Bunnies and Knitting, Ohhhh — MY!

I apologize up front for such a long post. I really want to cover what I have missed talking about this week. I do hope you enjoy these wordy adventures. I think this entry should make up for the amount of writing I have been ignoring lately!

Visiting my cousin’s family on Sunday was pretty big for me. After all these years of going to Stamford by myself, Rich accompanied me for this trip. While there, I managed to snap a couple of photos through the trees in hope that I could share a beautiful sky. The fullness of the branches was such a contradiction to the same trees in late March. We stuffed ourselves silly with food, and I was much relieved that everyone finally met Rich.

So many lovable rabbits are up for adoption. After Tuesday night’s session, I felt that I had better post some photos which show off their sweet personalities. The one that puts me in absolute heaven each time I see her is Bethany. I do think that she could be Jasper’s sister. Their markings and body shape are so similar. The only difference besides their gender is that she is brown versus black. See the similarities? Or am I going crazy?

Wednesday was the Big Day. Ever since WEBS announced that Stephanie was coming to their location, I put in 5, yes FIVE, reservations in case anyone wanted to join me. Unfortunately, I ended up leaving work between 11:30AM to 12 Noon, and started on the drive up to Northampton by my lonesome. En route, I remembered there was an Olive Garden at Exit 2, and decided to grab some of their salad and breadsticks. I wound up getting the ravioli, and while munching on my meal, realized that I forgot to get some yarn and Serendipity needles to go with the surprise I had for our beloved Yarn Harlot. Knowing that “EJ Yarns” was down the street and closing its doors this August, I hoped and prayed that I would find something befitting.

Unfortunately I did not, but since everything in the store is at 50% off, I grabbed the last 2 skeins of Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 4 skeins of Naturespun Sport, a Boyd’s baby lamb and soft bunny, a gift bag, an Erika Knight book, and a suede purse bottom. Whew! All of the items were at half price so I did well. Determined to get the Serendipity needles while back on the road, I stopped by the LYS in North Attleborough, MA. “Yarn it All” is the only store close to me that carries Opal sock yarn, and has a large inventory of Addi Turbos. They do not carry the lace needles, but they have requested to do so. I did find a pair of Serendipity needles for KTS3 Pal Carol, and a shawl pin for Stephanie. Not sure if I will go there soon because I enjoy the folks at other stores. I have come to realize that whenever the LYS I walk into does not get excited over the Yarn Harlot or (GASP, heaven forbid!) not even know who she is, the LYS ends up going out of business. It is really strange! Anyway, I was able to get back on the road and head up north.

When I arrived in Northampton, I immediately felt comfortable in the quaint college town full of older brick buildings. As I drove past the Calvin Theater at 4:30PM, there was a long line of knitters sitting and WIPing out the time. I was able to find a parking space next to the theater, and met other knitters who parked next to me. All of us fed the meter and walked over. Wearing my Clapotis in this warm weather, I managed to meet and greet a few folks. Turns out my Clappy was recognized by a couple of people, and when I introduced myself, there were others who asked if I had a blog. Proudly, I mentioned my little website and admitted my excitement at seeing Stephanie again after all the stuff experienced in NYC. That was when a couple of more folks remembered me from Represent. It felt really neat knowing that people did read my site thanks to that event.

At 5:00PM the Calvin Theater’s doors opened and we poured inside. Finally I met Kathy Elkins in person and thanked her and her team for getting the Boston Knit-Out and Crochet fliers into the Warm Up America goodie bags. I managed to find a seat in the front row and chatted a bit with two wonderful ladies sitting on my right. We noticed that a woman was passing out little buttons while walking up and down the rows. It was Jessica of Ravelry. “Holy cow!” I thought. Maybe I can finally get some answers on what Ravelry is and let her know that I am looking forward to getting an invitation. Jessica was very gracious and all 4 of us chatted for quite a bit. In my mind’s eye, I see this wonderful application similar to an enclosed search engine on specific steroids. I cannot wait for the day when I write one post, and have it appear in all the respective KALs linked to it. A great example would be the recent Swallowtail Shawl I did. That project needs to be posted on 2 Swallowtail Shawl KALs, the Evelyn Clark Yahoo Group, the Lace Shawl KAL, the Interweave Knits KAL, Stashalong, Stashbusters, and my own website. Add the matching Flickr groups, and a lot of work appears. Ravelry turns all that effort into one. The anticipation is going to hurt for quite a while! (Update: I received my invitation today. The wait paid off!)

