Maryland Sheep and Wool Part 1
So I've been terribly amiss in not posting about Maryland Sheep and Wool. I'll try to remember what all I did while I wait for my data analysis to run...
I aimed to get an early start on Friday, so, as usual, ended up leaving about noon. :-) I did stop by to pay my rent and have a chat with the people in the complex office about my lease. My lease is not up until September 1, but I apparently only have to pay extra rent for leaving early if they don't fill the apartment. Since it sounds like they have a waiting list for 1-bedrooms for August, it sounds like this will probably not be a problem. (In fact, she said my leaving a month early would actually be doing them a favor). So I may not have to pay double rent that month, yay!
The downside is that it was 4pm when I finally hit IKEA for some serious shopping. I was mostly looking to buy a new bed and for something to buy to use as a pantry, as the new apartment doesn't have one. For the pantry, I decided on MORE of the unfinished wood shelving that I already have in my apartment (more stuff to finish, just what I needed). Turns out they sell the half-height, 3-feet-wide cabinets in the 12-inch depth. (I thought they only came in the 20-inch depth, but I guess that's the drawers.) I figure I can stack them two high to use as a pantry while I'm living in this apartment, then have more flexibility later then if I had bought one giant full-height cabinet (since I can incorporate them into bookshelves or my entertainment wall later):
See my cabinents.
I decided I didn't like the bed I had planned to buy, but found a headboard on clearance I really liked:
See my headboard.
I just bought the headboard, not the bed. Of course, the headboard isn't made to attach to my current bed, but right now I have it just resting on the floor, wedged between the bed and the wall. (I wasn't going to put it up before I moved, but there's really no other good place to put it in the apartment: the thing is big.) I think I like it that way: it's not as tall as in the picture and I think it looks better. The side wing-bits of the headboard are seperate and right now I don't have them on.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though, since I didn't buy the headboard until the trip back (so as not to have it on the roof of my car all weekend.)
I left IKEA at a little before 8 and rushed up to see if I could make the Tyson's Corner Mall in time to hit Levenger before it closed at 9:30. I did, but I only had about 40 minutes there. (The Tyson's Corner mall is a pain in the ass to get into. Also, Google's directions were not the world's best.)
That's OK, though. 40 minutes is plenty of time to do a lot of damage in Levenger. :-)
I bought one of these in letter-sized blue, one of these in Junior size, as well as a travel punch, and some sample packs including tabbed dividers and spare rings.
So far I'm loving them and am already planning what else I'd like to buy in November, when I'll be in Chicago for a conference. (Chicago has 2 Levenger stores, although I could also order stuff online.)
Tyson's Corner on a Friday evening is clearly a popular teen hangout, BTW.
I managed to find my hotel at around 11, I think. (I was not overly thrilled with Google's directions on the trip, it took me quite a bit of back-and-forth driving before I found the place.) The Red Roof Inn was a decent place, not luxurious, but definitely not seedy. Much nicer than the place I stayed last year. If you get the executive king room (which I did) then there's a microwave and a fridge, plus free wireless. (In the other rooms you have to pay for wireless.) The free wireless was in the form of a T-mobile access card you picked up every day at the front desk. Sort of strange.
****************************
The next morning I woke up earlier than I intended, so I left for MS&W around 9am, arriving at about 10am. The hotel is a little farther than the place I stayed last year, but that's not the reason it took an hour to get there. The massive line of cars waiting to get into the festival was the reason it took an hour to get there. (I think it took a little under a half-hour to get there from the hotel in the absence of lines.)
This year I had a plan of attack. I had decided to join my fellow knitting sheep in line at the Fold booth for Socks that Rock, then hopefully have time to hit Brooks Farm before lunch, where I was meeting some people from the Knitter's Review forums. I managed to do all these things, although I have to say if I had known the Socks that Rock check-out line was going to take 45-50 minutes, I would have passed. (I figured 20-30, looking at it. At least I got some good knitting time and chatted with some nice knitters while I waited). The Brooks Farm booth had a much shorter line but was so crowded it you had to squeeze past people to get to the yarn, reminding me why I prefer shopping MS&W on Sunday (even if there are some things sold out by then).
