• On Monday, one of our new people started at work, and we spent much of the week training her. She’s wonderful, and I think she’ll be a great addition to our group.
• On Tuesday, we spent Girls Night by watching an oldie but goodie, So I Married an Axe Murderer. Best line from a movie ever: “Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis.”
• On Wednesday, the team at work went out to celebrate the arrival of our newest member. It was a nice meal out at Firebird (which I hadn’t been to in ages), and we spent much of the time talking about books, movies, and TV shows we loved and hated.
• On Thursday, I worked from home and got a massive amount of work done. Stuff had been piling up because I’d been spending so much time training the new girl, so it was good to knock out a few of these outstanding projects. I also drank copious amounts of mango ice tea from Caribou Coffee.
• On Friday, there were lots of birthday celebrations.
• On Saturday, my neighbor, Natalie, and I attended the 2nd-ever knit-in at the Crabtree Valley Mall food court. A bunch of us met up for WWKIP day there and realized that many of us prefer Saturday meetups. Thus, this food court scheme was planned, and this weekend, was executed. A good time was had by all, except when the sun kept creeping out through the skylights and shining down on us at the table. It was bright and hot. Ew. I don’t do sun. I also visited with some old friends later that evening. We played 500 rummy. At the point that I won, I was up 400 points over Eva and 480 points over Thomas. I rock.
• Which brings us to today… Sunday… in which nothing has happened, because it’s too damn hot.

The highlight of the week was, of course, my birthday. On Friday, I turned 27. It’s really rather disconcerting, mostly because I don’t feel 27. Not that I’m exactly sure how old I do feel, but still… Of course, people at work kept asking me how I felt now that I was 23… And I think only a few of those making the comment meant it as a jab.

The day started off nicely, as I woke up to receive this gem in my inbox:

Then, when I got to work, I found that my co-worker, Jenny, had brought me a beautiful pillar candle and stand, as well as a ginormous, decadent chocolate cake. We all went out to lunch. (And everyone fought over who was going to purchase my meal… I gave up trying to convince them it wasn’t necessary and let them sort it out amongst themselves. My boss eventually won.)

That evening, my friends Hans and Laura threw a small party for me at their place, where we had a wonderful home-cooked meal and played several rounds of Scattergories. Hans made an especially wonderful dessert – a Mexican chocolate bread pudding, which blends chocolate with a bunch of spices, including cayenne pepper. So good. And so rich. For a little while there, I thought between the rich chocolate cake after lunch and the rich chocolate bread pudding after dinner, I wouldn’t want anything chocolate again for quite a while. By Saturday, though, I had collected myself, remembered who I was, and happily finished off the last piece of chocolate cake.

Hans and Laura, who are always put so much thought into what gifts to give, presented me with a really beautiful new bag:

They new that I’m always searching high and low for the perfect new purse, and so they wandered around Etsy until they found one they thought I would like. And they chose well! It’s wonderful!

My friends Thomas and Eva also got me a very Liz-appropriate birthday gift - a pair of lime green coffee mugs!

In other news, I’ve been mostly taking it easy this summer. I’ve done a lot of reading, and I’ve been trying to keep up with logging and reviewing what I’ve read over on GoodReads.com. I’ve been reading like a mad-woman lately, and on Saturday, I dropped just under $100 on some new books. If you scroll down and look at the bottom of the sidebar on the blog, you’ll see a new plugin I’ve added that shows the books I’ve read most recently. I was tickled when I found that feature. :)

I also worked on updating Dad’s website, BJBass.com. It was in need of some revamping and updating, and so I played around with it and got it set up with WordPress as the back-end. Hopefully that will help him to keep it updated more easily.

I also finally got around to booking a room in Asheville for the end of August, when friends Dina and Chad are getting married. I had initially planned on just booking a hotel room somewhere in town, since even though B&Bs are so popular there, they’re also quite a bit more expensive. How wrong I was! Even the Hampton Inn and other hotels were in the $140-200/night range, so I figured I might as well book at a B&B, where I’d at least get an awesome breakfast included in the cost. I ended up chosing the Asheville Seasons Bed & Breakfast, and booked their smallest room, Endless Summer. It’s cute, it’s green, and they include a $10/night discount for single occupancy, something most places didn’t offer. Seems only fair to me, since I won’t be eating two breakfasts, I shouldn’t have to pay for two. Right? And this place got really great reviews every place I looked. Hopefully it’ll live up to the hype! They seemed really friendly when I called to book the room.

Anyway, that’s about it from here. I had hoped to make today a productive one, but it’s way too damn hot outside, and this heat makes me lethargic. All I want to do is curl up with a book, so I think that’s probably what I’m going to end up doing. You know, now that there’s not any shortage of new books in the house. :)

The plan on the 4th was to go to the Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary for their fireworks celebration, just like we did last year. We had a fabulous time last year, and the lineup was supposed to be just as great this time around: the Cary Town Band was playing early in the evening, followed by the Cary Symphony at dusk, followed by fireworks. So around 5:00 pm on Friday, we all piled into two cars with our coolers full of yummy picnicy stuff to eat and bags of fun things to do (e.g. knitting (for me), coloring books (for Laura and Maggie), and playing cards (for everyone)), and headed out to Cary. We waited patiently in line in order to park (it was crazy packed), and then made the mile-or-so hike from the parking lot down to the actual Amphitheatre. We made camp almost exactly where we did last year and proceeded to eat our dinners, play cards, listen to the music, and have a generally good time.

