I'm Wanty not Needy

I only made a few purchases this weekend.
Well, if you count skinny pop, diet Snapple or beef jerky, then I made lots of purchases, but you came here for fibery goodness.
Almost a year and a half ago, I was given two Corriedale fleeces. Shannon had taken them Up North to have them processed at Stone Hedge Fiber Mill. I love the way they clean and prep. 7 pounds of dirty fleece became almost 5 pounds of yummy roving.

While we were at the Tip of the Mitt Fiber Festival, I picked up Grellow Fiber from IceMelon. You see it here in singles form. I need to ply.

Also pictured is some laundry butter (new to me) and a skein of Washtena Wool Company fingering in Wolf. I see it as Hedwig and will be making something owlish from it.

My lovely hostess, Shannon, knows that I want to learn to sew better, so she gave me this book to increase my skills. I didn't think anything would fit, but I am within the scale of the measurements on the patterns. Happy dance and big NSV.

I think the biggest want for the weekend was just to be with my hubby. We are together a lot, but there is nothing like a road trip to get us talking. I think we both wanted/needed this.

Catching up

August always seems to be a busy month for us here at Casa Coggie. This year was no exception.
I left on the 8th for Schaumburg, IL, north of Chicago, for Stitches Midwest. This is a convention for people who play with yarn and fiber. I went over on the Lake Express Ferry which made traveling easy. 30 minutes from home, I boarded the boat and then only had a 90 minute drive down to the hotel.
Here is my flickr set.
It was a wonderful, fun filled weekend among people who talked my language.
When the show was over, before I headed home, I took a trip to Ikea for the first time. I bought just a few items, I want to go back and buy more!
Main purchases were two more lamb skin rugs and two end tables for the living room.

Then on Friday I headed over to Midland, MI for a friends wedding.We had the rehearsal and dinner on Friday night before setting up the reception hall. Then on Saturday, the wedding was at 3pm. The weather was perfect for an outdoor wedding. I was the "Best man by proxy" so I was not able to get a lot of photos.  Flickr set here I wish the couple many years of happiness together.
On Sunday I headed home and just lazed around all day Monday.
I am happy to be home and ready for a few weeks of not going anywhere!

Weekend Up North

Getting off the couch by way of friends is awesome! As I posted last time, I really have to push myself to leave home, but once I am out, I do OK.
I had a wonderful with Shannon and Shirley up in Boyne City.
As I drove up on Friday, I saw this sign

Pretty cool in my opinion.

Shannon and her husband, Chris, took me out to dinner at

We had a wonderful meal and lots of laughter!
On Saturday we headed out to the Castle Farms Fiber Festival First stop was back to Cafe Sante for breakfast. I forget to get photos, but I had Tiramisu waffles and pineapple juice. YUM! Dining overlooking Lake Charlevoix was worth going back for.

After breakfast, we took a short ferry ride

Cool touristy thing to do and we were off to the Castle


Giant Chess set in the back ground



Behind the fountain was the Enchanted Forest
After a day of Shopping (pictures later), we went to Murphy's for a late lunch

That night we spent spinning and knitting while chatting and laughing.
On Sunday, we stayed close to the house in the morning. Shirley came over and gave me a refresher with her sewing machine. She has a dream machine, one I will probably never own, but it gave me confidence to bring my machine out of hiding and sew again.
Here is the bag we made together

Eyeballs!!! It is lined with frogs.
For lunch we headed out to Red Mesa Grill. The food was WONDERFUL! a twist the norm.
I had to laugh at the Chihuahua on the menu- yes, I knew they meant cheese, not the dog.
I tried the Grilled Pineapple Quesadilla
and the Armadillo Eggs
I asked for the recipe for both. Will be sharing on the podcast once I get the amounts correct.
Shannon had the Queso

It smelled so good!
 When we got back to the house, it was sadly time for me to head home.
We hugged and promised to see each other soon.

