Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Binge Weekend

Ha bet that got ya wondering. It sure has taken me a long time to recover from this last weekend. Much fun was had.

Sat May 3rd I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo and finally got to hear Stephanie Pearl-McPhee speak. Proof:
I think my favorite bit (after the knitters aren't patient people, knitting creates an artificial patience zone around them bit) was when she enacted the "what do they expect" reaction of a sock knitter to being told one can buy them for a dollar a pair. If I thought I was a tenth the actress I would so totally do that if someone ever said that to me. Oddly, they don't. Possibly I look armed and dangerous?

Somehow I managed to completely miss that there was yarn to buy at the Maker Faire. Can you even imagine how dumb I feel about that?

Sunday May 4th I drove up to Sacramento to spend the day at the CNCH market. I didn't make it to the galleries because as usual I was having too much fun at the market. Next year I really do have to have my act together enough to attend the full conference. Since I didn't know there was yarn to buy at the Maker Faire I let myself go a bit wilder at CNCH than I otherwise might have.


Some of my goodies from shopping the CNCH market this year. Clockwise from upper left.

Tactile Fiber Arts bag.
Polworth roving from Rovings in Canada a lovely silver grey. Unfortunately I don't get to keep the whole bag. I have to split it with my friend.
Polworth/silk 80/20 fingering yarn (800+ yards of it!) also from Rovings with which I am going to make myself a lovely lovely shawl someday (soon I hope).
A book full of cool charted motifs. I haven't done color-work but I was incapable of resisting the title.
A Kumihimo plate which I will share with my daughter if we are both good.
Tactile Fiber Arts Carbonized Bamboo roving - who could resist?
Tactile Fiber Arts Merino/Bamboo/Nylon blend Sock yarn


I may have gotten a little more spinning fiber and another book or two and maybe another skein or so of yarn, but I'm taking the fifth on that for now. Brooke of Tactile Fiber Arts also let me try out the little Victoria wheel they had in the booth and I'm sorely tempted. It looks like it might almost fold up small enough to be carry on luggage. One could spin on the plane. (swoons with delight - imagine the reactions) I wouldn't really care if they told me I had to put my knitting away so that my needles didn't accidentally fly out of my hands and impale someone if I could pull out the wheel instead. (Trust me, if someone is impaled with one of my needles it's unlikely to be an accident. But just try to take my artificial patience generator (or my chocolate) away and see what happens.)

And in addition to all the loveliness (admitted and stealth) I also ended up with this:
Tactile Fiber Arts naturally dyed Merino/Tencel roving

I gave Yarnivorous (a fellow Ravelry member with a great blog title/rav-name) a ride up to CNCH and was rewarded all out of proportion. After all, the car was going whether she was in it or not. But as I dropped her off at the end of the day she gave me this lovely Tactile Fiber Arts merino/tencel roving and since I hate that thing where you stand there for 20 minutes, one of you pressing something on the other one, and the other demurring, I gave in after a couple of attempts at dissuading her from rewarding me so out of proportion to what I had done. I still feel guilty about it though. So I haven't given up hope yet of evening the scales eventually. She got a gorgeous gorgeous fleece there which I hope she'll blog about soon. She gave me quite a nice sample of it too and really that would have been more than ample reward for driving. It might just be the closest I've seen to my ideal for my fantasy sweater project. Which I'm not ready to buy yet but having a sample that is close will help immensely when I am ready to buy.

Oh, and lest ye think it is all buy and no use here (and you could be forgiven for thinking so) here's the latest bit of the Zazzlejeans cardigan.
Uh, I started playing with the toys in my new iPhoto. I'm so easy to amuse...

No, it's not a puff sleeve, I was just too lazy to figure out how to smooth it to look nice all by my lonesome since my first try knocked three stitches off the needle.

Oh yeah, and I finally finished the Slippin' Slidin' socks from round three of Sock Madness 2.
Those are my feet but they also fit the Remembrall so she's already wheedled them out of me. On the plus side she should be able to wear them for a while since our feet are not much more than an inch apart in length. (She's 9 should I worry that I'll be knitting socks for skis by the time she's a teenager or is that normal?) They are very stretchy socks and very nice in that yarn so I am going to have to make myself another pair.

I signed up for the 52 pair plunge (also the summer of socks and who knows what) after looking, really looking at the size of my sock yarn stash. Plus, you know, I want the socks durn it.

4 comments:

AuntieAnn said...

I'm so jealous that you got to see Stephanie! It just wasn't happening for me that day. When we meet (not if) you'll have to do the "socks at Wal-Mart" thing for me -- please?

Sheepish Annie said...

Oh wow! There is so much of the knitterly happiness in this post that I can't stand it!!! I've never been able to see The Harlot myself. She came to Maine once, but that was when I was all new and innocent to the way of the knitblogger....

Fabulous yarn and fiber goodies!

yarnivorous said...

Yes, it was a great weekend and I am still getting over it too!
I am naughty making you take that roving but really I wanted to thank you for taking a complete stranger in your car for a longish road trip :-)
I have to finish a CVM fleece before I start processing this new one. I just want to roll around it it :-)

lilymarlene said...

Ooooh! You've wet my appetite for her trip to London in September....can't wait.