Booties to match vintage cardigan

Ok, back to some knitting progress.  It is seriously a good thing that Rav has the option to sort on most recently completed, otherwise I’d be forgetting to put a lot of things up here. 

Anyhow, you know that awesome vintage cardigan I made?  Well, I wanted booties to go with it (since I had leftover yarn and all).  These came up as an adorable option for the aran weight yarn I just had sitting around taking up space and so I set off to work on them.  I am seriously the laziest knitter ever because these have been sitting in a drawer finished – aside from a button! – for what feels like months! 

Even after finishing off these adorable booties, I still have yarn leftover.  A hat was definitely a consideration, but I may just want to nix that since the sweater already has a hoodie.  I might be able to just leave this yarn in my stash as a “precious” for later on when I need some scrap yarn. 

Not even kind of about knitting

See the sidebar that says "I may start posting more fun stuff about life in general"?  Yep, that's where we are today.

I do have knitting that is finished, but that can wait for next time (maybe by then I'll have a little more done).

Anyhow, as those of you who know me will already know, my husband is a freelance artist with a major focus on comics.  This means we spend a few weekends a year being a presence in Artist's Alley at the cons in the province and this past weekend was Calgary.  It's our 3rd year in a row being exhibitors in Calgary (read home) and trying to eke out some funds from this whole art thing.

Personally, I am not really a geek so much.  Video games were banned in my house growing up.  We never did have a Nintendo (yes, I am one of those kids who would come over and try to make Mario jump by shaking the controller up and down vigorously.)  However, somehow I did step into that world before having met Dave - computer games weren't banned, so I played many many hours of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. (MANY MANY hours).  Though, I must admit, Dave did find some lacking in my geek knowledge - he would laugh that I say this, as he refers to my lack of knowledge regarding geek culture to be that I "grew up under a rock".  I also must admit that even though I tell Dave I've never seen Star Wars or Indiana Jones (he fixed that already, don't worry) that I was sort of lying.  I remember my parents renting these things when I was little.  It was a movie.  We watched it - once - probably in the 80's sometime around when I was 8 years old and had better things to do than remember every movie I watched (or rather, these specific movies).

That being said, I do love geek culture.  There is so much fun stuff - and as Wil Wheaton said -  it's great to be surrounded by people who are brought together by love.

Over the past few years of going to these cons I have learned a lot about superheroes in particular.  Now I can mostly pick out costumes.  I remember being stared at in disbelief the first time I asked "who was that supposed to be?"  It's getting to the point that if I don't know, they're either really obscure characters or Dave has no idea either.

I'm getting off topic though - the point was that we were at the Calgary Expo this past weekend, and it was fantastic.  Every year we have fantastic table neighbours who are so nice and welcoming and willing to share their booth set-up tips or spread the word about other Canadian cons.  The exhibitors look out for each other and will do the rounds to say hi to table neighbours from previous years.  We spend one weekend with these people a year - and it's always nice to see their smiling faces the next time.

In addition to getting to know our neighbours, somehow we are getting to know the people who come by the booth year after year in ten minute increments - and they seem to actually care about how things are going for us.  Now that is something you don't find every day.  People at work may ask how you are doing, but they don't really care.  They want you to say "fine" and continue with your day.  There was a lot of warmth and heartfelt congratulations and stories shared this past weekend from people we meet once a year for a few minutes at a time.  I am just blown away by the sense of community at these conventions and how you can run into people time and again and they remember you.  You contributed to their con before, you had a conversation, and they appreciate that and reciprocate.

On top of all the new / old friends - I ran into some old / old friends from back in my university days, when I was still trying to get as close to the palaeontology world as possible (without needing a phd).  I lived in Drumheller for a couple summers near the beginning of my university career and met some fabulous people.  It's been 13 years since the first summer I lived there - I was 18.  Those summers were a lot of fun and the people I found didn't quite fit into the small town scene - they've since left Drumheller for the greener pastures of Calgary and Edmonton and it's kind of unbelievable that after all these years we still remember those summers and the people that made them so great.

I am so grateful that these conventions bring so many people together in such a fabulous showing of community.  I couldn't be happier to be a newcomer to this community and be welcomed just the same as people who can geek out to a degree that baffles me.  Thanks Calgary.  :)