beebonnet report

Birthday Germs

My birthday this year was on Sunday, one day after WWKIP day.  Pretty awesome timing I thought!

Look at these beautiful peonies that Mr. Bonnet gave me for my birthday.  We can't grow peonies where I live, so it makes them even more precious to me.  Peonies have mythical powers of expansion, just when you think they can't get any bigger, they expand exponentially!

Something else I got for my birthday was a big fat cold!  Fun, fun, fun.  I had to cancel my last minute birthday/WWKIP festivities in favor of getting horizontal and checking my eyelids for holes.  It hasn't been so bad though, certainly nothing like earlier this year.  I would have gotten better much quicker except I've been pulling all-nighters in this lovely venue.

This is the x-ray crystallography facility.  We are about to go on a trip to the synchrotron to shoot our crystals with high power beams, so this facility has been getting a lot of action lately.  I noticed that no one likes working in here at night, so I've been working until 2-3am each night looking at crystals.

I like working in here, it's always air conditioned and usually you work alone.  I get some of my best daydreaming done in those 5 minutes between one crystal and the next.

The crystals are shipping off today, though, so I won't have to spend every night here anymore.

Stephanie, check out these giant cans full of liquid nitrogen - even more fun than dry ice!

Today I'm staying home in a sea of phlegm and tissues and grading student reports.  I love the end of the school year when the students leave and the campus suddenly becomes calm and serene, birdies are singing and jasmine is in bloom.  But I don't love grading!  In fact, I hate it.  It's a combination of wanting to be severe  and wanting to be generous, so it sets up a feeling of conflict and irritation in me.  Plus, it's so dang time consuming.  I could be knitting or spinning or daydreaming!

UPDATE on The Eclectic Sole - it's finally listed IN STOCK on Amazon.  Yay!  So if you've been waiting to see it in stock, now's the time to get it.  I have a feeling it will soon be out of stock again although more copies are on the way and should be there this week.

OK, enough fun, it's time for me to get out the red pen again.  sigh....

My Cockles are Glowing

Wow, so much wonderful response to the book has the cockles of my heart positively glowing.  Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to tell me how much they like the book.  The surprise hit sock appears to be Monterey, and I will be posting an addendum to that pattern a little later today.  The way the pattern is written, it makes a slim calf sock, Marie has asked me how to make it for a curvier calf, so I will post the curvy calf instructions on the Rustling Leaf Press website for those of you who have a shapelier leg.

For those of you who are waiting for the book to come in at Amazon, I saw the first tricklings of inventory today in my inventory reports, plus, I just shipped more books via priority.  So hang tight, books are on their way!

In the meantime, here is the rest of my report from TNNA

One of the groovy things about TNNA is getting see and touch and maybe come home with new yarn. 

I talked to several vendors about yarn for my next book, a book for which I must have laceweight yarn.

I got a beautiful buffalo/bamboo blend from Buffalo Gold and a nice kid mohair/flax blend from Louet.  Louet also has a buffalo/bamboo blend which is gorgeous - but alas no samples of that one.

From Claudia's Handpaints I came away with a few skeins of beautifully dyed linen.  It's not easy to dye linen, I know, and I am in awe of how nice a job she does with it. 

I am also researching sock yarns for my next sock book.  Yep, there's another sock book in this noggin of mine.  So I was eagerly browsing all the sock yarns I saw.  The big white ball here is Trekking Pro Natura a really nice blend of wool and bamboo, but it's not the rayon-like bamboo, it's the linen-like bamboo.  Some bamboo is made from bamboo pulp which is then extruded into a fiber in a process similar to making rayon, this bamboo is made from the natural bamboo fibers in a process similar to retting flax.  That makes it extremely strong and durable, yet also soft after washing.  I can't wait to start swatching with that one!

Another great thing about TNNA is all the schmoozing and meetups that happen outside of the show - many of them quite impromptu.

One magical and surreal evening (you can read more about it here) we all heard the mythical conch shell calling us to gather in the Hyatt bar.

Abby Franquemont dazzled us with some flashy Peruvian spindle plying tricks.  Abby is moving so fast she's a blur...

Here Abby gets someone else in on the action.  Look at that big grin on Abby's face.  She just loves it when she converts people to the dark side spindle spinning.

Watch out Franklin!  Abby's magic is working on you too!

Stephanie Pearl McPhee worked her own very powerful mojo.  I think the name of the deity was Draiaice.  See the yarnitiates crowded around adding to the fame of the deity by using their fotoblogkamara skills?

ooh, Stephanie, you are one powerful Draiaice queen, look at that mysterious mojo!

TNNA - schmoozing with the big kids

I hit Columbus last night after a nightmarish plane ride which involved delays, police and medical personnel!  And not all at the same time.  Apparently one of the passengers who got on in Las Vegas took it upon himself to fondle his neighbor, because apparently he wasn't done with his Vegas experience.  Luckily, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas and after the pilot came over the intercom announcing weather delays, we taxi'd back to the gate where uniformed officers made sure he stayed in Vegas.

