A Scarf a Day

Camy here! Some of you may know that I am the coordinator for the ACFW Genesis contest for unpublished writers. The Genesis would not even exist without the hundreds of judges who volunteer their time to judge the entries each year. This year we had over 550 entries! Each entry is judged by 3 judges. Our judges agree to judge anywhere from 3 to 21 entries each!

Because I’m so grateful to our judges, I decided to try to make scarves for all of them who are going to be at the ACFW Conference in September. I’m guessing about 200 judges will be at the conference, and I have five months. I figure, if I do a scarf or two a day, I’ll make enough for all my judges who will be at the conference. As of today, I have a dozen or two scarves already made.

I’m not making really intricate scarves, but I’m using some neat yarn from my stash and making quick scarves with large needles (size US 35). I’m also using a size S crochet hook for some Tunisian crochet scarves. Most of the scarves I’ve made take less than an hour per scarf, even the ones with a lace pattern. The big needles help the work go quickly, but the scarves still look really nice and squishy.

My point? What can you do to show someone your appreciation? It doesn’t have to be anything big. Each of these scarves only takes 60 minutes of my time, and I make most of them when I’m in front of the TV. But I know the judges will appreciate the time and the thought that went into making scarves for them.

Who would you like to say thank you to? What can you do to show them your appreciation?

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is her humorous contemporary romance novel, Single Sashimi, and her romantic suspense, Formula for Danger. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she ponders dogs, knitting and spinning wool, running, Asiana, and other frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter for giveways!

Click here to find out how you can join my Street Team—it’s free and there’s lots of chances to win prizes!

For all of us Double-A Battery Types

I think surely there's something called a spirit of rush. And those of us blessed with a Type A personality tend to be in a constant rush. All things must be done in a hurry. Everything is of utmost importance and sooner is always better than later. Staying ahead of schedule is crucial.

For instance, when I go to the grocery store for a few items, I grab my purse and rush out the door as though I'm headed to perform emergency surgery.

When I walk through any store, I almost run.

I follow too closely behind cars--you know, trying to push them along.

Here's the problem. If I'm not careful, I stay so busy in my hurried little world that I miss the beauty of life, and the beauty in others. I take my world so seriously, that I forget about the joy that always comes in slowing down for a bit.

So, I'm trying some new behaviors. I've almost completely stopped wearing a watch. Believe me--this is huge for a Type A person.

I decided to take up a hobby. A slow motion hobby that forces me not to be in a hurry.

I took a knitting class. There's no way I can knit in a hurry. I'm just a baby knitter, so I still have to go slow and think about every single stitch. Knitting even slows my thoughts. Is this a knit stitch or a purl? I make a lot of knitting mistakes. From my Type A brain, it could be considered a waste of time. I've gone back to the yarn shop plenty of times for knitting help (trying to drive slowly the whole way).

But I'm going to stick with my lifestyle changes. Mostly, I'm still not wearing my watch. And I'm probably the slowest knitter in town, but think maybe God has a lesson for me buried in my unfinished miniature pink scarf. I pray I'll be more aware of divinely unexpected appointments with others.

God holds time in the palm of His hands. Daily now, I'm asking Him to slow me down so I won't miss sweet opportunities.

Any double-A batteries understand?

Love,
Julie

Sheep and Wool Festival!

Camy here, just back from the Estes Park Wool Mart! It’s a sheep and wool festival held in Estes Park, Colorado, and I had a blast!

I went with my friend Danica Favorite and her family. We got to see sheep, alpacas (the picture above), paco-vicunas (kind of like alpacas), angora goats (their fleece makes mohair yarn), angora rabbits, cashmere goats, yaks, llamas, and we even saw pictures of a pygora goat, a cross between a pygmy goat and an angora goat.

I also got to buy fleeces! I bought a pound of alpaca fleece in this rich lovely brown color and I bought an entire fleece of a black sheep (he was a cross between a Teeswater and a merino/CVM). I got to talk to the shepherd who is this really nice older lady who loves to tell stories about her sheep. She suggested the fleece I eventually bought after I told her that I was a beginning spinner, and what I wanted to use the fleece for, and how much I wanted to spend.

I will process the fleeces (the alpaca one probably won’t require much processing, to be honest, but the sheep one will) and spin them into yarn. I’ll be able to make yarn for a ton of stuff, including this one cardigan I want to make (it’s designed by Twinkle) where if I bought the yarn it would cost $80, but this way it will cost only about $30.

