One Crazy Fiber Lady

We are at sea!  Left yesterday from the port of Baltimore on the Grandeur of the Seas for a 5 night cruise to Bermuda. Cabin is the standard balcony that I’ve shown many a times before. The twins and I met out table mates last night at dinner. They are a really nice couple with a 15 year old son. Turns out they are also motorcycle riders with a comfy Harley cruiser that she sleeps on the back of, with mid-life tattoos too!  My new peeps 🙂

Sunset last night from our balcony was beautiful. 

My ribs are very sore after really pushing too hard the last couple of days with packing and all that. Today is going to be a quiet and relaxing day at sea. I’m up early, as usual and went up on deck with my coffee, kindle and knitting while the kids sleep in.  This is better than the porch 😉

Craft on!

Way back in the olden days, I used to post very regularly.  When I can stay on top of things, it is easier to stay up to date, the backlog/deficit doesn’t continue to grow and discourage me from posting.  So, now that I caught up, mostly, yesterday, I’m going to give regular posting a try again.  If anything it will serve as a distraction from work 😉

So yes, I have more cruise pictures.  This trip it was just the monkeys and me.  No grandparents along, just me spending more time with my kids than I have in a very long time.  It was pretty awesome (with some minor wrinkles).  We did things on the ship that we’ve not done in the past.  Yes, it was the same ship (Explorer of the Seas) that we’ve been taking year in and year out.  Its just to easy to drive the short distance to Bayonne, NJ and get on whatever ship is docked there.  In the past, and until November, it is the Explorer. Sooo…. we went ICE SKATING!  At sea.  Yes.  I haven’t been ice skating in over a decade and I know for sure, the rink wasn’t rocking gently either.  Woo boy.  The kids enjoyed it though 🙂

And yes, I really was on board.  Tough getting into the picture when you’re the one holding the camera most of the time.

We had a super awesome bonus of beautiful weather our last day at sea.  A day that is usually cold and has us hiding inside and mopey cause we’re going home, was warm with a wind directly behind us. That allowed us to go somewhere we’ve never been while underway – this is the edge of the helipad right up at the bow.   Notice how tall boy is getting.

Anyway….I think i finally have the perfect portable wheel.  I brought the Wee Robin with us in a 24″ hard sided suitcase.  I bought the wheel right before the trip and it arrived oh so timely.  I spun almost 8oz of fiber over the course of the cruise and had no issues with this wheel at all.  So much so that when we got back I sold the Cooper Sabrina.  She was a pretty little wheel, but I preferred the quicker setup/breakdown and the two treadles of the Wee.

The wheel lived on the coffee table tucked next to the TV at the end of the bed when she wasn’t in use.

And finally, I have yet another sweater on the needles.  This is my handspun yarn, that was done on the full sized Golding.  Fiber is Into the Whirled.  Natch.  I’m past the armpits and cruising along on the body.

Craft on!

I know its been a while since I last posted. Stuff has been going on. Work hasn’t gotten any better and as a matter of fact it is gotten worse. Can’t go into details but it is what it is. The kids and I went on a cruise with stops in Nassau, where we did this at Atlantis

and Florida where we went to Disney.

I both bought another wheel and have sold one.  Both are in this picture 🙂

I finished a pair of socks:

Started a new pair:

And I’ve been spinning!

That should catch us up.  I’ll try and post more regularly now that I’ve caught up 😉

Craft on!

This weekend might be Memorial Day to general American population.  To those of us who know, it is Cummington.  (Or as Cassie called it, the The Cummington Wool Cult).  I think Cate is doing her part to really get the cult status!  While the festival is a small one by MDSW or Rhinebeck (another cult you ask?) standards, the gathering promises to be one where friends can really enjoy it together.  My short people will probably get a great kick out of being in a house with other short, yet older, people.  They do so love it when their cousins come up for a visit.  The boy yearns to play with older boys and now that he’s a bit bigger, he got in on the reindeer games last weekend.  He was grinning from ear to ear while he chased after his big (almost 5 and 8 yr) cousins.

Tomorrow is an early out from work, and by exchanging lunch today for an extra hour tomorrow, I’ll hopefully be on the road early enough to be at Cate’s in time for dinner.  I’m bringing the baby benadryl just in case K&A take to sleeping there as well as they did the first night at MD.  I also hope that little miss velcro will detach herself from me long enough to enjoy the festival and mini-festival. 

