You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2009.
another fun one – though I sort of hate to ‘fess up to what I really do in my downtime – I’d so prefer that you think I’m always watching MSNBC or listening to NPR…
10 Guilty Pleasures on TV
- E! News
- The Daily Ten – also on E! This trash is admittedly, the way I like to unwind after work. Followed of course by Keith Olbermann – have to recharge the brain cells after that.
- Desperate Housewives – what’s not to love?
- Dr. 90210 (when is this coming back, btw?)
- The Girls Next Door – This one actually makes me a little bit sick – this is Hugh Hefner, after all. It is, however, very funny – they are all just so dumb.
- Jon and Kate Plus 8
- Lifetime movies – occasionally, I do indulge
- Access Hollywood – see #1 and 2
- E! True Hollywood Story
- When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, Steele Magnolias, etc, etc, etc – flip through the channels and find a chick flick I’ve seen a hundred times and its all over – I get sucked right in.
So there it is. It could be worse, right? I could have just admitted to watching O’Reilly 
Finally, The Painted Sheep’s Etsy Shop is back up and running. My inventory of fiber in particular is low but there’s still a nice assortment of BFL rovings, yarns and patterns. Lots of stuff to choose from!
Now that the shop is back up, its on to the next project – unearthing my dye studio! Its pretty well trashed from packing it up for RI. I plan to give it a thorough cleaning out this week, take some pictures of my new stuff and then plan for some serious dye days this summer.
A bit of normalcy and routine feels like its starting to come back around here. Yesterday’s day at the Farmer’s Market helped. My day started my favorite way – coffee, newspaper and some knitting. I cast on a pair of Luxor socks in the Silky STR (in place of the Knee High to a Grasshopper socks). Then it was off to the Market for my long awaited Shroom (that would be an egg sandwich with fresh sauteed mushrooms and fabulous dill sauce from Lizzy’s Curbside Cuisine), fresh fruits and veggies and more knitting time. I even signed up to volunteer at the Market this summer, part of the Friends of the Market program. I then moved on to the kitchen – those fresh veggies turned into a wonderful pasta dish, garlic bread (FYI – the master recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day makes the best garlic bread) with strawberry shortcake for dessert. It felt like summer is finally here! Yum! The day ended with more knitting. It was a perfectly pleasant, normal summer Sunday and it was wonderful.
With more days like yesterday, I feel ready to start looking ahead. I know summer will fly by – the Fiber Twist and fall festivals will be here before we know it. Time to hit the dye studio! I have a few things planned for this summer – a special project that will bring something new and unique to my offerings, new colorways and finally finishing up the line of t-shirts and bags. Lots to do! I’m looking forward to the fun it will bring.
I’m off to work – hoping to sneak in a couple of rows on my Luxor socks first…
Two posts in one evening, lucky you! I feel the need to wrap things up (which does not explain why the Etsy shop is still down after 2 weeks – really, it will return) so its time to talk about the end of my San Francisco trip and the resultant knitting (or lack thereof).
Wednesday was another great day of workshop sessions. I left this conference feeling invigorated and energized and definitely ready to take on some challenges in a different way at work. The last few months have been stressful at work and to be honest, my personal “stuff” had made work even more challenging. I think I needed the time away and focused on something else to really see this and put things in perspective. It helped in a big way. And I had fun. I love a great conference. I did splurge and bought a great book by one of the presenters (who I wasn’t able to see), on management. I’m excited to start reading it.
The weather cleared on Wednesday and I spent my 2 hour lunch break at Yerba Buena Gardens, right next to Moscone Center. I grabbed the camera and got some pictures before I sat down to knit. 
Such a beautiful spot! So glad I found it. I had plenty of time to sit in the sun and knit – I finished my Malabrigo socks – just need to weave in ends and darn those annoying ankle “vents” that pop up on my toe up socks and they’re truly complete (it took me 2 weeks to write a blog post – any guesses how long a couple of ends will take?).