Thank you Shannon, Shirley, Chris and little man for a wonderful weekend!!!

TdF Day 9

I have to admit, I am behind on my spinning. I am supposed to be at 18 ounces for today and I just finished spinning up my 14th ounce of the grey Shetland.

King Tut likes to watch my spinning.

I have also plied up the first 8oz I spun



I got bored with just spinning grey fiber, so I separated 8oz of Frabjous Fibers #232 Blue Lagoon colorway Polwarth Top

and spun the first two ounces



2 more ounces will go on this bobbin, that is why it is not even.

Happy spinning!

By any other name...

What is in a name?
Do you live in the south where all sodas are called Cokes? Do you live in an area where a vacuum is called a Hoover? Have you ever thought that a name is not just a name? Vaseline is petroleum jelly, Kleenex is a tissue and Coke is a cola. How often do we use a trademarked name as a general name for something?
That is what has been blowing up the social media sites that I go to everyday, for the last two days.
Some background.
I have posted in the past that I am an avid watcher and supported of the Olympic games. This has always been a family event here at Casa Coggie, where we plan the weeks of the Olympics around the games we will be watching. I love to cheer for the athletes and watch the "best of the best" compete with each other to see who will show up on the newest Wheaties box in the end. I have seen the games go from being amateur only to having professional athletes participate. These changes were, in my opinion, not the best for the games, but necessary as the athletes did need to get sponsorship and paid in some way.
As a crafter I used the watching time of the games to do my craft. When the Yarn Harlot put out a call for the Knitting Olympics, I joined in and felt a part of the community in finishing my project during the time allotted. When I joined http://www.ravelry.com/ (an international social networking site for crafters) , I joined up with the Ravelympics and again felt part of a community that not only knitted, crocheted, spun or wove, but also watched and talked about the games as they were held. I remember talking about Michael Phelps as he took his gold medals one year and about Shaun White when he took his 2 years later. The other crafters knew what I felt and we were supporting them in a way we understood. As a part of Ravelry and as a part of the Ravelympics.
Casey has been asked to have the name changed from Ravelympics by the USOC this is a Ravelry link. if you are not a member of Ravelry, you can see the letter here .
I know that the letter was based off a form C&D (cease and desist) letter. However, the writer had to have joined a member only social networking site to gain the information that was given in the letter. Not only that, but the writer also decided to insult a group of crafters. Crafters are not just little old people. Crafters who are online are known for being Internet savvy and intelligent (well, mostly) and we did not take this sitting down, with needles in our hands. The Ravelers decided to do what they could and started talking about it not only on Ravelry, but also on Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and other networking sites. They also went straight to the source and emailed the USOC. This has grown even bigger with NPR, TheScetchydetails, and Hotair (to name a few) site picking up the news of what transpired. The USOC tried to make a PR apology , which to me was more form letter than the original C&D from them. What they didn't get was that it was not the C&D that the crafters were talking about. It was how they implied that sports are more important than the art we make. The crafters are asking for a real apology.
Where to go with this? I love the Olympics. I love crafting. I will continue to watch/do both. However, I do not have to support the USOC in order to do this. I will on the other hand support the athletes that deserve the support. I will watch the opening ceremonies and I will be knitting. I will also challenge myself to finish what I have started by the closing ceremonies, because that is what I enjoy doing. The USOC cannot stop me from enjoying my time as a family.
I am not sure what will happen to the name Ravelympics, but to those of us who have used it for years, it will be called that, I am sure. It is like calling a tissue a Kleenex or a latex bandage a band-aid. They may be trademarked names, but they are also general terms in the American language. For us Ravelry members, that is how Ravelympics is also thought. To paraphrase Shakespeare many years ago, "a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet." Craft on!

Purchases

First I needed something that would hold all the things I wanted to buy.

I also bought a bag for Boo, however she is using it and not here for a photo. I am kicking myself now that I didn't buy one for me. Maybe I will try cutting a pattern out and making myself one. We will see.

