carbonel

I've been back for a week and a half, and I finally caught up with reading DW. I'm still behind on Ravelry, and will probably have to declare bankruptcy on a number of threads, which I really hate to do.

I was on the long-planned cross-country train trip with Pat WINODW. We started in Chicago (having driven down there from Minneapolis) and took the Southwest Chief to Los Angeles. It wasn't as spectacular as the California Zephyr (which goes through mountains) would be, but it allowed us to take the Coast Starlight up the California coast to San Francisco, which was spectacular. After a couple of days in San Francisco, continued on the Coast Starlight to Portland. From there, it was the Empire Builder to Glacier National Park (the original inspiration for the trip), and then continuing on the Empire Builder back to Minneapolis. (Pat's father drove her car from Chicago to Minneapolis.) It was an amazing trip, and I'd love to do something similar with the California Zephyr and maybe the cross-Canada train. But next year, my mother wants to do a road trip to South Dakota and Yellowstone, so that will have priority.

Because of the train trip, I only got to the Minnesota State Fair once this year, as opposed to my normal two or three times. The day before I left was my only day to drop items off for the Creative Activities competition, which I did. I entered four skeins of handspun in the four classes: fur/hair, wool, silk, and art yarn. I won first place ribbons in the fur/hair category (a skein of white lace weight cashmere plied with white silk) and the silk category (a gradient skein spun from hand-carded silk). I also won the Weavers Guild "best fine yarn" award for the silk skein. The wool and art yarn skeins won fourth and third place ribbons, respectively.

I'm hosting our tea group this Saturday, which was probably a mistake because I haven't had time to do the amount of cooking I'd really like, what with catching up with everything else. I'm about to head out to go shopping, and will see what TJ's and Cost Plus World Market can save me from preparing myself. Thankfully, I did plan ahead sufficiently to have the monthly cleaning person in yesterday, so while the place is sadly cluttered, it is reasonably clean. I'm hoping we're still doing this four years from now when I'm retired, and (at least in theory) will have time to spend the week preparing.

And coming up in a couple of weeks is a three-weekend-in-a-row marathon: the Minn-stf fallcon, Scintillation (convention in Montreal), and a spinning retreat in Alexandria, MN. I'm really looking forward to all of them, but not to the recovery period afterward.

Is anyone here on Ravelry? I'm having all sorts of weird problems.

It's ungodly slow, and displaying improperly. And I can't reply to messages.

I've had problems like this before when the browser (or computer) ran out of memory, but in this case, a) I shut down and rebooted, and b) I'm having the exactly same problem on my iPad, which is an entirely different operating system.

I checked the Rav status Twitter feed, and it doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong. So it might just be me, but I can't see how it would happen on both a desktop computer and a tablet if it's just me.

Help?

ETA: I checked with Pat WINOLJ, and she's having similar problems, so it's not just me. If there's anyone who isn't having problems and would be willing to make a quick post on my behalf, please let me know. I have to reply to a thread in the next six or seven hours or I'll lose a swap I'd like to have. But at the moment I can't post, and I can't even access profiles to see if any of the mods' addresses are on their profile.

ETA2: Seems to be fixed now. I wonder what the problem was.

On a Ravelry group I'm on, someone wants a countdown clock to the Tour de France. She found one here. Unfortunately, the code provided at the "copy this code" window doesn't make the widget appear; instead, it just gives a link to this page, which is buried deep in the mess of code.

A bit of googling yielded someone saying something about having to put widgets in a "widget-aware" location, but that seemed to be related to Wordpress and other blog managers. I copied the HTML text into this post. It doesn't display properly, but the disclaimer says it won't until it's on a web server, so maybe that's why.

Ideally, the countdown timer would be at the top of a Ravelry page, where the moderator has the ability to edit the HTML within Ravelry's parameters.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to make this work?

(and this is my one post of shameless promotion)

This weekend is the 40th annual Fiber Fair of the Minnesota Weavers Guild (which includes spinners and dyers as well). I have about 65 items for sale there (mostly handspun yarn, but a couple of shawls and a pair of mittens knit from my handspun as well). There will also thousands of items from other people, all handmade.

The sale runs from Friday to Sunday. I'll be cashiering on Saturday, from just before noon to closing. I'd love it if people felt like stopping by to look, perchance to shop. It's a great opportunity to get a jump on holiday shopping. Parking is free.