I scored two hanks of STR mediumweight, one in a blue wool/silk blend and one in one of the new Raven colors. I also got a hank of Acero at Brooks Farm which is also destined to be socks, plus two hanks of a 50/50 wool-silk blend which is destined to be a shawl. I'll post pictures one of these days.
After scoring my major yarn purchases for the festival I had lunch and met some KR knitters, which is where I found out that there had been a Saturday Ravelry meet-up that I had missed. Dang.
I spent the rest of the afternoon taking in sheep-shearing, the border collie demos, and the knitted and felted objects that had been entered to be judged, as well as browsing the booths for more low-key shopping.
*****************************
The border collies were fun as always. This year one of the dogs was doing his first demo at age 2, and he was funny to watch. His handler would command him to lie down, after which the dog is supposed to drop to the ground immediately. (If the dog keeps moving, the sheep keep moving: to stop the sheep you have to stop the dog). The young dog was clearly reluctant to lie down, though. He would do it, but then as soon as he thought his handler wasn't looking, he would get up and start advancing towards the sheep again. When she finally called him over to her, the poor dog was clearly torn. He kept hesitating and looking back and forth between handler and sheep: "My person says to 'come'... but I want to play with the sheep!... but my person is calling me... but SHEEP!"
Also, once when she told him, "That'll do," instead of going back to where the other dogs were resting he decided to run under the fence to greet some of the people who were watching the demo. :-)
Between the chance to play with sheep and the chance to meet so many people, the dogs were clearly having a great time. The sheep would probably have just as soon stayed home, though. :-)
******************************
Saturday evening I got lost looking for a mall again (story of my trip). This one was the Columbia mall where I went to eat at Panera and to shop at LL Bean's. I was looking for jeans and swimsuits but turned out not to especially like anything there.
Saturday night I spent with the Internet and a nice hot cat-free bath. :-)
More to come in future posts...
I aimed to get an early start on Friday, so, as usual, ended up leaving about noon. :-) I did stop by to pay my rent and have a chat with the people in the complex office about my lease. My lease is not up until September 1, but I apparently only have to pay extra rent for leaving early if they don't fill the apartment. Since it sounds like they have a waiting list for 1-bedrooms for August, it sounds like this will probably not be a problem. (In fact, she said my leaving a month early would actually be doing them a favor). So I may not have to pay double rent that month, yay!
The downside is that it was 4pm when I finally hit IKEA for some serious shopping. I was mostly looking to buy a new bed and for something to buy to use as a pantry, as the new apartment doesn't have one. For the pantry, I decided on MORE of the unfinished wood shelving that I already have in my apartment (more stuff to finish, just what I needed). Turns out they sell the half-height, 3-feet-wide cabinets in the 12-inch depth. (I thought they only came in the 20-inch depth, but I guess that's the drawers.) I figure I can stack them two high to use as a pantry while I'm living in this apartment, then have more flexibility later then if I had bought one giant full-height cabinet (since I can incorporate them into bookshelves or my entertainment wall later):
See my cabinents.
I decided I didn't like the bed I had planned to buy, but found a headboard on clearance I really liked:
See my headboard.
I just bought the headboard, not the bed. Of course, the headboard isn't made to attach to my current bed, but right now I have it just resting on the floor, wedged between the bed and the wall. (I wasn't going to put it up before I moved, but there's really no other good place to put it in the apartment: the thing is big.) I think I like it that way: it's not as tall as in the picture and I think it looks better. The side wing-bits of the headboard are seperate and right now I don't have them on.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though, since I didn't buy the headboard until the trip back (so as not to have it on the roof of my car all weekend.)
I left IKEA at a little before 8 and rushed up to see if I could make the Tyson's Corner Mall in time to hit Levenger before it closed at 9:30. I did, but I only had about 40 minutes there. (The Tyson's Corner mall is a pain in the ass to get into. Also, Google's directions were not the world's best.)