I found a copy of Knit. Swirl! For the KAL at Knit-Topia. Even convinced ToadyJoe that she needed to make one (maw ha ha)

She has started hers. I am still waiting.
Reason I am waiting is I bought this skein of yarn

 to go with these braids of fiber

Which I planned to spin up as soon as I got home.
Yeah, Mr. Spot had other plans

That is the drive band to my spinning wheel! Damn cat!

I also purchased some needles

and a hand forged shawl pin

It kind of reminds me of the happy stitch from Lucy's class.

While I was there, ToadyJoe gave me some yarn

as well as two balls of qiviut. Those are already in use and I will get pictures soon.

Here is the finished shawlette I was working on at the event

Boo has claimed it and she is very happy with it. It is a modified TGV- pattern available on Ravelry.

I didn't buy everything I saw that I wanted, because I had the limitation of air travel. Yeah trying to sneak a Navajo spindle onto the plane would not have worked. I also saw a couple supported spindles that were nice, but I will get one, one day.

The visiting continues

Sunday the Fiber Train festival started. Now, I have been to a few festivals, and each one is different, so I try not to compare. This one was on it's first year, so I knew it would be small. There were some vendors



 and a set up for people to sit and either knit or spin

Even though I did some damage to my credit card,  I was there for the classes.
Back story on this. I have never taken a knitting class. I have taught knitting/crochet and now spinning for years. The only class I have ever taken was one on designing. I am trying to expand my knowledge and am eagerly seeking people to learn from. That being said, I start at the top

I have watched almost all of her DVDs. I wasn't sure what she would teach me that wasn't on them, but I was there to learn it of she said it.
Her work is beyond my skills

and yet she makes it sound so easy to accomplish.
I did take a few tidbits from the class which made that part of the trip well worth going.
Having a friend in class didn't hurt either

After class, I got a photo with Lucy for my " I love me wall"

and took one for Amy as well

(I am ordering the pattern for the sweater Lucy is wearing!)

We were tired but decided to go out to eat for dinner. We took the scenic route through two towns to find a place. I discovered on this trip, I am a picky eater. I have never thought of myself as such, but that is because I feed myself at home and know what I like. Hm-mm, things you learn as you get older. I digress. We stopped at a place called Dickie's for the BBQ. We walked in and walked out. Dickie's just wasn't big enough for the two of us. So, we headed to The Curb. A sports bar that we heard had good food. Yes, we made the joke about how hookers go to the corner but knitters go to The Curb. The food was so good! No time to snap pictures, we were hungry. We did meet the owner and were told that we were a loud table, but it was fun and relaxing. We had The Curb Quesadillas and Adult Mac-n-cheese! I also had my first Dirty Squirrel. No, not the one that you look up on the Urban dictionary 'A 2 legged female that scavenges for nut and often displays moral inconsistencies." but a drink, made with rum, pineapple juice and something else.. cannot find a recipe online for it, but it was good.
On Monday, we headed out to another class with Lucy, shopped some and then relaxed.
As we left, we saw a wind up car...
Yes

We had to try

That night, we went to a talk by Brenda Dayne of the Cast On podcast.





We were each asked to bring a small bag made out of yarn that held a memory.
I made this bag

out of the leftover of my Age of Brass and Steam shawlette. The story that went with it, I told on Episode 154 of my podcast, The High Fiber Diet. I also got to talk with Brenda for a few minutes after the event and was able to get a photo.

(I finished the shawl during the talk)
I met some of my listeners as well, so they took a few photos of me.
Tuesday cam very early for ToadyJoe and I. My plane flew out at 530am, so we had to be at the airport by 430am. Yeah- did I say I am not a morning person?
Thank you to Amy and her family for the wonderful trip. I will be back- fiber festival or not!
The purchases... well, I have to have something to talk about... tomorrow!