October 29, 2007
8 Random Facts
So a little while ago (OK, before Rhinebeck, but I've been a bit preoccupied!), Lara tagged me for a meme. It seems like I haven't been tagged in a while, so I decided to play along!
Rules:
Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.
1. I've never seen the movie Jaws. This may not seem out of ordinary, but I'm a marine biologist...
2. My sister is participating in the Fall Bloggy Giveaway. Check out her blog to enter her contest for some old timey holiday ornaments.
3. Before "finding" knitting, I went through many other craft phases - beading, rubber stamping, scrapbooking, polymer clay, and even a brief dabble into soapmaking. I still have most of these supplies (but I'm working on it).
4. I still have most of the craft supplies, but I'm working on it because the "craft room" has to become the "nursery" before too long!
5. My nursery theme is "penguins." I've actually had the nursery theme and decorating scheme (colors: black, white, sky blue, with red and yellow accents) since long before we started trying for a baby (like years).
6. My house looks like an Ikea showroom... the two exceptions in the living room are our TV armoire, which was originally from Indonesia, but which we bought off craigslist, and our trunk coffeetable, which was a wedding present from my in-laws. Oh, and the spinning wheel, which Ikea doesn't sell (yet... but I'm first in line if they ever do!).
7. There are a few foods that I used to hate, but which are now total favorites. Mushrooms and olives are both in this category.
8. There are foods that I don't like but keep trying every so often, to see if I like them now. I still don't like squash or raw tomatoes.
I'm not sure who hasn't been tagged yet, so I'm going to go with Jenna, Cara, Shannon, Jenny, Jamie, Kristen, Molly, and Maya.
October 26, 2007
Introduction
Hey everyone,
There's someone we'd like you to meet.
19 weeks
This is our daughter, sucking her thumb. For most of the ultrasound, she wasn't very cooperative, and we thought we wouldn't get a good look. But right at the end she got really active, started doing some interpretive dance, and we got a very good view.
It's a girl!
October 24, 2007
Yarn & a Poll!
Well, it's all fine and good to read about the Rhinebeck experience, but I know that for some people, the interesting part is the loot! So here's mine:
The Yarn
From top L-R: Superwash Wool sock yarn from Maple Creek Farm, Merino/Cotton sock yarn from Maple Creek Farm (colorway Parrott), Merino/Tencel sock yarn from Silver Moon Farm (colorway Smoky Plum), Aussi Merino sock yarn (colorway Atlantic Waves)
The blue on the end of that row, and all of the bottom row is sportweight merino from the Morehouse Merino sale bin.
Splurge!
This was my big yarn splurge at Rhinebeck - "Highlander" from Alpaca With a Twist. It's 45% alpaca, 45% merino, 8% microfiber, 2% viscose and super, amazingly soft. I have 9 skeins of the light green color and 1 skein of the dark green (for a contrast hem, collar or something). I'm not sure which sweater this will be, but it's going to be awesome!
And finally, the fiber:
Fiber Haul!
That's my blogger bingo messenger bag (the perfect size for hauling around the festival), 2 braids of BFL from Cloverleaf Farms - on the left is colorway "Cranberry Bog" and on the right is "Redwoods," and three "bumps" from Spinners Hill - the two small green ones are Corriedale/Finn/Rambouillet cross sheep, and the green/brown/teal is merino.
And that's what I got! Not all of these are for me - some will be gifts - but I'm very happy with my haul. The first project has already been started - a Baby Surprise Jacket from the green/yellow superwash wool.
And on an entirely different note, my 19-week ultrasound is this Friday (only 2 days!). Assuming the baby cooperates, we're planning to find out the sex. So I decided to create a poll! You have about 2 days to vote (I'll be posting the answer when I get home on Friday). I have my own feeling about what it is, but I'm interested to see what you think!
October 23, 2007
Rhinebeck 2007
Let's start with the highlight...
Belly bump!
There were many people I was looking forward to seeing this year, but tops of my list was Cara. We're due two days apart in March, and we've been having eerily similar pregnancies - yes, I'm still puking, too. I spent a good part of the festival hanging out with her, Ann, Vicki, and Cece, which was really great. We took lots of breaks, ate lots of food, sat on benches, compared pregnancy symptoms (Does your belly button itch? Do you burp a lot? etc.) and went to the bathroom a lot. And laughed and had fun, of course (Tent City? Sucked.)
This festival was a different experience for me. I had a good time, but not a superfuncrazytime like in some years past. I didn't have my main shopping buddy who had a wedding committment (or my otherbuddy who now lives far away) this year. In some ways that was a bad thing - I spent some shopping time alone without anyone to bounce ideas off of, I worried that I was a tagalong in several preformed groups. But in some ways it was a good thing - I saw a lot of barns I have missed in the past two visits, I could spend money completely unselfconsciously (not that I've felt selfconscious before, but you know what I mean), and I could move from group to group and get quality time with lots of different people. For instance, on Saturday I ate breakfast with jstrizzy (who I'd driven up with from DC), Rachael, Maia and Brooke - meeting Maia and Brooke for the first time (Rachael and I remembered that we'd first met at the March for Women's Lives, way back in April 2004). I went out to dinner that night with the same group, plus Alison (who I didn't recognize right away, and then when I finally realized that I've been reading her blog for ages it seemed too late to fess up) - we had a wonderful waitress, Jill, who recognized our yellow wristbands (the two-day pass to the event) and called us out as wool pigs (rightly so). Check out her etsy shop!
