More handspun yarn and roving than you can imagine! I’ll be there with many of my fellow guild members, so come say hi. And be prepared to be amazed by the sheer amount of awesomeness!

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Wow. Just wow. That’s the short version.

The long version is much longer. With lots of pictures. Ok, let’s get started.

We left Wednesday morning with Rob’s van loaded full of all of my yarn, fiber, wearable art, booth fixtures, our clothes, and so on and so forth. Rob drove while I alternated between knitting and sleeping. (I was exhausted from all the preparation for the show I’d been doing, and being in a moving vehicle just rocks me to sleep. I can’t stay away for longer than about 1.5 hours.)

The first part of the trip was uneventful. (See what I did there? That’s called foreshadowing.) Then I woke up as we were crossing from Pennsylvania into New York, and wondered how long had I been asleep? Rob said we had only been in Pennsylvania for about 70 miles.

It turns out that if your GPS asks if you want to avoid toll roads and you say yes, it just might send you so far out of the way that you’ll end up paying more in extra gas than you’re saving on tolls. Not to mention extra hours of driving and wear and tear on your vehicle. Lesson learned. So now when it asks if we want to avoid toll roads, we let it calculate the route both ways and see what the difference is.

Anyway, it was getting to be bed time when we started seeing signs for Corning, which I hadn’t anticipated being anywhere near on this trip, but I’d always wanted to visit the Corning Museum of Glass, so I proposed stopping there for the night, visiting the museum in the morning, and then continuing to NYC.

Just as we were on our way to a local hotel, the van started making a Very Loud Noise. From the vicinity of the engine. Uh oh.

We checked into the hotel and asked for a recommendation for a local mechanic.

In the morning we drove the van with the Very Loud Noise to the mechanic, where they determined a spark plug needed to be replaced. That always sounds like such a simple thing to me, I guess because of the word “plug” — it conjures up an image of  just unplugging one thing and plugging in another. Unfortunately with this particular model of van, they designed the spark plugs to be a major pain in the ass.

Someone from the garage was kind enough to drive us to the glass museum so we could spend time there while they worked on the van, and the museum was awesome. There were fun demonstrations, cool science stuff, and amazing glass art. And I was excited to find a piece by Joyce Scott, whose beadwork is incredible. (I met her at a party once years ago, when I used to work in a bead store. She told me I had a “preet, sweety face,” realized that wasn’t quite right, tried again and the same words came out, and then figured screw it, I knew what she meant.)

After a few hours, we were kind of museumed out, so we walked into town (Corning is really cute!), had lunch, and then took a bus back to the garage, thinking they’d probably be mostly done with the van by then.

No. It was still a couple more hours. We didn’t get out of there until after 5pm.

But the van was happy. We drove to NYC, found the room I had booked through Airbnb, and went to bed. The place was a dump, but the mattress was comfortable.

We got up at early o’clock, drove into Manhattan, arrived at the loading dock at the Hilton 10 minutes early for our appointment, and waited an hour. I had them take one cartload of the heaviest stuff to my booth, and we took the rest in through the front door (they charge $150 per cartload, so you do the math. They stored all my empty bins for the weekend and brought them to me at the end of the show though since I had used them at all).

Once everything was inside we parked the van in a nearby structure that could actually accommodate large vehicles, and went back to set up the booth. It was a new arrangement, so it took longer. We finished just shortly before the marketplace preview started at 5pm.

People came in droves. It was fantastic.

Saturday we took the subway in. I’d forgotten how much I love subways. Subways rock.

Saturday was so busy! It was exhausting and intoxicating at the same time. It was a lot of work, but people were telling me how gorgeous my stuff was and giving me money for it all day long. How could I not love that? One woman said my dyed yarn rivals Wollmeise’s. Another woman said it was so gorgeous she was drooling.

Sunday was just as busy. Most of the shows I do are quite a bit slower on Sunday, but sales were still steady all day long.

