Maryland Sheep and Wool!

Over the weekend, I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool on Saturday and Sunday with two friends (but I left having made some new ones!). All in all, it was pretty awesome! I mostly went with a purpose in mind, to buy myself a spindle, a knitty noddy, and a bunch of fiber. Mission accomplished! And while doing that, we shopped a whole bunch, talked a lot about fiber and spinning and knitting and crocheting and weaving, met new friends, ate some delicious food, and looked at a whooooole lot of sheep (and a goat, and a couple alpaca).

Maryland Sheep and Wool was held at the Howard County Fairgrounds, and as such it looked a lot like you'd expect a county fairgrounds to look. I was rather shocked by just how many vendors of different sorts were there! But in the end, the cutest thing to photograph was the sheep. :)





The friends was there with also appreciated the sheep.



Most of the sheep didn't really want the visitors to touch them, but this one was quite happy to have me stand there and pet his chin like I would a cat or a dog.



Of course, there were other animals, too. Like alpaca, goats, and dogs...


A lot of the sheep were getting sheared...most didn't seem to like it much...


There were tons, and tons of people there, especially on Saturday.


So what did I get? A lot of spinning stuff! My main goal was to leave with my own spindle and a knitty noddy. I was able to get both! The knitty noddy was the cheapest I could find of the size I wanted. For the other, I tried a bunch of different spindles before settling on one made by Kate of Kate's Cauldron.


I chose this one for a variety of reasons, mostly because of it's weight and because of it's neat spiral design, which has meant that I haven't dropped it once in all that alpaca I've been spinning that's on there now. :)

I chose one that has a Z spiral on one end and an S spiral on the other, so I can use it to spin in whichever direction I want! I'm really happy with it, and so pleased that after looking at so many gorgeous spindles, so many of which were really expensive, I was able to find the one I liked best and it didn't need fancy embellishments or expensive wood, and therefore was very reasonably priced ($30!)

The rest of my budget (which, amazingly, I didn't exceed or even end up meeting!) was spent on FIBER! This is most of it:

Most of these are pretty plain; I'm planning to mix the blue and the green in to something. The braid of roving in the middle was my "big" indulgence, it was full price and high-quality and I love the colors.


In addition, I also went hunting high and low for a colorway that reminded me of Supernatural, so that I can spin it and make something out of it for Nerd Wars.

I'm actually considering having it be a "Dissertation" - a three-month project instead of a 1 month project - because I'm going to have to card in the glitz and then spin it and then make something out of it.


I'm already looking forward to it!

All in all, I had a great time! I'm so glad that I decided to go, and now I have spindle to bring with me when I leave tomorrow. I bet I can get a TON of spinning done on the plane and on the beach (as long as I don't get sand in my yarn!).

In completely unrelated news, my team ended up winning Nerd Wars! I was shocked and very excited! To top it off, one of my submissions (the Arctic Fox I made in April) to one of the challenges ended up winning the challenge, and is now in the running to win the category as a whole (it's complicated, and not worth explaining just now, but if you're interested, I'll explain in a comment. ;) ) I'm pretty damn happy about it, and getting pretty excited for the next round, too!

What Do You See on a Long, Long Walk?

Over the weekend, I followed a train of thought that is surprisingly normal for me:
1. Hey, look, I've got nothing on my calendar on Tuesday or Wednesday!
2. That means that if I take Tuesday as a day off, I can do all the work Wednesday, and all should be well!
3. The weather on Tuesday is going to be gorgeous.
4. I'd really, really like to see the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, but I'll be out of time for the Sakura Matsuri (which is this weekend).
5. I should go to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden on Tuesday!
(and now the leap of logic)
6. ...I've really wanted to find the time for a long walk.
7. I should walk to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It's "only" about 15 miles from my apartment.
8. ...it's actually almost 19 miles from my apartment. Hey, that's manageable!

So...it's the morning, and I'm just getting done a few odds and ends before I start my walk. Here's the plan.

