I can’t get off of level 3. Now I’m going to feel stupid all day long. Thanks, Internets. Thanks a alot.
UPDATE 11:22 AM – Okay I’m back and I got past 3 and am now stuck on 6. I had the right answer to 3 the whole time I just couldn’t figure out the right url. Sorry everybody.
UPDATE 12:19 PM – Stuck on 10. I gotta go do some work. Or play Snood. Snood is the BOMB.
Thanks for all the well wishes. I’m feeling a bit better today, but I think the cold has just stalled out a bit. I’m sure it will come roaring back right in time for the weekend. And thanks for all the remedies – I’m kind of a complain and bear it martyr when it comes to being sick. I can’t really take any over the counter medications – they leave me in a state of panic with a rapidly beating heart and swirling head. I’m in the sickness is better than the cure camp. Eh. It’s just a cold.
I didn’t get as much done on my Pomatomus sock last night as I would’ve wanted because I treated myself to some Vintage Bruce. We’re talking 1978 – what some might consider the Golden Age. I turned off all the lights in my bedroom and sat with my lighter in hand with the music blaring and made pretend I WAS THERE. I don’t care if you think I’m crazy because I had the time of my life. And when G finally got home from work I played him some of the highlights and then made pretend I WAS THERE WITH HIM. Even better. God bless the Internets. Seriously. God bless the Internets. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – if anyone ever invents a time machine the first place I’m going, without a doubt, is a concert on the Darkness tour – preferably one where he does the whole Sad Eyes/Drive All Night thing during Backstreets and with the KICK-ASS intro to Prove It – me and G. Together. At the age we are now so we can really appreciate it but back then. It’s a dream. Don’t kill the dream.
Anyway, Pomatomus isn’t a pattern I can knit in the dark. It also doesn’t help that I had my hands clenched under my chin in a prayer-like position before the alter of my idol. Again. Don’t kill the dream. Here’s the sock as it stands right now:
The sock is STR – Sunstone – lightweight. I love it. Really and truly love it. I’m cruising along – got the pattern memorized and the yo/purl thing going good and I hope to get to the heel tonight – lots of good tv tonight. I know Cookie knit the pattern in a variegated yarn, but I really think it was made for a semi solid. Thanks again to Elli for inspiring me with her phenomenol P-socks! (If you’re looking for the Sunspot color and you can’t find it on the Blue Moon website – you’re allowed to call or email and order it – actually any color you see here can be ordered through Blue Moon – whether it’s on the website or not.)
On to the Rhinebeck stash! I think I did pretty good. Rumors abound that I bought a wheel, but I really didn’t. All I did was put some money down on a Robin – but that gets me on the list. There’s a TWO YEAR wait. I can get off the list at any time and get my money back. So I think of it as a maybe/maybe not purchase. A lot can happen in two years, so it’s like insurance. It’s a gorgeous wheel though – birdseye maple. Just beautiful.
Okay – now the real purchases!
The Sheep Shed at Mountain View Farm – 2lbs of Merino – 1lb each blue. I’m envisioning the two colors plied together for a gorgeous sweater – and maybe doing just a bit in the solids as accents. Especially the dark blue. The color isn’t the best in this picture, but the dark is a very dark teal and the light is a very light teal. 😉 They are perfectly complimentary. This will be a big project, obviously.
Silk Merino blend from Cloverleaf Farms – 8oz. Celery colorway – I love how there are some blues sneaking in among the light greens. I bought this envisioning a shawl. Every festival I’ve ever been to I’ve bought something from Cloverleaf. I guess I like their stuff.
From Foxfire Fiber, I bought some GORGEOUS silk and cahsmere blend – 2oz. This is the Mt. Greylock colorway. I wish you could touch this stuff. It would make a grown man cry with its softness.
Then I came back to Foxfire on Sunday and went a little bit crazy!
This is a POUND of cormo/silk blend and it’s like air. It doesn’t even need to be drafted. I honestly would love to sit down RIGHT THIS SECOND and spin this until there is no more. It is that perfect.
I loved the gals at Foxfire! They were so great – and even better – they’re totally into Spin Out 2007! So look for some fine Foxfire products in the prize packages this year.
Last but not least, I stopped at The Fold to say my goodbyes to Toni. I just love me a Toni hug! She wasn’t there at first so I left her a note and then looked around the stripped clean booth. LOW AND BEHOLD!! What did I find?
