Sunday, July 30, 2006

Well, this ought to be an interesting post to try to compose.

Today marked the eighteenth anniversary of my marriage to Husband Number One. 

That in itself is an amazing thing.  I've now lived with my husband for as long as I lived with my parents.  Ooh!  That would make me a mere 36 years old, if we ignore the college career and the years of living alone.  Cool!

Anyway.  In the interest of making it to our nineteenth anniversary, I announced that I would pass up the opportunity to visit the Yarn Harlot in Ann Arbor in order to spend the day with my wonderful, devoted spouse. 

Then Pat e-mailed to beg me to throw away my marriage and drive to Ann Arbor with her.  And Terri e-mailed to ask whether there wasn't SOMETHING I could do about getting away, because SHE was going and wanted me to come along.  No, no, I said.  I'm being the good wife this time.  No Harlot for me.

And then yesterday afternoon I got an e-mail from Jane, from way down there in Texas, who I met at Knitting Camp a year ago and then again this year (she knit the clever Sudoku pillow).  Without asking for permission, I'm including her note here:

Hello Sarah,

I read on your blog that you would probably be unable to go to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's lecture in Ann Arbor because of a conflict with your wedding anniversary (after being at Camp for your husband's birthday).  She was in Austin this morning.  The lecture was at a Baptist Church a block or two from the local yarn shop.  Anyhow, I went to the lecture (the church was packed.), and I bought you a small gift, which I'll mail on Monday.  I got you a copy of her latest book, Knitting Rules, and asked her to autograph it for you.  I understood your dilemma and didn't want a 2.75 buddy to miss out entirely.

Happy anniversary!

All the best,

Jane

Can you believe it?  I couldn't believe it.  I STILL can't believe it.  What a wonderful, generous person Jane is.  She barely knows me!  I don't have the words to tell you how overwhelmed I was by her kindness.  I couldn't wait to tell you guys how nice she is and how there's hope for the human race.

And then my brother-in-law called.

"Ask my brother if he wants to golf with me tomorrow," he said. 

"Tomorrow's our anniversary," I answered.  "But I'll ask."

Shall I make a long story short(ish)?

They made plans to play golf.

I made phone calls to Pat and Terri, and off we went to see the Yarn Harlot.  Look!

See the stunned look on my face?  That's because when I handed Stephanie my book to sign she said "You're Sarah Peasley!", which surprised me so much that I couldn't think of what I had wanted to say, so I very intelligently held out my hand and said "Hi, I'm Sarah Peasley!"  (Brilliant, eh?).  Then she said "I didn't think I'd see you here today" and quoted something to me from my blog.  What the hell?  I don't think that woman's human.  She acts all humble and normal and everything, and then she totally messes with your head.  Not human, I tell you. 

So in the photo, where she's looking so innocent after totally blowing me away (and I'm not the only person she did that to, either -- Right Rae?  Right Lynn?), she's holding the e-mail from Jane, which I made her read.  She signed a second, DIFFERENT book for me, since I knew a copy of Knitting Rules would be on its way to me soon (please, Jane?  You'll still send it, right?).  And based on the evidence of the last few photographs I've seen of myself, I'm no longer human either.  I seem to be turning into a beet.  I hope that's just a temporary side effect of the evil sunburn I had a month ago.  It's very disconcerting.

So. 

How was your day?

Sarah

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Wow!  I've been hearing from quite a few fellow Campers.  Keep those e-mails and comments coming!

Apparently I was misinformed about the contest for Session 3 being started and finished within the Camp session.  My original source was a member of Meg's staff, though, so you really can't blame me.  I've been begging everyone I know who will be there this weekend to let me know how it works, and will report back to you if I hear anything.

Kat tells me that the "Holes" vest from Session 2.75's contest is quite possibly from one of the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton books.  I'll have to look for that.

I met Kat and Lynne (from somewhere in New York) and currently blogless Laura (from beautiful west Michigan) at ThreadBear on Monday, where we were soon joined by Laurie, Sharon, and the newly famous Susie (if you don't know why she's newly famous, then you haven't been keeping up with The Harlot).  And Jacqué wandered in, too.  It was a regular blog-o-rama!  I'm gonna have to update my sidebar with my new blogging buddies -- then my page will take even LONGER to load!  (Is anyone else annoyed by this?)

Speaking of the Harlot, she'll be in Ann Arbor this Sunday.  Ann Arbor is about an hour from my house.  Sunday is my (and Husband Number One's) wedding anniversary.  I was in Knitting Camp during Husband Number One's birthday barely two weeks ago.  This is a dilemma. 

