JenLa

Ponchos don’t kill people; people who knit ponchos kill people.

Boo!

Filed under: Misc — La at 1:46 pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Scared ya? Just wait! What you are about to see will scar you for life. And I’m not talking “it was all just a bad dream” scarring, but more like “send you into therapy for years” scarring. If you are easily distressed, turn back now! This will be your only warning.

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I’m really not kidding…

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I’m sorry, I just couldn’t do it! I don’t want to be responsible for anybody’s xanex addiction. Instead, I’ve got something pretty damned cool.

You can find more fun and other cool stuff at Extreme Pumpkins

(skimmers, pay no attention to the content behind the jump … )

SAFF 2007, Slo-Mo Replay

Filed under: Fiber Festivals — jenifleur at 1:54 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Long post about SAFF ahead and lots of pictures, too. I am not even going to attempt to link everyone, it was that huge this year. Instead, I’ll stick mainly to loot. I had an AWESOME time. My roomies and carpool buddies were ESC and Grace. Although construction, jackass drivers and a surplus of cops tried to prevent Grace from getting here, we made it in time for dinner reservations in Asheville. The timing was meant to be, too, because had she gotten here earlier, I wouldn’t have had the package from Jess & Casey containing these to pass out:

ravel!

They sent as many as they could spare so we could have some Ravelry fun at the event even though they were sad they couldn’t come see us in person. As a consolation prize, I made FoamcoreBob and we took lots of pictures. Give it some time and it should be full of FoamcoreBob’s adventures at SAFF. Between Claudia and Katey and the nice folks at SAFF, we had access to the blue barn for four hours every day, with some tables and chairs for resting, meeting, knitting, spinning and joking. It made a huge difference to our being able to connect in a real life kind of way and added so much to the event. In order to thank SAFF for this, I bought as much as I possibly could to ensure success for their event. Selfless of me, wasn’t it?

pencil roving Some of it, like this pencil roving, was bought for other people. That, for instance, is for La. Yes, La Who Doesn’t Spin. I wanted to show her that if she found the right fiber, it could change everything. Most of what I bought was roving, in fact. This is going to be my sweater for next year saff08 roving and the fact that it was mostly too warm for my sweater this year will not deter me. I have always claimed I don’t have a roving stash and recently I realized I really do and decided I didn’t need more. So why this:

purtleshepherd's cornersoffftozark purplecormo

came home with me, I can only attribute to my swollen ego.

THESE, however:

silky romney/silk/mohairtussah

Not only have silk in them, but are also in small amounts and were very inexpensive, so I really think you should give me a pass on them.

I had a lot of class time this year. Eight hours on Friday and four on Saturday. That’s a lot of time not spent shopping and socializing, really. It’s also positively draining. I was dragging my ass so low on Friday that Kim said, “Oh my god. Are you okay?” To which Sandy and I replied in the positive even though we weren’t actually sure. In my first class, taught by Margaret Heathman, I learned six different ways to spin one roving. It was a color control class and it was SO fun. magic of handpainted class results During lunch we took a quick cruise around the market place because we happened to know some people were busy buying out all the Smooshy while we were captive. In an effort at retaliation, I bought Sea Silk. sea silk My vindictive nature came back to haunt me when we made it to the other side of the bottom floor and I had to leave behind some sock yarn. See, I had a rule about not buying sock yarn. It was my only rule. One tiny, simple, shouldn’t be so painful rule. I think Claudia captured my internal struggle:
sock yarn blues

I left the yarn and went back to class where I spent the next four hours alternating between gloating about my Sea Silk and grieving for my sock yarn. Four hours of the sock yarn blues will get to anyone so Sandy finally convinced me that if it was still there at the end of the day, it was meant to be. true love Apparently, this sock yarn and I have a shared destiny. I predict a happy ending with me riding off into the sunset with the happiest feet in the land. Anyone who dared whisper the “rule about no sock yarn” got threatened with these 5 pitch indigo hound, which earned me the name Edward Englishcomb Hands. Whatever, just stay away from my pink sock yarn.

In my second class with Linda Davis, we learned to better control our spinning. I had to spin in the grease. I really don’t like the feeling of this and I don’t like the goo getting on my equipment. It makes me feel like I’ve been out in the pastures and I need a bath. However, let me show you what I do like: grease spinning Can you believe how thin that is? The grease honestly does give you far more control in drafting very thin singles. In both my classes, the instructors asked me why I was there, so I guess my spinning class days are over. Though I feel there is lots more I could learn about spinning, apparently I’m being pushed out of the nest. They inflated my ego to the point that apparently I felt I deserved a LOT of roving.

At night we had loads of pub fun, giggling, laughter, a few drinks [or in some cases a few dozen. I'm only not telling who to protect the hungover.], lots of showing of loot, eating, talking, a serious lack of sleep and so much fun. My roomies were the coolest, we had no problems whatsoever and we got along great. They were so sweet to me and bought me some Brooks Farm Acero as a thank you gift:
acero

Which I totally should have bought them since they were so easy going and pleasant!

