Ah, Maryland Sheep and Wool. How I love you. As I told Dan, it's one of my favorite days (weekends) of the year, up there with Christmas.
This was my 4th MDS&W (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008), and I must say that this Festival was the best demonstration I've had yet of the changes that come about with a baby - along with the fact that this post has taken me over a week to get up!
My first post-baby festival was quite interesting, indeed. Dan came with me (his first festival experience!) to help out, which was awesome - we did a tag team thing a lot. Basically, our schedule revolved around hers. We came late and left early, and took several breaks to get her out of her carseat (stroller) and have room to stretch (the sheepdogs were perfect!). We also got a lot of use out of the mei tai that Paula made for me (if that yarn-dyeing biz doesn't pan out, Paula's got a future in custom baby-wearing!) - while she likes to sit in the car seat and look around, she doesn't really like to sleep in it. But she will sleep snuggled up against my chest in the carrier. And she looked at the sheep:
Fuzzy, four legs, "Baa." Interesting.
I think I only went into two vendor barns and the Main hall. I didn't even make it to Brooks Fiber, but that's OK since I still have their yarns in my stash from previous festivals. Don't worry, I still managed to buy some yarn:
Yarny goodness!
Mostly from Tess... and mostly because every year I wonder "Why didn't I buy more from Tess?" Then I get their price sheet and I remember. But I did get some Superwash Merino for a sweater, and two skeins of the Super Sock & Baby (center bottom). I made the Monkey socks out of the skein I bought last year and I am really happy with them, so I went for a few more. The other sock yarn jumped out at me from the Cloverhill booth. (Can I just say how much I loved that booth? It was great having all of those indie dyers in one place!) The bottom right is Sanguine Gryphon (who I met at the Homespun Yarn Party), and the bottom left is Sushi Sock from the Unique Sheep. The roving is Gale's Art (one of the few bumps she had left on Saturday afternoon - her booth was pretty cleaned out!). And on the left is the Tilli Tomas "Sahara" kit that I won at the Ravelry party. I won a door prize, yippee! The yarn is gorgeous - the color of copper pennies:
Find a penny, pick it up!
Since Sahara is supposed to be a really fitted sweater, I'm going to wait a while to see what my proportions turn out to be (post-breastfeeding at least!), so you won't be seeing the finished product here on the blog any time soon, but it will have a very special place in my stash until then.
As always, the highlight of the fiber festival was the people - getting to hang out with all of these awesome folks in real life once or twice a year never seems to be enough.
Go Team Rav!
And of course I met up with many others at the Ravelry meetups and the party (thanks to Daddy for babysitting so I could hang out and have fun!) - friends from near and far... whose lives I keep up on by reading their blogs (and who I should comment more on!) - more pictures here. And to me, that's really the key of any great weekend - the fiber's just gravy! (OK, really good gravy, but bonus nevertheless).
Until next year! (Or until Rhinebeck in the fall!)
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
Today George Clooney wished me a happy birthday. Tilda Swinton did too.
I'm completely serious. Details - and pictures! - to come soon.
Meanwhile, greetings from Venice!
OK, how is it February already? Seriously, people!
Anyway, let's think back, shall we? Once upon a time, some local knitbloggers gathered, and brought yarn, and it was good. I invited all of the DC/MD/northern VA knitbloggers that I knew of, and they invited some others (sorry if we missed you - it wasn't on purpose, I swear!), and we wound up with 17 bloggers, wine, snacks, and yarn at my house for a night of fun.
Ever seen a bunch of impatient women? Pile a table high of yarn (yarn that's going to be up for grabs) and then make them wait for a while...
Can we just start the swap already?
And then there was the On Your Mark, Get Set...
GO!
Reach for it!
That's right, we had a yarn free-for-all. And I am pleased to say that there was absolutely no punching, biting, kicking, elbowing, hair-pulling, cursing (well, at least not during the swap), or really any bad behavior whatsoever. There was plenty of enabling, matching of colors, suggestions of patterns (can't figure out what you'll ever do with only 300 yds of a gorgeous wool/silk blend? pose the question theoretically to a room full of knitters, who see you eyeing said yarn with a covetous glance, and they'll come up with so many suggestions it will seem stupid not to take it!), and even some begging ("please take that lovely yarn - I want it to go to a good home!"). Everyone swore that they left with more than they brought, and yet the table was still covered with leftover skeins at the end of the night (seriously, how does that work?).
