skittermagoo!

A good yarn day

Saturday, that is! (yessss, as usual I'm way behind with the blog post)

On Friday afternoon, Jen got an email from one of our local yarn stores, saying that Saturday they were having a huge sale -- 40% off everything in the store! This is on par with their Big Annual Yarn Sale, so of course I had to go! NanC and I set off first thing Saturday morning, and got there just as they opened.

I wish I'd had more time to plan and go through some of my patterns and such, so that I could buy some sweater-quantities and maybe get a jump on some things I've been wanting to knit. Even so, I managed to do some damage, especially in the sock yarn section (I know, no surprise there!):

mmmmm, Artyarns

I picked up six skeins of Artyarns, and some Regia Bamboo (which was news to me -- I'd never heard of it!). I also snagged a skein of olive green Nature Wool to do a felted bowl or two.

Later in the afternoon, Hub and I needed some interfacing for a sewing project, and got the bright idea to go to Hobby Lobby, since it's close. Note to self: Hobby Lobby is almost never a good idea. The lady in the fabric cutting dept is slooooow, and of course I was behind someone who had 34 different spools of ribbon she needed cut.

As always at HL, I swang by the dishcloth cotton to see if there were any new colors, and what did I find?

Sunshine and Lime! Perfect for summer

I'm took at least one of these to Stitch-n-Pitch on Sunday (the Rangers played, um, someone); can anyone guess which?

Road Trippin'!

So, since someone here in Dallas either dropped the ball or never even picked it up, the Yarn Harlot isn't booked for Big D on her current book tour . . . I'm not sure what happened there, since Dallas is not only a large city, but also has a generous number of yarn stores and multitudes of knitters (the stitch-n-bitch yahoo group alone has over 250 members!). I imagine that probably yarn store "A" thought that yarn store "B" would be taking care of it, etc, etc (that's how things often happen here for some reason).

ANYway. Bitching about lack of communication and coordination among my local yarn store owners wasn't my point here . . . what was my point? Hmmm . . . .

Oh, yes. Dallas had no Harlot date, but Oklahoma City and Austin did, and since OKC and Austin are equidistant from Dallas, the Purling Pirate and I decided to road-trip to OKC for the event this past Tuesday. So after a half day of work, I jumped in P's car and we set off, jumping up and down in our seats a bit since we were finally going to get to meet the Yarn Harlot (since Dallas also didn't make it onto the previous two book tours, either).

The ride to OKC is about 3 hours, and my sock enjoyed it quite a bit . . .

yes, land between here and there is mostly flat

We got to the Gourmet Yarn Co a little early, so of course I bought some souvenir sock yarn to commemorate the trip . . .

Opal "Doktorfisch" and some Regia silk in solid color! woo!

Then we made our way to the local library to secure our seats for Stephanie's talk . . . there was a line already when we got there almost an hour early! At first there were a bunch of empty seats, but it filled up pretty quick. In line we met Cassa, and sat with her at the talk, too.

So let me just say . . . if you have the chance to hear Stephanie talk, RUN, don't walk to the event! Her books make me laugh until I cry, but she's even more hilarious in person! I think my face still hurts from smiling and laughing so much. It was surreal sitting there watching and listening to someone you're used to seeing only on the internet. Not as surreal, though, as almost a hundred people standing up and singing the "Oklahoma" song in unison to that person.

After the talk, we went back to the yarn store for the book signing . . . and stood in a huge long line for a while. It wasn't bad, though, because knitters are nice, and we had good chatting with the other people in line around us. It didn't hurt that the line wound its way through the shelves of yarn in the store, either -- we got to fondle and squish and sniff yarn while we waited.

About 2 minutes before we got up to the Harlot Table, I remembered that I'd brought some of the blog cards that I'd made for Maryland, so I asked P if I should give one to Stephanie so that maybe she'd visit the blog (she's been here before, but I wasn't sure if she would remember it at all). P said, "Um, YEAH!", so I got one out . . . and I'm SO glad I did! 'Cause this is what happened:

Me: (scuttling up to the table with my book, and handing her the card, too) "!! Hi."

Her: (looks at card, then looks at me incredulously) "Is this YOU?"

Me: (squeaky) "yeah!"

Her: "Oh, wow, HI! You're a real person!"

