Yarn Harlot comes to Michigan

I must say that yesterday was high up on the list of exciting happenings in my knitterly world.

I travelled to Ann Arbor through construction, lane closures, & unannounced detours with Chris as my co-pilot, and with Rebecca and Jenny bantering back and forth in the back seat. Rebecca and Jenny have been friends since Kindergarten, and their relationship is so much fun to witness. We had a nice 90 minute ride (despite the aforementioned unpleasantries), arriving at the Ann Arbor library about an hour before Stephanie was to make us almost wet ourselves as we were forced into uncontrollable fits of laugher speak and sign books. There were already about 50 or so knitters in the room, so we decided to wait rather than find some lunch and take the chance of not getting a seat when we got back. I don't think I have ever been in the presence of this many knitters at once...what an awesome time! Everywhere you looked there were needles clicking away, mostly socks being knitted. And lots of interesting knitted items adorning the bodies of all the Harlot groupies.

The room soon filled up (about 150 I think) and then the overflow was taken upstairs where they were not able to be in the company of the lovely, hilarious Yarn Harlot. They had to watch on a big screen tv. I don't know how many more knitters were up there, but I'm glad we got to be downstairs (even though it was HOT down there) and experience Stephanie up close and personal. And what an experience she is. Non-stop giggles. Fun Fun FUN!

We waited close to an hour for autographs and pictures. That's me and Stephanie with our socks (just in case you hadn't figured that out....) Those are my Lodge Socks...started when we went to the Great Wolf Lodge for spring break. Now almost finished, thanks to "afterthought heel help" from Lynn. After photos, we walked a couple blocks over to Busy Hands Yarn and Gifts. There was some much appreciated punch and cookies waiting for us (we were parched and beyond hungry at this point...around 5pm) They also had offered coupons for those of us who were at the library for Stephanie's talk/book signing. Rebecca and Jenny found something to bring home, but Chris and I didn't. Oh well, we're all suffering from yarn overload after stocking our stash with bargains because of the closing of our shop.

After shopping we went to Cottage Inn for some Antipasto salad and pizza. Yummy. Then the long drive back home. We stopped for some relief from the sweltering heat frozen custard when we got back on our side of the state. There were so many people there with the same idea. I'm sure Erma's has been raking in the dollars hand over fist in this non-ending inferno. I know it's worse in other parts of the country, but hot is hot, no matter how you slice it.

I saw some familiar faces...Rae and LynnH. (who introduced me to Sarah Peasley, and a few others whose names unfortunately escape me at the moment...my apologies to those of you who were sitting and talking to Lynn and Sarah). I saw Jillian again (met her and Amy --of knitty.com fame-- at Threadbear in May) but didn't get to talk to her yesterday. I saw a few other familiar faces...people I haven't actually met, but must've seen at another knitting event or shopping at one of the LYSs around the state.

All in all it was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday. Hell, any day of the week when you get to meet THE knitting guru, is a special day indeed.

Thanks for the laughs, Steph!

A couple FOs & Getting Back to Socks

Well, there is no picture of the first one (DUH) which was an afghan for my niece's bridal shower. I knit it in 15 days (all 25,000+ stitches of it!) in weather that was often in the 90s. Then I forgot to get a picture of it before I wrapped it up and presented it on Saturday. But I know where it's going to live and I'll get a picture of it in action next time I go to Jen and Donnie's house.

My sister was in town for just over a week, and we managed to hit 8 yarn stores. She got goodies at 6 out of the 8. Me? I controlled myself and didn't buy a darned thing, even when we visited Threadbear. Even though I had a gift certificate! I just can't imagine bringing another skein of yarn into this house right now. I'm sure you can understand that.
But when we were at Heritage, I got a bag of cotton terry cloth loops, already looped together and wound into big balls, and over the course of a couple of days I made this rug.

It is SO cushy and soft underfoot. I am hoping I have enough loops to do a couple more for the new trailer, but those I will dye a darker color or else they'll be trashed in no time. It wasn't the easiest knit (I could barely fit the 17 stitches on my size 35 needles) but I am happy with the results.

So now I'm going to go from one extreme to the other. From size 35 needles down to size 2. I am picking up my socks that I started during spring break and I am going to finish them! I put them aside months ago because I was planning on doing an afterthought heel on them, and I hadn't tried that method before.I was so nervous to continue.... I was afraid I was going to put the waste yarn in the wrong place. I read and researched the correct placement, and got several different answers. So I pondered it some more. Then I asked sock guru Lynn H. for her advice. I trust her, and she's got so much sock experience, so I am going to take the plunge and do afterthought heels. I'll let you know how it goes!

Wasabi Meets Yarnbox

This weekend we had a surprise party for my dad's 80th birthday. Part of the surprise was that my brother Dave drove from Boca Raton to my brother Brian's house in Savannah. The 2 of them drove from there and arrived here on Friday. My sister Diane also flew in with her friend Becky on Saturday. Dad was thrilled, and yesterday we surprised him more by inviting almost 3 dozen of his closest friends and family to celebrate with us. All 5 of us siblings were together for the first time in 12 years. It was great!

Brian has one of the other 2200 limited edition green xB cars too, and that's what he and Dave drove up in. Here are a few shots of us with our twin cars.

His license plate says WASABI. Hot, Green and Japanese....just like our cars!