Love hanging out with my fellow knitters – Jersey girls came together for a visit from Jen, aka PiddleLoop! We had a fantastic lunch at BRIO and then went to knit at the Barnes & Nobel in Cherry Hill!
It was great to spend the day with Hillary, Jen, Peggy, Sharon and Andrea 
I hope, at least, the Jersey girls get to do it again soon.
So, probably most of you already know that I’m doing a mini KAL with our JessaLu – the Effortless Cardi (ravelry link!) by Hannah Fettig. We’re both using Madelinetosh yarn, mine in Alizarin and JessaLu’s in Amber Trinket.
Look, I have a pretty giant box bag too -
Delicious Madelinetosh yarn:
Nice even stitches:
A little closer:
I can’t wait until this is finished. It’s Rhinebeck Sweater #2 (yes!) for me this year. One more set of raglan increases and then I’m onto the next part of the pattern. So far the pattern has been very well written.
And in other news:
This weekend Sharon and I will be doing some dyeing for the etsy shop (specifically, Corriedale, Polwarth, and some superwash BFL fiber) and getting a photo shoot accomplished for my Dark and Stormy sweater. And that means, I have to block it again and get the damn buttons sewn on! So much to do!
Another year another Rhinebeck is in the books. This year, we took our Peggy (Maggyruth) on ravelry, with us for her first Rhinebeck. Our usual hotel was booked so we resorted to staying at the hotel next to the one that we stayed at for the Les Mills Poughkeepsie Quarterly in September.
Purchases were mostly sweater based – as the bug has bitten me hard! But for me, Rhinebeck is about seeing my fiber friends. Some photographic proof:
Sharon, Jessalu, and me!
My knitting group was well represented!
Dr. Maggie (redmaggie on ravelry) and me!
Ann Weaver and me!
This last photo, of me and Ann Weaver, was hilarious. It was around 5 pm on Saturday, after having been up until 2 am finishing up my Oranje, getting up at 6:30 am, I was a true space cadet. Ann came over and introduced herself and I had no idea who she was when she first walked up – talk about feeling like an idiot. She loved my Oranje and took a photo with me. We also got to see her new book, White Whale Vol. 1, a collection of patterns based on Moby Dick. Fantastic.
There was also a plurk meet – up, where Sharon and I did a few barrel turns:
Barrel turn photo by Heather Zoppetti
And I made a sparkly plurk sign, check out Mo’s photo of the group! It was great to meet everyone!
We’re already planning for next year! Photos of the purchases will come tomorrow – I’ve already started my next sweater too! Oranje post should happen on Monday, I need to make it pretty with a bath and a zipper install!
This past week, I had the glorious opportunity to spend a few days with some really good friends up at JessaLu’s house. Sharon and I drove up on Tuesday and met up with JessaLu and Jessica and headed out to knit night where we got to see Diane and Tina along with a few other people. We had a great time getting some knitting and spinning done and then headed out to Baba Louie’s for a great pizza dinner.
Do you think we have a small Stitched By JessaLu Problem?
We were staying in the pop-up camper in the back yard – it had HEATED beds! Amazing. Makes me want to reconsider camping. On Wednesday, we hit the roads around Great Barrington, going to a farm stand then heading over to JessaLu’s FIL’s house to sit by the lake. It was fantastic. A simple lunch of sandwiches, cookies, and did I mention, GOAT CHEESE, from the local farm stand. OMG. I was in heaven. That evening we had a small cookout in the back yard, made all the food (read: guacamole, tabbouleh, a fantastic salad, corn, burgers, and squash). We settled in on the back porch for some spinning and girl talk. What a great way to spend time with friends.
Sock in progress
Thursday it rained – a lot. So we stayed at the house and spun until Jessica had to leave us – it was so great to see her! We spun some more and then grabbed some Thai food with R, JessaLu’s hubby, in GB. And we got stuck in a HORRIBLE rain storm after we got ice cream at SoCo. We grabbed all of our stuff out of the camper and ran into the house. It turned into a great little sleep over – spinning, sangria (for me!), and Bride and Prejudice kept us gabbing until 2:30 am! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a girlie sleep-over and it is exactly what the doctor ordered!