Me: "I know, right? So are you!" (I'm completely amazed and verklempft that she recognizes my blog name)

Her: (turning to sign the book) "It's Chris, right?"

Me: (super squeaky) "Yeah!" (OMG, OMG, not only does she know my blog, but she remembers my NAME!)

She then turned to me and says, "Wow, it's so nice to meet you in person!", at which point I may have hyperventilated and passed out . . . but I think I just squeaked, "Oh, yeah! You too!". All I remember at this point is P taking a picture of me and the Yarn Harlot and our socks . . . OMG, my sock met her sock! I seem to also remember shaking hands with her, and I have no idea what else I said, but hopefully it wasn't anything TOO dorky and embarassing.

I am FREAKING OUT at this moment!

I wish I'd been able to make it to Austin today, 'cause I'm sure there were a TON of Texas knitbloggers there, and it would've been a blast, but crossing state lines to meet the Yarn Harlot was totally worth it!

Next book, I hope she makes it to Dallas!

D'OH!

Julia tagged me! Y'all know I don't usually do these things, but since it's Julia, I'll comply . . . this time. :)

5 Things always in my purse:
wallet
cell phone
keys (unless I'm driving!)
hand sanitizer
ipod

5 Things always in my wallet:
drivers license
debit card
health insurance card
at least one receipt
a couple of business cards

5 Things always in my refrigerator:
milk
white wine
tonic water
sriracha chili garlic sauce
dijon mustard

5 Things always in my closet:
clothes
shoes
luggage
purses
extra blankets

5 Things always in my car:
insurance card
tissues
a sun visor thingy
umbrella
mints or candies

5 Things always on my desk:
piles of papers
calculator
bottle of water
pens
PDA sync thingy

I promise promise promise the next entry will chronicle my trip to OKC to see the yarn harlot . . . I still have to download my pictures from the camera!!

I know.

Seriously, yes, someone should come over here and confiscate my blogging license. I've been so remiss at blogging that I maybe shouldn't be allowed to anymore. Last time I checked in, Stalker Angie was about to arrive, and sooo much has happened since then!

Beware Stalkers Bearing Gifts!
She came, she saw, she brought goodies!

my apologies for the horrible lighting

Stalker Angie arrived at my house more than half a month ago, and brought me the absolute nicest gift: sheep stationary (!) and some SoySilk (which I've been dying to try!). I'm not exactly sure why it was that she gave me gifts and not the other way around, but the SoySilk did not explode, and is in the stash getting along nicely with all the sock yarn. We had a great time during her visit, and since I'm too lazy to blog about it, you can read it over at her place. While she was here, she finished a gorgeous crocheted shawl . . . I'll let her show the pictures of it.

In other news
My friend of many years, Dolores, gave birth to a baby girl, who has been nicknamed "Daisy" since she was but a wee squirmy bump . . . so what better to make for her than the Daisy sweater from Knitty?

my first baby sweater! really!!

I'm planning on leaving it plain, but I have three different sets of buttons shaped like daisies to choose from. Certainly y'all all will be in on that decision!

Speaking of the Yarn Harlot (which we were, since she designed the Daisy sweater), I'm planning to go to Oklahoma City next week for one of her infamous book signings . . . unfortunately she isn't coming to Dallas, so our choices are OKC and Austin (which are each approximately the same distance from Big D). The Purling Pirate and I are planning to roadtrip to OKC for the occasion, possibly with a Purse-Ho in tow. And then, on Saturday, depending on what my girl NanC has planned, I may be trekking to Austin as well!

And since Tuesdays are for spinning

I've been slowly spinning up some Merino/Tencel that I bought a while back . . . I think I have 8oz total of this, so I've been working on it in batches.

The photo is amazingly true in color and shine on my monitor, and it is mostly laceweight singles, with a few thick places thrown in. I'm thinking of leaving this one as singles, rather than plying it.

Speaking of plying . . . I'm finding that I like the end product of Navajo plying, but I'm wondering of some of you other spinners can clue me into one thing: if you have to pause and stop and be able to continue later with the Navajo plying thing, how exactly do you do this? 'Cause I've found so far that once I start, I don't feel like I can stop without messing it up.

And finally

For all of you who think that Abby is such a sweet and docile kitty, I give you this:

Devil Eyes on the balcony