Pixie Purls

SAFF was my second fiber fest, but my first time to SAFF. It was not as huge as MDS&W but it was a bit more enjoyable because your not bumper to bumper with people, and you can enjoy shoping more. I didn't see any golding spindles at all, in fact there wasn't a lot of spindle selection compared to Maryland. I saw a lot of wheels though.

A nation of Lendrums all came together and I have no idea why.

The Peachtree Handspinners Guild was there but I was too shy to say hi to anyone but Heather and another very nice women whose name I can not remember.

Roll Call!

The blogger meetup went great, however Jen says I scared people because I made a nasty face when i frst came to sit down because of a person trying to pass me in the stands, plus I was not so happy with my spinning class. Sorry, I didn't mean to seem grumpy. I really don't remember half the weekend.

I took a Camelid spinning class and I just don't think I care fo camelids and well how can a person be expected to spin well on Jet Lag after a Red Eye. I was toast, and not much help to anyone. Luckily I am surounded by the most wonderful women ever and despite being out of it I very much enjoyed myself.

Alpaca and Mohair seemed to be the fiber of the day. It was everywhere we looked in yarn, roving and live animal form!

We had lots of parties, a dinner the first night that Claudia Hosted, The Blogger meetup I round-up and then Saturday night Jen/La had the party at the bar. I think we drank more water then beer, arn't we such wild and crazy fiber women?

My good friend Brooke came up with her son Nicky because she doesn't live that far from Asheville.

Claudia and I got to share a room with Jen and La, which meant we slept in the same bed. I am happy to say Claudia isn't a sheet stealer!

I spun up a bit on my spindle, and I finished the heel on my socks.

I *think* I have a name for the socks now, "The Charlie Socks" after the King Charles Diamond Brocade and because I had a cat named Charlie. I just adore these socks.

I wish i could have beem more awake for everything, maybe next time huh? I'll show you my stash as soon as I photograph it. I got some Finn, an Alpaca/Mohair blend, some Superwash Merino and Mohair to blend to make socks. Oh yeah, and a carder to blend them on! :D

I am pretty sure that Claudia & JenLa will have some funny photos once they post, we all got very silly in our hotel. I got razzed a bit because I am the youngest. Ya know what I have to say to that? "MUHAHAHAHA!"

Posted by pixie at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Okay well what to post about, vegas or SAFF? I guess I'll do it in order so I don't forget stuff.

I had more fun in vegas the last 2 days then I did the whole entire time I was there. I had my cute outfits I had shopped for and I was ready to party. I never got to sleep in past 9am and I stayed up until 1pm or later each night. Exhausted is one way to describe how I feel.

So Wednesday night they sent us out to the Palms for a party at a club hosted by Adobe, with free Alkyhal. I drank 1 beer which was enough to get me very tippsy. Here I am feeling pretty cute, it's amazing what new cloths and makeup can do for your self esteem! This was on my way out to meet my husband.

Oh yeah, this was the night before. I was pretty much the only girl around at any given time that I was hanging out with people.

Peter, Nigel. Hubby and I, Steven and Chafic - Flash & Flex Dev Rock Stars!

Girls were there but there was a much higher ratio of men. We also went to see Blue Man Group on Tuesday night and I was laughing so hard it actually hurt. I loved them.

So back to the party at the palms. I guess because the alkyhal was free, they kicked us all out by 10:30pm and I had been staying up late so much and i was actually feeling happy to be in Vegas so I wanted to keep going. This is when things get crazy.

Someone mentioned the brand new Playboy Club was in the hotel so I said well okay lets go. lets back up some shall we? I watch "The Girls Next Door" on E!, so you may think I'm crazy but well I like the show, it's just funny and silly and I don't take it seriously one bit. Also my mom and dad lived in Cali back in the day and mom would always tell me how back then playboy was pretty cool and they, well how do I say this, they respected women. Okay your not going to agree with my mom or me probably but I'm not some great writer so I can't say it very well, but if you have ever actually looked in a playboy magazine you may be fairly surprised by it's content. Yes there is nakkid women but it's not smutty. However one of our british friends at the conference said nakkid women in a magazine was smut not matter how you branded it.

