Where to start?

[treeskin]

Thursday was a very long day--got up at 5am, went to work, changed into show clothes at work, drove to the Pearl, worked there until 9pm, helped chase stray customers out, stayed for the staff dinner until about 12:30am, got home about 1:15am, and to bed around 2.

Predictably, we slept late Friday morning, until 9 am!
(Well, it was late for us, anyway.)

Thursday night was a bit thin; I heard that there were other events competing with Robyn's show, and also that there may have been some problem with the mailing list. I was up serving wine all evening, so I didn't get to see how many of the attendees were buying. Saw a bunch making shopping lists when their wives/SO's weren't looking, though.

I got to spent Friday afternoon stringing pearls for the models, which was very fun. We've talked about getting the tools to string and knot pearls properly, and maybe, if I was good at it, having me do Robyn's stringing, rather than having to send it out. Robyn seems to like the idea, and Lady knows, I like playing with pearls.

Friday's crowd was better, not jam-packed like last year, but good. No wine Friday night, so I heard some bitching (mostly from the bimbo "curating" the nasty Christmas Tree display downstairs, and she doesn't count). But the folks who come for the wine don't usually buy, no big loss there.

The models were particulary good this year. Only one repeat from last year--draco_kc as Satan (gee, big surprise there). We didn't seem to have the problem with the female models getting harassed by drunk patrons this year, so maybe the no wine helped.

Had several patrons compliment my outfit, which was an ego boost. The bodice was fun, once I got used to it (note to self: thou shalt not try to drive for 30 minutes--and eat Taco Bell at the same time--after lacing a bodice up tight). I'll need to find some better heels, if I'm going to end up standing on concrete all evening at the shows--my knees and hips ached when I got out of bed Friday morning, and Friday night was no fun at all.

byronsart and draco_kc and I got cornered by Robyn's advertising guy during the staff dinner Thursday night. Robyn says he does that every year--gets tipsy and starts asking questions, trying to freak people out, I guess. Picked the wrong set for it this year. He tried to kiss me and was hitting on me pretty hard, the one time By was gone after draco_kc left. I'm sorry, no, I've seen your wife sir, she's not here, and you don't behave like this when she's around, so I'm betting this behavior isn't condoned. And I don't do drunks.



We ended up staying and chatting with Robyn after everyone left Friday night. It was close to 2am when we left the building, but we don't get much time to just sit and chat with her, and it's always fun.

Since she didn't need either of us Sat, we had the luxury of sleeping as long as we wanted, And we did--we got up just a little before noon yesterday. Much better.

Spent Saturday being self-indulgent. Went to Lawrence and walked Mass Street, which did wonders for my knees. Got some books at Dusty Bookshelf, American Gods, some other fiction, a couple of craft books, and a charmingly illustrated kids book whose title I can't remember right now. classics_cat, remind me to show it to you next time you're here, I think you'll like it.

Got out of Yarn Barn under $20, which is unusual. Just got a #0 Inox (coated metal, very light and smooth) circular needle, and a back issue of Cast On that had lots of glove patterns.

Also stopped at a new (to us) shop, across the street and about halfway between Dusty and Yarn Barn. Prairie Pond Studio/Wild Things. The first part of the store was artisan-made clothing and stuff, a little pricey, but nice, especially the silk things. The back half was tropic zone imports--African and Central American carvings, animal bits, and curiosities. We got By some small surgical clamps that looked like they'd be good for some of his finer braid-work.

Picked up some movies at Blockbuster, got dinner at Jade, and stopped at Hastings so By could look for a CD (Transiberian Orchestra, he wanted the Christmas Canon that gets so much radio play this time of year).



Yes, I did get a little knitting done during all this, just a little. As a "take along" project, I gave in to temptation, got out a cone of lace weight wool singles and started the birds eye shawl pattern. Had some trouble with it, because it's only a 4-row repeat, and every row is patterned, which is tricker to remember. I've got a triangle about 6" deep so far, more holes than knitting, but it ought to be very cool when finished and blocked.

Spent some quality time with the Faroese shawl last night. Got 100 rows done on it now, that's past halfway. The rows are 200 sts shorter than at the beginning, so they're noticeably faster, and that's giving me more momentum to finish it. Now that there's enough of it to drape, it's a lovely fluid fabric, and warmer than you'd think, from as open as it is.

The #0 circular is for the fine cotton doily/shawl/whatever thing. I don't know what it's going to be when it grows up, besides fun to knit. I've not worked on it since early in the week, because it takes more concentration just to hold on to, never mind the complexity of the pattern.

And I had an idea yesterday I'm saving until I finish something. I was putting on my knotworked goddess pendant, and looked at it, and something in my head clicked, and said "you could knit this". Hmmmm. A knotworked cable goddess, maybe running up the back of a pair of thick clog socks, or up the arms of a sweater....maybe I should try to design a moon and stars cable to go with it.


Today's agenda involves more rest, tea, and some quality time with the documentaries on the extended edition of the Two Towers (part of last night's shopping).