And never doubt that the knitters are a generous bunch. Well, after seeing the KWB totals, the Dulaan and Red Scarf project galleries, and other similar phenomena around blogland, I know that you're already convinced, but still. See, I told all of these lovely ladies that they could also bring "charity yarn" and I would collect it all and donate it. I expected a few skeins of Red Heart, but this is what I wound up with:
A rainbow of goodness!
Yes, Lolly, I put them in that order for you and Project Spectrum :). There's a lot of yarn there! There's a lot of good yarn there! There are going to be some very lucky kitties, chemo patients, nursing home inhabitants, Mongolian children, and who knows what else when the knitters get done with this yarn. And faced with all of that variety, I couldn't help myself, but I dove in and made a Rapunzel scarf:
Let down your hair!
If you haven't seen this before, it's based on one that was in the Anthropologie catalog last winter (and selling for $58.00, I might add) that is just yarn braided together. I cut a bunch of different yarns into about 8' lengths, tied them together on one end and braided away. The finished scarf is about 6.5' long, and I'm really hoping a college kid will like it, because I'm sending it to the Red Scarf project (just in time - they're packing up the boxes on the 5th!). For a bunch more examples, check here.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who came over for the fun evening. We had such a great time, we really need to do it more often (once a year just isn't enough!).
The attendees: me (OK, it was my house), my co-hostess Lara, Natalie, Carolina, Kelly, Ann, Joanna, Shannon, Heather, Lauren, Paula, Holly, Elspeth, Dani, Erin, Isel, and Aimee (no blog, but she co-runs a yarn store, so we'll give her a bye). Thanks again to everyone for coming!
So I'm back. And re-entry into the "normal" world has been the same as it is after every fiber festival, which is to say sucky. But at least I have my photos (and my fiber) to remember. Here's the good times:
So, the festivities started on Friday night at a Little Black Dress Party. (I'm not kidding.) Sadly, I didn't win any door prizes, but I did have a special Hottini and got the weekend off to a good start! Since Lara didn't bring a change of clothes (pack in a hurry, did we?), she convinced me to keep my Little Black Dress on for the drive to NYC. So I did.
Yay!
Leaving DC around 11:30, we made it up to the Bronx at 4 AM or so. Strangely, the drive went really quickly. Of course, I had to work on the way up... I had finished all of the knitting on the Bed & Breakfast, and some of the seaming, but there was still a side and sleeve seam, and then approximately 8,000 ends to weave in. So I busted out the headlamp, and sewed away:
Now that's hard core!
By the time we pulled in to the Bronx, I was done! I don't have a photo of myself modeling it (hopefully this weekend), but Carrie wanted to try it on, and she seemed to like it:
So soft!
Sadly we had to leave Lara to her family celebrations, but I drove up in the fabulous company of Carrie, Anne Marie and Sarah B. We met up with Frecklegirl Jess and Maya. We had good times shopping, eating, knitting, winding yarn, and everything else. Just look at us in the car:
Funny fun times
I didn't actually take any pictures inside the Festival. You can see them elsewhere on the web... But here's the important part, the haul:
Rhinebeck haul!
If you click on it, there are notes on the flickr version. The only yarn I bought was from the evening reception at Morehouse Merino. It's in the upper left - I think it's meant for a My So-Called Scarf. Everything else is fiber. I only patronized four vendors, and I liked them so much that I went back to two of them on Sunday. The roving braids in the front are all merino or merino blends from Cloverleaf Farms. The "balls" and the green pouf in the back are from Spinners Hill (which I bought from last year, too). There's also some merino, tencel, silk caps, and random wool from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm (super cheap because she will no longer be carrying them). And finally the charcoal gray is an alpaca/tussah silk blend from Meadow Brook Alpacas, who had some of their alpacas there in the barn.
