Obsession du Jour

The One Where We Met Some People

When we left our intrepid heroines, they were trapped between rising floodwaters and dark, scary roads. Bereft....adrift.....lost...   Hmmm....I guess we've discovered why I don't have a book deal, eh?  Blah, blah, blah...so anyway, we did indeed make it to Stitchy's cousin's house, which was, incidentally, stunning.  We unloaded our gear and our Web's haul in the STILL pouring rain - not neccessarily in that order, mind you - and commenced to eat fine cheeses and drink some very nice wine with some very lovely people.  I am sad to report though, that it seems that the Yarnpants' sense of style has completely skipped Cousin Elaine and that there was not one single knitted jumpsuit anywhere in the house. It's tragic really. Then again, this IS just the weekend getaway, so maybe she saves those fashion gems for her glamorous life back in the big city.  I blame my unwillingness to go to bed and get a decent night's sleep entirely on her and Debbie - also the sore stomach from all the laughing.

We awoke the next morning to find that it was miraculously.....still.raining.  Want to know how great Melanie and Debbie are as travel companions?  Here:

You probably can't tell from this picture, but it's raining.  And they're just standing there in the rain so that I can take a picture.  Cheerfully.  Looking all cute and shit.  That's dedication to blogging road trip, people.  Standing in the cold, early morning rain for the photo op.

Ah well, who cares about rain? There are barns at Rhinebeck.  Right?  Right.  And there were.  Barns, that is.  Barns full of sheep and people and fiber and people and yarn and alpacas and llamas.  *sigh*  Did I mention the people?  Here's some:

Notice, please, the crystal clear blue sky above and the glorious dry ground below.  Note also the handknitted wool garments. Many were being carried around rather than worn, but oh yes, they were there.  2 hours before this it had been fridgid and rainy.  Mother Nature, it seems, has herself a bit of a sense of humor, eh?  Maybe even a teeny, tiny mean streak.

Shamefully, this is the ONLY picture of ANY of this amazing TGKWB all weekend.  I'm going to blame it all on Rhinebeck 'first timer's syndrome', that sense of being overwhelmed by how many amazing people are there and how much fun you can have just standing in the hot sun petting someone else's wool.  It's possible that it might also have been because my hands were full of LOOOOOT.   Do ya wanna see it?  The haul?  Of course you do. 

I'm just going to throw up super-brief discriptions with these because it's getting very, very late and my hands are FREEZING. No, I will NOT turn on the furnace in October, but I WILL go have some tea and start a pair of fingerless mitts.  Liar, you do so see the logic in that. I'll update the album on the sidebar tomorrow evening with the whole scoop for anyone who happens to be interested.  Actually, these will have to just be wee little thumbnails - we are experiencing some technical difficulties with our media card reader - head over to the photo album for the real deal. 

This year's theme was fiber and wood, but fear not, there is also yarn.  Yes, it's true, I ALSO fell prey to the evil, evil Sock demon.  As a matter of fact, between Avi's spindles - oh y'all, so damn pretty - and the Socks That Rock craze, Toni at the The Fold was definately my Achille's Heel.  I did, however, manage to hold onto my sanity at the Brooks Farm booth.  Gotta save SOMETHING for next year, right?

Fiber_cormo_ball

Fiber_cormo_n_falklands

Fiber_indigo_moon

Fiber_moorit_wool_n_mohair

Mitten_book

Patterns_braid_sock

Spindles_avi_1

Spindles_avi_2a

Spindles_avi_2b

Woodchuck_diz_set

Yarn_bijou_scarf_kit

Yarn_scarf_kit

Yarn_seduction_1

Yarn_seduction_2

Yarn_snake_scarf_kit

Yarn_sock_candy

Yarn_soft_rock

There's also a Lincoln fleece from the fleece sale in the washing machine, and there's some laceweight yak/silk from THAT booth, er...somewhere.  Wierdly, I can't find it right this second, but I assure you that you will see it again someday.  I predict that it will be soon, but then, I am becoming notoriously fickle in my projects these days.

Call me crazy

But this little guy could almost make me pull a "Green Acres". 

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?  His name is Raisin, and he's my new boyfriend.

Yes, it's true, this little piggy went to market.  The Rhinebeck market, that is.  But first, we three girls stopped off for a little shameless shoping therapy:

Please keep in mind that this is three knitters' worth, but yes, it's PRE-Rhinebeck stash enhancement from Webs.  What?  It's on the way...of COURSE we stopped.  You would have done the same.  I have more stash to flash, of course, but I need a few moments to gather it all in one place and get a shot of it.  Soon Laurie, soon.  I promised and I meant it.