Then the thunder and lightening came. But we counted. Nearly 10 seconds passed between lightening bolt and thunder clap, so while everyone else around us was scampering to pack up and clear out, we decided to hold fast. The storm was miles away, and it was entirely possible that it wouldn’t come anywhere near us. About 2 minutes later, the storm was dead upon us. Crash-boom – no seconds between lightening bolt and thunder clap anymore. So we joined ranks and started packing everything up as quickly as we could. A few drops fell before we made it to the covered pavilion, joined by several hundred other people. We were packed in like sardines, but at least we weren’t out in the downpour. It was coming down in sheets, but we had high hopes that it would be your typical summer storm – heavy and fierce, but short-lived.

No such luck. It lasted for hours. After about 20 minutes of standing around, shoulder-to-shoulder in the pavilion, people started singing. The national anthem, “America the Beautiful,” etc. And when I say “people,” I mean nearly everyone in the pavilion - hundreds of people. It was kinda fun. No one seemed bummed out that we were all packed in so tightly or that the fireworks were cancelled. We weren’t just making the best of a bad situation – we were having fun.

And then they kicked us out.

Yes, they kicked us out. Shortly after the fireworks would have started had it not been pouring cats and dogs, the venue staff kicked us out. They said because the show was cancelled, they were going to start cleaning, so we all had to leave. So we had to walk the mile back to the car in the pouring rain and electrical storm. Luckily, both Laura and I had waterproof purses, so we were able to keep our cameras, phones, etc. from an untimely demise, but a great many other things were ruined (like the coloring books).

The drive home was miserable. We were all soaked through to the bone (my poor new car *sniff*), and the roads were packed and unmanaged, as the police force was not expecting to have to direct traffic at that time. The roads were beginning to flood from the sudden onslaught of rain, and I drove most of the way home around 20-30 mph (this on highways and freeways).

It rained again Saturday night. And Sunday night. (It is, of course, clear tonight… but that’s a given, as it’s a weekday, right?) Sunday we initially had plans to go to Eno River State Park and go swimming in the old rock quarry. I’ve never been, but Hans and Laura have been a couple of times and say it’s great fun. It’s deep - 65 ft. or thereabouts. But of course, because of all the storms, we had to cancel our plans. We did end up going to see WALL-E, as planned, and it was terribly cute. And of course, when we walked out of the theater after the movie, it was once again pouring down as if God were planning on flooding the Earth once again. (And I’m beginning to wonder, with all this recent torrential rain, if he’s not…) We were, of course, once again drenched on our way to the car.

Today, I bought an umbrella.

This weekend, starting on Thursday, has been phenomenal, for a myriad of reasons. Let me attempt to quantify them in chronological order:

Thursday, June 26, 2008

It’d been a long week already. I hadn’t been sleeping well, and I spent most of the previous day feeling hung over (without the benefit of having been drunk the night before) as a result. I didn’t expect much more for Thursday. Fate, however, had different plans for my day.

My boss had made lunch plans with our team for Thursday, so at 11:20, we headed out the door to go to Mez, a trendy new Mexican restaurant in Durham. While we were there, she presented each of us with a small bonus, as a token of her thanks and appreciation for how hard we’ve been working with such an understaffed team for the last few months. Then, she handed me my congratulatory one-year anniversary plaque (Wednesday, July 2nd will mark my official one-year anniversary with the company). So nice! “Open it!” she tells me, excitedly. “I want to see what it looks like!” “Oh, that’s right,” says my co-worker, AK. “You haven’t been here a year yet, so you don’t have one.” We all giggled. Fun times.

My one-year anniversary Certificate of Appreciation from work

Then, later that afternoon, my boss pulled me into her office. My promotion that we’ve all been pushing hard for (the one that would make official the position I’ve been filling for the past 6? 8? months) was finally approved, as was a very substantial raise. The raise was more than I was willing to wish for, and far more than I was expecting. I was high on glee the rest of the afternoon and couldn’t wait to rush home to call my friends and family and let them know that it finally happened.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Friday evening, my parents came into town for a visit. They’d spent a few days in Asheville, NC to celebrate their anniversary, and then they came down here for the weekend to round out their vacation. After they got settled in at the hotel, we went to Starbucks and caught up. I showed mom some of the stuff I’d been working on, such as the blue-grey handspun, and she showed me her newest sock (so pretty! Maybe she’ll post a picture of it soon.)

Blue-grey handspun singles of Louet Northern Lights #18 Icy Winter

Mom also presented me with some yummy gifts. First, I got to pick one of three colorways of hand-dyed fiber from Pagewood Farms. Each set was 4 oz. of merino/yak, and 4 oz. of merino/tencel. All were variations on shades of green – one was really teal/turquoisey, another was a pale almost seafoam green, and then there was the one that appealed to me the most (though they were all lovely), the yellowy-orangey green pair. So so so pretty. I can’t wait to spin it up! She also gave me a box of cards from Schaefer Yarns. I’m a pack-rat when it comes to stationery and cards, and I’ve been collecting since I was in third or fourth grade (yeah, I have a lot of stationery now). So this combines the best of both worlds - yarn and stationery!

Hand-dyed fiber from Pagewood Farms (merino/yak and merino/tencel) and cards from Schaefer Yarn

As a final gift, Mom and Dad presented me with an absolutely huge box of chocolates from my all-time favorite chocolate shop in Asheville, The Chocolate Fetish. I make a point of stopping at this shop and picking up some truffles every time I’m anywhere near Asheville (as do my parents and friends). I haven’t yet eaten any of it. I just open the box and inhale. They’re almost too good to eat. (Yes, they’re that good. I highly recommend the Champagne, Blossom, and Wine & Roses. They’re my favorites. My friends really like the Dragon’s Kiss, which is dark chocolate with a hint of wasabi.)

