Resolutions

Well, I suppose since it is New Years Eve I should make some resolutions. I didnt make any last year so I have nothing to review. I read somewhere that resolutions that are specific are more likely to be followed so I'll give it a go.

1. Lose 11 lbs to be back to the weight I was before diabetes.
2. Have better control of the diabetes. Specifically, get my A1c down to 6.4 or below.
3. Keep in touch better w/ faraway friends. ie: send birthday cards on time.
4. Learn to knit socks.
5. Manage money better and spend less.
6. Knit from my stash at least every other project.

Well, I think that should do it. Lets hope I can do it (:{

FO: Felted bag for sister

Well, it's been a long time since I posted a knitted FO on here, so hurrah, finally here is one. I started this bag ages ago as a mindless knit to knit when I got bored with other projects. As Christmas neared and all it needed was to be felted I thouhgt it would make a good gift for my sister (I also thought it would make a good birthday gift for her back in September, but it was no where near finished then).

Project name: Felted bag for Vickie
Pattern: Sophie free on Magknits
Yarn: cascade 220 in grey (dont have the tag anymore so I dont know the actual color code or dyelot)
Needles: 10.5 metal circs and metal dpns
Pattern adjustments: Used US size 10.5 instead of 10 needles. Also made the bag slightly bigger and the handles slightly longer. I also used the remainder yarn to knit up a rectangle (stockinette bordered by garter) to use as a pocket.
Notes: I felted this one the same as the other Sophie I made but it came out completely different. I felted as follows: put in pillow case and tie off. Run through hot wash cycle w/ dirty jeans and a little detergent, then cold rinse cycle. Run another hot wash/cold rinse with no detergent. Open pillow case and check.
The other Sophie I made I used the color of Cascade indicated in the pattern and it turned out wonderfully. This gray yarn felted much differently, SIGH. It came out much smaller than intended and so the handles ended up being shorter than I wanted. It was also thicker than I wanted. And the rectangle for the cellphone pocket was thick and small too. SO it must have felted faster/easier than the yellow-green and thus 2 cycles was overkill. Once again I'm learning things the hard way -- ALWAYS CHECK the felting after each wash/rinse cycle!



Here is the front of the bag.






















This cute bead is hiding the stitches that show on the outside from attaching a snap closure. Cute though.












Here is a picture of the back. You can faintly make out the cell phone pocket that I sewed on after felting. Not sure if an actual cell phone will fit in this tiny pocket though.

Even though it didnt turn out as I planned it my sister did like it so that's good.

Holiday Catch Up

Well now that I'm back from the apathetic void known as my parents house and I'm (shock!) not sick (yet!) I can start updating on my life and my FO's, and proceed with the year-end wind down.

Here is the courtyard of my apartment the day after our first big storm. it looked much the same the day I left Boston except it was snowing like crazy and a couple more inches were on the ground. I would have taken pictures of the somewhat sunny storm the day I left but I had a million bags in my hands and I was trying to make it to the airport (relatively) dry and on time. Or, just in time to be delayed for 6 hours!






Yay nekkid yarn pictures! Here is my Christmas present from Andreas. Very nice wool in a wonderful colorway. He knows me too well! (:{












Close -up of yarny goodness!!













Here is a picture of my sister's fiance's kid, or, my step-nephew-to-be, we'll just call him Jonathon. That's the cats sleeping box and he's proving that he fits inside. I have some nice pictures of the kid when he was in a good mood (he can be such a crankypants!) b/c he hung around me a lot. And that's a big part of why I didn't get much done. I was too busy reading and playing games w/ my new best friend. Its kinda hard to say no to a cute kid who follows you around like a puppy. At least he likes me, it could be worse.


The day after Christmas my sister and I did our usual retail trip to downtown Chicago. This year we didnt buy much due to budgetary constraints but it was nice to just be down there on a beautiful day. Here is a reflection of some skyscrapers in the giant mirrored Bean.









And here is the view looking straight up into the underbelly of the Bean. neat huh?