I know this SUCH old news, but yeah - we went to Rhinebeck.  Are ya tired of the Rhinebeck post yet?  Sorry.  Here's another one. So this was my second fiber festival, but it was my first Rhinebeck and also the first festival since I actually starting meeting other bloggers, both on and offline.  I'm sure that somewhere, someone else has said how amazing this experience is, but I can't stop myself from repeating it.  It's amazing and wonderful.  Like finding a long-lost best friend or eight or twenty. It's both fantastic and wierd as hell, because, well... y'all know that I haven't told anyone else in the world about the moths, right?  Not because I'm embarrased or anything, but because no one else would REALLY understand the abject panic they induce.  So when several people came up to me and offered their sincerest "man, that really sucks", it was a little freaky.  And have I mentioned fabulous?

So.Many.Fantastic.People. 

And then there's the animals.  And the fiber.  Oh my god, the fiber.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. FIRST there was the roadtrip.  You've seen the results of our lunch break at Webs-- oh, and can I take a moment say how much I love the town of Northhampton?  SO cute. Where was I? Oh right, adventures.  You may or may not remember, but it was raining for the bazillionth day in a row here last Friday (yes we all played hooky on Friday to go get our yarn-gorge on) so our leaf-peeping and apple-picking ideas were shelved in favor of yarn shopping. All right, FINE.  Yes we would have yarn shopped anyway.  So there.  I'm also pretty proud that I kept the yelling, cursing, fist-waving and rude gestures to a minimum. Even though the semi trucks insisted on continuously being in my way (never a good idea), spraying Niagra-sized plumes of water at my windshield, taking up the left lane (which I'd like to point out here is illegal, damnit), and generally being annoying.  See what a good influence the knitter-girls are?  So we're driving and we're driving and we're shopping and then we're driving some more.  There might have been some hilarity and maybe some snarking (oh come ON have you seen these?), but eventually we made it to the general vicinity of our Friday night destination somewhere in the Catskills.  Get off the highway, check.  Take road "x" for a few miles then turn, check.  Wind through small town "b", check.  On the other side of town there will be this bridge, check....er....what do those flashing lights mean?  Why are there big yellow dump trucks blocking our ability to cross the bridge?  What the HELL are these people thinking? Don't they know that we're a car full of knitters with new yarn THAT MUST BE SWATCHED?  Are they crazy?  So yeah - turns out the bridge is closed.  Upon asking at the closest store, we find that actually, the ENTIRE road on the other side is washed out.  Have I mentioned that we're in the middle of nowhere?  Or that it's dark?  And raining still?  Oh man - the rain.  I used to love rain.  I'm pretty much done with that now.  So we're asking the nice man in the store how to get where we need to be, and god love him, he spends forever giving us fantastic directions.  How do we know they were fantastic?  Because everyone in the store got in on the activity to make sure that he told us the best way.  He even drew us this keen little map:

Is that awesome or what? 

Now that I look at it, this thing makes abso-freaking-lutely no sense.  Wow.  So, did it help us?  Did we find our way to the luxuriously warm, dry country home on the hill?  Or did our little band of intrepid travellers spend a cold, uncomfortable night sleeping in my little rocket car on some dark, forgotten, possibly haunted, back-country road?

Stay tuned until tomorrow folks and see how this little drama plays out.  There may even be some more yarn pictures in it for you.

Travel news

So I'm reading the Globe today (online of course), when I run across this fun little article - you can read it here.  It's basically about the current rise in popularity of "agri-tourism" where people go and stay on real, working farms instead of the more traditional beach or theme park family vacation.  Leaving aside for a moment how much I KNOW my Grandfather would be cackling up a storm about how crazy "city folk" are, here's a little peek at my inner conversation.

"...blah, blah, blah, hey, this is kind of fun, blah, blah, blah, oh sure the 5 year olds love it, wait 'til they're 13, blah, blah, blah, we should take Zach to one of these next summer, blah, blah, blah, blah, tee hee-a tire swing and kittens, I love tire swings, blah, blah, blah, this is kind of like what they do in the English countryside B&B's, blah, blah, blah, man, do I NOT miss milking cows, blah, blah, blah, not to mention mucking out the barn, blah, bla...OH MY GOD, ALPACAS! WHERE?!?!

http://www.colonialhillfarmatpetersham.com/index.htm 

I am SO there.

Others in the area:

http://vtfarms.org/farm.php/fid/56 (sheep); http://www.crescentbaybb.com/Llamas.htm (Llamas); http://vtfarms.org/farm.php/fid/20 (Jacob Sheep & Llamas); http://hawkmeadowllamas.com/index.html (more llamas); The Good Shepherd Farm(no web site)/142 Griffin Hill Rd./Savoy/(413) 743-7916 (Romney sheep! Fleeces!)

