ETA: Looking at the info on it, the plugin won’t accept comments shorter than 15 words, so it may or may not work for me. I’m going to give it a day or two.

ETA2: It doesn’t seem to do anything. I asked Kris to leave a comment, and it didn’t yell at him for it being less than 15 words. I’m hoping it will have blocked some spam in the next day or two, or it’s back to the drawing board.  It has an option for a comment form, but it looks like a pain in the butt to add it to individual posts, so I don’t think I want that.  It should work without it…  It’s WP-SpamFree, by the way, if anyone has experience with it.

So, this weekend was EdFest, preceeded by the Rush concert in PA. We drove up to see Steve and Mindy Thursday afternoon, and then went to the show. It was awesome. I’m not a huge fan - I like them and all, but the show was way more for Kris. Honestly, though - GREAT show. Lots of fun, great music. And watching Neil Peart on the drums is just mind-boggling. I’m not entirely sure he’s human. :D

Friday morning, Mindy and I headed off to the Mannings for a little yarn-shopping and girl-bonding time.

Mindy had a little moment with some alpaca yarn - I think we can all understand that impulse.

While we were there, the boys headed back here to our house, where J and Betsy were waiting, having flown in the night before. After I said goodbye to Mindy (who I am trying hard to convince that she needs to start a blog…), I hit the road back here. I got a hilarious text message from Kris that they had gotten a frantic phone call from the advance guard of Festers, and that we needed to pick up a tap for the keg. Apparently, the o-ring had failed in the one they had, and they had jury-rigged it to work using (I kid you not) a condom. They were not confident that it would last the entire weekend. Impressively, though, it took 22 hours of thrusting to defeat it. And yes there were the inevitable questions about it being lubricated… ribbed… slight bouquet of spermicide in the beer, etc.

So, after procuring a new tap, we hit the road around 3:30, and slogged through the inevitable traffic on the DC Beltway and I-95, arriving at the house around 8:30 Friday night. About half the crowd was there, and more arrived later in the evening. Ed (he who originated the whole thing 16 years ago) has a tradition of doing opening ceremonies, complete with the tapping of the keg and declaration of the year’s theme. Generally, it’s done Friday night, but since we were all running a little late, and his wife had taken their son to the other house to put him to bed, they decided to wait.

Saturday afternoon around 5, shortly before dinner, Ed called everyone together for the ceremonies. He welcomed us all to EdFest 17: There Will Be Beer, and mentioned a few milestones - there were three little Festers added to the ranks since last year, and we are eagerly awaiting news of the fourth, who was officially due on Saturday but hasn’t arrived just yet. And then, he mentioned something else. Something that caught both Kris and I entirely off-guard. He said it had come to his attention that one of the couples in attendance had been living in sin, in a union not officially sanctioned by EdFesters, and as it had been ten years, it was high time to rectify that situation. He called Kris up to where he was standing, and I was handed a package and told to go downstairs, open it, and wait for my cue.

When I opened it, I have to admit, I teared up. Because what was in that package? This:

A few minutes later, Karin (Ed’s lovely wife) called me back up, and I walked into a room with our friends making an aisle with ribbon streamers, “Storybook Love” playing, and my wonderful husband standing at the front of the room with Ed. Ed said some really lovely things, and then Kris and I renewed our vows in front of our friends, entirely gobsmacked at the whole thing.

See, what you don’t know is that 5 years ago, when Hyon and Drew were getting married, Ed was ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church (yes, like Joey on Friends) and performed their wedding. Kris and I had joked years ago that since we missed out on having our friends at our wedding the first time around, we should have a renewal on our 10th, and have Ed perform the ceremony. We never really went forward with it, and just kind of dropped the idea.