It's 19.2 miles, and takes me over the Broadway Bridge in to Manhattan, then all the way down Broadway to Union Square, south down to City Hall, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and finally down Flatbush until I get to the Garden. The beautiful thing about this root is that if I get tired at any point, it'll be the easiest thing in the world to abort and get on the train; the 2, 3 and 4 all go to BBG, and I'll be following the root for the 2/3 early in the walk (starting at about the 6 mile mark) and the 4 root starting at about the 10 mile point.

I've done a walk like this once before, 3 and a half years ago - that day, I just set out to walk as far as I could, and ended up going about 20 miles - with lots of pictures - but I'll make that a post for another day. ;)

Anyway...that's the plan! Enough description, I need to get moving! :)

...I would say that the fact that I think this plan was in anyway a good idea and a reasonable way to spend my day off is probably why I'm exhausted and busy all the time. :)

So! It's been about a week and a half since I first wrote the above. First I did the walk, then I wanted to wait to finish this post until I'd labeled all the pictures on Flickr, then I got busy, but today I finally finished the labeling, and here goes.

First, to end the suspense, I ended up walking 29 miles last Tuesday. I still kinda can't believe it. What amazed me most was that I could have continued, and the next day I was only a little stiff; by Thursday I was good to go again, and did a four mile walk with my dad without a twinge. I guess I didn't really realize just how in shape I am. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.

So, what DOES one see on a 29 mile walk? Lets find out...

I saw these a lot:


It takes a lot of fuel to make it that far!

When I started out, it was cold and really foggy.


It cleared up soon, though! The trip was very, very long and took me past all three other places I've lived previously in New York City. I grew up on 86th Street.


I went by a whole lot of major tourists sights, too, like Times Square!


And Union Square!


And China Town!


I crossed the Manhattan Bridge on the way out, which gave me awesome views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Financial District.


I'd gone about 19 miles when I arrived at the garden. It turned out that it was a free admission day, and the weather was gorgeous, so it was mobbed with people!


The Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom.


I also wandered through the conservatory, where they had an awesome room dedicated to Bonsai!


A lot of gorgeous spring flowers were in bloom.


And the sun was shining down through the spring leaves which finally seemed to sprout, over night, now that the weather was improving.


There were flowers pretty much everywhere I looked!


So then came the question: what next? I had promised myself that if I could muster the energy to walk back to Little Italy, I could get a canoli, but I wasn't about to risk hurting myself. I took a break, pondered my physical condition, and ended up deciding to go for it. On the way, I passed through Grand Army Plaza, which I'd always wanted to go through (as it is a huge Civil War monument)


And I walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge!


With fantastic late afternoon views of the Bay.


I got a cream puff, too! La Bella Ferrara is one of the best Italian pastry places in the city, and I wasn't going to miss out!


I once again took stock of my physical condition, and realized that I still felt decent, and this might be one of my only chances in life to see just how far I could go. So I had a chat with my mom, and we decided that to make absolutely sure that I hit a minimum of 26 miles (walked a marathon) I would see if I could get all the way up to Columbus Circle, at 60th and Broadway.


...at which point, I decided that my feet hurt enough that it was time to go home. I hopped on the train, and an hour later made my way up the hill to my pup, waiting to be walked. It wasn't until I got in that I discovered that far from almost missing the 26 mile mark, I'd hit 29 miles! The full set of pictures is here. The sunburn is just peeling now. (which is no fair, since I put on sunscreen, dammit). :) Anyway, I had a ball - I think there are more ridiculously long walks in my future, if I can only find the time.

Work in Progress Wednesday - 5/4/2011

I'm back! Last week, when Wednesday came, I realized that I'd accomplished basically nothing, so there wasn't much to say. I guess that happens some weeks. :) This week, I did a little bit better...anyway, today is super-lazy picture day, because I'm up too early, still tired from a long and busy weekend, and have a day of running around that's going to take me to four out of five boroughs. So this is gonna be a fast WIP Wednesday. :)

Crochet Zoauve Jacket
This would be done if I had enough materials! As it is, I tried to finish anyway, using dark blue as a fringe, and I HATE the dark blue. I had done a bunch more of it, but I hated it so much that I frogged it. Now I just have to finish the frogging (around the arms), get my hands on just a little bit more of the right stuff, and finish. This might or might not happen by next week (but won't happen by Friday). :)