Stephanie came out in a comfy white cotton blouse and khaki skirt. Steve Elkins brought her a beer to help keep her throat refreshed. To explain the glass of beer, she did a quick story on her first trip on tour. It involved Stephanie doing a lot of firsts in travel by herself, and ended with her calling the hotel operator to “bring her a beer” which turned out to be B*d Light. Here is a reminder that Stephanie is from Toronto. ‘Nuff said. 🙂 The rest of her speech was brilliant as it was during Represent. Her discussion of CHOKE empowered us. It made me want to beat up all the Muggles who were mean to all knitters! One of the disbelieving Muggles was the theater’s sound guy. He was taken a bit back by the crowd.

The question and answer session was funny and poignant. The funny highlight was a gentleman who told the Harlot that he will only knit the scarf is he working on and that was it. The entire audience of 600 laughed at those words. The poignant was the woman who told the story of while her house was burning down, how she begged one of the firemen to retrieve her bag of $3000 Cormo from her attic. He refused and actually called paramedics over to sedate her! Her plight was answered by knitters who sent her parts of their stash. Obviously touched, Stephanie told this sweet woman to talk to her afterwards so that Stephanie can send her some of her Cormo. Amazingly HUGE is the Harlot’s heart.



Later while walking into WEBS, I let a huge sense of awe smack me, and I embraced it when I saw The Banner hanging from the ceiling towards the front of the store. Almost immediately, I again greeted Kathy and began snapping photos. One of her team offered to photograph us under The Banner, and so Kathy and I did a quick pose. I gave hugs to Deborah the Senior Editor and Jayme the Wonder Publicist. Ignoring that I had one of the “Early-bird get in line” cards, I wandering around the store and the warehouse, chatting with friends I knew from the RI knitting groups and elsewhere. I could not stop taking pictures of the cones of yarn, the displays full of cashmere, and WEBS’ house yarn label, Valley Yarns. Earlier I had met Gayle at the Calvin, the Kangaroo Dyer of Valley Yarns’ Franklin, their wonderful handpainted sock yarn. That was the yarn I chose to give to Stephanie — something fitting to the night’s events. I did present my little surprise for her, a gift bag with a ginormous bottle of Autocrat Coffee Syrup!

The night ended with Laura and Eileen meeting me a little after 10PM. We decided to hit Friendly’s to grab a quick bite and a bit of caffeine for our drive back to Rhode Island. We talked about all sorts of things from our fur-kids, to Eileen’s Swing dancing gig at Waterfire this summer, to Laura’s cool job at working for a television station. After almost running over a deer lying in the road, and missing another one that jumped across the highway 2 car-lengths ahead of me, I did not get home until a little after 1AM. What a wonderful day!!

Friday morning I caught up with Morten, one of my team-mates in Denmark. His wife Jette began a publishing company that has wonderful crafty books. She is a wonderful designer with a keen eye. Her latest project, a bobbin knitting book, features items that could easily be in the Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting exhibition out in NYC. I am looking forward to seeing my copy. There is a yellow gold cuff I am pining for. When I remarked about the bracelet to Morten, he typed “LOL” because I picked one of the pricier items. Go figure, and I generally do not like yellow gold! By the way, if anyone is interested in purchasing the book, 295-DKK is about 50-USD. In return, I am sending over my “catalogue” from the visit in NYC. I think Jette is going to enjoy it.

This weekend I need to get the final items for my Knitters Tea Swap 3 buddy, Carol from Celadon Cupcake. This fellow baseball fan lives out in the beautiful San Francisco area. She has the cutest beagle, Arrow, and loooooves cupcakes. I am hoping to find the last little something during Lucy’s sale at Mind’s Eye Yarns out in Cambridge, MA. Gosh, one would think I am tired of shopping at yarn shops. NOT!! After all that, I am going to attempt to meet Heidi and Julie at the RI AIDS Walk being done at Roger Williams Park from 9AM Sunday. Not sure if I can make it, but I did donate.

As for projects, I have some finished objects. The blanket is more like a WIP until I decide that it does not need fringe. I put the thumbs on the longer slender pair of Fetchings. There is a green wool bag in need of the first round of felting. Explicit details can be found on Ravelry, but I will include them when the bag is completely finished. At least for the month of May I have a pair of baby socks and the baby bath set (cotton poncho and bunny washcloth). I just need to find the baby bath set photos!

My last note talks about a special yarn that I asked Yvonne from Lavender Sheep to dye in the Hokie colors of orange and maroon. I want other folks to have a crack at the 3 laceweight alpaca hanks before I scoop up the rest. Seriously though, if nobody is interested by the middle of next week, I am going to snatch them up. Not sure why, but I cannot help myself in collecting Hokie yarn. 🙂 Going once, going twice… =:8