I told my husband:  "There may be some people calling me, asking me to go see the Yarn Harlot in Ann Arbor on Sunday."

My husband said, "The Yarn Harlot is going to be in Ann Arbor on Sunday?  I LOVE the Yarn Harlot!"  (Yes, he knows who she is.  He very proudly presents me with her latest book each Christmas, birthday, anniversary, what-have-you, and says "Did you know that the Yarn Harlot wrote another book?"  To which I reply by going to my bookshelf, pulling a copy of the same book out to show him and saying "Why yes, I did!")

I said, "Do you want to go with me to see her?

To which he answered, "No, I don't love the Yarn Harlot THAT much."

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  I should probably stay married home.

Let's have some more Camp pictures, shall we?  

Oh.  I didn't take the finished project photos I meant to when the sun was shining today, so my intended story will have to wait.  I'll show you a side trip I was invited on by Eileen and Cindy instead.

Vicki -- are you there?  Somebody go get Vicki -- she needs to see this.

After class one day (Which day?  It's all a blur), Eileen and Cindy dragged me away from Camp (kicking and screaming, I might add -- what if I missed something?) to visit the Foxfire Botanical Gardens, right there in Marshfield, Wisconsin.  Botanical gardens that I've been to in the past have included lovely, colorful flower beds arranged within beautifully manicured lawns (I originally typed "yarns", meaning "yards", but "lawns" is much more elegant), with maybe a fountain and a few benches.  Wonderful to look at, but they all start to look the same after a while.  Not this one.  This one is GREEN and lush and SO peaceful, surrounding a huge pond (or a small lake).  Look!

There was less than an hour before closing time, and we had the place to ourselves.  Imagine wonderful sounds of nature accompanying us -- birds, water, frogs, the wind rustling, insects buzzing (swat!).

There are unmarked paths to wander down, where you can find waterfalls, ponds, sculptures, oriental gardens, little hideaways with benches . . .

See the blue dragonflies (or whatever)?

See the blurry little frog?  How did he get in there?  And what the hell IS that thing?

And there were hostas EVERYWHERE.  Vicki -- are you listening?  Have you seen these gardens?  How far away are you from Marshfield?  You've GOT to go see this.

There was even a huge hosta nursery with hundreds (if not thousands) of varieties for sale.

There were enormous ones, and normal sized ones, and teeny tiny ones.  I can barely remember any of the goofy names we saw -- Guacamole, Afternoon Delight . . .

Look!  There's Eileen and Cindy!

I would highly recommend these gardens to anyone within a day's drive.  Well worth the trip, and a very rewarding and relaxing break from Camp. 

More soon . . .

Sarah

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Hey!  Did you miss me?  I got back from Knitting Camp last night, and I'm going to tell you about it RIGHT NOW!!  I'll even throw in a teeny bit from last year's Camp, too.  I think you've waited long enough for THAT.

One of this year's Campers was very busy taking photographs all weekend and kindly offered to share them with whoever was interested.  I immediately put my camera away and decided to rely on his photos, which I have received permission to share with you, in order to document this year's Camp.  We will have to be patient and wait for the CD to arrive in the mail, but in the meantime, I did sneak in a few of my own . . .

The "grand finale" of Session 2.75 is the contest.  Each year a theme is chosen for the following year's contest.  I think I heard this year that the Session 3 Campers also hold a contest, but that it begins and ends within the five days of the Camp session.  Session 2.75ers have a whole year to scheme, so the results can be quite spectacular.  The theme for Knitting Camp 2005 (last summer) was "Knitted Masks", and the entries can be seen here:

Some of the titles included; "Nemo", "Sock Cow", "Cyrano de Bear-gerac", "Zorro comes out of the closet", and "Just hand over the yarn and nobody will get hurt" (bottom right).  One mask was an incredible felted raccoon head (raccoons wear masks too, you know).  Another was made of swatches tied together. 

2005 was my first year at Session 2.75 and I didn't know what to expect, so I was hesitant to enter anything into the contest, and besides, I don't think I knew about it until a month or two ahead of time.  What I learned from the experience, however, was that regardless of the amount of effort put into a contest entry (or lack thereof), everyone won a prize.

This year's theme was "At the Movies."  Some Campers spent the year creating their entries, and others were furiously working on them under the tables at Camp.  I had a year to think about it, and came up with nothing.  I figured I was still too much of a newbie to participate.  Sunday morning, however, with just over 24 hours to go before the contest, I woke up with what I thought was a brilliant idea.  I proposed it to my breakfast companions and they said to go for it, so I did, and you'll see the results below.

