My house is too damn quiet. Don’t tell Ann (or god forbid my husband) but I think I might miss the chaos of the dogs and the cat and the screaming and the whip and the laughing. Oh my god the laughing. I don’t think I drew breath once the entire weekend we laughed so freaking hard – my stomach still hurts. My anticipatory anxiety evaporated as soon as I saw the elegant racing stripes of Onslow and we were off. Guess I’m not as crazy as I like to think I am, or, more likely, Ann and her wonderful family and friends are so welcoming and comfortable, craziness is the only way to keep up. I can’t thank them enough for embracing me with such love and laughter. Seriously. They are all the real deal.
I’m finding it very difficult to blog about the weekend. You know how some adventures are meant to be blogged? And some are just friends getting together and you say oh yeah I stayed with Ann over the weekend and we had a blast? And that’s all? It’s kind of like that. We’d go places and we’d have our fun and then one of us would say – we forgot to take pictures. Oh well. We were IN the moment. Blogging is a very conscious act. It’s deliberate. And I’d like to think that most of my life is just lived. You know?
There was some blog fodder though. On Friday, Ann drove me out to the lake for my spinning class. Ann and some of her friends (Hi Peggy! Hi Ricki!) have been taking classes with Peggy E. for about five weeks now. Ann’s been documenting it over at her site and she and Peggy E. were nice enough to carve out a HUGE block of time for me. We’re talking a FIVE HOUR spinning lesson. When we left the lesson Ann and I were exhausted. Like could barely move exhausted. We went home, scarfed some homemade spaghetti and meatballs, crawled into our pajamas and took up our chairs in front of the TV (think Archie and Edith – guess who I am?) and knit the rest of the night. And laughed. Can’t forget the laughing.
Anyway, the spinning lesson was a dream. My one real concern was plying. I felt like my last attempt was really awful (I know now A LOT of that had to do with my spinning, not my plying) and I was anxious to learn. I had some of the gorgeous pink stuff spun up on two bobbins so Peggy E had me start plying that.
It was really great; I learned some fabulous tricks and I really hope I can continue it with my own spinning and plying. To say I was thrilled with the final product doesn’t even scratch the surface. I may have teared up. This is the most beautiful yarn I’ve ever seen in my life.
And look how fantastic it looks next to my skin!
Ann loves to tell the story that the first time we spun together I stomped around because I was petulant and frustrated and couldn’t spin for shit. I hope she continues on to tell the story of the jig I danced because I was so deliriously happy with my spinning. Delirious. Out of my mind. Thank you Ann! I’m glad you were there for both experiences.
There was lots of knitting this weekend, but it’s boring. Or not mine. I’m to the gusset on two socks, a jaywalker and the embossed leaves sock and they both look fine. I’m happy with them. I asked no fewer than a 100 people (the kids in McDonald’s were surely confused!) about the sleeves on my Short Rows. I will be back with a schematic and a question for all you experts out there. Ann’s FANFUCKINGTASTIC friend Claire (I LOVE YOU FLAIRE!) came over on Friday night and we talked until 1AM. (Of course I made Ann stay up another hour with me until I was dead tired because they insisted on telling ghost stories and it was either that or make her sleep with me because I hate ghost stories. I believe them and they freak me out and then I can’t sleep.) I was helping Claire out with a project, this baby sweater that’s got one of the most convoluted constructions I’ve ever seen. So I was working on that with her Friday night and then when Ann and I had our yarn crawl Saturday we came across the sample sweater and I realized we were doing it all wrong. When we went to Claire’s on Saturday to see the not one but TWO cemeteries on her property (cooler than cool is allowed to be, by the way) and then stayed around to visit with Claire’s friend Nancy Christie and read Claire’s autograph books from elementary school (which, Claire, should become your one woman masterpiece. I see you in a darkened theater, alone on the stage, spotlighted, reading the entries and telling your stories. I’d buy a ticket every fucking night.) I worked on the sweater for her. I wanted to be knitting, but I was bored with my own stuff so it was a nice fit to be working out someone else’s knitting. Ann said I was enabling, but if you can’t enable a little, what’s life worth anyway?
I had one of those really surreal in the moment, but looking in from the outside experiences while sitting in Claire’s (literally) 300 year old parlor. There were four women there, telling our stories, knitting, laughing more that people should really be allowed to laugh – one in her 60s, one in her 50s, one in her 40s, one in her 30s – and yet we were all the same and completely different. It was really quite extraordinary. I’m not sure if the other women were conscious of it at all and it might have been one of those moments that I romantacize to death but it was a true feeling for me and I was so glad to be a part of it. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
No weekend on Lawn Guyland would be complete without a trip to GRANNY’S! Granny was fantastic. A find. A treasure and it was great to see Kathleen again, although our time was short. I will be back! I promise!
Once again, I’d like to thank Ann’s family – her husband, her daughter, her friends, her pets – for putting up with our silliness this weekend. It was my immense pleasure to meet you all and I hope to see you again soon. And to my dear real-life friend Ann. I just can’t quitch ya. Thank you.