Other than that everything was pretty low key. Had a nice Christmas other than having a migraine the day of, sigh. But everyone loved their knitted snowflakes so that's good. Still have some Holiday cards to send out though. I'm so behind on everything this year!! Definitely a little lonely here in Boston w/ no one else around!

ooops I did it again

once again I have knit up a christmas gift, way too close to deadline (I'm leaving town weds), from a pattern I invented in my head. and once again, its so small it might not even fit a child's head. this one is possibly fixable as the strands between the colors were too tight, and the different colors are spaced apart, so I could just cut all of the strands that i carried along and weave them in, allowing for the garment to stretch to its full potential. however, that is a heck of a lot of work. so before i do all of that i'm going to gift the hat. b/c what if the recipient doesn't like it? anyhow, i'd show a picture that would better explain all of this, but the person may be reading this. so full explanations will be had at the end of this week.
bah!!
maybe this will teach me......
never knit on a deadline from a pattern you invent in your head.

I also had some Very Serious Issues with the ill-fated Endpaper's today. I effed up the kitchener bind-off in a major way and lost some stitches off the needles. sigh. maybe today was just not a good day to knit. maybe my brain is too cluttered to knit complicated patterns. whatever happened to knitting for relaxation? its never good when your knitting stresses you out.
And today was one of those days that I really needed Something to go right. B/c it was such a downer. Thanks to the nor'easter and warm temps there is nothing but flood and slush in addition to the snow piles outside. and as i was walking to work to pour some plates i was drenched completely in road slush by motorists speeding unsafely down longwood ave. not once, not twice, but four times! by the time i got to hsph i was ready to cry and freezing and drenched in dirty water. b/c it isnt bad enough that i had to go to work on a crappy sunday. thank you masshole drivers. i hope karma is a giant bucket of sewage that drops on your head. luckily i have access to the mouse breeding facility that has clean scrubs.

Blizzard!!

Well, today I was planning on going to the Harvard Ceramics Program Holiday Show and Sale opening night, but, the weather predictions turned out to be true and traffic was worse than I thought so I walked home. Except that by 4 pm there was a foot of snow on the ground and nothing had been shoveled or plowed and the snow was still falling like crazy!! And me being me I didnt believe the weather prediction so I left all my perfectly good snow gear at home. At least I was wearing ankle boots or the 1.5 miles home would have been even worse. Really quite amazing how much snow fell in just a few hours.


These pictures are from my balcony around 5 pm tonight.





























But I did get some secret holiday knitting done. Yay! And since its another pattern from my head I'm crossing my fingers and praying that it turns out alright and not like the hat I tried to make for my brother's girlfriend last Christmas. We shall see.

update and thanks

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for offering their condolences. (realized of course after the last post that ive been spelling it as granpa and everyone else in the fam spells it grampa. ah well). i'm back from Chicago now. and i've caught a cold of course. been working on lots of snowflakes and about to start some holiday knitting (i swore i had size 8 needles but could not for the life of me find them before i left for my trip). ive been avoiding the endpapers as ive been sick and didnt want to cover them in whatever i'm coughing out, but they are sooo close to done.
i have lots and lots of ceramics fo's to post but with it being so dreary out i havent been able to get some good pictures, so hopefully soon!

Death, it always comes too soon

The first fish I ever caught, with Grampa's help of course.














Well since I've spent most of the day crying anyway, I may as well write the post that's going to make me cry. Today my sister called me, and I could tell she had been crying. My first thought was that something happened between her and her fiance. But then she said "Grampa died this morning." I will forever remember this day as the first time I truly knew loss and grief.
I have counted myself lucky that though they are not always in the best of health, and though there have been some close calls, every family member that I have been close to was still with me except for my great gramma. But when she passed in 2004 she was 101, and we were prepared for her passing as she had been ill for some time. We had time to make peace and say goodbye. I couldnt make the funeral because it was in the middle of finals at college but my family told me it was a more happy occasion, a celebration of her life, for she had lived a long and full life, one worthy of celebration. This time its not such a happy occasion. This was too sudden. Even though his health had been declining for a couple of years he wasnt that ill, just old. I know that everyone must die but that doesnt make it any easier when its your own granpa. He was a wonderful man and I will miss him terribly. He liked to tell jokes and make people smile. He liked to buy everyone gag gifts at Christmas. Or silly games that we could all play. He was a fisherman. He was a war veteran. He was "Chuck the Windspinner Man."