Truffles from The Chocolate Fetish in Asheville, NC

Then we went and had yummy pizza and beer at Brixx (their new pear and gorgonzola pizza is seriously divine), followed by super-yummy ice cream from Maggie Moo’s (which is, in case you were wondering, far superior to Cold Stone, Marble Slab, or any other ice creamery out there).

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Mom had asked me if I had any major plans for the weekend or if there was anything in particular I wanted to do while they were there. I told her I wanted to go car shopping. With my new raise, I decided it was finally time to retire Lucy (my ‘93 Honda Civic, the one I’ve been driving since I was 16), and upgrade to something new. The company I work for is part of the Ford Partnership Program, so I qualified for lower pricing on a variety of Ford family vehicles, including Mazdas and Volvos. I had done a little research and decided to look at the Mazda3 5-door hatchback.

I seriously had no intention of actually purchasing anything this weekend. I am not a person who makes rash decisions, especially not life-altering ones. I don’t make job or career changes easily, and I don’t make big-ticket purchases without first investigating, hemming and hawing, and procrastinating for long, long periods of time. I’m more of a duct-tape kinda girl. My mantra is, If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. If it is broken, either live with it or do a quick-fix and live with it. That’s why my couch is old and all ripped up, I have cheap-ass bookshelves, I’m still using the dishes my mom gave me when I got my first apartment (hand-me-downs from her college years), and I’m still driving the same car I got for my 16th birthday.

But, I knew the car I wanted, and after test driving it, I was sure it was the right car. And my parents were there offering advice and support, and they offered me a great price on it and pretty great financing to boot. They offered me 4.9% (after a bit of haggling), which is better than I could have gotten through the credit union I bank at. I probably could have gotten a better rate had I co-signed with my parents, but it does so much more for your credit score if you take it on yourself (and I would eventually like to buy a house one day down the road…) So, I signed on the dotted line. (Or actually, I signed on what seemed like several dozen dotted lines…)

So what did I get? I got a brand-new 2008 Mazda3 Grand Sport 5-door hatchback in Metropolitan Gray Mica.

It’s super. It’s the Grand Sport model, which comes fully-loaded, with a 2.3L engine (lots of hp and torque for a compact-sized car), leather interior with heated front seats, a 6-CD changer with mp3-capable stereo system and Bose 7-speaker audio system, complete with an auxiliary jack for my iPod, ambient climate control, auto-rain-sensing windshield wipers, a security system with remote entry, and a moonroof (I’ve wanted one for years). It’s being driven down from Virginia as we speak (there were no Grand Sport models available in the area), and I ought to have it tomorrow afternoon. I’m so excited! In the meantime, they’re letting me drive a base-model 3 around town until my car is available. I love it, but I love mine more. I can tell the difference in the engine and the handling. Mine is so much better (which I guess makes sense, since it was several thousand more expensive).

Anyway, I’ll be sure and post pictures of the new car once it arrives. In the meantime, want to help me pick out a name for it? The Honda was Lucy. (And to give you an idea of the types of names I usually pick for my material possessions, a list of all my electronics and their names can be found in this post from a year ago, towards the bottom.) Leave your suggestions in the comments – Lizzie’s new baby needs a name!

Anyway, back to the goings-on on Saturday. After a grueling afternoon of haggling, filling out paperwork, and signing on hundreds upon hundreds of dotted lines (okay, I exaggerate, but still… a lot of lines), the ‘rents and I went into Chapel Hill to have dinner with my friends. I love my parents, and I’d love them regardless, but I think it is so extremely cool that my parents like my friends and my friends like them. We all met up and went to Lime & Basil, this tiny little Vietnamese place with really great pho. We all had fun catching up, and my parents were happy to see my friends again – it’d been a while since their last visit.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Sunday morning we went out for a late brunch at the fabulous Irregardless Cafe, where we had lots of eggs mixed with lots of yummy things like seafood and asparagus and cheese, and then we splurged and had one of the most scrumptious desserts I’ve had in a long time – double chocolate bread pudding served with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce. I about died. I’d never been to this place, though I’d heard all about it, so it was really nice to have an excuse to get out and actually see the city I live in (and have for several years).

That evening, we went to a gospel choir concert in Durham. The whole reason my parents initially planned this trip was because the gospel choir they sing in – the Huntsville chapter of the One Human Family (OHF) gospel choir – was attending this 10-year reunion event in the triangle this weekend. They were planning on killing two birds with one stone – see all their choir friends from around the country and visit me. Then the reunion became a full-fledged workshop, and they decided to sit it out, spend time with me during the weekend, and go to the final concert on Sunday instead.

We had a blast, and it was so neat to meet all of Mom and Dad’s choir friends. The concert was phenomenal – everyone looked like they were having so much fun up there on stage.

I even took a couple of short video clips from the concert. If I can get permission to share them here, I will sometime later this week. Apologies for the super-lengthy post, but hopefully it was worth it to read about so much wonderful, positive stuff!

