Monday Miscellany

We had a gorgeous weekend in southeastern Pennsylvania: sunny skies & temperatures in the 60s-70s. If it stayed like this until September, I wouldn't have to hate summer weather.

Maryland S & W

Speaking of weather, I've been trying to figure out what the weather's supposed to be like this weekend, for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I will be going, and so if any of you think you see me (I will probably be wearing my yarn-trawling gear of an oversized polo shirt and sneakers, with a Rosie's Yarn Cellar bag of some sort slung over my shoulder, and unless it's really cold, I'll be wearing shorts), please stop me and say hi. There is something electric about being at a major wool festival like this one, or Rhinebeck. It isn't just the shopping (although that doesn't suck); I think it's the sensation of being in the midst of so many other people who are as obsessed with knitting, spinning and yarn as much as me. Anyway, if you're a reader and you think you see me, please stop me and say hi.

My First Swap (God help me)

I am not usually a joiner or knit-along type. I have a streak of contrariness that balks at that, and one or two too many "group project" experiences from my school years that made me crazy. But I will confess to having joined the Dye-o-Rama (not to be confused with a diorama), a sock yarn swap that was organized somewhere in the blogosphere. [Go on, Kath, mock me. There's plenty of room in the Comments section for your remarks about me crossing over to the twee side.] Each person dyes a skein of sock yarn and sends it to their partner and vice versa. Cleverly, the organizers divided people into newbie dyers and experienced dyers to minimize the chances of a a vastly disproportionate swap. Today is the day that the organizers are sending out names and emails of "swap partners" (which isn't nearly as kinky as it may sound to some of you, and you know who you are, Lisa McN) and I await mine with interest. I figured that if nothing else, this would be one way to get some exposure for Black Bunny.

Speaking of Which

I restocked a bit over the weekend and there's a few more all-wool superwash sock skeins coming. I also have a gigunda hank of sportweight Blue Faced Leicester in blues drying; it's my first sweater-quantity hank, and I'm curious to see if there's interest in that or not. Blogger is being temperamental today, so I'm having trouble uploading photos; I'll try again later.

Cutesy-Wutesy Bunny-Wumpkins Anecdote

Charcoal's latest trick: at the end of the day, when Tom comes home from work, he brings Charcoal out of his pen for a little petting time. (I should be so lucky.) Charcoal likes to sit on Tom's lap for a while, then scamper down to the ottoman. The other day, Nick presented Charcoal with one of his Matchbox cars, putting it right next to Charcoal on the ottoman. Charcoal looks at it with disdain, then picks it up by the spoiler using his teeth, leans over the edge of the ottoman, and drops it on the floor. Nick puts another car there; Charcoal does it again. Clearly not your average bun-bun.