When I called him to wish him a happy birthday last year he asked me how the rats were (I work with mice), how the research was going, and if I got along with my roommates. He told me that he thought my sister was too young to be thinking about marriage and how happy he was that I'd chosen to live a life on my own before I settled down. He told me to see the world, have a career and "sow my wild oates" before I got married. When I laughed that that was strange advice for a grandfather to give a granddaughter he brushed it off and said it was true, I would live a longer life than I ever expected and I didnt want to get to an age where I regretted not doing all the exciting things when I was young. The fact that he not only supported my decisions but encouraged them at a time when most of my relatives were asking me when I was going to "find a nice guy and settle down" meant everything to me.

This Christmas is going to be so hard without him. I didnt go home for thanksgiving and I had looked forward to seeing him at Christmas. I am so incredibly sad. I know in time it will get easier... But right now this pain in my gut, this knot in my throat, reminding me that something I loved has been lost forever, is horrible. Right now I hate that I am alone in Boston. I'll be taking a red-eye flight to Chicago on weds and back to Boston saturday, but before then I have to present my research at our yearly Gates Foundation meeting and I just hope I can muster enough concentration to get through the day on tuesday.
This week will be rough but I know I'll get through it somehow. Also, thanks to everyone who has already sent me good wishes of love and support - it means a lot.


Grampa, me, my sister, and my dad at Six Flags.

When you are stressed

You get this (on the right):

instead of the five pointed one on the left. I worked on that "lace triangle" this past week, which was a particularly stressful one at work and i just had to laugh tonight when i finally bound it off and realized what it was. its even more funny since i tried so hard to make it right. i kept miscounting stitches and ripping back and starting over. oh well.

at least i had the arrival of some yarny goodness to help. (yes the stash has grown!! gah!)

Here we have some Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in the new Raven series.
This is Grawk. isn't she beautiful?













And this is Tlingit.
I'm sad to say that I'm a little disappointed in Tlingit, she seems just like a muted Grawk. I had contemplated getting Rook-y instead, but its so hard to guess true color from the computer. So I didnt. And I wish I had. Ariel got a skein of Rook-y and I was very jealous. Ah well.





I love Grawk though so that makes me happy.
(:{

only 54%??

Man I have a long ways to go in seeing all these states. and there are a couple (Colorado, Nebraska) that I was in when I was 2, so I dont remember and I'd like to return. Totally stole this idea from Amanda via Ariel! Now its back to work for me!




create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

(mostly) FO's

I've been in a little bit of a knitting rut lately. Don't tell the secret spook endpaper's but it's all their fault. So I decided to stop stressing about the mitts and to devote some time learning to spindle. I stumbled upon this wonderful website while at work which answered a lot of questions I had. After the spindle began to wobble with all the spun alpaca goodness on it I wound up my first ball. Then onto the next. I used the same fiber - more alpaca cream colored. This time, after the first couple inches, I did a much better job of keeping the fiber the same thickness. Though, I still do better with the park and draft method, mostly cuz I cant keep the darned thing from spinning in the opposite direction and undoing all I've done. I also think I'm still spinning thicker than the spindle can handle b/c it wasnt long before it was wobbling again. So I wound up my second single ball.



Here I am winding up the second single. Using a little ceramic cup I made this past summer works perfect to hold the spindle while I wind. Notice the even thickness!!















Here are my first two singles. The one on the left is the very first - you can see all the varying thicknesses. The one on the right is much better except for that first couple inches when I started it - thats on the top right of the ball.
I think I'll have to get a heavier spindle to ply the yarn. I'm considering using a suggestion I saw on the Ravelry boards and plying it w/ colored thread so that it doesnt get super thick. But that's for later, first I'll do some more spindling practice.