Not included in this picture are the things I bought for others. I was the designated shopper for two lovely ladies. That is quite a bit of pressure (let me tell you!), but hopefully I did OK by both of them.
Everything is gorgeous, and super soft, and I just couldn't wait to start. So I didn't...
(Photos to come after it's gifted to the recipient!)
I think it's super pretty, and soft too! And I just can't stop spinning - I did more tonight! Good thing I bought all of that fiber :).
It was so great to meet so many bloggers, both at the meet-up (which was insane) and at the lobby knit party. Along with spending some quality shopping time with Amy, I got to revisit with Alison, Johanna, Kris, Debbie, Cara, Ann and Michelle... plus chatted (briefly) with Claudia and Stephanie, and met Cari, Melanie, Gray la Gran, and The Purloined Letter (ironic, since we're from the same place) for the first time... along with about a million others. If I met you, please say hello in the coments!
Greetings from Rhinebeck! We spent about half of the day there today, with plans to go back tomorrow. I'll have a lot of good stuff to share with you tomorrow night!!!
Maryland Sheep and Wool. The very phrase conjures up images of yarn, smells of sheep, and memory aches in my stomach muscles from laughing. It was more superfungoodtimes this year, that's no doubt. There's the Fabulous Fiber and the Fantastic Fair Food, but the true highlight has to be the Friends. Just look at our crew:
we may look a little sad here... this is our goodbye photo
If you click on that photo, the one on Flickr has "notes" that will help you match faces to blogs (just in case you're curious). I had a really awesome time staying with Heather, Kate, Paula, Anne Marie, Jen, Jess, Sarah B., Maya, Betsy, Amy, Lara - better roomies you could not ask for. And I managed to find Cara, Maggi, Heather, Kelly, Cheryl, Natalie, Brooke, Lolly, and Jenna at the fair, and I met a few new people like Jodi, Norma, Claudia, Sylvia, Theresa and Elspeth, too (and probably others that I'm just not remembering right now)! Knitbloggers are seriously some of the best people in the world. Just amazing.
There were lots of good times - enabling each others' shopping, sharing tasty experimental fair foods (deep-fried Twinkie, anyone?), drinking martinis, joining the gargantuan Meetup on the Hill, staying up late knitting and talking, petting the sheep, watching the slinky sheepdogs, and one last thing...
rolling down the hill
I had a minor wardrobe malfunction in that picture, so please don't zoom in too far, or prepare to be horrified. In order to get photos with no wardrobe malfunction, we had to try the roll multiple times, include one with a mid-hill collision. Maybe we can persuade someone to share those photos when she's feeling better...
And now, the haul. I was more restrained than last year, and even more than two years ago. Actually, looking back at those posts, I have done pretty well with last year's goodies. Many of the things there are knit up (three pairs of the socks, the Brooks Farm mohair) or gifted/swapped (the other Brooks Farm). The 2004 haul I still need to work with, for the most part. Maybe this year.
Anyway, here's what I got on Saturday:
Yarn Haul Ahoy!
Again with the notes on the flickr page - that's handy! But this year my suppliers were again Brooks Fiber (3 years running!) with their Limited Edition wool/silk/viscose blend (60/20/20), and a new candidate, Tess' Designer Yarns with a 900-yard skein of raw silk, sock yarn and angora! One more skein of sock yarn crept in there somehow, plus the logo backpack and a beautiful hand turned nostespinne. No pictures, but on Sunday, I did get just a bit more yarn - 1400 yds of a tweedy cotton blend for $16. Deal!
Once again, going back to work this morning was depressing. But at least I can go back and look at all my pictures whenever I need to relive some fiber festival fun. Hugs to everyone I met!
This weekend, Dan and I headed downtown to check out the Cherry Blossoms. For me, it was a preview for the Meet-Up this weekend! 2 PM at the Washington Monument. More details on Lolly's blog. Hope all you local gals can make it!
Anyway, as I was saying, we went to check out the Cherry Blossoms. The stripey sock went too:
Pretty!
So there's actually another green stripe in there that you can't see because it kind of curled up.
