A busy weekend

We had a great Yarn Roundtable on Friday night. 5 really different yarns, a full house, and a guest in from out of town.

This guest and I, we have fun when we're together. We also do lots of work on Knitty in between the laughing and the trying not to buy really great shoes and the drinking of a coffee or two. We got some great stuff done this time.

Meanwhile, we also did these neat things [all pics are iPhone pics...not the clearest, but they'll have to do]:

Spun standing up at the back of The Purple Purl while Roundtable was going on. That's THE Denny, spinning on her brand-new charkha, gifted to her by a big group of her friends, instigated by that guest woman! Said guest is seen here spinning on her new Journey Wheel. Both wheels were purchased from a woman who was done with spinning, and that made these two women very happy. Everything goes round and round in this world, eh?

Stopped by guest's favorite glass shop...Tank Fire + Metal. They make such glass beads [there should be a better word for the beads they make. The are SO much more than beads] and things with their glass. Guest indulged in something skullish. I went for the earrings I've been looking at in the shop for months. Icy blue-green, transparent discs on silver ear wires.

That afternoon, we stopped by a really cool fabric shop that I'd wanted to visit for months. I'd been reading the owner's blog and loved her style and choice of fabrics. Found some great fabric, and wanted to see if they had or or could order another version that I'd seen on teh interwebs. And was treated by the boss (I'm assuming, since I was directed to her by the nice girl behind the cash) as if I'd asked her to wipe my tushy. That so rarely happens, but it really was disappointing. There are so many nice ways to say, "no, I'm sorry -- I can't get that in" that don't have to make a customer feel bad for asking, you know?

The afternoon was beautifully redeemed by a visit to our new favorite Roncesvalles coffeehouse, Tinto. Guest, other Amy and me Amy brought our wheels inside, found an empty space, and spun the afternoon away. We also got to enjoy their sweet potato/black bean/cheese burrito and good coffee. And the servers were all charming as hell, amused or curious about what we were doing, and we felt very welcome to stay. Yay for Tinto! We'll be back for sure.

In a stunning turn of events, I walked out on a Toronto Police Office ticketing my car, because I'd been too late to get to the meter and refresh. I told him I was just coming to do that and...get this...HE TOOK THE TICKET OFF. I have never had a police officer do that in Toronto and was absolutely gobsmacked. Bought the refresher ticket, of course, and thanked the man.

Then it was Earth Hour, and guest and I pulled out our spindles and spun by candlelight. Quite effective, I thought

Finally, guest, THE Denny and I went to Milestone's for a frozen Bellini -- oh, yeah, and some dinner -- and then a movie. The three of us can attest that Duplicity is huge fun to watch and has made us all love Julia Roberts again. Clive Owen has always been in our love universe, and he is fab in this, as always.

Okay, so that's the weekend recap in pictures. A rather full one for frequent-homebody me, and I loved it. Guest has taken the train home and the house is too quiet without her. That'll last about an hour, and then the phone will ring and all will be well.

It's Monday! I say we all have a great week! Who's with me?

um, holy crap.

Well, Wednesday was a fun day, eh? We went live after spending months getting the brand new, super-powerful server ready for you all and BOOM, she sploded.

[If you had any idea of the difference between what we had been running on for 6 years and the exponential improvement in hardware, capacity and pipeline with the new server, you'd be as frustrated as we were when it still wasn't enough to handle you all!]

Hub spent yesterday/yesterevening further tweaking the server settings, trying to make sure everyone could get in and by 11pm eastern time last night, we'd solved most of it. The server seems to be running smoothly now, and I find the download super-fast compared to an average day on the old server.

Thanks to 99% of you who understood we were doing our best to get it right! We'll be doing more prep behind the scenes before we go live with the surprise in 2009 and hopefully this won't happen again. But hey -- there are worse things than being so popular no one can get at your site, right?

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Guess what I'm going to do today? I'm going to a small PJ sewing party with my friend Jen. I'm going to pull out my Featherweight and dig into my stash of quilting fabric and make as many pairs of ridiculous PJ bottoms as I can.

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I've also got something to show you:

What's the yarn? Dudes. It's silk. From Briar Rose.