So let me rewind again, The Venetian hotel, beautiful and opulent. Cheesy and smutty. The women's outfits who work in the casino are just so cheap and awful. The whole place made me itch. Did I mention the $300 hookers who like to hang out there? Sorry if I missed that part. So to me vegas was dirty and nasty and I felt that way from day 1. Cheese on-top of cheese, and everything is all about spending money.

Okay back on track, one of the guys in the group we hung out with came with us up to the Playboy club. it was really cool inside. A DJ spinning good music, and just a few gambling tables. It was at the top of the palms with a full view and it was decorated really posh.

The women that are there, are beautiful and far more classy to me then the ones in the Venetian. They had on beautiful red or black silk bunny outfits, with the white tails and silk ears. They had loads of bouncers and table busers, all dressed in black suites with red ties. Everything was modern and classy. So the guy who came with us, payed for a $1,000 table. This is EVERY clubbers dream. We got a couch and plenty of drinks, ice buckets they refilled every 30 minutes and they would clean up the glasses constantly and refill stuff. It was amazing. I had a steady stream of redbull which was good so I could dance. I love, love, love to dance. I don't like to dance with guys or grind or any nasty stuff like that. I love to dance for the sake of dancing. it's my favorite form of excersize. Some of Jesse's work buddies kept telling my husband to pay more attention to me, but my hubby likes to dance to, but it wasn't his kind of music. So he knew I was very happy just on my own dancing. I have NO idea what time we got home from that night but I had SO much fun in that club. In my opinion it was the best club in vegas.

So that was the craziest part, then the next day Peter (the one who says any photo of a nakkid women is smut) and his friend Haik decided they wanted to rent a convertable and drive to Red Rock Canyon and I went along with them.

They both had better camera's then me but they have yet to update their flickr accounts. Lazy Geeks!

That's all I have about vegas for now, next up is my report on SAFF. I was in a daze the whole dang weekend and just went I *thought* I was nearly normal again, on the way home today back to my house for the first time in 8 days, it began to hurt when I swallow. So apparently I am sick. Fabulouse!!

Posted by pixie at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

All is well and we will meet at 12pm in the stands below the consession stand! I have jet lag so please excuse me if I'm out of it! Saturday, NOON!

We have a cool sign Claudia made that says "knit? Spin? Blog? Meet here!" so look out for us on the stands. There are lots of people going to be around so don't be shy! SEE YOU THERE!

Posted by pixie at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well we are in vegas on our 3rd day. It is certainly not a place we would ever go on vacation on purpose. My husband is speaking at a conference (Adobe MAX) and it's just like one big sales meeting. I don't mean to knock it (maybe I do) but MXDU in Australia was WAY better. My husband and I are in the same inustry, but this is not a conference I would ever want to pay for. However I guess I have to make the best of things, so I did get a massage and get to go clothing shopping.

Grand Canyon:

On the plane:

Oh and don't be mad, but I ripped the sock. It's good new though because I decided to go right back to the only sock that has ever made me happy. I also realize this is the *only* sock yarn I ever want to knit with (Curious Yarn).

Socks on a plane!

Ready to turn the heel:

Landing in Vegas:

The view from sitting on my butt right now:

(above center is my husbands companies booth)

Posted by pixie at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

On Saturday night October 28th I plan on getting tippsy with Jen of Jenla, at SAFF in Ashville NC.

Now for those of you who are just coming up for the day, we will have a blogger meetup from 12 Noon until 1pm durring the class breaks. I only have a morning class so I won't be in a rush to leave. All are welcome.