A lot of the impact of the entries is in the presentation by the participants, which I did not photograph.  Just before the voting, however, I walked around the display and quickly snapped these shots, just to keep the items fresh in my memory.  I think you can get the gist of them here.  The descriptions will follow each photograph.

Here you see the back of a knit jacket representing a suitcase with stickers from all of the places Bob Hope and Bing Crosby "traveled" to in their "On the Road" movies.  This entry was titled "On the Road to Knitting Camp."

The yellow poncho was a last minute project, modeled after one worn by Meg Swansen's sister Lloie when she was a stunt double for Doris Day in the movie "Caprice".  Meg started Knitting Camp on Friday morning by showing us the clip of Lloie dressed in a yellow poncho, yellow stretch pants and big black sunglasses, skiing down a mountain and being chased by men with big guns and very poor marksmanship (whew!).  I had the pleasure of meeting Lloie at her restaurant, the Kitchen Table, where Campers often gather for breakfast and to mingle with the locals.  Upon hearing that Meg had shown us the movie clip, Lloie announced that she now expected Meg to pay her the standard residuals.  What a hoot!

The film reel scarf, cleverly packaged in an old film canister, included clips from the knitter's favorite movies, and was double sided.  The scenes you can see here are "Paddle to the Sea" (top left), "Frida" (bottom left), "The Great Outdoors" (top right), and "An Inconvenient Truth" (bottom right).

The beautiful purple vest was part of a second ensemble entitled "The Color Purple" (you can see part of the first one in the back of this photo), which was thereafter described as having been a double feature (how clever these knitters are!).

Remember those leashes with pet collars that hovered in mid-air and were sold as "invisible pets"?  The leash and collar combo on the left hovered high in the air over our heads, and was entitled "Harvey" (remember the Jimmy Stewart movie with the huge invisible rabbit?).  What a great idea!

The stuffed lion was dressed in mittens, boots, earmuffs and a scarf, and was called "The Lion in Winter".  The knitter said she had to find a serious looking lion because Peter O'Toole was such a serious actor.

Not all of the entries represented movies.  The one on the left above was called "Hooter Heaters", designed to keep your "fronts" warm in a cold movie theater.  Note the popcorn bursting out of the top.  Someone asked whether free refills were included.

The Tootsie Roll represented the movie "Tootsie", of course, although it could also have been from the concession stand!

Here was an extremely clever one.  The title was "Pillow Talk", and the knitter used a Sudoku puzzle to develop the pattern, by assigning colors to the numbers of existing Sudoku puzzles.  The back contained a different puzzle than the front.  Where do these ideas come from?  I may have to use that one myself!

The squid/octopus (whatever!) took us a while to figure out.  The movie was "9 1/2 Weeks", and the entry was called "9 1/2 Steeks".  Holes were cut for the eight arms and the head (8 + 1 = 9), and there was a small opening in the back with a tiny movie poster inside.  Bizarro!

Look at that headless child sitting next to a bag of popcorn!  Isn't that funny?  How will he eat it?  The clothed body represented "The Invisible Man", and included hand knit socks, penny loafers, boxers, cuffed pants, a dickie, and a Russian Prime sweater (one of Meg's designs), and the body itself was hand knit as well.  Wow.

And what would a movie be without the popcorn?  This entry was good enough to eat!

On the left is "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".  See the number one flying in the air?  There was a little toy cuckoo clock sitting in the felted nest.  Clever!

Meg was the first one to figure out the patriotic shawl.  The pattern is Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Pi Shawl", which makes the entry an "American Pi(e)"!

From the knitter who brought you "Zorro comes out of the closet" last year . . . this year we got "Princess Leia lets down her hair at Knitting Camp".  Hilarious!  Lots of paraphernalia hanging off of the ends of this wig, including a business card from Lloie's restaurant and a receipt from one of the vendors who comes every year.  How fun!

On the right is a "Popcorn Pocket", designed to hold popcorn in your lap when that giant refillable tub gets passed around.  Microwave popcorn made a brief appearance, as you can see, but I don't remember any getting passed my way . . .

Thank GOODNESS someone did this:  from the movie "Silence of the Lambs", we got "Silence of the Lamb's Pride Worsted".  Too funny (and a little creepy)!

And "Davy Crockett", of course.  King of the wild frontier, with just a dash of purple!