Overall it was a great show. Really nice people, I sold a lot of stuff, I got to hang out with my friends Esther, Kimberly, Adele, Ashley, Pam, and Franklin, and I picked up a new wholesale customer. Soon you’ll be able to buy my handspun yarns at Knit Stop in Indianapolis.

After the show was over and everything was all packed up, we took Monday to play!

We took the subway into town, walked around a bit, and went to the MoMA. We only saw a small fraction of it since it’s huge — I think it would take a week to see the entire thing. But look! They had wool there!

I took a photo of the accompanying text too, but it came out really blurry. But it’s a large felted piece called “Cries and Whispers” by Hill Jephson Robb. You can read more about it here.

After the MoMA we had lunch and took the subway to a vegan bakery and got there just as they were closing. We managed to buy some carrot cupcakes and cookies, expecting to be wowed, and frankly, we weren’t. Ann Arbor spoils us. Which is good, I guess.

In one of the subway stations somewhere (no idea where), there was this mosaic on one of the walls.

This is just a small part of it. It’s huge and awesome.

Tuesday we went to B&H Photo so Rob could get some video equipment, and then started the long trip home. We spent the night somewhere in eastern Pennsylvania, then headed out in the morning for Pittsburgh to go to the Andy Warhol Museum. About an hour before Pittsburgh the check engine light came on.

We called about ten repair places before we found one that could actually look at it that day. We drove directly there, encountering the hilliest streets I have ever seen. I think all the other mechanics were busy fixing people’s brakes. The streets were practically vertical.

The mechanic who wasn’t fixing someone’s brakes plugged a little computer into a port under the steering wheel and determined that two of the spark plugs were misfiring, including the one we had just had replaced. You know that can’t be good. He said it was safe to drive back to Ann Arbor though, so we proceeded to the museum.

Andy Warhol did way more than I had realized. This was my favorite painting.

The cat resembled my Uncle Pierre. I love it. Sorry about the glare — it was over my head, so I was holding my iphone at a weird angle.

We left the museum just before closing and drove home. Yep, the check engine light came on again. The van is now in the shop for a Very Expensive Repair.

And Rob and I are both coming down with colds.

So. Overall thoughts.

I have never seen so many cabs in my life.

Subways are awesome.

New York was cleaner than I thought it would be.

New York was mostly outrageously expensive, which I had expected. The restaurants we ate at weren’t that much more expensive than in Ann Arbor though. I’m sure you could find very expensive restaurants. But the food we eat (vegan Chinese and Indian mostly) just isn’t that expensive, and we LOVE it. We ate a lot of really good food.

I’m looking forward to going again next year.

I’m glad the van got us there and back.

I’m glad our immune systems held out till now.

I’m going back to bed.

I was going to take a picture of all the yarn bins stacked up in the living room to show you (it really is quite a sight), but Rob volunteered to start carrying them out to the van before I was done carrying everything up from the basement, and I wasn’t about to refuse. So picture something like…Binhenge.

I’ve got a new yarn I’m introducing at the show. It’s a hand dyed bulky weight domestic wool. Very soft. I’ve knit myself a sweater out of it which I’ll be wearing at the show so you can see how it knits up.

I’ve also got a special at the show — spend $200 and get a 4oz skein of hand dyed yarn FREE! How cool is that? So if you’re at VKL, come see me!

Now I just have to figure out the math for the sweater I’ll be knitting on the way there!

I see I haven’t posted in three weeks. Um, yeah, hi. Time passed. My days have pretty much been dye, spin, dye, spin, dye, spin… With a good amount of sleep thrown in. And I’ve been watching Doctor Who and Torchwood while spinning. Life is good.

I want to get a LOT of yarn ready for Vogue Knitting Live, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve added a bulky yarn to my line, and that’s what I’ve been dyeing this week. It’s scrumptious, and I want to roll around in it. I probably won’t have time to add it to the store until I get back, partly because it takes a really long time to dry since it’s in 7 oz skeins and it’s bulky.

