Everybody Loves Saturday Night

ok, now what?

Remember last year, when I signed up for NaBloPoMo? About halfway through I thought, "If I can do this, surely I do NaNoWriMo?" And then promptly forgot about it.

But then the whole "I need to write every day" urge struck.

I don't even know if I want to write a novel.

(Going through my November 2006 posts brought me back to "get all erudite up in this bitch." Sometimes I crack myself up. That's ok, right?)

But yeah, I don't know if novels are what I want to write. The whole fiction genre, from short stories to epics, I don't know if it's where I want to be. So for the last two weeks I have been waffling. I wrote a waffling post a couple days ago but decided not to publish it because there's only so much navel-gazing I feel comfortable subjecting you to.

Then Rachael posted something about it and I responded and she encouraged and I asked "does brain dump count" and she said yes, totally, so at least now I have a working title.

For me, NaNoWriMo is going to be an exercise, an experiment. I'm going into it without the foggiest idea, the minutest germ of a plan, only the acceptance of the fact that most likely 45,000 of my 50,000 words will be stream of consciousness gibberish. But I really want to see if I can do it.

And my apartment will finally be clean.

not earning his keep

We have a squatter. It is small, grey, furry, and sends many hardened New Yorkers into paroxysms (omg, that is such a kickass Scrabble word). No, I said small. Would I be this calm if it weren't?

Twice now--twice--I have sat upon this couch in the living room, and watched as a small grey furry streak zipped from the hallway of our building under the front door bangzoom! to behind the TV, all while Mr. Fierce next to me yawned, stretched, and went back to sleep.

Once it's behind the TV, I can neither see nor hear the mouse, but maybe 10 minutes later I will hear rustling in the kitchen. It lives behind the stove, apparently. Or maybe lives outside the apartment and has recently established a pied-a-terre behind the stove.

Scout seriously cannot be bothered. He'll perk up a little at the rustling, and he even followed me to the kitchen just now to do some recon (how I know it was recon? he didn't bug me for food). He sniffed at the stove, but honestly, there's nothing he can do until the mouse slips up and shows itself. I am hoping the mouse is stupid. I mean, it has gone twice now (at least) into an apartment with a known cat. Mice are supposed to stay away from those kinds of places. How smart can it be?

The mouse doesn't bother me. As long as it doesn't show up in my food, or bed, or yarn, I'm not grossed out. I've lived in the country. Mice happen, especially as fall starts and it gets cold. It's just a mouse, and I will take a mouse over a cockroach any damn day. And Scout has in the past proved himself a worthy mouser, both in the country and this very city. It was five years ago, almost to the day, when Scout caught a mouse in my Williamsburg apartment. I was so proud that my Midwestern indoor cat could catch the Big Apple city mouse. So I know he can do it.

It's just like riding a bike, kitty...not like you ever knew how to do that, but work with me, here. Catch the damn mouse. Because if you don't, and reject the whole natural order of things, then Michael will make me get a trap for the mouse and I really don't want to do that. I am perfectly willing--maybe not happy, but willing--to dispose of your kills, because you are supposed to be a brutal vicious hunter. That's your job. It's what I rely on you for.

(That and headbumps.)

today's writing

takes place on the TV blog.

My mornings have been starting later. Now I'm rising at 6:30 am and while this makes me happy, I kinda got used to having the extra hour. Now I feel rushed. It's already 8:15 and I only have 30 more minutes before I have to start getting ready and I haven't even checked in with Ravelry or Facebook and I want to write up last night's Heroes and...

But no. 6:30 is an acceptable waking hour. I have no complaints.

making good

CeCe is blocking. She is still quite damp from the soak I gave her yesterday afternoon, and this is a crappy blocking picture:

I am concerned that the yarn, which I knew would grow, is going to grow beyond what I had originally calculated. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It is drying so slowly that I now have a fan trained on it.

Eloise is nearing completion as well. The right front is a breeze to knit up, as it's a mere 41 stitches to start with.

