A Houston crafting god in my presence

Ever do something sort of dumb and really wish you hadn’t? Like say something in front of someone you didn’t realize was standing there? Then realize he’s sort of famous in the world of yarn? Yeah, probably not, but you’re not dumb like me.

 My friend allowed me to kidnap her and take her away to my LYS: Yarns 2 Ewe. She was looking for some crochet patterns and held up one of the Crochet Dude’s booklets. To be specific, it was “Do Your Vest.” She giggled and said she liked it because it was crochet-based and it had a pun in the title. Then I chirped in, “And he’s from Houston.” The man we were previously ignoring standing to our side spoke up and said, “Really? He’s from Houston?” It was Drew Emborsky, aka the Crochet Dude. His first book has just been published, and he found a copy that shipped early there on the shelves at Y2E. We wished him luck and then giggled about our little near faux-pas. Of course we were only being flattering, but it’s discombobulating to turn around and see the subject of your conversation when he was previously a disembodied head on a booklet/blog. To his credit, he was charming and funny. AND the patterns in the book look wonderful!

As we left, I said to my friend that at least we helped make his day a little cooler, right? I mean, if I found a copy of my first book on the shelf of the best yarn store in town, and simultaneously heard people talking about me, I would feel pretty freakin’ awesome.

I don’t think I’ve previously reviewed Y2E, so I’ll do so soon. It really goes without saying that it rocks hard! I was there buying yesterday, then figured out what I want to do with my Malabrigo lace, so I called and had them save me the last two skeins of Vermillion so that I had enough for the Auburn Camp Shirt. That was my “reason” to go back the very next day!

Awww

Today at work, I saw my boss for the first time since she returned from a conference in Washington, DC. Turns out, she spent some time with knitters while there. In fact, the knitters took her out to a shop in Alexandria, VA. Generous as she is, she thought of me and brought me back some goodies:

On the left is a postcard of Roy Lichtenstein’s “House 1,” which is one of the trippiest sculptures I’ve ever seen. I had recommended that she see it while at the National Gallery (it’s like a giant optical illusion, but I won’t spoil the surprise). On the right is a retractable tape measure in a flag motif. I had JUST been looking at various shapes and colors of these while contemplating a purchase. Who could ask for a better or more useful trinket from a trip to DC?!?

October in Pictures

Since I haven’t posted many photos this month, I decided to catch up all at once: http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=61927

Why are people so mean?

I’ve avoided political posts all election season, and I still don’t intend to delve into my political preferences now. Don’t let that fool you, though. I’ve always been very politically involved, and I have strong opinions. I just try to not shove them down other people’s throats in unexpected venues.

This election has me excited. I’ve never made a campaign contribution before, nor have I ever put up a yard sign or bumper sticker, but I did all this time. Scratch bumper sticker, I got a nifty car magnet. I was so happy with it. It crossed my mind for a split second as I slapped it on my car that someone could take it, but I immediately shrugged it off. People have “Support Our Troops” magnets, autism magnets, various forms of cancer magnets, and those never seem to go missing. Surely no one would stoop to stealing my personal property off of my car, right?

Wrong. I went to the store this evening and parked next to a car with a magnet backing the same candidate. I was so excited to admire them together as you don’t see many around here. When I walked around the back of my car (which I do often, but not daily), I was crestfallen to see my magnet gone. And it’s a strong magnet, it’s unlikely it fell off.

 My only hope is that another supporter who couldn’t afford one of his own took it and is proudly sporting it on his vehicle. I am so angry, though. I bought a total of three yard signs so that I could immediately replace mine if it went missing (and then subsequently gave them away, but that’s pointless, I did plan ahead). I honestly never thought someone would stoop to taking what looks just like a bumper sticker. Would they have defaced my car if it wasn’t a magnet? Why is it that I can walk past the opponent’s propaganda and resort to muttering under my breath, but some sticky-fingered jerk gets to take away my freedom of speech?