And it was purdy... and gorgeous, too.
We parked at Haines Point in East Potomac Park, right across the river from that cool building - which turns out to be the National War College (who knew?). And while the monument area was completely mobbed, we really enjoyed our walk along the river to and from the car - there are 1600 more cherry trees down that way, too! (You can check out the map with little symbols for all of the cherry trees at this link - but be warned, it's a .pdf and it's pretty big - 5 MB). We drove past "The Awakening" and will definitely need to get out of the car and explore it next time.
And I'm proud to say that I finally finished the Bed & Breakfast sleeves:
Two blue sleeves!
I thought I had finished them and got all happy... and then I reread the instructions. See, after you finish all of the increasing (and boy were there a lot of increases!), you still have to knit 2.5" straight. Argh! And I was doing both sleeves at the same time... to save time later, but it was torture to get through them both. But they're done and I even started on the front.
How many more days until Easter? I don't know if I'll finish my Lent-Along projects, but it's been fun working on them!
Today is International Flash Your Stash Day. Here's my contribution:
Yikes! It's a Yarn Explosion!
Of course, this is the way I prefer to look at it:
All cleaned up and put away!
Much better! Want a tour?
The bags on the top are the yarn I bought from Iceland in February of 2004. There's three sweaters there - two for me and one for Dan. You can see pictures of them in that link. One of these winters I'll get around to these.
The two bins below the white bags are bags of yarn for sweaters - Rowan Cork (blogged here), Takhi Dazzle from the yarn swap, Lionbrand Landscapes from Christmas, Valeria di Roma cotton, Filatura di Crosa No Smoking (option Eeeny from the contest), the Brooks Farm Four Play (also in the contest) and a few others.
The bottom left bin is full of medium quantities of mostly wool yarn - Noro, Silky Wool, Bulky Alpaca (another score from the yarn swap) and various yarns for felting.
The big pink bin is full of Acrylic. Wool-Ease, Homespun, etc. I bought some of it as a newbie knitter who still though I would save money by knitting my own sweaters. I'm keeping it mostly for charity and/or baby knitting. This bin will probably go in the attic since I won't be needing the contents that often.
The last clear bin is the summer yarn - cottons, linen, ribbon silk, soy (!) and bamboo(!!). The three white cases hold Oddballs, sock yarn and scarf yarn (novelty). The green bowl is my Manos thrift store sweater, and the two blue things are Target learn-to-knit kits that I got for 75% off - there's a pet bed and a baby hat and bootie set.
Not included in this picture: the other half of the sock yarn stash (you didn't think it would all fit in that little bin, did you?), the fleece, or the WIPs.
OK, now I've showed you mine ;)...
Tonight at 8 PM on the show NOVA on your local PBS station, The Great Robot Race.
Keep an eye out for Dan's team!
In the immortal words of one of the wisest philosophers of our time,
"I don't know if you believe in Christmas,
Or if you have presents underneath a Christmas tree.
But if you believe in love, that will be more than enough
For you to come and celebrate with me."
- Kermit the Frog, "The Christmas Wish"
We do in fact have a Christmas tree, and presents under it. Don't think you can steal any of them, though, because they are guarded by an attack demon (cleverly disguised as a cat). If you don't believe me, I have proof:
beware the glowing eyes of power!
But whether it's Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Soltice or Eid or Diwali (belatedly) or Festivus, or just Sunday in your house, I hope you are happy and loved, and that all of your holiday wishes come true.
The Rhinebeck Haul
4 oz of a merino/tencel blend from The Sheep Shed.................................$13
20 oz of beautifully dyed wool roving from Spinner's Hill...........................$38
A Bosworth spindle and fibers to practice with..........................................$55
100% alpaca yarn for a sweater and a skein of Socks that Rock................$80
48 straight hours together and still friends.....................................PRICELESS
Once (or twice) a year comes a fiber festival; for all of the other times, there are friends.
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.
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...
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:
Dan prepping Dexter at the start line. He was one of the three members of the "Launch team," who actually took the bot to the start line and got everything set up before it started running autonomously.
