bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

Ahh Spa

so like a lot of new england knitters/spinners i too went to freeport, ME for the Spa, Knit and Spin event sponsored and organized by the New England Textile Arts group.  it was my first time (*blush*) and i'm so glad i went because i had a wonderful time.

despite the snow. 

so what did i do while i was there?  well judging by the pictures i took you would guess that  ...

i hung out at *$ with friends and took really flattering photos of them with my wide angle lens.  (yes, caro and adrian are not three times bigger than danielle and the temporarily blog-less mafia)

and that i shopped for fig cake and cheese. 

and you would be right.  because i did do those things (i might have eaten some cheese too). 

but that's not all.  i enjoyed some wonderful  meals with great friends.  i  knit despite the fact that i kept forgetting my knitting in the car thereby having people call me a poser for not being a real knitter because i don't carry my knitting with me everywhere i go.  i did do a little shopping and i might have had a cocktail or two but not nearly as many as some people.  *cough*

what i didn't do?  i didn't spin.  the wheel never made it out of the car.  and other than these random photos here, i didn't take any pictures. so i'll just have to get those blackmail photos next year.  oh yes, you read that right.  I'LL BE THERE NEXT YEAR!

as an aside,  i'd just like to again tell you all how much i love my little car.  BECAUSE MY LITTLE CAR GOT ME SAFELY TO MAINE AND BACK IN THE FRIGGIN' SNOW!!!   it even got me up the uncleared scary ice and snow covered hilly driveway of the hotel. (i also must say that i'm very glad that j insisted that i get my brakes fixed BEFORE going to maine despite the fact that the costs of the brake redo was equal to the price of an extremely nice wheel.)

Yes I'm Gloating

i try not to gloat too often.  first of all, it annoys the fuck out of me when others do it.  second of all, it's not a very nice thing to do. and finally, i have a pathetic need to be liked by practically everyone.  (it used to be EVERYONE and then i grew up a little.  so that's a sign of maturity.  i'm ok with having a few people not like me).

however, i can not be quiet about what greeted me when i got home from work yesterday.

i'm number 1 baby!!!

even the cat had to check it out.

**************************************************************************

SQUARE UPDATE:   collectively, elisa and i have over 85 squares. i know that a few more should be coming in the mail in the next few days and that's great.  but if you planned on knitting a square but haven't done so already, please don't.  we have more than enough.  and elisa's going to have to sew them together and if you send us a hundred squares, elisa will sew 100 squares together, and that will break elisa.  and we don't want to break her.

thanks so much to all of you. 

by the way, i still haven't selected any contest winners.  and no, the fiddlehead mitten kit is not one of the prizes.  :P

 

A Mountain of Packages

what a mess!  but in a good way (although the clutter is making me twitch just a little).

thanks to everyone who sent in squares for elisa's dad.  i've prepared a handy dandy excel spreadsheet logging in everyone's names, email addresses, etc., and the number of squares (you know, for the contest).

how about some numbers?  i've received a total of 72 squares!  from 30 people!  i've received squares from people as far north as minnesota and as far south as houston texas.  as far west as california and as far east as boston and nyc. 

i've heard from a few of you that "the squares are in the mail" so i anticipate a few more squares.  and also i've heard that some of you sent the squares directly to elisa.  so i think with 75+ squares, elisa's dad will have a massive blanket, which is just awesome. 

i'll have pictures of squares soon.  i don't want to remove them from their packages until i've labeled every square.

i've got a few prizes, yarn mostly, from my stash but also some wonderful donations from square contributors.  i'll be selecting winners in the next week or so.  and then i'll be sending the squares off to elisa.  (who will be doing the sewing.)  the mess is kind of freaking me out so the sooner the better.

 

anyway, i've got to go.  in a hurry.  but i wanted to give you all an update.  it's pretty great.

