No, it is too much. Let me sum up.

April has just flown by.  Do you hear that WHOOSHING noise?  That was April.  Happily, I caught a lot of it on film (er, metaphorical film.  I use my cell phone.  But you know what I mean.)

So settle in and buckle up.  Here's a picture heavy, lightning tour of the month of April here at chez woolly.

Stitches South

Right after we last spoke, we loaded up the car with a swatch of knitters and headed up the road to Stitches South.  Since they moved Stitches to Nashville, it's only a 45 minute drive from my house. Atlanta would have been doable (though I never actually did it...) but Nashville is just right there, you know?

Anyway, we were Stitches bound, stopping mid-way between the Opryland Hotel and my place for breakfast and to collect our Jess.

A Swatch of Knitters

Assembled, fed, and caffeinated, we continued our journey.   While there we spent some money (some of us spent a lot of money...) and met up with some dear friends from out of town.

Some of these knitters live in the internet.

I bought some yarns...

Don't give me that look, my goals specifically mentioned Fiber Events as an exception.

...and the best wine glass.

That says "three sheeps to the wind"

Business Trip to Melbourne, FL

The next week saw us starting the process of cleaning for Seder, and the week after that was for a business trip.   I spent the better part of the week in Melbourne, Florida.  I was there to facilitate two leadership workshops on inclusion and empowerment.   

Among other reasons....

I may or may not have also walked on the beach, eaten excellent food, had some wine, and, oh yes, I did some knitting.

Something about knitting a Hitchhiker as travel knitting appeals to my sense of the absurd.

Passover 2016

And after that?  It was time for Seder.

 

Seder Prep Selfies

One of the best things about Seder is the day we spend preparing the meal.  This year the kids were more involved than ever and that just makes my heart sing.  Even little Phoebe got in on the act, with a butter knife and some apples.

That's Morgan, Iris, Phoebe, and Jess making the Charoset

Dinner was lovely, and the remodeled living room served to make things more comfortable rather than less (I'd had some concerns, but all was right in the end).  We fit 30 at table comfortably and with room to breathe.  Barely.  

There's another table out of frame to the right.

Since Seder I've been quietly working on finishing up some old projects, and getting some new things cast on.   I'll tell you more about that next week, as surely this has gone on long enough.

But that's April, more or less in a nutshell.

Oh!  And one more thing...

The iris started to bloom.

Have Knitting, Will Travel

Last weekend was SAFF, or the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair if you're fancy, and a good time was had by all.

This is a picture heavy post, y'all.  Sorry-not-sorry.  (Also what are you complaining about, you on a dial up or something?)

We left Murfreesboro at the crack of 8:00 a.m. and drove straight on to a little berg outside of Knoxville where we left wee Bu, happy as the proverbial clam, with her grandma.  Bu is a child of a different disposition from her older sister.  Older sister would not have suffered staying behind at Granny's gracefully.  Bu was pretty much, "Sure, yeah, see ya, bye.  Granny and I have stuff to do... are you still here?"

Then off we went for Asheville.   We stopped at the Tupelo Honey Cafe for a late lunch slash early dinner (side note: they have built a Tupelo Honey in Franklin across the street from my office.  Cue high-pitched, inarticulate sounds of joy).  

Bestie Jess and I at Tupelo Honey Cafe in Asheville

We walked around downtown Asheville for a bit (whereupon I suffered from a bout of camnesia.  Took no pictures the entire time).   But I did prove that I can navigate on foot from Tupelo Honey to Purl's Yarn Emporium from memory, so there's that.  We didn't buy anything, because SAFF and the markets were the next day.  It was fun to poke around and look though.

We also passed by a wig shop (because why not?) and I kept muttering, "Vhen vill you vear vigs?" every time I saw the place because I think I'm funny (YouTube link).

Other than a trip to Target and some truly mediocre live music paired with some truly fantastic goat cheese balls (not a euphemism) at the hotel bar, that was pretty much it for Friday's excitement.

Saturday is when shit got real.

Now, SAFF is not in the same building as it used to be, and they moved the weekend too.  I truly missed the "THIS IS NOT THE TRACTOR SHOW" sign this year, but whaddya gonna do?  The new venue meant that the vendors were nicely spaced and that there was plenty of room to move around, but since everything was all on a level, you totally lost the SHOCK AND AWE spectacle of seeing the vendor floor spread out down below in the arena when you first walk in.

Not that there wasn't plenty of shock and awe to be had.

Best Jess is not amused at my picture taking shenanigans

Morgan was very patient with me tho

HOLY CRAP THOSE OWLS

I picked up a gradient kit in these colors from the Unique Sheep.

