Snow Day

Yesterday's snow day was spent – what else? – shoveling snow, cooking, and knitting. On the shoveling side, the snow was powdery broken flakes because of the strong winds. We got a good seven inches, a surprise after the dry and warm weather of most of this winter.

On the cooking side, I used January's blood orange marmalade to make Nigella Lawson's richly fragrant Pantry-Shelf Orange-Chocolate Cake (in How to Be a Domestic Goddess and also scattered around the web). It's easy to mix up, appealingly lumpy from the marmalade peel (the lumps look a bit like raisins), and super sweet and sticky good. Here's the elevation view.



Apparently the cake is so named because every proper British household has the necessary on hand at all times. The author suggests making it after a trying day and eating it in front of the television instead of dinner. I like the cake, but think the sugar load of a dinner-sized portion would render me comatose. Next time, I'd reduce or even eliminate the sugar – the marmalade is sweet enough – and consider substituting cocoa for the chocolate for a lighter cake. Like many chocolate cakes, this one went from too damp in the center when tested with a skewer to scorched on the bottom and sides very quickly. The scorched parts were hard and bitter at first, but unexpectedly absorbed moisture and flavor from the rest of the cake and became soft and interesting. Huh.

In the struggle to get a decent photo of the cake, I discovered that to get a nice elevation view of a slice, one needs to push it off-center on the plate, as revealed in the plan view. Another huh.



The marmalade cake was not the only cooking going on. For the February FIJ Challenge (salt), I made soup base. It seems to be vaguely trendy, a mix of vegetables and salt ground to a paste, ready to be used like bouillion cubes or miso paste. Alas, that effort turned out to be such a disaster it requires its own blog post to do justice to the enormity of fail. To be continued, sigh.

As consolation I knit a bit on a shortie sock I started on Inauguration Day, Send in the Clowns by Adrienne Fong, using recycled Ballooney yarn. The symbolism? Why ever do you ask? It's entirely coincidence, coincidence I tell you, that I stopped knitting this colorway eight years ago and am recycling it now. Unsurprisingly, the yarn flashed strongly at the gusset, chili red on on side...



... and lime green on the other.



I was thinking about putting tabi toes on the sock. On a boat red is port (left) and green is starboard (right), so were this sock a boat, it should be a left sock. Does that make sense? No? I'm too tired from shoveling snow to explain. Then there's the knotty question of what to do should the second sock flash in the same way as the first. Not that has ever happened, but still.

Les Belles Chaussettes sans Merci

After returning from MDS&W and while still thinking lovely warped thoughts, I decided to inspect the contents of the sock drawer to search out and forestall any activity by the dreaded müth. Preoccupied though I was in this worthy endeavor, methought I heard a faint cry, "Les Belles Chaussettes sans Merci hath thee in thrall!" It was very faint, and my first impulse was denial. It couldn't possibly be true, because I'm a ploddingly slow, easily distracted process knitter. But I couldn't deny my own knitting. Yep, those are my socks.



That's 41 mid-calf socks in the outer ring, 19 shortie socks in the inner ring. Some are pre-Ravelryites. Some are even Before Blog. The photo doesn't include three pairs of socks I got in swaps, Skew (which somehow is always somewhere else at class photo time), seven Socks of Shame, and uncounted numbers of other wips.

The newest addition to the outer ring of Les Belles Chaussettes sans Merci is a lovely Sock Madness pattern, Longing for Spring by Caoua Coffee, worked in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway Clara's Garden. Pictured with spring violets because the erudite designer references Mozart and violets.



Although I was knocked out of Sock Madness competition, I knit the socks to a regulation 80 rounds on the foot and more-than-regulation 70 rounds on the leg. I usually have difficulty fitting toe-up socks on my Frankenfeet, particularly at the heel – this one is a tad loose everywhere except the heel, a perfect length on the foot, and short in the leg. Other Madness knitters found it knit up roomier than expected. The toe and heel turn are new-to-me constructions. Were I to knit this charming sock again, I'd consider knitting a half-size smaller, keeping the toe, and substituting a different heel.

Considering Les Belles Chaussettes sans Merci et al. en masse, it seems like a lot of socks. Not too many – never, there's still so much to learn and try! – but perhaps with such numbers I can afford to spend some energy elsewhere. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have a new hobby after all.

