How many is too many?

It's a trick question.  The answer is, "there is no such thing as too many"... projects to bring when you are out for a day, a week, or more.

I take you back to the other day when it was time to bring Thing #2 to school.  The drive is less than two hours. That means approximately four hours of car time mixed with random acts of knitting should we hang around at all.

Since I was swatching for two upcoming design projects, I would bring those yarns and several needle sizes.  That was easy if not particularly time consuming.

The next project is a design in process, boot toppers.  They were nearly done. I'm knitting them in Ultra Alpaca Light (Sport: 50% Alpaca, 50% Wool, 144 yards).

May I say at this point I felt very responsible and productive bringing my time sensitive knitting.  It just didn't feel like enough.  Nothing I was bringing was very time consuming.  This is assuming I finished everything I brought. 

I decided to throw in the Bandana Cowl that I'm knitting in Malabrigo Merino Worsted (Worsted: 100% Merino, 210 yards). 

Here are the results of the trip:
1. Swatch completed.
2. Couldn't work on swatch #2 since we were using my phone's gps and I needed the stitch dictionary on said phone. (For those of you saying "work the cable without a cable needle"... don't like to do that. On a small needle and it would've been fiddly at best.
3. No cable needle for boot toppers.  Curses, foiled again.  I had paired down bags for this journey.  Note to self: don't do that.  More is MORE.
4. Thank goodness I brought the Bandana Cowl.  I would have been without knitting!

Moral of the story: 1. Make mini notions kits for each project and put it in the project bag. 2. Bring as many projects as my little heart desires.

Even Thursday Next Needs Portable Knitting

Last week I went to Boston for a book signing by Jasper Fforde. He writes one of my favorite series, Thursday Next. This is the same book shop that hosted the Jenny Lawson book signing my sister and I went to earlier this summer.  It was crucial that I had some portable, "purse" worthy knitting to bring along. I made a trip to my stash and came up with Prism Symphony.

Prism Symphony is a worsted weight yarn that is 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, and 10% Nylon.  It is lovely.  I decided to knit up the Honey Cowl.I knit one up last year as a gift and it is a worthy do-over.

Before the book signing, there was a reading at the Coolidge Theater in Brookline.  (The event was sponsored by the Brookline Booksmith.  Jasper Fforde was funny and had some interesting commentary on the book writing/publishing process.

I was delighted to see a woman knitting in the row in front of us. I (not so surreptitiously) took her picture and then looked away to "act natural".  My sister said that she caught me.  Thankfully she was amused and not annoyed.  She was knitting with mohair, I could see the fuzziness. 

After the signing we went to dinner at a great place Nancy found a block down from the booksmith.  Since I can't remember the real name, I'll call it "The Regal Beagle".

Nancy's plan was to eat dinner while the line for the book signing wound down.  It was brilliant.  We only waited about 20 minutes.  We didn't torture Jasper Fforde with our usual antics.  We figured he had been through enough smiling and signing for an hour.

I'm looking forward to reading his new book, "The Woman Who Died Too Much." Word to the wise, don't google this book title unless you include Jasper Fforde's name.  You get some funky hits.  I know having written that, that most of you are going to google it JUST that way too.  I warned you.

 

Honey Cowl in progress.

If It's Friday, It must be Boston.

Recently I listened to Jenny Lawson's (aka, The Bloggess) book, "Let's Pretend This Never Happened", a mostly true memoir.  It was absolutely hysterical.  Listening to her read her book was priceless.  Within quick succession of finishing the book my girls and sister began to read and/or listen to the book.  You could say we are addicted to her sense of humor and her perspective of life experiences.  I really enjoy the spin she puts on life.

I was first introduced to the world of Jenny Lawson when my sister sent me this post from her blog. From her blog, I learned that she was scheduled to be in Brookline, Ma for a book reading/signing.  It was a whirlwind decision to attend. G and I were totally game.  My sister jumped through hoops to clear her schedule.

There are a lot of critters mentioned her book and I decided on a whim to crochet her a scorpion. You have to love Ravelry, I found a pattern for one.  I knew there would be.  Given that I rarely do anything ahead of time, it won't surprise you to learn that I finished the scorpion on the drive to Boston.

I also finished my capelet on the drive too.  Good thing it's a 3 hour drive.  G and I listened to our some of our favorite passages from the book en route.

The book signing was held at the Brookline Booksmith a good, old fashioned, independent book store.  It was delightful.  By the time we got there the downstairs room where the book signing was being held was full to capacity with people spilling up the stairs.  When we learned that the book reading was going to be piped through the whole store, we moved from the never-never land spot at the top of the stairs to begin the line for the book signing. 

 Of course we had our knitting. 

I was working on another capelet.

Nancy brought Color Affection to knit. Not exactly portable, but she made it work. 

 We met another knitter/spinner on line 

who sadly didn't have her knitting.

 We had a great time with the people that were on line around us. These four ladies were from Cape Cod.  The woman on the left was wearing a fox stole.  The bad news is that it's tail fell apart.  The good news is that each of her friends got a little fox "tribble".

Initially I was disappointed not to be in front of her for the book signing.  However, we were only about a dozen people back in line for the book signing and that turned out to be a real boon.

After her reading, the line for the book signing literally wound through the store. We would have been on line for hours if we had been front row to the book reading.

We were this close to the beginning of the line and so excited to meet her!

Jenny was great!  She liked my scorpion gift.  There are not too many opportunities in life to give/receive a scorpion gift.  The monkey on the table is Copernicus, the homicidal monkey.  Don't ask me, this was the first I learned of him.  Here is his Facebook page. 

