MDSW

Fifth one! This is how it all started five years ago. Lisa and I went to MDSW in 2004 and I saw a woman spinning wool on a drop spindle. I bought my first spindle - a Louet student spindle - and she gave me some wool with it. I thought it would be fun to keep on the end table and spin once in a while. Now look what happened.

Five years later I'm teaching two spinning classes, running a spinning meetup group and can no longer walk in my "walk in" closet for all the fiber and yarn in there. And yet I'm off to buy more.

I took the train to Philly Friday night where Lisa picked me up and we went to an awesome restaurant for dinner. Best butternut squash ravioli ever!

The next morning, Sheba and her new BF Ranxez picked us up (after I gave them the wrong address - oops!) and we went down to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Yeah, I know I was just at CTSW last weekend - never mind that. It was raining on the way down, but it stopped once we parked the car and didn't rain the rest of the day.

We got in the tee shirt line first since I figured the selection would be better earlier. I taught a woman how to ply-on-the-fly while we were waiting in line.

I stopped by the Ravelry party and the first person I met was GrimReaper and her husband - an LSGer from Philly. We finally found the LSG crowd and I got to meet a whole lot of cool bitches I chat online with regularly, like PoorLuci, Lizardsmells and Eudyptula.
I left the Rav party and shopped for a while before catching up with Lisa again. I went to Retroknit's book signing and got her book - Vintage Baby Knits - which is awesome! The Lisa and I split for a bit and I caught up to Sheba and Ranxez (who is incredibly nice, BTW) and Sheba's friend Dan came by. We've stayed at Dan & Marni's house in previous years, since they're only 20 minutes from the fairgrounds. I ended up giving another spinning lesson to a little girl and her mom while were were just hanging out talking.

We stayed not quite until the end. I didn't photograph my stash enhancements, but I did get:
- some purple Paca-Peds sock yard
- multicolor dyed mohair roving
- Noro Kureyon (to make the Fake Isle hat I saw the girl making at CTSW)
- a 40" size 4 addi turbo to do my Socks That Rock on magic loop (some of you have no idea what that means)
- some beautiful brown suri-boo (suri alpaca and bamboo)
- Some brown and purple cormo roving

Note I did not buy the OMGSOFUCKINGCUTE baby angora bunnies that I had to go back and pet three times. That's because they were all sold already.

We left the fair and dropped Lisa back at her house and Ranxez insisted on driving me home. To Rockland. Even though they would have to turn around and drive an hour south again to go home. Super nice guy. I'm really happy for Sheba!

Well, that's it for the fiber fairs until fall.

Froggies!

We've been hearing them for days when we get home at night - chirp chirp chirp - out by the pond. So on Sunday we took a walk around the pond. First we spotted a baby turtle sitting on one of the fallen trees. He was tiny!

As we continued around the pond and into the woods it got muddy. We had to keep walking farther out from the pond to avoid the mud and we kept hearing them sing in the heat - it sounded like a loose fan belt on a rainy day - just a continuous squeak.

And then we found the other pond. It was a small pond off of a secondary pond off of the big pond. And it had about 30 frogs in it - swimming around, hopping up on rocks and playing. Some of them were puffing out their necks to attract the ladies. We sat and watched them for close to an hour. Sorry, no pics. :(

Connecticut Sheep, Wool and Fiber Festival

I picked up Dawn and Cathy at the Darien train station and we drove up to Vernon, CT for the CT Sheep, Wool and Fiber Festival. It was small, but I've decided that's a good thing. For one, you could actually get into a booth and look at stuff because it wasn't crowded. No long lines for food or bathrooms either. And we were able to see the whole thing before noon.

The other plus of a fair this size is you don't break the bank because there aren't as many places to spend your $$ as in a big fair. :)
This baby goat was adorable! They had him behind the counter in a rubbermaid container. His sweater was a sleeve that was cut off of a sweatshirt.


So here's what I scored:
- the last red CTSW tee shirt
- Some purple/Teal dyed silk caps
- Purple/pink merino/tencel
- Grey Icelandic
- Seafoam alpaca/angelina (although the label says "mauve" 0_O)
- White cormo/alpaca/bunny
- a wooden bunny diz (see it on top of the silk caps?)

Also not pictured is a grey cotswold/barbados fleece I purchased for $8 and dropped at a mill to process into batts for another $12. I'll probably get it back in time for Rhinebeck in the fall. It's a short staple, but I had to try the Barbados, since that was the sheep that wandered into my yard in Spring Valley on Christmas Eve 5 years ago.



Cathy scored a dye kit and some yummy suri!

Dawn wins, having scored the most stuff! Including some new Goldings and a beautiful cormo/alpaca fleece that is almost pure white.

Here's a close up of the fleece, which she was nice enough to share with Cathy and me. :)

We decided to bring the group back next year - we'll do the fair in the AM and then hit WEBS in the afternoon.

First Game at the New Stadium

Sunday, April 19

Finally! My first game at the new stadium! While I still think the Steinbrenners are asshats for moving out of the House That Ruth Built, I have to admit the new ball park is nice. There are so many more escalators/concession stands/bathrooms that there are hardly lines for anything.

But $9 for a fucking Coors Light? Really? I asked the beer vendor loudly "Aren't you gonna kiss me first?" I've since learned that Beers Around the World is right near my seats on the grandstand level and it's so worth the extra $2 for a Guinness instead.

The guys who have the seats next to mine - Angel and Kevin - are pretty cool. We had some good laughs - especially about how the premium seats are mostly empty while the grandstand and bleachers are packed. It shows where the real fans are.

NY Auto Show - 4/18/09

We went to the NY Auto show at the Javits Center last Saturday. I brought my knitting and spinning along in case I got bored. That didn't happen. It was so much fun! I sat in a lot of cars and went over my 3-point checklist:

1. Quality of cupholders
2. Lighted makeup mirror on the visor?
3. Radio controls on the wheel?

I know, all the important stuff. I liked the Hyundai, the Honda and of course, the new 2010 Camaro. Check out the pics.



There were about 10 ShamWow vendors upstairs. We didn't buy one. We did, however, get sucked into buying jewelry cleaner, a Squirmle, and those things that sand the hair off your legs.

After the show we went to Brother Jimmy's for dinner before taking the train home.

Red Bull Snow Scrapers

This was so cool! Literally. More like it was fucking freezing. I was so sure I had frostbite that I didn't even stay to see Anthrax (which I'm sure kicked major ass) or even until the end of the snowboarding. But it was AWESOME! I got snow-sprayed by Shaun White. Sweet.

I took some craptastic pictures. I have this really awesome camera with a high-speed shutter for sporting events. Fat lot of good it did me sitting at home. So I had to take pics with the iphone, which I am still trying to figure out.

The vertical drop - nine stories - yikes!
Pretty pathetic photography, I know.

So glad I went!

Yeah, yeah I knew this would happen

I know. Start a blog. Post for two days. Fuggeddahboutit. I'll try to do better. :)

So it's cloudy. Not as cold as yesterday. Just finished a great lunch - crabcake sandwich from Live Bait. Jealous? You wouldn't be if you saw the fugly samples on my desk which I get to spend the rest of the afternoon critiquing. I'm just looking forward to 6:00 - when I get to go meet Scott at Home Depot and get a Christmas tree - YAY!

We rearranged the living room this weekend. Aren't we exciting for old fucks? Hey, I'm happy about it! We actually have space in there now. My closet however, now has far less. I must do lots and lots of knitting and spinning to regain my closet space.

I needz a nap.