No Fooling

My April Fool flash-your-stash is the recommended yarn for my next church knitting project.



I wish I was fooling. I don't know what I've done to deserve this. I don't know why church knitting has to equal fugly er, I meant pug + ugly = pugly.

Ah well, at least I can store it in a spiffy Della Q project bag.

ETA: Churchy friend Linda gently chided my outburst of bad language. Fixed!

Parenthetical

My weekend in fiber had a certain narrative arc. I wasn't feeling the love for the S/KAL pullover with the inutterably stupid name, so away to the frog pond it went. Ave atque vale.



NEFF was enjoyably low-key. The exhibits were indoors in one of the many buildings on the Eastern States Exposition grounds, the most magnificent and the most handicapped accessible permanent fairgrounds I've ever seen. (The fine facilities made me interested in returning next September for The Big E, the annual all-New England interstate fair.) I picked up a few items small in size but high on my desiderata list: a few skeins of solid Opal sock yarn, some wee skeins of Opal Harry Potter sock yarn, and some small bundles of Pagewood Farm roving.



Out in the parking lot, I saw remarkably brilliant sundogs over West Springfield. It's hard to tell from the photo, but they were beautifully colored and gracefully curved. I'd read about sundogs (parhelia for book learned types), but had never seen any before. It's a pity my digicam could not capture more of the horizon – there were a pair, bracketing the setting sun like rainbow-colored parentheses.



While walking around Rhinebeck it occurred to me that I could use a vest or two, a thought that recurred while walking around NEFF. I reconditioned the handspun and started a Vestvember vest. I've had commercial-spun behave less well (yay handspun).



A bit later, JessaLu asked if I'm participating in NaKniSweMo. Previous year's efforts have tended to end ingloriously, but... ::cough::... I blame the NEFFy wool fumes. Ave Caesar, nodaturae te salutamos!

Rhinebeck Car-Free

Most years I go to Rhinebeck via carpool, but this year the stars aligned differently. Not a problem, it was an opportunity to try a car-free trip – commuter rail from NYC to Poughkeepsie, shuttle bus from Poughkeepsie to Rhinebeck. As the shuttle route, 9G, is a NYS bicycle route, it also was a low-risk way to check out riding conditions for a possible future bike outing.

The first leg of the journey started with an alarming sight: multiple FDNY units parked on Vanderbilt Avenue outside Grand Central Terminal, with more responding, and NYPD blocking access to the building. I had a moment of concern for any victims and the responders, as well as a wholly selfish pang for my own excursion. Then I walked around the corner and entered by a different door. That was my first clue things weren't too bad.



All the activity turned out to be part of an emergency preparedness drill. Periodically the PA system announced, "DO NOT BE ALARMED. AN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS DRILL IS TAKING PLACE ON TRACK 15." I went on my way to Track 34 and the Metro-North Hudson Line train to Poughkeepsie, but a fair number of excited gawpers stood around taking pictures, perhaps unaware that a team of FDNY evaluators were on the mezzanine videotaping the exercise.

The train ride was a study in contrasts, traveling through some of the most magnificent and also some of the most scabby of the built and natural landscapes in the region. As its name suggests, most of the Hudson Line travels along the Hudson River, which is by turns developed for residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational uses. Roundtrip fare: $29.00.



From the Poughkeepsie train terminal it was on to the shuttle bus. The Dutchess County Fairgrounds runs shuttles for many events, although I believe this was the first year for the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival. (The driver was much more cheerful and chatty than this somewhat dour photo would tend to suggest.) Roundtrip fare: $5.00.



At the festival ($12.00), Dorre clued me in that this year Sanguine Gryphon is the new STR = long lines, bare displays. Some vendors tend to become a bit snappish under the pressure of crowds of eager festival buyers, but Sarah graciously posed for me while restocking. Sanguine Gryphon people are as beautifully impressive as their yarns.



Also beautifully impressive, Leann's cardi for her mother-in-law won a ribbon. Congratulations to Leann!



It was fun to see a whole flock of Lisa Grossman's unique tsocks on display in the Holiday Yarns booth, if only for their sheer wacky inventiveness.



