Sunday, May 18, 2008

I don't want to work, I want to pet my yarn all day

First, thanks to EvilJulie, who showed me that you can add pictures to the Rav progress bars. And she probably doesn't even know that she was such a help...

Back from the Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival. Lots of fun. Picked up a decent bit of yarn.

This is the haul:
waynesburg haul
Clockwise from the huge grey hank in the upper left: Grey 2-ply mohair homespun (nearly a pound!) from Sheepstone Natural Fibers in Darlington, PA, spun by Kris Savage; Red/burgundy/deep wine-nearly black wool, silk and viscose blend from Crabapple Llamas and Fibers in Latrobe, PA; green semi-solid superwash sock yarn from Knit Picker (not sure of location); multicolored variegate superwash sock yarn from Knit Picker; blue-green hand-dyed handspun merino from an unknown vendor.

Jessica and I had a really nice time. We left Saturday after lunch, stopped at IKEA and DSW on the way down (I bought a French press, plastic bag closures, and a small frying pan - no new furniture for me), and briefly popped into the festival around 5:30. The weather was bad, it was incredibly windy (tents were blowing over!) and many vendors were packing up. Jessica bought some gorgeous blue mohair/wool yarn for a bag, some pretty green alpaca for socks, and a hank of ivory silk light fingering weight. So soft! We dropped by Mike's brother's house, unloaded our stuff, and headed out to the only sit-down restaurant in Waynesburg for dinner - Bob Evans.

Went back to the house after dinner, and hung out with my sister-in-law and niece. And knitted. Worked on Stephen (the turtle). Finished the top and bottom of Stephen's shell, and started the "shell attachment panel." Forgot to bring Firebird, which was fine, as I didn't have time to work on it, anyway. Almost watched P.S. I Love You, as my niece and her friend had it on in the other room. Seemed like a decent chick flick; at least I appreciated the soundtrack. Camera Obscura, Pogues, Nellie McKay, I forget who else - oh, wait, of those, only Nellie actually appears on the soundtrack album. I won't be buying that one, don't think. Stayed up later than usual, but hey, I could sleep in, right? Um, no. Woke up at 6. Convinced myself to stay in bed until 7, and then went downstairs to knit. Rest of the house started moving sometime after 8.

Went back to the festival today, after a breakfast of cinnamon rolls. Word to the wise, let them warm up for a few hours before baking if they have been refrigerated. Or just make them fresh. I feel like I should have taken over my sister-in-law's kitchen and started from scratch this morning, as they would have turned out better. They weren't bad, just not as good as usual.

Anyway, I did my yarn purchasing today. Weather was somewhat better, although it was still windy. Love-love-love my huge hank of handspun mohair. Originally thought it might be a sweater; right now I think it might be a shawl. I need to figure out the yardage. Zuzu loves it, too.

zuzu getting friendly with handspun
Zuzu getting to know her mohair pal

Speaking of Zuzu, she and I were outside the other day. I noticed that when the sun shines on her fur, if you look closely, she looks like she's covered in rainbow glitter. Her fur apparently acts like a bunch of prisms and refracts light into many colors. She's my technicolor kitty! Not sure why it took me so long to notice that, but hey, I can be oblivious.

Oh well. I should head up to bed. But first, Emmms tagged me for a book meme. She is just a wild tagger lately! So here goes:

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.

1. It was hard to pick the book that was nearest. There are at least five within an arm's reach. First one I grabbed was Mary Higgins Clark's Daddy's Little Girl. I almost feel like I should explain. A librarian foisted it upon me, and I haven't returned it yet. Haven't read Higgins Clark since high school, when she seemed very formulaic. Read one, you've read them all. At least that was my impression when I was 17. But it was closest, so here goes:

"I'd like that. I was kind of expecting that I'd get a postcard from Houston or L.A."
"I never send postcards."

Kinda blah. Let's grab another. No, no details of what to use for a basic rolled-brim hat from Knitting for Peace. How about Where the Girls Are by Susan Douglas? Ahh, the start of a chapter called "Genies and Witches." Sounds promising. Let's investigate:

The Journal continued, "They have rights and opportunities today the likes of which the Western world has never seen . . . .Indeed, women today are in many respects much better off than men." In its special supplement of October 1962 entitled "The American Female," Harper's maintained that American women were "repelled by the slogans of old-fashioned feminism.
But Harper's also thought it saw a trend in 1962 and named it "crypto-feminism."

Somewhat better, but still not great. Probably the best I can do before bed is from The Best of World Cafe, an interview with David Bowie:

Well the genesis of that song--- I had, I've had sort of an off-and-on long-standing thing about Tibet and its accompanying philosophy, Buddhism. And I studied off and on for three years in the sixties when I was younger and it really meant a lot to me, especially what I gleaned from the philosophy of Buddhism. And I guess over the last couple of years, my memories of that period, and also pangs of guilt for not having paid more attention to the plight of Tibet and to the Chinese, was sort of brought into focus with the lectures and speeches that the Dalai Lama is giving particularly, over the last couple of years.

Oh well. I am sleepy, and not in the mood to tag anyone (and too tired to post links to books, too). So if you are compelled, tag yourself!

Finally, kudos to Andrew for pointing me to his blog post that features Cary Grant knitting. Love the picture. Good night!

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