Stormy Blues

Okay the title is deceiving, sort of, but will be explained in due course.  This weekend was the annual ManchVegas Knitting Weekend, which we did in Portland, Maine.  I much, much preferred this venue to the place in Vermont, especially given my new dietary issues.  But I also liked the amenities at the hotel better than the place in Vermont.  I'm probably just getting old and getting snobbier.

I managed to convince Shawn to go with me, because I'd been gone the whole previous weekend at Stitches and I thought we could get some time together.  So we arrived in Portland on Friday afternoon, and since my aunt Murphy lives there, we got together for dinner that night.  Wally and Murph picked us up at the hotel and we went to Thai 9 in Scarborough for dinner. It was good, but I found mine a little salty for Thai. After we got back from dinner, Shawn said hi to the knitters, and escaped to our room to watch TV, and I hung with the knitters and worked on my bottle of Goslings, which is where the stormy comes in.  I love dark and stormies, but I was actually drinking rum and diet Pepsi.  I worked mostly on the Tramline cable sweater because I didn't feel like hauling my wheel downstairs that night.  Gina very kindly made us these lovely favor bags, which had carabiner clips with ManchVegas Knitters on it, a personalized tote bag with the group and trip title and dates on it, candy, a pen and post its.  It was very sweet.

There was an incident with Gina involving chocolate and certain portions of her anatomy and a camera, but I have not received permission to post those photos yet.  Therefore, I am being discrete, as much as humanly possible for me.

On Saturday, Shawn helped me lug all my junk downstairs, and I spun for most of the morning. I had a gorgeous batt from Grafton Fibers (now Dyak Crafts), and I finished spinning up the singles before we left to visit Tess' Designer Yarns. I've been buying stuff from Tess' Designer Yarns at shows for years, but I had not been able to visit until yesterday. I love, love, love her stuff. But I was good. I was very good. I bought the most inexpensive stuff in the place and I bought small amounts. This does not negate the fact that I was not supposed to buy anything at all, given last weekend's behavior at Stitches East, but still I was good.  I bought 5 skeins of Superwash Merino Lace, two in Nightshade, two in Twilight and one on Mendocino Vineyard. (These would be the blues in the post title.)

Melinda, the owner and genius behind, Tess' Designer Yarns, was so kind to us.  She gave each of us one of the shop's coffee mugs with a picture of one of the yarn displays on it.  Like I need to be tempted every day, looking at it. It was totally evil, but in a good way. I could have spent a heck of a lot more, and there was skein of microfiber ribbon that I almost bought called enchanted forest, which is still calling my name, but I will be strong.  

 After we got back from Tess' Designer Yarns, I was supposed to show Caroline how I ply from a center pull ball of singles, so of course, my footman connector on the Lendrum decided to self destruct.  I had a repair kit, but of course I didn't bring it with me.  And it's my own fault really, because the left side broke not all that long ago, and I should have replaced them both at the same time.  Because you knew it was going to happen on the other side too, both pieces were the same age.  Sigh.  Anyway, I fixed the wheel and finished plying the singles when I got home today, which you can see to your right.  I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the Tramline Cable sweater, and I'm almost ready to bind off for the neck opening. 

 

Shawn and I had planned to do dinner on our own. I wasn't feeling very well at that point, for some reason, so we drove around the area a little bit, and found another Thai place on Western Avenue, called Pom's Thai.  We really, really liked it.  We found it to have really interesting and authentic things on the menu and we really liked the food.  We're definitely planning to go back the next time we're in Portland for anything.  I went to bed fairly early because I still wasn't feeling well, but I did have a really good time.  I'm not sure Shawn had as good a time, but it was nice to have him there.  For a full set of photos, with the exception of those awaiting release from Gina, here's a public link to my facebook album.

 

And that's all the news this week that's fit to print.