from the In box and other news

I woke to this in my Ravelry Inbox:
eunnyjang has added you as a friend!

And this is where I admit how lazy I am. I've entered very few of my projects, only some of my books and none of my stash. But I absolutely love the "friends" features. I can friend anyone I want (there's no obligation to friend back) and then I can see pretty much all of their activities on Ravelry AND (this is the best part) see every time they update their blogs. I'm too lazy to update the blog links in my sidebar or set up feeds (I killed bloglines because the pop-ups drove me nuts). Ravelry is the perfect set-up for a lazy knitter/spinner/blogger/knitting blog reader. Perfect.

eunnyjang has added you as a friend!

How cool is that?

Yeah, I'm a dork. It can sometimes be a little embarrassing. Susan commented on my Ravelry post and Susie and I had a "D'oh, you're famous!" discussion in Ravelry messaging.

Speaking of Susie, she invited Em and I to volunteer at the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival next weekend. We were already thinking of going since I found out Tracy/Copperpot Woolies was going to be there (I LOVE her fiber!). So Em and I talked.

Then I consulted the husband. Since we skipped Wool Gathering (oooh, I just realized I never mentioned I bought a wheel!!, that expenditure is why we skipped Wool Gathering), would it be alright if we went to NML&WF?

"Are you going to sell your spindles?" he asked.

Uh. Wow. It hadn't even really occured to me. We just really wanted a road trip in my new car to fondle fiber. Does it get any better than that? Oh yes, it does. We could finally meet up with some friends (hey, Leah/Yarn or a Tale is going to be there--I LOVE her fibers too!). And buy some stuff. Not too much stuff, since we did just buy the wheel...but we need something to spin on it. Otherwise, it's just a purty decoration, right?

Well, Peter planted a seed and Wednesday (in a fit of lunacy), I signed on to be a vendor. Even though the vendor registration deadline has long passed. And I didn't have anywhere near enough spindles, etc. to fill a whole table

(it's been ALL spindles, ALL the time

since then).

And I have no idea how to be a seller. I should have a clue, I've been to quite a few fiber festivals (even some back when I had no interest in fiber...can you even imagine a time when I had no interest?!?).

Oh, man, what the hell did I do?

Ravelry

Holly/Knit With Snot for You found me (Spinsanity) on Ravelry this week. She told me our mutual friend, Carina/Bina wasn't in yet and probably wouldn't be...she prefers the comfort of the Knitty boards. Holly commented that Carina was really missing out because "Ravelry is rocker!"

My (heavily edited to add stuff) reply to Holly--

A few months ago, my Sybermom crafty friends were all aflutter about Ravelry and I was...huh? What's that? Uh, I'm too busy/lazy/winding down the school year to care. But they kept talking and then they stopped talking. Because they were all in (on?) Ravelry. So I had to get on the list or never have anyone to talk to again.

Carina needs to poke her head out of the coffeeshop and see there's a whole 'nother world out here.

One of the first things I did was friend The Harlot Herself. Yeah, I know, so did everyone else (Casey said there were plans to be able to turn off "friended" notices...and that should be great news to Stephanie). But Sockpr0n friended ME!! And someone posted that Susan Lawrence (you know, Forest Canopy?) was offering some of her patterns half off as her own birthday gift. I clicked right over and snatched up a copy of Spring Things (which I'd planned to buy as soon as it came out but didn't). Then I posted birthday wishes (and a comment about being excited when I saw she'd commented on my Forest Canopy) to Susan in the same thread. I had no idea she was in there and would see it and click through and buy key chains from my Etsy shop. How freakin' cool is that??

And...I am soooo oblivious at times. Snooze, who bought one of my flower spindles, raved about it on her blog and then invited me to join a bunch of Ravelry groups is none other than Susie, the dyer of Stephanie's perfect Peacock Feathers Shawl yarn (scroll all the way down, second from the bottom pic). My daughter knew this. She thought I knew this. What can I say, it took me awhile.

I am seriously rubbing elbows with famous folks.

Yes, Holly, it's rockers. Ravelry is the bestest thing ever! And...HA... Carina's in now. :-)