The return trip was easy, sped on by one of my purchases, Amelia Garripoli's Productive Spindling. I read it cover to cover on the train – it's a slim volume, but full of deep insights for technical spindlers. The comments on the optimal relationships between crimps per inch, twists per inch, and wraps per inch (1:1:2) completely blew my mind, yet made such perfect sense.

While shuffling through the crowds, I overheard someone exclaim, "I guess the recession is over!" I think not – to me the mood felt somewhat somber and introverted, as if people are adjusting to new realities and are sorting out priorities. There were a number of changes among the vendors, a lot more men among the fair-goers. I see that as signs of continuing austerity, which makes me feel grateful for things like emergency services, regional infrastructure, and fiber crafters in all their disparate tastes and glory.

Knitter Has the Blues

Instead of enjoying the fine autumn weather roundabout Exit 151 this weekend, I've spent the past three days indoors staring at a computer diagnostic screen o' death. The hard drive on my fancy lemon computer, replaced only two years ago, decided to misbehave. Much bad language out and far too much caffeine in ensued.



It's time to take a break from the negative machine. Howabout some Maine yarn? I have some String Theory Blue Stocking in Cobalt. At this point, it ::cough:: amuses me more than it should that my Blue Stocking yarn is BFL and blue and from Blue Hill. The color is more inky than my poor digicam can capture.



And I have some Swans Island Fingering in Indigo. It's a beautiful natural indigo, with a greenish undertone that I imagine will oxidize over time. Plus there are sheep in the boat on the label.



There, I feel better. So here's a PSA: in New Jersey tomorrow is the last day to register to vote in the upcoming General Election, November 2.

Flash Your Stash 2010

Well, call me an April Fool. I suddenly realized why I like the Noro Taiyo I just bought.



Its springy, Easter eggy colors are remarkably similar to the Fortissima Mexiko I used for my Simple Side to Side Socks. I was thinking of using it for the contrast part of a contrast yoke cardigan. Hm....

S/KAL!

Yesterday this unexpected delivery made my day: 5.1 oz. of Zarzuela's Fibers Blue Face Leicester, colorway Snowy Wood in January. It was my prize for the October-December 2009 Spin/Knit-along (I knit mitts).

Behold a thing of beauty!



Not only are the colors lovely, the fiber was so gently handled that its luster and crimp are readily apparent, as is its staple length. This is going to be fun to spin.



I plan to spin it during the spinning portion of the February-May 2010 Spin/Knit-along. The knitting objective is a shawlette, but I'm not sure this fiber wants to be a shawlette, so I'll decide when it's plied.

Many, many thanks go to Jessica for offering and creating the generous prize and for delivering it after a trying commute. I’m impatiently waiting for the February 1 S/KAL start.

Silk Road City

Having polished off three socks of shame, I felt emboldened to cast on for January Sockdown. It really is still January, despite today's monsoonal wind and rain and unseasonable warmth. For the first sock cast on of the new year I went with Traveler by Janel Laidman and Socks That Rock Lightweight colorway Blue Moonstone because of the new year's blue moon and my present mood. The sock is a little involved at the moment.



Traveler includes beading, cables, and a seamless secret pocket, shown in progress. The designer's description makes me think of fabulous tales of Marco Polo and the travel clothes with secret jewel compartments he had made in Samarkand. The sock is fiddly and absorbing, which I appreciate because the Silk Road city I've been thinking about lately is Kandahar.

In church each Sunday we read the names of U.S. KIAs and also pray for our enemies. Yesterday the shift from one theater of war to another was heartbreakingly noticeable, both in the numbers and the ages of the dead. There were many, many more killed in Afghanistan and they're getting younger, stark indicators of escalation. The prayer practice has been going on for a very long time, but someone objected strenuously the other day. I guess there's nothing like present reality to deflate both romantic history and legend.

A couple months ago, I won a drawing for a sample skein of St. Denis yarn, which arrived over the weekend. Merci, Veronik Avery!



The mini skein of Nordique is a lovely raspberry sportweight. I'm eager to try it, but the skein was so tightly twisted that it had the effect of overspinning the yarn. It needs to relax a bit; perhaps we all do.

Podding Along

Last week's New England ramble included a little botanic field work. DH was dismayed to find a favorite tree gracing a favorite view had been dismasted. It's the circle of life, I suppose, but awww.