The Charlotte's Web shawl represented Monet's garden from "Linnea in Monet's Garden".  Sister Number One, if you're reading this . . . this is one of the shawls I was telling you about.

The beautiful purple heart pendant was the "Heart of the Ocean" from the movie "Titanic" (surely you've heard of that one?  It did rather well at the box office).

I've been told that the vest on the left is NOT from Lucy Neatby's "The Emperor's New Vest" pattern, as I originally thought it was, but from another designer.  Anyone know whose pattern it is?  Regardless, the movie is "Holes".  What a good interpretation!

The lace piece was designed using a variation on a Barbara Walker castle pattern and is representing the movie "The Princess Bride".  Additional lace inserts used were stumbled upon in the same stitch treasury and were called, amazingly enough, "Buttercup", which is the name of the heroine of that movie.  How serendipitous!

On the left is the "first" Color Purple entry, which included many more purple articles of clothing and was amended at the last minute to include a pair of purple Crocs from the audience.

The low-cut camisole, which you can see the top half of in a later photo, was designed using a gorgeous textured stitch pattern and was entitled "Dangerous Liaisons".  A strip tease was involved.  A wardrobe malfunction was narrowly avoided.  The male knitters politely averted their eyes.  Or not. 

Put a beautiful knitted scarf around your curly black hair, add a pair of sunglasses, and what do you have?  "Sophia Loren incognito"! 

Look at that darling pair of "Popcorn Socks".  Too cute!  I want a pair!  Again, refills were optional.

I was thinking that these would be Dorothy's sparkly red shoes from "The Wizard of Oz", but I was wrong.  The movie was "The Red Shoes", with Moira Shearer.

On the right is the very clever "An Inconvenient Scarf" (from the movie "An Inconvenient Truth"), knit in very firm garter stitch with important beaded messages.

On the left, finally, is my entry, which was more performance art than a three dimensional object.  I read aloud from August's chapter from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac and started to cast on some stitches.  I had used my January through May Almanac-along projects as my show and tell the previous day, so my contest entry actually followed logically from that.  The movie, which was guessed quickly, thank goodness, was "A Star is Born" (August's chapter is Christmas decor). 

A good time was had by all.  I did, in fact, win a fabulous prize, which was the DVD version of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Glossary.  What a perfect ending to a perfect Camp.  I can't wait until next year!  No, really.  I can't wait until next year. 

I'll fill you in on some more Camp memories as more photos dribble in, but that should give you enough to keep you quiet in the meantime, right?  Say yes.

More soon . . .

Sarah

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Horrible photography, but finished items nonetheless (much better looking in real life!  Really!).

Another baby sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac, because I had just enough turquoise Kona superwash left in the stash to make one:

Ack.  Sorry for the icky color.  I'll try to take a better photo in natural light to replace this one with.

A fascinating stockinette stitch v-neck top made from Maggi Knits Maggi's Linen (and my own pattern):

I finished that one in the Bahamas, but didn't wear it there.  I did, however, wear the Chainmail Shell and the red Tank Top from One Skein.  And my bathing suit.  Which I didn't knit.

This one . . .

. . . is the Screamin' Orange Safari Shell, using my own pattern (again) and Safari II cotton yarn hand-dyed by a friend of Nancy McRay's daughter.  Or someone.  I wore this top the day before we left Michigan for the Bahamas, to Son Number Two's double header baseball game, without sunscreen because it was already packed, and by the end of the second game my face and neck were brighter than this sweater.  I glowed radioactively with what I called my "base burn" for the next four days, after which my face chipped off and I was back to a normal color, but still sore.  I'm still peeling bits of skin out of my eyebrows.

Here I am just before "the peel":

Don't I look lovely?  My face was stiff and sore and I had either just thrown up over the side of our fishing boat or I was just about to.  It's all kind of a blur.

Oh!  And I knit this for my sister-in-law to thank her for planning our trip (Husband Number One, his sister, his brother, and the spouses were the lucky travelers):

It's the Trio Bag, using Trio yarn from Crystal Palace, and a free pattern found here.

So now I'm packed and ready to leave for Knitting Camp.  Jackie is picking me up at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and we're taking the scenic route.  I've got lots of knitting packed, and I promise a full report when I get back.  Not like last year, which I never did tell you about, although it's still on my list of things to do.  Maybe I can cross it off now?  Or you can have a two-for-one when I return.

Sarah

Friday, July 7, 2006

Back from the Bahamas.  I'll have photos of some finished projects for you soon, but in the meantime you can look at these:

Next week:  Knitting Camp!

Sarah

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