Still, this gives an idea of what I'm dealing with - sides attached, sleeves done and on, now there's just that blue to take out and re-do. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm still in shocked amazement about how much I had to improvise from the original pattern (reminder: I'm making this jacket from a pattern published in Godey's Lady Book in 1862). I mean, I tried to do the sleeves the way the instructions said - and the instructions were very clear about row count, increasing and decreasing - except that the instructions made virtually no sense when actually applied. What they were calling the "top" would have gone around my arm like three times. And if it was not the top - if it was the length - then it was too narrow, so that didn't help. I think that was probably what it was, cause I've got chubby arms, but either way, I had done 2/3rds of a sleeve that way when I realized it was never going to work, so I frogged the whole thing and started over my own way. Since I'm going to have to buy more materials anyway, I'll probably make the sleeves longer.

Gokk!
I introduced my Gokk amigurumi here, with a follow up here. However, I haven't really gotten anything done on him since late March. He's been sitting on my coffee table, the yarn to finish him sitting next to me, staring at me forlornly (or wish he could stare at me forlornly, since he doesn't have a face yet, either!). Last night, I FINALLY started working on him again.

No, it's not much progress (I had to frog a first attempt) but it's progress, dammit! And I have like 6 hours on various trains today, and I'll be bringing him with me, and hopefully he'll be done (and I can continue my San Francisco Gokk travelogue with a NYC one. ;) )

Spinning
So, I bought this bag of fiber.

There's a lb. in there, and it was only 20 bucks. I've been waiting and waiting to use it while I finished other projects and other fiber. Finally, I've started! First, my spinning friend got me started on her spinning wheel!! No pics of that, but it was fun to finally start to learn (there will be pics in the future, just not now.) But I ended up stupidly opting to NOT borrow her wheel, and I wanted to spin, so I ended up going back to the drop spindle.

Unfortunately, the section that shows doesn't really demonstrate how nifty it looks when the black gets mixed in. Oh well!

Sewing!
Last weekend, I was at a wedding in Louisville. Helping the bride out with making stuff meant that I ended up at Joann's, and ending up at Joann's meant that I left with patterns! Specifically, these two:


I'm currently thinking I'm going to make both. The first (Regency style) I have to make for a LARP I'm NPCing for over the summer (ha, how's that for strange abbreviations? that's a Live Action Roleplaying game that I'll be playing a non-player character in...) - but the costume I have to make, while I will use this pattern, is going to look...er...different. As to the other, that'll just be for fun, and I'm thinking I'll try to get it done by Gencon (first weekend of August). :) This is probably optimistic of me...but I'll get at least some sewing done, for the first time since Halloween.

Anyway, this weekend is Maryland Sheep and Wool, which means YAY fiber-y goodness!! I've never been before (despite invitations - I could never make it) but now that I'm spinning also I think I'll get more out of it. I'm super excited! I'll be on the lookout for pretty wool to finish my jacket, and I'm DEFINITELY going to be buying some awesome colorways to spin. Also, cheese. There's apparently an entire room dedicated to cheese, and omg I'm so there. :)

Want to see what other folks are making this week? Of course you do! Head on over to Tami's Amis and Other Creations and see all the posts this WIP Wednesday!

Bits and Pieces, and Some Stash Busting

I've been so busy the past week and a half that I haven't had much time for craftiness, but I don't want any more time to pass, so I thought I'd give a quick, random update.

Making Stuff
I've made almost nothing in the past week and a half, but I'm almost done with the crochet Zouave jacket (just need more materials and some buttons, then I could finish in about an hour).

Nerd Wars
Well, the first whole round - all three months - of Nerd Wars on Ravelry is over. This month is a month off, which is great because I've been so focused on making things for it that I haven't finished a bunch of other stuff (like, I've got three new dolls designs - the starfish, the roly poly king, and the fox - plus the unfinished gokk - each of which I need to finish a remake of before I can test them). Now I can take some time to make additional versions and get them ready to go, which is great. :)

However, if you've heard me babble about Nerd Wars on here and find that you're tempting, it's also recruiting time for the teams for next round. You can learn all about it here - basically, we all break in to teams based on fandoms, and then compete! There are a lot of old teams that will be continuing (for roleplaying games, and video games, and Babylon 5 and Firefly and Star Trek and more) and there are some new teams (like for grammar nuts, and reading fans, and Psych). But the best team of all...is my team! I'm going to be a team captain next round, for fans of the TV show Supernatural! Which means I'll be a mod! So come check out the fun - I've found it to be a great source of inspiration and an awesome way to meet other crafters.