On the plus side, at least it’s keeping me busy, which makes it easy to defend the necessity of my position. Not that I’ve had to do that yet, but one does start to get a little twitchy and antsy when you see numerous positions being terminated week after week. I’m contenting myself with the knowledge that the work I do is essential, our team is extremely small for the amount of work we’re required to do, and, all modesty aside, I’m pretty damn good at it and learning more every day. At least if push comes to shove, I ought to be fairly marketable. I think. (I hope.) Maybe someone at Interweave will snatch me up, and I’ll get to work on magazine production and layout. Best of both worlds - print production and fibery goodness! Well, a girl can dream, anyway. For now, though, I’ll stick with where I am.

I’ve been thinking about things to post about for well over a week now. Every night I come home, and I think to myself, “I’m going to write about ___ tonight.” But the thought of getting out the camera, taking pictures, turning on the computer, editing the photos, and then sitting down to write all about said photos… It’s just too much. I usually end up just sitting down, turning on my audio book (I’m currently listening to American Gods by Neil Gaiman - a re-read of sorts, though a first for the audio version, which I am very much enjoying), and spinning or knitting til it’s time to go to bed. I mostly try not to think about the growing pile of laundry that needs washing, the furniture that needs dusting, the carpet that needs vacuuming, and the refrigerator that needs restocking, much less the blog that needs updating.

So tonight I’ve finally decided to write. Sadly, I waited until it was too dark to take photos to make this decision, so there will be no accompanying pictures, but maybe I’ll get around to that later in the week. These have been the highlights of the last week or so:

• Knitting - I’m keeping to my pact (so far), and I’ve been working somewhat diligently on my Nantucket Jacket. I’ll be starting the armhole and neck shaping of the first front piece tonight, so I’m probably, what? 2/3 finished with that piece? Still lots more to do - the other front piece and the two sleeves - but it’s coming along nicely, and it’s getting far easier to work on without glancing at the pattern every other row. Always a good thing - it means I can socialize while I work on it instead of holing away in a quiet corner to concentrate.
• Spinning - I’m working on consistency of thread size with my newest spinning project. I’m currently spinning up some Louet Northern Lights in the colorway 18 Icy Winter. My goal is to spin it very, very finely (and evenly) and then double-ply it together for a laceweight or light fingering weight. I’ve got 1/2 lb. of the stuff, so I think if I can spin it finely enough, I might have enough for a shawl. So far, I’m loving the way it’s turning out. (Pictures forthcoming in the next post, I promise.)
• WWKIP Day - Saturday, June 14th was, of course, World-Wide Knit In Public Day, and I celebrated by joining up with some lovely knitters from the area down at the mall behind my house. I had never met any of them before, as most of the knitterly meet-ups in this area are held on weekday evenings, and that just usually doesn’t work too well with my schedule. So it was really nice to meet these people, and several of them seemed interested in starting a bi-weekly Saturday group. I’m so there! Now the difficult part is finding an appropriate location and organizing the thing.
• Parents’ Visit! - My parents are coming to visit this weekend. They’re taking a few days in Asheville, NC this week, and then coming down here on Friday. I’m thinking of setting up an appointment on Saturday to visit the new fiber store in the Triangle, The Bull City Fiber Loft. (Mom will love it, and I can make it up to Dad somehow… not that he’s not completely used to being forced to visit yarn stores at this stage in his life, married to mom, the LYSO.) I’m rather excited about this new shop, as it’s a local resource for fibery goodness, and if I can get my spinning supplies and support a new local business in the process, I’m all for it. The only down-side is that they’re currently only open on weekdays during normal business hours and on weekends by appointment, but maybe that will change as they establish themselves a bit more. They’ve only been open a few weeks.
• Oregon Trail! - Ok, cheezy heading for that one. But it’s true - I’m headed to Oregon this summer, and I confirmed it this week by plunking down the money for a plane ticket. Well, Washington by way of Portland, OR, as the friend I’m visiting lives right across the state border in Vancouver, WA, only about 15 miles from the Portland airport. I’ve been wanting to take this trip for ages. On one level, I’ve wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest for nearly as long as I can remember. Everything I hear about it makes me fall in love. On another level, my long-time pen-pal lives there. She and I met at Christmas 1996 on a cruise both of our families went on. We were both bored teenagers and bonded immediately, along with a small group of like-minded teenagers. We were inseparable for those ten days. We all vowed to keep in touch, but Christy and I actually have. In the 12-1/2 years since that vacation, we’ve continued to write to one another, even through all those obnoxious address changes in college and post-college life. And always pen-and-paper snail-mail writing - never email. Well, almost never. Some of this trip planning has required a bit of email correspondence. At any rate, neither of us have seen each other since we were 15, and now I’ve purchased a $400 airplane ticket to fly out there this August to visit for a week. Exciting! I’ll also be catching up with a college friend, Missy, a knitter who will be moving up to Portland next month, and will have surely scouted out all the best yarn stores within a 50-mile radius by the time I arrive. Words cannot express how excited I am about this trip!

Guess that’s it for now. I’m sure there’s more to say, and maybe by the end of the week, I’ll figure out what it is. Til then, happy knitting!

However, I think I’ve reached the upper limits of number of WIPs (not even counting abandoned UFOs) that’s reasonably appropriate to have. I’ve got:

That’s two scarves, two pairs of gloves, two sweaters, and six - count ‘em, SIX - pairs of socks!

So, I’ve decided that this is going to be the summer of finishing. Finishing WIPs. I have 81 projects queued in Ravelry, and that’s only because I stopped adding after a while, because it was getting ridiculous. I refuse to start anything new until these twelve projects are either finished or frogged, and put to bed either way.

