More Random Blathering

I promise, one of these days, I will put together a cohesive blog post, but today is not that day!  You'll have to put up with my random blathering for one more day.

My Aquaphobia socks are soaking as I write.  I figure it's about time I block them, although there's certainly no need to wear wool socks since it is 100 million degrees outside.  You can expect an FO post soon.  I put the Mint Chocolate Chip socks back in the WIP box after knitting a few rows and have been flitting from sock to sock to sock since.  I finally settled on a pair of Pillars by Lisa Stichweh.  I am using Cakewalk Yarns Stash in a colorway called Taos and I. AM. LOVING. IT.  The yarn is an MCN blend and feels like butter running through my hands.  And the colorway is nothing but speckled goodness.  Rose uses ten different dyes in this colorway!

It's a little hard to see in the photo below since I've just got a cuff and a wee bit o' leg.  If you want to see what the colorway looks like fully knit, you can check out Rose's Sienna Cardi on her blog.  Another great thing about Cakewalk Yarns is that Rose is from Michigan, and of course, I am always happy to support a Michigan indie dyer.

Speaking of Michigan, the official Ravatar for Team Michigan is finished.

The way I see it, this Ravatar is apropos in light of the crap that hit the fan last week.  I am not going to rehash the Great Ravelympics Trademark Violation Scandal of 2012.  There has been plenty written in that regard over the past two weeks.  The Yarn Harlot wrote about the issue and as usual, she makes a lot of sense, but it still hurts to lose the name.  The new name is the Ravellenic Games, after the Panhellenic Games.  I like that the new name still refers to an ancient Greek athletic competition, and of all the names put up for a vote, this was the one I liked the most.  But it just doesn't have the same ring as Ravelympics.  Anyway, in a few years, I'm sure that we won't even flinch at the word Ravellenics and it will seem normal.

 
Anyway, last Tuesday I was rushing to try to get the Team Michigan Ravelry group updated so as not to further piss off the USOC when I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED MYSELF FROM THE TEAM MICHIGAN GROUP.  You may not fully understand the severity of this problem if you are not a Raveller.  Administrators of groups are the only ones who can edit groups.  We are the only ones who can edit the description of the group and any graphics associated with the group, for example.  My big fat mistake was not deleting myself from the group, although that certainly was idiotic.  My big fat mistake was that I was the only administrator of Team Michigan in the first place.  So when I deleted myself... yeah, you get it.  Now no one has the power to edit the group.  And the only one who can give me my magical powers back is Sarah, who works for Ravelry, who is extremely busy because she is only one of four gurus who work for Ravelry, and she is constantly bombarded with e-mails, and to make matters worse, last week was TNNA, and all the Ravelry gurus were there having an enormously fabulous time, and I'm sure she was not checking her e-mail all that regularly (I wouldn't be, either), and now she has even more e-mails piled up, and I'm pretty insignificant on her list of things to do.

IF there were another administrator of Team Michigan, this would never have happened, because group administrators can make other people group administrators.  I could have just asked my co-administrator for my magical powers back and it would have been taken care of within a day or so, I'm sure.  This is what I get for trying to do everything myself.  When I finally get my magical powers back, I will definitely be adding another administrator.  Lesson learned.

In the meantime, I have been creating the Ravatar you see above.  Each teammate who wants a Ravatar with her Ravelry ID on it can have one.  And I have been shopping for prizes for Team Michigan participants.  I bought yarn.

But THIS DOES NOT COUNT as me breaking my cold sheeping commitment.  Here is my rationale:

1. That yarn is dishcloth cotton.
2. That yarn is inexpensive.
3. That yarn was needed to make fabulous Ravellenics prizes for my teammates.
4. That yarn is going to be used right away.  (If you look closely, you will already see something that is knit out of it.)
5. Nepenthe, who is the Raveller in charge of cold sheeping, says it doesn't count.
6. See below for reason #6.

You might remember that every summer, Mom and I take a mother-daughter trip.  This year, we've decided that rather than do a big vacation, we are going to do a bunch of mini and day trips and that we are on a foodie tour.  So we headed up to Traverse City for a couple of days this past week, because as any Michigander knows, TC is the foodie capital of Michigan.  More about the awesome food later in a non-random blathering post.  I did visit yarn shops.  In fact, we went into three separate places where yarn is sold.  And I did not buy any, which is reason #6 why the dishcloth cotton does not count as breaking my cold sheeping commitment.  I had really, really, really awesome yarn in my hands.  I am talking about an 1100-yard skein of gorgeous fingering-weight merino, hand-dyed by a local indie dyer, for $28.00.  AND. I. DID. NOT. BUY. IT.  It would have made the most lovely shawl.  STILL. I. DID. NOT. BUY. IT.  So as you can see, in light of the fact that I resisted super-duper-fantastic-and-reasonably-priced yarn, what's a little dishcloth cotton?

The last bit of random blathering I have to tell you is that Traverse City had been yarn bombed!

Wicked awesome.

Happy Canada Day.

Back to the Pillars.