However, sometimes friends take matters into their own hands. When I posted that wedding meme on our anniversary last month, Mindy saw my remark about wishing that our friends had been there, and commented to Steve that we should renew our vows with our friend there. So, the two of them hatched this plot, enlisting help from Ed and Karin, Hyon and Drew, Betsy, Kurian (who was told to pick up a cake, but keep it secret. He had no idea why.), and Amanda and Jason. Mindy made the bouquet and veil, and I am so bummed that she wasn’t there with us, but since she and I spent the previous day together, I consider her my bridesmaid-in-absentia. After the ceremony, there was champagne, and cheesecake, and brownies, and it was just amazing. Steve even videotaped it for us, although the battery in our camera died right before our vows. LOL.

What cracked me up completely about the whole thing is that the champagne and the gift-wrapped boxes (one with the flowers and veil, and one with champagne glasses for us)? They came IN OUR CAR. Steve had them with him, and it just never crossed our minds that it could have anything to do with us.

So, this is why I say that we have the best friends in the world. I am so, so lucky, and I really love you guys for doing this. In my mind, this is going to be the best EdFest ever. I don’t think it can be topped. And the one thing I regretted about my wedding day has been fixed. All because our friends rock.

ETA: And thanks to Hyon, I now have pictures, too! If I get any more from anyone else, I’ll add them to the Flickr set.

Why might I not have a connection, you ask?  Because this weekend is EDFEST!  That’s right, folks, it’s time once again for that weekend of debauchery and silliness.  Kris will have the camera, so I should have some pictures to post when we get back.

Tonight, think of me and hum a little bit of “Tom Sawyer”.  We’ll be in PA visiting friends, and going to see Rush!  Kris is a BIG Rush fan, and when Steve told me they were coming (and that he and his wife were planning to go), I asked him to get tickets for us, too.  And tomorrow (before we head back here) his incredibly awesome wife Mindy (who I don’t get to see nearly enough) and I are going to The Mannings!  I’m going to try to behave, but I make no promises.  :D

By the way, I’m pretty sure the toe is, indeed, broken.  That’s the general consensus of anyone who sees it, too.  I’ve been taping it, and trying to keep it elevated when I can.  If it’s really bothering me when we get back, I’ll go get it checked out on Monday just to be sure that I didn’t do something really awful to it.  At the moment, it doesn’t hurt much, but wow is it a lovely shade of purple, and the top of my foot is a bit puffy.  Is very pretty.  Also, I’ve been good and actually wearing shoes indoors.  I put them by the bed last night so I even put them on the instant I got up this morning.

Have a great weekend, all!

OK - on to the WIP Wednesday part of the post. February Lady continues to progress, although not as quickly as I would like. I want it to be DONE, because I’m going to love it, but it’s just not there yet. :)

So, do you remember a while back when I kicked a 3-pound weight with my bare foot? Apparently, I wasn’t satisfied with that, so yesterday I caught my baby toe on the leg of one of our Poang footstools. Owie. It’s kind of an ugly purple right now, and it still hurts. I’m a bit concerned that I might really have broken it this time, but I do NOT have time to get it checked out, since all they would do is tape it to the next toe anyway. For the squeamish, look away now.

So, yeah. Ow. And I’ve already been yelled at to stop running around barefoot, but that ain’t gonna happen. I hate wearing shoes indoors. Clearly, I need to do something crazy like pay attention to where the hell I’m going.

Yeah, it’s very confusing.

:headdesk: :headdesk: :headdesk:

(Dammit… blurry again. Sorry!)

I ended up with about 18 wpi, so we’re looking at a fingering/sport weight on average. There are thicker and thinner spots, but that’s a pretty good estimate.

This hank is 48g, so it’s about 40% of the hankies. It came to about 114 yards of three-ply, so I’m hoping that if I can continue at this weight I will end up with about 250-260 yards total. Not exactly enough for Tuscany, which was my dream for this, but realistically, I didn’t have anywhere near enough weight to start with to even attempt that.

I’m really pretty thrilled with it, though - it will end up being something lacy and lovely, even if I don’t know what just yet. :)

A few people asked me how you turn silk hankies into yarn, and I’ll be happy to have Kris take some pictures if you’d like, but I learned from Amyknitty’s article. The only difference is that she’s clearly more patient than I am and uses a drop spindle, where I’m spinning them on a wheel. :)

And once again, I am going to demonstrate my adoration of the lovely Penny Karma. She recently posted about doing some retail therapy, and that her usual purchase in those times of need is lip gloss. She felt that the 17 glosses in her purse perhaps meant that she needed to branch out. I felt that 17 was a perfectly reasonable number to carry in one’s purse, and I now endeavor to show her what TRUE lip gloss junkiehood looks like.