However, I’m a fickle, materialistic, generally unmotivated girl. I need some enticement to do this, other than just the knowledge that I won’t have these WIPs looming over me any longer. As I once put it to someone, I have the sheer iron will of a plastic spork. I know better than to just say “I’m going to do this.” I need prizes for finishing.

So… I’ve decided I’m finally going to give in and allow myself to start purchasing from Etsy. It’s a gutsy move, I know. I’m well aware that it’s quite habit-forming and all-too-easy to get sucked in. But, I will allow myself one $40 purchase (including shipping) for each small item finished (socks, gloves, and scarves), and a $100 purchase for completion of each of the sweaters. (Though I think the Autumn Fingerless Gloves have got to be a freebie, since there’s only like one finger left to go on the second glove… pitiful, I know.)

So, wish me luck. Maybe by mid-summer I’ll be several hundred dollars poorer, but richer in FOs and stash! Whoohoo!

I left right after work on Thursday, going straight to the airport from the office, and arrived in Columbus in time to join my mom and some of her friends for a late dinner. I finally got to meet Rob and Matt of Threadbear Fiber Arts Studio in Lansing, MI, who mom never shuts up about (which is understandable, because they’re wonderful, hilarious guys). We were also joined by Robin of Pagewood Farm and her assistant (whose name I unfortunately cannot remember). The food was mediocre at best, but the company more than made up for it, and a good time was had by all.

Friday morning, Mom had a class, so I spent that time catching up on some work (which I didn’t hear the end of for the rest of the weekend), and afterwards, we headed over to the convention center for the Retailer’s Luncheon, where we were treated to a talk by the Yarn Harlot herself, Ms. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. As is her usual custom, she took photos of her sock with all of us as a backdrop, and if you look closely at one of the photos she took, you can see me and Mom. That’s me wearing pink near the center front of the photo…

I cast on for a no-brainer sock shortly before Stephanie started talking, which I figured was an appropriate thing to do, given the situation. It’s a mindless little sock done with Panda Cotton, and I’m thrilled with how the colorway is turning out.

Friday evening was the fashion show, but as neither Mom nor I like tight, crowded spaces, we opted to skip it and have dinner with Mom’s former TNNA roommate (before yours truly took her place), Jackie of Wild and Woolly in Lexington, MA. It’s too bad we were both so tired after dinner, because we missed out on all the fun that was had with the cool kids over at the Hyatt that night. Oh well, maybe next year.

Saturday was the first day of the show, and Mom and I got off to a good start. We ran into Jess and Casey, who gave us name stickers and name badges, so other Ravelers could easily identify us. We stopped by the Louet booth to place a huge order of yarns and spinning fibers (of which yours truly added a hefty amount to!) and got to meet Abby, who was working the fiber section of that booth.

On Sunday we looked at the lovely offerings from Namaste (where I picked up a schnazzy new badge holder, since I foolishly left my TNNA one at home), ordered what seemed like 10 years worth of delicious sock yarn from Pagewood Farm, and fondled some incredibly soft yarn from New Zealand made from possum fur, of all things. This latter is from Zealana, and it’s truly lovely, if a bit on the pricey side. I was able to snag a couple of samples - one that’s a cotton/bamboo/possum blend, and another that’s a wool/cashmere/possum blend. They’re really gorgeous, and you wouldn’t believe how soft they are. I’m particularly in love with the latter, as it has a lovely halo when it’s knit up. It’s slightly less than that of mohair, but as I’m highly allergic to mohair, I’ve been on the lookout for a good replacement. I may have found it. I wonder if people would look at you funny if you told them you were wearing possum yarn?

That evening, we dined again with Matt and Rob, and we were also joined by the lovely Kim Werker. You wouldn’t believe how funny this girl is. At one point, we were discussing actors, and when, upon mention of Serenity and Firefly, it became known that several of us at the table knew what she was talking about, she said, “Oh my god, I’m with my people!!” The conversations went on for hours and ranged from everything from crochet (the logical topic, given the crowd) to visiting Japan to embarassing stories, and beyond. I was sorry to end the evening, but as I had a 6:30 am flight the next morning (so I could get off the plane and go to work - joy), it was time to call it a night.

Overall, I had a fabulous time, and I’m sorry I don’t have more photos to share. I’ll just have to let everyone else’s blogs suffice in that area. And now, it’s late and time for bed. There’s still so much I want to talk about, but… I’ll have to save it for later. So, til then… happy knitting!

So, I’m in the middle of doing that thing I promised myself I was never going to do again. No, not that thing - the other thing. (Wait, what were you thinking? No wait, nevermind - I don’t want to know.) No, I’m in the middle of another all-nighter. I suppose it’s not really fair to call it an all-nighter at this point, since it’s 9:02 am, but regardless, I’ve been awake all night. Unlike the days of old when I was in college, this wasn’t an all-nighter spent in the library studying for a final or finishing up a midterm paper. This was a timezone-adjustment all-nighter. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I cannot, for the life of me, manage to fall back into a new sleep cycle. My body will not allow me to go to bed earlier than it thinks I ought to. The only way I can move backward is to leap forward, if that makes any sense. (It’s okay if it doesn’t - everyone else thinks I’m a bit warped, too.)

At any rate, I’ve been up all night. Some of it was spent knitting. I’m working hard on getting this pattern created before the deadline, but I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with what I’ve come up with. The problem is that I won’t really know until I knit a little bit more on it. But I think I need to alter some of it, which will require knitting about another 20 or so rounds, deciding, and then frogging, reworking the pattern, and reknitting. Fun stuff. I wish I had more time, but then again, I’ve always worked best under a deadline.

