The moral of the story

The sum-up, part 2* **

OK, on to Sunday. So there may (or may not) have been a bit of sleeping in. Or, more correctly, a lie-in, in pajamas, gathering energy to go back out. And what helps get up your energy more than a tasty breakfast? Nothing, that's what. So it was out to the IHOP, conveniently located only a few miles blocks away.

Casey, Jess, Carrie, Anne-Marie, and Jenn pose with their precious Gas-X

Chelsea and Lara pose with our tasty breakfast, including my Funny Face chocolate chip pancake (it's off the kids' menu, but shhh - don't tell, cause my waitress might get in trouble, OK?)

Then it was on to the fibery goodness! I was fiscally disciplined on Saturday, succumbing only to some handdyed fluff and one skein of Socks That Rock (that was mostly because I was afraid that Cara was going to buy out the booth - those that saw her or have read her blog since will know what I mean). I had my eye (wallet) set on some merino/silk from Maple Creek farms and more roving (I might or might not have some felting projects on the horizon), and anything else that fell into my hands/shopping bag. Um, guess what did?

Image stolen from Chelsea

Um, a Bosworth spindle might just possibly have fallen into my shopping bag... I blame it on a certain enabler, and the peer pressure didn't help either. (Lara said "If I"m getting one, you are too." I can't argue with Lara - look at how cute she is.)

Then I had to go back for more roving, both of the cheap/practice kind and the pretty dyed kind. And the merino/tencel kind, somehow. But along the way there were some good sights...

This yarn is so good I want to EAT it!

I call this one "Indecision 2005." (You can see which one she chose on her blog)

Coming soon - the haul...

*Ironic, eh?

** This entry is cursed - I have typed it twiceTHREE times because I keep hitting the wrong buttons and wiping everything out. If you think this entry is a little, erm, sucky, it's only because it was so great before and I ran out of the good stuff.

Let me 'splain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Rhinebeck, it was fabulous. And perhaps best captured in photos... at 1,000 words a pop, that's a gajillion words I don't have to type!

To begin:

Who knew something so simple could bring such happiness? Particularly to three very sleep deprived knit bloggers, who realized that this meant that they could finally get out of the car. Actually, the drive up only took a little over five hours. But when you're on the road at 3 AM, there's not too much traffic. (3 AM - are we crazy? Maybe, but we prefer to think of ourselves as hardcore.) But happy! We were finally there! And they even opened the gates and let us in!

The yarn and the fleece and the animals were all amazing, of course, but the highlight of the weekend was definitely the knit bloggers. And they were everywhere!

At the 1 PM meetup organized by the fabulous Cara (click for bigger)

And at the hotel, which just seemed to happen organically. Some may call us weirdos, which is, um, true... but the "nicer" way to look at it is the innate recognition of kinded spirits. And I met so many of them... of course there were my carmates, Team Maryland, and my other roommates Paula, Christina and Ann. K8, a former Marylander, too. Then Team Georgia (sadly sans HEJ), Frecklegirl Jess (Casey too!), and Big Lug Jen. Kris, who I completely blog-stalked and attacked in one of the barns (um, sorry about that) and who was very gracious and nice about it. Alison, Johanna, Cara, Ann, Stitchy, Kelly and everyone else from the various meetings that admired and petted my sweaters (and I didn't even have to pay them!). I wore the Dreamcatcher cardi around all Saturday (which the backpack completely interfered with... I had to sacrifice good back health in order to show off the giant hole design element in my sweater by using only one strap, and even then it was kind of obscured). And at the hotel knit-in I finished weaving in all of the ends on my Kyoto asymetrical cabled cardi (or KACC, which sounds like my cat hacking up a furball. Name suggestions welcome, yo.) This is a sweater of my own design in Artfibers' Kyoto yarn. If you like the look of this sweater and think you might want to knit one, leave me a comment, cause I'm pretty close to writing up the pattern for it but I need a little motivation. And can I just say that I felt like a complete Artfibers salesperson (I swear I am not on commission!), but every one of the FO's I brought with me were made from AF yarn - Dreamcatcher, Clapotis and KACC, and everyone kept asking me what yarn they were, and once I get started I just can't stop. Especially the Kyoto, because it is just so soft and shiny and pretty and glowy and amazing. I love much.

OK, my summing up has taken me some time and I need to sleep (what with the sleep deprivation experiment that was this weekend and all). I will post the Sunday pictures (yes, there's more! Tell them what they've won!) and the haul pictures later on, 'kay? Hope this will tide you over until then...

Grand Challenge Recap

So sadly, Dexter did not win. No $2Mil of yarn for me. Or, um, fame and recognition for Dan. But he put on a good show. Check it out:

Dexter actually did really well. Team Ensco wound up finishing 6th. Five bots actually made it across the finish line - Dexter went the furthest of the 23 cars that didn't make it to the end. The irony of the situation is that Dexter was actually winning the race when he went out... for the number of miles he'd completed (over 80, for the record), he had the fastest time of any car. But then the bad part happened... the unlucky, random, stupid part. Wanna see?

All in all, it was a major achievement for Dan and Team Ensco, and for Stanford - the team that was eventually successful, completing 132 miles in a little over 7 hours. Maybe someday there will be autonomous vehicles all over the road, and we were there when it effectively began. Cool, huh?

And for some actual knitting content... Guess what you can accomplish in approximately 20 hours of airplane and layover time? I can give you a hint... but the pictures are going to have to wait until later. Like after Rhinebeck. We're at T-minus 26 hours until departure! WOO!

Dexter!

Dexter (Dan's autononmous robot car) made it into the Grand Challenge! Go Team Ensco!!!

You can follow the race online on Saturday if you're a big geek. If you're an even bigger geek, I'll see you there! Dan's guys are all in bright yellow (and I do mean bright), so you can't miss them.

One website had them listed as "long shots" that suprised everyone by performing well enough in the later rounds of the qualifying event to get included. I just think they're the underdog. And everyone loves to root for the underdog, right? Dan's been working very hard on this for a while now, so this is very much a validation of all of his efforts. I'm totally proud of my guy. Hooray!!!!

(and if he wins the $2Mil, I've been promised that there's yarn in it for me. Just sayin....)