Meanwhile, I broke out the garden clippers and went milkweed pod collecting. Why? My general love of pods aside, in The Whole Craft of Spinning Carol Kroll says that both the stem fiber (or bast) and the seed floss of the milkweed plant can be spun into yarn (!). Here's my wild plunder from two states (hauled home in recycled take-out lunch containers). Much to my surprise, they're rather different.

   

The Maine (ME) plants were more robust and succulent, with thick stems and leaves. Their pods were larger, more highly colored, and very tender. They reminded me of very ripe figs – they would bruise at the lightest touch and bleed copious amounts of thick milky sap. I hope that doesn't spoil the fiber inside.

The New Hampshire (NH) plants were thinner and weedier looking. Their pods were for the most part green, didn't bruise nearly so easily, and had a pleasant sweet scent. The sap looked about the same, but seemed to contain more latex and was harder to remove from hands, clippers, and clothes.

Milkweeds are perennials and, as their name suggests, hardly rare, but I still felt scruples about collecting seed pods from the wild. The plants tend to grow in colonies and even though I assume each clump is genetically similar, I took no more than one-third of any one plant's pods.

The next step is to let the pods dry before picking the floss. While we wait, here's a flash of yellow sock yarn, luxurious Caper Sock in colorway Bee's Knees from String Theory. Bee's Knees was dyed specifically for September Sockdown!, which I have yet to start, but at least I trust last year's débacle will be avoided.



It feels very strange to recollect the urgent matters of one year ago – the U.S. presidential campaign, high gasoline prices, third world food riots, war in Iraq, hurricanes, worldwide bank failures, worldwide stock market crashes, rising unemployment, looming Depression. This year seems very different. It's too soon to be sure, but this equinoctial afternoon I'm hopeful for plodding progress toward a calmer, safer, saner, sustainably prosperous world.

Enough

As previously noted, my Worldwide Moment occurred during a meeting for the annual CROP Hunger Walk, a charity walk-a-thon. This year's theme is "Enough," which in a secular society perhaps may be the most counter-cultural notion ever.


My peaceful co-conspirators, left-to-right: Nancy (St. Peter Claver), Gregg (Union Congregational), Marie (Church World Service), levitating Jesus, Rick (St. Vincent's), Cathy (First Lutheran), Bruce (Bloomfield Church on the Green).

After all that serious stuff, when I got home this skein of lovely laceweight yarn and a stitch marker from Erin was waiting for me. She bought a bunch at a thrift sale and graciously shared her bounty. Thank you, Erin! I love the yarn and I can't help think the happy synchronicity provides a perfect illustration of sharing abundance.



It was a happy ending to a happy day.

Spinner's End

While I never managed to scrape together much enthusiasm for my project for the Tour de Fleece last month,* last week I started spinning like a crazy thing and this week have finished yarn to flash. The difference? I had a very clearly defined end purpose for the yarn in mind. What happens next? Er, hrumph.



I spun up most of a 4 oz braid of Zarzuela's Fibers Merino, colorway Maine Blueberry, into 105 yds (96 m) lumpy bumpy chunky weight for Quincy, an intriguing Moebius hat by Jared Flood. Alas, there's not quite enough yarn. Hrumph.



And I spun 2.1 oz of Yarn Hollow 80/20 Merino Tussah, colorway Antique Map, into 191 yds (174 m) lofty fingering for a Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz. The hank looks so good draped over my blazer and I'm feeling so dang lazy, I may not bother with knitting. Hrumph.


* That means my New Year's vow #4 is about to come due, details next month.

Green Stash Flash

Just for Molly, a quick post – and a flash of yarn, Dream in Color Smooshy, Happy Forest. It's a lovely new line at the newly revived Modern Yarn. Double yay!



I'm swapping Molly a pair of my handknit socks for a set of her hand-wrought dpns in the Great Hand Knit Sock Trade '09. She asked for Horcrux Socks by Susan Lawrence (a Six Sox Knitalong pattern from 2007), so that's what I'll be casting on. To be continued.

Yarny Goodness

Courtesy of PJB and her blog anniversary contest, I got me some yarny goodness: two skeins of Kolláge Luscious, a new-to-me cotton blend sock yarn. Happy blogoversary, PJB, and thank you!



