skittermagoo!

Already?

Really? The end of May??

Sigh. Where does all the time go? I was writing the date on something at work last week and dated it "April"!

Well, anyway, it's supposed to be a long weekend here in the US, though I have to go to work for a while tomorrow (science waits for nobody).

Oh, wait, I know where the time has gone! Well, since yesterday afternoon, anyway . . .

This is where!

Yep, new baby kitten at our house. Old kitty not impressed; we're taking it slow and hoping she'll come around.

And yeah, I've been knitting, and I have some stuff to show, but right now I have a date with a kitten and a feather toy!

MSWF: I went, I bought, I sustained minor injuries!

Note: I am a Lazy Linker today, so I may have mentioned people more than once but only linked to them once. Or I may not have linked at all. Sucks, I know, but as it is, I'm sneaking blog time in at work!

So yeah. Last week I was a very lucky girl and got to go to MSWF for the second time in two years -- it was sooo much fun! I'm sure my recap will be riddled with inaccuracy, so if I get things out of order and whatnot, well, mea culpa.

NanC and I went out a couple days early (on Wednesday), 'cause we're crazy that way. Thursday we got together with Kathy and had lunch in Fells Point at a great Indian buffet place. I would tell you the name, but I can't remember it. Then we ambled over to the Baltimore Tattoo Museum so that NanC could get a cooltastic knitting-related tattoo. While she was getting inked, Kathy and I sat at an outdoor table at a cute little cafe and chatted. I think I may have knitted, too, but I can't remember.

Thursday night we had dinner with my friend Kim, and as usual afterwards my face hurt from laughing so much. Kim claims she wants to learn to knit; once she does, we'll try to get her to start a blog. The girl is seriously funny.

Friday was supposed to be a "hang out and wait for the rest of the girls to arrive" day, but NanC's sister-in-law somehow persuaded us to go with her to downtown Baltimore to the "Flower Mart". Despite the name, it was not a store selling flowers, but was a street fair thing with vendor booths and stuff like that.

Friday night P-La (and the Squid), Jen, and Lilyan arrived, and we sat down and planned our attack for the next day.

Not surprisingly, the plan involved an initial stop to buy some Socks That Rock . . .

While we were at the STR booth, we spotted Frecklegirl Jess and Kelly (one of our TX girls), and Jen had a close encounter with one of her secret pals.

Our second (third?)stop was at Brooks Farm, which is where I injured myself . . . I was standing next to one of their nifty display stands (I think they are made of cast iron), and bent down to look at some yarn that was in a basket on the ground . . . and yeah, I totally smashed into one of the hangy-thingies on the stand. With my eye. My glasses flew off onto the ground, I saw stars, and I was immediately sure that my glasses must be broken (such was the force of the collision). Luckily, my glasses weren't busted -- only scratched up at the top of the lens (so I can still wear them until I get new ones), and my eyelid was only scraped up a bit. No black eye, though it would have been a good story to say that the Brooks Farm booth gave me a shiner. (shiner black eye, not shiner bock). After this adventure, Teri caught up with us and became and honorary member of the Texas Contingent, at least for the day.

I can't remember if it was before Brooks Farm or after, but we also hit the Tess booth, where I was too freaked out by the crowds to venture in. I kind of regret that, for the second year running -- the yarn is divine. But I just couldn't do it.

At some point we ate food (lamb, yum! ribbon potatoes, yum!), and ventured over to the pavillion for the blogger meetup. Jennifer spotted me, and introduced herself (though silly me didn't make the connection that it was THAT Jennifer until later on, durrr), and we looked around. Nobody else looked remotely bloggery, and there was some really loud obnoxious jug band music or somesuch going on, so we moved down to the hillside near the main barn, where the blogger thingy was last year. Aha! We spotted bloggers, so that's where we stayed for a while. There were TONS of Texas people there, which was cool. I got to chat with Christine, and Adelle (who I originally met through the Dallas Stitch n Bitch, and who now lives in upstate NY), and Kelly, and and and . . . oh crap, I'm having trouble remembering who else I talked to. A lot of people, but less than last year (I think the confusion over blogger meetup location may have been at least partially to blame).

After that, the rest of Saturday became one big blur of shopping and eating . . . every so often I would get completely overwhelmed with the crowds and the things to see and would just have to take a break and sit outside on the grass and just breathe. We also met up with Joel during one of these breaks (another Texan, one of our DFW locals!). He already knew Jen and Lilyan from here, but I don't think any of the rest of us had met him.

So, the haul from Saturday? Well, other than the STR, here's what I collected the first day out:

A Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Sock to Shoe" kit from The Fold

Kelly was kind enough to pass this over to me while I was standing in line to pay for my STR

Brooks Farm Four Play (my favorite yarn ever) . . . enough to make a sweater

red silk and wool, yum!

Lovely Cormo roving from Foxhill Farms

And some laceweight yarn from Morehouse Farms

why yes, I do have yet to knit a lace shawl. why do you ask?

Whew! So that was Saturday. I'm tired out just writing all that!

Sunday we were a lot more relaxed about our "getting there" time, and didn't hurry quite as much over breakfast. However, the vendors still had stuff to sell us! My friend Kim (see above) also met us out there and got to see the Sheep To Shawl auction, which is always fun.

I should not have ventured back into the Brooks Farm booth, especially considering that the display bit me the first time in, but I broke down and took a second look . . . this is what jumped into my arms there:

mas acero, enough for a sweater

I also bought some spinning fiber, which is a good thing; I had originally planned on buying almost all fiber and not much yarn, but Brooks Farm had to go and hit me in the eye and spoil that plan . . .

Anyway,

I picked up some natural-dyed fiber at Handspun By Stefania

I can't remember what kind of fiber OR what kind of dye, and I'm still trying to find the receipt to find out

I also found some 1oz packs of icelandic wool and silk tussah

I have no idea who this vendor was, unfortunately

And finally, some BFL and Wensleydale from Flying Fibers

I bought the Wensleydale purely in honor of Wallace and Gromit

Oh! I almost forgot that I bought a shawl pin from Moving Mud, but I forgot to take a picture. Dur.

After all that on Sunday, we were all completely pooped, so we went back to NanC's brother's house (he was sooo generous and gracious to let us all stay there) and chilled. Jen and Lilyan had to leave, and P-La and NanC and I had dinner with her fam and then packed up to leave early early early the next morning.

I'm already hoping that we can do it all again next year!

I'm back!

Well, actually I've been back from Maryland since Monday, but I'm just now getting around to downloading pictures from MSWF Adventure 2007 . . . I promise to post pictures of the haul soon! Promise!

In the meantime, if you haven't heard of ravelry.com yet, GO! Sign up for an invite -- y'all, this is seriously quite possibly the coolest web thing ever for knitters and crocheters. Seriously.

Also, to those of you who have been using firefox forever and ever: Why, oh WHY did nobody tell me before how wonderful and fabulous it is? I know I'm usually a late adopter of new stuff, but DANG! This may be the best. browser. ever.

GIDDY!

So, NanC and I are leaving in just over an hour to fly to MD . . . and I can't seem to sit still! I'm kind of a fidgety person to begin with, but I'm so excited to be going to MSWF that I can barely stand it (we're going out a couple days early to visit some friends and family who might not be all excited about petting some sheep). Also, I am realizing that I really, really needed a bit of vacation -- it's been a year since I took more than a day here and there off work.

For those of y'all who will be there, don't forget! 1pm on Saturday at the Pavillion -- see you there!

WOOT!