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The “L” Word
I thought I had a plan. I sat here, days before Stitches West, flipping through Ravelry patterns in my queue and making a list of things I wanted to make and what supplies I needed. I had a whittled it down to a short list of yarn weights and yardages. I was so very organized and ready for just about anything until…
I believe we were on the convention center floor when it happened. Courtney looked at me, and in a tone that clearly conveyed she was unsure that what she was about to say was a good idea, she said “I think I want to get a loom.”
My brain exploded and started leaking out of my ears.
That was all she had to say. I completely went into that “state”…the state I was in my very first year of Stitches when one of my friends from the AV suggested I get a dirty fleece. That story is still told to this day…of me walking out of the showroom, eyes like saucers, talking so fast that no one could understand me. I had gone off the rails.
It was happening again. Saucer eyed…Courtney could tell that Stacy went “bye-bye”.
I think there might have been nodding…and telling her what an amazing idea it was…and that she should definitely get one…AND I MUST HAVE ONE TOO. Yup. It was all over for me.
Then I had apparently mentioned it to David…and he went off the rails too.
Saturday morning it all went down. After David (who had a vendor badge) went ahead of us for some recon on the Slipped Stitch Studios TARDIS project bags, and I had successfully acquired one of those bags and won a smaller project bag at their booth, we made a bee line to Purlescence. David got there before us and was already on the floor practicing on the display loom. We sat and watched, and then all three of us pulled the trigger.
Now, I had done a little bit of Internet research the night before…and figured out what came in the loom and tried to figure out what type of reed I needed to weave fingering weight yarn. Of course, we are a hive brain and I know I wasn’t the only one that had this idea. When we asked the awesome folks at Purlescence to hold the looms for us to pick up later, I asked for a 12 dent reed.
They held it for me, but it was the only one they had. Luckily, there were other booths that had them too, because I felt like an asshole blurting out the 12 dent reed request as they were putting the looms aside for us, and I know that Court and I both have enough fingering weight yarn to choke a small third world country.
I’m back from Stitches West 2013!
Well, I’ve technically been back since Sunday night, but no ones keeping track, right?
To be honest, I seem to have picked up a case of Con Funk…or sharing a bed with Ashley has “given me pink eye all over”. Either way, I am nowhere near functioning at 100%. It’s alright though, my body waited until I had attended Stitches West AND finished the big project I was working on before deciding to try and tell me to slow my roll. It’s cool…if anything, I know that I have been firing on all cylinders lately and this is my body’s way of telling me I should probably chill out a little.
I am not really wanting to take a break. Stitches was a huge ego boost for me. For once (because it doesn’t happen very often), I decided to purposely pimp myself out. I brought my “creations” and walked them around the floor. I also wore some of my knitting to show off.
The funny thing about Stitches West, and fiber arts people in general, is that they really like to touch things. After you get over the initial shock of people touching your stuff, you get to be okay with it. Think it’s mostly because people will compliment you while they are touching you. That somehow makes it alright in my brain.
I got a lot of compliments on my neon pink Nefretem. The folks at one booth got all excited and asked if I had knit it in their yarn (I hadn’t). It definitely got people’s attention (as it should, because it is shocking pink). I know I had mentioned it before, but it bears repeating…I knit it Baah! Pink Tourmaline…which really is the color of awesome.
For as many compliments as I got on my hot pink number, I got twice as many for my orange and gray Merging Ripples shawl. People really liked it…the pattern, the color choice, my actual knitting. It was so liked that Babs of Miss Babs grabbed me at one point to show it to the ladies working her booth…where they asked me for my business card and handed me yarn to knit a sample for their store. Yeah you heard me…THEY HANDED ME YARN TO KNIT FOR THEIR STORE. This is the point where my brain exploded.
I also got a lot of compliments on my top secret creations. I made sure to tell people that patterns would be available soon. I need to get to work on that.
What in the world?
What in the hell?
It is 3:54 in the morning. I am supposed to be up at 5, but I just woke up in a sweat from a crazy dream. Was it something I ate? Maybe it is excitement? Who knows.
I do know this, I am supposed to be waking up soon, packing the rest of my things, and heading to Starbucks so I can pick up a breakfast sandwich and a coffee the size of my head. I think I am going to need it for the 5 hour long drive I have ahead of me (after picking up Courtney and Ash, of course).
I can’t really think about the drive…I just look forward to getting to the hotel, having lunch, and hitting the showroom floor of Stitches West where I most certainly will get high on yarn fumes and start my shopping spree. I even have a list.
4 am. Should I bother going back to bed?
And today I play the role of…
Over achiever. Or maybe it’s just the caffeine?