Sorry for the rant. I promise more yarn-filled goodness soon to make up for it.

Monogamous knitting

I FINISHED THE BLANKET! Remember that massive thing I held up a few weeks ago? It’s done! It grew taller than me and can cover our queen-sized bed! Hubby is thrilled, and I haven’t even woven in my ends yet. So cute, the first thing he said was, with genuine excitement, “Want to take pictures for Ravelry?” (I didn’t. I was done touching it for a few hours. I promise a picture soon, though.)

It’s so good to be done with it! I don’t even know what to do now because I’ve been so monogamous to this project lately! I’m sick of the acrylic, though, that I may pick up some of my Malabrigo or some nice lace. I do have some Kid Silk Night waiting around for me to make Ice Queen.

 My Ravelry project page says that I started the blanket in December 2006. I do think I bought the yarn then and cast on for my first try. I doubled the width of the pattern or something insane, so I ripped it out and tried a smaller width. Then I needed the needles and put everything on stitch holders, which was a disaster. I eventually ripped it all out again (it never got past a few inches) and started over this September. I did a few rows here and then. When Hurricane Ike hit, the blanket was only about four or five inches long. I think I tripled it that weekend. From there, I was just trying to push through. My husband was patient as he’s been asking for this blanket for years.

In other news, we just put our deposit down for Guitar Hero: World Tour! We are totally excited!

Sicko/Darko

A sinus infection or something took hold this week and knocked me off my feet. I’m so close to finishing the camo blanket, but I haven’t felt up to picking up my needles all week. I’m sitting on the couch right now rewatching “Donnie Darko” and sucking on a throat losenge. Life is not exciting at my house. The good news, however, is that we had a guy come out and look at our shower problems. Sometime in the coming weeks, we’ll have new shower walls both upstairs and down! Yay! (I haven’t beared to post about the showers because it’s so dang depressing.) I’ll update photos soon.

Back to the blanket, it’s almost as tall as me now, which makes switching sides unwieldly. Heck, it makes the whole project unwieldly. I’m hoping I can cast off next week and be done with it for good. I almost ran out of the boucle yarn (I’m doublestranding), and Ravelry saved the day. I found another Raveler who was looking to offload two skeins of exactly what I needed. She even threw in a sweater she was working on that she didn’t like for me to frog if I needed more. Ravelry is amazing! None of my local craft stores had the color I needed, so I would’ve had to order it online for more money. Instead, I was able to take it off the hands of a fellow knitter and we both got a deal!

I promise, I'm not hiding!

Wow, things have been busy here Post-Ike. Work has been a bear. My remote access hasn’t been working, so I’ve been commuting a lot more than usual — and unable to take my beloved bus because of timing issues.

But enough complaining. Look at that camouflage blanket! It’s a litle over half done, and actually already longer than it is in that picture. My husband held it up today while I compared its size to a quilt my mom made, though, and it’s not nearly close. I was hoping I’d have an excuse to stop soon. I’m about to reach the end of the pattern IF I were making it regular sized, but I expect I’ll need to add at least two extra panels to get the size my hubby wants.

The pattern is really neat, with a row of yarn over’s in between large swaths of stockinette all bordered with seed stitch. Sadly, I’ve never been able to take a picture where the pattern is actually visible. In person — and I guess most of you will have to take my word for it — it’s quite nice.

I’m excited because the big truck came by this morning to remove our storm debris! Too bad we hadn’t mowed or else we could’ve loaded on some grass clippings!

And on the baby news front, the last of the children of the summer of baby showers was born last weekend! Today we’re off to the baptism of one of the earlier little guys. I still have yet to make the hats I promised (to myself) for any of the last three of the five!

Speaking of little knit hats, I highly recommend that you look at this link. It’s a project from Save the Children that I’ve participated in before. It’s so touching to tie a little note onto a hat for a kid you will probably never meet and send it off. Here’s a link straight to the PDF of the action kit.