pockets: 5" x 4 1/4"
Drawstrings: About 10" apiece when closed

Pigeon, 440 Yards Hand Dyed Wool and Silk Lace Weight Yarn

This yarn is a lovely lace weight perfect for a small shawl or a lovely lace scarf.  The blend of Merino and Silk give this yarn a soft and lofty hand. 

The color was difficult to achieve, but worth the extra time in they dye pot, it has beautiful undertones of pinks and blues and the silk adds extra depth to the slate color of this yarn.  

Yarn Stats

Yardage: 440

Weight: Lace

Needle: US 0-3

Fiber: 70% Merino Wool, 30% Silk

How To Enter:

You must reside in the US for this giveaway.  Sorry internationals I'm not set up for international shipping just yet, but I will have a giveaway that is open to everyone later in the month.  

You must go to Alchemy Hour and pick out your favorite item, heart it and then leave me a comment below about it.

For additional entries you can do the following:

(Make sure to leave a new comment with your user name/link for every additional entry.)

-Follow @bluebetty on Twitter.

-Like Blue Betty on Facebook.

-Add Alchemy Hour to your circle on Etsy.

-Tweet about this giveaway.

-Follow this Blog

-Sign up for the Newsletter.

 All entries must be in by Sunday July 15th.  The winner will be announced Monday July 16th here on the blog.

30 Before 30 June '12 Update

It's that time again, a 30 before 30 Update and I must say I didn't think I had made much progress this month.  Then I looked back at June and realized I have done a good chunk of things.  Lets start with completed items.

Complete:

18. Grow Veggies in the apartment.  I can successfully say that this has been completed although we will be reaping the benefits for a few more months.  We ate our first tomato and I picked some of the Chard that was ready to put into a pasta dish earlier this month.  We also have a ton of Cucumbers coming in and our green bean plants are going crazy. 

How yummy does that look?  Whole wheat pasta with roasted radishes and turnips with sausage and chard from our window boxes.  

21.  Go fruit picking.  We have done this twice now and just like our little garden giving us yummy produce through the summer we will be doing this through to the fall.  So far we have picked strawberries, blueberries and peaches.  I still want to pick raspberries, blackberries and apples in the fall. 

19. Learn to can.  After strawberry picking I made some strawberry jam and I even tried my hand at water bath canning.  

Here's my jam jars getting a nice boiling bath.  It's so exciting to here the lid pop and know that the can is sealed.  It was so easy to can using a water bath.  I know I won't be able to can low acid items this way, but I'm perfectly fine with that.  

On a somewhat related note I also made my first batch of pickles.  It's a small batch, but I am going to make a few more larger batches of dill pickles and a small batch of bread and butter pickles.  

In Progress:

2. Learn to duck dive.  The last two times we have gone surfing I have been trying my hardest to learn this skill.  I eventually want to be able to surf some slightly bigger waves, but that can't really happen until I learn to duck dive.

5. Turn my Etsy shop into a source of income.  I have officially opened and updated my new shop Alchemy Hour and my pattern sales are the highest they've been since the holiday season. 

26. Learn more about photography/my camera.  I've been having fun learning a bit more about photo editing and while I'm still a beginner it is so much fun to play around.  This is a photo I took when we went to the beach in May.  It was so hazy that you could barely see the top of the Ferris Wheel, I've been playing around with exposure and contrast and different filters.  

Free Pattern: Sea Glass Cowl

I have had this cotton rayon blend yarn in my stash forever and it's my favorite colors, so I designed a summer infinity scarf to use up this fab ball of yarn.  You can use any cotton blend yarn you may have on hand.  The cowl is long enough to wrap it twice around or you can wear it long.

This is the second one I made with left over Hempathy.

Materials
about 150 yard sport weight cotton or cotton blend
24" US 7 Circular Needle
Stitch Marker

Gauge
Not super important.

Sea Glass Cowl
CO 200 Stitches, Place stitch marker and join being careful not to twist the cast on edge.
Work 5 rows in Garter Stitch
R1: K
R2:P
R3: K
R4: P
R5: K

Switch to eyelet lace
R1: *YO, K2tog*
R2-5: Knit all Stitches

Repeat these rows 5 to 6 times depending on desired width.
Work 5 rows in Garter Stitch as in the begining.
BO, Weave in ends and Block.

Me made Summer 2012

Remember my summer pledge to wear two me made outfits a week.  Well I've been on the ball about what I wear.  Here's my progress so far.

Week 1 Day 1

Green Drawstring wide leg pants

Altered surf Tee

Week 1 Day 2

We went strawberry picking

Denim Cut Offs

Altered Cowboy tank

Week 2 Day 1

Anita Jeans

Altered Polo Shirt

Week 2 Day 2

I know its a repeat, but I love this outfit!

Purple Dress Shorts

Altered Gray Tee

Week 3 Day 3

Cuffed Denim Shorts

Altered Oz Tank

 Week 3 Day 2

Cuffed Denim Shorts

Purple Dolman Top

Alchemy Hour: It's Official

Forest Birds, small project bag

It's offical, Alchemy Hour now has new stock.  Brand spankin' new stock of lace weight and sock yarn along with some new items, small project bags!  

Inside view of Lotus Blossoms, project bag

I love me some project bags.  I feel like I should have one for every project I am working on.  It keeps the project protected in a purse or tote bag as well as keeping all of your supplies together in one place.  The plan is to start with some small project bags and then start to make them in two more sizes down the road. 

French Lavender Hand Dyed Lace Weight Yarn 

I am also excited to start selling all of the beautiful hand dyed yarn that has come from my dye pot.  There will be lots more yarn added in the next few months.  There will be at least one shop update every month.  Here's a peek at some of the things you will find at Alchemy Hour this month. 

Midnight, Hand Dyed Lace Weight Yarn 

Tangerines, Hand Dyed Lace Weight Yarn

Cherry Wood, Hand Dyed, Fingering Weight Yarn

Night Watch, Hand Dyed, Fingering Weight Yarn

There is much more colorful goodness over at Alchemy Hour.  Go check out what's in stock.

Do you want to know what's going on at Alchemy Hour and Blue Betty before anyone else? Sign up for the Alchemy Hour and Blue Betty Newsletter to get sneak peaks at new patterns, special deals, and advance notice of shop updates.  Click the link below to sign up.  The newsletter is sent out once or twice a month, and only when something exciting is happening.

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