Fiber Fool

In order to be more environmentally friendly I cut and pasted all the comments into a word processor and deleted those that did not actually contain guesses and numbered them. There were 25, so I am giving away three patterns today. I then used the Random Sequence generator and chose the first two numbers. I used the same process to assign numbers to those who had the right answer and chose just the first number.

Before I announce the lucky winners I suspect there are at least a few of you wondering what the right answer was…

The correct answer was Tonic Sol-fa. They are a pop a capella quartet who mostly tour in the Midwest. See, the lack of instruments in the photos was a *huge* clue! They’ve been together for 12 years now and I first got their holiday album, Carol, in the mid 1990’s when a local department store sold them. My mom had been turned onto them by the now musical director of one of the local radio stations.

Tonic Sol-fa is probably most known for their fun holiday concerts that are part concert and part comedy show all rolled into one. They put out one year’s show on DVD last year and now that show is getting broadcast on many PBS stations. It appears that many stations across the country will be playing it on Friday evening some time if you are interested. It is called “Tonic Sol-fa Christmas” if you wish to program a DVR/TiVo. They have also been picked up in Australia and Norway this year. This year they also released a new holiday album which includes some of the previously unreleased tracks from the video. You can get one of the tracks from that album free from Blue Bunny.

I have to say that my parents and sister wove a *very* elaborate lie to keep me in the dark about going to the concert. I recalled hearing on the radio on the drive from Ikea to the farm that the two concerts in Willmar were taking place while I was home, but were sold out. I was sad we weren’t going as I had only seen them perform once and it was not one of the holiday concerts. But, I did recall mom and dad not enjoying going to the holiday ones two years in a row because things were a bit too similar. I figured they just didn’t want to go this year. But, after getting dressed up to eat at Applebee’s and driving around town looking at the lights while freezing by eating a pumpkin pie blizzard we arrived at the main concert hall for what I thought was going to be a presentation of my Jr. High art teacher’s paintings of the stations of the cross. I have to admit to being completely in the dark and only having a flicker of doubt when I saw people lined up outside. It seemed odd that people would do that in single digits to see paintings of the stations of the cross, but you know, it is a small town. But, once we got up to the door I saw the radio station’s music director and a sign on the door that read “Tonic Sol-fa.” It was a great show and I am so glad I finally got to see one of their holiday shows in person.

Now, the winners -

From the pool of all guessers, numbers 10 and 6 won - Jenn and Nicole who both actually got it right. I swear I didn’t cheat either! Then from the pool of just the correct answers was 1 - Amanda the librarian. The three of you may choose one of my patterns. Send me an e-mail with your choice and I’ll send out the file to you.

Firstly, don’t forget about my “name that band” contest! Some hints:

• I did not attend a concert with Chris
• There is a big clue in the absence of something in those photos
• The group photo in the upper left is the entire group
• The correct answer is there in the comments

After a careful snowy drive east and a wonderful soup and panini lunch at a local bakery with Andrea we soon arrived at her home where I finally got to meet the young guy pictured above. I have to admit to not thinking he could live up to the other special little guy in my life, Isaac. However, Teddy was equally happy and go with the flow and was a pleasure to meet and spend some time with. I believe he was just shy of 7 months old when I was there if I remember correctly.

Andrea and Ray treated me like a queen, cooking a wonderful pork roast for dinner on Saturday and a fancy breakfast on Sunday morning before church and a yummy Sunday lunch as well. I also got to watch 50 First Dates on Saturday night while Andrea and I knit. I hadn’t seen that one yet and I really enjoyed the cute romance.

I really enjoyed browsing Andrea’s collection of quick and easy type of cookbooks. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of vegetarian or easily adapted to be vegetarian recipes in them. She also turned me onto a free magazine from Kraft Foods. While it obviously calls for Kraft products in the recipes, magazine has great photos and I’m told all of the recipes that have been tried have been quite good. Past issues are available online so you can check it out.

Sunday afternoon we headed to another cousin, Nick’s, house and got to visit with he and his wife and the larger family for a bit. It was my first time seeing their house and it was very nice and all decked out for Christmas. My favorite part was Desiree going on about how grandpa would give you two pats and push when you gave him a hug. It was hilarious. She’s such a good comedian. Then it was off to Ikea in Bloomington to meet up with my parents.

It was very odd to be in Minnesota for so many days and not see mom, dad, or Amber. But, it was really great to get more visiting in than I normally manage.

I landed in MN almost 30 minutes early thanks to a hefty tailwind on November 28th. It was definitely an adventure wrestling my suitcase up the 2.5 flights of stairs between me with chronic pain and Chris not being that far post-surgery. But, we did it with team work. Chaos immediately puffed up and made me feel very welcomed, LOL! He calmed and accepted my presence though. May, on the other hand, was quite friendly. She especially liked to watch me sleep (and no doubt plot my demise as all good cats do).

Friday dawned quite cold, but I braved the walk and did a bit of shopping in Uptown. Looking at the forecast for Saturday and the yarn crawl we had planned on, Chris kindly ducked out of work early and met up with me in Uptown and we hit a few shops that afternoon. The first stop was Needlework Unlimited where there were three employees for every shopper. You couldn’t turn around without stepping on an employee. It’s great to find help when you need it, but I felt like I had been pegged as a shop lifter. I know shop lifting is a huge concern for brick and mortar yarn shops, but dang - take my bag and let me shop without someone breathing down my neck! They had a rather large selection of yarns, though no real felting yarn and when asked they tried to pass off some alpaca, which anyone who has felted alpaca knows it felts fine but it isn’t the same as felting with wool and thus is not appropriate to every felting project.