In the category “I’m going to hell”:

miss bab's pewtermiss babs happyprimero, brooks farmknitting notions

I’m not going to hell for buying them. They were bought for gifts. I’m going to hell because at least two of those I feel I cannot part with. [guess which two] I may have to buy new gifts for their intended recipients and I will regret it someday when I’m getting a red hot size 17 up the bum while the devil dances around with flaming sock yarn mocking me. There are two other small items that I didn’t show because I want to keep them as surprises, but you’ve pretty much seen it all.

Thank you to every person who said hello or called my name. I know I was pretending it was tiresome, but I loved it. I love meeting you people even though I’m awfully shy. I loved seeing your stuff, watching you knit, viewing your FOs in person, taking your pictures, giving you buttons [while I still had them!] and seeing and feeling the happiness. I’m in a total fiber fest coma even still, and I can’t wait for next year. We already have plans to make the meetup stuff bigger and better!

Word Association

Filed under: Memes — La at 2:27 pm on Monday, October 29, 2007

One Word
Spent

No SAFF for Joo!

Filed under: eye candy friday, personal dramas, yarn — La at 3:31 pm on Friday, October 26, 2007

button

~and~

WowStashClubbanner

~all wrapped up in one flawless skein of perfectly unmarred perfection~

Sock Brooks Farm
My October WOW Sock Club yarn has “arrived”!

Brooks Farm Primero in all it’s lavender & butter, merino & mohair yumminess. I picked up this poor little abandoned “orphan” last year at SAFF. This was my only gratuitous yarn purchase at the entire event. Well…everyone else was going home with some Brooks Farm, I couldn’t very well go home empty-handed now could I have?

Speaking of SAFF, some of you will notice that I’m not there, and it mostly sucks. Most of you know that the main reason for my non-SAFF-attending suckage is due to getting popped for jury duty earlier in the year, and the fact that my cheap-assed boss doesn’t cover days off for jury duty, which forced me to choose to use 2 of my 3 remaining vacation days, if I wanted to still receive a full paycheck. Eh, some creative budgeting (and squealing pennies) could have overcome that obstacle. What can’t be overcome is a serious family obligation.

Not many know that my family suffered a loss last year while I was at SAFF. On that Saturday my mom called (she NEVER calls me when I’m on vacation), to let me know that my brother and his wife lost their baby. I’m so thankful that Jen was beside me when I got the call. Her quiet comfort (and strong, absorbant shoulders) was just what I needed. The SAFFers (mainly our roommates) were all having to put up with my illness (food poisoning), and all the discomfort that entails (for me as well as for them), the last thing I wanted to do was invite my sorrow onto others, so I just kept this news to myself.

When I got home, I found that they had held a very private, very small memorial service while I was gone, and the DH wasn’t able to attend because he had to work. The guilt of not being there for my baby brother Tom, and his wife Donna, compounded by the fact that the DH nor I were able to attend the memorial has weighed heavily on my conscience this past year.

This Sunday is the first anniversary, and we’re getting together in memorial of Baby Coleman. So I decided to stay home this weekend and be there for Thomas & Donna, and to finally get some closure. I just hope the fires allow him to be home for the day. Thomas and I have always been close, closer than any of our other siblings, and it just tore my heart out that I wasn’t here for them when they really needed me.

In the meantime, I can live vicariously through Claudia and Jodi, who have already posted, and anyone else who posts from SAFF over the weekend, and through Grace, whom I’m going to bug in email cuz she has her blackberry and can answer back.

Oh, and ESC? That PWNED button is SO mine! Just set it to the side, and I’ll collect it from you, uh, whenever. (Let me know how much!)

Reunited and it Feels So Good

Filed under: Knitting — jenifleur at 1:41 pm on Thursday, October 25, 2007

Reunited with my sock mojo, that is. I was starting to worry. Check out the awesome done-ness of my socks!


barts
barts, back

Stats: “Bartholomew’s Tantalizing Sock”

Pattern: by Cat Bordhi, found in New Pathways for Sock Knitters

Yarn: Lotus Yarns Nirvana in “Naked Eye”

Mods/Thoughts: I would/will totally knit these again and that’s saying a lot. I have only knit a pattern twice on a couple of occassions. As I said before, cuff down and can you believe it? It’s not a heel “flap”, though. It’s ribbing for mobility and there are no stitches to pick up. Nothing to graft. The heel turn is strange and wonderful and easy and though it’s wrapped short rows, the wraps are completely concealed. The shaping takes place on the instep. Weird and wonderful socks! I said it before and I’ll say it again, the yarn is awesome. Get some!

Since they were supposed to be my SAFF knitting and I finished them, I decided to take some yarn I’ve been hoarding and knit another pair of socks from this book. Do you have yarn you hoard? It’s too precious to knit with it because when I knit with it, I will no longer have the wonderful hank of it. Sure, I’ll have socks, but in this case I want both! It’s a hank of yarn Scout sent me a long time ago, but it’s time to stop keeping it as a pet and help it fulfill its destiny.

Now I am SAFFward bound. ESC and Grace are on their way here right now! As Claudia said, SAFF is “Knitter’s Christmas”! Be nice to La since she got pwned on this one and I’ll see you Mon or Tues.

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