I am about five rows away from the end of the skein I 'm on, and then I have half a skein more, which I pray is enough to get me through the rest of this front and the neck band. I hope. I think so, though. But to anyone interested in this sweater, the yarn requirements given by the pattern are wrong, at least for the medium/large sizes. I needed 12 skeins for this sweater, instead of the 10 marked on the pattern. And I may have needed 13. I'll find out soon enough.

start of something new

I make resolutions all the time, not feeling it necessary to wait until New Years. Lately I've been working on different calendars and have come to fully appreciate how many different ways of calculating the start of a new year there are. There's the new school year, for example. Fiscal year. The new year for farmers. There's even a new year for animals (originally done for tithing purposes).

gratuitous cat photo

Rhinebeck represents another end/beginning for me, though I've been mulling over changes I want to make for at least two weeks. But now that the festival is over and I have both new yarn and old projects, I am compelled to get my ideas in some semblance of order. Get these out in print as a sort of contract--though I've also done that already, privately.

I made a promise to myself that I would write something non-work related every day, even if it's just a paragraph (but no less than a paragraph). That writing may not appear on the blog, or the TV blog, but there's a good chance it will. This is something I always forget--my creative ruts tend to happen when I stop writing. It becomes a cycle of lethargy, wherein I think I have nothing of value to write, so I stop writing, so I continue to not write until I have something I think is worth writing about, but each thing that happens doesn't seem worthy enough, so I continue to not write, and so on and so on.

Right now I have three sweaters in need of completion, which feels strange to me because the last sweater I finished was I don't know how long ago. I think it was Debbie Bliss's Lara, which wound up being too small for me to wear comfortably, so it never got photographed. That was back in, let's say...OK, I just spent 15 minutes going through my archives and found the last time I blogged it. Here. Over two years ago. Let's say I finished it before January 2006. Dag, that's a long time between sweaters, yo.

So anyway, yeah. I have three unfinished sweaters:

1. Twist, which needs a collar and buttons. (started before the hooded version came out, but I do like the fringed collar look.)

2. Eloise, which needs a finished back and right front, blocking, seaming and buttons.

3. CeCe, which needs seaming, blocking and a button.

If I'm being honest, I do have more unfinished sweaters--I never finished Audrey from way, way back, and I most likely won't. I have a load of Silk Garden knit up into Tilt without buttons but the jacket is HUGE and the yarn needs to be something else (Lady Eleanor Entrelac wrap from Scarf Style, I'm thinking). Oh, and Lisette will not be finished, because the color I chose for it over two years ago, a light lavender, is no longer a color I want to wear. I do love that sweater though...really I do. I think I'll go queue it and find a darker, earthier color to make it in.

But no, wait!  First I'm going to finish those three sweaters.

satiated

First, if any of you were ever wondering what I look like when I wake up in the morning (and no, my Rhinebeck roomies, you can't say you know because it was still dark and/or you were still sleeping), go to Laurie's blog, because she's got it right there. Disheveled hair, an alpaca-like "mwruh?" expression, a sock in progress, and some dude reading the paper behind me. Me in the morning, to a T.

(I really don't look like my Ravelry/Facebook picture anymore, do I.)

And now, the Rhinebeck Haul of 2007. Each purchase is so special that it deserves its own shot.

First, the skeins of happy from Jamie Harmon:

I might have walked right by this booth had it not been for Heather. And even then, I might have walked away again had Jenn not shown me the smaller (now wound up) skein of purple/green handspun 2-ply merino/angora blend. It's the coziest yarn I've ever held. The rest of the day I kept taking the yarn out and holding it up to my cheek. I am pretty sure this is going to be a scarf. Or maybe long armwarmers. But probably a scarf. And probably soon.

My first purchase of the festival:

Four skeins of Zephyr (merino/silk) laceweight from A Touch of Twist (color: Peacock). I had purchased this yarn (in Garnet) here last year, used it for a gift I have still yet to blog (soon) and knew that I wanted more. It's just lovely, and at 300 yards/$4.99 skeins, it's a good deal too. I bought this yarn thinking it would be suitable if I couldn't find anything else for the Mystic Waters shawl--but then I did, so this will be something else.

My lace yarn stash is rapidly catching up to my sock yarn stash. Speaking of which...