I’m almost embarassed to admit what I’ve been doing with the rest of my long night. But if you’re going to blog, you might as well blog bout the juicy embarassing stuff, right? I’ve been watching Beverly Hills 90210. Yes, my friends, I’m sunk deep into the shallow recesses of 1990 and spending my nights with Brandon, Brenda, Steve, Dylan, Kelly, and Donna. CBS has apparently put a whole bunch of “classics” online, including Family Ties, Twin Peaks, and our favorite teen soaps from the 90s, 90210 and Melrose Place. And while I’m admitting the embarassing pastime of rewatching 90210, I might as well admit that I’m drawing a scary number of similiarties between this so-called “classic” and the newest teen soap, Gossip Girl (which I will grudgingly admit to watching almost obsessively). And has anyone caught wind of the newest teen soap to join the airwaves, coming this fall - the new 90210, in which we get to follow the lives of a new class from West Beverly High? It’ll be interesting to see. Whereas the original series was proud to show us teenagers sporting such crazy indulgeneces as cellular phones and laptops for high school students (*gasp!*), this new series will have a main character who hosts her own YouTube series. Ah, how the times change.

Ok, enough about embarassing self-indulgences and onto the less-embarassing self-indulgences. You know, like yarn splurges.

So, speaking of 90210, I spent the last week in Orange County. I was there on a business trip, attending another tradeshow. From the time I got there to just about the time I left, I spent nearly morning, noon, and night either in the hotel, the conference center, or within a mile of the two. I had a good time meeting new people from the company and some of our really great customers, but it was all still business. The last day, however, I was given the afternoon off. So instead of lounging by the pool or wandering around Disneyland (which was about a half-mile away from where we were staying), I decided to rent a car and drive around.

With the aid of Google Maps, Ravelry, and my newly-installed GPS on my cell phone, I made my way around Orange County in search of great yarn stores. Geeky, I’ll admit, but I had a great time. Part of it was that it was the first time in a week that I’d had truly to myself. Part of it was that I got to drive again after nearly a week of not driving (and I do so love driving). Part of it was that I got to get out and explore a new place (I found that I really liked driving around Orange County, surprisingly - their roads are really well marked). And part of it was that I got to see some great new yarn stores and meet some great new knitters.

My first stop was in Costa Mesa, at The Sheared Sheep. When I walked in, they kept laughing at me because I had such a huge grin on my face. What can I say? I love good yarn stores. They’re like my home away from home. And this one was beautiful. It had that feel of a posh but comfortable living room, where you would feel right at home sitting and knitting the day away with old friends. And I bought some lovely, lovely stuff there. I know, I know - like I need more yarn. But I couldn’t help myself. At this shop, I bought shawl yarn. Some beautiful blue-grey Misti Alpaca laceweight and some lucious pink-red Malabrigo laceweight.

Misti Alpaca Laceweight

Malabrigo Laceweight - 157 Ambrosa

My second stop was in Long Beach, at the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, where I drooled over sock yarn. And of course, I bought some. I wasn’t about to spend $60 on a rental car for the day to visit yarn shops and not buy any yarn! So I walked away with some lovely gems:

I also came to the conclusion on that last stop that yarnies are like Freemasons. Ok, so maybe we don’t exactly have a secret handshake, but there’s still a lot of other similarities. We have a secret code - I bet just about any one of you out there would know just what I meant if I wrote this: ||–||–||o|| /| |\ ||o||–||–||

Right? Sure you do. And there’s more: we’re found in every country, every city, every town throughout the world. We know each other instantly, and there’s almost always an instant sense of comrodary once we see one of our own. You’re never truly alone in the world if there’s a fellow yarnie nearby, and you can always count on a fellow yarnie to help you out when you need something in a foreign city. Take, for instance, the lovely owner of the Almitos Bay Yarn Comapny, who offered me suggestions for a great seafood dinner that evening. “I’m happy to see there are so many seafood restaurants around,” I say. “I’m starving for some good fish.” “There are a lot of seafood restaurants around here, it’s true,” she tells me, “but I can tell you which ones are great.” And so I was directed to Walt’s Warf, where I dined on a delectable meal of oysters, swordfish, asparagus, risotto, and a heavenly glass of cabernet. And I’d be willing to bet that any yarnie in any city across the globe would be willing to do the same for their fellow yarnie. I stand by my comparison - being a knitter/crocheter/spinner/weaver/dyer (i.e. “yarnie”) is like being a Freemason in that you have a built-in network of friends no matter where you go.

At any rate… I’m back home now, in the beautiful Carolinas. I miss Orange County in a strange sort of nostalgic way (which is weird, because I was there for just a week and barely saw any of it at all), but I’m glad to be home. Tomorrow begins another week of work, and in a week and a half, I fly off to Columbus, OH to join my mom at TNNA. I’m sure we’ll both have tons more yarn stories to share then, but until then, I’ll be swamped with sock-designing and -knitting, catching up on mundane things like laundry and neglected household chores, and sneaking in the ever-embarassing episode of 90210, which will keep me in Orange County in mind, if not body.

So, til later, happy knitting!

I wish I had more knitting to share, but I really don’t. I’m plugging away on the Nantucket Jacket, but there’s not really much to show. The front sections look prettymuch like the back, only half as wide, as it’s a cardigan. I have been spinning, though. If you look back to my post from February 9th, you’ll see a pretty bobbin of a single-ply from some Louet Northern Lights fiber I bought last summer. It wasn’t my favorite colorway, so I was kind of slow on spinning it up, but I did finally finish all three bobbins worth of singles, and I’ve now started the plying process. I honestly wasn’t all that crazy about it, even when it was spun up, but I’m almost in love with it now that it’s in a beautiful hank of 3-ply yarn. I can’t believe how nicely the colors all melded together!