Look, Ma, no driver! Dexter going down the straightaway with the chase vehicle behind... looking good!
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?
Yep, a flat tire. How pedestrian... I mean, human drivers get flat tires. Sadly, there was no autonomous pit crew to race out and change Dexter's tire, and he had to quit the race. Poor Dexter.
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!
Guess what happened 29 years ago?
I did!
That's right - it's my birthday! And I've had a wonderful lunch and happy hour with my friends and a romantic sushi dinner with my sweetie, and got some lovely presents. Tomorrow my parents are coming to visit for a few days, and I'm looking forward to a great weekend!
Happy birthday to me!
I've certainly been dragging this out, haven't I? I'm just trying to make the fun last longer... I can't believe it's already been a week. On the plus side, that means it's only 51 weeks until next year! Yiipppeeeee!
OK, where was I... oh yes, finishing up Saturday at the festival.
Last year I did most of my monetary damage at the Woolstock booth. Not on exquisite hand dyed one of a kind wonders, no sir, but on the bargain bin. A giant playpen contraption which had bags of yarn for 50% off. Not crap yarn, either, but good stuff - Rowan, Jo Sharp, Noro, etc. This year, I was trying to stay away, to convince myself that I should stick with the things I can't find in a LYS or on the web. Did it work?
Not entirely. Turns out I'm a sucker for a bargain. Or thrifty. Or cheap. But the fact was, there was some pretty cool stuff in there that I couldn't pass up for 50% off. It turns out my friends couldn't, either. Yep, I pulled them into the dark side with me. Just check out the crazed look on Carrie and Anne Marie as they practically dive in:
Mostly, though, we were very well-behaved. Jenny did score some fabulous Rowan, and I think just about everybody got some Regia sock yarn. (Well, everybody between this trip and the one on Sunday... of course I went back - are you crazy?)
After that, things started winding down at the fest. A last trip to Brooks, a last trip to Tess, and then I went to the gate to meet Cheryl & Stacy and wait for the stragglers. But then, who should I see walking by with the most ginormous bag of roving I've ever seen? Rachel and Lala! (In Lala's defense, it was Rachel with most of the roving). I sprang up to say hello, and convinced them to hang out for a few seconds while I rounded up my peeps (several of whom wanted to say hello). The next thing you know, it's a meet-up at the front gate!
The best part was when the man on the microphone in the front tent asked us where our group was from (since we obviously knew each other and all), and we said "The Internet." When he said, "No, I mean where are you from?" we replied with "Everywhere - we're from the Internet!" Yay for the blogosphere!
OK, so then it was home for some downtime and Subway, but then the call we were waiting for came... it was off to Korean karaoke!!!
[ASIDE: For those who have been curious (well, probably mostly those in our group), I found an article posted here that does have an explanation regarding the meaning of the phrase "1.7th Generation" - Jenny, the "th" is actually supposed to be there. Read and learn...]
The evening has been well chronicled elsewhere, thanks to the karaoke paparazzi, but I was no exception, so here are some photos for your enjoyment:
The all-important task of picking the right song:
Serenading the very willing local Koreans:
Doesn't every girl bring her own back-up dancers?
Seriously, because this one did too...
The beauty of blue soju:
And the whole (exhausted) crowd... click to make bigger:
Happiness.
But the night had to end, and we had to say good bye to our Georgia peaches. The next day a smaller crew returned to the festival for an all-around calmer, quieter day. If you were turned off by the crowds and insanity of Saturday, you should definitely try it on Sunday. Just don't expect there to be any Koigu left.
Yarn was purchased (another trip back to Woolstock for yet more sock yarn, another trip to Brooks Farm looking for some black - "Does this yarn match my coloring?" "Sarah, it's black. It matches everyone." "Good, I'll buy it then.") Funnel cakes and corn dogs were eaten. Sheep were admired.
The highlight of Sunday, though, was something I haven't done since I was much smaller, and I had completely forgotten what a thrill it was. When it was done, I laid on my back and laughed out loud for a long time. That's right... we rolled down a hill:
That's me, Sarah B. and Lara. Chelsea was our partner in crime photographer.
And that was the end. The only thing left was to take our yarn home and fondle it. Repeatedly. And take pictures of it, but that will have to wait until the next post - the Sheep & Wool Haul (or, how many feet do you have? or, how many skeins of sock yarn does one intrepid knitter need?)
OK, I promised pictures and stories... I hope the suspense was bearable.
(There were plenty of other blog updates, so I know you weren't sitting around waiting on mine. In fact, you may feel as if you've seen all the pictures and heard all of the stories already. If that is the case, please feel free to skip this post, but please come back when I go back to my regularly scheduled knitting content. Thank you.)
First, a referral. If you haven't read it already, please go read this excellent entry by High Energy Jenny that pretty much sums up how I feel about the linking and the people and the name-dropping. There were several bloggers I met during the day who were obviously fabulous and known to others in my group, but whose blogs I had never read. I felt bad about that at first, but I also know that I can only do so much, and I will be reading them from now on.
By the same token, my main goal at Sheep & Wool this year was to socialize. I didn't really need to buy wool (not that I didn't - do you think I'm crazy?), I've seen the sheep and animals, but I hadn't met many of these folks before. Some of them I feel like I've known for a long time - it wasn't like meeting people, it was more like seeing an old friend again for the first time in years - you just sort of click. (Someone else wrote about this on their blog, but I can't find it again... if it was you, let me know so I can give you credit!)
One of the main things I took out of this weekend was a true sense of community. I think that I had previously thought of myself as a person who posted on the internet about knitting. Now, however, I truly feel like a knitblogger. All of this stuff that I'm sending out into the void is actually being seen by real friends, not make-believe internet friends. Deep and sappy, but how I feel/felt.
OK, enough of that, let's get to the pictures.
First was dinner, when I met Carrie, Anne Marie and Jenny for the first time, bringing along my houseguest Sarah and Natalie (a local blogger friend). They in turn introduced me to Frecklegirl, although in miniature. My impression of Frecklegirl is... well, let's just say that most of my pictures of Frecklegirl involve alcohol (you'll see those later). Jess, if you're anything like your tiny self, you got some 'splainin to do!
Here is our opening dinner toast. Notice that Frecklegirl has her own pint of beer, which is taller than she is.
There was more fun and hilarity that night, but eventually we all realized that we needed some sleep before the true fun of the festival. So it was home again home again Sarah & I went, where we met up with Cheryl and Stacy, awesome chicks and houseguests extraordinaire.
Very early in the morning (but somehow in a Christmas-morning type of way it wasn't early at all) we got up and went to breakfast. Blogger breakfast - hooray!
From L to R: Ei, Carrie, Donna, Jenny, Anne Marie (THRILLED to be there!), Heather, Kelly, and Sarah B.
Then a whole day at the festival... bloggers everywhere. You could generally recognize a fellow blogger, even if you didn't recognize them, because of the beautiful hand-knit garment, knitty or blog logo t-shirt, and camera. Lots of cameras. Lots of pictures - of everything... people, yarn, animals, food... you name it, a blogger was taking a picture of it. At 12:30, after I bought Spirit Trail sock yarn, lost it, and recovered it (hooray for ethical knitter people!), I (and Cheryl, I think - it's all blending together) walked over to the blogger meet-up... and got waylaid by finding Maggi and Greta along the way. They pointed out another mini-meetup which I joined momentarily in the line for Boy Scouts' lamb burgers (to clarify: the Boy Scouts were cooking them, there weren't lambs that were Boy Scouts). However, while I recognized several of those bloggers, there wasn't anyone from the group that I was supposed to meet up with, so I kept cruising up to the T-shirt booth and the meet-up that Cara organized. There were tons of bloggers there, hugging and taking pictures and admiring the knits. I met Rossana and Erika for the first time (even though we all live in the DC area - we need to do a meet-up soon!) Then I saw the familar faces of Lara and Chelsea, two of my local posse. I met Jenna, and we realized that we had three Boobholders in the same place. So we took a photo - Stef, this is for you!
