Road trip

Be forewarned - I feel a long and rambling post coming on. At least there will be knitting content. Scroll straight to the bottom for the yarn porn.

Anne and I made our pilgrimage to Kalamazoo to see the Yarn Harlot. She was endearingly quirky, pee-in-the-pants funny, and she graciously allowed me to touch the edge of her shawl (silk!).


A happy harlot in Kzoo

While waiting in the loooong line to get my bookbookbook signed, I got hunted down by the likes of these self-avowed dorks:

Reciprocal blogging

That's Carma on the left in the Go Everywhere Cardigan from Stitch 'n Bitch. Erin made it for her, and finished it just the night before. Erin, on the right, is looking lovely in her Honeymoon Cami in soy silk.

These two bloggers in crime talked me into the trip and I am so glad I got the opportunity to meet them. I'll be driving through Erin's town on the way home from taking Geoffrey to college this fall, and we're planning to get together to knit. Erin, who's already gifted me with this treasure, presented me with a trio of lovely stitch markers:


Little worlds with forget-me-not

The round beads look like tiny planet earths, but I couldn't capture that in the photo.

Isn't she the world's most generous knit-blogger?

A touch of Stephanie's shawl miraculously cured me of the dread sock disease. I am now on my way. In fact, I rock. Behold:

Sock and verbena

But I am still determined to conquer the Pricilla Gibson-Roberts toe-up technique, maybe with something nice and chunky so I can see what I am doing. Perhaps with the little treasure, below, I picked up at Threadbear on the way to Kalamazoo.


Artyarns Supermerino and sand cherry

And yes, Threadbear was wonderful. I was a bit overwhelmed, since we only had a half an hour to browse. Aside from the above loveliness, I found a tricky little Lucy Neatby pattern for some striking mittens. The sample, done in black and jewel-toned Koigu KPPPM, looked like stained glass. Probably beyond my ability, but not after I am done with them, right?

And this is the real thrill of the week - I just got Rob's newsletter from Threadbear, and they made a sample of my Loopy Little Bag to hang up in the shop! I am tickled pink! I only wish I had seen it when I was there.