Onto (nearly) FO 2!
Finally started some holiday knitting. Here is the beginning of my lace snowflake star ornament. The Emily Oaker cast on took several tries and I'm still not comfortable with it, so I may eventually switch to another method.










It knit up super quick though, so that's good.
This is what it looked like when I went to bed last night after 1 hour of work.













And here we are tonight after only 2 hours work. It's almost all done! It just needs to be starched. Despite the icky beginning - its not even easy to knit off of the EO cast-on, I like the pattern and am hoping to make roughly 40 of them by x-mas to give away as ornaments to my family. Wish me luck! (thankfully (or not!) I'll have quite a bit of boredom time to knit once I get to the parents house on dec 20th).

stash

if i were a lol-cat i would be saying "i can has a stash?"

i'm in the process of uploading all the pics i took today of stash bin #1 (since its so rare i see the sun - it was out today!) and then i'll get them into Ravelry. its funny b/c as i was pulling out the yarn from the bin i was thinking: gift, free-bee, gift, free-bee, etc. I think there were only a couple of skeins of yarn i actually bought myself! it still manages to multiply in the night though, so i've decided due to my budgetary constraints to try and knit from my stash as much as possible in the next several months which means that i might actually *gasp* attempt socks again. but first the christmas knitting must begin.....

Drop Spindle Fun

Uh oh, a New crafty/fiber endeavor!
So my new fascination with spindling started when Amanda started talking about getting her FIL to make her a spindle. I didnt know what it was and she directed me to this very helpful knitty article. I thought they were super cute and was intrigued. THEN I saw a girl on the 66 bus spindling while riding the bus! (clearly, it was a sign from the fiber goddess) And it looked super fun. When the lot of us went to Rhinebeck I looked at all the pretty spindles, but I wasnt sure which one would be right for me. I also know nothing about roving, so I didnt buy any fiber. I found a Golding drop spindle starter kit near the end of the day but it was a large portion of my budget, and I had already spent most of it on yarn. Lucky for me Danielle mentioned that she had several spindles she could loan me if I wanted to try it out AND she had some alpaca roving she'd be willing to give to me since she's allergic. Yay! Sadly, I havent seen Danielle since Rhinebeck, but she saw Catherine last weekend and then I saw Catherine tonight for some random knitting.
I was all excited to get the spindle and fiber before the holiday weekend and boy was I ever pleasantly surprised. I hit the fiber jackpot! I was expecting one bag of alpaca, not a bunch! And in so many colors! There's creme, black, solid grey, brown, and brown and creme heather!
After a quick tutorial from Ariel, I was off and running. Well, kinda. I'm not very good and my end product is all different thicknesses, but I'm sure I'll get better with practice.



Look at all that fiber goodness!
Thanks Danielle!!















Here is a real live alpaca at Rhinebeck. Cute!

















This one was a prize winner and a bit of a prima donna - she didnt want to look at anyone!










I'm not super worried that I'll give up knitting or stop buying yarn or even blow all my monies on a wheel because I'm not really interested in making my own yarn. I just like spindling for the novelty of it. Its tiny, portable, and cute. Another technique for me to master (its my thing, I like trying new techniques (in lots of disciplines), mastering them, and then moving on - keeps my brain hopping!) and maybe a little fun side hobby if I get any good at it. Because I have soo much extra time that I can now add side hobbies you know (;{ Maybe I'll get lucky and someday even have a beautiful little spindle to call my own, even if I never get into it as much as knitting they are ever so cute! And it kinda gives me street cred in the gansta fiber life. Just kidding!
I'm so excited I've nearly forgotten that my little sister got engaged (she's 22. they've been dating ~7 mos) and I'm in the wedding but clearly not important enough to her for her to tell me before she told all the rest of the family and her friends and even started checking out reception venues for the past two weeks. Yeah. Ouch. And now that my mom has an official almost grandson to be she has no need of me. Which is clearly why she doesnt call anymore and is too busy to talk to me when I call. Anyway, lets just move right along b/c its obvious that that is a sore spot right now.