I apologize for the blurriness of the second photo. I thought about re-taking the picture after I found that none of the ones I took were all that great, but it’s dark out now, and I probably couldn’t get much better with my shaky hands at the moment anyway (damn you, Starbucks espresso!)

There hasn’t been much time for knitting, spinning, or anything lately. I had wanted to dye this weekend, but I just ran out of time and energy - this tradeshow stuff is draining it all from me. Once we reach a lull in the schedule, though, I guarantee I will get back on the ball. I’ve been itching to dye for weeks now, and I’ve got all these fabulous colorways dancing around in my head. The skeins are all wound up and ready to go - I just need to find a day where I can set aside a bulk of hours and get down to it. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Meanwhile, I’ve been indulging my ever-growing love of audiobooks. I finished Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver while I was in Atlantic City at the last tradeshow, and in the week since I’ve finished The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (which I’d read before, but the audiobook was recommended to me by mom). Fabulous. Now I’m even more eager for the movie to come out this December! I started The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (read by Frank Muller) a few days ago, but it’s really bringing me down. I’ve not read the book before, though I do love Conroy, and I’d heard fabulous things about Frank Muller’s narration skills. I’ve only just started it, but so far it’s terribly depressing, and with all the stress and chaos at work, what with the upcoming tradeshow, I’m not sure I can handle such a serious and depressing novel at the moment. I did, however, just pick up audiobook versions of two of my favorite books at the library: Beach Music by Pat Conroy (also read by Frank Muller - a depressing novel, but at least one I know and absolutely adore) and American Gods by Neil Gaiman (read by Guidall George). My goal is to get those converted over to digital versions and pop them onto my iPod before I leave for Anaheim later this week. It’s a long flight to California, and I’ve got a lot of knitting and audio-reading to catch up on!

In other news, I received an email this morning from a publisher who’s putting together a book of sock patterns, and they’d like me to submit something. I won’t say too much more about it now, but I have to say, that was one of the better ways to start off a hectic Monday morning that I’ve experienced. I never really even thought about publishing any of my patterns… How cool would it be if I could? I tell ya, it’d certainly motivate me to design more! So, once more, keep your fingers crossed for me!

And on that note, it’s probably time for me to get back to work. I’ve tried to do the “rest and relaxation” thing this evening when I got home from work, and I failed miserably at it. So, I might as well get back to all those hundreds of little things that still need to get done! Life in the fast lane never really ends, I guess. :)

One thing I love about staying in hotels is the free stuff you get. Ok, admittedly, they don’t give you that much. But I love those tiny little bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and they give you a new set each day, despite the fact that it takes less than 5% of a bottle to wash your hair. They’re just so cute. And I love having them on hand at home when I run out of shampoo and forget to go to the store to buy more. Good stuff.

Last night was fun. A few of us booked a reservation at Bobby Flay’s restaurant at the Borgata Hotel and Casino. Pricey, but delicious. We ordered light - surf and turf appetizer skewers with grilled lobster and fillet mignon, and side orders of mashed potatoes with truffle oil and creamed spinach to split. And then we split the most delicious dessert I think I have ever tasted - a chocolate butterscotch cake. It was moist, rich, and had a really interesting texture - some layers were smooth, some were cakey, some were denser and had that sorta granular texture you find in peanut butter bars. It was heavenly.

We played the nickel slots at the Borgata for a while. I only played $10, and at one point I was up by nearly $28, but then I gave it all back over the course of about 5 minutes. Oh well. It’s not like you play nickel slots to win it big.

I haven’t had much free time lately - as soon as I was able to go back to work after my arm healed, it was go go go, but I have gotten some knitting and spinning time here and there. They’re getting to know my face at the library as I borrow audiobook after audiobook, in order to have something worthwhile to listen to while I’m fibering. (It’s my new word - “knitting / spinning / dyeing” is too long, so “fibering” will suffice to encompass it all from now on.) I finally finished listening to the massive Outlander series, and I enjoyed listening to it this time around almost more than I did reading through it the first time. I think a large part of that is due to the narrator, Davina Porter, who is absolutely fantastic. Still, after nearly 300 hours worth of the series (those big books take a long time to read out-loud - the final book alone was 56 hours!), I’m glad to be able to move on to something new. I’m currently listening to Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, read by the author. I had tried re-reading it a while back and just couldn’t get into it. I’m enjoying the audiobook version, though. Kingsolver has a very soothing voice, and it’s the perfect thing to listen to after a long, stressful day as I’m getting ready to settle in for bed.

I just wish I had my spinning here with me in the hotel room, but I guess my spinning wheel wouldn’t have been all that easy to transport, especially for only five days. I’ll live. I do have my knitting, though. I threw it in a light-weight, squishy $1 bag from Target (one of those “green” reusable shopping bags that all the stores are pushing now) to take with me on the airplane.

I had really hoped to be able to finish the back of my Nantucket Jacket before I left so that I wouldn’t have to carry the nearly-complete thing on the plane with me, but no such luck. Still, I’ve only got about 8 more rows to do before I’m ready to bind off and start on the front panels.

I’m not 100% crazy about the up-sizing of the pattern - the seed stitch panels seem too wide, and I think I would have preferred the cable panels to be extended instead. But, live and learn, I guess. I’m enjoying knitting it, though. It’s an easy enough pattern to memorize, but not so easy as to be mind-numbing. And the combination of the cables and seed stitch is just so dang pretty!