Also: Keldaby Farm/12 Heath Rd./Colrain/(413) 624-3090 (Angora goats and spinning\dyeing\design studio.  Not B&B, but interesting anyway)

MA Dept. of Agriculture's AG-Tourism page: http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/agritourism_farms.htm

Support your local farms.

Did you come here for knitting?

Camp Maine 2005 is over, and a damned sad thing it is too.  We still had plenty of food, so I feel like if the liquor hadn't run out, we might still be there.  Bags still aren't unpacked, and most pics are still on the camera, but there IS knitting content here.  Sort of. 

Wheeeee.......camp knitting......

Please note the bitchin' shoes.

But that's it folks.  For now.  More to come I swear, though I can't blame you if you don't believe me.  Too much work + too much fun = not enough blog time.  Also, if I haven't yet answered a comment or email, I swear on my Addi's that I'm getting to those too. For now though, here's a little bit of why this is the.best.camp.site.   EVER.

View from the back of camp.  That's moose country dead ahead. Uh huh.  That's right.  Moose.  Cute as hell.  Also big as hell.  Who knew?

The front of camp is a big sandy beach.  You know what THAT means, right?

Uh huh.

And this is us returning from a bit of Moose hunting.  No, not like that, just to chat with, not to eat.

The rest of it, along with the shots from the folk festival, and some more knitting stuff will have to wait until tomorrow.  It's way past my bedtime. G'night.

Now you see me.....now you don't.

We just got back from one weekend of camping (with really great music), and we're turning around and heading right back out again.  Here's what the car looks like:

 

I really did try to convince Rick that my spinning wheel was just as important as the camp stove, but he didn't buy it.  Amazingly enough, he even seemed to think that I was bringing too much knitting.  Hmph...as if.  I'm betting everyone takes two sweaters-in-progress, one sock-in-progress, and two swatching projects along on a 5 day camping excursion that includes 6 hour drives on each end. Um, don't you?

Off to Maine y'all!  See ya next week!

Update

I have a kitten update:

Here are my little angels, happily resting in their new human's car post flight, and just prior to their drive home from the airport.  They had a good flight, by all accounts traveled well and calmly and seem to have started settling right in and taking over their new home.  It also seems that they are already indoctrinating their new human into all the ways and wiles that fiendishly adorable kittens have of getting what they want, when they want it.  He was head-over heels before he left with them (who wouldn't be, just LOOK at them), and he seems only more so now that he has them home.  For all my grumping, these little dolls have gone to the only other person I know that might possibly love them more than I would, so I'm pretty darned happy about that, and I know that they will be very happy there. I really, really tried making a move from Ohio to Boston a requirement for taking them, but it didn't work out for me.  Ah well, guess I'll just have to go visit them. 

Josie, on the other hand, is not so happy, but then, neither would you be if your breasts were as swollen full of milk as hers are.  Poor thing.  The vet says it's all fine and normal and will go away soon, but woof, I really do feel for her.

P.S.  Yes.  I still want them back.

Around the world in, oh...2 days.

Or, what I learned at Disney:

1.  You can never really go home again.  See, when I was young, I used to live in Orlando way back in the day, as in, back when there were "E" tickets, as in "E-ticket ride".  You know what? I don't ever remember it being hot there.  I mean, I KNOW it was, but I don't remember it as a defining aspect of my life.  Let me say here that it's hot in Orlando, even on Memorial day weekend.  See, look:

That's us, in Epcot.  See that sheen of sweat on my cheeks?  That's because I'm already miserably hot.  It's 9:30 am, and we've been there all of maybe 30 minutes.  It's got to be 5 million degrees in the shade and it's only 9:30 am.  It is about this time that we disover that none of the shops (ie: the air-conditined bits) open until 11 am.  I'll let you picture for yourselves the whiney, pouty mess I was by 11am.

2.  I've learned that even the most charming, intelligent, adorable 4-year-old on the planet:

...turns into a screaming, apoplectic, terrifyingly angry little monkey after about an hour in the Magic Kingdom.  Take it from me folks, wait until they are at least 6 years old...or else.  Oh, and don't feed them after midnight.

3.  I learned that Canada is unspeakably beautiful, and so did the sock.

But I also learned that 360-vision is not for me.  Too much movement without actually moving.  People, you can't really try to fool your brain that way without there being a consequence.  It knows better. 

