76 trombones led the big parade

Tomorrow we will return to our regularly scheduled programming of knitting-related content. And content I do have, between Secret Spook and the arrival of my second (!) Sockapalooza package. But, for now, one more foray into Red Sox Nation.

First, one more media mention from yesterday. Go here--can you find me behind Theo Epstein? Let's play spot the green jacket.

Today was the World Series championship parade, which rolled its way down Boylston Street. Catherine, Betsy, and I set ourselves up in Copley Square around 9 am. The parade started at noon. And we saw almost everyone we wanted to see. Jacoby Ellsbury was on the wrong side of the duck boat from us, we never saw Manny Ramirez at all, and the truck carrying Jonathan Papelbon doing his jig stopped just a little too far down from us to really see it. Alas.

But here is some of what we did see.

The dancing Papelbon figure in the crowd.



Dice-K!



Dustin Pedroia.



Curt Schilling and the trophy.



Coco Crisp.



Big Papi, David Ortiz.



My favorite, the World Series MVP, Mike Lowell. (Re-sign Lowell! Re-sign Lowell!)



Jason Varitek.



And here are Cat, me, and Betsy before the parade started.



And now, no more baseball. What am I going to do until spring training starts?

The Red Sox and Me

It's been a crazy few days around here, baseball wise, and we've still got one to go. Once the parade is over tomorrow, I swear this blog will go back to being mainly about knitting. But, for now, you'll have to bear with me.

Saturday night, Catherine and her roommate Betsy had a party to watch Game 3 of the World Series. We watched the game, kept score on a posterboard Green Monster, and ate lots of goodies. I made a Red Sox cake:



Ariel wore the least amount of Red Sox stuff, so she got to wear the poncho and bright red wig:



The Red Sox won, 10-5, and were up three games to none.

Last night I returned to Catherine's to watch Game 4 of the World Series. On our way home from an earlier get together we had seen all of the police arriving in our neighborhood, who were getting ready in case the Red Sox won. And they did, 4-3. The Red Sox are World Series Champions!

Catherine and Betsy tearing off the final sheet on their countdown chart after the game ended:



And today the Red Sox returned to Boston. I spent the afternoon on Yawkey Way, hanging out with others awaiting their arrival and getting more and more chilled as the day went on. I met a lovely dachshund named Roxie, who became our mascot for the afternoon:



Around 2:30 in the afternoon, they took the 2007 American League Championship banner off the side of the park and replaced it with the 2007 World Series Championship banner:



And, eventually, our waiting was rewarded.

The owners of the team, Tom Werner and John Henry, with the trophy:



The GM, Theo Epstein, with the trophy:



And I got to touch the trophy! There is video here, where you can see me touching the trophy--I'm wearing a bright green fleece--and then later in the video during the chanting. (I think they were focusing on Roxie, who was over my shoulder.)

But here's a couple of screenshots, in case that video disappears (I'm on the left in both).





I've also found myself in some other web video and in one of the photo galleries on Boston.com, which manages to capture the exact moment right before I thought I was going to die. I was trying to take a picture of Bobby Kielty, and I was right by the barrier, and everyone started pushing from behind and the barrier started to give away, which was a little terrifying. But it was okay.

And then we saw some of the players.

Big Papi, David Ortiz:



Curt Schilling:



And tomorrow's the parade, where hopefully we will see some jigging!

Go Sox!

The view when I left Catherine's apartment last night, just after the fifth inning ended:



That's the Prudential building, with the windows lit up to read "Go Sox." So awesome.

And I finished another square for Lizard Ridge while watching last night's game, so there's your knitting content. :)

Rhinebeck Road Trip

Like half of the knitters in the Eastern part of the U.S. (and Canada), I spent this weekend at Rhinebeck which, courtesy of our hungover GPS personality who slurred her words, we now refer to as Trinebeck! I had never been before. And it ended up being a fabulous experience!

Saturday morning, the ladies and I were on the road at 5:30 am, heading out to New York State, bleary-eyed but excited. We couldn't have had a better day for the drive, and the scenery along the way was just beautiful. Nature creates the best colors of all.

The view from our giant car:





Rhinebeck was a feast for the eyes. There were alpacas:





There were rabbits:



And, of course, there were sheep:



Best quote of the day, from Catherine, when looking at the view below from a distance: "Oh, look at those dogs!" Me: "Um, Catherine, those aren't dogs."

They were goats:



And there was yarn. Pretty, pretty yarn.





Catherine and Danielle following orders:



The group of us who drove up together, during the Ravelry/blogger meetup:



There's Amanda (who came up from DC to join us for the weekend), me, Cassandra, Catherine, and Danielle.