Friday, November 14, 2014: 10am to 7pm
Saturday, November 15: 10am to 5pm
Sunday, November 16: 12pm to 4pm

Studio #332
Northrup King Building
1500 Jackson Street
NE Minneapolis

http://www.weaversguildmn.org/events-visit/fiber-fair

I entered four skeins in this year's Minnesota State Fair, one in each of the spinning categories: 3-ply laceweight wool and silk, 2-ply silk, 2-ply cat hair and wool (from Pat WINOLJ's cat Nimue), and blue and green art yarn from Leicester locks.

The Nimue skein was the only blue ribbon, but the other three all placed second. A respectable showing, I'd say. I'll be interested in seeing what was marked down on the wool/silk 3-ply, because I thought that one was some of the best work I've ever done.

The StevenBe art yarn award went to someone I know from the guild, so that's nice.

Also, I talked Pat into entering a couple of her shawls in the fair (one knit, one crocheted), and the crocheted one won a fourth place ribbon against what was probably very stiff competition, so I'm pleased about that.

Frustratingly, there's no way to tell this story that doesn't foreshadow the ending. But it's probably worth telling nevertheless.

I'm a spinner, as you probably know. I don't spin all that much silk, but last year I dyed some silk fiber (orange, red, and yellow) with the help of Mia McDavid, and spun it up. Some of the silk was plied with angora rabbit fur, and what was left I plied with itself. It turned out decently, though these days I would have plied it more tightly.

Last November, I entered a bunch of stuff in the Weaver's Guild Fiber Fair for sale, and about 2/3 of what I entered sold. One of the things that sold was the skein of orange, red, and yellow silk (so did the skein with the bunny fleece). In fact, the pure silk skein never went on display, because as it was being checked in, one of the volunteers said she wanted it, if we could make it work (the place wasn't set up to take money yet). I told her I'd trust her to pay the next day, and I know she did, because the computer system later marked it as purchased.

Fast-forward to today. I spent my day at Shepherd's Harvest (a local sheep and wool festival), going from booth to booth, asking for donations for the door prizes at a spinner/weaver/knitter conference in October. At the very end of the day, I stopped at the Rach-Al-Paca booth. The vendors there had been very generous last year, and (after I made my pitch) were almost as generous this year. I almost walked away after I'd packed it away, but then I remembered to ask the vendor what the value was of the skeins she'd donated ($60, it turned out). As I did that, I noticed a very familiar yellow, orange, and red skein of yarn around her neck. I asked if it was silk, and she said yes.

"I think I was the person who spun that silk," I said. She said no at first, but then I said she'd bought it at Fiber Fair, before it was even put on sale, and she agreed it was mine -- I've cut my hair since then, changing my appearance somewhat. She said she's been wearing it in the skein as a decorative thing and getting all sorts of compliments for it.

It's weird enough that she's wearing my yarn as adornment instead of knitting or weaving with it, but I'm totally boggled that my skein was recognizable to me six months later, totally out of context. I wonder how much more I'll have to spin before the finished products become anonymous to me.

So I had 29 items for sale, six of which were hand knit by iraunink from my handspun, and the rest of which were yarns of various sorts -- about half of those were art-type yarns.

Three of the six hand knit items -- two pairs of mittens and one scarf -- sold, leaving two shawls and one large pair of mittens.

Thirteen of the skeins of yarn sold, including most of the art yarn (but not my favorite one, which is still available). I'm very pleased that my experimental silk skeins sold, especially since those were my highest-ticket items. I plan to do more of those.

I can't possibly make a living doing this, but if I can keep finding a market for my finished yarn, I can support my hobby in the habit to which it is accustomed.

I will be posting the remaining items (plus a couple of new ones) for sale here as soon as I can get some semi-decent photos.

This year I made it to the Fair three times. I had two spinning demonstration slots, and the Weaver's Guild provides tickets for the demonstrators. The other time was Wednesday evening, with 1crowdedhour, to see the 4H llama costume competition and the 2nd Annual Cat Video Film Festival.

