Month: October 2003

Overwhelming!

Sarah Crafts

That’s the first word that came to mind when my mom and I got to the fiber festival. We saw wool in every form, every blend, every color, every weight I’d ever imagined, and several combinations I hadn’t!

Let’s see…other than fiber we saw: a lady spinning a bunny, several breeds of sheep, alpaca and llamas, and lots of cute sheep dog puppies. I got to meet Carolyn and Claudia, as well as several other knitting bloggers. That was pretty neat! Claudia was kind enough to show me how to use the beginners’ drop spindle I bought…check out my first yarn!

So, what other goodies did I get besides a drop spindle? You’ll have to wait and see! You’ll also have to wait for the weird coincidence story – I’m much too sleepy to write about it right now!

I think that the Rhinebeck festival is going to be an annual “take time to fondle the fibers” trip. Only, next time, I’m not staying at the Ramada Inn (the pillows were hard as rocks, and they could have substituted sandpaper for the towels – they would have been softer that way!), I’m not stopping at any rest stop that contains a Roy Rogers (ummm, I was able to wring the grease out of my sandwich), and I’m staying for two nights (if I have to get in the car anytime in the next three weeks, it will be too soon!). Oh, and I will, next road trip, remember to test the @!#$% audio book on my iPod before I leave, so at least I’ll be prepared when it won’t play.

Fiber Festival Preparedness List

Sarah Crafts
  • Maps…check.
  • Full tank of gas…check.
  • EZPass…check.
  • Mile number (127) of Thruway rest-stop with Starbucks…check.
  • Wishlist…check.
  • Checkbook…check.

Looks like I’m ready for Rhinebeck!

(Oh, yeah, I suppose I’ll pack some clothes and a toothbrush. And maybe my camera. And it would be a good idea to have some knitting along with me, just in case. Oh, and since I’m the primary driver this trip, will someone please remind me to take my sunglasses?!?)

Sports Fans are Scary!

Sarah General

I have to say, I truly feel sorry for this guy. I wanted the Cubs to win, and to see the Cubs and the Red Sox in the World Series, because I thought that would be kind of cool, not because I have any particular loyalties to any of the teams involved. But this poor guy – he’s got a police guard outside of his house, and he’s being offered asylum. That’s the sort of thing you expect for people who’ve gotten mixed up in serious crimes…not someone who catches a foul ball.

Now I like my sports teams just fine, and if that had happened to one of my teams, maybe I’d feel differently. But just leave the poor guy alone already! After all, the Cubs lost themselves three other games without any help from the fans. (Sorry to any Cubs fans who read this. That’s just the way it is.)

Incidently, this is why it’s safer to sit at home and knit while the game is on TV. No chance of being accused of fan interference. (Or, more likely, getting hit by a foul ball, since I can’t catch worth crap.)

Spam (no, not the lunch meat)

Sarah General

Lately, I’ve been having some trouble with comment spam – as in, people leaving comments in various older posts with, well, inappropriate links in them.

It’s really very annoying – first I have to get the notification that someone has left a comment. Then I have to go into each comment and manually delete it. Finally I have to rebuild my site. This is a long process, especially since the people in question usually leave several comments within a few seconds. What’s more annoying is that these links are left up there for anyone to see until I check my email and have several minutes to deal with it.

This is not an isolated problem.

The good news is, if you use Movable Type, there is a new solution available: MT-Blacklist. I’m going to install it tonight, and I figured I’d share the love. :)

(Remind me to do a back up first, since I should be doing them regularly anyway!)

Destructo-Boy Attacks Fuzzy Foot!

Sarah Crafts, Dogs

Once again, Destructo-Boy appears to be on a rampage in this househould. His latest crime: attempting to destroy one member of a pair of footwear called “Fuzzy Feet”. “Fuzzy Feet” were innocently napping on the hearth when, unprovoked, Destructo-Boy carried one off to the couch and started to eat it.

Passers-by stepped in to rescue the injured Fuzzy Foot. At first glance, Fuzzy Foot’s injuries seemed severe. Fortunately, “Fuzzy Feet” are very resilient, and since only its cuff was damaged, Fuzzy Foot was able to be repaired. The new cuff consists of a wool/nylon/acrylic blend, which Fuzzy Foot is quite happy with. In fact, the undamaged half of “Fuzzy Feet” has volunteered to undergo a similar procedure in order to allow the pair to match once again.

The owner of “Fuzzy Feet” has decided not to press charges. She acknowledges that “Fuzzy Feet” look and feel remarkably like the plush toys that Destructo-Boy is fond of chewing, and that the hearth was most likely not the wisest place to allow “Fuzzy Feet” to nap. P.E.T.P.T. (people for the ethical treatment of plush toys) is still up in arms, however, insisting that allowing Destructo-Boy free access to plush toys can cause just this sort of unprovoked attack, and that plush toys deserve to be treated better. P.W.T.P.E.T.P.T.A.S. (people who think people for the ethical treatment of plush toys are silly) believe that it was a simple case of neglect, and that the owner of “Fuzzy Feet” should be held accountable.