Alpaca fiber saves the day!

Secret Spook

I know its been awhile since the yarners and I actually exchanged for Secret Spook, and I should have posted this ages ago, but in my defense, Amanda and Cathy havent posted yet about this either!!


So we decided to exchange at Bertucci's on a Sunday evening. Here I am with the first thing I pulled out of my goodie bag: a DNA model! Look how delighted and surprised I was! Oh, and my Spook was Catherine! (there's nothing here about the gift I gave Alexis b/c her knitted item is still not finished. I got in a bit over my head.)















Here is a round-up of the rest of the loot!. Cupcake and crossbones crochet pot-holders, gothtini glass and sugar skullies, a voo-doo doll key chain, a flesh-eating bacteria!, handmade cloth bags with bats and moons!, stickers, a pendant, and a blue glass hangy w/ a bat on it.
Thanks Catherine!







Here is a close up of the knitted DNA model! I brought it to work to show it to all the scientists and they were amazed and jealous!




















Here is a close up of the gothtini (it had chocolate in it, I ate it all) and the Day of the Dead sugar skullies. What a neat idea - to incorporate other dead themed holidays!
















Finally, here is my little flesh eating bacteria (Streptococcus pyogenes) at home with his pals ulcer (Helicobacter pylori) and kissing disease (mononucleosis or Epstein Barr virus). I love my giant microbes! As a side note, Alexis gave me the Epstein Barr for Secret Cupid, I just didnt have a blog then. And a friend from college gave me an ulcer for my birthday- she said that she hoped if she gave one to me it could somehow be a talisman to prevent me from giving one to myself (I was not surprisingly stressed about finals at the time).

real life injects itself into crafters blog

I know as of late there have been more non-crafty posts than crafty ones, and I promise soon to put up my Secret Spook goodies, some FO ceramics, and some knitting and crocheting WIP's but right now i need to talk about something else.
Today at work I've gotten absolutely nothing done. Well, ok, I made 3 graphs. But mostly I've just been sitting here staring out into space wishing to feel better. I know I should probably just go home and curl up in a ball and watch tv, but I dont want to. I want to be normal and feel normal again. I dont think I'm making any sense. Maybe I should explain. This is day 3 of Byetta injections. After three years of tinkering, hoping, tinkering more, and crossing fingers my endocrinologist and I have come to the conclusion that metformin just isnt adequate. Its not doing it for me. And so on to other meds. Since I've already tried so many different diabetes meds there were few options left. After months of researching on my part I made the decision to try Byetta again. I've been on it before and had success until my life got whacky while studying for the MCAT's and i stopped exercising and eating properly. So I knew what to expect. I knew the first month is hell. But it doesnt make it any easier. The nausea is overwhelming. The space-cadetness is overwhelming. Eating ginger helps with the nausea. But I have yet to find a remedy for this foggy-headed dream land I'm in. I dont remember this being part of the slew of side effects I encountered the first time I tried Byetta, so maybe it goes away relatively quickly. I hope. The worst part is I cant even concentrate long enough to knit!
Right now I'm trying to stay focused on the positives that I remember (decreased appetite, weight loss, less sore-ness and tired-ness and fatigue during workouts, better sugar control, better A1c).
All this baloney of having stupid type 2 diabetes as a youngin really just sucks. thank you genetics.
Anyhow I'm done w/ my rambling complaint. Will return to regularly scheduled craftyness soon. I hope.

horrified

oh my goodness gracious me.
so i was browsing blogs and came upon one that was positively reviewing this book. i know its probably the 20-something me speaking but if i ever end up a drunk, divorced, crazy knitting cat lady PLEASE kill me. or send me to a home. for crazies. seriously. now i'm going to go to bed and have nightmares. and no i dont care if i am being insensitive for not celebrating the wonderfulness of some lady whose "found herself" in knitting. its like all born again religions: gag inducing.