But Briar Rose doesn't do silk? They do now! Thanks to gentle persuasion from my friend, Jennie and yours truly, Chris at Briar Rose has finally added silk to her previously all-wool lineup! She gave me a gift of some of this gorgeousness at Rhinebeck and I wouldn't stop browbeating her until she agreed to put it in the shop, because I knew you'd want it too.

What's the pattern? It's a little something I've worked up for y'all. The whole thing will be available shortly, but I thought you might want a peek at the stitch pattern now. It explains why I'm calling the pattern Broccowli.

You may groan, and I wouldn't blame you.

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Me? I'm going to dig through a bag of fabric. Wheeeeee!

much better.

I walked into the salon with my chopped-off mess, removed my baseball cap and, no kidding, everyone in the salon gasped audibly. There was head shaking. My guy came over and ran his fingers through the chopped-up mess and didn't seem worried.

I'd gotten, it seems, one of the technically worst haircuts ever seen. Proportions? Non-existant. I looked like I was losing my hair on the left side [not joking] it was chopped up so unevenly and so short, and I had a big DuranDuran bang that didn't belong anywhere. The before pictures I took [yes, Anonymous, I did take them, but you'll never see them] aren't even clear enough to see how bad it was.

But here are the after pictures. The pink is something I had done ages ago and there's still enough left to see it. [I do love it.]

The bang now makes sense in context with the hair, having been properly layered and angled into the rest of it. Everything else is pretty much Demi Moore in GI Jane, but on purpose this time. I don't look like a 6-year-old hacked at me with blunt scissors.

I can't explain why the same woman who gave my friend J a fabulous, perfectly suited to her, proportional and well-executed cut could mess up so badly on me. But I am grateful that my guy is good natured and likes a challenge. He actually said he was glad I had this done so that he could try super-short on me. That's my boy.

So now if you see me at Rhinebeck, you'll know it's actually me.

I'm off to cast on an Urchin in my handspun. I think my head will be colder this winter than usual. :-)

who is stealing my stuff?!

This is driving me crazy.

First, this shawl, last photographed in its infancy [but actually two full skeins of knitting last time I saw it -- almost done!] is MISSING. I took it with me on the Alaksa cruise and I can't remember seeing it since. This doesn't bode well. I didn't knit much of anything on that cruise, so I was pretty sure the shawl stayed in my bag the whole freaking time. Except it's not there or anywhere.

Second, I just bought replacement size US6 tips for my needles and used them. And now they're missing. And for some ridiculous reason, I have no other size 6 needles in my house. I have ripped up couch cushions, looked under piles and in things that don't even vaguely relate to knitting and NO NEEDLES.

This is putting a serious cramp in my Vintage Office project starting. Grr.

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Today, I'm doing the unthinkable. I'm going to see a different hairdresser. My guy doesn't read my blog, so it's safe to report this here.

He's a friend and a lovely guy. We're friends with his wife and his kids. But I just need to see someone different after more than 10 years.

I feel like a sleazebag. But I do have a story prepared in case I decide I'm going back to him after the cut today.

And if I don't, how the hell do I handle that, because he still cuts hub's hair. Oh, dangit -- he's the one that moved another half hour further away from us. Am I to blame, really? He forced me into it!

today [a summary]

I'm in the thick of the winter Knitty slog, so this will be short.

- for those at LK last night, and those who love bunnies, the news: Boeing [who is acting fine and wonderful now] does have a 12mm-long stone in her bladder. our vet says we can try antibios, which will help if it's one kind of stone. if in 6 weeks the stone isn't smaller, then it's the other kind that can only be fixed with surgery. in any case, all bunnies in this house will be transitioned to a new low-calcium diet.

- hub now has caught up to me. we both need, um, several different levels of focus in one lens. and my RX has changed a little too. so we both ordered new glasses today. the frames are never the financial problem, but our lenses are over $400 a pair. for each of us. very, very painful.

- I made a mess with Laura last night, and it was wonderful. Laura is the queen of the chemicals. [more on this later, if I'm allowed to.]

- really, can't talk. Knitty. bye.

it's official

I am freaked out.

I'm not asking for sympathy, especially because the reason for my freaking out is my upcoming trip[s] to exotic and wonderful places.