Who doesn't love a llama in a hat?

How gorgeous is this wool rug?

Bestie Koren and I at the Vendor Market

So that night, drunk on yarn fumes, we headed back to the hotel to roll around in our yarn see what we'd bought.

Morgan fell in love with some alpaca.  We had to tell her to stop cuddling it before it all felted.

On Sunday we went back and saw some critters.  This llama and I are going to run away together and get married.  He doesn't know it yet, but I'm sure it will be fine.

What a handsome lad

There were also some fine looking alpaca.

And a whole whack of sheep and goats.  Pictured here are Spotty Dotty, Comma Butt, and Gradient Gus.  Jess is not allowed to name most things, but if I had sheep, I might let her name some of those.

This is the where the vendors were last year. Looking down on that was nothing but SHOCK AND AWE I tell you.

Then it was back in the car and off to find lunch.  We stopped at a great place in Asheville called The Barleycorn Pub, where Morgan reports she was served the best hamburger that she has ever eaten.  My corned beef hash was pretty frickin' spectacular too.

The fun thing about travelling with a GPS as your navigator is that sometimes you get taken by the most interesting routes.  I fed the address to the Barleycorn into Carmen (that's the GPS).  After we got off of the interstate and started driving through a residential area I asked Carmen, "Are we going to someone's house for lunch?"

"Turn Right onto Haywood Road," came the reassuring reply.  In the end we drove straight to the place, and I should never have doubted her.

The mountains were absolutely fabulous on the way back.  The weather had turned ever so slightly colder, and the colors of the leaves just snapped.  Gorgeous.  If you can ever go drive in the Smoky Mountains in the fall, do it.

Back in Knoxville, we got to meet wee Baby Ruth (who is absolutely beautiful), and chat with big brother Thomas.  Oh and their parents were there too.

Wee Bu was thrilled to see us, but was not best pleased to realize that it was time to go home.  She voiced her displeasure with this new circumstance but was finally appeased with the application of animal crackers and Iron Man on the radio.  I was likewise appeased with the application of Starbucks, and homeward we continued.

I decided it would be best to warn Carl about the yarn situation before I got home.

I was kidding.

Mostly.

I bought some yarns

So that's SAFF in a nutshell. I didn't take a class this year, but there was lovely food, lovely company, lovely yarn.  BOOM.

Oh!  And I finished Carl's socks!  They'll warrant their own post in a day or two.

Is it time to start the toe yet?

Overall I give the weekend an A++, Would Go Again.

Preparing for a Fiber Festival

Happy Friday, dear readers!

It's fall, and everyone knows that fall means fiber festivals.  In point of fact, Rhinebeck is happening RIGHT VERY NOW (without me, alas.  Perhaps one day I will make my pilgrimage).  That said, we have our very own local Fiber in the Boro next weekend, and then SAFF the weekend after that.

Fiber in the Boro is a small, low-key fest, but I enjoy it.  I appreciate the opportunity to support our local fiber economy, and it's nice to see some old friends.  Plus it's like, three miles from my house.  WIN.

SAFF on the other hand, is another thing altogether.  Koren and I went for the first time last year and it was huge, delightful, overwhelming, and generally awesome.  (And speaking of local fiber economy I didn't realize that Erin Lane - not her real name - of Erin Lane Bags is actually from Murfreesboro.  Had to go alla way to South Carolina to find that out.)

Anyway, the point of all of this is that fiber festivals are fantastic opportunities to learn new skills (if you're into that) and to BUY ALL THE THINGS ... I mean ,.. to do some judicious shopping, in person, of fibers and yarns that may not be easily or locally available.    And the sheer abundance of options, choices, and hell, yarn fumes, that are available can make it really easy to get overwhelmed.

So, this is not a "pick out your workshops, find your map, make a hotel reservation" post.  Y'all can figure that part out on your own.  This is a how to shop post.  (Not that I am by any means an expert.  I should qualify this as a "this is how I shop" post, but that has less of a ring to it.)

So, first things first.  Budget.  Know how much you can comfortably spend without having to serve Kraft dinner or ramen to the family for a month.  Be reasonable, be real, and take cash.  It is way harder to overspend cash when it is gone.  Also, not all vendors are going to be set up to take credit or debit cards.  But unless you are carrying knuts and galleons, everybody will take your cash.  (I am actually fairly confident that some of the vendors would take knuts and galleons too, but I'm not at liberty to discuss which ones.)