Sunday we’ll be heading to stay with my folks on the boat.  The twins haven’t been there yet this year but as the boat is on the way back, sorta, we’ll be stopping off.  Right now we’re planning on an overnighter and I do hope it will go well.  It didn’t last year but again, that’s no indicator of what will happen now.  Heck the monkeys definitely have me on my toes and scared to commit to saying anything.  As soon as I think I have their likes/dislikes figured out, they switch it up on me.  I suppose I should get used to it.

I’m beyond the halfway point on the foot of the second F&F sock.  I picked up for the heel gusset on the PATH train last night and by the time I got to my car, I had 5 repeats of the lace portion on the foot done.  I counted how many repeats are in the first sock (15 on the cuff, 16 on the foot) so that I could match the two socks exactly.  As of this morning’s commute, I have 11 repeats complete.  This sock is going down.  I’ll have to bring something else for the weekend, in case I actually get some knitting time that is.  Cabled sweater is probably not a great idea for social knitting, but you never know.  Another pair of socks?  Maybe.  Not like I’m lacking for sock yarn.  And socks patterns.

Speaking of patterns, UPS’s little online tracking app is showing me that my latest order is out for delivery.  I’ve been watching Wendy knit Inishmore and my recent experiences with cables has me really itching to try something on a grander scale.  So I went shopping.  Online this time.  I bought the Starmore’s Fishermen’s Sweaters: Twenty Exclusive Knitwear Designs for All Generations and Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking Patterns for Knitting.  I’m itching to sit down with these books. 

Oh wait, must pack, or make a serious effort at getting everything ready to simply throw in the car tomorrow after work.  Sigh.  I hate packing.  I’ve done a lot of things to avoid packing,  including scrubbing a stove.  Don’t get me wrong, I love going places, I just hate the prep work in getting there.  Its worse now that there are little people relying on me to bring everything their fickle little toddler hearts might want.   Oy.  The weather (and I won’t go down that ugly path again today) is not making my packing any easier.  At least the NOAA webpage is showing Saturday as pretty decent and 64F.  Could be worse.  Oh and I’m bringing the little Saxony wheel, maybe just maybe it will find a new home.  I think I’m supposed to bring alone my Fricke drum carder.  Must check with Cate.  Wonder if I need the pack’n’plays.  Definitely must check with Cate.

Doubt I will have time to blog tomorrow and I must write a test plan now.. oh and I just found a bug I need to fix so I’m going to close it here.  Have a very happy, healthy and safe Memorial Day (to those celebrating – excellent weekend to the others) to everyone.  Fellow cult members: see you at the gathering!

Well I made it through the weekend with the twins!  I don’t know why I was scared out of my wits to take them, but I was.  Now I know I can do it, watch out world! 

Damn I love the MDS&W festival.  It was so worth the trip.  Was it for the SEX (sorry googlers, Stash Enhancement eXpedition) alone?  Nope.  I can enhance the stash without leaving my living room.  The topic of why we go to these things came up on one of the mailing lists and I thought hard about my answer to the question.  It isn’t the SEX, it is being part of a community and being surrounded by this community that actually draws me out there.  Sure blogging has let me know that there are others out there that feel as passionately about the fiber hobbies that I do, but honestly meeting and seeing the sea of humanity that shows up at these festivals really drives the point home that I am indeed not the crazy fiber lady that my day to day contacts treat me as.  THAT is why I schlepped toddler twins two states away for a weekend alone…. because for a change, I wasn’t alone! 

In that vein, I spent some time with old friends and met some new ones:

Here’s the EZasPi group gathering (thanks to Judy for the photo) on Saturday.  From left to right, Shari, Elsie, Elaine, Sue, Judy, Chris and Me/Alex.  Kat was running loose while Alex was a bit clingy.  They both needed naps by this point.  Shari was a saint and gave me a huge Mother’s Day gift, she helped me with the twins for the afternoon!  She and her family spent the rest of the afternoon at the festival taking turns pushing the stroller, carrying a tired toddler that wanted out, walking hand in hand, and simply allowing me to get into the very crowded booths to check wares and spend some cash.  I couldn’t have done it without them.  Big thanks to Shari and her beautiful family! 

This is Cece and Mamacate, a new blogging friend and one that I finally met in person.  They both were great helps in wrangling the toddlers.  Cate was especially helpful at lunchtime.  I didn’t get to spend a great deal of time with these ladies as the ebb and flow can split up groups, but what I did I very much enjoyed.  I’m really looking forward to Cummington and hanging with Cate and finally meeting her twins.