One thing I wanted to mention is that if you need a last minute gift, I sell gift certificates in $25, $50, and $100 denominations. I can email one directly to the recipient and say it’s from you, so that makes it pretty easy for you, and they can use it on anything in the store.

I also have a sock yarn club and a fiber club, available in 3, 6, and 12 month subscriptions. If you order it now, well, they won’t get it before Christmas, but they will get the first installment this month (if they’re in the US). You can tell them their gift will be arriving in a few days.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season. Rob and I are going to our favorite restaurant tonight to celebrate the Solstice. Let there be light — a wee bit more each day!

It’s in my home, and I don’t put my home address on the web, so to find out the location you need to join my mailing list. (You can always unsubscribe later if you don’t want to stay on the list. I’m just not putting my home address out there for every nutcase in the universe to see.)

If you’re in or near Ann Arbor, I hope you’ll consider coming. I’d feel really stupid if no one showed up.

Thing the first. Look what I got in the mail this week.

Pretty exciting for me to see my tote bag in a national magazine!

Thing the second. I’m going to Vogue Knitting Live!

I was waitlisted, but they added more vendor spaces, so I’m in! I’m dyeing up a ton of yarn in preparation. Um…actually, it’s quite a bit more than a ton if my calculations are correct. That’s mind-boggling. Spinning a lot too. I’ve got eight Doctor Who DVDs from the library to watch while I spin. Life is good.

Thing the third. The new issue of Knitcircus came out and it has a review of my yarn on page 8.

Thing the fourth. Well, this one is kind of embarrassing because it involves me being an idiot. Well, ok, a fallible human being. But I hate being fallible. I found out that the worsted weight yarn I’ve been selling for a couple of years that I thought was bluefaced leicester isn’t. I think I initially meant to order a different base yarn and accidentally ordered the wrong one, and then just kept reordering the same thing. If you bought some of the mislabeled yarn, I’m really sorry for the mixup!

So I decided that rather than continue ordering the same thing or ordering the one I initially meant to, which would cost a lot more, I’d look around. And I found a really nice worsted made in the US from US wool, and it’s already in skeins. They’re 100g skeins, rather than the 4oz skeins I’ve been selling (and winding!), so I’ll be able to sell them for a little bit less (not sure how much yet). My order arrived today, and they’re even softer than the sample I had! The first 10 skeins are soaking in preparation for dyeing.

Thing the fifth. I did a shop update a few days ago, adding the last of the old worsted weight yarn except for one more colorway that I still have to photograph, as well as some more fingering and sport weights.

I thought I had more things to share, but my mind is drawing a blank, so I think it’s time to start a dyebath and then go watch Doctor Who and spin.

So, I know some of you don’t want to think about holidays yet, and I totally get that. For those of you who are less time impaired than I am though (and understand that if this is November, then…next month…must be December…and that means something to you), you might be interested in the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild Holiday Sale.

It’s this Saturday, which I understand in my more lucid moments is the day after tomorrow.* I should be ready for it by then.

While we’re on the subject of holiday sales, I’ll mention that I’ll also be at the Spinner’s Flock Holiday Fair November 26, and I’m also trying something new this year. I’ll be hosting an open house/holiday sale in my home on December 3.

Here’s the thing though. I don’t really want to list my home address online because there are crazy people out there. So if you think you might want to come to my open house/holiday sale, sign up for my newsletter. The newsletter will have all the details.

*Wondering just how time impaired I am? I originally gave the above image the title “aafg holiday sale 2012.”  Sigh.

The star of the show was a camel named Humphrey. He’s a very nice camel who really likes attention, so he was happy to have people petting him and telling him how handsome he was all weekend.

And remember YarnCon? Listen to all the nice things Jaala had to say about the yarn she got from me there in the Knitcircus podcast!