Evilsciencechick

I was “fired” about 30 times this past weekend. Really, it wasn’t my fault.

Grace was running late to pick me up on Thursday, so we ended up at Jen’s a little later than intended. After a quick meet & greet with some llamas, goats, and sheep (a warm up, if you will) we were on our way. Soon we were winding our way through the back-country highways of north carolina, enjoying gorgeous autumn mountain views of such spectacular quality that I was literally dazzled to the point of which I forgot to take pictures. This is also a common theme for the weekend. We finally arrived in Asheville and tried to make sense of a small map and some confusing city streets. Eventually we found our way to the restaurant and the rest of our cozy little group where we enjoyed a very delicious dinner. Back at the hotel, we spent the rest of the evening enjoying wine and my homemade chocolate crack cookies.

taken right before we stripped to our bras and panties and had our nightly pillow fight

Jen and I were too wired and excited to sleep, so while Grace passed out, we chatting and giggled into the wee hours of the morning. This was unfortunate, because we had to wake at a wee hour of the morning. Breakfast at the IHOP and then off to SAFF!

Most everyone had a morning class, so it was just Jodi (a friend of Sandy’s) and I to walk around the main vendor center.

OK, self - listen here: this is our first fiber festival ever. You have a nice little bunch of money saved up for this, but we’re going to have to be SMART about it, OK? This is just the first pass - just to see what’s here. You have all morning, and then all day Saturday to shop. There is plenty here for everybody so you don’t have to…

Ooooooo! Shiny!!!

Yeah, well, needless to say, my self inflicted rules didn’t mean diddly squat. And that’s OK, since a lot of nice things really did sell out. I had some things that I definatly wanted to buy: sock yarn, especially in blue, sock yarn for a swap I’m in, something for my MiL’s christmas present, a drop spindle and some fiber to spin with it, a niddy noddy if I could get a good deal on it, and a needle gauge that had US as well as all metric sizes.

I am proud to say I met all those goals. And then some.

After lunch, it was time for my class. We learned how to dye yarn, using a technique that gives you multicolored yarn using only one pot. It was alot of fun!

Sadie very much enjoyed the hand dyed yarn I brought home.

please go away

Friday night we enjoyed a fantastic dinner at a local pub and were entertained by a very gay waiter who at one point sat on my lap and pretended to lick my face as a photo opp.

No, I don’t have this picture. But I’m sure someone does. Look around, doubtless it will be posted.

I’d like to say that we partied SO hard that night, but in reality, the fact that none of us got a lot of sleep the night before plus several drinks at dinner led to a relatively early night. The next day I woke up feeling MUCH better rested…but without a voice. A raspy whisper was all I could manage, and I went the rest of the weekend with people thinking that I had the plague. I DIDN’T! JUST LARYNGITIS!

Grace, Jody, Allison and I wandered around the main building for awhile, and I managed to be good: one more skein of sock yarn and some superwash merino roving. Annnd a niddy noddy and needle gauge. Then it was time to pet some animals!

and a sheep shearing demonstration:

Later, at the blue barn (where bloggers and ravelers had space rented for meet and greets all weekend), I complained that I hadn’t found any lace weight yarn I liked - I would really REALLY like to try my hand at an actual shawl soon. Jen mentioned that there was a good deal on some merino lace weight at the nearby vendor stalls near the llamas, but that there wasn’t much left. OH yeah, there was! 1250 yards for, like, $18! While there, I found out that their gorgeous alpaca yarn was ON SALE for 50% off. 300 yards for $11. OH yeah. And then, while waiting to check out, I noticed that their sock yarn was gorgeous, and also a good deal…

So yeah, I fell down a bit at the end of the day.

That night some of us went over to the cabin that Claudia and her husband had been staying in all week for their anniversary. Oooo, it was a cute little place! I have heard rumors that some people felt left out, like this was some kind of exclusive “party” or something. Shah! Claudia just wanted a few people to come over so she could show off her mad cooking skilz. Dudes, we’re a HUGE group. With LOTS of friendly, welcoming people. There is no reason everyone has to do the same things all the time. Plenty of people were hanging out together - if anyone was alone in their hotel rooms that night, it was their own choice/fault! Besides, the cabin was small - any more of us crammed in there would have made it uncomfortable. Next year, the grumbling people can rent their own cabin and throw a huge blowout party. That’ll show us.

