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:

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 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!

Unexpected time

Work was cancelled yesterday and today. Imagine that - we have had more than a foot of snow dropped on us since Friday morning. Luckily we didn't get the ice they'd originally predicted. Here's what it looked like earlier today. There is a car parked on the street in this picture. Can you see it?

We witnessed some kids try to go sledding behind our house this evening (why they ventured out at 6, when it was windier than it had been all day, as well as not long before dark, is beyond me). They lasted about 10 minutes in the knee-deep snow.

I have one vent about people driving in this weather. If you insist on driving a moving snowball, please turn on your lights so that you don't blend in with the rest of the snow on the road/in the air. Preferably, you would actually clear the snow from your car so that you can see and also be seen, but as you are too lazy to do that, please turn on your lights so your car appears as something other than white.

When I last checked in with everyone here, I was looking for my Size 8 DPNs. They were not in the baby hat bag, so I bought replacements. Haven't worked on the gloves yet - this Wednesday is a Fair Isle class, and as the gloves/sweater uses some Fair Isle techniques to weave in ends and whatnot, I decided to wait until after the class to work on them. Even though I really really really really want to start that sweater. Still have 3 pairs of clogs to do, and what did I do yesterday? I started a blanket.

I should explain. As my weekend work is rarely cancelled (never in 20 years or something like that), I was expecting to have to work. Being as I work until 10 pm on Friday, and start at 8 am on Saturday, I figured I'd pack an overnight bag, and crash on the couch in the office, rather than deal with the stress of driving back and forth in the snow/ice. I packed a blanket in the bag, but realized that I might still be cold, especially if they turn off the heat in the building overnight, so I brought yarn for a blanket. It's made from alpaca, and is a very loose knit (size 19 needles), so it knits up very quickly. Figured that I could get a good bit of that done while at work (not to mention when I was waiting for work to start - no need to go home during my afternoon break), and have that as a supplement in case I needed it Friday night. Luckily, work was cancelled, so I used the immortal words of Eric Cartman, "Screw you guys, I'm going home," and drove home.

At any rate, I have about a quarter of the blanket done, as I didn't work on it all that much yesterday. I read a book. "Cross Bones" by Kathy Reichs. Large print edition, which made the pages turn all that much faster. Finished it this morning, as I simply couldn't stay awake for the last two chapters last night. I am somewhat curious about the facts she used as a basis for the book, so I may be reading more nonfiction in the near future. As soon as I finish "Collapse" and "World Cafe."

Nearly finished Shawn's hat on Thursday. Was supposed to be a quiet evening at home, but wasn't. Started the hat on Wednesday, at the museum. Got the ribbing done during the T-Rex vs. Triceratops lecture. Always good to hear Michael Ryan. Always interesting to learn how well-read some kids are on the latest discoveries in the world of dinosaurs. Driving home that night, passed Cleveland Power, and misread their "Super Choice" lighted sign as "Super Chicken." I was tired.

Oh, Thursday Mike drove to the Grape and Granary to pick up some ingredients, as our friend Carl was supposed to come over and brew with him today. I went along for the ride, petted Homer the shop cat, and then we stopped by North End for a drink. Worked on Shawn's hat in the car and at the bar, and got to the decrease point, which is when I insisted that we leave. Still haven't finished it, but will do so soon. Maybe even tonight.

On Wednesday, during the day (at least I think it was Wednesday), was driving from one client to another, and saw lots of falling ice. We'd had an ice storm that morning, it warmed up during the day, and I watched snakes of ice fall from power/phone lines onto the side of the road, the road itself, and a few cars that were unlucky enough to be on the road when the ice fell. I was lucky, and enjoyed the visuals with none of the consequences.

Saw a Great Blue Heron the other day, so spring can't really be all that far off. Please, please, let spring be right around the corner.

Anyway, it's movie time. "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" right now; "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" this morning, and "The Maltese Falcon" this afternoon. Mike also watched "Outpost," but I ignored it, which was probably a good plan.

Have lately been listening to Matthew Sweet, "Kimi Ga Suki", and Vienna Teng, "Warm Strangers."

Just for kicks, here's another winter picture. Enjoy!