The Strange Places I Knit

There is knitting to show you. In theory. Part of the problem is that I'm on a deadline for a gift I can't show you and so that's taking what few minutes of knitting time I regularly have. And since it isn't Thursday, I'll spare you the socks. I did knit at Dark Lord Day 2012 in Munster IN last weekend.  For those of you raising an eyebrow, it's a beer festival. 3 Floyds makes a Russian Imperial Stout that is considered a pinnacle of brews and they only sell it in bottles one day a year. As such, it's extremely hard to purchase.

The process involved
1) Buying tickets at exactly noon on St. Patrick's Day. Noon CST even though I was in Baltimore on lousy hotel wireless. I credit my Wollmeise shopping skills for the fact that I managed to get two tickets. The better part of 6000 tickets (they reserved some for sale at the brewery) sold out in 4 minutes.

2) A dozen of us loaded up in a van and drove down early that morning. This meant I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday.

3) Upon arriving we found reasonably priced parking near the event--which meant we could go back and forth to the van and drop off and retrieve things all day.

4) We queued from 8:30-10:45 just to get into the festival. They were supposed to open the grounds at 10 a.m. but it was at least 10:30.  We got in, there was some beer buying to soothe our already wind parched throats, and then we queued to actually buy the Dark Lord Beer that we'd come for. Limit was 4 bottles per person, plus they had special (read $$$$) bottles of other beers that were scratch off ticket and win opportunity to purchase. I did not win, neither did the Philosopher, but others in our crew did.

5) One buys tickets in one of three groups: A (10-12), B (1-3), C (5-7).  We had people in all three groups, so we were there for the day.  This meant a lot of hanging out and waiting and much trying of the various craft brews they were selling, both 3 Floyds and a lot of guest pubs who had sent or sold 3 Floyds a keg or three.  Interesting things I had included: Intelligentser (Coffee Stout), PipeWorks Hyper Dog (Coffee Stout--notice a trend?), Stone Brewing Company Smoked Porter Vanilla Bean, and a Cucumber Beer right at the end of the day whose name I can't remember. Also, Zombiehead from 3 Floyds tasted much better, imo, there at the brewery than it did in a bottle but it's still a reasonable if hoppy beer.

6) I was designated driver so while I tasted a number of beers, it was little sips. In theory this meant a lot of knitting time but it was in the mid 40s and there was a high wind. I got about three inches done on a sock. I'll try to get you a picture tomorrow.

We stayed over with our fearless leaders' mom's house. She is also Pyewacket's first human--and had Pye's mother, uncle and sister in her cat clan. The next day we drove back with a lot of beer in the van. My four pack of Dark Lord (AudioGirl has been promised one as this year's birthday gift--the others will be saved for something...) is residing in my office/"2nd bedroom" as that's the most temperature stable room at Chez Hedgehog.

I think only three people asked about my knitting who weren't part of our crew. I could tell at least one knitter though--the guy with her was dragging her along admonishing her not to stop just because I was knitting.  Pity, that, we probably would have had a fun chat.