When I got to the festival, I immediately ran into Jess and Casey, and spent some time walking with them and seeing them treated like the rockstars they are (founders of ravelry and all). I also got to catch up with Maya, which was cool. Then I ran into Cara and Ann and spent some time with them. At the Blogger Meetup I ran into the Boston posse - Johanna, Alison, and Wendy with adorable babies in tow, Stitchy, Mel, and I'm sure others that I'm forgetting. I met up with them again later in the afternoon when I needed to sit down for a break. At the Meetup I also met many bingo players and ravelers, whose names now escape me - but say Hi! I ran into Amy, and saw several DC gals (Ann, Elspeth, Carolina, Aimee, plus a few that I hadn't met before), and shopped with them on Sunday morning. As you can see, I bounced around like a little pinball. I was definitely a "bonus" in everyone's groups, rather than a "must-have", but that's how it goes.
Near misses: at the Ravelry party I saw Stephanie but couldn't bring myself to say Hi (she was hanging out with friends) - I am on her blog, though, in the background of her photo of Jess. I never saw Kate Gilbert, which was too bad because I wanted to show off my modified Arwen. Now I'll just have to send pictures (speaking of, FO photo shoot hopefully this weekend).
Only took a few photos this weekend...
Ravelry Party
Knitter Boy
I Kinneared the boy, who was calmly and quietly keeping himself occupied with his knitting (while his family made one last trip through Building A, no doubt). Love the Rhinebeck experience!
Photos and description of the haul to come - they're up on flickr if you want a sneak peek.
October 22, 2007
Re-entry is hard!
I hate the Mondays after fiber festivals. A whole day at work, sneaking moments to check blogs for updates, wishing I was at home with my fiber. Why don't I take this day off work? Next year for sure!
Meanwhile, it's already 11 PM and I really need to get some sleep. Photos and re-cap tomorrow.
October 19, 2007
Rhinebeck, Here I Come!
I'm posting from the hotel in Kingston, where I just arrived after driving up from DC with jstrizzy! Can't wait until all of the fibery and bloggery goodness of tomorrow and Sunday!!!
And Arwen... she is done. Sewing on some hooks and eyes tonight, but she's lovely. Photos later!
October 14, 2007
Arwen setbacks
So I knit, knit, knit on Arwen the whole time I was gone, and suffered two major setbacks:
1. I ran out of yarn. I even tried to order more pre-emptively (I hadn't quite run out yet, but the situation was dire), but Artfibers was temporarily out of that color. They'll have it in a few weeks, but sadly that doesn't fit into the Rhinebeck timetable. I have everything but the back of the collar done... so I almost considered either finishing it in stockinette (vs. the yarn-guzzling cables), or else in a different yarn. I was considering those until...
2. I tried it on, and it was too big. Specifically, the back was too wide, which meant the shoulders fell off to the sides, giving a most undesired Flashdance look. So, I sucked it up, undid the seams, and ripped out the back. Mom helped me wind the yarn into balls (on my way to the airport), and I cast on again on the flight to Seattle. I'm hoping that the yarn I save by taking out a strip that's a few inches wide will equate to the yarn I need for the collar. I've finished the first ball (the back is a giant stockinette rectangle, so at least it's mindless), and am working on the second.
6 days until Rhinebeck - wish me luck!
Taos was lovely - photo-loaded update soon!
October 05, 2007
Fall Schedule
Yikes, October already... and somehow it's super busy fiber time! Here's my schedule for the next few weeks:
September 30th (last weekend) I spent at Crafty Bastards, most of the time hanging out with Woolarina! We had a good time, and Paula did really well, so that was awesome. I even brought a few braids of roving that I had dyed, and some of them sold! This caused me to kick myself into gear and actually open an Etsy store! Snargle Handpaints - offering handpainted roving, fiber, and possibly handspun. Right now it has a pathetic three items in it - I have many more "in stock" at the house, but I realized that I was going to be traveling over the next few weeks, and I didn't want to leave Dan with things to ship out, etc. So expect many more updates in a week or so...
October 7th (tomorrow) is the Taos Wool Festival in Taos, New Mexico. This seems like quite a long ways to travel for yarn, but my sister now lives only 1.5 hours away. Soooo... mom and I decided to come visit, and we strategically timed it so that we can all drive down to Taos! Other than Brooks Farm, I don't think I know any of the other vendors, so hopefully there are some nice suprises there for us ;). So, right at the moment, I'm posting from my sister's house, where I am staying for a long weekend. Next week I go to Seattle for a work meeting, and then fly home just in time for...
October 13-14 is Stitches East in Baltimore, MD. Despite this only being about half an hour away, I probably won't be going because Dan's parents are in town (and I'm already missing most of their visit by traveling). But I just wanted to point out that I had the opportunity to purchase yarn 4 weeks in a row and I abstained. Because, next weekend is
October 20-21: RHINEBECK! Or as it's known to the Muggles, New York State Sheep and Wool. I'm driving up with Jstrizzy (ditching Dan, who was willing but didn't feel the need to go), staying in the Kingston Super 8, playing in Blogger Bingo (player/square Saturday/Sunday), and expecting to have a really fun time. I am sad that Lara can't join me, as we had such a fun time last year (and the year before with Chelsea). But she'll be having fun times that weekend, too.
Speaking of Rhinebeck, my sweater is nearing completion... and I'm nearing the end of my yarn. I do have an ace in the hole (I found the swatch, so I can unravel and use it), but I'm still nervous. I have to decide soon, as if I do need more I have to order it from Artfibers and have it shipped to me. I'm going to keep knitting until I run out, and then deal.
OK, I'll have to let you know how Taos was, and what kind of stash came home... until then, ta-ta!