We are going to meet at 12pm Saturday the 28th, just inside the vendor building there should be a consession stand. We will meet right in that area, and we'll bring signs, maybe something we can hold up so people know we are there! Here is a map of the vendor building. Jen says there are big cement steps people can sit on to eat. So that way we can all relax and sit down. Regardless we will have some sort of sign to hold up that says "knitting Bloggers" or something to that effect!

Please comment and let me know if you plan to be at the meatup so I can try to plan for space etc.

See you at SAFF! Remember, it's inside the vendor building.

Posted by pixie at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

TiVo has a fun podcast area under the music menu.

I entered in my podcast feed and up came my podcast! It was so neat seeing it on the TV even though really it's no different then seeing it on the computer. It just seems cooler!

Last night I couldn't resist and I cast on for the stockinette sock and couldn't go to bed until I was done with the cuff.

That photograph doesn't capture the green at all, I'll be sure to take some "outside" photographs this weekend when I am knitting durring the day. It's a wonderfully soft yarn.

Posted by pixie at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I am being bad and I just balled this sock yarn I got in Maryland at the Sheep & Wool Festical last may. I thought it might be a good travel project for the upcoming weekends. I need to force myself to stick with stockinette so I actually finish it and so it doesn't distract from my other more complex socks and knits.

Tess' Designer Yarns - Hand Dyed - In a lovely subtle blue and green.

Super Socks
80% Wool 20% Nylon
480 Yards
Machine Wash

I also finally got the podcast up; Episode 15

Posted by pixie at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I spent my sunday night Wuzzing. While those of you with a dirty mind might be thinking some fairly racy things right now, let me show you what Wuzzing is;

Okay maybe it looks like I am trying to do something racy, but I can promise you I'm not, and it's fun. It's especially fun at 10pm when you know the dogs barking and jumping up and down like crazy probably just woke up the neighbors, and it makes you feel like a rebel. Life is kinda sad when wuzzing at 10pm makes you feel like a rebel huh? However you can see my smile, so you can tell I am enjoying life. Oh yeah, wuzzing is something you do to get the majority of water out of the wool very easily so it dries fast and without any mildew. It just means you swing it around like a helicopter (aim at your husband for best results) until you get too tired to do it anymore.

So the husbeast and I went to Target and Lowes. I got 2 galvanized (no stainless steel in site) buckets, 2 nice little drying racks and those bags that you wash unmentionables in. I also got some dawn dish soap.

($5 buckets, $5 drying racks, $2 Mesh thingies, $2 Dawn Soap = $26 Spent)

Everything I bought and decided to do was purely based on "Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning" and what I read Sunday morning while in the bath.

1st Wash and Results

3rd Rinse (when my margarita'd self remembered to add soap! Brilliant!)

All Done (Post 4th Rinse)

It was so hard to get all the Georgia red clay out of the tips. I know I didn't get it all out. The water was so hot, and I didn't have any thick rubber gloves to help me along. I also practiced carding today after reading the carding section of the Amos book and I did a la lot better then previously.

Posted by pixie at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

So Saturday morning was the first time yet that I have put the heater on. I noticed the house was 65 degree's and I like it to be more around 70. Also from running around all day Saturday I got chapped lips! These 2 things mean fall is officially here. It's simply beutiful out and reminds me so much of so many crips and cool Virginia days growing up.

Something seems odd about the way the leaves are changing this year. It doesn't seem very consistant. Very few tree's have changed and the ones that have it's only at the tip-top and not all around on the edges like normal.

(Arn't those clouds funky?)

So today I am working on setting up TiVo, knitting on the baby cardi, maybe some spinning, and finishing editing the podcast. This evening may include a pitt stop at Target some some possible yarn storage, and Chilli's for Margaritas and dinner!

I think I have enough yarn to do the hooded version which will be really cute!

Posted by pixie at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So my husband was in Detroit last week and mentioned they had a yarn store across the street from his work. I promptly looked them up on the web, and found out they carried Diakato yarns.

So I sent him in and he called me and I told him I wanted Diakato Diamusee and he would simply have to make the color selection. As if by miracle he selected the perfect color for me and also very much in vogue right now, very faded and earthy tones, not too much color.