A lovely skein of Flock Sock yarn from VanCalCar (Garnet). Strizz, Heather and I all reached for the same color, one after another. In fact, Strizz and I made matching purchases here, as we both picked up the same lace stole pattern (not pictured). I showed this skein to The Michael a couple days ago and he said, "Ooh, I'd wear socks that color." Subtle guy, that Michael. And he'll have to wait--or learn to knit--because this is my sock yarn.

More sock yarn:

This is where I admit I may have a problem. I do not remember, nor do I think I ever knew, where this yarn came from. I know it was on the upper level of the Horticulture Center. After that, all I know is that I saw the yarn, was drawn to it across-a-crowded-room style where everyone and everything else melts away, picked it up, maybe whispered something to it, and then bought it. No label, didn't get a card, the receipt says merely "sock yarn." In retrospect it was a profound Romance of the Yarn moment. I didn't know who it was or where it came from, but I knew it would be mine. I don't mind not knowing the yarn's origins; I'm perfectly happy calling it the "Mystery Sock Yarn," but if anyone does know more info on the yarn, throw it down in the comments, would you? Thanks.

I also went big:

I've been intrigued by this yarn and its fabulous pricing since I started going to Rhinebeck, but this is the first year I've gone to the Wild Apple Hill Farm booth and it wasn't picked over so that only poop brown was left. Eight skeins of this lovely rustic 100% wool (Garnet, again. Trend?) is enough to give me an outerwear jacket, with ribbing or cables even. I'll be starting that once I finish a couple other sweaters. You see I've already wound up a ball to swatch with.

I also started a button stash because I didn't have one.

These were 8 for $5 so I bought a whole bunch. The apple green might be great for Eloise--or even Twist (both of which I need to finish already) but the other colors (two different shades of brown, and black) are versatile enough to work with almost anything.

I just really love these. I wish there had been six to a card, but I think I'll be able to order extra if I need to.

This beauty is for CeCe, most likely (which will also be finished soon--all the knitting is done, it's just a matter of seaming, weaving and blocking).

I already showed you the two Skaska purchases, so there you have it. I'm pretty damn proud of myself.

stitch 'n pitch, rhinebeck style

Allow me to take a moment to throw a shout out to the MA peeps who graciously hosted Rumbeck on Saturday, as the first game of the World Series is tonight and I know where their hearts are. There's nothing better after a day of crowds and yarn than to kick back in a hotel room with beer, wine, rum and whatever, and just chill. While one of your least favorite baseball teams gets trounced. That's always fun.

Let me also take a moment to wonder what on earth someone would have to yell about at 6:30 in the morning? Some dude is just outside my window yelling about something. Maybe someone dinged his car. Still, it's 6:30 in the morning. Keep it in, maybe?

Post-Rhinebeck slump? Oh, yeah. I'm running out of things I remember, and now it's just snapshot flashes, like this:

And this, which is actually on our way home, but the sun was hitting the trees just right:

I will say this: On Saturday the crowd was so thick that it took a good deal of bobbing, weaving, and "excuse mes" to get from one end of Building A to the other. It was a little too much for me, actually. I later learned that Saturday's attendance was more than last year's Saturday and Sunday combined.

The festival organizers outdid themselves, too. There were more food booths this year--way more (though why, why, do they not have another artichoke booth? I couldn't handle those lines, yo. No artichokes for me this year). I didn't have to wait very long for anything. There was an entire carnival section with a fun slide and carousel which immediately seemed like a good idea for those with children, even though it could easily downslide into a fiber vs. rides tantrum. There was that dude on the horses that everyone has a picture of because...huh? My favorite picture is the one Claudia took of one girl's reaction to the dude with the horses. Scroll down til you get to the pop-up link.

It's just hard to explain to anyone else the significance of Rhinebeck. The minute I got out of our rental car (an Impala, christened Vlad) a powerful sense of well-being washed over me. I was back. Juno's not kidding when she says it's the happiest place on earth. Not kidding at all.

Tomorrow I'll show you the haul.

 

more cashmere

This time in goat form:

I have been seeing a number of pictures of people...let's say communing with sheep, alpacas, and goats. This is mine. We definitely shared a moment. Look at that face.

