WannaME: Gearing up for Stitches East.....

Good Morning YOUs,
 What a beautiful, crisp, sunny October Saturday. I say this as I lounge in bed, with absolutely no plans to venture out there. Today will be filled with laundry, knitting, blogging, and prepping for Stitiches East 2010. I think WannaME and TouristyME may be just a tad bit over-excited about Stitches. This will be my first time attending and I can't wait. It will also be the first time in years that I will be traveling all by myself. No MOH. No MiniME. Just ME. Calgon has finally responded to my pleas and will be here in 2 weeks to take me away on a mini-vacation to be filled with yarny, fibery, goodness. Ahhhhhhhh.

 Luckily, Stitches is taking place in Hartford,CT. Have I mentioned that I am FROM CT?!?  And that all of my family is in various parts of CT?!? So yeah I get to go visit my Mommy and Sis, and cousins etc. This also means that I don't have to worry about lodging. Although Mom  & Sis live about 45 mins to an hr away, I have tons of cousins who still live right in HTFD. So if I don't feel like driving I can crash somewhere.
 
So how exactly does one prep for an event like this? Well if you are crazy like ME, that means making lists and lists and lists. Lists of where to go. Lists of what to bring. Lists of what to make. Lists of lists to make. lol. See, crazy right? No,I'm just trying to keep WannaME in check. Cause I know as soon as I get there one of two things is gonna happen. I'm either gonna want to buy like everything I see. Or I am going to get soooo overwhelmed at the amount and variety of stuff and then not know what to buy or not want to buy anything. So I am researching and researching some more.

I've been all over OCS trying to find patterns that I'm really interested in making. Reading forums, looking at O.P.P. (Other People's Projects) seeing what yarns are getting good reviews. I've stalked the Stitches website for months waiting for the vendor list to be posted. Then I'm on the vendor sites, checking out pricing and yardage. Seeing if I can just order from them online.

 Dude, I'm so hyped about this trip. By the time it gets here I am gonna be missioned out. I'm going into that convention center with a plan, man. Armed with a budget and a shopping list. And I will stick to it! WannaME will not lose her frickin mind like she did at MDS&W, where I may or may not have spent double what I brought with me to spend. No sirree Bob. Not this time!  I'm gonna put my plan out there for you all to see. And when I get back I'll compare what I got to what I said I would get. I'm issuing the challenge to WannaME...control yourself. Will she be able to?.......Stay tuned.

CraftyME: Oh Baby I'm a RockStar....

Yeah so I may have Rihanna "Rockstar 101" playing on repeat right now. "To be what you is you gotta be what you are. The only thing I'm missing is a black guitar. I'm a RockStar!"  Why? you may wonder....I'll tell ya...

So like I have said or maybe not (don't know if I really posted about it) But I have been feeling very WoeIsME as of late. Without going into a bunch of whiny specifics WorkME(shh) had a couple of setbacks and the rest of life has been trying to drive me crazy as well.  That's mostly why I've been SlackerME and not posting. Hell I hadn't even really been on OCS believe it or not.

Now after feeling this way for a couple of weeks, CraftyME was like "Yo, so what if other people are being craptacular right now. Show 'em how awesome you are. You have talents you are CRAFTY." So CraftyME picked up hooks and needles and got to crafting. So here's a little sampling of what I've done in the past 2 wks.

First up is one that I can't really go into a whole lot of specifics about yet. Let's just say I'm helping an artist out on a project that involved me making a 6 ft long by 9 inches wide ruffle. Once He gives me the okay I'll post more pics. But for right now just know that yes on a day when temps were 107 degrees, in a house with no air conditioning, I did my part. lol.

Next my WorkME (shh) wonder twin commissioned a Walk of Fame inspired star blanket for a "star is born" baby shower. Not bad for a weeks worth of work.

I'm gonna skip to yesterday's rainy Saturday project. A couple of dishcloths and a scrubbie. Yeah so what I was supposed to be actually washing the dishes....It was more fun to lay on the couch and watch trashy movies & knit.

"I told ya, I told ya" Back to the reason I'm a Rockstar......



I made my first knit garment. My RockStar Coachella!!!

