Common Ground Fair 2009

The Common Ground Fair was this weekend. I was so excited about renting a cottage and having a girl’s weekend that I couldn’t sleep the night before. I was up and ready by 6:45am. We left at 7:15 which got us to the Fair Grounds around 10:30, perfect time to beat the traffic and circle the food before the crowds really set in. We did in fact circle 3 times before choosing a delicious, organic, made in Maine breakfast of Pea Soup, Indian Samosas, and a Pumpkin Milk Shake. I really only purchased Lavender Soap and Enchanted Knoll sock yarn at the Fair. Ok and Pine Soap as well. No Balsamic pillows this year!! (hehehe) It was a great sunny day and Meow Meow Head wanted to take all the yarn home. Then we were off to our cottage with a great view of the ocean and a roaring fire, which I did poke a little but nothing dangerous.

The next day we hit 4 yarn shops on the way home. While it can be said that I exercised great control at each store, when you look at the combined haul it appears I was less successful. I did purchase some Indulgence with Aloe. I’ve never heard/seen this before and was surprised by the inexpensive price and how soft it is. Upon returning home and reviewing my haul I felt a bit guilty. In response I did put about 30 of my previous stashed yarns on Ravelry over to “Will Sell or Trade”. Some of the yarns that I know I’ll never use like, Plymouth cottons, Aracania, and Celtic.

The Common Ground Fair was a great dry run for Rhinebeck, which is only 17 days away!!!!!

Best song from last night

This wasn't from our show but it's pretty close to what they did for us. I loved the faster beat on this version of I'll go Crazy if I don't go crazy tonight.

Diorama

I’ve been a goal inspired knitter for a while now. I enjoy posting monthly challenges and attempting to complete my goals by the end of the month. This is the first month is 2 years that I have not had a challenge. There is just so much going on and then there is all the excitement about going to Rhinebeck. It’s the 19th and I’m just now sitting down to come up with a challenge. It seems more appropriate to be thinking about October at this point. But, because there’s always a but, and there’s always an exception, I would like to bust out the Diorama that the SKs are having a knit-a-long for. It’s a vest/tank top that I’ve completed 6” of the back in 3 days. I’d really like to finish it before we leave for Rhinebeck so that I can wear it one day and my Hey Teach the other. I’ll be a proud knitter underneath my coat and hat. Oh that reminds me, I need to pack hats and mittens for the trip since it was so cold last year. So there you have it, I’m going to finish the Diorama by October 16th. Yesterday I went to the park and sat by the water knitting and listening to Atlas. Here is a progress picture of the Diorama so far.

Buttons Coach McGuirk

I’ve had a couple of things on my mind lately. Maybe you can help resolve questions.
Why do my new pants have 4 closures? Why do they need a zipper, a button, and two I-hooks? The standard 1 button, 1 zipper method of closing pants seems to be working. The pants don’t spontaneously fall off. Unfastening takes about 3 seconds. So what I don’t understand is why the manufactures felt the need to add these extra hooks and move the button inside. It couldn’t have been to stop them falling off so it had to be to slow down the removal time. This is not appreciated when I’m rushing to the bathroom.

Ok, I just had to vent.

Last night I watched the beginning of Season 3 of Dexter. I think this is their sophomore slump. The first two seasons were intense and always left me wanting more. The 3 episodes last night featured Jimmy Smits looking tired being annoying to Dexter. I’m not sure it was even worth my time watching. I’ll give them another disks worth of episoides to improve or I’m out. In February we canceled cable TV because we watching it a couple nights a month, paying $100 a month and always feeling like we had TV homework to do and catch up on ‘our shows’ which we weren’t that thrilled with. Since February my desire to watch TV has continued to decrease which also decreases my tollerance for non-attention grabbing shows.

Against The Boyfriend’s pleas and begging I decided to tackle Atals Shrugged by Ayn Rand. My friend Hillary loved it in college and MMH has been wild about it for awhile. I’m about 20% through the book. It was touch-n-go when the industry tycoons met to discuss “Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule”, it was a bit too blatently obvious what she was trying to argue, but I made it though. While I find the plight of Dagny interesting I am not overwhlemed by Rand’s commentary on sexism. I will give her props for making me symulatianously hate and respect Hank Rearden.