Cotton sock yarns are often very tightly spun and knit up into a firm, crisp fabric; Luscious in the skein is soft and loosely plied (= splitty), rather like Tofutsies. I anticipate that with care it will knit up into a soft and pleasantly drapey fabric. For those who don't indulge, Luscious is advertised as wool-free.

By a happy synchronicity, I bought a set of Kolláge square dpns at MDS&W. They're currently occupied by a cycling anklet, but it'll be a fun Summer of Socks 2009 project to try Kolláge needles with Kolláge yarn.

Occasionally

What happened to spring? I'm prostrate from the shock of renewed unseasonal heat, a visit to my dentist, and the news that The Point in the West Village is closing tomorrow. Here's what the store looked like this afternoon.



While there I picked up a lone skein of Alchemy Juniper, some patterns, and a copy of Carol's book, Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn. I also eavesdropped on the lamentations of the regulars. I was only an occasional customer, but I can empathize with those who loved it, and also am sad to see it go.



Current public health admonitions to practice good hygiene while in crowds, particularly frequent hand-washing, seem strangely timely for MDS&W. Fiber festivals are such celebrations of the tactile – one is constantly feeling yarn, fiber, animals, fabrics, not to mention greeting people (or squeezing by them) and then eating – and I only occasionally wash my hands. Hm....



All the animal barns are equipped with gel dispensers, but this year I'm toting my own stash of wipes and sanitizer (minimum 60% alcohol – read why). After all, new occasions teach new duties.

Solar Flair

It's an overcast and chilly Flash Your Stash Day! My day is a bit too hectic for rummaging through stash – howabout I flash my newly finished Sunrise Kaibashira instead? They're easily the brightest, girly-est socks I've ever worn, which seems appropriate – after all, although some cultures personify solar power as a male hero, in others the sun deity is a radiant and terrible woman. So behold my radiant and terrible legs!



I'm inordinately pleased with this pairing of pattern and yarn, Zarzuela's Fibers Shiny Sheep in DC Sunrise. I love the shell ruffle, wavy purl welts, cheery colors, and sheen on the yarn. Plus they're my first successful Sockdown! project of the year.



Speaking of flashing, I've had occasion before now to observe that for all its seeming gentility, gardening is really all about sex. Here's graphic evidence from the Philadelphia Flower Show, a totem cactus, Pachycereus schotti monstrosus. Just about everyone who noticed the cactus had similar, albeit gendered reactions that I differentiate as men's wtf (furrowed brow) and women's wtf (pop eyes). See what I mean?



Meanwhile, I recently heard a lecture by Sir Peter Crane, a former director of Kew Gardens. He noted that most of our food is grown using chemical fertilizer derived from oil or coal, which means most of the nitrogen in our bodies comes from dinosaurs. Except for legumes, of course, which fix nitrogen from the air.

A List of His Own

A while ago DH saw my list of 10 quotes from guilty pleasure movies and put together a list of his own favorites. So without further ado, here's a mess o' faux fur to provide the obligatory knitting content, the original rules of the meme, and DH. Consider yourself flashed and tagged, if you wish.

The rules:
1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.

Hello, here are some of my favorite movie quotes as taken from IMDB. I am pleased to offer you these for your entertainment, and to hopefully inspire you to see or see once again the films represented. All of the films are well worth seeing, and each is a good or great film from its genre. If you can’t identify the film by the quotation outright, a clue will be provided.

1. "Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator n his back."
Dr. Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray, to his colleagues in the sci-fi comedy Ghostbusters as they ride an elevator to their first ghost busting assignment.
Identified by: stbyra.

2. "If it wasn't for graft, you'd get a very low type of people in politics!"
A political operative, Skeeters, played by William Demarest (later of My Three Sons) in the Preston Sturges screwball political comedy, The Great McGinty.
Identified by: Kathy.

3. "I hope you're not in the habit of seeing dead people, however distinguished – it’s not in the best of taste!"

4. "I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."
Michael Rennie as Klaatu in the 50s sci fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, to a cabinet secretary.
Identified by: Kathy.

5. "So it has always seemed to me that to do something very dangerous requires a certain absence of imagination."

