I think I’m pretty much finished with these…

Not sure what I’ll do about the medusa head fringe. I blathered on about details over at Ravelry (here, for you Ravelers). I plan to get the local shoe repair guy to sew on some leather bottoms (like slippers), just to help with wear and slipperiness.

This (another Ravelry link) has taught me that I can’t always multitask while knitting.

I’m going to Rhinebeck!

With Lucia (and Miss B)!

Since we’re late to the party, we’ll be at the Econo Lodge, which I hear is well within walking distance to Party Central. I was thinking this morning, as I lazed around in bed (until 7), that I should stop at the liquor store on 95 before I leave New Hampshire to pick up some wine.

It is rainy. And gray. And dreary. A perfect day to update my stash spreadsheets… so I know exactly how much I don’t need to buy any yarn in New York!

fair critters

What knitter doesn’t love a good sheep?

(I think the metal sheep’s name was Bob, he’s a creation from Andy, the Scottish Lion blacksmith)

baby critters!

unpleasant critters

Or be careful what you wish for… Monday morning I was thinking, I’ll have a leisurely start to the morning and go into work maybe around 8 (versus 7), maybe do some laundry (because I’d worked the previous 9.5 days, and 12 hours each of the previous 3)…

Then… Mom, my head is itchy…

A serious inspection under the bright solar flare of the bathroom heat light revealed one odd hair shaft. Which under microscopic inspection proved to be a nit. Which resulted in this,

I cut off maybe 3 inches, then clipped (using the dog clippers, shhhh) to 1/4 inch… but he still was unhappy with me dragging the louse comb through it… so, clipped to as short as the clippers would go. He thinks it feels kind of interesting, and so do I.

It also meant staying home to do a whole lot of cleaning, and a trip to the laundromat, because we only have cold water at our washer… and given that I did four triple loads, who would want to do that much one load at a time at home?? And purchasing new pillows.

fiber

Knitting? I got a few more inches up dh’s cobblestone pullover while staffing the booth at the fair

Maybe two more inches to go… he’s tall…

fair weaving

I think maybe one of these got made each day. Embiggen to see things written on the birch bark. A public piece…

And a few things followed me home…

Oddly dyed sale coopworth from French Hill Farm, and Windspun from Hope Spinnery. The colors are a bit off on both… the coopworth is a very bricky color, the other is closer to what it is.

Weirdness

The turnip looks like that mythical creature whose name I can’t remember (gnothu is the closest I can get). Some crazy knit site had it, but now they’ve got a book out and have ditched the online patterns. And I can’t remember what that’s called either. Help? The other is actually a pumpkin! A Galeux d’eysines (leave it to the French…).

weirdness at work

You know how I work in a building that was once part of a mental institution? I swear I heard somebody walking around on the third of our building last week… this floor is an unfinished shell… it was after 5, nobody was up there (that I could see). Maybe I was listening to too many stories from the cleaning lady. The cleaning crew and boiler folks spend a lot of time in the tunnels and see all sorts of odd things.

Look what came out of the printer…

Not only is the place haunted… the machines are trying to create life?

Look who I finally met!

Mel! (If you think the photo looks suspiciously like the one in his post, it’s because his mom took the photos, one right after the other).

Since he tattled, I guess I should confess. Among other things, this fair is caffeine-free. On Friday I went out one gate looking for coffee… but it wasn’t ready (and besides it was Maxwell House), so then I had to go all the way out the other gate and beyond to find the coffee man. He has fabulous coffee, but it took nearly an hour to get out there and back. So… Since I had electricity at the booth (for a computer slide show), I brought my electric kettle and my single cup melita cone for the other two days. And my Maine Roasted Coffee. Shhh…

There were a lot of people at the fair on Saturday,

This fair makes for some great people watching. Old hippies, young hippies, “regular” folk, farmers of all sorts…

This crew has come to the fair for at least the last few years… they run a solar juice stand. And always have this bus. With spacy hip music. This year they were hula-hooping to the music (I’m sure it has some new name, the hoops are bigger-you probably have to embiggen to see the two young women near the bus with their hoops).