I didn't realize till we got home that she mentioned it when signing my book.  That was awesome.

 G noticed a card with a lobster on.  I we realized that there is a certain similarity between scorpions and lobsters; distant cousins maybe? 

In case you couldn't see Nancy's t-shirt.  It was the cause of great bonding with the people on line around us.

All in all, a great night.

Yarn Market News Conference Part One

This year's Yarn Market News Smart Business Conference was held in Boston at the Fairmont Copley Hotel.  It's a gorgeous hotel.  There was one thing that made it super special.

THERE IS A HOTEL DOG!!!!!

HOW COOL IS THIS?!

Her name is Catie and she has her own bed and crystal water bowl.  Hotel guests can take her for walks.  She even has her own business card as the Canine Ambassador.  This totally delights me every time I pass by her and give her a little pat.

That being said, the conference was outstanding.  What a terrific event for shop owners to share ideas and hear talks from informative and interesting speakers with messages pertinent to our industry.

During one such talk by Rafael Mael, he discussed the importance of videos in today's marketplace.  He began to show screenshots of knitting you tube videos.  For those of you that know me well, do you have an inkling of what popped up?   Well, I'll tell you.  The third screen shot goes up, I did a double take and murmured to the woman next to me, "THAT'S ME!"  I politely called out to the speaker that it was me.  Thank Goodness it was a used under the banner of what to do!  It was surreal.

I met yarn shop owners from all over the US and Canada.  As you would imagine at a conference of this nature, all the attendees were dressed in all their knitted/crocheted finery.  I love this part of fiber related events.  Where else can you preview patterns you've only seen in one dimension/camera angle? 

Pam, owner of Yarn Love in Hummelstown, PA was wearing Ruth's Entrelac Butterfly Shawl knit in Noro Taiyo.

Carla from Delightful Ewe was wearing Summer Flies knit in Jojoland Rhythm.

I also saw two  great crocheted sweaters  Petal Pullover and Terra Firma.

I've been working on my Diamond Scarf in Ellyn Cooper's Jenny yarn.  I am ridiculously consistent; it is almost absurd that the knitting bag for my Diamond Scarf matches the scarf.

I now understand why my husband is so exhausted after conferences.  I have been going strong since 7:30 am and it's now 10:00 pm.  And yet, tomorrow is another day.  No rest for the weary.  That's all the cliches I have for now.

Leaf Peeping

We took a road trip up to Vermont this weekend; the leaves were just starting to turn.

Joe has become a very good sport about stopping at yarn stores. He knows that at any moment I might say, "there is a yarn store not too far from where we are....". Why fight the force?
Six Loose Ladies is in Proctorsville, VT. And can we just take a moment to totally appreciate this awesome name?! Six Loose Ladies is a non-profit organization run by volunteers. The shop had a lot of interesting yarns, roving for spinning, and lots of fiber related tools and books. There was a cozy sitting area in the back of the shop where several people were just hanging out doing their "fiber" thing.
In case you can't read it the sign says "over 500 pieces of country furniture". As we sat in a little traffic, Joe wondered if they have to change the sign every time they sell something. :)
The lighting was beautiful as we drove through the Green Mountains. It made everything look so brilliantly illuminated.

Of course there was a lot of knitting time.

We also stopped at Green Mountain Fibers Yarn Store in Rutland, VT. My sister recommended this one. They had a lot of interesting local hand spun yarns and a quite varied range of yarns.

This is an exclusive yarn color from Dream in Color. Stores can elect to participate in a "yarn of the month" club and the colors are exclusive to the program. The colors in this skein are totally outside my usual colorways. It was so richly autumn, I couldn't resist. It also came with a free shawl pattern.

Girl's Weekend Part Two

On Saturday we visited Metaphor Yarns in Shelburne, MA. I receive Meta's (the owner's) email newsletters and I enjoy her 'voice' in the emails. She's got creative ideas and a lovely shop.
I immediately saw this yarn by Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer. The yarn is called Poet Seat Yarn, 80% Blue Faced Leicester and 20% Nylon, it's fingering weight and has 400 yards. I love the colorway and couldn't part with it.
Elizabeth found a skein of Puppy Love Gone Wild yarn that was 30% Samoyed (dog!), 20% milk, 50% Merino from Wild Still River Mill. Definitely Wild!

We really enjoyed our visit. Originally there was going to a knitting/wine night at Metaphor Yarns. It was cancelled and Meta generously gave us each a skein of Kid Silk Haze.
We're going to have our own knit-a-long, probably Trio of Curlicues by String.

On the way back we took pictures of some of the damage done by Tropical Storm Irene. It was really scary to see some of the damage done and we weren't even in the places hit the hardest.

The water completely carved out side of the hill and took all the trees with it.

Because there were so many roads closed, plates like these were nailed up on trees/posts to highlight detours.

The water completely uprooted the sidewalk.

This is a giant sink hole in the parking lot of a library.

This is what's left of a bridge that was washed out.

It was very humbling to see all the damage done by the heavy rains/water.

We met this sweet dog- part lab part mastif. He was playing with a small stick and it looked like he had a cigar.
Traffic was stopped while the paving trucks worked. He went over to greet another lab in this car, it was hysterical!
Knit-wise, the buttons finally made it onto Michelle's Corinne Cardigan, courtesy of Mary. Elizabeth tried it on and planning on knitting one for herself.
Michelle and I swatched for our next project, Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. She's knitting with Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere. It is SO NICE! I'm knitting with Miss Bab's Fingering.
And finally, the leaves were starting to turn...