Even my friends are finding my productivity slightly annoying…
It’s sometime in the wee hours of the morning and I have been running non-stop since 8am. I’m not even particularly tired right this second (check on me again in 30 minutes when the inevitable crash happens).
I’m eager to get stuff finished. See, once again I’ve been keeping to myself, busily toiling away at secret things. It’s all very intriguing, I’m sure. ::Insert eye roll here.:: Many of my friends haven’t seen me in awhile, but I’ll be emerging soon. I’m heading to Stitches West this Friday!
Among the many things I have been working on are patterns. As a matter of fact, I typed up two more designs today and they are ready for testing!
Of course, I have one more pattern I’d like to get written and typed before Friday, but I have a paying thing I need to finish first. The race is on to see how much I can get done. I will need to set aside at least 5 minutes to pack for this weekend.
It doesn’t look like much, but trust me when I say there is major multitasking happening here.
The never ending saga of the missing eyes…
If you watch any of my video blogs, you know that for the past couple months I have been waiting on a package. Of course, this was a package of eyes that I needed to finish some projects. I was so bummed that I hadn’t received them that I lost steam on that project. I moved onto other things…refusing to buy supplies from somewhere else until I had figured out if I would be able to get a refund or my stuff…I wanted a resolution.
I had ordered these things from an etsy seller in late October. I had heard that they had shipped, but for two weeks I saw nothing in my mailbox. Finally, in mid November, I received a post card from my local post office saying that I needed to come and pick it up from them. So I grabbed my post card and headed their way to get my package…happy that it had finally made it and I could finish the little guy I had been working on.
Disaster struck.
The woman behind the counter told me she couldn’t release the package to me. The package was addressed to me under my maiden name. I asked to speak to a manager, who took my drivers license and said it was alright to release it to me because the first name matched and I explained I had been living there for ten years.
So the woman behind the counter went to get the package. She couldn’t find it.
Then a gentleman that works in back went to help her look. Then the manager joined them.
Three people looking for my package…it wasn’t there.
(This is where you enter the expletives of your choosing.)
I left the post office all bummed out and angry. I hate that.
I contacted the US Postal Service. I filed a claim (or so I thought), I called back two days later only to be told that the etsy seller had to file the claim because it was coming from another country.
I contacted the etsy seller and let her know what was going on and that the post office told me that she needed to be the one who initiated the search for my eyes. She said she would.
A week later I sent another message. No response. I tried again. And again.
Finally, I received a response saying that the post office said she needed to file another claim to search for the package. I asked about a refund and was told that she would give me a refund if the post office told her it wasn’t delivered. I scrambled to Paypal to see what my options were. It was already over the 45 day limit at this point and I couldn’t get a refund through them.
At this point I was planning to just write it off as a lesson learned. Imagine my surprise when this arrived.
What?
Surely they were kidding. I had to go pick my package up or they were going to return it.
So I text my knitters, who had heard me bitch and complain about this package since November.
Court and I.
I immediately thought “I am gonna loose my shit if that package isn’t there” then thought to take my mom with me so they wouldn’t give me crap about it being in my maiden name. I mean, it’s not like it is a very common name and my mom could totally vouch for me, right?
So we left for the post office. This time I got a really nice lady who gave me no problems…and the package was ACTUALLY THERE.
OMG!
Wanna know how hot glue tastes?
It doesn’t taste very good.
Angelique and I talk Bronies and Pottermore…bringing on the geeky.
Temporary work stoppage.
All super secret projects of mystery have been placed on hold while I patiently wait for a top-secret package of extra-secret supplies. In the meantime, take a look at an FO!
Iron Man Armwarmers!
My twitter pal OsakaJack commissioned me to make these! I think they turned out pretty awesome!
Yay!
Late night, day 1…
Sleep? Who the hell needs sleep? Here’s what it looks like before I spend the entire night awake. For the record, whiskey does not give you Zzzz.
What’s a girl to do?
I have so many secret projects in the works right now. I mean…there are A LOT of them. All of my gift knitting has to remain a secret right now.
I have agonized over this for days, wondering what the hell I am going to talk about. The only thing as amusing as watching me try and figure out what the heck I am suppose to blog about is watching me freak out over *what* projects can be knit *where*. I have knitting that I can only work on at the office, knitting that can only be completed at home, and either/or can be completed while by myself at a random Starbucks somewhere (but how often does this happen)?.
A few times I have pulled the wrong thing out of my bag only to have to stuff it back in quickly so no one can figure out what it is. Ugh…
…I have a KNITTING blog and I can’t talk about my knitting.
I suppose I could take photos of all of my projects close-up. Maybe try and take them in a way that makes it difficult to figure out what the picture is.
In the meantime, I guess I can sit here and complain about how I am losing my mind about getting all this stuff done in time, but not elaborate on any of it.
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