Category: adventures

  • TNNA – “enjoyed by all”

    This weekend I took myself off to TNNA – the National Needwork Association’s trade show! There’s two per year, one in January in California and the June show in Columbus, OH. Since I don’t really drive, I decided to fly Southwest (quite inexpensive). Of course, since Southwest doesn’t fly to Canada, I had to get myself to the States first. A slightly epic journey ensued.

    311.365 - the long road

    I took Megabus to get to Buffalo, which was totally fine – the bus is actually quite comfortable, super cheap ($10 ish!) and actually got to the airport on time. I hung around, but then my first flight to Baltimore (Southwest’s hub) was delayed. By long enough that I missed my connection in Baltimore and had to go on standby for the next flight to Columbus, 2 hours later.

    I kind of understand why airlines overbook, but not really! The customer service person warned me that since the flight was overbooked there might not be any seats available. I waited and waited, and in the end ONE person didn’t show up for the flight and I got the seat! I got to the hotel in Columbus and met up with ysolda and Kristen, who had just arrived from Chicago, and we had a fun night out at the fashion show, Buffalo Gold party, and Tip Top!

    I really needed the time away from the computer and camera for the most part, so there isn’t a lot of photographic evidence. But I had lots of fun walking around, meeting people, feeling up yarn, eating food from the Market, and hanging with everyone in the evenings. And eating ice cream. So much ice cream.

    Sunday night we were having a get-together at the Hyatt for drinks and knitting. Late-night Hyatt antics culminated in the following Zoolander-style battle of the knitwear models between Ysolda and Cirilia.

    the great model-off 2009

    the great model-off 2009

    the great model-off 2009

    the great model-off 2009

    If you are intrigued and wish to see more…I present the following video!

    I had so much fun and was sad to leave on Monday (although my trip home was much smoother). Next time I’m staying longer to hang out and also go shopping – Columbus had some really cute shops that I wanted to visit!

  • the MDSW post: better late than never!

    The reentry from MDSW and work has eaten my week! But as I’m sure you’re eager to hear another MD story, here’s mine!

    I took a slightly convoluted (but cost effective!) route to get to Baltimore – I took the bus from Toronto to Buffalo, then flew out from Buffalo to Baltimore (and took a cab to get to the hotel). It took about 7 hours or so in total, even with the delays at the border. I met up with Ysolda at the hotel a little while later, and we ended up having just an evening in. We did walk up to Trader’s Joe’s and got some groceries and made pasta for dinner in the room! Love the actual kitchen in there.

    The next morning we met up with Team Ravelry (Jess, Casey, Mary-Heather, and Frecklemom) at breakfast and headed to the fairgrounds. We were parked really as far as we possibly could be from the entrance, and had to journey through the massively long grass. At least it stopped raining fairly early on Saturday!

    on the road

    First stop was the Brooks Farm booth, where M-H, Jess and Ysolda all got some yummy yarn.

    Mary-Heather loves her green yarn

    ysolda + red = love

    Fortified with lime fizzes, we headed to the Ravelry meetup at noon – lots of fun people!

    lime fizz

    And spent a good long while with a huge group of awesome knitter/blogger/flickr-ers trying to get a coordinated jump shot. It was hard, yo.

    casey gets in on the action!

    jumpity

    Big group dinner with cool knitters and great Indian food!

    dinner table

    Then we went to Guido’s party. But I didn’t take any photos there! It was nice talking to people there, and the raffle was pretty cool (we didn’t win anything though!).

    Then on Sunday Ysolda and I accidentally slept in, so we ended up getting to the fairgrounds with everyone just about the time of the meetup. It was pouring rain, and the grounds were super muddy! But we did manage to get some shopping done, walked all around, and only left when the festival was closing. We spent the evening chilling out, knitting (me) and doing computery stuff (everyone else).

    276.365 - chillin'

    And what did I get? Well I haven’t taken individual photos yet, but here’s a group shot:

    the haul

    Maybe I’ll save the goods for the next post!

  • yay for home!

    I’m back from the Maryland Sheep and Wool and boy, I’m exhausted!

    It was super awesome meeting so many knitters and other fibre-loving people. I’ll recap soon but for now I think I need to do some laundry and get to bed early!