I also said "pick me up 1 small surprise" well by that I meant stitch markers or something. Instead I got 1 ball of yarn, some how also by miracle 200 yards which means I can make something out of it. I got Filatura di Crosa Multicolor Mohair. It's nearly worsted gauge so 200 yards could probably get me a very pretty thin and long lacy scarf!

Is it just me or does my yarn have a belly button??

And while my husband was away I ordered TiVO which has been amazingly hard to set up! I should be editing my podcast and not desperately trying to record "The Girls Next Door" on E!.

Posted by pixie at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Well Claudia and I had a full day planned for Saturday. Breakfast, Knitch for some knitting and then to a hair appointment together. There was a fire in the same building as the hair guy so our whole entire day basically was spoiled because there was no reason to go into Atlanta and we knew we shouldn't be spending money on yarn so close to SAFF anyway. So we went to the Gainesville Fair (MULE?? What the heck does MULE Fair stand for??). It had lots of little mom'n'pop crafty stuff.

Here I am looking at some MAN made blankets.

Read the sign, he was serious about it! Said he crochets as a hobby. He must have had 30 or so blankets there.

I got the one pictured above because it matches my gold-yellow suede pillows on the couch in my living room.

I also had to score some Cotton Candy, not just because it looks like roving, but because it's YUIMMY!

You can see Claudia's beautiful, recently-finished-to-wear-to-saff entralac poncho and hat set. I'm working on the baby cardi, just 3/4th of the last front piece and then I can add the collar/hood. So even though the whole entire day sort of got ruined, I still (as always) had a wonderful time with Claudia. I am really looking forward to our whole gang hitting the road to SAFF. The podcast is half edited, and on it's way out to the world soon!

Posted by pixie at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am just simply counting down the days until SAFF. SAFF means two things, Vegas and Wool. My husband and I are going to Vegas for a whole 5 days before SAFF because he has a speaking engagement. We are staying at the Venetian and I hope we like it! I am looking forward to seeing some of the people we met in Australia (Mostly from Europe). So then as soon as I get back from that, I'll be running of with Claudia and some more of our SnB crew to Ashville for SAFF (October 28th/29th). So I am just counting down the days.

Last night I plied up the rest of the Romney singles I had spun. Oddly enough it didn't break once. I tried changing the direction that i was turning the ball winder, and that or more patience seems to have done the trick.

So tonight I think I'll finish spinning the rest of it (I think like 1/4th was left). I got 90 yards on that so I am hoping for 150 yards so I can make the baby bolero. I have wanted to make that with my handspun for a while. Tonight I'll hopefully spin some and record my podcast. Last night I had a very wonderful TV wind down night. Hero's, Doctor 90210 and an epsiode of "The Girls Next Door" that I had missed. I was so mad when I downloaded the recent "Project Runway", it was a total waste of an episode. Also I realized because of our traveling we missed the "Battle Star Galactica" season 3 opener and man am I mad. Worse then that, the iTunes store doesn't appear to be selling it yet. How can I watch it this Friday without seeing that first episode??

I'm on the second sleeve of the baby cardi and mommy is due in 3 weeks.

Posted by pixie at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I went "home" to VA because my GREAT Aunt Pat was coming to visit my parents and sister (she just had a new baby boy about 6 months ago, her second boy). So the husbeast and I traveled as well to see the only living relative in the US on my fathers side. I think she's 76.

There is my lovely Aunt, I think we look a bit alike. We have curly hair on both sides of the family. So it turns out my Aunt Pat doesn't knit and was never very good at it. She told me a story about how she learned as a child and the nuns would send them home (she is catholic, from Ireland) to "turn the heels" on their socks. Well she said her grandmother wound up doing it for her because she was so awful at it. However her sister (my grandmother!) used to knit all the time and liked it and was good at it. She would knit my Aunt Pat clothing for school. She told me once she knit Aunt Pat a whole entire suite (sounded like a skirt and jacket). She also once knit my aunt a dark pretty earthy green sweater with a beige strip across the chest and sleeves, plain stockinette with a round neck. She requested I knit her a sweater. Am I up to it? I never finish anything!

