A Halloween Contest

Happy Halloween!  This day has always been one of my favorites.  Since my nephew and niece came along, I’ve spent Halloween with the family – a big dinner, followed by getting the kids dressed up and then going trick or treating.  Back in Syracuse, I lived in a great neighborhood for trick or treating, which was also across street from the entrance to a cemetery.  Halloween was a big party, with tons of kids coming to the door and hanging out with the neighbors.  Fun no matter where I’ve been.

This year didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped.  No Halloween festivities for me – no one wants what I could be giving out this year    I’m laying low, still sequestered at home.  My family has promised to email me pictures of the wee ones, so I don’t miss out altogether.  Other than the innernets and occasional phone call (my voice is a real treat – doesn’t hold out for long), its up to me to make my own fun.  I haven’t had a contest in a while, so I thought now is the perfect time.

So here goes:  leave a comment on this post with your favorite Halloween memory by 11 pm EST on November 2.  The next day, I’ll pick a winner at random.  The prize?  A $25 Gift Certificate to my Etsy shop.  You get some fibery goodness and I get entertained.  Its a win-win

And just a quick update – I feel a little better today.  No more fever means I’m not technically contagious anymore (though I’m not taking any chances).  Unfortunately, its been a rough few days – my asthma kicked up and my breathing got bad enough for the doctor to start me on Prednisone on Friday.  Good news, its helping.  Bad news, I still feel horrible and have no energy.  And I’m bored – lots of bad TV and napping fill my days, hardly any knitting.  Sitting around is so not my style!  Here’s hoping that I’m almost on the other side of this thing.  Thanks to all of you have left well-wishes.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!  And get those contest entries in!

Oink.

Its been quiet around here for a few days but I have a good excuse – I managed to get swine flu.  I haven’t been feeling well all week.  Before going to the doctor today I ever so helpfully diagnosed myself with a sinus infection.  Not so – I have all the symptoms of swine flu.   I tried to argue her diagnosis – after all, what I found on the innernets said I couldn’t have swine flu.  I may have even whined a bit about how bad the timing of this is.   Thank goodness my doctor is patient with me.  She sent me on my way with the rest of the week off, orders to stay away from others for a few days and prescriptions for Tamiflu and amoxicillan (I have asthma – the antibiotics will hopefully keep it from progressing into pneumonia).  And I will finally admit it – I feel like crap.  Haven’t been this sick in ages.

The really horrible part?  I’m too sick to knit now.  I did manage to finish the first sleeve on my Sweetpea coat last night, before I started feeling really horrible.  I desperately want to cast on the second one.  I have plenty of time in front of me to finish it now, before Halloween (which is a big question now – can’t be around the little one if I might be contagious).  The plan is still to finish it by Saturday – we’ll see.

I’ll be laying low for the few days – hopefully I’ll have a finished sweater by the time I post next.

 

Stitches East

This year (and for the next 2), Stitches East is right here at home, in Hartford.  I’ve never been to Stitches, so I took advantage of the fact that its just a few minutes away and headed over on Friday.  This being the last of 5 fiber events in 6 weeks for me, I opted not to take classes and do the “whole” Stitches thing, instead just going over to the Marketplace and getting together with friends for some Stitches-related fun.

That last bit was really the highlight of the weekend for me.  On Friday, I skipped out of work before lunch to meet up with a group of friends for an afternoon of food, drinks and shopping.  We hit up Vaughn’s in Hartford for a 2 hour lunch before hitting the Marketplace.  It was fabulous.  To have an excuse to relax with the girls, many of whom I don’t see often enough these days, for a whole afternoon was wonderful.  We need to find more excuses for afternoons like that (or better yet, skip the “reasons” and just make time).

Last night, I met up with another group, from the Windsor SnB, for a pub crawl.  We started with dinner and drinks at Black Eyed Sally’s and then hit 3 other bars downtown, joined along the way by a handful of other Stitches attendees (the pouring rain kept a lot of people away, unfortunately).  It was a great group that braved the weather for a night out.  I’ll spare you the details (and the pictures); suffice it to say that we had a great time.   I for one continue to be reminded of just how much fun I had last night and suspect I will for several hours to come.  Hangover aside, it was a perfect wrap up to the festival season.  And yes, I will join them one of these Thursdays to actually knit!

As for Stitches itself, I have to admit I was disappointed.  There were a handful of great vendors in the Marketplace, including some I haven’t seen in person before like Lisa Souza and Signature Needles.  Most of the yarn stores in CT had a presence there, which was nice to see.  Webs had a huge booth full of wonderful yarns.  They had a great selection Blue Moon Fiber Arts, including all of the Socks That Rocks weights (I’m alternately thrilled and scared that its now available locally). Other than that, there was a lot of fun fur, flashy synthetic novelty yarns and foofy crap that held no appeal to me.  I expected something more along the lines of a fiber festival – small farms, indie designers and dyers, lots of natural fibers.  Instead, it was like, well, being inside an issue of Knitter’s magazine.  Makes sense, since its their event.  Its just not my thing.  That said, it was worth going to, for a few hours, since it was local.

Of course, I still didn’t leave the Marketplace empty handed.

