Going to the Rally! Vroom! Vroom!

Anna had mentioned this a while ago, probably when it was first announced. I'm excited to go since I actually live close enough that it's do-able. Yay!

Veronica and her husband Jon will be coming over about 10:30, then we'll head out to find Silver Spring metro station. I hope we find it; every other time I've ever gone to Silver Spring, I get lost despite Gypsy the GPS. This is because Silver Spring is a mystery spot on the East Coast. It just doesn't play up this aspect of its personality.

As a typical knitter, when Veronica asked what I am going to take, I immediately mentioned a sock project in progress. Heh! I am, however, also taking some water, apple cider bread, and some satsumas.

One never knows when a good satsuma could come in handy.

Observations

Yesterday was winterizing day! I exchanged the screen in the front door for glass (it has a panel that you swap; pretty spiffy, as I've never seen one like it before), put little foam cozies over water pipes, and invited Matt F, our IT guy, to come shut off my water.

Thanks to the miracle of a 12-foot basement ceiling, I'm not tall enough to reach the inside shut-off valve for the water hose at the front of my house. The other day as we were getting coffee, I observed that Matt is much taller than me. And his parents live near me, so I asked him if he'd drop in to help out. He's such a nice guy, he actually showed up! Yay!

Also showing up were Kate and Gavin (Lili was at a farm with the Girl Scouts). We all hung out for a bit, which was really awesome. I love living someplace that's large enough to have folks over! They'd probably show up even if I hadn't bribed them with thoughts of white chocolate coconut cream pie (on a gluten-free crust)! That said, I did only manage to clean one room before anyone showed up because I have to many to clean. Oh, well.

Kate later brought Lili to hang out for a bit while Kate knit and I started winding yarn.

Lili helped. Then, we cleverly distracted her with some movies so that I could begin untangling the yarn. Heh!

Today, I stirred not from Hampden Place. More puttering around the house. More yarn winding. Some knitting. Lots of pondering.

I wondered, for example, about my sock yarn club. I joined one early in the year with the idea that I would then just use their yarn and not buy any others this year. Hahahaha! N00b! Anyway, I signed up for a whole year, enchanted by the idea of a club in which I could make monthly payments. Most clubs, and they aren't cheap, make you pay all at once up front. Montly payments were just want I wanted, and so I signed up. Still, my total cost is over $230 for the year's membership, even if it is paid in smaller doses.

In July, I'd asked them to confirm whether I was already paid in full. I resent the email a month later, and received a response that they were a bit busy at the moment, what with making up our September shipments, starting school for their kids, and so on.

Then their website went down. For a week. I posted about it in their Ravelry group and was told to just PM their customer service person instead of posting something like this, but they'd get it sorted out. Around the same time, my email to them about my account started bouncing back to me.

We were supposed to get a yarn shipment in September. Someone else posted to ask where the shipments were. As of now, no one has received them. Their rep on the board said the post office lost our orders, but not to worry, they'd re-dye and then send us our September yarns in November with the November shipment.

I know it's a small company, but it's still a business. This whole thing about "oh, we can't sit down to calculate what you might owe right now because school's started" is bullshit. The yarn (supposedly) goes out every other month. The kids go to school the same time every year. The web hosting service doesn't just wink out without someone at the company noticing. Emails don't sit around with no response until the customer posts on a public forum.

My guts have been telling me since August that this is a company in trouble. =\ A real shame, as they do have nice yarn. But, after this episode (and presuming I get the three skeins owed me for this year), I'm not buying from them again. Probably won't be able to; I suspect they're going out of business.

Anyway, that's what I was thinking about today as I wound up several skeins of yarn.

Rhinebeck on a Whim and a Budget

Technically, the New York Sheep and Wool festival, but everyone calls it Rhinebeck, after the town in which the fairgrounds are situated. Last Monday, Kate asked me if I would be interested in going up to New York with her, and after doing some budget crunching, I agreed.

We drove up late Friday night (I'd had a prior party to attend) and arrived in Hastings at 2AM. Exhausted, yet full of excitement, we passed out cold at Kate's mother-in-law's condo on the Hudson River.

