Bad timing!

If you have read my blog before, you have probably figured out that I enjoy attending (and working at) Renaissance Faires. For the last couple of years, I have mainly concentrated on the multi-weekend Northern California Renaissance Faire but in the past, I have also attended some of the smaller weekend faires. When you work or volunteer at one of these faires, you don't just dress up and show up. You need to have some training to help create the illusion for the paying customers. The big faires put on their own workshops during the month before faire opens but for the little guys, something else is needed. That something is often the Renaissance Symposium, a weekend in February where Bill Watters and his merry crew organize a weekend of workshops where you can learn everything from English Country Dance, BFA (Basic Faire Accent), and songs of the times, all the way to swordfighting! It's a great opportunity to meet new people, learn new skills and catch up with all your friends from the faire world. I have had the opportunity to attend twice and loved it both times.

Now for the bad timing... When I received the email notice of the dates for the Symposium this year, I was dismayed to find that it fell on the same weekend as Stitches West. For you non-knitters out there, Stitches is a huge ... actually ginormous ... hmmm, how would you describe it? There are fashion shows, classes by some of the top knitters and designers in the country, a trade show with vendors from all over the world ... Last year I was able to fondle yarn from Australia, Ireland, Canada, and Alaska as well as see all the newfangled gadgets and oldfangled knickknacks we all love to covet. Do you get the impression that Stitches is kinda huge and a lot of fun? Anyway, I had already signed up for classes on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday but I figured that maybe I could catch up on some Ren stuff on Friday since I was going to be in the Bay Area anyway that weekend. But nooooo... In the latest email I received, I find the Symposium is going to be in Modesto this year. In my own backyard!!! and I am going to be in the Bay Area that weekend. Dang it! Oh well, I will have a great time at Stitches and hopefully next year, I will be able to attend the Symposium again.

In the meantime, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday week. Although I was home sick for most of the week, it meant I got a lot done on the sock I started. Yes, I did say sock. You knew I was going to have to get dragged on to that bandwagon too, didn't you? Hopefully I will have pictures for the next post. Till then, take care.

My swap package finally came!!

Well, actually it arrived a few days ago but it took me a while to get pictures since I sent my camera to New Jersey with Jen and then it took me a while longer to actually get around to posting. Speaking of which, it seems there is a great lull in the land of blogging. Everyone seems to be spending their time knitting and getting ready for Christmas! Even the Harlot has gone from posting every day to more sporadic posts while she frantically tries to keep up with Lene's Schedule. I am sure she will get everything done, hopefully with a little time for sleep.

Anyways, back to my package! Here is an overall picture of the goodies.
As I mentioned on the Coffeeswap blog, Gill mailed this package back when we were still in Halloween mode as per the jack-o-lantern goodies. She also sent me a lovely coffee mug which I used the other day at my LYS Hooks and Needles. She sent me six (six!) different flavors of coffee from Whittard of Chelsea since I didn't really have a preference when I filled out the questionnaire. Haven't yet had a chance to try them but I am thinking that when I finish with this blog might be a good time. It looks like these products are now available in the US so maybe I will have a new favorite coffee since my little coffee shop, Wanderlust, has just closed :-(

Also in the package were some lovely Yorkshire Tea biscuits. Yummy! Actually, so yummy that the package in the picture is actually empty LOL Luckily I took them to Girls Night Out so I didn't actually eat ALL of them myself. There were two coffee scented candles, a knitted washcloth, coffee bean stitch markers and two beautiful beaded coasters! Gill, did you bead these yourself? They are gorgeous!

And of course, there was yarn. Two skeins of my favorite colors in what appears to be sock weight yarn. I am just going to have to take a break from knitting stoles and make me some socks one of these days soon.

In other news, I promised a picture of the koolaid dying experiment and the hat I learned to crochet. Here they both are together!

I know I had a picture of the yarn all balled up but darned if I can find it. It must be on Kaylee's computer. Not a very good picture of the hat but the scarf in progress is the Broken Rib pattern with random stripes of the red and white yarn set off by the black. The yarn is all Cascade 220 superwash. The hat was done with a J hook and the scarf is on size 10 1/2 needles with 21 stitches cast on. Hopefully I will get back to it soon so I can send it off to Jen in New Jersey where it will be put to very good use.

I seem to be in a bit of a knitting funk lately after the big push to finish Secret of the Stole. I guess I am burned out. Hope to get my knitting mojo back soon as there are at least two stole KAL starting in January and I need to finish another one by the end of February. I don't think I will finish Mystic Waters though. It is a lovely stole but it just isn't calling to me. I will have to wait and see just what that lovely Zephyr Marine yarn wants to be. In the meantime, maybe it is time for me to dig out those sock patterns I got from Loopy Ewe and get to work. Just in case I go on hiatus like everyone else, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Just a quick note

I just wanted to put up a quick picture of my finished Secret of the Stole.

Isn't it gorgeous? It blocked out to about 16" x 80", big enough even for me to wear but I won't be. It is a birthday gift for a friend who is turning one of those decade birthdays next year. I absolutely loved working on it, learning new techniques and talking to people all over the world. Thanks DK for a wonderful knitalong. I am already signed up for SotSII.

Time for a nap. I have a concert to attend tonight and tomorrow I am going to see Evita. Jam packed weekend and so far no sleep. Will update you later on the festivities and next week I will try to post pictures of the yarn I dyed yesterday and the hat I learned to crochet today (well, attempted to learn, anyway). Catch you later.