When my day at the conference was done, I headed to Fisherman’s Wharf. Truly a tacky tourist trap, it was kind of fun. A little diversion, with good people watching! And after the comment in my last post about not needing a “souvenir” other than yarn, I found myself smack in the middle of one of the tourist traps buying a “San Francisco” sweatshirt. Got off the trolley and got slammed with the cold, foggy air – it was freezing by the water. Thinking myself pretty hardy (in my shortsleeved cotton dress and sandals), I made it about 20 feet before giving in and buying the first warm thing I could put my hands on. Lucky me – just what I’ve always wanted! Once warm, I did wander around the pier a bit. I found the local residents: 
The sea lions are awfully cute. Surprisingly graceful in the water, given their size. And loud! Now I get why the local boaters find them so intrusive and annoying. Wouldn’t want to meet one on the deck of a boat! Then I had dinner with a nice view of the bay, Alcatraz and a little bit of the Golden Gate Bridge, though it was pretty well fogged in. More poking and a lovely chat with another conference attendee ended my evening.
The next morning I was up way too early to catch my flight. I did some knitting on the plane – mostly on the Knee High to a Grasshopper sock, which is no more. I hated the stitch pattern on this one and only did a couple of rows before I frogged it. I’m keeping the pattern, as the toe construction was simple and yet ingenious and it has a flap heel for a toe up sock – very cool. The verdict is still out on what pattern to use with the yarn instead – there are 5 contenders in this moment. I did several more rows on Allegora, during my layover, actually while watching coverage of the Michael Jackson news, as it was breaking. One of those moments when it was good to have something to knit while I was glued to the TV screen at the gate. And no, I didn’t come anywhere near finishing Allegora – not even to the next step in the pattern. Slow going, this one. I got in very, very late on Thursday night. Still feel like I’m catching up on life, on sleep, on kitty time (I was missed, that’s for sure. I have velcro-kitties now, who won’t even let me go to the bathroom unaccompanied). Not even any knitting time yet.
Tomorrow – Etsy shop back up then knitting at the Farmer’s Market, which also means fresh, local produce and my first Shroom of the season. Yay for summer!
You all know the story here – time got away from me on this one, then life interfered in a big way. At any rate, I have much to show and tell from my weekend teaching in Rhode Island.
It was an amazing weekend, from start to finish. After a long, crazy couple of days, I arrived at Sandi’s farm on Friday evening and got to spend time seeing her place. I finally met her husband and got to see her beautiful property. What a spot! Sandi is truly lucky. Of course there were sheep – I got a tour of the barn and got to see her flock, including the lambs. So sweet! You should know that I behaved and did not attempt to bring anyone home (wouldn’t fit in the van). Being there, if even just for the 2 nights, was very peaceful. It was so quiet. There was a bit of baa-ing now and then – though it seemed perfect, especially as a I was prepping my workshop notes over breakfast.
The workshop itself was in Coventry, RI at the Coventry Historical Society’s building. It was a great space, with plenty of room for the 25 spinners in attendance. We started the weekend with the usual round of intros, then we went into talking dyeing. I showed off samples, talked about different fibers and effects, the process, the works. Then it was time to play! The group started with BFL roving after I demonstrated some different handpainting techniques. Descended like vultures on the dye table, I tell ya! I only brought 13 colors along but the range they created was infinite. Not afraid of a little mixing, which was great! Here are some pictures of their first round of playing: 
After that, we went on to dyeing up some alpaca/merino/silk and angora/merino rovings (that was a new to me fiber that I absolutely plan on stocking in the future – it took dye beautifully). I challenged the group to come up with 2 colorways – one that was their “signature”, that would some one could look at and say was really “them” and another that was completely outside of their color box. At the end of the day, some of our dyers washed out their rovings and hung them to dry, while others took them home to do the same. It seemed everyone left exhausted and happy – I know I certainly did!
After our first day, I was treated to a wonderful dinner with about 10 of the participants. It was a fabulous evening out – what a fun group they are! I have to admit that I slept extra well that night.