4.  On a related note, I also learned that the crazy-wicked-do-it-again-and-again-and-again ride rider has left the building.  That building being my body, of course.  Somehow between 17 (the last time I was on a roller coaster) and now, I have become unable to take the aftermath of the rides I used to love so very much.  Yes, that's right, I have become the designated bag-holder sitting in the waiting area with all the terrifyingly angry 4-year-olds and their Moms (see #2).  Don't get me wrong, I TOTALLY did the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and Mission Space and so forth, but I was sorry each and every time until about halfway through the trip when I decided that I should obey my inner ear and take the opportunity to knit in public at Disney.

5.  I learned that when the really, really cute Italian boy in "Italy" tells you that it is really authentic gelato, he's lying.  It doesn't make him any less adorable, and it doesn't mean he's a bad person, but it's what they pay him to tell you and who cares anyway, just keep asking questions so that he will keep talking to you in that really cute Italian accent.  But do remember that he's half your age and you are married.

6.  Also important to remember is that if you have a fiber fetish -- and I'm not saying that I do -- but if you do, try not to drool all over the stunningly beautiful rug being woven on the incredibly cool, giant rug loom by the equally stunningly beautiful man in "Morroco".  You can't take either of them home, so keep it together.  Most especially in front of Mothers and Sisters-in law who might not yet know the depth of your fiber insanity.

7.  You can take any number of crazy "Sock-goes-to-____" photos, and because it is Disney, not only will no one treat you as if you are insane, they will offer to help you.  Oh don't get me wrong, they will probably THINK you are insane, but they are a well-trained lot down there and will not show one iota of their true feelings.  I couldn't actually bear to let anyone take these for me, but they did try.  So here goes -- in addition to Canada, the sock went to:

China

   

and Germany

and Italy

and Japan.

Yes, it also went to Morroco, but I was busy trying to keep my hands in my pockets and out of my wallet because, well, they had wool there, and apparently, my insanity is such that even though it was 5 million degrees in the shade, I still couldn't keep my hands off the wool.    Oh, but it did, of course, go to the Magic Kingdom.

And it also got some lounging by the pool time once it was done.

As you might guess, this lasted only as long as it took to take the picture because, as I may have mentioned, it was hot there.

So near to you and yet so far.

WHEW! There's been a heck of a lot of craziness here at Obsession du jour. Here's what I've learned in the last week while I was gone from blog-land:

1. The 12-hour work day sucks. I get all grumpy and tired and want to stick out my lower lip and make pouty noises.

2. A week of 12-hour work days makes me so miserable to be around that it's a miracle that Rick doesn't divorce me every busy season. Wait 'til you see what I'm like after another two months of this.

3. I loooooove to knit socks! Oh wait, I knew that already. What was it...oh, I remember...not getting to knit makes me all nervous and twitchy. What? I can stop anytime I want. Yes I can.

4. My husband is the very bestest husband in all the land. Why is that, you ask? Because, despite my insistence that I was far too busy to go, he whisked me away to a romantic inn in New Hampshire for a Valentine's weekend of snowy fun and relaxation. It was beautiful, marvelous, magical, and just exactly what I needed. He even hung out (mostly cheerfully) in Pearl's Yarn Shop in Littleton with me where I broke down and bought my first skein of Collinette Point 5 (Zebra), and he didn't even blink when the nice yarn store lady told me how much it cost. See? Perfect.

5. I'm terribly out of shape. Seriously. I really MUST find my running shoes, put them on, and use them. Our snowshoe trek kicked my butt.

6. I'm also out of practice on the drinking front. We shared a bottle of wine over dinner and I was in bed by 9:30. Nine-freaking-thirty! I haven't been in bed at 9:30 since I was, I don't know, 12 maybe? I'm totally blaming it on the snowshoeing.

7. I can knit stockinette in a dark car, by feel. How fun is that? I got 4 or 5 inches of the back of "Under the Hoodie" from SnB done on the car ride home Sunday evening. I had cast on and gotten the ribbing done last week sometime (God only knows when I eeked out time for that), so it was all apparently blind knitting from there. I'm working this in Elann's Peruvian Highland in Oxblood, Coffee Bean and Aubergine. I'll post pictures ASAP, but some of you may notice that these colors are very similar to my Pippi socks . Apparently this is my new favorite color combination because that was an accident. That said, this hoodie, a cute little skirt and my very long socks peeking out over the tops of my boots is an image that's making me smile a little. And I need that.

8. I use the word "freaking" way too much. It's a misguided attempt to clean up my otherwise terribly foul mouth. Seriously. Sailors want to be me. I therefore announce that I am giving up "freaking" for Lent. The word, I mean. No, I'm not Catholic, but it's a freaking good excuse. Or something.....

More pics and more life lessons to follow, but they're at home (the pictures) and I'm still at work, so it will have to wait. Boo hoo hoo. See that pouty lip?