Next, give a good hard think to what you actually love to knit.  Not what kind of yarn you love to buy, mind you, but what you actually love to knit.   Variegated fingering weight yarn sure is pretty.  But how many Hitchhikers does one girl need?  (Okay, yes, I know there are a lot more options for variegated yarns.  And arguably one girl needs "all of them" in regards to Hitchhikers, but you take my point.)

So, say you really enjoy knitting with tonal colors.  You love to make cabled hats.  Flat colors make you wrinkle your nose.  Variegateds give you heartburn when you try to knit them.   If you know this going in you aren't going to come home with two skeins of a solid lace-weight and half a dozen wild and funky sock yarns.  Instead, you'll come home with a skein of gorgeous, tonal DK or Worsted for that cabled hat you love.  

My point is:  know what you knit. And remember that what you like to buy is not always the same thing as what you like to knit.

Gosh this is already running long, and I'm not even to the pictures yet.   Still with me?

Because next stop is Ravelry.  What's in your queue?  Your favorites? What are you excited about knitting that you don't have yarn for yet?

There is a free program called Trello (it's a productivity software based on a kanban approach for project or production management).  And because I am me, and this is how I do, I use it to gather my knitting inspiration and wish lists.

My Actual SAFF Trello Board

You could do this any number of ways, but the key factors here are: visual reminders of what you are interested in (before the wool fumes get to you and you completely lose your mind), along with yarn weight, pattern name, yardage requirements (this part is really important) and recommended gauge.

Armed with this information you can come home from your festival with yarn that you are more likely to actually use, and (again this is key) in sufficient quantities.   

If you guys would like more information about how I actually set up the Trello board, just let me know and I can go into more detail around the mechanics of it.

One last thing to consider -- cell reception and data can be really spotty at some festivals.  Which means that you might get out to the Barn of Wonders where all of the vendors are waiting to entice you with their wares, and have no access to your carefully constructed plan.

The solution to this dilemma was stolen wholesale from Aimee Beth of The Fat Squirrel Speaks (who in turn stole it from someone else.)   Save a picture in your phone.  It requires no data to access, so you won't get stuck.

Trello has an app, so I just pulled up my board and took a screen shot.  Bob's yer uncle.

Lastly, but not leastly, check out the vendor list from the Festival's website.  Are there any vendors that you are either dying to check out, or that you know you adore from previous years?  If so, make a note so you can be sure to get over to them.  Ideally you'll get to see all of the vendors, but at the bigger festivals you may run out of time and oomph before you run out of places to shop.  A good problem to have, but let's make sure we hit the Must Sees first.

There's so much more that I could say about this  -- and maybe I should have even approached this as a two or three part series, but I hope that this little taste of my process is helpful.

TL:DR

Budget

Carry Cash

Know what you want to knit

Know your vendors

Happy Shopping!  

Happy Panathenaia

Yesterday was a day of adventures here at chez woolly.  We observed Panathenaia and then split up -- the ladies went to the market at SSK over at Scarritt Bennett, and the dudes headed off to McKay's to drop off some books and look for treasures to bring home.

Panathenaia is a festival that was held in the month of June in honor of Athena.  "Festival" in our case means "picnic."   We took a packed lunch up to Centennial Park and ate together after going to the conveniently local Parthenon.

We tend to be an informal lot, most of the time; we don't have specific rituals or prayers that we do for Panathenaia -- it's more about taking the time to be present in Athena's temple (and by present, I mean awake, paying attention, listening, and really being there).

Friends of the show will remember that my decision to learn to spin was prompted by Athena.   I need to continue with that process, take the Craftsy class that a dear friend gifted me, and just spend time with my wheel.  

Several of us spent time knitting in the temple before heading off to lunch.

For me, it's a way of honoring Athena as a Goddess of Fiber Arts.

I often think of Athena, and ask her blessing when I'm practicing my crafts.  She inspires me to try harder, seek excellence, to do my best work, and to move outside of my comfort zone and learn new things.

After lunch, our fiber adventures continued over at the market for the Super Summer Knit-together, a retreat held by the Knit Girllls in Nashville every year.   They had the market open to the public from 1-4 p.m. so off we went.

I did a little damage.

So, to sum up:  yesterday was awesome.

This is already forever long, so I'll keep my update on "this week's projects" brief.   I've worked on my Fork in the Road socks (and in fact, finished them yesterday, so a FO post will be forthcoming), Carl's socks, the super-sekrit thing I'm not talking about, and I picked up Trillian and then set it right back down.  I don't think I actually added any stitches to it.  I just held it a minute.

Sam the Griffin (I just now decided that his name is Sam) was very gracious in holding our socks for photographs.  He's very patient.

