Moth Heaven

Tour de Fleece 2009: day 1

The phone rang.  It was Random Kelly (to remind you, I call her Random Kelly because this is her license plate):

She was on a mission.  Kelly has taken a slightly dim (but understanding) view of my neglect of my spinning, mostly because I have (as you may recall) a new wheel which has done little but occupy rug space and gather dust since it arrived in the spring.  So the nature of the phone call was to give a gentle twist of my arm to join her in doing something to shock the system. And not just to participate in the Tour de Fleece, but to join Team Suck Less. And as an extra enticement, I would get a commemorative cling for my spinning wheel cup holder.

I am a bobbin and a half into the Dinosaur Merino/Silk from Amy King that I bought for a sweater yarn last year at Spa, and I'd really like to make a dent in that puppy. 



And a whack of Spinner's Hill to spin on the Watson as well, so my tour itinerary is set.  How much I'll post about it remains to be seen. 

Fiber Revival, August 15, 2009

Fiber Revival link here.

Introducing: Xena

Every knit blogger needs a cat. In fact, I used to think it was a prerequisite.  I haven't had feline companionship for a few years, and it's been long enough now since George passed on that I think I can handle another animal in my heart.

And the universe conspires to make such openings for us when we are ready.  A friend told me the story of this surrendered 3 year old sweet tempered cat who was camped out at his Veterinarian for several months, waiting for someone to fall in love with her. I took his opinion of her seriously, went to meet her last Tuesday, and brought her back with me.  She took a tour around the place, decided to stay, and made herself right at home. Like she'd always wanted to live here.

Xena.

She only talks when she has something important to say, like good morning, or welcome home.  She comes when she's called, plays fetch with paper balls, and learned the house lesson of "no cats on kitchen counters" the first time we said "No." She charms everyone who meets her, and she's had quite a cotillion this week as people march through to be introduced to our new family member.  I had no idea I knew so many "cat people", even among my muggle friends. 

Adventures await . . .

Little Surprises

Today the Mister presented me with something inspired by my trip last week to TNNA without a computer. I think it was my frenzied filtering of the email during our reunion dinner that made him do it.

Him: Would you like some champagne?
Me: stinking viagra spam . . .
Him: I have oyster mushrooms and goat cheese.
Me: dammit, I forgot to send out the contributor's question . . .
Him: How about I just put it all in a bucket?
Me: I hope I can find that file. . .
Him: Cashmere?
Me: mutter . . . I'm sorry, did you say something?

So he made me this:

It's a Dell mini, in my favourite colour in the world: chartreuse.  The whole little notebook is about 6 x 9", and weighs about 2 pounds.  But here's the real surprise:

It's running OS X. In other words, it's like a tiny MacBook, but green, little, and cute. It's known in the muggle world as a Hackintosh, and while it's kind of a rogue thing to possess, it's an extremely convenient tool in a way that even Apple hasn't managed to retail yet. The Dell mini cost about $400 on ebay, and we owned the OS X disc with a leftover download from that Leopard OS upgrade.  If you think you might like to check out how all this comes together, read (carefully) about it here at Gizmodo.

Other little surprises?  I'm knitting my Rhinebeck sweater already, or at least one of them.

No, I can't tell you the pattern yet, for reasons that might be clear if you know me at all, but I promise I'll be more explicit after August 15th.  If. you. know. what. I. mean.

TNNA Asks: If you can't flash your friends, who can you flash?*

TNNA is an interesting place for yarn lovers because it is the brutal mechanics of the industry laid bare, and much of the romance can get a little bruised in all the naked light of the business end of things.  Yarn companies display their product for yarn store owners rather than the public, and many owners have built up an immunity to the yarn fumes because of their constant exposure, so they're looking for the extra strong stuff. The new, the soft, the colour, all must be irresistible for them to believe in it.  However, the show seemed upbeat, the fashion show slightly surreal, and the smiles liberally and evenly spread among the stylishly dressed and comfortably shod on the floor.  I think as a leading indicator for the country as a whole, the show's message was something like "steady as she goes."

There aren't any photos in my camera from the floor because that would. be. against. the. rules, but I do have a few examples of why I should always take my camera with me to things like this, even though my phone boasts a 3 megasomething capability.  Here's Spinning Loft Beth, Spunky Eclectic Amy King, Spritely Goods Steph, and Brooklyn Handspun Marie in the lobby.

The list of people I met who I have long admired is lengthy, and the several constellations I found myself in (pinching my arm in disbelief) makes my fangirl head spin, like the Pam Allen, Jared Flood, Veronik Avery, Jil Eaton, Jess&Casey moment at Classic Elite. Kristin Nichols told us in the elevator that she knew about Twist even though she's on dial up, Norah Gaughan narrowed her eyes at me and said "I know you from . . . last year"(psych) and Adina Klein congratulated us on what we're doing over there.  Kate and I savoured breakfast with Clara Parkes on Saturday, and hummed along with knitty Amy and Jillian over drinks in the lobby on Saturday night. Meanwhile there was much running into Ysolda and Laura, who seemed to draw the most attention from company reps and store owners alike as they cruised the floor. It was a heady concentration of creative folks and good vibes, my favorite way to spend a weekend.

It's also a show I find physically demanding because food, water, and Jeni's ice cream are something one has to stop in the middle of everything to fetch, and so I ate hardly at all, and drank even less water, flirting with dehydration were it not for the whack of mediocre hotel coffee I fortified myself with both mornings.

We were so famished Friday night working in our hotel room until 2 am that Kate and I filched leftover "big girl" cake from her mom's cooler.  We used a pizza box as our serving platter and considered how we could proceed without a knife. Before I managed to tear it apart with my bare hands, Kate found some dental floss to slice it with, so we devoured the thing with disputable politesse only to discover that it had a minty fresh aftertaste.

One of my favorite Ravelry voices turned up in her freshly finished Botanical Lace Cardigan, from the summer issue.  Jocelyn (jocelyng on Ravelry) was all smiles every time we passed her sporting her cardigan in Cotton Fleece, and it's no wonder because it looks terrific on her. Here she is outside the Buffalo Gold party, where we hung out, a wee bit intimidated by the crowd inside, but had a lovely time chatting with people as they passed in and out with their drinks. I took a few pictures for people who wanted a record of their meeting Ysolda, and got to know NewSarah, who is taller than she looks in her Ravelry video, and every bit as charming as you hope that she is for real. But so it is with so many of the yarn folk once you meet them in person: charming, funny, quick with a joke, and yes, ultimately susceptible to the yarn fumes, even after all these years.

Oh, and as for the rock star from the last post?  Said rock star had no idea who I was when I met her:  I think her email to my mom was just her way of being funny and charming to cover her lack of understanding what the significance of the dropped name could possibly be. Sorry, Mom. She wrote you back anyway. See? Funny and charming, like I said.

*post title is something that Amy (Boogie) King said as we were crossing the street to meet Jillian Moreno on our way to get ice cream, because (I had just learned) some knitters are so happy to see each other for the first time in months that they begin to remove their shirts.