Thought for the Day

Tags: quote, sunflower, friendship

Perfect Day for the Fair

Yesterday was delicious & a perfect day to visit the Humboldt County Fair with my friends Bea & Sarah. Clear & sunny, the perfect conditions for gorging on the sweet in the form of baby bunnies & funnel cake. We were wowed by the aerial daredevilry of Galaxy Girl; we cooed over barn after barn full of big-eyed rabbits, sheep, & goats; we cackled at the entries in the Decorated Potatoes contest (no kidding); we observed a bit of the sheep dog trials & the handspinning competition; we strolled the midway, perused the handcrafts, & sampled the edibles.

We even pulled out our knitting & sat a spell, watching our fellow fair-goers as they wandered by. That's me working on my Sock Summit socks, aka Velmtrelacs (I've turned the heel & am now on the foot - these socks are lookin' HAWT!). Too bad I didn't think to capture either of them KIPing.


And after all that, we were joined by my friend Lush & her visiting-from-Missouri mom Carla for live horse racing! Bea & Sarah left before the rest of us won our big money in the 7th race, each clearing $1.50 with our successful $5 to win on horse #3, 'Awesome Girl', ridden by FEMALE jockey Nikeela Renae Black. Beyond exciting, LOL.


Although I didn't enter anything in the fair, lots of my friends did, successfully I might add. Violet's Jaywalker socks took home a ribbon, as did two of Cheri's baby sweaters. Ace cleaned up with wins in wine, Romney sheep, & spinning, including Best of Category in both Pinot and handspun (the latter that he created using milk protein fiber he purchased from me at Black Sheep Gathering!). But I'm most proud of Janet, who took the technique she picked up spinning with me this spring & created a skein of supercoils that garnered her the 'Over the Top' award in handspinning. Way to go everyone! You've inspired me to enter next year.

All in all, I don't think we could have asked for a better summer afternoon. Good times were had by all!

Tags: fair, Humboldt, summer

Focus Free Friday

Seriously, I've got NOTHING in the way of a theme going here, or any direction whatsoever. Some days are just like that, you know? I would bet dollars to freakin' doughnuts that YOU feel that very same thing some days, right? When it is sunny out, and there's an invitation from friends to enjoy a relaxing afternoon in the yard with adult beverages to hand, it's even more conducive to lack of focus. Which means I'm about to ramble all to hell. So sue me.

This afternoon my friends and I just sat around and planned our hypothetical trip to Burning Man in 2010. This is how I plan trips: ass firmly planted in a lawn chair, tippin' back a cold one (in this case, a 22oz. Lagunitas 2009 Correction Ale my hub brought home for me at lunchtime. Gotta love a man that brings you big-ass bottles o' beer in the middle of a perfectly good Friday!). I'm a real BM proselytizer, I am. Only been once, but that gave me the bug. Pretty sure I planted the bug deeply enough for it to take, & now we have an entire calendar year to plan & save, seeing as how this year's shindig is only a few weeks away.

So my blog stats spiked yesterday, in a serious way. From an average of about 25-30 hits a day I skyrocketed right to 100+ out of the proverbial blue. Wanna know why? Deb Robson of the Independent Stitch, formerly Editor of Shuttle, Spindle, & Dyepot & Interweave Press, stumbled on Wednesday's Sock Summit highlights post and blogged about it. Holy craptastic, Batman, one of the Luminary Panel participants likes my photograph!

Last night I went to Purl 'n Hurl, the weekly Stitch 'n Bitch group I started with a friend several years ago. Took my World's Record Scarflette and finished knitting it; nice, simple seed stitch on big ol' #11 needles, perfect for knitting under the influence. All that is left is binding off & figuring out a clasp. Maybe a shawl pin?

Guess that's about all I had on my plate today, readers. Beer & loafing, that's my day. Ha! I think I'm about sober enough to do the last entrelac repeat on my socks and then start on the heel flap. See you tomorrow?