The first spinning slot, on the first Sunday, was brutal. The temperature peaked at 96 degrees, with a heat index of 105 or so. My slot was from 9 to 1, and I should have left after that. Instead, I rambled around and went through the Creative Activities building and annex, and saw many sheep (sheep are much more interesting when you're more familiar with the breeds). I also went through the Ag building to see the honey-related exhibits and the gladioli. I was sorry that my schedule didn't overlap with the bonsai this year. I had honey ice cream, which I hadn't had in several years, and a frozen cider stick -- always one of the best bargains at the fair. My last pass was through the International Village, where I had the stir-fried noodles. They always smelled good, but usually they looked like too much food. This time, they were just right, and delicious, though I would have preferred hot chili oil as a condiment to the sour (but spicy) red stuff they offered instead. About that time, I totally ran out of stamina, and tottered back to the Park 'N Ride area, with several rests along the way.

On Wednesday, I left work a little early, in order to meet 1crowdedhour by the AgStar building at 5:30, for the 6:30 costume llama contest. This was the culmination of several years' worth of failure to connect properly, because in past years, the Fair website either neglected to provide the information or (worse) provided incorrect information. But this year, the costume llamas were folded into the main Fair's schedule instead of the separate 4H schedule, and things seemed to be better organized. I actually made better time than I expected, so I had time for a chocolate shake from the Gopher Dairy Barn. It wasn't as chocolatey as some others, but it was beautifully creamy. The costume competition was worth making an effort for. There were three categories, from 6th grade to 12th, though only three entries each in the older kids' categories. I was quite taken with the pair where the handler was dressed as the 11th Doctor and the llama as the TARDIS. Yes, really. But that one didn't get the nod from the judges. The judge seemed more interested in the llama-handling aspects (llamas are fussy about having their legs, neck, and ears covered, so if they tolerate those, it shows good training and rapport) than the aesthetics of the costumes. There was quite a large crowd, and they brought out extra seating.

After that, we went to the Grandstand for the cat videos. I had not checked the schedule, and had thought that when they said the show started at 7 pm, it meant that cat videos would start at, say, 7:15. Instead, there were a couple of hours of filler (live music, introduction of celebrity cats, and much talky-talk), and the videos started just before 9 pm. I ducked out for a while during the early part to get dinner -- a London broil sandwich (new to me) and roasted corn. The videos were worth watching, if not worth a 2-hour wait. I suspect they were edited down from the originals, and benefited thereby. The standout moment in surreality was the video of "Cat in a Shark Costume Riding a Roomba Chasing a Duck." Which was, in fact, just what it sounds like. After the show was the fireworks, and this was the first time I'd seen the Fair fireworks from the Grandstand.

My final time this year was on Labor Day, and thankfully, the weather broke. It was actually chilly when I headed to the Fair in time for my 9 to 1 spinning slot, though it warmed up later in the day. Both fgherman and the minnehahas stopped by to say hello. Apparently everyone who had been holding off because it was too hot decided to come that day, because the place was jammed. Apparently they broke all previous attendance records. I spent the rest of a leisurely day wandering around. I went to the Fine Arts building, where I have my own system for seeing everything without repetition. Thence to the Dairy Building, where I had a raspberry malt, and chatted with a friend at the booth that sells yarn and knitted goods. I wanted a bacon-on-a-stick, and had failed to find the booth when I looked for it earlier. Finally I resorted to the Internet, and Google led me to a well-designed smartphone site that told me exactly where to go. With that help, I found the Big Fat Bacon booth. My routes must have taken me past it several times, but somehow I'd missed it before. After the bacon, I headed home, and got home around 7:30.

(I posted to the handspinning group, but it occurs to me that there are enough spinners on my f-list to make it worth a plea here as well. Apologies to anyone who sees it twice.)

I have a project for which I need three or four ounces of plain red roving or top (to spin singles and ply with something else). The problem is, I need it done by Thursday, 4/25.

Is there anyplace local I can buy this without having to buy little sachets of roving meant for felting (Needlework Unlimited) or driving out to Maple Plain (Detta's)? Or if anyone local has something appropriate in her stash, I'd be happy to buy it or trade for it.

It's times like these that I really regret the demise of Fiber Studio.

(via moonpupy on the LJ knitting community)

The lovely people at Tin Can Knits are celebrating the season with a free pattern as long as you share the love. Go here, browse their patterns, then enter their coupon code to get your free pattern. And pass it on. The offer is good until January 1.

http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward/show?u=ac55a87e0c49ad678b42da26a&id=06f9d3b1f1

I went for the Sitka Spruce hat and mittens combo. What will you choose?