Sheep & Wool 2008

I haven't had a chance to post my finds from Maryland Sheep & Wool here yet; I did take pictures of my finds & add them to my Ravelry stash, though. I didn't go too crazy this year, for a few reasons: I'm already at SABLE levels (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, meaning I have more yarn than I can reasonably knit given the limited free time I have now) and I didn't find too much stuff that I could only find at the festival. As more and more beautiful yarns and needles find their way online (hello, Etsy!), the uniqueness of festival-only items seems to be diminishing. I'm not complaining, mind you; it's great being able to support smaller-scale artisans year round.

This year, my main focus was on attending meetups rather than on buying yarn. The Ravelry meetup Saturday afternoon was *packed*. It was so great to meet Jess & Casey in person. They were swamped like the rock stars they are! I also got a chance to meet most of the Ravelry helpers who showed me the ropes when I first received my invitation; that was also supercool.

From the Ravelry meetup, I moved on to the Knitter's Review meetup as hosted by the super smart & friendly Clara Parkes. If you're considering working with a new-to-you yarn or want to learn more about yarn in general, Clara's your lady; she's the author of the wonderfully informative book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn. Clara's write-up of the festival can be found here; evidence of my profound non-photogenic-ness (as well as my new cowgirl boots & hot pink socks) made it to the write-up. :)

I was very saddened to learn of the thefts & vandalism at this year's festival. I know crime is everywhere, but come on. Can't there be one little oasis of safety and goodness out there?

My job, in video form

Professional Cat Herding.

Imagine me squealing...

...in a pitch that only dogs and dolphins can hear.

Despite starting off rather craptacularly, the day is winding down quite nicely:

• Chico, the Young Sir, and I had a great dinner at our favorite local restaurant.


• I'm all set for Maryland Sheep & Wool tomorrow. Aieee! Aieeee! It's finally here!


• The summer issue of Interweave Knits arrived today.


• So! Did! My! Ball winder! I already have my swift, so now I can wind hanks into yarn cakes with style and verve!


• I found a jumbo size box of Bottle Caps candy at Target the other night; I'm eating only my favorite flavors - cola and root beer.

Tonight, I'll play with some yarn while winding it into cakes and then take a nice bath; I've got some great Lush bath bombs to choose from, some red wine to drink, and a new knitting magazine to peruse. After that, it's off to bed early and then onto a bus filled with other fiber freaks to spend a whole day amongst My Kind. As if the yarn and animals weren't good enough, there'll also be lots of Ravelry people to meet.

AND! My super awesome mom will be here in just ONE WEEK. One week from today, from right now, she will BE HERE.

Ah yes, life is quite good.

Need to feel some sugary emotional happiness?

Go read this prose. Go on, read it.

In which technology enhances my dorkitude

I'm preparing for the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival; last year was my first year attending and I just sort of winged it.

This year, I've added web clips of the fairgounds map, vendor list, and event schedule to my iPhone.

I took it a bit further and scanned a laminated yarn requirements guide I have, cropped & saved each topic (sweaters, vests, hats, socks, etc.) into separate PNG files, saved the images to both my website & my iPhone's photo library, created an iPhone-friendly HTML page with links to the different images, and created an iPhone-friendly icon for the page so I could save it as a pretty web clip.

That's pretty dorky, even if I am quite pleased with myself.

Balance

I currently have two tattoos, and both are on my right side. I've been planning to get a third one of something in particular on my left side but hadn't given much thought to what I'd get as a fourth to balance me out.

Then Aerenchyma comes along, with her contemplation of getting a knitting tattoo, and that strikes me as a Good Idea.

Naturally, I just did a Google & Google image search for "knitting tattoos." Most were of the ball-of-yarn-plus-needles variety, but one very striking one was of a star filled in with stockinette stitches. I bet lots of stitch patterns would make good tattoos - cables? lace? Another one that caught my eye had a Japanese-style cat hugging the ball of yarn & needles.

I need to look around a bit for ideas. If I see any really cool ones at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (aside: It's only Two! Weeks! Away! Yeehaw!) I'll ask the tattoo-sporter if I may take a picture of it for inspiration. ;)

Nerds are Funny

Do you have a nerd in your life who mystifies you? Or, are you a nerd who likes to read things about your kind? If so, check out the Nerd Handbook. It's pretty accurate.

And, this one section describes well why Movie Night was often one continuous stream of Funny:

Nerds are [redacted] funny. Your nerd spent a lot of his younger life being an outcast because of his strange affinity with the computer. This created a basic bitterness in his psyche that is the foundation for his humor. Now, combine this basic distrust of everything with your nerd?s other natural talents and you?ll realize that he sees humor is another game.

Humor is an intellectual puzzle, "How can this particular set of esoteric trivia be constructed to maximize hilarity as quickly as possible?" Your nerd listens hard to recognize humor potential and when he hears it, he furiously scours his mind to find relevant content from his experience so he can get the funny out as quickly as possible.

Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt

I have an account with ThinkGeek.com, my personal favorite internet source for geeky/nerdy/dorky items. Each year on April Fool's day, they send out a "product" newsletter with bogus stuff - I completely fell for it the first year, but now I just look forward to what their imaginations come up with.

This year's newsletter featured a product that wasn't so weird as to be outside the realm of possibility - the Personal Soundtrack Shirt. I clicked through only to be told it was a fake item, but I really expected it to be a real thing lumped into the fake stuff, so no one would buy it, and *that* would've been the joke.

But! Apparently, they've gotten overwhelming demand for it so now they're going to really make one. Heh.

That's what you get, ThinkGeek! You had to expect this eventually. You can't expect to keep giving us awesome fake products every year and expect us to leave you alone.

Heh.

Danger Man

Do yourself a favor and go read my friend RJK's post about how he's a Danger Man. I'll give you a little preview as a further incentive:

I've waited until "9" in my dad's 10 count to discipline.

You know how when you get together with someone, you usually get all their detritus - friends, family, pets, baggage, quirks, etc. - as part & parcel of the deal?

Well, I got RJK via my relationship with Chico, and this pleases me a great deal. He's a cool cat, that RJK.

Why People Do What They Do

Ever have those moments where you hear or read about something that you already know, but the way the thing is presented finally crystallizes it for you?

People follow their strongest impulses. It?s pure luck of the genetic and environmental draw if your strongest impulses are socially acceptable.

This crystallized, for me, why people do what they do. It's something I already realized in a more nebulous, hand-waving way but now the concept is firmly locked in my head in a much shorter, more succinct way.