Adult Spinning
Friday arrived and we were back on the road with a few stops before heading back to NJ. Sharon wanted to see Webs for the first time and I was more than ready to make that happen! We got there and her mind was blown!
WEBS!
After a stop at a local coffee shop for a biscotti and latte, we were back on the road, this time to Albany to see Our Diane. We were treated to a lovely dinner and great conversation and had a truly awesome visit with Diane, E, and Mia.
the only downside to this fantastic trip was that my front fender decided that it didn’t want to be on my car anymore so Sharon and I had to bungee it back onto the car and keep checking it on the way home from NY. The car is now in the shop and I get it back after $450 of work on Tuesday. This is all well and good since there are only 11 sleeps until my weekend in Pittsburgh!
I’ll share my WEBS haul and my spinning progress from this past week hopefully tomorrow.
Yesterday we were fortunate enough to witness a beautiful wedding between our Jessica and HWJF! We drove up to Mohonk yesterday morning and the weather was perfect, well, except for a frigid breeze on the mountain!
The beginning of the hand binding part of the ceremony with Mr. B. Their hands were bound using a shawl that Cookie knit from yarn that Jessica spun that was a blend of Corriedale (or was it Cormo?) and angora bunny (yes! stitches!)
And exchanging rings:
oooh shiny!
It was a beautiful ceremony. I managed to not cry (I’m shocked – I cry at everything these days). We moved to the porch of the mountain house for the cocktail hour. They had a live band playing all sorts of music and there was a SQUEEZE BOX! Love!
Then we moved to the dining room for dinner. The band played music from Elvis to some random jive to the Beatles. And check out this awesome cake topper:
(sorry for the blurry photo, best I could do with DH’s phone!)
Congratulations again to Our Jessica and her hubby. Yay Wedding!!! Enjoy your honeymoon!
Sorry for the long delay in my post, but I guess I am keeping theme with my first trip to MDS&W.
Originally, Sharon and I were supposed to leave early Friday morning, drive to PA, spend some time with my mom and my friend Nicki, and then head down to the festival at o’dark thirty Saturday morning. However, Sharon’s step-FIL passed away Thursday so it was looking like we were not going to attend. But Sharon decided she needed to get out of the house after all of the funeral arrangements were made, so at 9 pm Friday night we packed up our stuff and drove to my parents’ house!
My mom greeted us and we gave her a little demonstration of all the hard work we have been doing at the gym by demo-ing some of the routines that we have learned in BodyJam class. My mom was giggling like a fool by the time we were done but congratulated us on our hard work and said that she was super proud of the two of us doing something good for ourselves. We soon went to bed knowing that 5 am was coming quickly.
We managed to get up and get out the door by 7 am – after a stop at WaWa for some iced mocha mint coffee (mmmm) and a bagel, we hopped on the highway and drove to MDS&W by way of Lancaster/York, PA. I would HIGHLY recommend driving down this way if it is an option – the roads were not too busy, no tolls (more on that later), and just beautiful scenery!
After hitting some traffic on the offramp for our exit, we made our way into the fairgrounds, walked right past the information booth and failed to pick up a map (silly us). This was a problem because WE WERE ON A MISSION. I needed woolee winder bobbins. Someone in LSG alerted me about the fact that they sold out of all bobbins last year at 11 am. Yikes. We backtracked and grabbed a map and made a bee-line for the main exhibition hall. Once inside it was a race to the booth where we procured:
schacht hi speed woolee winder bobbins
We purchased 5 of the last 7 they had. 3 came to live with me, 1 to Sharon and 1 to our Jessica.
Sharon wanted to find the booth that had Gale’s Art fiber/yarn so that was our next stop. Two lovely braids of BFL came home with me:
Gale's Art BFL in Grape Vine
and also some lovely BFL swirl:
Gale's Art Blue Face Swirl in Opal
Then Amy found us and we were able to hang out for a bit (yay!). We even got our picture taken together!!!!
Sharon, me, and Amy!
The giant cup Sharon is holding is from one of the lemonade stands – yummy!