Scattershot

So I was all set to complain about how I'm not finishing anything and my "Stash Dash" is more of a "Stash Mosey," but then I took what I've been working on outside to take pictures.

Well, that explains it then.

I've spent most of this past week working on my Dark Rainbow Cowl.  I went on a business trip and over the course of two days and four planes, a lot of progress was made.

I originally cast on the number the pattern calls for (following the advice of the shop owner whose sample I was inspired by), but once I'd finished the yellow I realized it was both too short and too wide.  So last Tuesday I ripped it out and started over with 20 fewer stitches.

Much better.

It's nothing but plain stockinette for miles (with a wee bit of increasing and decreasing to get the bias effect), but that makes it perfect for knitting while reading, watching the husband play video games, or TV.

I'm nearly done with the red, and after that it's two colors to go.

I've also been working on When You Wish by Amy Kenagy.  It's coming along nicely.  I have another 10 rows or so of lace, and then I have to parse the knitted bind off.  I've never knit backwards before, so that should be fun.

I've also got Morgan's second sock in my purse for emergencies.  You know... knitting emergencies.

It does occur to me that some concentrated effort on my part would probably yield better results than my current scattershot approach.

In my defense, that's only three of the 15+ projects I currently have on needles or hooks.

In light of that, I'm being practically monogamous.

Busy, Busy, Busy

So, I never did write those two FO posts I promised last time.  I need to do that.

But not today.  I'm very nearly almost not sick now.  This cold has seriously outworn its welcome, but it seems to have packed its bags and has at least one foot out the door.   And not a moment too soon.  I've managed to get back to running though!  I'm about a week "behind" (behind what, exactly? behind where I wanted to be, I guess), but I've done the first of the Week 3 runs, and I'm due to run again Thursday or Friday.  (It should be Thursday, but I have other plans Thursday night.)

Last Saturday, the ladies and I went to Stitches South at the Opryland Hotel.  It was really fun, and we got to meet some friends from our online knitting group.  That was completely delightful.  The market was laid out in such a way as to be completely overwhelming, but without being as big or comprehensive as SAFF.   But don't worry, I still managed to do a little bit of damage.

I picked up these three skeins of Cashmere/Silk to make Joji Locatelli's 3 Color Cashmere Cowl.  I love, love, love these colors together.   I had gotten some Knit Picks Capretta to do the cowl, and the colors were really muddy in person.  Not at all what I was wanting.  These are bright, clear, and delicious.

I also got three skeins of Dragonfly Fibers to make Ashburn by Melanie Berg.

We had a great time, and came home and fell over.  Morgan came with us, and got to do a little stash enhancement of her own, so that was really fun.

I managed to get one picture right as we got to the hotel, and that was pretty much it (other than a couple of dark shots I got during lunch at the "Irish Pub" in the hotel.)    Here's a shot of my haul, taken when we got back to the house:

I'm also attending a conference in Nashville this week (conferences are less fun in your own city where you get all of the traffic and none of the company-paid hotel rooms).  

This is how much sock one day of conferencing will net you.  I had two rows (just enough to call it on the needles) going in.   We'll see how far I get tomorrow.

And yes, this is two new projects, and no the pink socks, the monkeys, the cosy blanket, and Rowan's sweater aren't done.  I do what I want, remember?

Remember When I Used to Knit?

I miss knitting.

It's starting to get cold here in Tennessee (I know those of you in more Northern climes would mock my concept of what qualifies as "cold" -- but hey, gimme a break, this is the South.) Anyway, the point is, my hands are freezing, and I lost one of my Fetching at a biker joint last year (true story), and I MISS knitting.

Right now I should be sewing Halloween costumes, but I'm surfing Ravelry looking for a good fingerless mitt pattern instead. In this particular instance "good" also means "dead simple" and "would look good variegated."

So far, major contenders are Jacoby and Mitt Envy. (Ravelry links). I saw some other cute patterns that would make for great Yulemas gifts.

And speaking of Halloween, I should be sure to get pictures of the kids this year. Rowan is going to be Luke Skywalker (Return of the Jedi era) and Morgan is going to be Fraulein Maria. It's Morgan costume that I'm supposed to be working on right now.

And in other, other news, Jess, Koren and I hit the Cannonsburg Fiber Festival this morning. We saw some wee sheepies, drank some warm cider, and I came home with some more fiber that I don't really know how to spin.

Good times.

Harlot Tonight!

No time to blog about how I haven't had time to blog.


The Harlot will be in Nashville tonight, and I (and many friends) will be there to see her!

(And, of course, I can't find my copy of Knitting Rules...which is my favorite of her books.)