SHEEP TO SHOE! It’s a new kit from Blue Moon where in you can spin up the famous colorways for your own handspun socks. This is Carbon and I took the picture with my Carbon Jaywalkers on top. I just think it will be so very neat to spin up my own yarn and compare it to the socks I already have in this colorway. Call me crazy, but I’m loving it.
So, that’s what I bought. Actually there was some sock yarn at Spirit Trail and some fiber from Indigo Moon but those are gifts so I’m not showing them and since they aren’t for me they don’t really count anyway. Now if only my WooLee Winder would get here I could start spinning! I don’t want to start any projects until it’s here!!!
Yesterday I told you today was kind of sort of special and it is. T
oday is my two year blogiversary and I’m going to get all mushy on your asses whether you like it or not. As you all know, I spent the weekend with some of my favorite people in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE and I met them ALL through this here blog. ALL OF THEM. How ridiculous is that? Over the past two years I have been inspired, moved and entertained more than I ever imagined possible. I have been amazed and awestruck. I have laughed. I have cried. I have been annoyed and angered. I have loved. I have hated. I have been loved and been hated. I have been taught invaluable lessons. I have been saved on numerous occasions. And I thank you all.
Thank you so much for reading my blog. Cotton for everyone!
Right off the bat I want to say THANK YOU for all of your comments on my last post. They really helped me. I’m feeling much more positive about any surgery G may have in the near future and a lot of it has to do with your anecdotes. I really appreciate you all coming out to support us – it means so much.
I’m glad that I feel comfortable sharing these aspects of my life with you. I’ve read some posts lately about what makes a good blog and one of the things that struck me (I’m sorry – I don’t remember where) was the idea that people share a bit more of their life than just the knitting. I’m one of those people that puts it all out there – not just on the blog but in my life in general. I have a hard time being anything but honest, so it’s not unusual for me to tell you I’m having an anxiety attack five mintues after meeting you (and please – if I do meet you and tell you this – do NOT take it personally.) I am the way I am and every day I learn to love myself a little bit more – warts and all. I like to share my life with G – at least a little bit – because he is such a huge part of who I am. We’ve grown up together and he is my best friend in every sense of the word. We work extremely hard on our relationship and I am so proud of what we’ve built together – why not shout it from the rooftops? Thanks for indulging me.
I feel it’s important for me to share the not so great parts of my (our) life too. The infertility, the anxiety – all those warts I’ve grown to love. Or at least tolerate. Love might be too strong a word here. Every time I’ve put that part of myself out there I’ve gotten wonderful comments and emails thanking me. Supporting me. If I can help one other person say to themselves – I AM NOT ALONE IN THIS – then I feel like I’ve accomplished something and maybe, just maybe, the pain I’ve had in my life wasn’t just for my own torture. We all have our own pain. It’s NOTHING to be ashamed of – it is what it is and maybe putting it out there smooths the way for acceptance, and hopefully, ultimately, relief. Peace of mind. That’s the end goal always. Peace. Of. Mind.
Which brings me to the point: One of the other things I’ve been seeing in blogland lately is stuff about blog etiquette. Do you reply to every comment you receive? Do you return the comment on a commenters blog? It’s been weighing on me lately because I fear I’ve been really lax with my reciprocity. Back when the blog was young(er) I tried to respond to every email. And comment back to those bloggers who came to visit. I’d like to think it’s how I cultivated my best blog relationships. You see, I take relationships VERY SERIOUSLY. I try to be polite to all people I meet because that’s how I would want them to treat me. (Oh and the guy I flipped off the other day in the car – DOUCHE!) If you are my friend I will give you the shirt off my back with no questions asked. So it’s become a little bit overwhelming to me IN THE BEST, MOST WONDERFUL, INCREDIBLE way to see just how many of you have started reading this blog and coming out to be my friend and give me support. I’m afraid I don’t have enough shirts.
I haven’t had time lately to answer every email and visit every blog and I feel bad about that. Please know (and I’m incapable of lying so you have to know it’s true) I APPRECIATE every visit and comment I get. And I THANK YOU for your friendship and support and well, just plain reading this blog day in and day out.
Between the JKAL and a big project I’ve been working on, I’ve been a little bit nuts. Add to that the fact that I’m crying half the day away, and well, let’s just say it’s a good thing email is paperless. Otherwise you’d all be getting waterlogged drippy letters and how much fun is that? I’m trying my hardest to keep these connections, new and old, alive. I may not be perfect, but I’m trying.