I totally know what you mean about non-blogger material. My weekend in Phoenix was kind of like that.
I’m glad you had such a great time and man…..that pink yarn is beautiful!
What Scout said. I notice that when I go somewhere eminently bloggable but forget to take my camera, I figure “oh, well, there goes the blog,” and I do get more into the moment. And then if I do blog, it’s about one little moment that does its best but can’t quite convey the feeling.
So, in the end, you did convey the feeling, almost.
Your yarn is awesome! You’ve got the whole thing down now, it’s just practice from here on, and you’ll get even better and be even happier with your results.
Glad you had a fun weekend. You must be beat!
Wow – you spun some amazing yarn.
The pink yarn is absoluely gorgeous! I’m so proud of you! I’d spin too if I thought I could pull that off!
I have to admit to being quite jealous about your weekend. I don’t know a soul in real life who really GETS the knitting thing (even though I know some knitters), and none who are even conscious of the blogging thing.
PS, is that a frost covered plant on your banner? I’m intrigued.
The yarn is fabulous, and I love the story about sitting around together knitting.
oh, that yarn IS wonderful, congratulations!
So many perfect moments. Life is to be lived that way and not for a blog. The moment with the four of you in the parlor is timeless. You can see it continuing on in time with women of the past and into the future. It’s a story told again and again in the history of women and their friendships. How fortunate you took note.
~sniff~ I think I’m tearing up a bit – seriously! I certainly didn’t do our weekend justice over at my blog – you have summed it up perfectly!
; )
See, you didn’t have anything to worry about. Excellent, Cara! It makes me so happy.
I’m sorry, but with all due respect to your desire to Live your weekend rather than blog it – which I have no overall issue with considering how happy you sound – showing me the most beautiful handspun pink I’ve ever seen (and I’m not generally a pink fan) does not excuse you from not expanding on the oh-so-sneakily-placed-in-the-middle-of-things reference to ‘the whip’.
Spill it, baby.
Oh man, that pink yarn is gorgeous. Very nice job! It sounds like you had a fabulous weekend.
Now that is some impressive yarn, m’dear! I love the texture and the color is quite impressive. Me likey!
I can’t sleep after ghost stories either. I always tell myself that I don’t believe them, but I really do. Especially at night.
Deliriously happy? and gorgeous to boot.
Dance on.
God made the ocean, God made the sea
But when God made you He sure sure made a peach!
your yarn is beautiful. and i’m glad that the weekend was, too. your words on blogging — too true, which is why your blogging itself is so true as well. big hugs…
That handspun is gorgeous. Gives me hope! My first attempt at spinning sounds similar to yours… now I hope to someday have the fabulous jig-dancing kind of experience.
Beautiful yarn!! Absolutely gorgeous color. And your weekend sounds wonderful. But, what’s “the whip”?
So glad you had such a wonderful weekend, your new yarn is luminous.
Sounds like a FABULOUS weekend. And that yarn you made is stunning! Yay you!
LOVE your yarn!!!! That is one of my favorite colors. I love to ply yarns together but can’t spin so must use commercial yarns. Oh well.
Ann in Dallas
Almost wasn’t going to comment due to so many others before me echoing that wonderful yarn – but had to put my 2 cents worth in – that looks so lovely – nothing like that first “WHOOO-HOO” moment with spinning is there….well done!
OMG… your pink yarn is gorgeous! GORGEOUS.
I’m jealous of your laughing, knitting and more laughing. I’m searching for a live knitting community right now (as opposed to knit-bloggers I feel like I know!), so your weekend sounds divine.
Did I mention your pink is INCREDIBLE?! Loving it!
Sounds like a great weekend. That pink yarn looks wonderful! 🙂
I gotcha on the non-blog material. There are some things people just don’t need to know. And Cara, your pink yarn is beautimous, gorgeous,and making me envious. Big round of applause!
How wonderful and awesome to have friends. In real life even! You do a great job of conveying the greatness of your friendship and the fun you had – what a great big smile I have! 🙂
Any adventure with Ann is sure to be unforgettable. I teased her about “what happens at Ann’s, stays at Ann’s and would wait for the literary event at Cara’s”. You put it so well. And I LOVE your pink. It was great to look at your “before lesson & after lesson”. That Ann, she is quite a find and I am glad to have her in my life too!
Cara, that yarn is gorgeous. But I wish y’all would stop making spinning look like so much fun! I don’t have time for new things…
I tend to blog a little about my life, and I think it’s okay to do that instead of living to blog. It’s still nice to hear about people really enjoying the moment, without having them documented per se.
the yarn looks super!
I was going to comment, but the revolving photo in your banner was a picture of roving so insanely gorgeous, I forgot what I was going to say….
Oh yeah. YOU ROCK THE WHEEL!!!
There, that felt good 🙂 Beautiful, beautiful job, Cara!