Happy Halloween!!!

also, PSA: Blue Moon is taking names and pre registering folks for the 2007 STR Club...

it's the little things...

Mondays are my Sundays. I went to the grocery store. And was delighted by:

Did you all know that a certain friend of mine hates anything that has to do with bananas? (except banana bread... but what kind of freakazoid doesn't LOVE banana bread?) I thought the only reason she would be converted was for the cute sticker.





the rest of the piccies are self explanatory. I wish I could take pictures of pictures. Preggo sent me pics of the baby wearing the clothes I had knit for him. SO CUTE!!! Maybe I'll find a way to get her hubby to send the pic to me via email so I can share.

the importance of being nosy

As many of you may or may not know, my full time job is being a student. Even though I love learning, and having someone else foot the bill so I can stay in Neverland are two HUGE perks, I wouldn't keep studying this stuff if it wasn't interesting. Have I shared what I'm studying?

Counseling psychology. Not so very different from the more familiar clinical psychology.

I've found a way to make money being nosy. Perfect.

But being nosy definitely has it's downsides.

For example, I had to go to school on Friday to catch up on some work, and visit the health center to get some immunizations/vaccinations. (the Hep B and Tetanus, for those of you who are especially nosy). While I'm filling out my paperwork, an undergrad sidles up to the window. He asks about getting student health insurance now (the deadline was about 3 weeks ago) because he's got "sort of an emergency." The lady at the desk asks, what kind? And he dramatically leans over towards the plastic window and says "is there somewhere we can talk in... private?" She asks him to take a seat, and then it's my turn. I hand in the paperwork, find out they've lost my appointment, and while they're trying to figure that one out, the young man with the secret hush hush 'emergency' is behind me, certainly NOT respecting MY privacy, with ants in his pants. A nurse finally came over to talk to him in "private" about his "emergency" which I have to think has something to do with the "ants in his pants."

Because really... what kind of "private emergency" does an undergrad boy have that doesn't involve his family jewels?

Anyway. I'm alive. Studying. Thinking about renaming this blog "not much knitting"

Oh, what a feeling...

cause we're dancing on the ceiling!! (thanks Lionel...)

seriously, folks. Jeni and Stacey arrived bright and early on Friday morning. We needed sustenance for our plans for the day, and headed to breakfast. Then we began our weekend journey.

First stop: WEBS. Those two went a bit crazy, (which I can understand... remember this? We bumped into Melanie, Kellee, and Elisa. Reportedly, Elisa misspoke while talking about NY Sheep and Wool, renaming it, appropriately, Yarnbeck. Which I like better than Rhinebeck.

In any case, second go around at WEBS, I was much more well behaved.


we've got a skein of some mega boots stretch meilenweit sock yarn, a skein of plymouth yarn linen isle, and a hank of valley yarns kangaroo dyer lace weight (950 yds) in the handd atlantis colorway. I needed the linen in order to get the discount (spend an extra $3.50 so i could get 20% off? heck yeah).

We hopped back in the car for the other half of the drive, and got to our hotel. Since we were all up at the crack of dawn AND we wanted to be well rested for the next day's festivities, we went to bed early. We awoke at the ass crack of dawn, simply too excited for Yarnbeck. We got there OBSCENELY early. We had time to wander around, look at all the different sheepies (i loved the baby dolls... I kinda want a few for my back yard when I grow up!)

A lovely man from some alpaca farm let us ask all sorts of nosy questions about his alpacas. He gave us a mini lecture about the differences between llamas and alpacas. I also wanted to know about baby alpacas, b/c well, that's my favorite kind of alpaca yarn, right? If you aren't sitting down already, sit down. Baby alpaca fiber? NOT from a baby alpaca!!!!! Are you SHOCKED? I was flabbergasted by this information. This nice man (dang, how did I spend 20 min talking to a man.. and NOT know his name?) pulled out this little tactile demonstration of the differences in alpaca fiber (four different grades... he had little burlap sacs filled with roving from the 4 different grades). The baby alpaca is the finest (thinnest) of alpaca fibers... which is why it feels so soft. If someone had been videotaping me during those 20 minutes, I swear a little lightbulb would've turned on above my head when he explained all of that...

we noticed someone walking around with a vendor bag... and rushed back over to where The Fold was located, in order to get our fill of Socks That Rock. I was quite restrained, if I do say myself... 2 skeins. Puck's Mischief and Lagoon.

Honestly, the rest of the morning was a big blur. We wandered from booth to booth, building to building. I'm quite the pre-planner, and had printed out the names of all the vendors and the booth/building locations of the ones I wanted to visit FOR SURE. I tried to be systematic about it. The plan was met with limited success.

Here's a pic of all the stuff I got at Rhinebeck.