The other stop for Friday afternoon was a newer shop filling the hole left by Creative Fibers closing - The Fiber Studio. It is a cute little shop. Its focus is on mixed media and felting art, with a decent selection of beads and ephemera and found elements for collage work. They had a decent selection of fibers pre-packaged in various weights which was quite nice. There was a large selection of Ashland Bay and a smattering of other fibers, including raw, washed or fully processed wool from local shepherds.

Following the shopping we headed back to Chris’ to prepare for a little knit gathering she had planned so that I could meet a few more of the Twin Cities knitters in person. She made her fabulous brownies and we had brie and nut thins (these things are crack for me I *love* them) and some fabulous olives. Oh, and you can’t forget the great wine too! Jeanne, Guinifer, Jess, and the Procratinatrix came and shared their evening with Chris and I. I finally got to see some socks knit from Lisa Souza yarn and Jess was knitting the most striking green sweater and Jeanne was just going to town cranking out bibs. I also had the pleasure of seeing someone knit one of my patterns in person! I can’t give away the details though as they were being knit for an exchange. I still can’t believe their were six bloggers in a room and not a one of us snapped a picture. I even had my camera out! *sigh* Bad, bad, bloggers! LOL!

As forecasted, we awoke Saturday morning to lots of snow and messy roadways - even the Interstates were not great driving. But Chris kindly schlepped me up to White Bear Lake to meet up with my cousin, Andrea. Conveniently we met at the Sheepy Yarn Shoppe. It was especially good because Andrea got held up slightly, but waiting an extra thirty minutes in a yarn shop is never a bad thing, except perhaps hard on the checkbook, LOL!

There were of course purchases made (and gifties), but I’ll cover all that towards the end of my travelogue. Next up, my stay in Bayport!

Chaos says, “Kindly remove yourself from that butt divet, it isn’t yours!”

Whew, even though it was 12 days it feels like a whirlwind trip back home! I guess that is what happens when you go from February to December without getting back. I had a wonderful time visiting Chris and getting to meet several other knitters I hadn’t gotten to meet in person as well as some ones whose blogs I hadn’t stumbled upon yet. It was fantastic to meet yet another well-mannered and happy little boy when staying with my cousin, Andrea. I got to see many of my aunts and uncles. And, I got to celebrate Christmas all last weekend.

Like anyone who returns from vacation, you need another vacation. I have piles of stuff that need dealing with - preferably before the real Christmas and it has to get done between all the other crazy holiday stuff going on now. I will no doubt be slow to catch up on blogs (using it as a reward for jobs well done I’m sure) and probably slow to give you my travelogue. To keep you entertained while I work on my posts about the trip while spinning and knitting and designing like a mad woman I’m holding a fun holiday contest.

Over the course of the weekend we went to a couple Christmas concerts, visited a local museum house that was decorated for Christmas and had some really good food. We worked hard at getting into the holiday spirit early enough to celebrate on Monday evening. The group of photos above are some I took at one of the concerts we attended. They are a bit blurry due to low lighting and much movement of the performers, but if you are familiar with this group at all they are recognizable. You also have further info you can use hidden here in this post and info available if you’ve been around here for a while and know where “home” is to help you figure it out. Unleash that inner detective and your Googling skills :-)

For every seven comments containing guesses as to this band’s identity I’ll give away a free knitting pattern. At least one pattern will go out to someone who guessed incorrectly. If many get it right, part of the drawing for the patterns will contain only correct guessers.

As usual, if you’ve gotten the details or I knew you were present at said concert you are excluded from the contest. The contest is open through next Wednesday, December 19th.

Well, I had planned to get some post ready to go while I was gone, but I ran out of time. You can see some of this year’s top picks in books (fiber and non-fibery), music, and tech toys here if you need some holiday shopping ideas. I don’t own all of those things, but in most of the cases I’ve had quality time to browse through them and would like to own them some day.

I’m posting safely and comfortably from Chris‘ house. I had a decent flight and even landed 20 minutes early. Chaos has decided I no longer need watching over, though we are not fast friends, LOL!

When I stepped off the plane it struck me that I’m either *very* Minnesotan even though I’ve lived in Colorado for 7.5 years, or I have a very unnatural and possibly unhealthy attachment to my family… But you can bet the next twelve days will be enjoyed to their fullest!

I’m looking forward to a little knitting gathering tomorrow night and some shopping on Saturday, then I get to visit my cousin and meet her new little guy that afternoon. Sunday I get to go to Ikea where I’ll finally meet up with mom and dad and then head out to the farm. I finally get to see my sister’s house (she is renting my grandma’s house across the street from mom and dad and made some significant changes that I can’t wait to see), I’m actually staying there rather than in my old room at mom and dad’s. I hear tell that I get to have grandma’s turkey and mom’s spaghetti while I’m there. I think there was also talk of sauerkraut soup too (scoff if you must, but if you like sauerkraut it is AWESOME). I think I”ll be doing some cooking and baking in there as well. We will also be celebrating an early Christmas with a concert and some gift opening just before I head back to Colorado.