Destructo-Boy refused to comment on this incident, simply falling asleep on the couch when approached.

Speed-Knitting

Sarah Crafts

Just eight days after casting on the first one, the aran sandal socks are done! That’s my personal best for a pair of socks! Now I just need to find a nice pair of fall clogs to show them off with.

I’ve also finally put up the pictures of the finished kureyon tote, and the multi-directional diagonal scarf that I started a few weeks ago. I’m so far behind in posting updates to my craft pages! After all the major Christmas knitting is done, I think I’m going to go through my entire craft room and document everything. Then maybe I won’t be surprised when I find half-finished things in there that I’d even forgotten I’d started!

Some progress has been made on both mystery knitting projects, although I can’t really post pictures…and I’m soon going to be starting two more. Oh, well, I’ll just have to start a few more projects so I can post more pictures! (Pictures which would be easier to take with that new camera I want. You reading this, Santa?)

OhmygodIwantone!

Sarah Photography

I so want the new Canon Digital Rebel. Imagine: a digital SLR which would work with all of my current lenses and filters, and my external flash. Drool…oh, sorry. I actually got to play with one at the camera store in the mall, and had to physically restrain myself from pulling out the credit card right then and there.

Now, I just need to win the lottery. Actually, as digital SLRs go, this one is priced quite reasonably. Maybe Santa will read this and wrap it up as a combo Birthday/Christmas present? And deliver it early – like tomorrow? OK, I won’t hold my breath!

But just imagine what fantastic pictures I could capture…of my knitting, and my puppies, and…well, other stuff I can’t think of right now, too!

Eureka! (A Doggy Tail)

Sarah Dogs

Murphy had an “ah-hah” moment today. I know because I witnessed it. First, a little background… The only issue we’ve had with him since day one (besides his tendency to eat TiVo remotes and alpaca yarn) has been that his previous owners never taught him a way to signal when he needed to go out.

When Molly was tiny, maybe 2 months old, we put up a bell on the doorknob. She learned very quickly that when she wanted to go out, she just had to ring the bell. Actually, she learned too well, and would just randomly ring the bell when she was bored and wanted to go eat grass. If we ignored her long enough, she’d knock the bell off of the doorknob and carry it into whatever room we were in. Eventually, we abandoned the bell in favor of just taking her out on a regular schedule.

When Murphy came along, he was still a relatively young pup. We took him out on a regular schedule, too, although much more often. He’d still have accidents…not too unexpected, since we really don’t know how long he lived in a house before he was abandoned. We decided to put the bell up again. The very first day, he rang it – I really thought we had a genius puppy – but from that point on he totally ignored it, despite our best efforts to use his paw or nose to ring the bell when we took him out.

This morning I took them out for their last potty trip before leaving for work. Murphy was much more interested in sniffing the leaves on the ground than anything else…you can lead a dog to grass, but you can’t make him…um… Anyway, I took them in, poured my coffee, and heard a little, tentative ring from the bell. Murphy was standing by the door, his nose to the bell! Long story short (well, not really), I took him out again, he did his business, and as we walked back into the house I’m pretty sure I saw the light bulb go on over his little doggy head!

Pumpkin, Anyone?

Sarah Crafts

My current yarn obsession is anything orange. Specifically, pumpkin orange. For example, this sock:

(You’ll have to take my word on the color. The pictures came out a bit too red.) This is the aran sandal sock pattern in Socks, Socks, Socks. I only started it Wednesday night! Now I just have to start (and finish) it’s mate. I’m not looking forward to doing the second heel flap, which involved doing cables from the back of the work. That was…weird. I wonder if there’s an easier way than the one I figured out – which was to turn the work around, re-arrange the cable stitches on the needle, then turn it back around and purl them. Very time-consuming. But worth it!

Besides that, though, I’ve swatched for the fair isle vest, and done a bit of secret knitting. Only 80 more knitting days until Christmas!

Barktober Fest

Sarah Dogs

Murphy says “ah-woof” (translation: thank you very much!) for helping to raise $100 for the humane society! (Molly also raised $100!) Despite cold, rainy weather, much fun was had by all. Molly and Murphy had a blast socializing with all of the other dogs, and got plenty of free treats from all of the vendors sponsoring the event. We met up with Jenny, Aaron and Oscar there, too!

The smallest dog we saw was a 3-month-old Jack Russel terrier, who was about the size of Molly’s head, and the biggest dog we saw was a Great Dane whose head was about up to my shoulders. There were a fair number of doggy sweaters and rain coats…I felt a little guilty about my poor cold puppies until I remembered that they’re both water dogs. They certainly didn’t seem any worse for the wear!

You can see more pictures of the day here, although the camera pretty much stayed in my hip pack – between the rain and keeping Murphy under control, I didn’t often have a free hand to take pictures. :)