Free Fallin'

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This was a weird event. Perfect Fit, a yarn manufacturer in Suncook, NH contacted our knitting guild, and apparently the rest of Western civilization that they were giving yarn away. That means free, people. Free. There had to be three hundred people there. The line was crazy and when they finally let us in, I thought it was going to be like one of those rock concerts where people get crushed to death.

I didn't get much, two cones of a white 100% wool yarn that I intend to dye a decent color.  It is really fine, really, really fine, even for lace.  I may need to double it for a lace shawl. It's 7,000 yards per pound, and the cones I got were 3 pounds each, so that's 42,000 yards for free.  There was some good stuff there, but not in colors I like, and/or purple.  Lora made out pretty well, she had about 3+ kitchen garbage bags full of stuff.  I'm not sure Brent was so pleased though. 

In the afternoon we had a meeting of the Misplaced Modifiers (my writing group) at Linda D's apartment.  She did some vegan recipes from a new cookbook of hers that were fabulous.  My favorite were the lemon squares.  They were allegedly made with tofu, but you seriously couldn't taste it, and I'm really fussy about that stuff.  There was also this unbelievable bruschetta.  It was awesome. And I think I have some directions to go and things to fix in the latest blurb, so that's good.  Now to find time to do it.

When I got home from the meeting, Shawn and I went grocery shopping.  We went to Le Gourmet Chef at the mall to get more sodastream flavors (I was out of their version of diet coke), then to A Market in Manchester to pick up a few things, and then to Hannaford. At the A Market, I got some boom Choco boom bars, pictured to your right. They are made with rice milk so they taste more like a milk chocolate bar.  Which is good, because I'm not a big dark chocolate bar person, and I can't have any milk at all in anything. These make me feel like I can at least still have some chocolate.  They are pretty close to a Nestle's Crunch bar. Grocery shopping is still taking us hours, because we're still having to read all the labels to make sure there's no milk in anything.

There's no other fiber news as I have done nothing since Thursday.  The last contribution of Secret Project IV showed up on Friday (thanks Donna D) and so now the assembly can begin.  I just have to get myself moving on it. 

Stay tuned for other updates.

What'd I Say (Ray Charles)

This past weekend  I posted about the auction we had to help my friend Lora.  I did that post very quickly, as I wanted to get the results and the pictures up, so I didn't get to detail my yarn haul and I also left out someone to thank, but I now have more people to thank.  If all the people who have pledged money pay up, and I have no reason to think they won't, we have now raised $2,150.  Crazy huh?  We still can't believe it.  Anyhow, on to the thank yous.  I left out Ellen R last week, sorry!  Thanks to Paula M, Sally H-D, Donna D and Heather M for helping us make it further.

Ivy Brambles Cashmere

Moutain Colors Crepe

Jade Sapphire Silk Cashmere

Berroco Zen

Some our friends and participants did some great blog posts following the auction, Mary Kate R and Linda D, which were wonderful. With some of the things that have been going on this week, with some of

Ivy Brambles Pure Silk 20-2

Berroco Optik

Tempted Good Grrl

my friends this week, I'm reminded that sometimes we have to make our own tribes.  There's a tribe that you were born to and sometimes you belong to that tribe and sometimes you just don't fit. Sometimes the tribes you make yourself are better for us than those we're assigned by birth or situation.  I'm really glad to be part of my knitting tribe.  Plus, did you see the killer fibers I got at the auction?  We got us some knitters with taste!! :) I'm so excited, I just want to work with new yarn, but I have to finish babypalooza before that can happen.

Bag Handle

 In other fiber news, Secret Project IV, Part B is underway.  I almost have all the contributions, but expect to have them all by Friday.  As I am on vacation next week, I have high hopes of possibly completing the thing by the end of the month. That's probably a really unrealistic goal, but I seem to be good at setting those.  Secret Project II is nearing completion after a error that cost me 4 hours.  Suffice it to say, it involved major surgery, in the form of cutting and reattaching, but I didn't have to reknit the damned thing.  I'm really looking forward to the end of the baby invasion. 

Sereknity Belladona

Classic Elite '03 Tweed

Mountain Colors

Schaefer Yarns Elaine

I haven't done much writing this week, but my writing group meets on Saturday, so hopefully I'll get a bit of a kick start.  There were about 18 or so new pages for them to look at so maybe I'll get some good ideas and feedback. I'm hoping to find time while I'm on vacation as we aren't really going anywhere, but we'll see how that goes.  There's already a lot going on during that week.

ArtYarns Mohair Splash

Malabrigo Silky Merino

In dairy free news, I had my annual physical this week.  Last year my cholesterol was 198.  This year it's 172.  I've not been dairy free that long, I'm still eating red meat, fried food, and various other bad things, so I was really surprised it made such a difference.  But I suppose I've cut out all cheese and half and half so it makes sense.

And I think that's all the news that's fit to print.

Take the Money and Run

 

Two things...I'm testing Word 2007's Blog Post Editor, in hopes that this will relieve my frustration with fricking Blogger. (It didn't...picture uploading sucks beyond belief still.) Second....WE RAISED A HOLY TON OF MONEY FOR LORA!!! WOOOOO HOOOO!! The totals came in at $1,917 and we have a pledge for another $100 to bring us over $2,000. Thanks to Alison for being the best auctioneer ever! Also thanks to those of you who attended, donated yarn, donated money, and brought boatloads of yarn to sell. I can't tell you how much I appreciated this, and Lora really was moved to tears at what we were able to do.