Follower

Well since lots of people are posting their oldest picture of themselves for blogstalker on knitty, I got jealous and had to join in.
These are the oldest pictures I have of myself (of course there exist older ones, they just arent in my possession). These are from my first birthday.
Maybe if ya'll are lucky I'll post some wips for wip weds this week.

Transporting a giant cake to work: a tutorial

Have you ever spent 6 hours making the most absolutely delicious Chocolate Stout Cake Ever for a work going away party only to realize you have no round tupperware cake transporter thingie, and in fact have no tall cake holder whatsoever? And how the heck are you going to bring this wonderfully frosted yummy all the way to work? Well, have no fear I have figured it out! And I am here to share my wisdom with you.


Step 1: Bake and frost super yummy 3-layer cake













Step 2: measure lots of plastic containers/drawers until you find a suitable one.

















Step 3: dump said drawer's belongings into a paper bag. Wash plastic drawer vigorously.













Step 4: Put cake on plate in plastic drawer.

















Step 5: plastic wrap the heck out of it.





Step 6: Bring onto bus and endure strange looks.








Step 7: bring to work, cut, and enjoy.










As a side note: this cake was Really heavy. It tasted unbelievably amazing, but is not fun to carry. In the future, I will not make such heavy cakes for work and may even buy myself one of those plastic cake transporter thingies. Maybe.
Also I used Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout; less butter; less sugar overall; and some brown sugar for the cake. The frosting was a pound of Trader Joe's Belgian Bittersweet and heavy cream.

Meme's

So I was tagged for an 8 Random things meme, but honestly, i think that all of my randomness has been discussed in previous posts, memes, or blog challenges. So instead of the random meme, I'm choosing to do the Halloweenie Meme, also on Amanda's blog. If you want to be tagged for this, consider yourself tagged. And why not? Halloween is such fun (:{

1. Do you believe in ghosts?
Most of the time, yes.

2. Have you ever seen a ghost?
Not exactly, though I've often caught glimpses of things that could not be explained.

3. Have you ever experienced something that is best described by the word "paranormal"?
I cant think of any specific instances right now but I have had "weird feelings" where you just Know something is amiss.

4. Do you watch any ghost or haunting themed shows?
I used to watch X-Files religiously when it was on. Its still my favourite show (minus the last season). Occasionally I'll catch a ghost show on the History channel or A&E or something like that. I Love scary movies and ghost stories though. As a kid my favourite books were the Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz (I received the set a couple yrs ago as a gift wheee!), and as a teen I devoured books by Stephen King, John Saul, Dean Koontz, etc.

5. If so, do you sometimes sleep with the lights on or wake up your partner because the show scared you a whole lot and you cant sleep and you dont want to be awake alone?
Well, I think this question is awfully presumptuous. I dont have a partner. Sadly, I sleep alone. Thanks for rubbing it in. Anyway..... I dont like lights when I sleep. In fact if its not pitch black or close to it I put something over my eyes. I've def stayed up late on the internet "calming down" after a scary movie though.

6. Have you ever been to a haunted place? Did you experience anything spooky?
I've been to several "haunted houses" (the real kind, not the carnival kind), and as a teen used to go with friends to "haunted graveyards" (Resurrection Cemetery, Bachelors Grove, IL). Never experienced anything spooky.
My high school however, thats a whole diff story. I was on student council and every year we put on a Haunted High. It was usually the weekend before Halloween b/c we always had that Monday off for a teacher's institute. So every yr we would take over the South Bldg (the oldest portion of the school) on the friday night and spend the whole night setting up, leave for a 4 hour nap sat, then be back for business sat and sun night. All day sun night on to mon morning was cleanup time. Over the yrs "spooky" things happened to many people. For instance, hearing childrens voices where there was no one. Leaving an empty room after it had been tarped and going right back in it mins later and having the tarp all be ripped down (theres a big difference in the way a tarp looks when it just falls as opposed to being forcefully ripped). Also, my first yr, I asked why we only used 3/4 of the south bldg (its a square) and was told "we're not allowed to use that section" I later found out that the janitors refused to clean that section after midnight. why? that section apparently had a "mad" male spirit who liked to throw desks and chalk, rearrange furniture, and dump out flower pots. not even the janitor's dog would go in that section. During my sr yr a bunch of the seniors got to talking to the old-timer janitors and we told them about the children's voices (I had never heard them, but many had). They said they knew those voices well. the kids (a boy and a girl) liked to play in the glass staircase and in the courtyard. they were nice and completely un-like the angry male spirit. the janitors believe that they are the spirits of the kids who died in the fire of the farm house located behind the school grounds. our school acquired the land from the farmers family in the 1960's after the fire.
Everyone who has spent a good amount of time late at night at that school has had similar experiences. There were instances where I Felt odd, but I personally never heard or saw anything.
My mom's friend's son was also saved from a nasty fall down the stairs by a ghost, but thats a long story as well. We'll keep that for another day.