You will notice in the photo above she has a knit scarf on, that's the scarf I finished probably well over a year ago, and I brought it for her as a gift. She gifted me right back the next day. I dragged her and my father to "the knitting basket" in Richmond. My dad caused a bit of a stir, "there is a gentleman in the shop!" I heard one women say.

I got some yummy Rowan Tapestry to make another multi-directional scarf. I'll think of her whenever i knit and wear it. It matches my camel colored new winter coat perfectly and fades to a pretty blue/gray color (SH 175). It's $9 a ball from that shop, and is 131 yards of a wool/soybean protein blend. It's very soft and the perfect gauge (22/4in on US 6). It smells very clean (I always smell my yarn heh).

On all of the plane rides I have taken I worked on the Plymouth baby cardi in the lovely "Oh My!" yarn. Oh did I tell you I brought my Joy? I made it through security with no issues. On the way back to Atlanta the guy said, "Is that a violin?" "No, it's a spinning wheel" "Oh, I have never seen one that small before". I thought, oh wow he's seen one before? He didn't bat an eye at it, however the young girl in front of the scanner made several scrunched up faces that said "what the hell" and the same guy said to her "oh that's just a spinning wheel". It made me giggle. I also made it through with my Ebony spindle and my size 9 circulars with no questions or issues.

The dogs were very happy when we picked them up today from the kennel.

It always makes me smile when they are so comfortable so close to each other, because most sheltie's get a bit huffy if other dogs touch them. They aren't like goldens that want to wrestle and roll with you.

Posted by pixie at 06:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I thought I would share some of my flying experience from this weekend with you. On the way up we were good citizens and we made sure not to carry on any liquids of any kind. On the way back to Atlanta I remembered to stash all my lipstick etc but when my husbands bag went through the xray machine, he got stopped for a bag search. There was a half empty bottle of water in his bag. The security guys said "there it is" and pulled it out, and gave my husband his bag back.

So then we went to our plane and I sat down and opened my bag, there inside was a half empty bottle of water. I wondered how it was possible that we went through the same machines, one right after the other, seperated by some items inbetween (our jackets and shoes) and yet, they didn't see or stop my bottle of water. Says a lot doesn't it?

The day before we left for boston my Spunky Eclectic monthly fiber club arrived. Some plumish-purple Romney. I spun up half of it straight away and then plied some to see how it would look. It spun up very even and pretty. The deep and rich purple/pink colors are a nice change.

And I give you this, just because it's cute:

If you look careful you will see Toby!

Posted by pixie at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This weekend my husband and I travled to Boston for a Family Wedding.

Guess who I got to see while I was there? Monica! She and her husband drove an hour to come see us in umm... Rhode Island? Providence? I am not sure where we even were!!

The 4 of us went to Panera's (a cafe in most states in the US) and talked shop. Monica and I about Drum Carders and the boys chatted about computers. Four Geeks all together, lots of room for conversation! Monica's husband was a sweet heart and it was very evident how in love they are. So sweet! I was so happy to get to see her again, Hi Monica! I also got to see the shawl she is working on with her handspun and it was simply beutiful.

My husband suprised (?) me with FIRST CLASS! I have only maybe once flown first class (I think on airtran) and I have always wanted to on delta. It was *nice*. Did you know you get to wait in a shorter line for security? I had no idea! We got a meal even though it was a 2 hours flight, and a water is in each seat waiting for us.

It was a very busy weekend, and I am very tired and glad to be home with my puppies! Everyone had a bath while we were gone so they all smell clean! We left the hotel at 5:45am even though our flight was not until 10am because it meant a free ride. So we acted silly at the aiport and I knit a bit.

Bye Boston!

Posted by pixie at 06:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)