Sunday, October 26, 2008

SAFF 2008 recap

We had a great time at SAFF this year. I tried my best to reign in on the spending... I almost succeeded.. I'm definitely on a fiber diet for a while. I bought a few rovings and several skeins of yarn. I got a couple of skeins of lace weight yarn and a skein of sock yarn from the KnitWitch. This was their first SAFF as a vendor and I hope they did well. I'll try and post some pics of my purchases within the next week. I can't believe I took my camera with me and didn't take a single picture the entire weekend.

We stayed at the Econolodge this year and it was much nicer than our previous year's hotel although the free breakfast wasn't too extravagant. The coffee was good, but we still had to make a trip to Starbucks before heading over to the convention center so Steve could get his 'fix'.

We also bought a couple of wine boxes at Target for unwinding in the room before dinner. It's hard work shopping all day for yarn and roving and spinning and checking out each other's purchases... We (Steve and I) weren't feeling any pain by the time we got to the restaurant. We went to Tamarind and had Thai food for dinner last night. It was very good! I'm sure the waiter was glad to see a large group of raucous happy fiber fiends go. We certainly tested his waiter skills, and patience probably, and he did a great job.

We were supposed to eat at Carraba's on Friday night, but when we got to the restaurant they claimed they didn't get the call from Jane that morning to have our group on the call list for a table. I think they probably gave our table to another large group and then didn't want to fess up that they made a mistake. It worked out in our favor anyway as we went to the Mexican restaurant just across the parking lot and had a great dinner with $2.50 margaritas! The food at Carraba's is good, but we ended up getting a great meal at a great price and our group of 14 walked in the door and were seated immediately with really great service too. I think it was Casa Torres but not really sure.

The guys here that made sheep hats (Steve, Lou, Stuart, Rob and I) were supposed to all wear them together yesterday, but we never did see Rob. We only heard from other people that he was there somewhere with his partner and son Mikael wearing the sheep hat. The other four of us did walk around for at least an hour and we had a great time. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of us, but I'm sure you will see us somewhere as we were stopped about every two steps for someone to snap a picture. Steve was very popular with his felted extra accoutrements on the back of his hat. (If anyone has a picture of us in their Flickr account, please send me a link so I can see it. thanks)

It's early to bed this evening. I'm back at work tomorrow after having been off on vacation for 3 weeks. The time sure flew by, as it always does. I dread what I'll be returning to piled up on my desk. What fun it is to sit and sort through that stack!

9 comments:

  1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixiepurls/2971905889/


    :D

    - pixie aka brandy

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  2. I just emailed what I have to all of you fabulous sheep-guys. Well done, you were one of the highlights of SAFF.

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  3. Hi Doug! I found your blog because pixiepurls actually started a thread on Ravelry about the hats with her picture. I'll definitely be back! Glad you had a good time at SAFF. I didn't start knitting until I moved to Europe so I'm not familiar with the festival but I miss the Carolinas like crazy so maybe one day I'll get to go! Take care!

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  4. OMG!!!! I didn't realize you guys MADE those hats!! Holy cow! Those were hilarious and they were so well made!

    We had such a good time at dinner with everyone!!!

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  5. Hi! http://www.flickr.com/photos/carpoolknitter/2975823655/

    Your blog doesn't allow comment by OpenID, my current blog is carpoolknitter.wordpress.com.

    You guys were a highlight of SAFF for me, and by the buzz on rav, plenty others as well!

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  6. Wow, was SAFF a great time or what?! It's over too fast, though. I got a short "movie" of you spinning on your wheel. I'll try to get that on Flickr soon.

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  7. Got to you via Quiddity's blog. LOVE LOVE LOVE the hats! What pattern did you use? I was at Carraba's Friday night and almost ate at Tamarind on Saturday! Small world!

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  8. Love the hats - do you have a pattern for them?

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  9. @ ajmcdonald62 - we used the tea cozy pattern from the book "Tea Cozies" and added the legs ourselves. We did add felted eyes and other felted anatomical features too. Sorry, no pattern for those.

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