Taking on the Heritage Festival!

For some reason we keep forgetting things, and keep coming home every weekend.  I'm not mad, because it gives me peace and quiet to do my homework and once in a while cool stuff like this happens - the Heritage Festival!  It was way better than it looked from outside of the park - we almost didn't go in because you had to pay $4 and we "just wanted food."  Well, definitely well worth $4! I met a ton of really cool people from around W's hometown that do all sort of crafts.   Here's a snippet:

This guy used to sell lanterns, then decided to collect them.  He had the same lantern that my brother got me as a birthday present when we were small. 

One woman quilted Civil-War Era replica quilts, and had an amazing tent full of those. Another did bobbin lace - completely fascinating, but even more of a time suck than knitting.

Walking through the festival, I seriously had to tell myself. "You don't want to be a serial crafter.  You don't want to get a serial crafter. RESIST!"  No stall tested my moxy more than this one:

Dyeing! The yarn in the stall were all naturally dyed, hand-spun wool.  The woman even led me over to the garden of the replica house and showed me the plants she used! "This is indigo," etc!  She had a whole range of materials, and suggested if I wanted to try to check out the books she had on display.

I also got my shopping on (well, I made W buy things) and bought these bone earrings for $4! The guys collects bones from a local butcher that dresses meats for hunters and farms in the area.  Kind of gruesome, but if you think about it, he's basically taking trash (the butcher gives him the bones) and making something cool out of it. 

There was also a knitting lady that I chatted with, who was happy to find someone who appreciated her work! Her stitches were so neat, perfectly done on every sweater.  She told me "If you like something, just steal it with your eyes.  You seem smart enough to figure it out!" As we walked away, W and I fantasized about selling things at craft sales.  Of course, what would I sell!?

Also, do you see that yellow sweater on the bottom right?  I have some yarn in that same color - and I figured out what to do with it! A sweater for W's mom! :)

Anyway, I also bought a Christmas ornament made with a craft called quilling! It seems too delicate to put on a tree, so I think I'm going to have it framed.  Maybe one day I'll make some snowflakes to match it and have a set for Christmas time!

All in all, I'm happy I took two hours from my homework to go!

Damage Control

As you might (or might not) know, there's been a lot of rain in my hometown, and even more in W's hometown. Roads are flooded, people are drying off knickknacks with hair dryers in the laundry... etc. W's mom's house has had some major changes.

Grass has been pressed down and covered in mud - you can see how far the flash flood reached.

The creek is still really high - you can't even tell where the banks were originally!

This tree appeared in the yard - we walked upstream and looked and peered but couldn't figure out where it came from!

The water is orange-ish because of the clay-ey soil in the area.

I also found this:

What kind of shrub is it!? I'm going to have to look it up when I get back to school.

I also checked the garden for save-able veg; most of the pumpkins and squash are still going strong, and the tomatoes are still ripening. I picked a bunch, but some had burst from all the rain.

You can't eat fruits and veg that have cracks like this - some people insist it's okay, but I firmly believe that you should put these tomatoes in the compost pile. The cracking lets in bacteria - if you wouldn't buy it in the grocery store, don't eat it from your garden. *steps off soap box*

There was also two flowers that fell down, so I cut them up and brought them in so they can live out the rest of their lives in the kitchen.

Happily, the single rose bush appears to be fine! When I look at it I think of the rose in The Little Prince.

Then it got dark and we went out for pizza, which was FULL of refugees - well, people that were too worried about their crop/livestock being safe to want to cook.

At home, we found a refugee of another kind!

 I'm not sure what kind of caterpillar is, but check out the tail!

While the damage WAS pretty bad, no one was hurt and the only thing that was lost was a few tomatoes, some junk that was stored in the basement, and part of the yard.  I'm sending prayers to those downstream, where the flooding wasn't flash - the photos that I've seen from Binghamton are absolutely horrible.  I also found a photo of the facility I used to work at! Yikes.

Storm-zilla

Yesterday afternoon, a huge hailstorm flew through the neighborhood.  It destroyed most of my seedlings and cut off the phone, Internet, and cable! The yard was littered with hailstones, almost as if someone had decided to dump a metric ton of ice across it.

I'm pretty young, and I've only seen hail once - that's right, once.  That hail was about the size of small peas.  This was MUCH bigger.  It was pretty cool to see the wet growth and dry growth of the hailstones - it was like seeing sixth grade weather science in action!

Then, power got cut off after a massive storm that lasted from 8 PM until around 9:30.  The lightning was beautiful, branching across the sky, and it was very eerie watching the clouds roll in. My parents are blessed that they chose to live in a naturally disaster-free area - the rolling hills prevent tornadoes from forming, there are measures in place to prevent flooding, and there are naturally no earthquakes or hurricanes, so we may not see a storm like this for another ten years.

It's too bad about my seedlings, though! I managed to save my big tray of veggies, but my cosmos took a beating an my alyssum plants are nothing but a puddle - hopefully some the seeds survived to grow where they washed away too!

I also started a new sock - back to toe-up, of course.  This pattern is my own design :) It's just an alternating row of mock-cables, and it's really easy to memorize and knit up.  When I put the socks on, the cables remind me of little pink lemons!

Like the mug? It was under the sink when my mom moved in - I may have to steal it!

A Little Color In Rochester

First off, the theme for the Design Along is Garden! So, get on down to this thread and post a photo for the mood board by next Sunday if you want to contribute - it should be a lot of fun.