After that, we all wandered over to the grassy knoll for the Yarn Harlot event. I went back and found the bloggers I'd left with the Boy Scouts, plus a few more, got a sandwich, and went back to the grass. We sat and knit and chatted, and waited until the line around Stephanie died down.
Don't Anne Marie and Sarah B. look happy and relaxed?
Stephanie turned around and took a picture of us - Bloggers in their Natural Habitat. Then we all (including Stephanie) chatted and showed off the yarn and fiber we'd already purchased, plus whatever WIPs we had. She was witty and wonderful and only said "arse" a couple of times (of course, she wasn't at a podium, so she could say "arse" as many times as she wanted). Of course, she still hadn't eaten, so we didn't tether her down for too long, but it was one of the (many) highlights of the day.
Here's a picture of Stephanie chatting with Sarah B., Lara and Cheryl:
And it's almost midnight and I still haven't gotten to Korean karaoke yet. Tomorrow night, my dears! (Sheep and Wool fun will last all week this way - hurrah!)
P.S. I found out the spotted sheep that think they're cows are actually Jacob sheep, and they are polycerate - meaning multiple horns. One sheep can have 6 horns! I find that a bit disturbing... go to this site to see pictures of some with 4 horns... 2 up and 2 down. Hmmm.
But on the plus side they have photos of their new lambs. This one is smiling at me. Totally cute.
There is just so much to process that this is going to be hard to sum up in one post. Besides, I figure the longer I can draw out the posting, the longer I can relive the weekend.
Going back to work this morning was rough. When Dan came to get me out of bed to go to work I looked at him and said "But then my weekend is over." So sad. I obsessedly sneaked looks at bloglines all day to see who else had updated to rehash the memories. Tonight it's my turn with my own pictures. So let's begin.
For fun, I went back into the archives and found my description of last year. I remember thinking before I went that I would surely run into tons of bloggers that I would recognize, because really, how big could it be? Damn big was the answer. It was hard to really grasp then, and still hard. Also, last year I didn't go on Saturday at all, only Sunday. I tried to warn all of the MDS$W virgins about just how big it is, but I don't think I did a very good job, since Carrie (for one) still seemed a bit shell-shocked. Erin got one of the best pictures I've seen that starts to convey the scope and number of people that were there.
There were lots of people. There was lots of yarn. There were lots of animals. I tried to take a picture of every animal that was there contributing to the fiber... here're a representative few:
Bunny
Goats
Alpaca
Llamas
And of course,
Sheep.
Not all sheep knew they were sheep. Some clearly thought they were cows:
Others thought they were rastafarians:
and 
But that's OK. They weren't the only ones that were confused. One knitter bought fleece (for thrummy thrum thrums) and then thought it was cotton candy:
But can you blame her? Check out that fabulous color!!!
And that brings me to the people. While I had a great time checking out the animals and yarn (and buying yarn - I haven't gone completely mad), this year for me was all about the people. And I've got a lot to say and pictures to post, but they're going to have to wait until tomorrow, because it's bedtime for me.
(and still more Korean Karaoke suspense - do you love it? "The suspense is terrible... I hope it will last!")
There will be plenty more updates and pictures to follow, I promise, but for now I leave you with just one photo (worth much more than 1,000 words), and two words of (not a lot of) explanation:
Korean Karaoke
So, the craft fair went well. Really well. Better than I had expected. If you'll scroll down a bit, you'll see my wares - many fizzy novelty scarves and several felted bags. I now have considerably fewer of them, and a bit more cash. The picture is from the end of the day, showing what was left. Towards the beginning the drying rack was covered in scarves.
Actually, I only have 2 scarves left, and 3 bags. I'm not bummed about the bags, either - I priced them a bit high because the truth is I wasn't sure that I wanted to get rid of them. If they'd sold, I would have been OK with the price, but since they didn't, I'm OK having bags.
We priced the scarves from $20-$30, and the bags from $30-$50. Our booth also had cards, which sold well (and sold out), wine charms (which did OK), and glass votive candle holders (which pretty much didn't sell at all, but did give me Christmas presents for my co-workers, so it's a win-win situation). The craft fair was generally fairly poorly attended (probably a publicity, venue and timing issue), so I think our booth did well.