It is very strange to spend two days surrounded by people who are as passionate as you about yarn and fiber and the things you get to do with them, and then come home and spend the next day working from home, alone.

I wound up a lot of yarn, though. Like the gray merino/tencel laceweight I bought from Skaska my first time there. Sun-drenched picture of that:

3100 yards of cobweb-weight yarn. It's a very deep gray, but with these fantastic peachy-orange tones. I'm using it for the Mystic Waters shawl I signed up for because I am curious about working these mystery shawl thingies. I started to swatch this baby and quickly realized that I needed to double up the yarn or I would go insane. Some day I will knit cobweb lace. Not now.

Back to Rhinebeck. I had this idea that I would stretch out my Rhinebeck recaps instead of doing it all at once, but of course on Tuesday morning my memory is not as good as it was on Monday, and of course I didn't take notes.

The main highlight of the trip was getting to spend time with two out of three sister GAWKers, Rachael and Alison. They, along with Cari, have been with me from the beginning of my online existence, and though the four of us have been able to carve out space to hang out in a variety of pairings, and the occasional triple, we have yet to achieve the foursome. Soon.

But yesterday morning my heart and stomach sank, because I realized I don't have ANY pictures of the three of us together. I have plenty of pictures, and a number of pictures of people, but none of us remembered to take that one important shot. Blargh! I think if Cari had been there, she would've remembered.

Speaking of pictures, I put them up on Flickr. They are wildly out of order.

I'm not done yet, but I must to work, so I'll write more tomorrow.

they were cones!

After the first day of Rhinebeck, Laurie asked what purchase I was most excited about. At the time, it was a toss-up between the 8 skeins of Wild Apple Hill Farm yarn in Garnet or the gun metal laceweight from Skaska. Then the second day of Rhinebeck came and changed my answer. Now it's a toss-up between the two skeins of purple-green merino-angora happiness from Jamie Harmon and the 1,000 yard cones of cashmere for a price so obscenely low I'm afraid putting it up here will make people's eyes literally pop out of their heads. Shield your eyes. Ready? $55. $55 for 1,000-yard cones of cashmere. I bought two.

The cones also came from Skaska, and I would not have seen them had Rachael not purchased two skeins of brilliant orange cashmere yarn, which were also going for an incredibly low price. So Jackie, Jenn, Heather and I agreed to make Skaska our first stop on Sunday. We found the cashmere skeins, and I was all ready to take a couple sage-colored ones to pay for them when Galina told us about the cones. A few were on display above the skeins, so I immediately started looking through them to find the color I wanted. It wasn't even a question of whether I would buy a $55 cone of cashmere.

Then Galina lifted a display shawl to show us more cones. The secret hidden cones of cashmere. I felt like I was being initiated into something wonderful. And I was, in a way--this was my very first Rhinebeck cashmere purchase.

The picture isn't much to look at, but as I'm not planning on unwrapping the cones until I'm ready to use them, it's the best I'll get.

A deep Tuscan olive green and a royal purple. I may use them together.

This may have been my favoritest Rhinebeck--a perfect blend of yarn and people. I'll be posting more in the days to come.

the oscars/super bowl for fiberistas

I know the Maryland S&W Festival is bigger, but Rhinebeck seems to have more draw, more to entice knitters and crocheters and spinners and weavers. Is that because of its proximity to NYC? Or am I always just really out of the loop when it comes to MD, because I've never gone, and it's blogged/looked forward to just as much, if not more?

The online excitement over Rhinebeck has been steadily building since June, I'd say. Right after MD, so maybe that's it--one S&W over, next one to start planning.

I wonder if the festival runners have any idea how many people are actually going to be there this year.

To those playing bingo this year, I am a square, and I am sorry that I do not have an updated picture to put up here for you to identify me easily. I'd love to say "I'll be the one with a red carnation," but I don't have any red carnations. Here's how you'll know me: I have a red purse with a seatbelt strap, attached to which will be a camouflage GoKnit pouch--out of which I will be knitting my Camouflage Lorna's Laces sock, toe-up magic loop style. Places you'll be most likely to bump into me: in line for artichokes, communing with the alpacas, Skaska Designs, A Touch of Twist.

I will see you all on the other side.