Merino roving from Lisa Souza, destined to be spun fine and knit into something lacy, Anne Hanson’s Holidazed sock pattern and a skein of Silkie STR to make them with (to match my Sweetpea coat) and a Latvian Garden Mitten kit from Donna Kay at Tree of Life Designs.  That mitten kit was a must-have.  I took Donna’s fair isle knitting and design classes at Harrisville a few years back and purchased her Latvian Gardens cardigan kit.  Its still aging in the stash, waiting for a time when I can pull it out and knit myself something very special.  I had to have the mittens to match it – again to save for a time to knit up something special.

With that, its the end of “festival season” for me.  I made it to 5 of the 6 events in as many weeks – Fiber Twist, Nutmeg Spinner’s Guild, Wool Arts Tour, Rhinebeck and Stitches.  My weekends will now be focused on other things – like knitting and spinning up some of the stash, my impending move and enjoying my little house while I still can.  The last couple of months have been crazy-busy and incredibly fun.  Truly my favorite time of year.

W.I.P. Wednesday – October 21

A quickie for you – trying to squeeze in as much knitting time as I can before work this morning!

This week was all about the Sweetpea Coat.  While I didn’t meet my goal of finishing both fronts, I did get one done and about half of the other.  They work up so fast that I’ll likely finish the second front tonight or tomorrow morning.  Now that I have buttons, I’m particularly anxious to get this done – I want to see the whole thing come together.  I’ve set a goal for myself – finish it by Halloween.  It seems like the perfect thing to wear when I’m trick or treating with the wee ones.

So the goal for the week – finish the second front and get through at least one sleeve and the start of the second.  That’ll put me in good shape to finish the knitting up late next week, block it Friday night and sew the seams on Saturday morning.

That said, I’m off to knit!  Happy Wednesday!

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Guilty Pleasures

1. Desperate Housewives
2. E!  (its enough that I admit that I watch it, I’m not fessing up to the details!)
3. a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Coffee Health Bar Crunch and a spoon
4. margaritas with lunch on a day off
5. chocolate covered potato chips
6. gossiping with a good friend
7. dinner consisting of a loaf of good bread, a wedge of brie and a bottle of chardonnay
8. splurging on something I really don’t need, just ’cause I want it
9. the stash
10. buying Bosworth spindles – I collect them more so than actually use them.

To be honest, I don’t really do the guilt part of guilty pleasures.  With the exception of 1, 2 and 9, these things are relative rarities for me.  I don’t see anything wrong with indulging in a little unhealthy coping from time to time (time to time being the key).  Sometimes you just have to let go of what might feel bad about it and do something that feels right in the moment.  And yes, that is the counselor in me talking.  Its also the soon-to-be divorced me talking.  Its all about taking care of yourself.  Nothing to feel guilty about there.

Rhinebeck 2009

In a word, delightful!  Of all the years I’ve attended (8, I think?), this was the best.  Lots of things came together to make it a great day.  The weather was great – though it was cold, the threatened rain/snow held off.  Handknits were everywhere, in a tremendous variety.  I managed to pile on 4 handknits without feeling ridiculous – my Malabrigo sweater and socks, the wine Fetchings I knit recently and a scarf in beige Kid Classic that I did eons ago.  Lots of layers made it just right.  The colors were beautiful – check out this view from the concession area of the fairgrounds:

I ran into friends from all over – lots of CT peeps, old friends from back in Syracuse, Painted Sheep customers, people that I’ve taken workshops with in the past.  I even ran into several of my students from the Rhode Island Spinner’s Guild workshop.  All the usual fiber festival stuff was there – just more of it, being Rhinebeck.  There were animals

Alpacas, llamas, goats and lots of sheep.  I think this sweet guy would have let me rub his nose and cheeks all afternoon, he so loved the attention.  There was the world’s largest sock – at least the cuff of it 1500 stitches – can you imagine turning that heel?  There was fabulous food and wine.  I had a delightful, spur of the moment lunch with a friend from CT.  Later, there was wine tasting where I ran into some of the crew from SnB Windsor, who enabled me right into buying a bottle.  Of course there was the shopping – barn after barn of vendors.   Some of my favorites that I don’t see anywhere else.  This is what I came home with Clara Parkes’ wonderful new book (which she signed for me), a couple of skeins of STR in the Silkie and Mediumweight, a Jenny the Potter mug, (another) Stitched by Jessalu bag, a pair of silk caps to spin and the buttons from Moving Mud.  Those buttons are my favorite purchase.  Sarina out did herself in making these up for me.  All I did was send her a swatch and a size range and this is what she came up with They couldn’t be more perfect for this sweater.

Even with all of that, the thing that really made the day for me was the freedom I had.  This is the first time I’ve attended Rhinebeck alone, meaning without the almost-ex.  For once I’m not bad-mouthing him (he tended to be very patient about tagging along for these things).  Going alone just meant a different pace of things -mine!  I had no schedule, plans or timeframe.  I left insanely early in the morning so that I could have breakfast at Pete’s Famous in Rhinebeck – one tradition I couldn’t give up.  Morning person me was perfectly happy to get up at 4:30 and be in Rhinebeck for breakfast by 8.  I got to the festival before it opened (with lots of others) and got to the STR booth early.  I poked around for hours, making the rounds of the vendors twice, seeing friends and stopping to relax and enjoy the day.  There was post-festival shopping and dining in Rhinebeck before I headed home late in the afternoon.  The day was leisurely and relaxed.  It was everything I needed it to be.

I already can’t wait until next year…