We had a lot of fun even though it was raining. The rain wasn’t too bad, just a steady drizzle, and there wasn’t much wind so it wasn’t too cold, either. But we all had muddy shoes and pants by the time we left the fairground.

I loved it! I hope to be able to go again!

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is her humorous contemporary romance novel, Single Sashimi, and her romantic suspense, Deadly Intent. She also runs the Story Sensei critique service. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels and ponders frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for giveways!

Inexpensive Christmas gifts

Camy here! Have you started thinking about Christmas yet?

I love Christmas. I mostly like giving gifts to my friends and family. I especially like being able to give them something they’ll really enjoy and could use.

I’m also dirt poor, so the challenge is giving a gift that’s not cheap-looking, but that’s inexpensive to make or buy.

Yarn craft

I’m big into knitting, so I like asking my friends point blank what they’d like me to make them for Christmas. I give options like a scarf, hat, mittens, fingerless gloves, bag, etc. It makes it easy for me, and it guarantees they’ll get what they want. Then I buy the yarn and make something for them.

Do you crochet or do some type of yarn craft? Why not make your gifts this year? You can also learn to knit or crochet really easily online. Believe it or not, I learned to knit from watching knitting videos.
Knittinghelp.com videos
Knitpicks.com community learn to knit tutorials
Lion Brand website for knitting and crochet tutorials

Sewing

There’s a sewing group that meets at my church who have volunteered to show me how to sew, although I haven’t taken them up on it yet. But it makes me think that if I do, I can make cute sewing projects for gifts, too. iPod or phone cases, bags, pillowcases.

If you sew, consider some cool sewing you can do for your friends or family as gifts. Pillowcases in cute fabric are always great gifts and they’re very inexpensive, too.

If you embroider, consider buying something small and embroidering the person’s name or designs on it. Regular or ribbon embroidery can really dress up something that’s otherwise very plain.

Cards

I also like making cards for people to use, because everyone could use thank you cards or birthday cards. I get stamps, colored paper, double-sided tape, and ribbon trim from the local craft store and then go to town. It’s fun because I get really creative, and it’s fast because I can make several copies of the same card really easily.

And if I make several different designs, I can give everyone one or two cards of each design, for a total of a dozen or two dozen cards as a gift. I wrap the bundle of cards in ribbon and it looks great!

If you’re creative and wise with what stamp sets you buy, each card can be as little as 25 cents each to make. There are some stamp sets that are hearts or flowers, with several stamps in the set, and you can mix and match with different colors, different paper, and different ribbon or trim to make different types of cards with the same set.

Are you a photographer? Why not develop several copies of your favorite pictures and paste them to cardstock to make fantastic blank cards to give away? You don’t even have to embellish the cards if you don’t want to, because the photos themselves make the cards special.

Sparkly stuff

Some of you do beading, and jewelry is a great gift to give. Earrings, a pendant, or a bracelet are relatively inexpensive, and you can make them in your friend’s or relative’s favorite colors.

And you don’t have to limit yourself to jewelry. You can also make cell phone charms, bookmarks (see those book thongs in Borders?), zipper pulls. Be creative!

Any other ideas?

What are you considering for inexpensive Christmas gifts this year?

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is her humorous contemporary romance novel, Single Sashimi, and her romantic suspense, Deadly Intent. She also runs the Story Sensei critique service. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels and ponders frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for giveways!

Knitting in public

Camy here, talking about being embarrassed or not caring what people think.

Most of the time, I’m ashamed to admit I really do care too much about what people think. Which is stupid, because who cares what strangers think of me?

As long as my husband and my friends and my youth group think I’m a wonderful person, that’s all that matters, right? Right? (At least, let’s hope they think I’m a wonderful person. LOL)

So, for a long time, I used to be embarrassed to knit in public. I felt like it was just too weird a thing to do, because, hellooooo who the heck is knitting in public? I certainly never see anyone knitting while waiting in line or in a doctor’s office. (Not here in Silicon Valley, anyway.)

But on the other hand, my personality is so anal retentive that I can’t stand having nothing to do! And there are some places where it’s just not feasible to read a book, mostly because I get so caught up in it that I won’t notice if someone calls my name.

So I took the plunge. I took my cute little pink bag with my sock knitting and went to the post office.

Yes, you read that right. The post office. Because of all the places I hate to wait, it’s there.

It’s always sooooo busy, and the line is out the door, and there are little kids running around because their mothers are in line, and other people are trying to cut in front of you, and it’s just noisy and crowded.

So I got my envelopes of books to mail, stuck them in a tote bag on my shoulder, hung my knitting bag off my wrist, and stood in line and knit.