This is what’s in my purse right now:

There are 16 of them (16 if you count the double-ended one as two, but we won’t go there), including what I think is every available color of Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer (Thank you Cristi, Ali, and Roxy for causing that particular addiction). The two Clinique ones on the right? Are the same color - Black Honey. One is a sample (Thank you, Sephora), and then I bought the full-sized one and put it in there, forgetting that the sample was already in there.

Next, let’s look at my dresser.

Here, we have an in-the-wild sighting of some Bath & Body Works “Wet Your Whistle”. This is my daily lip moisturizer - it goes on at the same time as the divine nectar in the jars behind it - Philosophy’s Hope in a Jar. Hands down the best facial moisturizer I’ve EVER used, and now it has SPF 20 in it! Yay! (This brings the count up to 17, btw.)

Inside the makeup drawer (Yes, I have a makeup drawer. Don’t judge me.), we have these lovely little organizers from Ikea. This one has the more color-based lip stuff, and the stuff I use most often (Some of these are lipsticks or liners, not glosses, so they don’t count)…

And this one is the more “pure flavor” or “pure shine” bin.

And because I KNOW you want to get a better look at what’s in them…

From the top left, we have the one and only Dior thing I will EVER own, two tins of three each flavored glosses from on10, another two-ended gloss from Bath & Body Works with one from Tarte, three Urban Decay Lip Gunks (sadly, the don’t make it like this any more) one tube of UD Ultraglide (which replaced the Lip Gunk but isn’t quite the same), an UD XXX Shine, three tubes of DuWop Lip Venom (The pink shimmery one in the little case was a giftie from Roxy).  In the second row, we have 4 full-sized and 7 mini Buxom Lips glosses from Bare Escentuals, three full-sized and one mini BE lip glosses, and one BE Lip Guard for a total of 33 in that bin, and a grand total of 50 thus far.  The sad thing?  The one thing I am wondering is where the silver shimmer Lip Venom is, since the regular and the gold and pink shimmers are here, but I didn’t find the silver…

Again, starting top left, a Sephora Round-A-Pout, some incredibly ancient flavored glosses, a couple of random freebie samples of various and sundry, and 7 flavored glosses from Bath & Body Works.  Next, 4 different flavors of BB&W Liplicious, 8 mini and 2 full-sized Urban Decay XXX Shines, and 11 flavored glosses from The Body Shop.  That’s another 44, for a total of NINETY-FOUR different lip glosses.  And I know for a fact that there is at least one other roaming around here, because my B&BW Mentha Lip Shine is in my knitting bag.

Yeah, I think there may be some level of obsession going on around here.  I should really probably clean out those bins…

It’s really, really thin, and I know I’m going to ply it. I just haven’t decided if it’s going to be a 2- or 3-ply. What I’m hoping is that I can get it to a good weight and enough yardage to make a good-sized Tuscany shawl. I figure that’s an appropriate choice, since Amyknitty dyed the hankies and designed the pattern.

Mmmm… blurry silk closeup.  (Obviously, I took this one, not Kris)

I’ve still got, erm, a bit to spin yet, though. About 87 grams worth. I started with 112 g (per Amy’s post.  Glad she weighed it, since I never remembered to), so I’m around 1/3 of the way through. I have NO idea if I’m going to finish this up by the end of the TdF, but I really hope I can.

In knitting news, I’ve made a little more progress on the February Lady Sweater. I was hoping I might be able to have it done for EdFest next weekend, but I’m thinking that’s not going to happen. I’ve got 4″ of the lace pattern so far, and I’m aiming for 12″ once its done, including the bottom edging. So, it may still be going with me, just not as a completed project.