The next morning, there was a great energy in the room as everyone came in with their rovings from the day before. The group was very, very excited and full of creative energy. This is one of my favorite parts of enabling new addicts teaching new dyers – watching people go from timid about the technique or using color or combining things to excited and alive with possibility! It was really fun to watch the change in the room happen as we went. We spent the morning with more demos and then dyed up superwash merino lambswool and merino tencel rovings (yum!) and then it was on to yarn (very special yarn – more on that later*). We got the last of the dyepots going before lunch so that everyone could take home cooled rovings and yarn, even if they didn’t have time to wash them out. After lunch, we talked spinning techniques with a few demos (I really wish I’d had more time for this part – better planning on my end next time). Then it was on to the really fun thing – time to show off their work and talk about their process. The creativity in this group was wonderful! They came up with some great, inspired combinations. I think its safe to say that that no one here was afraid of color. Here’s some of the magic they made: 
Aren’t their rovings gorgeous? There’s even more pictures on my Flickr page (link down and to the left). Before we wrapped up our wonderful weekend, we took a (most of the) group shot and I was presented with this: 
A beautiful towel, embroidered with The Painted Sheep on one end, my name on the other. They made me cry! What a thoughtful and generous gift. It now has a place of honor in my bathroom, on the towel rack. Its the prettiest part of the room and it makes me smile every time I go in there. Many, many thanks to a great group for a wonderful weekend! You guys rock!
*about the yarn we dyed, as I truly believe in credit where credit is due – I ran into a major snag in my workshop prep on Friday. Being truly last minute, as I always am, I started to wind off the 25 skeins of sock yarn that I promised the group on Friday afternoon, thinking I had just enough time to get it done before I left. What I never counted on was that my wooden skein winder doesn’t work in high humidity. The wood was swollen and it wasn’t moving. $%^&! One panicked phone call to Gail at Mystic River Yarns later and I had 25 skeins of white yarn waiting for me at the shop. Not only did Mystic River Yarns rescue me, they stayed open late waiting for me to get through traffic to get there, gave me the amazing mix of Cascade 220 and Ultra Alpaca (yes, we dyed those – heaven! my sample skein of Ultra Alpaca in Tranquility is set to become a la Novia) at a discount and threw in a mug and a couple of tote bags. Seriously, they went way above and beyond to help me out. That’s great service! Many thanks MRY!
(I feel the need to say this again – the RI post will show up. 3 hour layover in Philadelphia tomorrow, so maybe then. Otherwise, it will likely wait until the weekend.)
So this superfast (cause I have a session really soon) post is more SF than WIP, though there has been some knitting here. My trip so far has been amazing. Its beautiful here, the weather perfect. Mostly its looked like this: 
That’s the view from room, in one direction. In the other, I get more city skyline and a little sliver of SF Bay. Gorgeous! I felt like I needed an ark when I left CT, so perfect 70 degree days have been a gift. This morning, I woke up and saw this: 
San Francisco really does have fog! Having been here once before, I know how good we’ve had it for 2 days. Its burning off in a hurry though, so I suspect by the end of my first session, sun! (great picture, I know – the camera has yet to leave my room – and its the old p & s so I have no excuse)
The conferences continues to be amazing. Yesterday was a full day of sessions, on great topics like Performance Improvement, Volunteer Management and using Social Media for non-profits. Really cool stuff that’s left me energized and wanting more. I love it when I go to a conference and leave with a reading list as long as my arm and a list of other workshops to seek out. And there’s more today before it wraps up late this afternoon.
I’ve had a little bit of time to see the city too, which has been wonderful. On Monday, I took the trolley ($1.50 to criss-cross the city – love it!) to the Castro neighborhood (think the movie Milk), home of Imagiknit. To all who recommended going there – thank you! The shop itself was great but that neighborhood was just a treasure. What a fun a place! Imagiknit was friendly, huge for a neigborhood shop and had some stuff that I hadn’t seen before, like Malabrigo test yarns – things that will be releasing that are for now exclusive to Imagiknit and Handmaiden yarns. It took me an hour to pick my souvenir from the trip (who needs some stupid trinket when you can bring home yarn?) – a skein of Chasing Rainbows merino/tencel yarn in Cabernet. Yummy! After the shop, I poked around – had lunch in a tea shop, people watched and even found a chocolate shop that was going out of business. 50% off truffles? Can’t tell you the name because I ate ‘em (not in one sitting, in two). Yesterday, I had a 2 hour break at lunch time and I took a walk to the nearby Museum of Modern Art to see a special exhibit – Georgia O’Keefe and Ansel Adams. It was amazing. I love O’Keefe’s work and to see it in person was such a gift. Her use of color inspires me – lots of new ideas floating around! I’ve never been a huge fan of Ansel Adams but to see the juxaposition with O’Keefe was very cool, especially when they had the same subject. I did the audio tour – hearing about their shared history and friendship was really interesting. After that, lunch at a Yerba Buena Gardens next to Moscone Center, where the conference is. It was beautiful – I’ll take the camera with me today when I go have lunch there again. And tonight, post-conference, I plan on taking the trolley out to Fisherman’s Wharf to have dinner and do the tourist thing. Seems like a perfect wrap up to my trip.
