Mossy Cottage Knits

Partay!!!!!! (But Not Mine)

Announcement: A Work Party of the Fun Variety!

Janine will be hosting what she calls the “Git ‘Er Done” potluck party to get the squares for the Unauthorized Leave of Absence Blanket sewn together. The party will be held on Saturday, October 11, from 1-5. Please leave a comment on her site if you’re interested and she’ll send you directions. I’ll be there with Chibi in hand and bells on to say thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you to everyone.

The trip to OFFF, a mélange of really good and really bad.

The bad: Suicidal thoughts and mental wanderings in the direction of my Preciouses for the first time in a long time, not helped by Saturday night’s trip down Food-Poisoning Lane. (What is with me and vacations and restaurants and food poisoning? Swear ta’ God. When we lived in Asia, where your well-intentioned but slightly neurotic American compatriots warn you to drink bottled water and not eat anything you don’t recognize or can’t pronounce—recommendations we as a family soundly ignored—no food poisoning (okay, okay; I got dysentery once, but I was in a native village in Malaysia where anything was possible). Living in the United States, the land of filtered water, pasteurization, irradiation, the USDA, the FDA, sell-by dates, and ever-constant food recalls—have hugged more toilets than I can count. Think on’t, my friends.)

The good: As ever, my real Preciouses, my lovely knitting buddies, LindaK, Andrea, Natasha, Sandy, Elaine, Kim, Sarah, Evanne, Michelle, and Deb with a little of Jessica Rose thrown in as we passed each other, albeit slowly enough for some conversation, in two different food lines. Plus cuddles with LindaK’s sweet corgi (which did, however, make me ache with memories of my precious Frankie). Beautiful, warm, early fall weather. Piles of scrumptious roving and yarn and tapestries and patterns and felted crafts. Plus goats and sheep and alpacas and llamas and angora bunnies, one of whom, with the improbable name of “Kevin,” found, I believe, a home with Tina of Blue Moon. But not before I and a gaggle of other instant Kevin groupies had a chance to squeal at him, practically sucking all the oxygen out of his personal space, and give him lots of pats and snuggles and do the inevitable and inevitably poor human imitations of his ever-wiggling nose. And coming home to my cats, both of whom immediately burst into purrs when I walked in the door and did figure eights in and around my legs (would that be figure sixteens?). Heaven.

While I did, ‘natch, engage in some retail therapy of the fiber variety because, really, what else was there to do if you weren’t taking a class, my favorite purchase was this:

How could I resist this face?

…especially when it set me back a whopping 50 cents. Even in this economy, I figure I could afford 50 cents. Of course, I’ll regret this wasteful, wanton spending when we’re all reduced to buying 10-for-$10 packets of ramen noodles, and I only have $9.50. (Wait, what’s that? Sniff, sniff. Do I smell the slight scent of politics in today’s entry? That doesn’t happen very often!)

Here, the other things that fell into my shopping bag that cost a leetle more than 50 cents. All in all, though, I was pretty well behaved.

Nestucca Bay sock yarn, colorway "Tapestry:"

Blue Moon Fiber Arts sock yarn, colorway "Lettuce Knit:"

And, veering away from the medium pastels for a moment, a jewel-toned sock blank, the kind you unravel and knit into a sock—which my employee pointed out doesn't make any sense since this particular blank is already in the shape of a tube so all I should really have to do is knit a foot and graft it on. Which makes the whole thing rather pointless. Urk.

Note how, between the time I took the Blue Moon picture and this one—a mere 15 seconds—I had acquired a photography assistant. Also note the shine on the fur. This is not the sick Benny I brought home a few months ago!)

A picture of a booth which made me drool and drool although I did not ultimately succumb to temptation:

To wrap up, a Kooky Kraft, an etsy shop where the vendor sells disgruntled (I kid thee not) fruits and vegetables made of felt. If nothing else, have a look-see at the stack of pancakes. Too funny.

Posted by Ryan at October 2, 2008 10:08 AM