One last note – the Jaywalker KAL. I fear my last post – the big update post about how the JKAL has taken on a life of its own – may have left room for interpretation. I am not turing people away. I don’t want to turn people away. I’m keeping it under my control until the prizes are given away on the 14th. Then, I’ll revisit what the best course of events is for the KAL. I enjoy it. I’m glad people are still getting involved. I just never imagined it would or could get so big. The rest of that post was a philosophical examination on trends and why people decide to get involved or not. Nothing more. Nothing less. That said, the updates will be late today. I’m waiting for the cable guy and have to move crap around in the house so he can get to the TV.
Thank you again for reading the blog. It’s such a warm and fuzzy kind of validation. You know?
L, C
Have you seen this? To quote:
“We Feel Your Pain
We’re not going to beat around the bush about this. Bloglines performance has sucked eggs lately. [emphasis mine] Why? In short, Bloglines has been busting at the seams like the Incredible Hulk.
All of us here at Bloglines have been foregoing sleep and social lives over the past several months to keep Bloglines running and preparing for our move to a new access center (with bigger britches and a very elastic waistline).
So hang tight because there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. The move will happen soon; we’ll keep you posted.
– The Bloglines Team Wed, 15 Dec 2005 7:00:00 PST”
There’s a scheduled outage for tomorrow. The timeline is in the link above. What do you think? I’m all for companies stepping up when things go bad – I mean, nothing is perfect and shit happens. For pete’s sakes – it’s FREE, so how much can we really expect? I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and crossing my fingers things will improve. I’ll also be blogging way early tomorrow, even though I doubt an update will come. 😉
for Mim!
Fresh out of the shower! Happy Blogiversary Mim! Mim is asking for pictures of feet for a contest – go enter – you have until Midnight tonight. (But Katy, please refrain from showing your freaky bumpless feet yet again!)
Now yesterday, buried among the Junior Caramel accolades and AEC woes, was a contest of my own. Barbara was my 3000th comment! YAY! She will get an extra special something from Rhinebeck. My own blogiversary is this month – so expect another contest toward that day, which I think is somewhere around the last week.
I woke up yesterday morning – I don’t know what time – to find that sometime in the night the power went off. My husband has a thing about time – not being early or anything – in fact he’s frequently late – he just has a thing about clocks and time. All the clocks in our house (of which there are many) are set to atomic time or nuclear time or whatever kind of time is the most accurate BEST time. So when the power goes out and the clocks all over the house are blinking, G can go a little bit nutty. But of course this was discovered in the morning and things were already a bit hectic (read late for work) so he didn’t fix any of the clocks. I’m a bit reluctant to fix them myself because god forbid I don’t set them right, but I couldn’t stand the blinking.
Last night I was in bed finishing up the buttonhole band on AEC when all of a sudden everything flashes off. I’m sitting in the dark. Georgie and I call to each other in the apartment – he’s cursing up a storm because he had just spent an hour on the computer and lost everything – and he just finished FIXING ALL THE CLOCKS!!!!! It was about 11:30 I think. I finished up the button hole by flashlight and lemon verbena candlelight. It doesn’t matter though – it needs to be ripped. The button holes are too big. I started with four stitches, went to six, ended up with five. They need to be four. They should be a bit tight right? Anyway, back to the clocks. We went to sleep eventually – isn’t it funny how quiet things are with no electricity? – and when we woke up the power was back and the CLOCKS ARE ALL BLINKING AGAIN! So distracting.
As soon as I finish this, I’m going to put on my gas mask, spray every surface of my house with Tilex, and rip and finish my button hole band. Then sew on the sleeve. Question – what’s the best thread to use to sew on buttons – regular sewing thread is too thin right? Do you need something like needlepoint thread? The yarn is too thick I think, unless I find one of those really thin pieces.
Before I forget!
Love,
Sistah C
I’ve been avoiding blogging about the last few days, not because it was awful or disappointing – but because it was so good, so lovely, so RIGHT, I’m at a loss for words.
