Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Wow! I just started to type "Happy Cinco de Mayo!" and blogger filled it in for me. So, I've had this blog for a whole year, now!

I feel like I should have some kind of contest or something, but I can't think of what at the moment.

Oh well, happy Cinco de Mayo anyway!

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To continue information about the Sheep and Wool Festival: brace yourself for the fun part!

Yesterday was just about stuff. Today is about the people and the fun.

Lynn got down here on Friday around six, and we went out for dinner, did a couple of errands, and came back to watch Ghost Whisperer, Dollhouse, and Moonlight.

We got out the door just a little after ten the following morning, and headed North to the fairgrounds. The weather report called for rain all weekend, and we got some showers on the way up and just a bit more than a shower at one point. We phoned the rest of the party, and they were already there, and Holly walked down to the entrance to meet us. Then we tracked down Everett, Jeff, and Ashton. After that, some really heavy shopping ensued. I tried to stay with the group, but, as usual, got way too distracted by all the great stuff for sale.

I made it through one of the barns that lead toward the back, one of the barns all the way in the back, and the big barn before I got to the point that I really needed to sit down and find some food.

Everybody got together back in front of the big barn, where all the food is.

We sat and nibbled on various stuff and had some great conversation. 

I suspect that Ashton completely misunderstood me at one point, though. He was standing there with an ice cream cone in his hand, and ice cream smeared all over his face. I asked him if he was totally bored yet, and he shook his head yes (mouth was full of ice cream) in an energetic way with a big smile on his face.

Not only did we have fun talking, but we wound up including a batch of other festival-goers in the conversation. I got compliments on the poncho I was wearing, and I pulled out my current knitting project, and a woman on the bench next to me said how much she loved the color. I held my project up to the project she was knitting, making it obvious that they were exactly the same color and shade, and said something like "Gee, really? I never would have expected that." Everybody giggled.

We stopped another woman who was passing to compliment her on her string bag and ask her about the pattern. If you're on Ravelry, you can see the bag here. From that link, you can also find the instructions through Ravelry. Since then, I've bought the instructions and am making an Earth Day bag. I hate to say this, but I'm finding a lot of improvements that could be made in the pattern. The construction is absolutely ingenious, but I don't like the eight-row stitch pattern that it uses. I feel it's needlessly complicated, even though the center of each right side row is either (YO, K2 tog), or (K2 tog, YO), and the WS rows are all purl across. The beginning and end of each RS row is different, and the stitch pattern biases. Once the borders and handles are on, the bias won't matter, but I think there must be an easier-to-memorize stitch that would look even better. I will be searching for it. I may have already found it, but I want to finish the first bag before I start changing it around.

Back to the festival. We did some more walking through the barns that go from the front to the back of the grounds, and managed to get separated again. For the second time since I've gone to the festival, I went to look at the poster, skein and garment, etc, competitions. All I can say is WOW! I plan to spend most of the next post telling you about one of the winning projects. It's totally amazing!

While I was going through all the winning entries, I got a call from everyone else saying they wanted to leave and that I should go to the front gate. I persuaded them all to come back and look at this one project, and then they finally dragged me off to dinner.

We stopped at the Double TT Diner on Route 40, and all had a fabulous dinner, and lots of good conversation.

There was some more rain on the way home, but not a drop fell while we were actually at the festival (unless a couple of drops fell while I was in the big barn). We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was overcast, sure, but the temperature was pretty close to perfect. At a couple of points I wanted to wear my poncho, but a lot of the time, I didn't. So it was right around most comfortable temperature, with just a tiny bit that was either too warm or cool. Oh, and you did NOT want to step off the paved areas! I suspect that if it hadn't been paved it would have been as bad as the mud fest that was the Fall Fiber Fest one year. All-in-all, a perfect day as far as weather was concerned. When Lynn and I got back, we noticed that the ground was all wet, but it wasn't raining when we went in.

Lynn and I watched a little TV and sat and talked (or tried to) and both fell asleep. Eventually we turned off the lights and went to sleep deliberately.

On Sunday, Lynn, Holly and I went and did some errands, including walking around the new JoAnn Fabrics near here, and had dinner at Ruby Tuesday, and then we all went home. Lynn had an uneventful ride back to New Jersey, and the whole weekend was wonderful.

Well, I did way too much walking, and my back is still letting me know how unhappy it is about all that walking. Oddly enough, it doesn't usually bother my back, and I don't know why it did this time. I am otherwise recovered from all that walking, but I've been having a lot of lower back pain from it.

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John got all the masters over to the factory for the second volume of the Steve Canyon DVDs. He expects to get the proofs back at any moment, check them, and give the go-ahead!

I'm excited!

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My back hurts and I'm going to lay down flat on it and finish reading Breaking Dawn.

Have a great evening, and if I don't post tomorrow, It'll be because I'm giving my back a break.