As far as other purchases, here is what followed me home:
From Frabjous Fibers, 3 braids of fiber (one is at Sharon’s house because I stuck it in her bag by accident, so I am lacking a photo):
Frabjous Fibers Camel Caravan in Patina
Frabjous Fibers Hand Dyed Merino-Sparkle Top in Cathedral
And amazingly, I purchased only ONE skein of yarn, but it’s a big’un. I got one skein of Maple Creek Farm Superwash Merino – Sock in Spearmint, a whopping 1120 yards. It’s destined to be a honeybee cardigan once I have time to knit things like sweaters!
Maple Creek Farm Superwash Merino - Sock in Spearmint
But what is a sheep and wool festival without some sheep:
black sheep
snuggle buddies
These sheep just looked so HOT considering that the weather was Hazy, Hot and Humid at the festival! We also managed to find Laurie of Laurie’s Lambs and it was great to see her again. She only had two sheep with her (both Gotlands I believe?) and I just adore her flock. They are all SO friendly and socialized and come running for pettings and scratches.
sweet spot
This little lady was just hamming it up for the pettin’s!
After a whirlwind day at the festival, the heat started to get to us and Sharon and I decided to pack it up and head back to NJ. We threw all of the fiber in the car:
fiber haul
and hit the road, taking 95 the entire way back to NJ. We stopped at Maryland house to get a coffee and I was amazed to find that Roy Rogers is still there – it had been about 15 years since I had last been to MD house (thanks Rockwood Adventures!)
I had a lot of fun at my first MDS&W and will definitely go again next year, but maybe head back through PA instead of the crazy toll highway that is I-95. I still have to check my EZ-PASS bill but seriously? Wow. I’d rather just pay the $2.95 each way on the PA turnpike to go to my parents Hopefully next year we can drag our Jessica along too!
until March 4th, 2010. We found out the boy was getting a bonus and our friend Gabe told us to come visit her at any time. The bonus for visiting Gabe? She works at Lucas Film!!!
So here’s how it went.
We took the bus to the train to the airport (Newark). Got on our non-stop flight and were seated with this huge dude who drank 3 beers and 5 mini bottles of gin during the 4.5 hour flight. He was drunk. He stood for half of the flight. He sang for half of the flight. I prayed for the entire flight that he did a) not vomit and b ) not be on our flight home. We flew over mountains:
View from the plane
Other than our seat companion, our flight out was nice. I got a lot of knitting done, the boy watched TV the entire time (thanks to DirecTV for their inflight service for $6). We arrived in SFO and picked up our rental car:
Yellow Bug!
And drove up US 101 to our hotel. I got to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. I was thoroughly geeked out.
That night we went into downtown Novato and had dinner and walked around. We found Llama Llama Knit and had dinner a nice little Italian place – excellent gnocchi and tiramisu! The one benefit of living in NJ is not being able to buy one of your favorite dyer’s fiber at the LYS. This came home with me:
Lucky Break BFL from Pigeonroof Studios
Downtown Novato allowed the boy to get his first Shamrock Shake of the year. We headed back to the hotel (The Inn Marin) which was rather nice despite being right on US 101. We had a “garden” room so we were further back from the road. The constant rush of noise from the highway meant that we had to sleep with the TV on all night, but still, a nice place to stay – we would stay here again! The hotel also had lemon trees which I have never seen before (since I’ve lived on the east coast my entire life) so this was a BIG DEAL.
Lemon tree!
And a gorgeous Magnolia tree:
magnolia
This was also pretty impressive because everything was blooming in CA. Everything was still DEAD in NJ. But enough of the hotel, let’s talk Lucas Film!
Gabe had arranged for us to tour both Skywalker Ranch and the offices for ILM. We started at ILM Friday morning. When you arrive, the reception area features:
Darth Vader
and …
Mr. Fett
Among the cool things we saw on our tour of ILM were the original Vigo painting from Ghostbusters 2, an E.T. model, models from Jurassic Park, the head of Davy Jones from Pirates 2, and so on and so forth. It was really neat to see how everything is made and goes on for the movies.
After the tour of ILM we headed up to Nicasio to tour Skywalker Ranch. Holy Moley. It was like driving up the side of a mountain.