I'm hugely excited about going to SOAR a week Sunday, especially because it's a week with Jillian [which is a rare, treasured thing in my life] and a 7-day learning experience/party with fiber friends from all over. And almost NO WORK.

I'm nearly rendered speechless at the thought of flying to Norway almost immediately after I return home. With the hub. To finally, after 5 years, get to meet Theresa, meet Oslo knitters and SEE FJORDS! A little speaking and shmoozing, some teaching, and all the rest is play! Who gets opportunities like this? Well, I guess I do.

[This realization constantly freaks me out.]

Oh, and then when we're done playing in Norway, we get on another plane, and get off in London. In time for my birthday. A little more teaching, some shmoozing again, and again, enough time for play to balance it all out. Dinner at Fifteen! Shopping at Liberty! Tea! Cider! Scooter stores!

In practical terms, it means I'll be away from home for almost the whole month of October. Away from the bunnies! And Massimo! And the bunnies! And that's the part that's freaking me out. Just being away from home for so long is rather disconcerting to me.

Okay, just typing that out makes me feel like a scared little kid. I need to shake myself out of such an unproductive state of mind. It's ridiculous. I guess I needed to write this down to help me see that.

I expect the largest part of my nerves are centered around the bunnies. We've got kind people coming by to feed/check on them twice a day while we're gone, but things happen with bunnies and fast. Would they be better boarded at the Bunny Spa [vet]? I don't think so. They like familiar. They hate leaving the house. I think we're doing the right thing.

So there you go. I may not be a parent, but I am definitely a bunny mom.

my Philly adventure

I'm back from Philadelphia. What, you didn't know I was gone? It was that fast. I think I was away from home a total of 27 hours, but what a crazy 27 hours it was!

First, massive props to Craig, proprietor of Loop in Philadelphia. He's charming and sweet [and now no longer a Jamba Juice virgin], has a great shop and made the whole weekend possible.

The Knittyboard crew wanted me to come to their big Phillyfest, and thanks to Craig's generosity and organization, I was provided with plane fare and the nicest hotel room I believe I've ever slept in. Look at the puffiness of the bed!



That's the Sofitel Philadelphia, btw, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone lucky enough to stay there.

In order to earn my keep, I taught a No Sheep class on Sunday morning to a lovely group of PA/NJ/NY knitters eager to learn about my favorite fibers. And met my first silk-allergic knitter! I confess I looked at her with the same overly sympathetic eyes that people look at me when it comes to my wool allergy. Sorry if I offended...I just can't imagine life without all animal fibers INCLUDING silk. Wow.

And Saturday, we had a big Knittyboard meetup, where I finally got to hug some of the girls who keep the Knitty Coffeeshop hopping and vibrant every day. I have no pictures of them, because they were too busy dressing me in a horror of novelty yarn and taking my picture. No, I'm not linking to any of them. It's just too much to bear. The things I do for you guys!

We had a great time knitting and laughing and embarrassing ourselves with generous doses of TMI and then went out for cheesesteaks. I had a half and fared very well.

Special thanks to Jamie and Jas who made sure I got back to my hotel safely. Pictures on Flickr.

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And then there's the airport story.

Because I'm not supposed to lift heavy stuff [hint: suitcase] for a while longer, I'd made arrangements for a wheelchair ride through the airport. This worked very well until I got to the Philly airport. A half an hour later, the chair still hadn't arrived, and it was time to board my flight! I freaked! I couldn't get through the security line in time, and the guy behind the counter was completely useless. He wouldn't even try to get me on my flight and was already trying to book me on the next one, 4 hours later.

Are you kidding me?

A supervisor finally came out, and when I explained my situation to her, she escorted me to the "short" line...which didn't move either. I was screwed.

All of a sudden, a flash of silver passes me on the right...a wheelchair with a passenger in it! So I did what I had to: I walked right behind the wheelchair like I belonged there [because I did!], right up to the front of the line, slipped my bags on the conveyor [being careful not to rip out anything the surgeons had put in place] and made it to the gate just in time. I was surprised that no one freaked on me for doing this, but honestly, if I'd had the chair I was supposed to have, I'd have been through in plenty of time.

Oy.

Anyway, it was a great weekend and meeting everyone makes it all worthwhile. I hug you all and will now get back to work.

[Sunnyvale women: I love you. More shortly.]