Anyway, all this talk of audiobooks and knitting is making me want to put my feet up and enjoy them for a bit before we head out to dinner in an hour. So, I’m off. Tata!

As a reward for all my hard work, I allowed myself to ignore the cleaning. I played with color instead. I’ve been dyeing yarn and fiber for a while now, and I learn something new every time I do it. I normally use pre-mixed colors, maybe modifying the color slightly, but usually not. While I’ve had fun doing this, I’ve longed to have the time to learn how to make colors from scratch. I took the time yesterday afternoon.

I had a particular color combination in mind, and found a digital representation of it. I brought my laptop into the dining room dye studio so I could refer to the picture as I mixed colors.

I had read somewhere that white ice cube trays make excellent dyers palettes. I grabbed one we never use from the cupboard and commenced to mixing. I had stock solutions of blue, red and yellow, and mixed and mixed and mixed. I finished just before BJ Bass came home from work, and was amazed that the afternoon had flown by so quickly. I only managed to dye three skeins of yarn, but they’re like nothing else I’ve ever done, and so I’m pleased with the afternoon’s lessons.

The green skein in the middle is to honor a special request. We’ll see if the requester likes it. The other two are up for grabs, and will be at the store this afternoon. After I finish admiring them.

On the red sweater front, I’m almost done with the first bobbin. This is addictive spinning for me, I keep wanting to see what the next color will look like. And Abby says she’ll make some red for me — yay!

My mother is a collector of, well, many things. She loves pretty things, and until recently, more was always better. She’s in downsizing mode now though, so the mantle has been passed to me, her eldest child.

Everyone knows what I collect. If it’s spun or spinnable, I lust after it. I collect cookbooks too, but that’s the subject of another post for another day.

When I first started spinning, 14 or 15 years ago, I collected fiber. Natch. But 14 or 15 years ago there was only the glimmer of The Internet in our home, and certainly no one shopped there. So fiber availability was limited. Then I stopped spinning, because I became mistress of all the yarn in Huntsville, and the fiber waited patiently in its closet.

Two years ago I returned to spinning, and my collecting of fiber resumed. Last month I dyed some superwash merino in bright, cheerful colors

and had a blast spinning it into a cushy, sproingy three-ply sport weight yarn. I had a baby sweater in mind. This one.

I was sad when I finished it, because I wanted to knit some more. I really liked that Baby Surprise Jacket. And then I remembered my stash (though it’s not too likely that I would ever forget it). I have a generous collection of reds just waiting to be played with.

What you see here is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s more that wouldn’t fit in the picture. The idea started to percolate as I fondled the batt from Red Stone Yarns, a gift from Elizabeth when she came to visit last month. As I rummaged through the bins, I remembered that several of the fiber club offerings from Adrian had red in them, including the latest (bottom left corner) called red velvet. Mmmmmm, Shetland. I love Shetland wool.

I added a batt of Corriedale from Grafton Fibers (far left), some BFL from Lori Lawson, pencil roving dyed by Teyani and a gloriously textured batt from Crosspatch Creations. All of my favorite fiber folks, in one project. Except for one.

“Dear Abby — Do you have any red?”

Progress reports will be forthcoming.

In other news, my cast comes off tomorrow, and not a minute too soon. I can’t wait to be free of the dang thing. It wicks away all moisture from my skin, and the fingers on my right hand are cracked and peeling. No amount of moisturizer seems to help. And while my arm seems to have healed quite nicely over the last few weeks, the cast itself still keeps me from doing things easily, such as knitting, writing, and even typing. I cannot wait for the bloody thing to be taken off.

In the meantime, since I’m forbidden from working for insurance purposes, and I’m not supposed to drive, I’ve been holed up in the apartment with little but the internet and books to keep me occupied. Upon mom’s suggestions, I started listening to the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, which I had read a while back, but not yet listened to the audiobook version. The books themselves are long (most near 1000 pages, and there are six in the series so far), and I figured the unabridged audiobooks ought to keep busy while I was stuck at home with nothing to do. I’ve just begun the fifth book, and I’m currently on disc 5. Disc 5 of 47. That’s 56 hours of audiobook. Now, granted, this particular book in the series (The Fiery Cross) is my least favorite of them, as it’s slow and drags a lot. Nearly six hours in, and we’ve covered less than ONE DAY in the story so far. Still, the reading itself by Davina Porter is entertaining to listen to, and as it’s cost me nothing to borrow it from the library, and I had nothing to do anyway, it’s fine enough for me. Better than watching court TV and Oprah, I suppose.

I had a fun email on Ravelry this afternoon, from a friend who moved away a few years back. She’s apparently taken up knitting and tracked me down to wave hello. So, here’s my hello back to Ms. Katie!

As a random note of the day, the “t” key on my keyboard sticks and I frequently fail to hit it at just the right angle or with just enough strength to make it register. The result is that my words frequently lack Ts (whether they’re supposed to or not) or that I am forced to backspace on just about every other word to correct it. It’s really quite aggravating, and I’ve contemplated at times removing the letter “t” from my typed vernacular altogether. For your sakes, though, I have diligently refrained from doing so. You’re welcome.

Here’s hoping that next time I post, I can shower you with pictures of all the pretty things I’ve knitted, spun, and dyed, because surely you’re growing weary of my endless inane ramblings on. I promise to be more focused next time.

Til then, tata.