Hillside
In the photo above there is a guard rail. Most of the way up the hill, the speed limit is 25 with 180 degree turns and NO guard rail. Was quite an interesting drive on the way up. We toured Skywalker Ranch and had lunch with Gabe and two of her co-workers, Gary and Frank. No photos were allowed while we were walking around but there are sheep on the ranch and everything is meticulously maintained. At the end of our tour we got to meet Dave Filoni (another Pittsburgh fan!) and have a chat with him – he is wonderful!
Me and the boy with Dave Filoni and YODA
After our lovely tour from Gabe we went out for drinks with a bunch of her co-workers as one of the directors was leaving. Then we got to drive down that crazy road on the hill in the dark. Hoo boy.
The next morning we met up with Gabe and headed into downtown SF to hit up the fantastic farmers market at the Embarcadero. I would move to SF just for this farmers market. We had lunch and poked around some of the stands before wandering the streets of SF. We went into union square to check out the cable car but did not get on one due to the lines. I took several photos though. Next time I will ride 
cable car being turned around
That evening we went to E & O Trading Company for dinner with Gabe. Gabe is friends with Rene who is the head chef at the Larkspur location. We had the best butternut squash dumplings I have ever had. We will definitely be going back again and I think I will gorge myself on dumplings.
During our trip we tried to stay on Eastern time as much as possible. This meant we were lame and were usually in bed by 9 pm, but it made getting up at 4 am (really 7 to us at this point) to get to the airport for our flight home which was at 7 am local. The flight home was uneventful, which was great. Sharon and her hubby picked us up at the train station and we got to have dinner with them which was a nice way to ease back into being home. I cannot wait for our next trip to CA and hopefully we’ll be there for more than 2.5 days. There is so much I want to see/do etc.
More photos are here. I didn’t want to bore what few readers I have with more sea lion shots. So that’s our trip. Short and sweet. But I’m working on some knitting projects to hopefully have another FO post later this week!
Blog fodder I have a lot of, desire to write anything? NONE. Zilch. This meme is from Tammy and thus, I shall fill it out, albiet a bit late!
ACCENT: I’m originally from the Philadelphia area and lived in Pittsburgh for 6 years while in school. I sometimes slip and call soda pop and say BEAG instead of Bag and Dahntahn instead of Downtown, but I think I’m relatively mild on the accent front.
BREAKFAST OR NO BREAKFAST: Always otherwise I’m at work and trying not to pass out. Usually cereal or a bagel with cream cheese.
CHORE I DON’T CARE FOR: Dishes. Thank goodness we have a dishwasher!
DOG OR CAT: My Kitty is my big momma. But I do like dogs too.
ESSENTIAL ELECTRONICS: Camera and ipod.
FAVORITE COLOGNE: Stella by Stella McCartney
GOLD OR SILVER: Silver or yknow white gold.
HANDBAG I CARRY MOST OFTEN: Black Coach diaper bag.
INSOMNIA: Not really.
JOB TITLE: Senior Data Base Statistician, but I’m more of a market analyst.
KIDS: Nope. Not yet. Hopefully someday.
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Apartment with the boy.
MOST ADMIRABLE TRAIT: I guess loyalty? You have to really screw up for me to not have your back anymore.
NAUGHTIEST CHILDHOOD BEHAVIOR: I used to flip everyone off before I knew what it meant – pointed at EVERYTHING with my middle finger.
OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAY: Nope.
PHOBIAS: Spiders and vomiting. Can’t vomit. If I’m nauseated, panic attack is usually following closely behind which just makes me feel more nauseated 
QUOTE: “The man who sees both sides of the question sees nothing at all” – Oscar Wilde
REASON TO SMILE: Nephews, boyfriend, kitty, knitting, I could go on and on.
SIBLINGS: Yes brother who is 13 years old and a sister who is 8 years older.
TIME I WAKE UP: 7 am and make sure boy is also awake and going to make it to the train station on time.
UNUSUAL SKILL OR TALENT: I can say the alphabet backwards. Helpful because it is a field sobriety test.
VEGETABLE I REFUSE TO EAT: Most of them. The list I eat is shorter.
WORST HABIT: Perfectionist.
YUMMY STUFF: cupcakes.
ZOO ANIMAL I LIKE MOST: Tigers or lions or any big cats.