We're thinking about looking into craft fairs later on (spring/summer)... I guess it's hard to stop!
The only good thing I can think of about the election results?
I can get four more years of wear out of my Knitters Against Bush t-shirt.
Yep, that's it.
Back to the crafty content when I'm a little less depressed.
That's right - my birthday was yesterday. I turned the big 2-8. OK, not that big, but anyway...
Luckily, my Secret Pal was a smart cookie, and sent me a fabulous package:
covered in Happy Birthday stamps! Isn't that festive? I actually saved it for opening on my birthday, and this is what I found inside:
That's a beautiful card, some tropical sticky notes, a cool scissor fob (with a cat charm, how perfect!), and the book "Hip to Knit." Funny story - guess what Dan gave me for my birthday? "Hip to Knit." Great minds think alike, right? Anybody have anything they wanna swap for a book? ;)
I had a great birthday, with lunch out with my co-workers and then a relaxing evening at home watching the Amazing Race and knitting... still working on the hood of the bpt. Halfway done, just a few more inches to go. This weekend being my extended birthday celebration, I get to pick where we go... updates after I decide!
There is no better place to celebrate America's birthday than on the National Mall in Washington, DC, so that's what we did. Happy birthday, USA!
p.s. I even got some knitting done on a new WIP - bpt from knitty (pictures to come, hopefully tomorrow). The woman behind us was making some Regia socks, too!
Oh, Maryland Sheep & Wool was fabulous. That's me & Cheryl, the only knitblogger I managed to meet up with. And what's that I'm wearing? Could it be Ribbita, slightly messed up because of the weird way I'm standing? Why, yes it could! I'm wearing a tank top under it, so as not be confused with someone named Slutty McTramp. Trust me. :) I'll try to get a good picture of it this week. It's not the best fit, though - there are several modifications I want to make. I'll probably be undoing the top few inches to change it all.
Back to the Festival... There were so many more people than I expected... so many more booths, so much more wool
, so many more sheep, so much more wool (did I mention the wool?)... really, just so much more. I was completely taken back to my 4-H days (ten-year member, yessiree!) everytime I saw the sheep going by on leashes. I saw the llamas, the alpacas, and the Brooks Fiber Farm, where I fell in love with everything in the booth. You'll be seeing that in the future... there's at least enough for a top-down raglan ala Stef.
So what all did I buy? There's the short answer ->
(Click on it for the big answer). There's a drop spindle with some roving to practice (I blame Cheryl for that), some packages of Jo Sharp cotton (50% off, baby!), a cool Japanese pompom maker, a needle felting kit, some sparkly black yarn, and a huge puddle of Brooks Farm Fiber. I did mention that I fell in love, right? Oh, and a swift and ball winder - very useful, with all of those skeins! I think Dan thinks it's worth it's weight in gold... he wasn't so enthusiastic about holding the skeins as I balled them or vice versa. And what did the cats think? They were quite intrigued by the fiber and sheepy smells. The swift and ballwinder were also quite interesting, although I Linus found it to be a little alarming, especially when it started spinning.
Well, that's the wrap-up... how many days until I can go back next year? Or should I start thinking about Rhinebeck instead? Hmm...
I don't normally mix politics and blogging, but today I met up with a bunch of knitbloggers for the march for women's lives in downtown DC. It was amazing. On the news tonight, they're estimating between 500,000-800,000, which makes it one of the biggest advocacy marches ever in DC. We had some celebrity sightings, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Whoopi Goldberg and the Indigo Girls, but the best part of the day was spending it with some fabulous women who I met through knit blogs on the internet. What a wacky world!
That's A. in a Bottom's Up Bucket o'Chic, a zonkered Caroline and mom Maggi, emdash, Maureen, Rachael, and Bethany. Earlier we also met up with Cheryl for a bit, but she went to march with her ladies. Maureen's shirts drew a lot of interest - look for the "knitters against Bush" in your neighborhod! And I look forward to seeing some of them next weekend at Maryland Sheep & Wool!