Category: The Twisted Purl

DFW Fiber Fest

Cyndi and Gail journey to DFW Fiber Fest

Shall we call it a twisted takeover of the DFW Fiber Fest? HA! Whatever we call it, it’s happening THIS WEEKEND! I’m so excited I can barely stand it.

Gail and I are hitting the road Friday, April 6th, and meandering our way to Dallas. (insert all the ‘blondes getting lost jokes’ here) We also plan to stop at a few yarn shops on the way and throughout the weekend. Wait yarn shops? But of course!

What is the DFW Fiber Fest? “DFW Fiber Fest is the premier annual fiber event in the Dallas–Fort Worth community. Held each spring, DFW Fiber Fest is a locally focused non-profit organization that offers both vendors and classes.”

Although normally when I do things like this, I’m a vendor, not this time. No pressure, just browsing, chatting, shopping, and sharing every bit of it with you through social media. Woo woo!!!

We are using the hashtag #TwistedPurlGirls if you want to follow our journey on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You’re invited to attend our VIP event, on Thursday, April 12th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, located at The Twisted Purl. We’ll bring back a taste of DFWFF for you to experience. The cost will include yarn…lots of samples of glorious yarn, a pattern to use with mentioned glorious yarn, stitch markers, and an experience you will NOT want to miss! Click here to reserve your space.

The shenanigans start Friday. Dallas, you’ve been warned…this will be one big twisted journey!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Follow Cyndi and Gail from @TheTwistedPurl and their shenanigans as they share their DFW Fiber Fest experience. #TwistedPurlGirls #dfwff #dfwff2018″ quote=”Let everyone know you are following our journey on twitter.”]

Loki Lou what are you? Part Two!

In case you missed the live reveal of our sweet Loki’s breed results. Here’s the video:

Just so you know, this is what I saw when I was like “What the heck!”

Loki is part Tree Walker Coonhound (super sniffer), Jack Russell, and a blend of other good stuff.  Go figure!!!

It was really hard to decide the winner. No one guessed exactly. The winner of the contest to Loki’s breed came from a comment on our website from Elizabeth Z. She was the first to guess terrier and hound mix.  Elizabeth, be sure to shoot me an email or stop in to get your gift card!

Thank you to everyone who guessed. It was a blast!

Fidget Mat Friday

Sensory Mats for Alzheimer Patients

Have you heard of a fidget mat? I hadn’t either! While looking for a new charity project for the shop, Hilary mentioned retirement homes needing Fidget Mats. They’re also called Twiddlemats, Twiddlecuffs/Twiddlemuffs, or Fidget Blankets.

 

These are sensory mats for Alzheimer patients. They help by giving their hands something to do keeping them occupied. I don’t know about you, but when my hands are busy I can concentrate better.

We’ll make our own versions of these mats by crocheting or knitting a small lap size piece. Then we’ll free form adding buttons, different textures, beads, etc to the tops of the mats. We’ll have free yarn to use for this project. Below is an example of a Twiddlemuff by Warrington Hospital.

We have extra yarn put back for charity and would love to put it to good use! Join us on Friday, March 30th & April 6th, from 12:00-2:30 to make a few of these. We will take them to one of the local retirement homes.

We’ve created a Pinterest Board to pin our ideas for the mats. Have a look to start thinking of ideas.

 

Chased the Super Blue Blood Moon

Woke up at 4:30 am to run outside to see the Super Blue Blood Moon. Looked up and just saw a super big moon in the sky.

I failed to ask the great and powerful google what time we would actually see the lunar eclipse.

Found out it didn’t start until 5:55 so Mr. Sandman and I had a brief rendezvous.

Did get up in time to kiss the hubby goodbye and walk him to his truck to see the eclipse starting. The Moon was turning dark. Pretty cool. But this wasn’t a Pink Floyd album, I wanted to see it red!!!

Went back inside, made coffee (the elixir of life), then debated on waking the boys. My boys are wonderful humans but something happens, especially to my youngest (who’s 14), in the wee hours of the morning. They tend to become cantankerous, disgruntled beasts.

It’s about 6:15 now and I’m watching the NASA feed and listening to the news talk about how cool it would be if we lived on the west coast…yeah yeah.

Still debating with myself on battling the beasts. A Super Blue Blood Moon hasn’t happened 150 years! What kind of mother would I be for not forcing this experience on my teens?

It’s now 6:30, went back outside, and the moon was more than half covered but almost sinking behind the houses. That was my sign. I ran back inside and woke up the boys. Ready to hear all kinds of “lame…noooo…but sleep…blah blah”. They surprised me by both being excited.

Wrapped in blankets, we clambered across the street to see it.

By wrapped in blankets, literally the boys rolled out of bed in their undies, bare feet, and wrapped blankets around themselves. Thankfully for the undies, IF there was a unfortunate blanket slip, the Super Blue Blood Moon would still be the only moon the neighbors experienced.

They both saw the partially covered moon, said “cool and thanks”, then went straight back to bed.

At 6:55, when the moon was fully covered, I went back to their rooms to check if they wanted to see if we could still even seen it.

They both popped back up….re-wrapped themselves and went back outside. No moon. Walked across the street. Still no moon. Walked into the neighbors driveway to try to peak around the houses and trees. No freaking moon.

The suggestion was made to drive. Like we could catch it if we hurried! Jumping in the car we took off. Heading west. (mind you we are all still wrapped in blankets). Each turn we took, the certainty was there that just over the next hill we’d see this beautiful Blood Moon sinking into the horizon. We drove for about ten minutes then gave up. Brady exclaimed the sun must of chased it away.

As we drove back home, I apologized we didn’t get to see it again. Brady said it was still really great and he would remember this morning for the rest of his life.  Awww!!!

Isn’t it funny how at times the thing we think we want the most is just out of sight? We are chasing and chasing it and so focused on it we miss the moments happening now. This morning was a beautiful reminder of how this moment means the most.