Stitches West: a parting gift.

In February, my dear Godsister, Tina, passed away from cancer. We knew her time was near, but her illness was so sudden, and she left behind 2 darling little boys. We’ll all miss her terribly.

After I finished crying (at least for the first time that day) and found out when Tina’s funeral was scheduled, I thought to myself “I wonder when Stitches West is? How cool would that be if I can go since I’m there, anyway?” I had suspected that it was around February, so I looked it up. Her funeral was 4 days before the start of SW, and it was in the SF Bay Area! Tina knew I am an avid knitter (I even made her a chemo cap, which she thankfully never needed). My Godmother (Tina’s Mom), Mom & sisters even got to go to SW a few years back when I told them about it. But even though I dreamt of going, it’s just way too far away for me to justify a flight from here to CA in the middle of February. So, I choose to believe that my being able to go to SW after Tina’s services was a parting gift from Tina to me, and a wonderful silver lining to the trip that had to be taken.

 Imagine my surprise when I saw this photo in the slide show they played at Tina’s services. That’s her & her boys, and LOOK, she’s knitting!! I found out later she was just learning to knit over the past few years.

As for SW, it was really incredible. I wasn’t able to sign up for classes since it was a late decision to attend, but I did get to the Ravelry meetup, where I real-life “Friended” orcoastknitter, creative & baygirl. I also got to finally meet Kathy & Steve Elkins, and Kirsten Hipsky from WEBS (where I spent the most of my yarn “budget”). It was really neat to have access to SO many LYSes all in one place. I had to exercise much restraint however, for fear of 1) not being able to get everything home in my luggage, and 2) not being able to afford food for the rest of the year  I did pretty ok, I think…just don’t show dh my credit card bill!

It was a little weird when people noticed that I was there all the way from Hawaii and they asked in wonder, “Did you come over just for Stitches?” But everyone was very, very nice, and I had a great time. It was a much-needed happy event after our sadness of losing Tina.

I forgot to take a photo of all my new stash together (and now it’s all sealed up in Space Bags). But if I can figure it out, I’ll put some flickr photos up here.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who were so nice at SW, and of course, thanks Tina!

Slow Blogger

Well, I have to say that if anyone is watching my blog, I am sorry, but I'm just not too active of a blogger. I get kind of sick of the computer by the time work is done, and well, there's just not enough time to knit AND blog much.

That said, I just had to post this photo of what I consider the Ultimate Yarn Swap. That's my No Sheep Swap Pal, Debbie on the right. From June/July 2007 till now, Debbie has become what I call "Yarn Pal Extraordinaire". She lives in Norcross, GA, so when I found out that I had to fly to Florida for business, we thought "How cool would it be if we could meet up on a layover?" Well after many renditions of my itinerary with the travel agent, I gave up hope that we could pull off a stopover in Atlanta, GA, and then somehow the agent's last itinerary had a 2 hour layover there!!

Debbie's husband drove her the 35 minutes from Norcross to Atlanta, and we had the BEST yarn swap ever. Even the airport onlookers seemed pretty amused. My dm (in the middle), who had come along with me for the trip was pretty amused by ALL of the yarn Debbie brought me (I had to send about half of it back home with her b/c it would not all fit in my carry-on bag!). After we had to say our goodbyes (way too soon!!), dm asked me "This was the first time you two met?" Yes!! But we are Kindred Spirits to the core!!

Yet another reason I love knitting...it seems like when you're a knitter, you've got instant friends in other knitters. Not just Debbie, but I feel like I've found instant friends at the LYSes I've managed to visit lately in St. Petersburg, FL (Needles & Knobs), and in Burlingame, CA (Yarn Paper Scissors and Nine Rubies AND just someone I met at a non-knitting event whom I had identified as a knitter by her Noni Knits bag!!). And now more friends at our local knitting group, Aloha Knitters. Of all things, Bockstarknits (who friended me in ravelry) from Germany was in town & she got me to finally go to the local group. Yippee! More instant friends :-)

Check out this link!!

Ok, I couldn't resist posting this link:

http://mochimochiland.com/weblog/?p=111

It's the hugest stash I have ever seen, and based on the comments, bigger than most other people have seen, too. Honestly, I think that Bonney's stash room might be bigger than my whole house!! It will be perfect to show dh as he has just made the comment "You have SO MUCH yarn!". Ha!! It all fits into one 4x6' cabinet!!

No Sheep Yarn Swap follow up:

I got the sweetest Secret Pal, whose name I now know is Sheila. She's got a cool blog, and looks like even an online store: knithouse.blogspot.com

Last month Sheila sent me some 100% pima cotton from Ulster, Ireland (plus some Wyler's "koolaid" to dye it with...but it's way to gorgeous to dye--I'll dye my KnitPicks Bare with that!) and this month I just got a skein of Svale (heard about but never seen that before) AND some 100% linen, again from Ireland. I am so lucky to have gotten such a great yarn pal!! Sheila's really neat, a talented knitter/crocheter/designer, and I'm so glad I've met her! I'll post pix of the yarn soon.

I must say, my downstream yarn pal, Debbie, is great, too. We have so much in common and email each other frequently, regaling each other with stories, and getting Rogers & Hammerstein musical songs stuck in each others' heads. I think I've made lifelong friends of both of my yarn pals!!

This is fun!

The No Sheep secret (shhhh!) pals skein swap is so fun. I'm having loads of fun learning about my "downstream" pal, Debbie. It's so amazing how 2 people in different parts of the country who've never met can have so many things in common. I suppose as they say, great minds think alike....And don't we knitters all have the greatest of minds? I think so!!

I haven't heard from the person who is my secret pal "upstream", but there are a few more days left to hear. I'm anxiously awaiting an email, and hope I didn't inadvertently delete it, thinking it was junk mail. Upstream pal, if you're reading this, please please send me another email or put a comment on here! And since the directions say for the upstream person to look at my blog to learn more about me, I'll go ahead and answer some of the suggested questions:

1. What is your favorite fiber?

That's tough. At the moment, I really like knitting with Lion Brand Microspun. However, I'm really intrigued with the thought of bamboo, and love how sustainable it is as a resource for so many things, including yarn. I'm really interested in corn yarn, and would like to try it, too.

2. Do you seek out patterns calling for nonwools or do you substitute?

I do both. I substitute in a very anal and geeky manner, doing comparisons out on a spreadsheet I created.

3. What is the weirdest thing about you?

My husband says that I'm a "geekette".

4. Have you participated in other secret pal events?

This is my first time.

5. What are your favorite colors for knitting?

Bright, saturated pinks, purples, or creamy tans and neutrals. Not so much for blues.

6. How big is your stash?

About 17 miles. Much of the yarn has a designated project though. I can't wait for ravelry.com to let me in so I can track my FOs & UFOs and project queue.

7. Is there anything else I should know about you?

I can't wait to hear from my secret pal!!

It's started!!

Hi! I'm so excited that the No Sheep Swap has begun! Now, if I can only figure out how to make this blog do what I want it to do!

Hi to my secret pal, "D" (trying to keep things anonymous...just in case). If you're reading this, then you really found my blog :-)

Six Sox KAL photo

WIP photo: Horcrux, knit in Austermann Step colorway 14

Six Sox KAL April WIP photo

Horcrux, knit in Austermann Step colorway 14.