6. "Marry her if you can, my son, but never fall in love with her."
Nina Foche playing Bithiah, to her adoptive son Moses, a Prince of Egypt in the biblical epic film Ten Commandments regarding Princess Nefretiri – who is standing near by.
Identified by: Kathy.

7. "Talking pictures, that means I'm out of a job. At last I can start suffering and write that symphony."
Donald O’Connor, playing Cosmo Brown, music director of Monumental Pictures in the silent-to-sound-pictures musical Singing in the Rain.
Identified by: Deb.

8. "I wish the wolves had eaten you! Then maybe I could've found a real husband."
Jada Pinkett Smith playing Toki, one of the Japanese iron workers in the Japanese animated classic film, Princess Mononoki.
Identified by: underdutchskies.

9. "In time you'll drop dead and I'll come to your funeral in a red dress!"
Loretta Castorini played by Cher in her Oscar-winning performance as an unlucky accountant in the romantic comedy, Moonstruck.
Identified by: Deb.

10. "Not much meat on her, but what's there is cherce."

Lemons

I got no new knitting content for you. Howabout I flash some stash?



I do have a broken cell phone housing and a broken headlight housing. The phone broke when someone sat on my purse in a fit of willful stupidity. The headlight is a mystery. The car was parked and there's no damage to the bumper, just the headlight housing. Perhaps it's more willful stupidity.

   

Oh well, when life hands you lemons, make lemon meringue tarts – you can feel like you're eating an entire pie in two bites.



It occurs to me I used to use a pastry bag to pipe the meringue into miniature beehive hairdos on the tarts and now I just spoon it on and make bedhead tops. I don't know why, but that feels like progress – at least it's one less thing to wash.

R is for Roving

R is for roving. As mentioned, I've been roving and I bought some – that is, my favorite souvenirs from this vacation are the lovely fiber I picked up at Spunky Eclectic in Lisbon, Maine, a paradise of all things fibery. I had the pleasure of meeting the fabulous Amy and the good fortune to arrive just when new stock had arrived but was not yet uploaded to her website. Most was still in shipping cartons. You can imagine how I felt (sound effects included chortle and snap!).

Perhaps the choicest of the plunder was this Abby batt, 60/30 Merino/silk, in the evocative, Maine-appropriate colorway, Blueberries for Sal. I'm a big fan of Robert McCloskey's books, too.



I picked up some Spunky Supernova in colorway Pumpkin for September Sockdown, but a moderator disallowed it. It would seem that asking if one's yarn is suitable is an automatic disqualification. File this under KALs Gone Wrong.



As for Economics Gone Wrong, the Fed and Treasury have a plan to to protect money market funds by vastly expanding the power of the Treasury Secretary, and Congress properly has its own ideas about oversight and value to the taxpayers. Whichever way the executive and the legislative branches sort that out, the exquisite karmic irony that a rabidly anti-regulation Republican regime felt compelled to make multiple massive interventions into free market capitalism is matched only by the still-unreckoned cost to U.S. taxpayers – not only the price tag, so far estimated somewhere 'round USD 1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000), give or take a few hundred billion, but also the lost opportunity costs. Kiss kilo-, mega-, and giga-bucks goodbye and say hellooooo, tera-bucks! ::deep breaths:: It's no wonder I'm channeling William Safire.

I wonder if Teh Mess isn't about to enter a new phase. Up until now it's been possible to ignore or even stigmatize people who lost their homes to foreclosure. It's easy to decry the fat compensation packages on Wall Street. But the next victims in the financial crisis are retirees dependent on pension and investment portfolios. Even cautious investors could have had their life savings substantially eroded or wiped out. (Just imagine if Social Security had been privatized!) Retirees are always among the most vulnerable when Wall Street tanks and the least able to recover - and they are among the most reliable of voters.

Given the rapidly changing economic situation, the presidential debate this Friday has changed topics from domestic policy to foreign policy. And PBS has an online candidate poll: Who do you trust more to fix the nation's economic mess?

OK, back to my happy place. Zarzuela's Fibers now has its own Ravelry group, Zarzuela's Fiber Junkies. I love the Zorro vibe of the button! Jessica's fibery goods are available online through her Etsy shop or at the Garden State Sheep & Fiber Festival, October 4-5.