What I wanna know… how do white people get dreadlocks? I saw a lot of dreads at the fair, and mostly on white folk.

Finally met Mr. Johnson (aka Andrew, aka husband to Sarah, a former intern). This guy was approached last year by a casting director for the Twilight movie to play stand-in for one of the lead vampires. They hadn’t heard of the books when they were approached, and they were travelling, so he didn’t pursue it.

She says she’s not so sure how she should feel being married to a guy that looks like a vampire! Hmmm… just noticed something… What’s that in your mug there Mrs. Johnson???

Saw another blogger wandering around, and met her baby boy (actually it’s her husband who mostly posts)

Dave (?) from the Wednesday Spinners, who nearly every time I saw him was wearing this hat and making little people laugh.

At the end of the day on Sunday, after I’d packed up but before I could bring the truck onto the grounds, I wandered around and checked in on Robbi and Bill. They, and the other vendors I talked with, did really well at the fair. Rather reassuring given the economic climate and the week’s news.

As I walked back to my area, I heard a solitary drummer chanting. Since he sounded so mysterious, I thought the photo through the tent wall was kind of interesting (and that he was doing a Native American chant but was dressed rather like a redcoat),

I wondered if it was some sort of close of the day thing. Saw him later… he may have had on the red coat, but he had leather mocassins and a big bone hanging from his ear.

More to come… fair critters… fair fiber….

I’ll be at the Common Ground Fair for the next three days… so if you go, come say hello!

Sneak peak on the kitchen table… It’s at the fair now, but it is so wickedly windy that the display kept blowing down. Not sure how we kept it up in the past. Be sure to come see Barbie’s plight. … Will she catch a fish through all those weeds? Will she notice Ken? Will Ken save her from the alligator?

And for this, I stopped to collect some invasive aquatic thing on our way to the fair (had an intern helping out!). Nearly lost the special rake in the process. It’s a garden rake attached to one of those telescoping pool tool handles. I telescoped it out, didn’t lock anything, and tossed the end out. And the end went into the water and was no longer attached to the part in my hand. Luckily I was able to put my end into the end sticking out of the water and haul it in. Usually this thing hangs on my beams and is what I hang clothes on to dry… I have pictures of it someplace, but just spent 10 minutes looking and didn’t find one!

Um, I just re-read that and it’s so badly written I have to leave it… This end, that end, my end, and hangs on my beams??

It is rather odd to be at the fair, and see relatively few people and relatively lots of cars…

Food vendors getting ready…. saw this in several places,

pallets of potatoes

Lots of folks were building things,

(this is one of the wagons that’ll haul you from the far parking lot to the Pine Gate… incredible coffee out at the parking lot there, sadly no caffeine on the fairgrounds)

And a bunch of the critters are already there!

Patient oxen, and are those the cutest donkeys, or what?

Maybe it’s because she’s a chaplain? But who knew a chaplain could be so much fun?

Had a great time over at Ellen’s yesterday.

Kate Braestrup was great company, and I enjoyed the interesting, funny, serious things she to say, but mostly I enjoyed meeting her. I have not read her book, but I have heard wonderful things about it, and she did a reading… which made me want to read it!

Loki also enjoyed Kate’s company!

(I think they were talking about Kilim style mittens)

Gotta love the woman’s color sense!

She doesn’t knit using patterns!

This one thought I had something special for her in my bag… I think there were biscuits in there a week or two ago… but that little border collie pup got those!

There’s a few more pictures from the day here.

If you haven’t been over to Ellen’s in a while, go! She opened up the store and has more room, more patterns and books, and loads more yarn. And lots of scrumptious yummy yarn. And lots of good solid basic yarn. And did I say beautiful yarn? I brought a couple items home… but sssshhhh! Maybe I’ll put up some pictures on ravelry, at least until after xmas.