Free Pattern Testers
Speaking of increasing authority and becoming a moderator, after several weeks of back and forth communication, I am now officially the third moderator for the awesome and helpful Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry. I've got a very small and specific job, and I was so honored to be asked to join the team, and am so excited (and nervous) to be starting.

1000 Amigurumi Crane Project
The Project has been featured on This Week in Ravelry, but unsurprisingly, as time passes and new issues enter the public eye (such as the tornadoes in the US south) the steam has faded. However, I'm going to keep trying to put time in to this when I can - my problem is I am just over committed right now, and so I haven't been able to do as much as I've wanted. Still, we've raised around $300 total, which is awesome.

Stash Work
Over the winter, I really worked on stash busting, and got things to a the point that this was all I had left:


...at least, that WAS all I had left, until I went to Michaels and they had a lot of awesome colors in a kind of DK/thin worsted weight on sale half off...



The state that the addition of these skeins and some others left my closet in was really rather horrifying (and I thought I'd taken a picture of what it did to my closet, but sadly I don't appear to have). Anyway, it was a disaster, but last Saturday I spent the whole day in hard-core spring cleaning (like, going through stuff, getting rid of stuff, re-organizing my closets, etc.) And now, things are in much better shape:



I actually have room to hang things in my closet again, and all the yarn is one crate! Now just to keep working...

Travel
May is a month of travel for me. I just got back today from three days in Louisville, KY, for a friends wedding. (and I'm running on 5 hours of sleep and having been up since 3:30 in the morning!) Next weekend (Friday night to Sunday night), I'll be in Maryland for Maryland Sheep and Wool. Then, ridiculously early on the morning of the 11th, I'll be getting on a plane and going to Bali, in Indonesia, for another wedding. I'll be back on the morning of the 20th. I'm currently acting on the assumption (supported by no evidence what-so-ever, but a lot of hope and optimism) that I'll have internet while I'm there, and therefore be able to post, but even without that, it's mostly a trip of relaxation, which means there will be yarn, and tons of photography, and lots to share when I get back. I'm pretty excited. :) I can't believe I'm leaving in a week, I've been planning this trip since I was invited a year ago.

Spinning
Speaking of Maryland Sheep and Wool, I learned how to spin on a wheel last week! No photos of any thing about that yet, but I promise I'll take pictures the second time. It was hard, but I kinda thought I was getting the hang of it...

9/11 and Memories and Thoughts
I've spent all day wrestling with how I feel about the death of Osama bin Laden and considering whether or not to do a post on here about it. In the end, this isn't my personal blog, and my feelings about 9/11 aren't related to my crafting, and I don't want to go in to politics. But New York City is such an integral part of who I am that I realized I couldn't just not mention it at all. When I first heard, I almost cried, and I couldn't figure out what I thought, but now that I've had all day to reflect (I didn't find out til this morning), all I can say is that I feel grim satisfaction. This city is in my soul. I love it, adore it profoundly, and 9/11 is a wound that will never quite heal. I still remember when my mom took me to the observation deck when I was a little kid, and from the 90th+ floor, the cars looked like matchbox toys and the people like ants; when I was in high school, I would go there to hang out and shop at the Borders cause my school was only a half mile away; when I was in college and would drive home on Route 80, I would catch my first glimpse of the skyline and it would make me smile because I knew I was home. Thanksgiving after 9/11, I went home on that route, crested the hill, saw the sky line, and there was a vast emptiness, and I realized for the first time how profoundly life would never be the same. I've now done that drive dozens of times, and I still feel that emptiness and loss every time. It's been a decade, but this wound will never heal, but I think that now that that SOB is dead, justice has been done for what was done to my city and to her people, and we can finally try to move on.


(this is a shot I took of the tribute from 9/11/2008 - I knew a lot less about photography then, which is why this isn't much of a shot, but it still seems appropriate here).