Later in the day we met up with The Sheep.



We wandered around for hours, fondled lots of yarn, admired lots of projects, ate some wonderful cheese (Roth Kase Vintage Van Gogh), and tasted wine and fudge. We learned our lesson--next year we're bringing a cooler so we can bring some of the food home!

That night we went to the Ravelry party, a madhouse of knitters chatting, drinking, and eating. The staff and regulars had no clue what hit them! (And Catherine and I managed to get in some watching of game 6 of the ALCS. Yay Sox!)

Here are Andrea and Ariel at the party:



And Casey and Jess (and a photo of Bob, in absentia):



And yes, like everybody else, I Kinneared the Yarn Harlot at the party.



The next day we headed back to Boston, stopping in the Berkshires to visit Lenox and Colorful Stitches, which is a really nice yarn store. And then it was homeward bound, just in time to see the Red Sox win the ALCS!

And what loot did I pick up on this journey?

At Rhinebeck, one of our favorite booths was Brooks Farm, where I picked up these two skeins of a worsted weight merino/silk blend.



Another favorite was Briar Rose, where I got this lovely merino/tencel blend:



My first purchase of the day was my first laceweight yarn, in a gorgeous grape color, from Silver Moon Farm:



I also got two skeins of sock yarn, Soft Touch Heather in Crocus, from Sheldrige Farm:



And this is supposed to be a skein of sock yarn, but I think it will become something more scarf/shawl-like. It's a skein of wool/bamboo/nylon from Maple Creek Farm. The picture doesn't really show it, but it's a salmon pink color with gold threads binding the plies and it just gleams.



Notice a pink and purple trend? I didn't plan it, I swear--I'm usually not a pink person!

And I picked up one pretty pastel skein of Trekking while we were at Colorful Stitches.



All in all, a fabulous, exhausting, colorful, and fun weekend. I can't wait until next year!

Shrugging my shoulders

I went home to Pennsylvania this weekend for a wedding. And I did wear the infamous shrug. And there are pictures. See:



Pattern: Shimmer, from Knitty
Yarn: Valley Yarns Colrain in Steel, 7 skeins
Notes: It came out too big in general. In the picture below, you can see it hanging low on my shoulders, even after the modifications. And the sides were hanging like bat wings.



Modifications: I folded in the corners of the sides and stitched them into place. Then I added a ribbed band at the neck to hold the fronts together and tied it at one side with a piece of silver ribbon.



The band at least kept it from falling off entirely, but it did stretch out as the night went on so, overall, it didn't do that much good.

So I made do, though I'm still not too thrilled with it. But the wedding was much fun.

And as I write this I'm watching Pushing Daisies. This show equals love. I adored Lee Pace on Wonderfalls. And there's even knitting!

I need to do a little venting

I'm incredibly frustrated right now. I've spent the last week and a half attempting to speed knit a shrug to wear for a wedding that I'm going to on Saturday. I've stayed up until all hours. My fingers have gotten extremely cramped.

The good news: it's done.

The bad news: it's too big.

It just looks wrong. I'm currently attempting to implement a few little fixes (I folded in and sewed up the sides so they don't hang like bat wings, I've added a ribbed band to the neck so I can at least tie it so it won't fall off) to make it wearable this weekend but, in general, I'm really not happy.

There really isn't anything I or anyone else can do at this point, but I just needed to vent.

it's a great pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I have been knitting up a storm lately, but I can't really show you pictures yet, as it's not really fit to be seen. I'm desperately trying to finish a shrug that I'm hoping to wear to a wedding this coming Saturday. It's been an adventure--first I screwed up the increases on the first sleeve, so after I finished the second one I had to go back and frog half of the first and re-knit it. And then yesterday involved two hours of knitting, tinking, re-knitting, and tinking again on one line of the lace pattern. Catherine was my saviour on this part, as I was getting increasingly frustrated and things were going from bad to worse, and she did a fair amount of tinking for me. But I've gotten past that part at least and it continues to move along. Pictures when it's done, I promise!

What else have I been up to?

On Thursday I met Ben and Jerry, as in the Ben and the Jerry of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.



And there was even free ice cream. And a real cow wandering around (which they didn't bring, other crazy people got the cow).

And on Saturday I went to the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch at MIT. I had never been before and didn't realize quite what a huge deal it was. People got there at 7 am for a sale that started at 10 am. It was kind of crazy. But the pumpkins were fabulous, and I took lots of pictures.















And this one came home with me.