So for the knitting, I’ve done a little. Some on the plane (the next idiot to ask me if security actually allowed my needles through gets treated to an explanation of how I stuffed them in my bra, got poked a lot and then enjoyed getting frisked after going through the metal detector. the 5th time I got asked by a passenger on the way here may have pushed me over the edge on that one. never had a problem with my needles, just my fellow passengers), some between sessions and a bit in the room. Here’s where I am, in super-classy picture on the un-made bed style: 
Allegro is coming along – slowly. I don’t know what possessed me to think I could knit this whole thing on this trip… 
The Malabrigo socks are an inch from being done. I’m thinking I’ll bind off at lunch in the park today. Next up are these: 
Knee High to a Grasshopper socks in Silky STR (colorway unknown in this moment). I hope to cast them on tonight so that I can alternate projects on the plane (the cotton in Allegoro is hard on the hands after a few rows). That’s it!
I really have to run now if I have any hope of grabbing breakfast before my first session. Happy Wednesday!
Michelle Obama gave the keynote at the conference I’m at today (that being the National Conference on Volunteering and Service). Yeah – I saw Michelle Obama speak today. Let me say that again – I saw Michelle Obama. Holy s**t! And yeah – she was amazing and inspiring and so many other things that I can’t quite put it into words.
Not like me – sorta tongue tied and speechless. That’s ’cause it wasn’t just Michelle Obama. First, Arianna Huffington. Holy s**t – the editor of the Huffington Post! Then, Nancy Pelosi. I’d thought I’d died and gone to liberal heaven. Nancy Pelosi – first woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Before Michelle Obama. Oh my god! Both spoke about the importance of volunteering and community service. Arnold Schwarzenegger too – who was more intelligent than I thought he’d be. Not necessarily enough to impress me but still smarter than I thought he was – if only he’d start using his brain. Anywho, Michelle Obama was followed, I kid you not, by Jon Bon Jovi. I have to admit that I didn’t at all get why he was at this conference – until he started talking about how he used his arena football team to do work in the community and build up a grassroots network and then start his foundation to spread what they started. Wow. The guy is doing amazing stuff. And then he played – and I went from professional thinking about looking into his foundation for one of my programs to a 12 year old singing along to Livin’ on a Prayer (which, now that I think about it, was a pretty ironic choice to play for a group of non-profit leaders in this climate). Another I-can’t-believe-I’m-sitting-in-this-room moment. Unreal. Jon Bon Jovi. God I loved him when I was a teenager. And yeah, he’s still got it – in so many ways. And then, more. Maria Shriver talked about increasing community service in California. She was amazing. The session closed with Matthew McConaughey talking about an entertainment industry campaign to encourage community involvement and volunteering. And yes, he’s gorgeous. Hello, Matthew, over here – single again! Unfortunately not so smart, but well intentioned. Ending with eye candy wasn’t the worst thing thing in the world. It was like having dessert. This was all in 3 hours, mind you. Can’t quite wrap my brain around it.
The funny thing is I signed up for the opening session because Maria Shriver was the stated keynote. Just Maria Shriver. Friday, I got an email from the conference saying to get to the opening session 2 hours early. Didn’t know why and planned to ignore it until I saw the news this morning and learned that Michelle Obama was giving the keynote. The rest – Arianna Huffington, Nancy Pelosi, Jon Bon Jovi, Arnold and Matthew McConaughey – all “surprise guests”. Who knew getting screened by the Secret Service would be the reason we were to show up early? Unreal.
This afternoon, I won’t forget – an experience of a lifetime.
Off to bed – tomorrow is a full day of sessions that look fantastic. I suspect I’ll be awed in a different way and come home with a million ideas and inspiration.
PS – there is good yarn hunting in San Francisco. I confirmed it for myself at Imagiknit
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