Yet Another Verb Event

Dear Kristine,

Did you know you have the most amazing yarn shop ever? I love it so much, it sometimes makes me sad that I live on the other side of the bay. I know that lately I've only been there during some truly momentous events, and I should come by when the shop is a little quieter so we can catch up properly. But your events are always spectacular. There's usually great food, and last night was no exception.



The cookies were delicious and adorable, and I MUST find out where the heart-shaped mini brie came from.



But, this time you've gone too far by carrying artisan chocolate in the store.



And you've had some truly amazing guests, too:



Of course, they always seem to adore Cleo. I'm sure the feeling is mutual.



Do you know what really made my heart soar last night? It wasn't finding the little mini hedgehog from Ysolda's post (that post, by the way, mentions a fun contest and features a beautiful photo of a beautiful white beaded wedding shawl with said hedgehog perched on it).



It wasn't stuffing myself full of delicious food and good beer (beer with sheep on the label, no less!).



It wasn't even talking with you or Frecklegirl/Jess about the sense of community that you have worked so hard to build through events like these, and the brilliant Ravelry Stitches West passport/scavenger hunt of 2008. It was watching the community grow, one knitter at a time:



He's not picking out yarn for me, he's contemplating yarn for himself. That was the best part, the part that made this knitter's heart soar on Valentine's Day.

Love,

Starryknit

P.S. You can bet that I will be back this weekend looking for one of those rare skeins of yarn you have with a label signed by Ysolda. The obsession is not over!

Getting Back in the Groove

I've been kind of stuck this week, crafting-wise. Not stuck in a rut. In order to be stuck in a rut you have to be actively working on something, which does not describe me over the past five days. I've been struck with knitting ennui since Tuesday, when I was purusing my recently completed projects on Ravelry trying to figure out what kind of knitting I was missing in my life. I realized that last month I knit three Ysolda patterns in 21 days. That seems a little crazy, but I guess it just means that the two Whimsical Little Knits booklets really do live up to their names. After my Ysolda fever passed, I had a birthday gift to knit up. I can say that finishing a chunky wool hat that covers the ears and has a cute pompom is very treacherous when out with a bunch of people in weather like this (near South Lake Tahoe):



because all your friends will want to steal the hat. Also, you will be very tempted to wear the hat yourself while waiting for your friends to tow your car out to the plowed road:



Fortunately, the hat made its way safely back to its intended recipient. I actually finished the hat before the car trip home. It's been a while since I ran out of knitting on a long drive, and it turns out my default mode is to nap (with my mouth very attractively half-open and drooling every so slightly, according to the husbeast).

I'd been doing a good job of seaming one block of mitered squares a day, until this past week when I haven't finished one. If I'd kept up with the pace I would be finished with the blocks today, but instead I have five left. I'm trying to take this as a sign that I've had a very busy week at work, rather than as a sign that I should have stopped knitting with 30 blocks for a 5x6 blanket instead of a 6x6 blanket.

After hitting the boring wall with the squares and finishing the hat, I feel like this week I was really out of the knitting groove. The prospect of seaming more squares just seemed too boring (says the whiny 13-year-old in my brain), and I didn't have anything big going on the needles. A few big projects that I'd been putting off didn't sounds so appealing anymore, and I'm trying to not make any big yarn purchases before Stitches West.

Then it happened. Yesterday morning, I was lazily surfing the internet looking at yarn. I popped over to Hello Yarn to stare at the sold out spinning fiber colors, and saw that the next installment of fiber club had sold out as well. I suddenly couldn't remember when I had renewed my subscription, so I went over to check my email for the receipt. None was there.

Okay, maybe I just deleted the receipt instead of archiving it. I go check the bank funds, searching through the last six weeks of activity looking for the withdrawal. Still nothing, so I think maybe I put it on the credit card and go check there. STILL NOTHING. Now I am starting to panic a little bit. I start to think, "Is it possible that I forgot to renew?" No way. Not the Hello Yarn Fiber Club. That would just be the worst possible end to the week craft-wise. First I lose my knitting mojo, then I fall off the seaming wagon, and then I lose my spot in the fiber club. And worse, because this club is so popular, I probably would never be able to get back in after letting my subscription lapse.

As I'm explaining this to the husbeast, I go to check one last place where a record of my renewal might be stored: Paypal. I click through to see three months of history, and there's the renewal, purchased three days after I got the email saying that renewals were available. All of a sudden, the pieces fall into place. The withdrawal didn't show up in my bank or credit card because I already had the funds in Paypal. I still must have deleted the purchase receipt email, but I'm safe.

Basking in the intense wave of relief, I immediately pulled out the spinning wheel and start in on this:



simultaneously thanking the Universe for getting me back into a crafting groove and cursing it for doing so in such a mean way. But just in case, today I'm going to seam a couple of squares.