Has come and gone! Sadly. Anyhoo, here’s what I did!
My friend Cait came to visit us! She currently lives in Brooklyn, and we lived together Freshman year of college. It was a great visit!
Saturday we went into Philadelphia to just hang out near South Street. We had lunch at Copa Banana and coffee at Red Hook.
Inside there is this sign:
Then we headed to Sophie’s Yarns were I found out that Jen is carrying MALABRIGO! I told her that she is an evil woman, but I walked out with this:
and this:
The Malabrigo is destined to be a Clapotis for Cait and I’m really thinking Swallowtail for the Misti Alpaca Lace.
While in Philly we had to check in on my sister’s foster kittens! OMG. So Cute. My photos aren’t really that good, so no pics for you
Sunday we had a picnic at my parents’ house and that was fun. Lots of super good food. Then Cait, John, and I went to Waltz’s for a round of mini-golf on the Castle course. John and I tied and well for not playing for almost 20 years, Cait did a great job! Then it was back home to hang out with my mom and Dash, Becca’s dog.
This was taken at about 10:30 pm, he was carrying around that bowl and it kinda looks like he fell asleep with his face in the bowl.
Monday was shopping day! We headed to the new outlets in Limerick, and I took these photos:
These outlets are great, but this is what is on the other side of the street:
We got a few good buys. Cait got 3 new pairs of shoes and some new work clothes, and I just got clothes from Ann Taylor. Was a good day but boy I was exhausted afterwards!
We drove back to Princeton later on Monday and Cait went back to NYC Tuesday morning! Tomorrow I am heading up to grab brunch with her and a few of her class makes from The New School. Then we are going to go to some cool shops (including purlsoho!) and just spend a day together. Sucks that it is supposed to be like 80 and thunderstorm ALL DAY
More later! Going to try to make some progess on my Froot Loop sock!
why hello there vox. it's been so long. happy labor day. florida was wonderful. here are some pictures:
I went back to work on Tuesday for my brother, but not after having a screwed up interview attempt from an insurance company near Sleepy Hollow. They called to schedule at 8 am (who does this?!) while I was dead asleep. I call back, never find out who the company is or what position I'm interviewing for, (remember, dead asleep), and schedule for 10:30 the following Thursday. They call BACK at 3:45 pm asking if I had scheduled and if I was available for 10:45 on Tuesday (?!) and I corrected them. Later that evening, we placed several calls to them to find out the company – which I then researched all open ads on Monster and CareerBuilder – sales positions. SO. They want a person with a Master's degree in Statistics to sell insurance policies to unions. Nice. I call back the next day, because I wanted more information and also because they were supposed to email me to confirm – never got that email. I gave them until 12 noon on Wednesday to return my call, and it never came. So I stayed put. Haven't heard from them still. It's probably for the best.
Later that day, I received an email from my recruiter about a conference in NYC that I will be attending for networking purposes, and hopefully, to learn something too 
This weekend, New Age Amazon came out for a visit and we picked up castingon on Saturday while we spent the day in Philadelphia. It was great, perfect weather, and a good time was had by all except for the disappointing lunch at Copa Banana. Sunday we spent a little bit of time at the King of Prussia Plaza, cooked out on the grill for dinner and had delicious ice cream at Soloman's while Dash investigated the ducks at the duckpond. Today, I took both of them back and spent some time at a picnic making smores and hanging out with family friends. It was a great weekend!
Tomorrow I will be playing office queen so that my brother can have a day off – my nephews go back to school tomorrow! Later this week I will be heading up to White Plains to go apartment hunting with the fiance and then hopefully moving up there with him ASAP – Recruiter says things will be picking up very soon! Thank goodness summer is unofficially over!
Knittingwise, I've finished Carolyn's birthday present which I need to mail down in October and have started my first REAL pair of socks. I will update photos of this tomorrow. I'm really enjoying the Cherry Tree Hill yarn. Oh how could I forget! Fluxx and I did a yarn swap and my treasures arrived on Saturday. I am so excited for the new yarn! It is BEAUTIFUL. Pictures will be up tomorrow and possible project ideas!
I think this may be the longest update I've ever written. This is what a good vacation does Let's hope I make it through the day tomorrow! Oi.