Admittedly, Thursday was a bit stressful. I had been designated cruise director, a job I’m not often given, and since I’ve got that debilitating perfectionism problem, well, you guessed it. I wanted everything to be perfect. Doesn’t really leave you a lot of time to enjoy yourself. But I managed. 😉
Jen and I headed into the big city around 9:30 and met up with Vicki at her hotel. Lauren met us there and when we could pry Vicki off her bed with seventeen thousand pillows, we headed up to Tender Buttons. I think Vicki got a good picture of the place. It’s basically nirvana for buttons. Button Heaven if you will. VERY overwhelming. But somehow Vicki, Jen and I all managed to find the PERFECT buttons for our projects. (Lauren didn’t need any – but she was essential in the choosing.) Here’s what I found for Bohemia:
Lest the picture isn’t revealing enough – these babies are LEATHER. Aren’t they super perfect for the aran delight this sweater will (hopefully) one day become? As perfect as my buttons are, Vicki’s are better. I hope she shows a picture.
After TB, I took Vicki on her first ever subway ride to meet up with the rest of the gals at School Products. Ann, Nancy (go wish her a happy birthday today!), and Cassie joined the rest of us – I didn’t get anything, but a few of us walked away with goodies. Sadly, Jen had to leave us after School Products (hope you’re having a good time basking in the Caribbean Sun Jen!) but the rest of the troops made our way to Habu. Again, I’ll let others tell you about this place, since I’ve already given you my first impression.
With the tantalizing deliciacies of Habu under our belt, (that’s two yarn stores down, no yarn for Cara) we headed off to the Shake Shack for lunch. Vicki’s husband met us there and we stood in line for supposedly THE BEST BURGER in New York. (I’m sticking with the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien, but it was very good.) Some guy asked me if they were like In-N-Out. No. They aren’t like In-N-Out. Nothing’s like In-N-Out – but that’s a whole other post.
We ate, we knit, we relaxed on what had to be one of the top ten weather days OF ALL TIME. Seriously. Vicki got really lucky considering the gross, disgusting weather we’ve been having. I’m sure she had a taste of it on Saturday, which I think was one of the hottest days in the city. But on Thursday it was clear, no humidity, blue sky beautiful.
Satiated by our burgers, we took the subway down to Seaport, leaving Nancy to go back to work at my old stomping grounds. I knew I recognized her from somewhere! Great to meet you Nancy. Seaport Yarns is crazy. It used to be a consulting firm, but post-9/11, the proprietress decided to follow her heart and open a yarn store – right in the middle of the consulting firm – at least that’s the story I’ve been told. I welcome a correction. (One thing to note is that of the four yarn stores we went to that day, NONE of them were storefronts. Meaning, three were in office buildings and one was in a residential building on the second floor. Gotta love NYC!) Seaport pretty much has everything and anything and I did come away with a purchase, even though I was made fun of mercilessly. (So what if I’ve only finished ONE pair of socks?!? Can you EVER have enough sock yarn?)
While Seaport has A LOT of yarn, I’d have to say their book/pattern selection is second to none. They have everything.
Cassie had to go after Seaport, so Lauren, Ann, Vicki and I headed uptown to the Yarn Connection to meet up with Kathleen, who was joining us for dinner. By that time, we were pretty much spent. The day started at 10:30 (9:30 for me) and I think we were yarn crawled out. The Yarn Connection provided a lovely table, some punchy conversation and a couple balls of yarn for me.
I’m thinking this will be trim for a long sleeve v-neck sweater (Nothin’ But a T-Shirt? The Vogue Tennis Sweater?) I have a bunch of chocolate brown Calmer, so these two balls will be the accent. What do you think?
After YC, we walked around aimlessly because by that time all my planning skills had pooled in my feet with about ten pounds of water weight (can you say swollen tootsies?) We ended up at some tables off to the side of THE New York Public Library building. Yes, the one with Patience and Fortitude. (How apt!?! We knitters should adopt them as our mascots. Anyone ever try to knit lion mane?)
Soon after, Lauren had to catch a train and the remaining four needed something for dinner. I seriously couldn’t think at that point. What should we feed Vicki? Something New York. Something she can’t really get in Wisconsin. Of course! Pizza! And not just any pizza, but John’s Pizza. My fave. (Okay, they have cheese in Wisconsin, but mozzarella? Please!) So Ann, Kathleen, Vicki and
I had pizza. And beer. And laughed and teased and laughed. I had a great time all day, but this was the highlight for me. These girls are irreverent and bitchy (in the BEST sense of the word) and funny and loving and just a BLAST! I’m so glad I got to meet ALL of you. Thanks for giving as good as you got.
Suffice it to say, I didn’t get home until after midnight. Apparently Kathleen and Ann got home much later – but hey – that’s what happens when you live on LonGUYland! 😉
Want to hear about Friday? Read on…
