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.
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!
Thanks so much for all of your congratulations and well-wishes! There will be plenty of updates in the future (I'll try not to let the baby-stuff completely take over the knitting!) but for now here are some pictures I promised...
George Clooney, 2007 Venice Film Festival
Up close and personal!
Looking earnest
Laughing at a joke
Speaking Italiano
Having fun with the crowd
Hard to believe but true... he's every bit as gorgeous in person as he always looks in photos and movies. Maybe even better - you have to love the gray hairs, laugh lines and crow feet. He also held up the opening of his film (Michael Clayton) by about 45 minutes so that he could sign autographs for a lot of the crowd. Very classy.
And of course, his costar, Tilda Swinton:
Tilda
Who is really tall, and really nice, and signed an autograph for me that reads "Happy Birthday Sarah - Tilda Swinton." Also signed autographs for much of the crowd, so gets big points in my book for that.
I wish we could have stayed for a few more days to see The Darjeeling Limited, not to mention Brad Pitt on the red carpet, but I really think that George was a high point. Definitely the best birthday present ever!
(although I also got a Namaste Jetsetter bag as a present from my sweetie so I have something a little more concrete to remember my birthday by!)
I'll try and have some more trip photos up soon - I want to do a nice travelogue post a la Lolly's.
Ooh la la!
Greetings from Paris! We've been here for almost 3 days now and have tried to cram as much as possible into it... we've seen the Louvre, Notre Dame (our hotel is about 4 blocks away), Sacre-Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, and of course le Tour Eiffel. We even went up the Eiffel Tower, which I had not done before. We have many fabulous photos that I'm sure will take months to sort through.
And there has been knitting - I turned the heel on the first Denmark sock while sitting in the Tuileries, and then finished the gusset off at the top of the Eiffel Tower. I've also been working on Arwen at the hotel. And I visited Le Bon Marche, where I restrained myself to just a bit of Phildar yarn and a few books. However, I think there may be more shopping on the bill for this afternoon, so I'll let you know!
Tonight we catch a train and sleep across Europe, waking up tomorrow morning in Venice! See you then!
Hello from Copenhagen! I'm posting from the hotel lobby, on my way to explore town (and possibly scope out some yarn shops, even though they're closed today as it's Sunday). The trip was uneventful, I caught the train from the airport into the city and then found my hotel with no problems.
I've even cast on a new pair of socks to celebrate! Sorry no pictures (I'm using a shared terminal at the hotel), but they are (very fittingly) the Denmark socks from Knitting on the Road.
Have a great week - I'll check in when possible!