last weekend, at the fiber festival, i went crazy and got a lot of stuff: three bags of roving from crosspatch creations, a “totally tubular tube” from three bags full and crosspatch creations, two spinning pamphlets by bette hocheberg (i love reading about the history of spinning and clothing and all that. by the way, if you like that stuff too, definitely check out ellizabeth wayland barber’s em_women’s work: the first twenty-thousand year_em, it’s excellent), and a handful of old ‘handmade’ journals from the early ’80s.

hi there ~ it’s already late, my feet are aching, i have to be up at 6 am to go volunteer at the library booth, but i’m determined to write a little bit about today.. it went great. i was all jittery last night, getting nervous for today’s presentation, this morning i just got more blabbery-nervous, then it started and… i loved it. so fun. i could’ve talked about it for hours!

fact #1: turtleneck shrug pattern calls for 23” sleeves
fact #2: swatch showed some lengthening when blocked
fact #3: as a result, i knit 21” sleeves
fact #4: i proceeded to block – and sent a joyful “i’m done!” email to cassie, my syno pal
fact #5: two days of blocking later, i had 27” long sleeves. (sorry for the horrible pic..)

i very rarely get sick – maybe just a few days once a year. as a result, i’m an absolute baby when i actually do get sick. and this year is the first time i’m sick with no family or friends to coddle me in the slightest bit. reminds of the scene in that not-very-good “frankie and johnny” flick where michelle pfeiffer tries to give herself the heimlich because she’s alone and choking. i always laugh remembering that scene, so silly.

on friday, after two strong emails to various spinning enablers all about how i was going to wait to get a wheel, or even rent a wheel, later that day, during lunch i drove up and rented a majacraft rose. so pretty! and a little more tricky than the ashford traveller but ultimately, i’m sure it’ll be more satisfying. why am i not positive now? because my brother, out of the blue, came to visit me this weekend and we did the following: