Penn Lite

Well, Penn Lite suffered from predictably awful weather. As QB is so fond of saying, "It ain't Penn Lite unless you're setting up a pavilion in sleet." This year, it wasn't sleet - it was rain. What made this rain a particular pain in the ass was that for the entire 3 days we were on site, there were only about 6 hours of NOT rain. (Thankfully, those hours were on the morning of tear-down so I managed to get SOME of my stuff dry enough to put back into storage.)

Sadly, Gunther's trailer, where I was storing all of my Pennsic equipment, leaked over the winter and all of my carpets were SOAKED. I am thankful for 2 things:

1. My CANVAS (pavilion) stayed dry.
2. We discovered the leak in MAY, before it was warm enough for the mold to REALLY get going. (The mold is an extremely disturbing shade of smurf-blue.)

I am irritated by 2 things:

1. I couldn't use my carpets during Penn Lite because they were moldy and stinky and the ground was too muddy to be able to clean them and dry them on site.
2. I had to take my roof and carpets home to WI for cleaning and drying before Pennsic, which means that now I pretty much *have* to get that trailer I was thinking about getting for storing all my Pennsic stuff and hauling it from one event to the next. That's going to make things a bit tighter than expected for this year's Pennsic budget...

So some night this week when Zig is home to help me schlumph a wet 8x11' carpet over the Durango to dry, I'm going to have to clean my 3 rugs with Murphy's Oil Soap and PRAY that it get's the "Blue Death Fungus" off my carpets... I'm not so much worried about the color (because by the end of Pennsic, they're all DIRT colored anyway) as I am worried about the SMELL. I don't want my coffee shop smelling of mustiness all Pennsic long. That'd drive me NUTS.

The event was SUPER COLD at night, probably even below freezing... I specifically invited giftofamber to stay in the pavilion with me so that I wouldn't freeze my butt off at night, but we still pretty much froze to death the first night... I figured it out after about 4 miserable hours: Her sleeping bag lining was so slippery that the entire thing kept sliding off the bed and onto the floor every time one of us moved. Thus leaving us with no coverage. *groan* The second night was *slightly* warmer because I tucked the sleeping back under the futon mattress on both sides, but it was still ridiculous weather to be camping in.

I worked pretty diligently on the spinning and the knitting of the pinwheel sweater the whole time I was on site. This actually kept me from wanting to smoke - despite the fact that I continued to allow smoking in the coffee shop. Part of me thought that would be the hardest thing EVER, but since I had my spinning wheel and my knitting to keep my hands busy, it wasn't bad at all. Sadly, however, the gauge change for the sweater design didn't work out right, and all the work I did will need to be ripped out and started over. Probably as a pair of socks. That yarn will make LOVELY socks for someone, I'm sure. (Not to worry... I have already re-started the sweater at what appears to be the correct gauge with the white marino that I cleaned and spun from the raw wool that my colleague gave me. It's softest EVER and looks like it'll fit MUCH better this way.)

I was pretty good about reining in any shopping urges while at the event... Though I did buy some beautiful roving that was dyed with rhubarb. It's a gorgeous shade of herb-green and I can't wait to spin it... I haven't the faintest notion what I'll make out of it when it's spun, but I'm really itching to warp my loom again, so depending on how fine the thread ends up being, maybe I'll use it for weaving.

...

Pictures later, I think. For now, I'm back to work...