Fluff, Dreck, and Flotsam

And no, the things I accomplished did not include a single load of laundry... I'll work on getting at least one done tonight as I frantically warp devikat's tiny-est ever loom and try to whip out an "accessory" for the Griffin's Needle competition which starts this Friday.
( Cut for lots of pictures. )

I sometimes forget how much I miss having roommates that are handy at all hours of the day who are capable of pinning me into a dress and giving me encouragement with regard to my various and sundry fiber-related projects. This has been a whirlwind week of, "SEW! Sew like the WIND!" and thus I have spent a lot of time in the more social aspects of stitchery. I have enjoyed it immensely.

80% of the time, I love the solitary self-sufficience that weaving and spinning provide. There is a certain rhythm to these activities that I find comforting and, to a certain degree, fulfilling. (Much moreso than watching television or even reading a book would be on it's own. Likely because there is a finished product to enjoy when I am done!) Be that as it may, it is nice to know that I have girlfriends now, who have the time to help me with those activities that aren't as easily performed by a lone-needle-brandishing-maniac.

This is not to say that I didn't have girlfriends in Pittsburgh. It's just that they were all busy doing different things and getting the time to get together for coffee required an Act of God, so the likelihood that any of them would be available on a day's notice to help me with *pinning* was negligible. I'm not the type of person who will suffer fools gladly, so I am very glad for the friends that I *do* have in Pittsburgh. But in Pittsburgh my options for sewing help seemed to be:

1. Male, and uninterested in sewing. (Possibly sufficiently interested in getting into my pants that I probably could have gotten one or two fittings out of them before they realized that all the helpiness wasn't really getting them any closer to laid... But... I'm too old for that game. Plus the work of these people is patently inferior, and all that chasing me around the sewing table eventually lands them in group 4.)
   
2. Female and uninterested in sewing.
   
3. Recent mother with no *time* for sewing.
   
4. Mixed gender, interested in sewing, but with certain character flaws that are so annoying that Mother Theresa would have told them to bugger off.

I am also grateful to have made new friends here in Wisconsin who are *both* interested in getting together for a cup of tea and some of those *awkward* tailoring tasks, AS WELL AS being quite pleasant. I have been sewing with both liz_bet and eithni this week (I also meant to go to Needle Arts on Tuesday to see EVERYONE, only I remembered at the last minute that I had made an appointment with Katie MONTHS ago to get an hour massage and dinner... I trust you'll forgive me for skipping out for that reason...) and I have finished what is probably the best work I have done in a decade of sewing, had a lovely time chatting, *and* wrapped up a project in time to make my first A&S entry since I was 18-years-old.

It's been a good week. I hope we all get to Boar's Head safely, and have a WONDERFUL time.