The knitting motion made me not so anxious about the screaming kids or the people jostling me. Since I concentrated on my work, I didn’t see anyone giving me strange looks, and so I didn’t feel (too) anxious about it.

Then I took my knitting to the doctor’s office for my husband’s appointment. And it was great! I got a ton of knitting done while waiting for my husband. I only got one or two strange looks from a man in the corner, but then he just ignored me.

Now I take my knitting everywhere! And I no longer care if people are looking at me, because I’m satisfied that I’m being productive during times when otherwise I’d be doing nothing.

I don’t know how I went from being scared of what strangers would think of my knitting to not caring. Maybe it’s God trying to show me that it’s really not as big a deal as I think it is.

And, granted, there are lots of other things that I’m still embarrassed to do in public, like dancing--(shudder) I still am not comfortable with my body to want to jiggle the fat around to an audience, you know?

How about you? Anything you’re embarrassed to do in public, or used to be embarrassed about?

Camy Tang lives in San Jose, California. She previously worked in biology research, and she is a staff worker for her church youth group. She runs the Story Sensei critique service, and her latest Asian chick lit novel, Only Uni, released in February. Join her newsletter YahooGroup for monthly Christian fiction giveaways!

Looking stupid

Camy here, talking about something I do way too often.

I’m just not graceful, both physically and verbally. I trip a lot over my feet, and my mouth will usually say something my brain never thought.

I just joined my first Mystery shawl Knit-along. Basically, the designer running the knit-along doles out the pattern for the shawl we’re knitting, a little each week, and we knit with everybody else and discover the beauty of the knitted piece as we go along.

Since I’ve never done this before, I immediately go on a PUBLIC FORUM BOARD and ask, So what kind of yarn should I use?

The next day, I’m approved for the knit-along and I start reading posts. Now, it’s been open for applications for a while, so they’re talking about stuff from earlier questions and I’m a bit lost.

Then suddenly there’s a post about how there’s a new file uploaded in the file section. I go to the file section, and there’s actually five files in the file section. One file’s in German, so I don’t bother opening it.

I open the other four. Three of them are related to knitting a test swatch. I have to knit a test swatch? That’s good to know. I should work on that asap. Like, before we have to start knitting the actual shawl so I know what needle size I should use.

The fourth is an informational .pdf. Which includes what yarn I should use. And color. And how many yards I’ll need. And how large my test swatch should turn out.

So now, I have just announced to a PUBLIC FORUM BOARD that I am too stupid to READ INSTRUCTIONS.

Now, I could turn this into a really wise devotional-type blog post and relate my embarrassment to how much God loves me and made me the way I am.

However, I will only say that I’m really glad God likes me no matter how stupid I look to other people, and I wish I could just burn the entire incident out of my brain with a red hot poker. (Theoretically, I could, but that would be just gross.)

Rejoice! You’re you. I’m me. God’s with us. That’s all that matters, right?

Camy Tang lives in San Jose, California. She previously worked in biology research, and she is a staff worker for her church youth group. She runs the Story Sensei critique service, and her new Asian chick lit novel, Only Uni, just released this month. Join her newsletter YahooGroup for monthly Christian fiction giveaways!

Warm

Camy here. I’ve become obsessed with scarves and socks.

I know it sounds totally weird, but it’s true. I’ve been knitting up a storm lately, and all I’ve been knitting have been scarves and socks.

Granted, I live in California, but it’s darn cold here and my wool socks have saved me from frostbite, I’m certain. Socks are quick and easy to knit up, and I got a whole bunch of worsted weight wool yarn late last year because it was on sale.

So, my toes have been toasty!

I’ve also discovered the power of the scarf. Even just a small one around my neck keeps me warm, and they’re especially nice with a coat or jacket to take that last edge off the cold. I am currently in a sweatshirt, sweatpants, and a cashmere scarf around my neck because the house is a bit chilly.

I knit up a cool one in teal, blue, and pink that I take when I walk the dog. I intend to knit up more so I can wear them with some other outfits to church.

Oh and speaking of church, I just finished a burgundy poncho that I intend to wear today. It’s made with this bulky weight wool yarn (again, which I got on sale) and it knit up super fast. Sure, it makes me look a bit pregnant, but I don’t care because I’m happier than a cat licking the last of your tunafish sandwich.

And I don’t want to hear anything from the peanut gallery about minus degree temperatures in the Midwest or Northeast or anywhere with snow. I am from Hawaii and my blood is very thin—’nuff said. I’d turn into an icicle in someplace like Colorado or Nebraska.