Then halfway through the flight there was a medical emergency that involved calling over the intercom for a doctor, oxygen, special air-ground communication with hospitals and all flight attendants huddled in the middle of the plane looking at one of the passengers. I don't know much more than that because it's painful to crane your neck so much staring at misfortune, and well, it's not nice.  Luckily the guy stayed conscious and seemed to be fairly stable and we didn't have to make any emergency landing.

We did see some amazing lightning though!  Apparently there was a GIGANTIC storm yesterday that was 600 miles long and very high and we saw lightning flashes about every 10 seconds for a while.  The pilot was awestruck, me not so much I was more like nervestruck.  Lightning kind of scares me.

Finally I arrived in Columbus at 3am and shuffled off to bed...

Today I awoke to my first day of TNNA - and began schmoozing in earnest.  I got to sit at the big kids' table today at lunch.

Here across from me is the internet trifecta - Stephanie Pearl McPhee, Franklin Habit and Amy Singer

Although they look somewhat forlorn here (perhaps it was the tardiness of the waitress) That is one amusing bunch of knitters.  But wait!  There's more! 

I also saw Anne Hanson and Spritely Stephanie - Anne is blogging me here

Abby Franquemont blogs Mary Heather, Jess and Casey of Ravelry

And Stephanie Pearl McPhee blogs Franklin

Where would bloggers be without cameras?

My pal Cookie and I ended the evening visiting with old visionary friends Chris de Longpre from Knitting at Knoon (Check out these!), Leslie Cummings and Myrna Stahman.  I feel like I've been here a week already!

Update on the book shipping:  I know the book is taking a while to get to some folks.  Unfortunately I can't control the US post office (Oh, if only I could!) - so I'm sorry if you're waiting, but just think you'll have more time to organize your stash and find all the really good sock yarns before it arrives!

Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered the book, and especially those who wrote to tell me how much you liked it.  We almost had another plane delay on my way here because my head was too big to fit through the cabin door on the plane!  Luckily I know how to deflate it!

I've been tagged...

My pal Beth tagged me for a meme, but I was too busy mailing out book packages to notice until today.  So I figured since I'm late replying, I better pull up a chair and get down to work!

“The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.”

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

 Well, let's see.  10 years ago I was studying biochemistry... hmmm.....  I'm still studying biochemistry.  Sigh.  Actually 9 years ago was really interesting, 9 years ago I was dancing with the love of my life at my wedding.  We got married outdoors on a perfect September day...  The sun was shining, relatives were beaming and my true love and I had the perfect day.  2 years later, our anniversary turned out to be a day of unbelievable grief.  We got married on September 11, 1999 joking about how our wedding date would be 9-11-1999.  Little did we know just how memorable that date would be.  At first I was devastated that our anniversary was forever ruined by the incredible events of 9-11, but now I take hope in knowing that a day, any day, every day, can contain happiness as well as sadness.

Here my beloved and I are exchanging vows.  I am wearing my first knitted design, a shawl made of beautiful pale pink vintage fingering weight yarn.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

My lifestyle has a bit of an identity crisis...  Today I needed to have office hours for the biochemistry students, shoot some x-ray beams through some crystals, send out review copies of my sock book, find out why my car insurance thinks I'm driving 50,000 miles a year and is charging me so much money,  and pack for TNNA! 

Oh yeah, and answer a meme!

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate Milk  (Beth wrote this one and I left it because I love Chocolate Milk too!!!)
Raw carrots - I used to LOVE the little ones that are already peeled etc. until one time I got food poisoning of some kind from them and that wasn't too pleasant.  Now I only eat big ones that I peel myself.
Yogurt - my new fave is yoplait strawberry or peach
Tapioca pudding - home made, not that yucky restaurant kind, but the kind that isn't too sweet and tastes like milky goodness.  I also like boba drinks which I'm lumping under the tapioca category.
Roast beef....mmmmmmm
trail mix, only the kind without dates in it. 

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Buy a house - not a big fancy mansion one, but a nice cozy house, hopefully in a beautiful setting near a lake or woods or something.  And my house would have a dishwasher, a working heater and air conditioning.

Buy my pal Kimley a beautiful apartment in NY, so she doesn't have to worry about the fact that her landlord is selling her apartment

get my dogs groomed more often

Tell my boss at work that I don't need a salary and now I'm only going to come in half time so I would have more time to design stuff and write books and spin more stuff.

Import a beautiful pair of Gotland sheep (ram and ewe of course) and leave them at my friend Elissa's farm in Eugene for her to breed.

Adopt a child (maybe - I'd have to discuss this one at length with my husband).

5. Places I have lived:

This is Bygholm Park in Horsens - I didn't live here, but I used to bike past it on my way to school.  They used to have a beautiful lawn which would erupt in a glorious carpet of crocus each spring just when you thought the gloom of winter was never going to end.

Los Angeles, CA
Horsens, Denmark
New Orleans, LA
Los Angeles, CA

6. Peeps I want to know more about:

1. Jerry
2. Sheila
3. Robin
4. Mrs. G
5. Amy
6. Ellen

There were others but either I didn't think they would do it, or they've already done it!  If you would do it, then include yourself here and grab a tag from me!

P.S.  I was very saddened to read about the Malabrigo yarn company's disaster.  I wish them all the best in getting back to speed.