(Apologies to the delivery dude who chose a poor position at the moment I snapped the picture…)

It fits right where we wanted it, and the base matches the walls nicely, which we were hoping.

We started filling it. (That would be Kris trying to wish it into filling faster.)

I perused the manual, prepping myself for the chemistry lesson to come. I seriously thought I was done with chem a long time ago…

Is full! Is hooked up and working! Is also really damn cold water, and is late (as you can see from the dark sky behind the cover there), so no christening of the tub last night. I’m even being good and waiting for Kris to get home from work before I jump in.  And never fear - I will not be subjecting all of you to pictures of me in a bikini.  I mean, I am getting in better shape, but I’m still no Cristi.  ;)

And why, pray tell, am I titling my blog post in French? Because I’ve decided to enter the Tour de Fleece!  I’m signing on as a rookie, because I still feel like a major beginner in my spinning.  I’m going to work on finishing the silk hankies I started a few weeks ago to start with.  I’m hoping to get them done and then possibly tackle some BMFA merino-tencel roving I’ve had since MD Sheep and Wool ‘06 (*blush*).  We’ll be out of town for a few days, so to keep up, I’m going to take my drop spindle and the blue Gale’s Art roving I’ve been working on.

Wish me luck!  I’m hoping to use this as an opportunity to really improve my spinning.

Last Thursday night, Carrie, Maryanne and I went into Annapolis to say goodbye to our friend Lizzy. I had the awesome luck to meet her while working backstage at Colonial Players, and she very quickly became a dear friend. She was also learning to knit, so Carol and I sucked her into our group at Barnes and Noble. You may remember her as the one who theme-song-ed my Palette Cardi. Sady, Lizzy’s engagement ended recently (because her ex-fiance is a cheating scumball who’d better hope I never see him…), so she decided to go back home. Unfortunately for those of us in this area who have grown to love her dearly, “home” is in England. :( I know it’s best for her right now, and she knows she’s always got a place to crash if she wants to visit, but I’m going to miss the hell out of her.

Love you to pieces, sweetie!! Be healthy and happy, ok?

This weekend, while he wasn’t stuck at work (1 pm Sunday to 8am Monday…) or on the phone with work (Friday night… Sunday morning… Monday afternoon…), Kris and I worked on the next step with the patio - the back wall is once again covered!

And big thanks to our friend JMac for lending a helping hand. What is on the wall there is the same as what will be the bottom half of the patio walls as well. Rumor has it that the hot tub will be here early next week, so we may even get started on the walls and roof next weekend.

And now for the current WIPs, since it is Wednesday…

Like so many others, I have been sucked into the adorableness that is FlintKnits‘ February Lady Sweater. As I am sure will shock you all, mine is being done in (wait for it…) Lion Cotton Ease. What can I say - I’ve still got a ton of it, and I love the stuff. This shade is “Orangeade”, and I think it’s going to make a great cardi for cooler summer evenings and into the fall.

I’m also making some progress on the Twisted Float Shrug that we started at the Annie Modesitt class last week. I’m trying not to move too fast on it, because Marie didn’t have quite enough stock in my colors (”Bucks Bar” and “Pewter”), so I have to wait for her Lorna’s order to come in to finish it. I don’t want to run out of what I have before then.

And finally, I am working on a pair of toe-up socks in C*Eye*Ber Fiber in “Aurora Borealis”. This was in our goodie bags on Sea Socks.

I made up the cable/lace pattern by fiddling around on graph paper. It’s working out pretty well, I think.

Oh and you may notice my fabulous Julip Bags there with the shrug and the socks.  You saw one of the project bags before, and the spindle bag, but Amby is a terrible, terrible temptress and made me a custom Hannah Knitting Tote in the sushi print, which I got at the same time as the sushi project bag up there.  I’ve been carrying the tote everywhere, and I’ve gotten TONS of compliments on it.  You know you want to check out her site…  (Personally, I’m talking myself down from a Lily Tote.  I DON’T need another bag.  Really.  I don’t…)

So, Yorkie, am I forgiven? I’ll try not to be silent for quite so long next time, I promise. Besides, I have a blog award to pass along.