A Red Letter Day of Surprises
Today I got a few surprises that cheered up my grumpy butt considerably. I came home from work early, not feeling well, and found a box of goodies from blog buddy, Knitzu. Look at all of the loot:
Biggify! It's worth it!
Beautiful deep purple yarn from French Hill Farms, a wonderful chicken mug made by a potter friend she knows at Maple Lane Pottery (and yummy coffee from the Carrabassett Coffee Company) and a little kayaker dude because she knows I miss kayaking back in Maine.
Knitzu and I have never met in person, but have become friends through our blogs and the fact that she lives in Maine and I'm from there. She does all the things in Maine that I used to love to do and I am jealous and hate her for it from way out here in the Middle Lands. She knows that all dogs on the planet belong to me (I just keep them different places around the planet) so she lovingly cares for my two sweeties, Gracie and Zuzu and posts wonderful pictures of them on her blog. I dispense advice about the evils of eating things you find in the woods and beside I-95 and relay instructions on which side (shiny or dull) of the tinfoil hat to wear on the outside according to which situation you may find yourself in. There is a protocol you know. It's an odd relationship, but it works for us. She thought I needed a few goodies from 'home' to cheer up my new nest. I can't believe how above-and-beyond thoughtful each gift was! Thanks Knitzu! You rock!
Surprise # 2 was that Fall Knitty is up. The patterns are great-lots of socks. If you haven't been there yet, run over and check out the night cap article and pattern by Franklin Habit. I'll wait...........I know, right?!? The man does it AGAIN! I love craft history and that was my favorite pattern/article so I dropped Franklin a note to let him know how amazing it was.
Surprise #3 came in the form of a note back from Franklin! We've blog commented a tiny bit before but very infrequently so I was surprised (especially since he gets a high volume of comments from his legions of fans) and happily so. It's like getting rock star mail, what with the popularity of his blog, his book coming out, his 1,000 knitters photography work, and wrangling Delores! I bow to his greatness! What started off as yet another bad day came in a winner in the end!
I finished Coronet (which I mistakenly called Corona in my last entry because I'd obviously been taste testing a few!). Even though I finally figured out the pattern, I'm still not happy with it overall because of the sloppy look of the pick up stitches (the ones that show at the very bottom of the brim). I'm a kind of loose knitter (Hey! That's not what I meant!) and it looks...well...sloppy... is the just best word for it I guess. And no amount of futzing around turning it up a smidge more or down a smidge more fixes it. But at least the cables were fun and provided some much needed distraction.
Biggify! It's worth it!
Beautiful deep purple yarn from French Hill Farms, a wonderful chicken mug made by a potter friend she knows at Maple Lane Pottery (and yummy coffee from the Carrabassett Coffee Company) and a little kayaker dude because she knows I miss kayaking back in Maine.
Knitzu and I have never met in person, but have become friends through our blogs and the fact that she lives in Maine and I'm from there. She does all the things in Maine that I used to love to do and I am jealous and hate her for it from way out here in the Middle Lands. She knows that all dogs on the planet belong to me (I just keep them different places around the planet) so she lovingly cares for my two sweeties, Gracie and Zuzu and posts wonderful pictures of them on her blog. I dispense advice about the evils of eating things you find in the woods and beside I-95 and relay instructions on which side (shiny or dull) of the tinfoil hat to wear on the outside according to which situation you may find yourself in. There is a protocol you know. It's an odd relationship, but it works for us. She thought I needed a few goodies from 'home' to cheer up my new nest. I can't believe how above-and-beyond thoughtful each gift was! Thanks Knitzu! You rock!
Surprise # 2 was that Fall Knitty is up. The patterns are great-lots of socks. If you haven't been there yet, run over and check out the night cap article and pattern by Franklin Habit. I'll wait...........I know, right?!? The man does it AGAIN! I love craft history and that was my favorite pattern/article so I dropped Franklin a note to let him know how amazing it was.
Surprise #3 came in the form of a note back from Franklin! We've blog commented a tiny bit before but very infrequently so I was surprised (especially since he gets a high volume of comments from his legions of fans) and happily so. It's like getting rock star mail, what with the popularity of his blog, his book coming out, his 1,000 knitters photography work, and wrangling Delores! I bow to his greatness! What started off as yet another bad day came in a winner in the end!
I finished Coronet (which I mistakenly called Corona in my last entry because I'd obviously been taste testing a few!). Even though I finally figured out the pattern, I'm still not happy with it overall because of the sloppy look of the pick up stitches (the ones that show at the very bottom of the brim). I'm a kind of loose knitter (Hey! That's not what I meant!) and it looks...well...sloppy... is the just best word for it I guess. And no amount of futzing around turning it up a smidge more or down a smidge more fixes it. But at least the cables were fun and provided some much needed distraction.I went to dish cloth night at The Ear on Tuesday night where Katie gave me a pattern for a squirrel cloth for autumn. In keeping with my boozy pattern scheme I'm knitting it in Pepto pink...Pink Squirrel...get it? OK, It's not that it's not funny, it's just that you don't get it yet. Watch out for later when the hilarity kicks in! Off to partake in some more Pink Squirrel!
Comments
You are very welcome! I need all the advice, so consider it payment, right?
Franklin wrote you a note?! He even took my picture (#246?278? something) and doesn't write me notes, though he did put my picture up. I even told him the dream I had about him... maybe he considers that I'm some sort of weird knit stalker.
So, you need to know, right?
I go to see him or somebody (and I didn't tell him that he's living in the last house me and the ex lived in), and he comes out of the house and says "oh good, you're here, come in and help me choose a watch". And then we spent some time looking at watches in a catalog and discussing time and analog and digital watches and how I like watches with round faces because it emphasizes that time is circular and spatial versus digital where time is linear and unidirectional. (and he agreed) A couple of other people were there, maybe knitting. And then his housemate (a woman... DOLORES???) came in and said "ok, all of you, out, now". So we all left. But before I did, I had to check the couch in case I dropped a needle or something behind the cushions. And I looked under the couch (which stood maybe 4-6 inches above the floor and had a little couch skirt), and LO! and Behold!
Rows of hand knitted socks with color work, like Latvian socks. Stacked so neatly. But the best? The scent of lanolin that wafted out from under the couch.
So, if you're looking for an old squirrel pattern, look into my old pattern flickr set, http://www.flickr.com/photos/74046857@N00/sets/72157602969008244/
The socks have squirrels on the cuff! The instructions are there too... flat knit, but I'm sure you can adapt it.
I see the flickr set url got cut off, I'll email it if you want it.
Hope tomorrow is a Tigger day too! :)
Second, I'm so glad you had some good things happen today! You totally deserve it!
And an answer from Franklin is so awesome!
And oh no, don't leave WI (except, unless it is the right thing for your life, but I am only saying that to be generous because really we would miss you too much)