That's OK, though. 40 minutes is plenty of time to do a lot of damage in Levenger. :-)
I bought one of these in letter-sized blue, one of these in Junior size, as well as a travel punch, and some sample packs including tabbed dividers and spare rings.
So far I'm loving them and am already planning what else I'd like to buy in November, when I'll be in Chicago for a conference. (Chicago has 2 Levenger stores, although I could also order stuff online.)
Tyson's Corner on a Friday evening is clearly a popular teen hangout, BTW.
I managed to find my hotel at around 11, I think. (I was not overly thrilled with Google's directions on the trip, it took me quite a bit of back-and-forth driving before I found the place.) The Red Roof Inn was a decent place, not luxurious, but definitely not seedy. Much nicer than the place I stayed last year. If you get the executive king room (which I did) then there's a microwave and a fridge, plus free wireless. (In the other rooms you have to pay for wireless.) The free wireless was in the form of a T-mobile access card you picked up every day at the front desk. Sort of strange.
****************************
The next morning I woke up earlier than I intended, so I left for MS&W around 9am, arriving at about 10am. The hotel is a little farther than the place I stayed last year, but that's not the reason it took an hour to get there. The massive line of cars waiting to get into the festival was the reason it took an hour to get there. (I think it took a little under a half-hour to get there from the hotel in the absence of lines.)
This year I had a plan of attack. I had decided to join my fellow knitting sheep in line at the Fold booth for Socks that Rock, then hopefully have time to hit Brooks Farm before lunch, where I was meeting some people from the Knitter's Review forums. I managed to do all these things, although I have to say if I had known the Socks that Rock check-out line was going to take 45-50 minutes, I would have passed. (I figured 20-30, looking at it. At least I got some good knitting time and chatted with some nice knitters while I waited). The Brooks Farm booth had a much shorter line but was so crowded it you had to squeeze past people to get to the yarn, reminding me why I prefer shopping MS&W on Sunday (even if there are some things sold out by then).
I scored two hanks of STR mediumweight, one in a blue wool/silk blend and one in one of the new Raven colors. I also got a hank of Acero at Brooks Farm which is also destined to be socks, plus two hanks of a 50/50 wool-silk blend which is destined to be a shawl. I'll post pictures one of these days.
After scoring my major yarn purchases for the festival I had lunch and met some KR knitters, which is where I found out that there had been a Saturday Ravelry meet-up that I had missed. Dang.
I spent the rest of the afternoon taking in sheep-shearing, the border collie demos, and the knitted and felted objects that had been entered to be judged, as well as browsing the booths for more low-key shopping.
*****************************
The border collies were fun as always. This year one of the dogs was doing his first demo at age 2, and he was funny to watch. His handler would command him to lie down, after which the dog is supposed to drop to the ground immediately. (If the dog keeps moving, the sheep keep moving: to stop the sheep you have to stop the dog). The young dog was clearly reluctant to lie down, though. He would do it, but then as soon as he thought his handler wasn't looking, he would get up and start advancing towards the sheep again. When she finally called him over to her, the poor dog was clearly torn. He kept hesitating and looking back and forth between handler and sheep: "My person says to 'come'... but I want to play with the sheep!... but my person is calling me... but SHEEP!"
Also, once when she told him, "That'll do," instead of going back to where the other dogs were resting he decided to run under the fence to greet some of the people who were watching the demo. :-)
Between the chance to play with sheep and the chance to meet so many people, the dogs were clearly having a great time. The sheep would probably have just as soon stayed home, though. :-)
******************************
Saturday evening I got lost looking for a mall again (story of my trip). This one was the Columbia mall where I went to eat at Panera and to shop at LL Bean's. I was looking for jeans and swimsuits but turned out not to especially like anything there.
Saturday night I spent with the Internet and a nice hot cat-free bath. :-)
More to come in future posts...