Guild life

I learned to crochet when I was 9. My grandmother taught me, but not in one of those bonding Hallmark across the generations moment. It was a sweatshop, rap my little hands with a crochet hook summer. Needless to say, I didn't take it up as a hobby. About 8 years ago, I took up knitting. When I first bought a Vogue Knitting magazine, I saw an advertisement for a knitting cruise. It read, in Alaska there is sunlight 20 hours a day for your around the clock knitting. I couldn't believe anyone could be so hardcore. Now, I am waiting for the time a year when Alaska has 23 hours of sunlight.

I belong to a TKGA guild and for the most part they are lovely ladies. A couple of them, I even worship their skill. However, they can at times be not the most adventurous (see hence, how this blog is very anonymous...not that many of them know how to use the computer) I am trying to schedule for our yearly workshop. They are tired of the local teachers, but to get someone from another part of the country, requires a 2 day workshop. TWO DAYS??? Oh dear oh dear. They can barely do the 6 hours before they get antsy. So I have to find another guild to co-sponsor it, but I dont know how keen another guild will be to have a Friday or Sunday workshop. So there lies the dilema. Part of me hopes that I will line up something so killer they will be dying to do 2 days or at the very least another guild will love the instructor, part of me dreads lining it up just have the guild kill joys rip it to shreads.

More fiber, more stuff to store

I went to the Fabulous Fiberfest last weekend. All I wanted to do was buy fiber. Oddly, the only fibers I were really interested in were turquoise. I have a weird relationship with this color. I love it, but I like horrible in it. I always gravitate to it, but alas, I look like crap wearing it. The best color for me is green, and you would think just adding a little blue wouldn't harm it, but...

Online classes

What I find funny about online classes is that people treat them as confessionals. Things that I hope they wouldn't say in a classroom setting become OK for posts.

This past summer, I took a lit class, and one of the posts read, "like Medea I have problems controlling my anger too and let it get the best of me like Medea."

Another thing in actual classes I noticed that everyone has aliases. First roll for my other summer class took a half hour will all the "my name is Ruth, but I like to be called Ivy" or "my name is Bob, but call me Lance."

New school day!

My first day at UNLV (www.unlv.edu) as a non-admitted student. Basically this means I can attend classes and they will go on my record, but for all other purposes, I don't exist at UNLV. Or another way to look at it, I do all the paying, but get none of the free services such as use of the library. I can browse, but not check out books. I get no studend ID, though I pay for classes. I think when I walk on the sidewalk there, if a real student wants me to move or cover a puddle with my shirt, I have to comply. However, I don't mind I AM A STUDENT THERE! Hopefully in the Spring I will be an actual Rebel, but until then, I am a phantom.

The weirder part if 3 of my 5 classes are online. So I don't even show up to the school until Friday. Next week I start Spanish again (2nd year) OLE!

new family member

So the cool thing about Vegas is that ferrets are legal. Not only legal, but the local Petco are crawling with them. I used to have a rat and she ws so much fun that I thought a bigger smarter version would be even better.

Alas, we welcomed Tiffany home. I learned that bigger smarter isn't necessarily better. Whereas a rat is incredibly loyal and wanting to hang out with their owner, a ferret has the attention span of... that's how short is - I can't even finish the sentence before Tiffany is off on another tangent.

Also, I wasn't warned that basically her favorite thing in the world is my yarn. My squares, my fiber. ANd she isn't a fan of acryllic. So much for trying to plant a ball for her to take. So on a weekly basis, I have to pull out the couch and retrieve my yarn, knitted socks, etc.

Current projects

oh this is an ugly post:
a pair of socks on one long circ
Kathryn Alexander scarf from Scarf Style (I got all my colors mixed up... ug)
hat made from TOUCH ME (so soft... however I think I have made it too small)

But what I am really interested in is making a sunglasses case out of touch me and Berocco suede. Haven't done yet, but have the yarn. Oddly, the yarn is trendy colors, brown and turquoise and not my normal colors of burgandies and greens (I seem to look the best in those)

So many projects, so little attention span.

Knitting Wasteland

Something about Vegas. People will come here for the shows. Come here for gambling. Come here for the buffets and outlet malls.

People will not come here for knitting.

There is one shop that is OK but not a huge selection. The main employee, Wendy is very nice, the owner is not that friendly. But then she does have to be as the only real game in town. However, I think I would be 100% mail order if it wasn't for Wendy. So at least the owner is smart enough to hire well.

Oddly, there is a fiber store! Go figure. They are really into their weaving and looms here. I have a drop spindle, but haven't decided if I want to go full board and get a spinning wheel.

There is a quilting store that has some yarn, but it's one of those catch 22's. You don't want to shop there because there selection is really limited, but if you don't shop there, their selection will never increase.

New here

So I just moved to Vegas a few months ago from a much more temperate climate. Evidently, Vegas is having a hotspell (300 degrees vs 299 degrees) Frankly, after a certain temperature it doesn't really matter it is just hot.

It's a bit surreal going out and seeing people dressed in formal wear standing in line next to people wearing fanny packs. I also noticed the more sparkle the better. Understated is definitely not a word people understand here.

The locals, for some reason try to pretend the strip doesn't exist. They shudder if you mention it. If I use it in my direction asking, I am looked at like, oh you're new. I have no problems admitting it, whereas my husband, is trying to pretend he was born here. He already throws around the lingo. Tropicana = Trop, 95/15 junction = Spaghetti Bowl.