Kiss My Knits!

Brioche stitch hat eats brain. Film at eleven.

Last week, my daughter was playing in a gigantic puddle that forms beside our driveway whenever it rains. She suddenly stopped and looked down, saying, “What is this?”

It was a car key. But it wasn’t a key to my car or my husband’s, or the cars we had before these. It may have fit my old sky-blue Mercury Lynx, or the old Ford Fairmont Futura affectionately nicknamed “The Tank” I had in high school and college. Or it may have been a key to one of my parents’ cars. I tend to think it looks like one of mine, but why I think that, I have no idea.

The key must have been dropped by the driveway at least 12 years ago and buried over time. This week, I imagine the rains uncovered it for my daughter’s alert eyes to spot, even though it had weathered to the same shade as our red Carolina clay.

It makes me wonder what other things thought lost may turn up again.

NOBODY have any more babies! I’m three babies behind now!

You’ll all get teeny tiny Jayne hats, and you’ll like it!

Coconut Cream Pie

“Emily, that pie’s for Grandpa.”
(Pulls back her finger, which has made a little dent in the meringue) “Okay.”
“How is it?”
“It’s good!”

Less than five minutes later, she pads into the kitchen again, and I hear her stop right in front of the pie.

“Emily, what are you doing?”
“I’m just testing to see if it’s still hot.” (She knows it’s not.)
“Oh, you are, are you?”
“Yeah.”

So I scrape her off a little sliver of meringue, which she eats.
“I’d better test another place.”
I scrape off another small piece. “That’s all we’re going to have.”
(Walking away) “Yep, it’s cool enough.”

Heh. I’d better get the pie in the fridge. The temptation is just too much.

This morning I took my daughter to the 17th annual Hurricane Hugo Flying Objects Juggling Festival in Davidson. A good time was had by all.

We played catch with a tennis ball, and I only got beaned once. The kiddo got to try spinning a plate, which she did pretty well at. If vaudeville comes back, she’s set.

We stopped by an ice cream parlor in Huntersville on the way home for a little treat. All that juggling is hard work!

Weather was beautiful, wish you were here!

With “Talk Like a Pirate Day” coming up on Sept 19th, the ladies need a little something to show their swashbuckling style! While perusing Linda Medley’s site (and drooling over the color bookplates for Castle Waiting that are now available) I noticed she’s got a cafepress store with this little gem of a pirate shirt in it. I love it!

And may I say how fantastic it is that Castle Waiting sold out of its first printing? Once again, I am part of an obscure fandom overlooked by its proper large audience. At least Linda Medley is publishing a monthly Castle Waiting comic again, which thrills me no end.

With the book going into a second printing – will this be the niche gem that breaks into the mainstream? Nah, probably not. But still, I’ll continue to hope. Prepare to be boarded, middle America! Yarrrrr!

I went to the Books-a-Million last night for the weekly Stitch ‘n’ Bitch. I usually get there a good hour after everyone else because of the kiddo’s bedtime, but last night I was actually early! When I arrived, there were three ladies knitting in the cafe area. I walked up and asked if a seat very near them, facing them, was taken, and they said no. So I plopped my purse down and said I’d get some coffee and be right back.

Apparently, this is the whispered conversation that took place among them while I was getting coffee.

“Do you know her?”
“No. Do you?”
“I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

So I came back with my coffee and said, “Hi! I don’t think I’ve seen you before. What’s your name?”

“Um… Brenda.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Brenda! I’m (me)!”

At which point they were all looking at each other and I started to twig to the fact that something was weird. I had just figured that since I usually come late, maybe these were people who arrived early and left before I got there. Turns out they weren’t there for the S’n’B, they just happened to be hanging out after work together and knitting. I’m sure it was very relaxing until this crazy lady barged into their personal space, dumped out her belongings, and then came back to demand to know who they were. To their credit, they were just going to be polite and roll with it.

Oops.

Fortunately, I explained about our weekly meeting and we all instantly went into knitter-mode, asking about each others’ current projects and settling in comfortably. We all had a good laugh at the coincidence and misunderstanding. After about ten minutes, arrived. I was glad of that, because it proved that there was a meeting and I wasn’t some random knitting stalker. Apparently those ladies usually come on Thursday, and we always come on Wednesday. Many more people arrived to snicker at me (okay, I had it coming), and we got along together famously. So they’re going to try to make it on Wednesday from now on.

So, moment of awkwardness turns into new knitting pals made. Yay for being bold and weird!

Because I arrived early and stayed late, I had time to finish the shell of a cotton Jayne hat and whip this baby up. Noro keeps changing their $(#)*@ dye lots quite dramatically, which means that older offerings on wearwithstyle like this one need to be updated as that colorway is no longer being made, as far as I know. Also, that particular hat went up when the site originally went live, and was kind of a placeholder with no pricing or ordering info on it.

I often consider contacting anatomyofaskirt‘s website designer, aeolidia, just because http://www.anatomyofaskirt.com/ looks so fabulous. Then I remind myself that I’ve always got a couple of weeks of orders stacked up, so it’s not like the site design is hurting business. Changing isn’t a top priority.

My to-do list is a mile long, so I’m off for now!


Next on the needles: California, Ontario, and New Jersey!

Looking over a rasha’hhsograth referring to a q’zhalata on a wedding sheet, I was reminded again of why I really do want to make that Encyclopedia Elanthica I keep talking about. I wonder what good software for an encyclopedia-type database would be. I suppose there’s always wiki, but there’s got to be another option out there.

The rasha’hhsograth design – translated as “handflower” for those who don’t speak S’Kra – was a nice design, but I did have to delve into my notes a bit to be sure I was making the correct calls. I’m glad I did – I found the records of a wedding couple from 2001. Their wedding process had not been going well, but Tinsie, God bless her, kept plugging away with them while I kept an eye on the situation. By the time it was all over, the couple was really pleased with how it turned out, to the point that they wrote a very nice thank you note to Simutronics HQ. It made me smile to read it again. Tinsie had the ability to keep her cool and look for creative solutions that would make everybody happy. She always made those around her feel lighter in spirit.

Miss you, sweetie.

It’s been a very lovey-dovey day here at home today. Our daughter declared that today is “Kiss Day” and everybody’s getting lots and lots of kisses. She even made me a Kiss Day card, with a picture of a kissing mouth on the front. Inside, it reads. “Dear Mom. It’s Kiss Day. Love, Emily.” (And yes, she put the appropriate apostrophe in “it’s.”)

Her: Do you know what tomorrow is?
Me: No, what?
Her: It’s hug day! Even at school!

Pretty sweet, but we have to be sure she’s not randomly hugging people in the halls at school. I’ll happily take those extra hugs. 🙂

Today, my husband took our daughter to the public indoor pool across the street. There was a scuba class going on, and my daughter was quite wary of the divers. Finally, the class was over and they got out of the pool and started changing out of their wetsuits. My daughter stared, fascinated.

Her: “They’re turning into real people!”

Hee hee!