And speaking of fun (and gardens) - the Lilac festival is in full bloom (excuse the pun) and yesterday W and I braved the rain to go on a triple date and see some of the gorgeous flowers.  Last year, the festival was kind of a downer because warm weather had brought the flowers weeks before, so all we got to view were the remnants of flowers! But this year, some of the blooms had only just begun to open.  If we can overcome this gloomy, rainy weather then things will be gorgeous - of course, I will have moved out by then :(

But here are some photos anyway :)

Now THIS is Weather!

Today was balmy, warm, and gorgeous.  I spent my break between classes sitting on a comfy couch and eating crummy Mexican food, then I finished this...

... and started this. 

Does anyone else hate that time in between socks? I always try to cast on for the next sock when I finish the first... if I'm not doing two-at-a-time to avoid this madness all together.

Oh, and what's that? Can you see it!?!

Flowers! Horray!

This nice weather lasted for the day... right now, it's pouring and we have a tornado watch.  Yesterday? Rain.  Tomorrow? Rain. I love listening to the sound of rain come through the open window, while I snuggle in a quilt and drink cocoa :)

The Sun Sets on a Project

Tuesday, I sent W a text with this picture:

I finished his socks! Of course, he didn't come home until after I went to bed, and then yesterday, I didn't see him until late last night... But I managed to get his picture.

He's pretty busy working on finishing his 2-Quarter... and I should probably be working on the papers I have to write.  But, I've already started another pair of socks:

The yarn is On Your Toes, purchased at the Yarn Boutique in the city.  It's so gorgeous and soft! These are definitely going to be me socks :)

I've almost reached my limit on baby hats and kitty blankets.  After the Hooks and Needles party on Friday, I'm probably going to spend the rest of break knitting these socks for myself :)

And, check out the gorgeous sunset yesterday:

The Best of 2010's Photos

I had a REALLY hard time making this post, and that's why it's coming up now instead of yesterday :)  I took over 5,500 pictures last year, and got that number down to 100 of my favorites.  Then I got that number down to 40.  So, here they are!

Let me know which one you think should be the best photo of 2010 :) Oh, and more knitting tomorrow. (P.S. - there are a lot of pictures, so I decided to put them all after the jump!)

Vacation Update

I've had a nice time on vacation so far, time to craft and time to spend with family.  I'm pretty frustrated with a current WIP, which I'm thinking of abandoning (at least for a while.) Another is finished, and the pattern is being written up!

Good luck Rocky! Erm... Pinwheel!

Rocky has been passed on to Tanglewood, and I'm sure he's happy to be there! They kept his original name, Pinwheel, which W and I gave him.  He seems happy, though it's hard to see it through his huffly exterior.

And on the bunny front, we have had success getting Samson to use a potty pad! I woke up this morning to this sight.

His pee isn't really that color, it's the pen liner showing through ^_^;

Okay, his pen looks totally gross but I HAD to run and take a picture, I didn't even think to clean his cage... whoops.

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their week, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not! :) We sure are.

Happy Thursday

This week is destroying me.  I have some much done - but so much left to do.  It's the story of my life.

But in good news, the Hooks and Needles Felting Party is tomorrow! We're keeping it small, only 4 or 5 of us will be here, so I'm roasting a chicken and making roast vegetables.  It's going to be lovely and stress-free.

Then Saturday is my HAZWOPER refresher course, where I hope to do some novel writing (bad me, I know, but I'm falling behind! Mostly because of time, partly because I have no idea what to write.)

Also, I have another slipper set done, and I'm starting on a hat that may turn into a published design! (Note the 'may,' haha) 

As for the picture? A little bit of happiness from a midnight snack, of course! :)

Rhinebeck Recap

I have to say, Rhinebeck was pretty awesome! I had a great time with Ash and we will definitely be doing this again, with some more planning. So before I disappear for a while to go to a conference, I can grace you guys with this nice long post about it!

Ash and I had been talking with Rebecca about going to NYS&W this year, but we hadn't made any concrete plans.  Then, at the Yarn Crawl, we met a really nice lady that suggested that we go... and that was the sunny day that made the seed of the idea sprout up.  We reserved a hotel room.  I saved two paychecks.

We made the trip down in the dead of night on Friday, checked into the hotel at around midnight, and couldn't sleep.  Regardless, we were bright eyed and ready to go both mornings!

Our spoils:

1. Yarn. A lot of yarn. I actually don't have a picture of all the yarn together (that will have to wait until Friday!) but it wasn't a lot of yarn... but it was nice, fancy, expensive yarn.
2. A commemorative re-useable tote bag (Ash knows me waaaay too well.)
3. A ravelry button (pictured above. We went to the Ravelry meet up but got there too late - some guy gave us horrible directions and we wandered lost for almost an hour - to get any gift bags!)
4. A yarn swift (This was much-needed, and will be shared among the club.)
5. Sustainably harvested birch size five dpns.
6. Samson:

Sleepy rabbit.

Ash and I have decided to share joint custody of this angora rabbit.  He is totally cute!

Note the absolute look of terror on his face.

Being plucked on the ride home.

On top of that, I got a lot of inspiration.  I saw a few familiar faces, and took a ton of pictures!

Apple cider donuts - YUM.

This stall was my favorite - it was like a forest of Christmas trees made of yarn.

All in all, a great trip.

My favorite photo of the weekend