Lili, Kate and Becca's adorable little cherub, came with us. She perkily arose at the crack of dawn, and so Kate and I very groggily prepared for our day with the sheep and the wool, with an emphasis on wool.

It was glorious. The day was bright and mostly clear. Predicted rain did not happen, and so though there was quite a lot of wind, we remained dry as we traipsed from barn to barn. Once Lili became disinterested in wool, Kate took her off to do stuff and I wandered along alone in the crowd, happily browsing for myself, and doing some sock yarn shopping for Anna.

As I do with gambling, I set myself a $40 limit for yarn buying, and stuck to it. Anna had given me some money and a request to find her more sock yarns. And so, at the end of day, not long before the closing announcements went out over the loudspeakers, I had done all the shopping I could, and we set off for our home base in Hastings.

We drove through Sleepy Hollow, which was filled with folks wandering around, looking for horsemen or at least haunted houses. We saw so many gorgeous houses, beautiful landscapes, and wonderful little shops all around the area. It seemed that every other moment, we were laughing at something, and promising ourselves that we would come back up sometime with Becca and just hang out.

Today, we wandered around Hastings in the morning, stopping at a soda fountain in a drug shop for a treat. I had my very first egg cream, which has neither egg nor cream, but is nicely chocolatey and refreshing.

And then, we drove home, nibbling on junk food and giggling like schoolgirls. Best weekend adventure in a long time, and such a nice getaway! And I have the yarns to prove it!

Suddenly, Autumn

Last week, it was warm enough to wear short sleeves. Suddenly, mystically, beautifully, it became autumn. All my windows are closed in Hampden Place, and it's still lovely cool inside.

And I have a cold. =\ My sinuses hate me.

I have new fuzzy house shoes. They are not slippers, but mocassin-style fleece-lined little shoes. The only downside is that they feel so much like regular shoes that I've had to turn around and come back into the house to put on real shoes a couple of times.

Did I mention how I locked myself out of the house for the first time? It was the Saturday morning I dashed out to pick up Veronica so we could head to Feederbrook Farms. Slightly before 9AM, and as I pulled the door shut behind me, I realized that I was holding the spare car key and not my usual keys. Why do these realizations never strike before one has pulled a locked door firmly to?

In any event, Christina and I had exchanged house keys when I moved to Hampden, and so later that evening after my day of sheepitude, I simply went to her place to pick up the spare, and let myself into my place. Disaster averted! Yay for Christina, whose idea it was to exchange keys lo those many moons ago!

As a result of my cold, I haven't felt like concentrating on charts, so I set aside the Owl Socks until I can knit without snuffling. I'm adding in a variation I saw on Ravelry, which not only adds stitches around (which I need) but also adds length (which I want). Very exciting! I had just gotten in the first row of the colorwork when I set it aside, and will be very happy to stop coughing and sniffling so that I can continue!

Also set aside the Leafy Fingerless Gloves whose thumb gussets look like ass. I plan to rip back that part only and re-knit it on dpns, but don't feel much like doing that at the moment, either. Kate stopped knitting on hers, too, for reasons I can't remember. She's not big on knitting through the back loop, which is what this entire glove is, so that might be part of it. She is, however, making a Swallowtail Shawl in the meanwhile, so go, Kate!

Since I can't not knit, I started up something completely different. Last week, Veronica had a cute little shawl curled up around her throat, and when she explained that it's Simple, I decided I wanted to make one. This is because, prior to seeing her, I had blocked out my Citron shawl and was immediately possessed with the desire to knit another... even though I had said I would never do so. Now, upon seeing Veronica's shawl, I had an alternative to bajillions of ruffle stitches! Yay!

Mine is in laceweight JaggerSpun Zephyr (wool/silk blend); I'm calling this my Jagermeister shawl ;) Holding the yarn doubled, though, as I wasn't feeling up to an itty bitty laceweight project. It's coming along nicely. Mostly, I like that the stitch pattern is whatever you want. My variation has rows of yarn overs and knit-two-togethers. Veronica did her completely differently, without any yarn overs at all. I think that's what I like about knitting. Two people can make the same project, and they can both be entirely different but still beautiful.

Like little snowflakes. =)