This is another Knitty pattern, Coachella. One that I had sitting in my queue forevah. Just before MDSW I heard an older episode of The Knitmore Girls and Jasmin mentioned she had made it in some kind of ribbon yarn. Well at MDSW I was browsing at the Tess's yarn booth while waiting for the podcastor meet&greet. I saw some pretty ribbon yarn and was like oh I've gotta ask Jasmin if this was the kind she used. Of course I got all fangirly and forgot to ask her. But after the M&G I went back to the booth to buy some sox yarn. So I get to the front of the line finally to check out and the girl working the register has on this beautiful gray top. So I'm admiring it when I had a light bulb moment. ME:" OMG is that the coachella?" Her: "why yes it is" ME: " is that made out of the ribbon yarn?" Her: "yep." I looked at the long ass line behind me and then back at her shirt and back at the line.... Her: " if you want to run and grab it I won't make you stand in the line again." ME: " thank you thank you!" Total impulse splurge. Totally worth it.

Fast forward to July4th weekend. WoeIsME running rampant. CraftyME feeling the crafting urge. I got up on whim and said I need something to make me feel better.  I'm gonna make that Coachella this week for my birthday. This yarn and this project were the perfect antidote. I so F'LUV em both. They flowed together seamlessly.

 And now I feel like such a RockStar because yeah...I'm kinda awesome. Rock on my friends, rock on!

TouristyME: Maryland Sheep & Wool Fesitival 2010

Once again OnlineCrackSpot has ME into something I would have never known about it. Now I'm sure my non crafty friends are thinking the same thing I was...Seriously a sheep and wool festival?!? You're gonna walk around a farm looking at sheep all day? Yeah there will be a couple of vendors selling food and handspun/ handdyed yarns. But, Really?!?

 I waffled back and forth all week on whether I should go, especially with the chance of a rainy week. Then 2 things happened to make me change my mind. First the forecast changed from showers all week to a super sunny 87 degrees. Second, a couple of my fav podcasters (see InterestME: Podcasts for links) were organizing a meet & greet. Now I don't know if you read my last posts (which you should by the way;) ) but I have been listening to podcasts pretty much nonstop lately. So there was really no good reason to miss a chance to let my inner FanGirl miss an opportunity to meet KIPing it Real's Jackie and The Knitmore Girls themselves, Jasmin & Gigi.
 So I lurked the boards on Rav and found that a LYS Rosie's Yarn Cellar was running a bus down to Maryland. TouristyME was gonna venture out on her own on another touristy adventure. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

 This little farm turned out to be a hugemongus amount of acreage. And that couple of vendors...try over 250! Oh the food! Oh the yarn!  Oh the heat! Did I mention the 87 degrees & super sunniness? Poor TouristyME was so busy trying to shuffle water bottles, maps, note-taking, and sweat wiping, that I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked. But I did get to meet Jackie, Jasmin and Gigi.

I even managed to control my Fangirl-ness long enough to give Jasmin my hastily thrown together card, asking her to pleasepleaseplease check out this here little blog. I told her about my entry on them inspiring me to blog and maybe one day trying to podcast. Get this Jasmin said if I do it, to send her a promo and she'd play it on their show. How cool is that?

 Both WannaME and CraftyME were in heaven. There were so many different types and colors of yarn that I didn't really know where to begin. But trust, WannaME found a way to lose her mind and tried to put us in the poor house. I went with vendors whose names I've heard mentioned before, such as Tess' Designer Yarns, Miss Babs and Creatively Dyed Yarn.  Look at all the pretty:

I'm happy to report that I was able to calm WannaME down a bit. I just knew early in the day that I was gonna leave MDSW with a drop spindle & some roving and call myself a new spinner.

Yeah after sitting in on a mass spinning demo.... 

...eh not so much. Maybe next year.
   All in all, it was a wonderful Touristy experience. I met some awesome people, learned some new stuff, and ate some great food. It was just the perfect starter course for the fiber festival world.  Next stop Stitches East 2010, in my hometown of Hartford CT! I'm saving up now.....

SleepyME: MDSW....ahh

Ok this is gonna be short & sweet. A teaser of sorts. I am home, fed, & showered after spending my first day @ Maryland sheep & wool festival. Wow is all I can say at the moment. TouristyME will have a complete rundown tomorrow. Just wanted to pop my SleepyME self over here to say .... Yeah it was a good day.
Good night
    ME

PS: it's not an indication of age, ME going to bed @ 9pm on a Sat nite. Lol