Obsession du Jour

Escape!

See the happy?

On Sunday morning, I smooched the wee babe (I'm still floored by how much I can miss this kid even on a tiny half-day away like this - floored.), hopped into Ms McYarnpants car and took off.  We stopped to pick up Ms. Monster Yarn, and JUST made it in time to meet Melanie for the main festivities, though we did miss lunch at the brewpub (so.sad.)  Show of hands for who's surprised that the Dynamic Duo of late were.....um...late?  Yeah, I didn't think so.   This time it totally wasn't my fault, and there was a cat involved.  Want to know more?  Go bug Stitchy and make her tell you...it's FANTASTIC, and she has pictures.

No matter how many of these kinds of events I go to, I'm still always shocked by the sheer volume of people who show up and how, despite the fact that there was A FESTIVAL in our town this weekend, still the knitters turned up two+ hours away in such large numbers that you just about couldn't move in Webs....and that's saying something, given how big that store is.  Not that I'm surprised that they'd show up, just....well....holy crap there are a lot of knitters.  Where do you guys all go between Harlot events and wool festivals?

Despite my best intentions, the photo above is the only one I took all day.  Too busy chatting and shopping (I wouldn't have admitted that part, but there's photographic proof), as usual.  I always WANT to take advantage of the pretty yarn for some fun photo ops, but I'm never willing to stop running my mouth long enough to do it.   Thank god for Caro.

Two birds and all that...

Knitting AND spinning update, all in one go:

(Ravelry link)

This yarn was what I was spinning during the first half of labor last summer, and so ended up having a fair bit of sentimental value.  I had THE HARDEST time figuring out what I wanted to do with it.  Knit it? Pet it? Stick it in some sort of 'time capsule'?

In the end I decided I wanted it to be something that would see a lot of use and be an everyday reminder of a special time.  Then I had to pick a pattern, which ended up being tougher than I expected.  I think I've started about 6 different projects with this handspun, looking for just the right thing, and I think this is finally IT. 

Interestingly enough, it just really wanted to be a simple (and I am ALL about the simple these days) woven stitch scarf which will allow the fractally-spun color changes to shine through.  Even though these are not my typical wardrobe colors, I think this will be both practical and cheery enough to get a lot of use during the long, cold, Boston winters. 

On getting one's life back. Sort of.

You know how I mentioned yesterday that I go to bed at 9pm?  I have a confession to make.  That's not entirely true.  As a nod to our formerly relatively social lives, one night a week Mr. ODJ gets the night off to play poker, and I go to bed about 8:15pm (that's just about as soon as I can reasonably get to bed after getting WB to bed at 8pm) and one night a week, I am released from Mom duty to stay up late-ish (10:30pm.  Wild times.)  and do this instead:

It turns out that having that one night out a week, most weeks, regardless of what it means to the sleeping or chore schedule, is worth it's weight in.....well....liquor, apparently.   

And here is what happens when one is (against one's will) trying to backwards-engineer a commercially knit item in an entirely different yarn without taking the time to check gauge or try to write out the pattern in any way first.

See, the ribbing wasn't really tight enough (compare to comercial product up by the Mojito bottles), but there was no way I wanted to reknit the top part of the mitt again (actually let's start with how I never wanted to knit this at all.  pink. bobbles. unpleasant yarn.  what's to like?  but it's a 'gift' project for someone I adore who had no idea what they were asking so...you know...you do stuff for your friends, right?) so I decided to just borrow someone's scissors and make my life easier.  Cut off the ribbing, pick up the stitches, and knit in the other direction on smaller needles.  Isn't that what anyone would do?  Apparently not, but it all worked out in the end, and the wretched mitt is done now. 

Oh, and can we PLEASE talk about how this yarn is SO FAR from 'cashmere' that it shouldn't even be able to have cashmere in it's name?  60% Acrylic, 35% Nylon, 5% Cashmere.  Really?  I mean...if I was eating something that was 5% cheese, would I be able to call it cheese?  No.  I would have to call it "Processed Cheese Food".   Not that there's anything wrong with this yarn (or Velveeta, for that matter. Cheese dip w/Rotel - yum.), it's perfectly fine for what it is, and you certainly can't argue with the price, but it seems wrong somehow to lead people to believe that this is what cashmere feels like. Because that is a big, fat lie.  Just like calling Velveeta cheese would be a big,fat lie.

Oh, hey, would you look at that?  Back two days and I'm already ranting.  Look at me go.

SO.  ANYWAY.  About that knitnight thing we were discussing?  Recently, I've been getting there like this:

Squeeeeeeeee!  See the knitting bag hanging from the 'purse hook'?  This is also how I get to work these days, after many, many, many frustrating lost battles with the MBTA and their concept of 'on time' - which is to say that the 'T', while very valuable, is just not reliable enough when being late to daycare costs $1 a minute.  Know what I mean?

Who let the dogs out?

New Hampshire!  Sheep & Wool!

Who's going?  Which day? Whacha doin'?   Is there anyone already suggesting a meetup?  If so, where?  In addition, who's up for margaritas & dinner after?

Sound off in the comments if we're likely to run into you and which day.

I, for one, will be arriving Saturday AM and tucking myself neatly into the fleece judging tent for a bit to gain me some edumacation.  It maybe has not escaped anyone's notice that it might also be to my benefit to stay the f*^k away from the vendors for a teeny-tiny bit until a chaperone can be recruited to help prevent accidents on the scale of say.... this one.  Anyone want the job?  You should know...I can be wiley in the spendiness tricks...Is that gelato over there?  See that booth in corner?  You should totally go check that out.  I'll be right here with the cashmere.  I promise, I won't move an inch until you get back.  Scout's honor.