Reunion Weekend Part 1, MA

Fortunately I remembered my camera for this trip. Unfortunately I didn't really take any pictures. So figured I'd get started on recording the trip, but wait for some pics from Joanne and others to supplement the last part.

Wednesday I was good and still went into work for a half day, trying to wrap things up as best as possible. Said a final good-bye to Kevin, my boss, whose last week it was and ran home and did a warp speed packing and cleaning and headed to Cece's. We took her "cecebug" and headed to Northampton to see the Yarn Harlot talk at the Calvin Theater. I was bummed I didn't have a knitting project with me (that would soon change) so was pleasently suprised when we entered the theater to be handed a bag of goodies that mainly included a ball of yarn, needles and the mission to knit a 7" square to be part of an afghan for homeless people. It was somewhat surreal to enter into a huge theater full of people and hear the low hum of metal kneedles at work. Part of the schtick that the Yarn Harlot does is take a picture of the audience which you can see via the link above. But stole the picture that had me in it. You see the two flashes? Look at the one on the left near the aisle, the head just to the right of the flash (look closely), that's me!! (I think)

Anyways, Stephanie (aka YarnHarlot) is hilarous. I read her blog regularly and have read a book or two of hers. But to hear her read her stuff is just wonderful. She has a much deeper voice than I imagined, and wonderful delivery and stage presence - like a regular stand-up comedian, Canadian style. Which you would never guess from her blog as she is always so nervous about making an "arse" of herself. We saved a seat for Kate who is in the knitting world and Cece knows. After the event, we went out for dinner with several of Cece's buds from the knitting world which also included Marcie, who makes spinning seem so natural (and is also mentioned on the Yarnharlot's blog). We walked over to the infamous Webbs where the Yarnharlot was still signing books (hours after the event) with a line way back into the warehouse. And guess what, as we were leaving, Cece poked her head in at the front of the line and said goodbye to this famous person and Stephanie totally knew her! Knew her name and everything.

Well, after all that excitement, we headed to Bernie's, cece's father-in-laws. He has this wonderful house just north of Northampton (I think). I'm a bit confused where everything was because we had borrowed his GPS system and I could see how lazy you could be, just letting it direct you to where you needed to go. It was really neat and am thinking it would be perfect for the New England area (where one tends to get lost a bit more than usual).

Thursday I got to drive the bug - it had turbo which is fun - and I barely stalled it which is a frequent occurance apparently. We ended up spending the day in Northampton. After cece's yoga (it's one of those really, really hot kinds - the one that is like 110 degrees - crazy), we grabbed lunch - both had the same thing (realized we eat fairly similarly, more on that later) and than headed to Webs. The night before we had just popped in which doesn't give the store justice. Although I did find the ball of yarn I needed to finish the latest sweater I was working on. They only had 2 balls left, so I was lucky. We basically spent about 3 or 4 hours at the store. I did a very thorough search through all the yarn (they had tons of sales in addition to the warehouse prices). And in the end got some gorgous burnt orange wool/silk blend yarn to make this Assymetrical Cardigan. Cece thought I should do swatches first to get the right gauge. I sat and knit and knit and knit until I got the right size - checked and double checked. I was almost tempted to buy yarn for another sweater but decided to hold off. I splurged and treated myself to some beautiful yarn for this gorgeous scarf (which I can't get the pattern to work, but that's for later), and some sock yarn. And left satisified, with a project to work on, and not that dreaded feeling that maybe I spent a bit too much on wooly yarn.

I knit and knit and the sweater began to emerge. Beautiful yarn to work with and by the time we reached Lee, MA the next day, I was past the armholes, only to discover, while waiting for our wonderful sandwiches at the organic co-op that cece knew of (didn't I tell you she was a woman after my own heart when it comes to food when traveling - no fast-food junk), that the sweater was way too large - the swatch lied! It blatently misrepresented. I even checked gauge part way up and was still good. I don't know if it was because I was travelling and entered into another gauge zone, or the yarn drapes differently and doesn't hold gauge, but it wasn't right. So here is the sad picture cece took of me right before I ripped. The sad part was that I couldn't start right back up again since I no longer had the right size needles. I've started it again yesterday and am about half way, but need to measure again (I don't want to do it - I'm scared).

Anyways, last thing was in Lee, we went to the outlet mall and Cec found a pair of sunglasses, bras and capris that she was looking for. And me, I actually found some pants that I was looking for - plus some other pants and some more. In the end I walked away with 6 pairs of pants/capris/shorts which is perfect for summer and the trip since the weather report lied and instead of being cool and overcast, it was hot and sunny. And that's all for MASS. Next post - NY.