I'm going to try to list everyone off personally, but if I've forgotten someone please don't kill me.  Alison M, Paula M, Patty in Maine, Hilary, Marion C, Caroline C, Sally H-D, Mary Kate R, Sarah A, Linda D, Tracy B, Amy, Brittni H, Laurin, Donna H, Jackie W, Gina H, Lora K, Heather S, Ericka H, Chris H, Mary S, and Mary T.

Purple Haze (or yarn rather)

It's been a weird day today. I fell asleep really early last night, so of course I woke up at 3:30 am. So I used the time to go through the fiber stash for the auction next weekend. I managed to cull out about a garbage bag worth of stuff. Shawn got up about 5:30 or so to leave for Martha's Vinyard. His parents are vacationing there for a couple of days. I couldn't get Monday off, and it was the TKGA show this weekend, so I stayed behind. Which kind of sucks really, because we only get 2 full days and one evening a week together as it is.

The show was low key. I bought very little, which was good. The things I bought with the exception of the Noro (40% off) were somewhat expensive, which was bad. I thought the market wasn't that populated this year. I did it in about two hours. In the crochet part of the show they had this really neat bag made out of soda pull tabs and bottle caps. I had to take a picture because it was just wild.

I bought a necklace with abalone shell and a sterling silver dragon.  I'm not sure what the jewelry booth had to do with knitting, apparently it was just there to make me spend more money.

The skeins of Noro were Silk Garden Lite, which I'm told has been discontinued, which is why they were 40% off, and which really aggravated the crap out of me.  It's a good yarn.  Leave it alone. Stop discontinuing stuff.

I like some of the Yarn Place yarns for lace, and I've picked some up in the past.  Well apparently, I can't pay attention even though I had just gone through the stash for Lora's auction because I bought the exact same color of Graceful that I did two years ago the last time the show was here.  Sigh.  I'm still keeping it though.  Hey, that's my color.

I also bought a lace weight from Miss Babs.  Love her colorways.  I could have easily spent three times what I did just in her booth.  But seriously I was restrained for me.

Then I headed to BJ's to pick a few things up, dropped by Lora's to pick up a Secret Project component, and then came back and have been working steadily on the novel and the blog since. Still hoping to knit some tonight since I don't have to get up so early.

That's finally all the news that's fit to print.

Picnic in the Summertime (Part 2, the Jackson variation)

 On Monday July 5th, I hit the road and went to Maine for the day. There's not much to report, just hanging out at the pond, going to lunch at Captain's Fresh Idea, and did some paddling around on the paddle boat. The traffic on the way home was weirdly good. I'm used to doing a drive on a holiday weekend back that takes 5 hours instead of 3 hours. So it was good. I did get a teensy burn swimming with my nephews, but it was pretty much gone the next day.

On Tuesday, I decided to check out this new to me natural food store, Natural Choice Market on 28 A. I found a couple of products that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I was able to buy a couple of chocolate bars that were made with rice milk, so they weren't so dark that I don't want to eat them (I'm not really a dark chocolate kind of girl), some sour cream (made with tofu), some fake imitation cheddar cheese spread and some imitation American cheese and mozzarella slices. The cheeses were the first that I could find that didn't also have casein protein in it, so I could eat them. The chocolate bars were okay. The best was the one that was like a Nestlé's Crunch. The one that was just plain chocolate was a bit chalky. I've tried the fake American cheese slices as part of a grilled cheese, but it sort of melts into the bread like a sauce would. The cheesiness was okay though. The tofu sour cream actually reminds me more of cream cheese. Not sure why that would be, but it's okay. I still haven't tried the fake cheddar cheese spread or the fake mozzarella slices, but I will report back when I do.

The heat this week still caused me to not want to knit. I'm not that far away from being done with Secret Project II if I would just actually knit. ARGHH!!! In other news, I have been writing quite a bit. I have a journal in my purse at all times and if I go to dinner (say, when it's too hot to cook), I write the novel while I eat. I tend to eat alone a lot during the week as Shawn and I have different schedules. Shawn and I basically only see each other on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. So dinner is a good opportunity to write. I know you're supposed to be in the moment and just concentrate on eating so that you'll be thinner, blah, blah, blah, but I don't think I ever just do one thing at a time.

In any case, the upshot of this is that I now have 119 pages and 34,716 words. Woo hoo!!

Picnic in the Summertime (Part 1, the LaRoche variation)

On the Fourth of July, Shawn and I got up pretty early (well , early for Shawn) to get the materials for a big salad and some other times to bring to his parents' cookout. I had planned to go to Concord Knitting Guild for a bit, but the weather was just so hot even with both ac units cranked that by the time I finished the salad, I was not in the mood to hit both places.

Shawn's Uncle Scott and Aunt Anita and their two kiddos, Erin and Tyler, were up from Pennsylvania to visit, and Shawn's Aunt Debbie and her husband Jay were there. I did some knitting there, but very little as it was so hot. Have I mentioned that I really despise hot weather? That anything humid makes me more grouchy and ill tempered than I already am? If there were a place on the planet that was 70 degrees year round with no humidity, I would move there tomorrow. If you know of a place like that, please let me know. This is really interfering with my reality.

 

The best part about the whole afternoon was that Erin and Tyler had brought a bunch of games with them to play on the Wii, which included Rockband and Beatles Rockband. I managed to get Shawn to sing one song with me, which he says is the only song he will ever sing on this period. Of course, I have been threatening to get the game since, because I think it's funny. And it is hilarious. I think the only ones of the group that I didn't see sing during the afternoon was Jay and Brian, Shawn's dad.

We stayed until about 7:30 or so, and by the time we got home, and I packed up the car to go to Maine, and we showered to get rid of all the dog allergen, that was pretty much it for the night. I don't think I did any knitting that night either. Which is SO not a good trend, given the deadlines in place for the current baby invasion.