Archive for » October, 2009 «

Aaaand one more post…

Yes, I’m spammy today, but I’m way behind, and I didn’t want to combine them all.

The shop has been reopened and updated. It still needs restocking, but there’s quite a few new stitch markers, including binary and sock/lace markers.

There is also, Ramboulliet, Jacob, Wensleydale, Romney, SW Merino, Dorset, and Cotswold.

I’ll be putting up some new yarns shortly.

In other news:

I turned in my thesis to my boss for final edits on Monday. I’m applying to jobs this week. I’ve applied two one, am working on the cover letter for a second and third, and formatting my resume for a fourth. I’m also trying to get a handle on my apartment which has been escaping while my dissertation ate my brain. I’ve reclaimed ah… one room.

After much fighting with stupid fashion industry standards, I found two business/government interview appropriate dress shirts that aren’t ridiculously too long. Apparently the “fitted” shifts the shoulders enough to shorten the 32″ sleeves to 31″ effectively, making them only 1″ too long. Tomorrow I take in my pants to be taken in. Next up, another shirt or two, and comfortable dress shoes.

One week from Monday I hand in my thesis. Two weeks from that, I defend it all to the community and my committee. Wheeeeee. Scary.

OH! I totally forgot. I actually finished a hat. I started it on the plane down to MD, so I misremembered how many stitches to cast on. Ended up 10 short. Which is ok, it will go to a deserving young man I know of. It was mostly a conceptual exercise for me anyway. I have a concept in my head I wanna test out. I’ll get photos soon.

~The Gnome
GNome

Rhinebeck 2009!

One of the reasons I’ve been on such radio silence, getting ready and then recovering from this massive thing!

Well. I brought 80+ pieces to Rhinebeck. Which is nothing for “real” vendors, but for me, it was massive, especially since I’ve been working on my dissertation at the same time.

I was a TINY bit less poleaxed than last year.

I thought enough in advance to get a photo of the booth when it was just set up…

Booth

Booth

and even more importantly, since I FAILED last year of me, Tsockstsarina and Jennifer who run the booth with the additional help of Patrick (who I don’t seem to have a photo of, bugger).

Peoples

Getting a photo of these people is insane.

Peoples

Peoples

I did manage to get one photo of Thegeorg unlike last year. Though I admit it’s not a very good photo.

Georg

Had a delicious dinner with excellent people at a diner place.

In the morning, they let people in FIFTY minutes early. Which made for… a rush. Just before they hit, I got some photos of my stuff up, though only the first batch. Obviously with 80 things, I couldn’t have it all out at once.

The fiber and some yarn

Fiber

the rest of the yarn

Yarn

and my stitch markers

Stitch Markers

Then came…

the seething hoards!

People!

I failed, again, to see everything (apparently the genuine AFLAC duck was there, who knew?) but I did wander around more than last year.

I met a bunch of people for a group shot (not my camera)

CPAAG

And yes, I was wearing my kilt and a double layer wool “ranger” jacket. It was lovely, comfy, and I wasn’t cold at all.

Lots of good people there. My good friends ZaftigWendy (of Yarnivore) and HoneyChild (of HotterFasterBetter art)

ZW Honeychild

Honeychild and I wandered around quite a bit (mostly having horribly inappropriate conversations, which was excellent). We met these adorable little goats.

Honeychild

And the Serta Sheep

Serta

And a wensleydale that just begged for love

Wensleydale

At the end of the day, for going to dinner and such, I needed to change. Luckily, it’s easy in a kilt. So I changed in the middle of the booth.

Changing

Changing

Then it was back to the diner for dinner with a different set of friends!

The second day, I aspinnerated the two Cyds, Cyd-Squared?

Aspinneration

Aspinneration

Don’t they look happy? “OMG, I’m making yarnz!”

Hrm… that’s about it. Oh, we took down the booth and I drove back home (2.5 hours, not bad, yay GPS!) in an ice storm (icky).

Oh, right, phat lootz. I didn’t buy much, I was very restrained. I got a couple pounds of dorset for dyeing, two abbybatts from Carolina Homespun where I was also viciously and mercilessly ASSAULTED by this evil thing.

Spindle

Spindle

It’s a Spindlewood, top whorl, laceweight spindle. I don’t know what wood it’s from, as the label had fallen off. I’m told it’s something from the Rosewood family. I also know that it’s a little under 0.5oz. Which for some would be ideal, but it’s totally not the sport of spindle I buy. I really love my 0.8-1.2 range spindles.

But… well… it hummed. Those who know what I mean will understand, and to the rest, lets just say it didn’t give me much choice in the matter. It was sitting next to a *gorgeous* piece made of amboyna burl and birds eye, and yet this one was clearly the one. And I’m loving it. It’s currently working on one of the abbybatts (Merino, Silk, Cashmere).

People often ask if the square whorls cause a problem. The answer is no. It’s basically like having 4 notches, and rim weighting. It spins amazingly long for such a tiny spindle. I love it.

So that’s Rhinebeck.

I’m currently working on reopening and updating the shop. It’ll be a bit. I’ll post when that’s done.

~The Gnome
Gnome

Spindles and the Maryland Ren Fest…

A few weekends ago I flew down to visit my friends in Maryland and go to the Ren Fest with them. A blast was had. I’m not gonna show all the photos, but here are a few.

There was drinking (mmm MEAD and mixed wine), good food, a ton of laughter, axe throwing, totally failed dunk-the-wench, and generally good friendship. Oh, and I did a reasonable amount of spinning.

Interestingly, you can see behind me there were people watching (we were waiting for someone in the bathroom at the time). I didn’t know they were there. I also didn’t realize it’s apparently so Zen I only have one expression.

I’m spinning Polwarth on my Bosworth Mini, after it had been glued together after an unfortunate meeting with the tarmac. (It was a very rough weekend for my spindles).

Photos courtesy of Spencer (the dark haird shorter one in the last photo).

Spinning

Spinning

Spinning

Spinning

Me

Me

Here’s the great guys I was with, Adam, Spencer, and Mike

Dan Adam Mike

Dan Spencer Mike

Oh right, I also forgot to mention…

With axe throwing there were funny hats.

Mike

Adam and Spencer

A very very good time! And then it was back to prepping for Rhinebeck and working on my thesis.

~The Gnome
Gnome

Miss You…

Not going to get into details here, those who know will understand.

We will miss you, Sabine, though we barely got a chance to know you. May your spirit fly with the butterflies.

I’m rarely without words, but when I am, I create. In this case, watercolor and Chinese papercut, with ink calligraphy.

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

~The Gnome
Gnome

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A Trip. Also, Otters.

Yeah, I’m working on my dissertation, and a paper, and Rhinebeck is coming up. I also don’t get chances like this very often. And when I graduate, who knows how often then.

This last weekend, while waiting for yeast to grow in lab to finish off experiments for the resubmission of my paper, I went on a 4 day, 3 night backpacking trip with my parents in VT, up by Stratton Pond. It was excellent.

We set out on Friday.

Setting Out

It got rainy pretty quick. Luckily we have good gear

Pack Cover

I have a brandy new tent. REI Quarterdome, and excellently designed. I love it.

New Tent

The next morning it was raining, so I didn’t get many good photos.

The second evening, by the fog filled pond…

Water

Time to cook dinner! Mmm nom nom. Mom makes the BEST homemade backpacking food. First night was… Chili if I remember.

Cooking

Cooking

The next morning was unbelievably gorgeous.

Water and Sky

Water and Sky

Dan on Rock

Dan on Rock

Then, time to head out again, for the longest day…

Headed out again

The foliage and water were amazing.

Foliage

Dad by the River

Mom and Dad by the River

We did have to bushwhack around a big pond thing created by a beaver dam and windfalls…

Flood

This is a bad photo. You might be able to pick out brown lumps from it. If it were NOT a bad photo, you could see three otters. Yes, river otters. They were oh… 20 feet away (two of them) when we walked up to the bridge. They went CHEEP! and sea-serpented (all lithe up and down) through the water up the river, picked up a third otter, slid back down on their backs (like on TV!) and then gallumphed up the hill. I was way the heck to poleaxed to get my photo out before it was really too late.

Otters

We passed out of the Lye Brook wilderness, and saw this sign. Understatement of the century.

Mud

We got to the campsite just as night was falling.

Evening

I pumped water in the dark.

The last day we got up and headed out back towards the car.

Last morning

Back past the last pond, Stratton if I remember…

Dad by the Water

Dan and Dad

Until we were back at the car, and headed home. That night, back to lab! Today, labbity lab lab.

Car Again!

That’s all for now.

~The Gnome

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