A skein of Sea Purls from Briar Rose, sock yarn from The Fold, sock yarn from Spirit Trail, some super soft wool/angora from Jamie Harmon, a skein of lace weight from Skaska, a company out of Ft Collins, CO, and a needle case from Crippenworks. All in all, I don't feel like i went COMPLETELY crazy, and in fact, i'm kind of wondering why I didn't buy MORE. Then I look to the left at my stash, and wonder why I bought so much. No buyer's remorse though. I'm all fired up to cast on for about 10 more projects!!

Somewhere in the frenzy, we ate some fried artichockes and some french fries smothered in cheese. Obviously, we made it to blogger meet up, where I was able to cross off quite a few on my bingo card... and see the Yarn Harlot in person (holy kamoly, the wedding shawl is prettier in person. I know, hard to believe, but really!). I also finally got to meet Monica, who I've been blogstalking forever... how fun was that!!!

Totally exhuasted, we left the fairgrounds... because it was closing time. I would've stayed longer and bought more, if the booths were open past 5pm. Sigh.

I was complete. Rhinebeck had me at "hello."

* to answer the questions... no, that mountain of yarn in the previous post is NOT all mine. As some of you (most recently Kim) noticed, there is PINK yarn in that pile. PINK yarn will never be something that I've acquired for myself.

Yarnbeck or bust

just a quick drive by blog post, b/c a full length description would take me way too long while Jeni and Stacey are in town.

we came.



we saw.



we conquered



details to come.

Nothing to say? Post a pic of your cat.

To keep it knitting related...


I was knitting away a couple weekends ago, and had a few balls of that Elsepeth
Lavold Chunky AL... and Cosmo decided it would make a nice pillow.



Taken JUST now. My two cats have taken over my IKEA poang chair, and they've decided to share it fairly peacefully (usually). This is their favorite position. Second favorite is the yin-yang (but, it just looks like one big ball of black cat).

Ok. I won't post until the post-Rhinebeck report. Wish us luck (that we come home with some $$ left in the bank account).

Kitschy Stitchy

Following a busy week of school, I tagged along with some other Boston knitters to cheer Stitchy at another book signing.

In my new Boston naivete, I ascertained through mbta.com that it would take me an hour by bus or by train, and since it was only 4 miles away, that I would drive. Hmm. Bad idea. Driving entailed driving through Harvard U, and horrible traffic on a Friday evening. Who am I to interrupt students on their way out to their bar crawl? I made it to the book signing with elevated blood pressure, but was quickly soothed by laughter from Deb's trunk show. Having other fun bloggers to talk to didn't hurt either. Kelly, Bookish, Maryse, and Carol were there as well. And Stitchy dragged her brother, SIL, and darling niece to the show for us to ooh and aah over.

As for me, i have no real news to report. No real knitting news except I scored some birthday gift yarn for Michelle who's b-day was yesterday. I'm also working furiously on my scarf exchange scarf. Not very exciting to be working on 4x4 ribbing.

However, I'm super excited that both Stacey and Jeni will be here in less than a week. Rhinebeck and Webs, here we come!!! I do have to survive school this week before I can indulge in all the fun though.

Next post: pics of Rhinebeck!!

Please, Please Mister Postman

Everyone's curious about what was in that airmail for me!!



Celia sent me a thank you gift! When I went to WEBS a couple weeks ago, I had all good intention of only buying yarn for Celia... she wants to make her bun in the oven a Lizard Ridge baby blanky out of Silk Garden. Unfortunately, I was unable to control myself, and got myself quite a bit o yarn. Anyway, she picked out this lovely Online Cashmerino (14% cashmere, 56% superwash merino, 30% microfiber) and sent me a skein of handpainted sock yarn (in her jungle colorway). I can't wait to knit something up with this OH SO SOFT yarn, in such a rich beautiful red color. Any suggestions for patterns? I have enough for a shell or tank. Let's please not mention the fact that those Tim Tam's have already been broken into... and no one can see how many have already been consumed (inhaled...). Now I know what the fuss is all about!!!

With the yarn that Ms Sheepiness sent me a few weeks ago, I started the Irish Hiking Scarf. After working on the Matthew Shepard Seaman scarf with the Rowan Wool/Cotton on US3s... the Irish Hiking Scarf feels like it's going miraculously fast. I knit on it a bit last night and I've already got over 4-5 inches knit up.

My brain has gone numb, which means it has stopped hurting. My eye twitch has gone away.... Sounds like things are improving, no? I think my body has re-acclimated it's basal level of stress, so that I feel less... overwhelmed. I take pleasure in the very small things in life now... like being able to knit 4-5 rows between classes on Thursday. And, having a few of my classmates compliment my Noro Shrug (the one I made out of the Paintbox). I love having knitters compliment it (b/c they know how much work went into knitting it) and having a non-knitter compliment it makes me feel like they can't tell it's handmade. Why is that important to me?