And lastly, I finished my 10th pair of socks for the 52 pair plunge. I’m so far behind its ridiculous. I’ll be pleased if I can complete a half plunge at this point. I don't think my brain has registered that I'm knitting socks slower since I just keep casting them on but you know, options are a good thing. Last night I worked on 4 different pairs of socks. This is my second go round with The Monkey pattern which I love. I used my own dyed yarn in the color way Coach McGuirk. The yarn had a dry texture to it which makes me wonder if I didn’t rinse it well enough when I finished dying it. Or perhaps I overcooked it when I was setting the colors. I’ll be soaking them in wool wash and checking to see how much color comes off. Spiraling and stacking did occur which drives me a bit crazy so I had to knit clockwise and counter-clockwise to mix up the color spiral. It is a different experience knitting with your own dyed yarn. It makes the socks feel a bit more mine than the others.

Clap Clap Clap...Cat Show!!!

Bernstein Bear and Twilight Zone “Emma” couldn’t have been better. Well actually, Bernstein could’ve been a bit quieter in the show hall, the smallest cat in the place demanding to be heard as he objected to being touched by anyone besides Mum. He gots lots of looks and attention for his small stature and big voice. Of course climbing to the top of the scratch poll didn't decrease his cuteness factor either. Emma was a doll, receiving her open ribbons and beating a few Grand Champions into two top 10 positions, a 9th and a 10th place. She is a MUCH better show cat than Isitt. Although, it might not be Isitt’s fault. I’m a pretty good handler/stage mom if I may say so myself. I kiss and hug and do all the necessary cleaning, rewarding, fluffing and playing. But when it comes to my Isitt Rose I can’t help it, I turn to mush. She’s MY girl and I just want to hug her and protect her which makes me a nervous Nelly while she’s in the ring and out of my care, which then causes her to be on edge rather than the relaxed little princess that she normally is. Any other cat, I can calm them down and show them with confidence, well any cat except Nessa Rose, I had a soft spot for her too if you must know, but she has the perfect show cat personality so it didn't matter. Today one of the girls even laughed at me calling me ‘softer than Charmin’. It's something with those Rose girls I guess.

It was a relatively slow show, with a small number of cats and lots of spectators so the judges took their time with each cat so that the audience would have a good look. This meant that there was time for a quick trip to the local yarn shop in Mystic Connecticut. I was very disappointed they didn’t have the Scheafer yarn they advertise on their website. It’s become my new obsession. On the way there was a TRM. 'Knitting Samurai, what’s a TRM?' That’ would be a Turtle Rescue Mission. It began as we turned around after spotting the turtle trying to cross a busy road. We went back, stopped in the middle of a T intersection, while I ran the turtle from one side of the road to the other as traffic waited. One woman even rolled down the window to encourage me that I could do it and then thanked me once he was safely across. It felt so good to know I helped/saved him.

Disney & Marvel

Click on photo to blow it up.

Burrlington Bears

The camera died. The Boyfriend hiked Mount Katahdin last week and mysteriously, the camera worked when he started the hike and by the end of the hike it was over exposing every shot to the point where it simply takes squares of white. He claims there were no falls or jumping on camera incidents that might have caused this error. He bought a replacement camera, a Sony Cybershot but failed to buy a memory card so no photos to share.

We did visit Burrlington VT this past weekend. I thought Vermont was a magical place, and I was not disappointed. Two things: Magic Hat Brewery Tour was hilarious and free! And secondly while driving back to NH a black bear ran across the road in front of our car. I was fix-ulating the Ipod at the time. The Boyfriend was driving and yelled “BEAR!” I looked up and immediately lost my breath. We road with me gasping for a few more seconds until the bear was safely in the woods. He was thrilled. And by he I mean The Boyfriend, although I’m sure the bear was pretty stoked not to have been hit by a car. I was filled with fear and shocked at how small a black bear is. Much smaller than the Umaine statue. Really it was just slightly bigger than a big black lab. A black lab with a funny face/head. That’s all. But I bet next time I’ll be just as paralyzed with fear that the bear will eat me. I know I know, 60 miles an hour surrounded by a metal vehicle and I’m scared of the bear? If you must know, I’m also irrationally afraid of foxes as well. I’m convinced they’re trying to bite my ankles. If you want a laugh walking in the woods just say, ‘what’s that, a fox?’ and watch me try to climb on the back of the person in front of me to protect my ankles. It’s completely irrational. But Vermont is magical!