I was high on robitussin, which I had taken in a vain attempt to bring back my voice. All I accomplished was creating a dizzying interaction with the glass of white wine I had with dinner. Also? I forgot my camera. So no pictures of the impromptu carding demonstration given by Jen.

Back to the hotel, where Jen, Sandy, and I hung out in Turtlegirl and friends’ room. I found out that Pam is originally from Pittsburgh, like me! We bonded. Turtlegirl was…well…how can I put this delicately…

“trashed out of her skull.” Which, lets face it, is always entertaining. I hear tell that Sunday morning came a little more painfully for her.

Back to bed, where I cannot CONFIRM NOR DENY any allegations that I may have woken up at some point in the night almost completely on Jen’s side of the bed, with her almost falling off the edge. Jen has cuddling issues, apparently, and I had SLEPT IN FEAR OF MY LIFE all weekend that my foot might brush hers. Luckily, I survived the incident. ALLEGED incident. Alleged.

The rule Sunday morning was “no alarm clock.” We all slept in - fiber fumes had taken their toll. Also, my voice was still gone. Joy. We took our time packing and gabbing about the weekend’s events. A late breakfast and our last trip to the AG center. Jen had to run to the bathroom first thing for a wardrobe change after a coffee spill incident, and Grace and I took the opportunity to sneak away to buy Jen a little thank you gift - for toting our asses around all weekend, for making hotel arrangements, for doing all the ravelry stuff (buttons, bob puppet, etc) and for doing it with minimal grumbling Two skeins of pink Brooks Farms acero - for two pair of sock or a nice lacy pretty thing. THANKS JEN!!!!

Back on the road - to Jen’s, then Grace drove me back home…though on the way she noticed one of her tires was kind of flat. Oops. We made it back to my place, where I had my handy dandy husband assess the situation. The leak became audible once the tire was filled with air - that can’t be good. Kev ran out and bought a patch kit to fix the leak (some kind of dremmel or drill bit had gotten embedded in the tire), while I taught Grace the zen of toe up sock knitting. She is now a convert. BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!! Tire patched and leak halted, Grace finally got to go home, and I got to relax with some pizza and my husband.

“oh, what did I buy? Well, I got this to make something for your mother…and some roving for this drop spindle. How much? $5 and $6. Good deal, huh? What else? Just some sock yarn. How was your weekend?”

No, really. I was pretty good. I didn’t walk out of there with a bunny. I didn’t walk out of there with several skeins of seasilk (though I wanted to…ohhhh…how I wanted to. But $45 for each 600 yd skein? Not in the cards). I didn’t walk out of there with a wheel (you’d be surprised how many people “accidentally” end up with an unplanned $600 wheel purchase). I stayed within budget, and I was able to sell enough buttons to pay for my meals with a little left over to put towards fiber. I had the BEST time. I haven’t laughed that much in a long time. I can’t believe that I feel so comfortable with these people, most of whom I’ve only met in real life a couple months ago, and some I only met for the first time at SAFF. And they were so comfortable with me! I know I met other bloggers who’s names I haven’t mentioned - people who bought my buttons (THANK YOU!!!) and I was totally going to write down who bought what but I forgot!!! - people I met through ravelry and sold me soap, people I met at Harlot and remembered me and even hugged me and wow, this post is just getting too long to mention it all. You guys all rock. Knitters are an amazing bunch. I am going to spend a good chunk of tomorrow updating my links page.

The only sad part was that some of them still live too far away. I don’t think it’s fair to make us wait ANOTHER WHOLE YEAR to see each other again! There needs to be some kind of south eastern regional blogger squee-fest. Where we can all stay in a hotel together and drink and laugh and knit and spin and lose our voices and stay up too late and just have fun.

Come on…I’ll bring cookies!