No Such Thing As Love Anymore

back in the day, the "day" being "quite a long time ago", M&Ms came in two varieties:  Plain and Peanut.  no peanut butter, no dark chocolate, no almond, NO, NONE OF THAT.  just plain and peanut.  and they came in limited number of colors, all in one bag, all mixed together.  there was dark brown, light brown, orange, yellow, red, and green.  for a few years we lost the red ones.  there was sadness across the land.  but then they came back, and all was good.

back in the day, the green ones were (and still are) imbued with special powers.  sexual powers.  and because they were relatively rare, these powers were valued.  in a one pound bag, you might have at most 10 green M&Ms!

so one day, a friend decided  she would express her  love for a handsome young man by filling a mason jar full of green M&Ms.  and we, her friends, would help her.  do you know how many 1 lb bags we had to go through just to fill a mason jar with the green ones?  all i can tell you is that we  ate a shit load of chocolate. 

Nowadays M&Ms come in crazy ass varieties, in crazy ass colors and themes (star wars M&Ms people?!! )  and it's just wrong.  WRONG I TELL YOU!!  but the worse of it?!!

YOU CAN BUY THE GREEN ONES BY THE FRIGGIN' BAG!!!!

where's the challenge?  where's the romance?  where's the heartache?  where's the sacrifice?  any old schmuck can now go to their local CVS and buy a big ass bag of green M&Ms.  but what kind of love is that?  love is when a girl and her friends stuff their faces with 15 lbs of milk chocolate over the course of several weeks, all to impress a young man.  love is when friends risk weight gain and bad skin all to help a friend "get the guy."  love is not going to the CVS and buying a big ass bag of green M&Ms.

happy valentine's day ... if it means anything anymore.  sigh

Housekeeping

does this happen to you?  you get so overwhelmed with everything that you end up doing nothing?  yeah that's what's going on with the blogging these days.  i've got a lot of updates but don't know where to start so that explains why i haven't blogged in almost 10 days.

so it's time for a list.

1.  the elisa's dad blanket square contest is going strong and my guest bedroom bed is covered in packages.  this weekend i'm going to enter everyone's information into a handy dandy spreadsheet.  the deadline for squares is tomorrow but i'm not going to have time to award prizes until at least the weekend, so if you're running a little late, not to worry.   

2. it's project spectrum time again.  PROJECT SPECTRUM 2008!! this time lolly has organized the color palettes around the themes of the essential elements:  FIRE, EARTH, WATER and AIR.   and i'm ready ...

i know, i'm almost 2 weeks behind schedule, but i couldn't embrace the colors of fire until i had finished ...

3.  this pair of neon colored socks for one of my nieces.

she was born in the 80's which is the last time these colors were part of my wardrobe, but i think she'll like their stripey goodness.  these are basic top down stockinette socks.  i raveled the details.  

ok, i've got more but i'm going to save it for another day.  don't want to do too much in one day.  might hurt myself.  wouldn't want that, now would we.

B is for ....

of course, it's only B and i'm already behind.  *sigh*  oh well, i guess i've been too busy yarn shopping because ....

B is for Binge!

you know, because i didn't already have a large enough stash. 

so yeah, i've been a little out of control.  since christmas, i've done some damage and i'm afraid that i'm having a hard time stopping.

i'm going to blame this crazy shopping frenzy on the fact that i'm hungry most of the time with the weight loss plan and everything and the depression of being stuck on a weight loss plateau while the rest of you all eat yummy snacks that i can only dream about like a child and sugar plums.  see, i'm delirious with the hunger.

or i'm doing my part to help the US economy get back on it's feet.  yeah that's it. 

or maybe because all of this yarn is just so damn pretty. 

 

ooh pretty lorna's laces bullfrogs and butterflies for a clapotis (my third.  but this one is for me)

or some baby ull for adrian's snail  mittens in The Book of Yarn.

or ......   

some green alpaca for another gathered scarf . 

and then there's the sock yarn .  i kind of fell head first into a giant bowl of sock yarn.  but sock yarn is like vegetables .. NO POINTS!  so i can binge all i want on sock yarn, right?  RIGHT?!