7. How much do you love Halloween?
SO MUCH!!!! Its my favourite holiday!!

mayday!

So, Ive never had a problem using hair dyes from the grocery store and doing it myself. It's always turned out great. I've been dying my hair every winter for over 5 years.
Today was different.
I look hideous.
I'm so embarrassed. I look like a hooker from moulin rouge
I think i may actually have to go to cvs tomorrow and buy black b/c that's the only thing i can think of that will cover this up.
):{

It was supposed to be "Egyptian Plum" or, purple black. Instead I get crazy cheap horrible trashy fire engine red with a hint of purple. around my scalp at my hairline on my forehead my hair is lighter and finer and it is some awful orange-red-pink-fake color i never knew existed. arrrghhhh.

Rhinebeck! Re-cap

Well I've been super busy with the med school apps but this weekend I took a (much needed) mental break and went to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY (Hudson River Valley area). It was soo much fun!!
Friday night Amanda came up from DC and her, Catherine's friend Danielle, and I all spent the night at Catherine's. BEFORE the crack of dawn (5:30 am to be exact) Alexis met us and we began our journey down to Rhinebeck!


Here is a picture of the fog rolling over the Berkshires right after the sun came up. It was a beautiful drive!














Yay Rhinebeck! All the buildings were 4H barns. I thought they were cute.













Of course there were animals at the Festival!
















And here are Catherine and Daniele doing what knitters love to do: fondle yarn! How could we not when the sign instructed us to?

















Here is a neat sky picture of the motel. I actually ended up over at the Super 8 with Amanda and Alexis, but originally I was at this one with Catherine, Daniele, and Ariel.











Here is the view from the Skytop Motel: Gorgeous!!














Catherine and Daniele goofing around.













Pretty!















More pretty!












Neato view from the ride home from Rhinebeck.











And of course my goodie take home!
There is a hand woven basket for my mom for Christmas (dont tell her!)
Some pretty leaves that followed me home and yarny goodness.
Clockwise:
At the top is a promo skein from Dani of Sunshine Yarns in the color Plume.
Then some gorgeous marino/tencel Sea Pearl from briar rose fibers. The other four skeins are all Acero (wool/silk/viscose) from Brooks Farm Yarns.



Here is a close-up of my favourites. The sea pearl from Briar Rose was my very first "must have" of the day. Its a variegated black, purple, green, and turquise. The other two are must haves from Brooks Farm. One is variegated green and the other is a midnight colorway (purple, black, royal and navy blue). Love!!







Last but not least some buttons and pendants. The pendants came from the gem festival that was also happeneing on the fair grounds.
















And the beautiful hand made ceramic buttons I found at the Briar Rose tent.










After the crazyness all day sat we needed a nap before we headed over to the Ravelry party. Goodtimes! Met a bunch of people- and of course only remember half the names - if that. But oh what a day!
On the way home from Rhinebeck! we stopped in Lenox, MA to check out Colorful Stitches. Lenox and Lee MA are beautiful and quaint little New England towns. I didnt buy any yarn at Colorful Stitches b/c I was just totally yarn'ed out (I know - how is that possible?).
Sigh. I'm so tired now but sooo happy!
Sorry for the lack of fantastical pictures, I was just too busy having fun!!