Who did the twins and I have breakfast with yesterday?  None other than the Harlot herself!  I was ever so excited to read that there was going to be a breakfast meet up at the Homewood Suites in Columbia on Sunday morning, the same hotel where the monkeys and I were staying!  How fortuitous was that?  Pictured with Stephanie is Mia.  I also met reader Donna (Hi Donna!) and some very nice people. It was a great time.  Stephanie was very witty as a regular blog reader would expect.  Nice to find someone my size.

While I had planned to come straight home Sunday, I was tempted back to the festival with the promise that Sunday was a far less crowded day than Saturday.  No surprise, I went.  I shopped.  I saw more friends, pulled into the parking area one car ahead of Stephanie and her agent (sorry forgot her name, a very nice lady!).  After expanding the stash, meeting up with the NJ gals again and having lunch, the monkeys and I headed home at 1:30.  Sadly I did miss meeting with Vicki as I didn’t get the message she’d called until I was in Delaware and about the cross back into Jersey.  I hit nasty traffic in  a couple of places and didn’t get home until 6.  The twins were great and other than short periods of fussing were fab travel buddies.  They handled the excitement, the stroller confinement and the long drives like troopers.

After two days and just shy of 500 miles, this is what my car looked like:

While I did forget one thing, diaper cream they do have CVS type stores in Maryland and they do sell Desitin there so no harm, no foul.  We did lose three pacifiers at the festival, but that was not unexpected and I had plenty of backups.  I dodged a few bullets in the loss department as well.  On the way into the festival on Saturday, one of the sippy cups fell out of the bag.  I made do with only one, as well as a water bottle with the sport lid in hydrating the monkeys.  Wouldn’t you know it, on the way out of the festival a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I had dropped something.  While I had just fetched Alex’s chewie (his version of a blankie is nothing more than a cloth diaper) I looked at where she was pointing.  Sitting on top of the barrel that marked the entrance path was the sippy cup!

The bigger problem had been Kathryn’s blankie.  Now I have three of them as I know how important blankie is in this kid’s life.  I’m a blankie girl myself so I really understand the implications involved in losing one.  When she latched onto this thing at 6 months old, I bought more and regularly rotate them so she wears them evenly so to speak.  Unlike Alex’s chewie and binkies I didn’t bring a reserve of blankies with us.  While I have spent considerable time retracing steps at the supermarket and various and sundried other places retrieving blankie you would have thought that I’d pack all three!  The kid goes nowhere without and certainly doesn’t sleep without it.  You know where this is going.  Yes, she lost it at the festival.  Twice.  The first time was about an hour in on Saturday.  In the very crowded Main Exhibition Hall, somewhere between the superfine Australian Corrie Fleece booth around the fleece sale and the much mobbed Little Barn booth where I discovered she didn’t have it.  (As an aside, that crowd had me forgo Little Barn for the first time.  Ever.)  It was a zoo. It was a very sad zoo to get through with a tandem stroller.  I made it back and forth.  Finally a very nice woman who had a booth there selling gorgeous felted items (hats and stylin’ scarves) offered up babysitting services and stroller parking to allow me to go find blankie.  I hopped on that one and went back one more time. Some kind soul had found it and placed it on the outside edge of the fleece sale table.  Thank goodness.  Thank you kind soul!

Blankie was lost again yesterday.  After lunch with the NJ folk, we started heading out with Shari and her family when Kat started whining.  No blankie anywhere in the stroller. I ran back to the lunch site.  No Blankie.  This time I can’t even tell the last time I’d had it, unlike Saturday when the nice Aussie lady told me she’d seen Kat playing with it with Cece.  Sigh.  I was already dreading the very long drive home without blankie.  Shari reminded me of my luck with the sippy cup and finding blankie once before and held out high hopes we’d locate it again.  Half fearing that I’d used up my luck, I retraced our steps.  What was that on one of the posts along the main walk????  BLANKIE!  Some kind soul recognized its value, picked it up, put it on the post and went so far as to put a rock on top to keep it in place in the wind!  THANK YOU.   Disaster averted, I decided not to push what remaining luck I had and made my way to the car.  I stopped long enough to drool over the gorgeous mohair yarn from Brooks Farm, but resisted.  I couldn’t resist though an aran cable sweater kit at another booth.

Pictures and listing of actual stash enhancement will be tomorrow.  I
was so pooped by the time I got it all in the house, gave the twins
dinner, got them to bed and unpacked the necessities that I was just
not ready to sort and photograph the new stuff.  All in all, I’m glad I made the decision that I did.  I’m so glad that I went.