Chicago - Day One

Finally! Time to add to the blog.

Wednesday. September 9, 2009. We arrived on Tuesday the 8th, and on Wednesday the 9th we went to the convention center to set up. The nightmares I'd had were realized: my boxes were not there. I had my receipts showing the tracking numbers, and we'd checked online the night before and it said that a notice had been left at the warehouse. Not quite sure what that meant, Viper Tradeshow services checked the tracking numbers and claimed to be confused, because the warehouse is one that is always staffed, and they claimed there is no way the post office tried to deliver something and found nobody there. As I tried really hard NOT to totally freak out, but in the back of my mind was thinking that maybe the boxes had been returned to CA and I was there with no product, we went to lunch and perused the area. Then we went back around noon and sat in our empty booth and knitted for an hour, and then we were presented with the shipment. The folks from Viper Tradeshow had gone to the post office and picked up the boxes. Unfortunately they'd taken my receipts with them and left them. $300 in tax-deductible receipts. Gone. I still have to deal with trying to reprint those.

Anyway, we set up the tables/cubes in record time, finishing in only 2 hours. We opted not to stock the cubes that day because we knew we could fill them with inventory on Thursday. Less chance of theft, and more time to think about the layout. And time to go to U.S. Cellular Field to see our hometown Oakland A's lose to the White Sox.

Home from Chicago

I'll post some info about the trip to Chicago and Stitches Midwest soon, but I have to mention the house when I got home this evening. Sofie, Bailey, Simon, and Chanel stayed home while Nelson and Katie were boarded so they could have their medications. Lisa was coming in to feed/water/scoop and generally make sure they were all alive and well. I got home this evening around 6:30 and Bailey greeted me at the door. I walked in and discovered they'd cleaned out their food container and not even a morsel was available. Plenty of water, but no food. Like it would really hurt any of these chubbos to miss a meal!! Anyway, I immediately added plenty of food to the bowl, opened a can of wet food as a nice 'welcome home mommy treat', and as I walked through the kitchen I see packages of crackers and taco shells on the stove. The ziploc bag that contained crackers was chewed through.

Now, Bailey is the only one who is really smart (and onery) enough to get into kitchen cabinets looking for food, so I know he is the guilty one!! The cabinet that holds canned food was open, despite me having blocked it (or so I thought) with a step stool. He was not smart enough to get a can open though.

So this is what a bag of cheese crackers looks like that have been attempted to be opened by a hungry cat. I think this bag needs to go immediately to the garbage. I'm not sure what he thought he'd do with the tea bags...tea and crumpets, er, crackers?

Stitches Midwest

So we flew into Chicago O'Hare on Tuesday, and got settled into our hotel. I am SO glad we went to the Convention Center Wednesday morning because when we got there, the booth was empty. The warehouse folks were supposed to have the boxes delivered to the booth, but there was nothing there but the pre-ordered tables. I took my delivery receipts to the administrator, and the post office theoretically left notices at the warehouse of an attempt to deliver, but the warehouse folks swear that is not true.

Viper Tradeshow services had been paid for material handling already, so I offered to go to the post office myself and track down the boxes if they'd trade me the fee I'd paid for another table, but instead they did the right thing and sent one of their staff to the post office to retrieve them. I was sweating it big time because I had fear that the post office had actually returned the boxes, since the attempt to deliver had been 10 days earlier, and that would put me here in Chicago with my inventory somewhere between here and the Bay Area. Fortunately that fear was unfounded. The boxes were at the post office and were delivered to the booth about 12:30-1:00 on Wednesday so we got it all set up. We decided to put the grids together and wait until Thursday to put the inventory up, so we left the convention center around 4.

We went to see our home team Oakland A's play the White Sox. We gave up in the 12th inning and went back to the hotel, listening to the end of the game on the way. The A's lost. Big surprise there. We sat by the nicest people though! The lady next to me kept saying "oh my, last time I came I sat by someone who was visiting their home team and we lost so we'll probably lose now." Her sister, sitting next to her, was a Sox die hard. Complete attire from her T-shirt and jersey, which she later added a hoodie when it got chilly, and her tote bag and backpack and probably earrings all sporting her beloved Sox logo. But when the A's messed up, making 2 errors, she leaned around her sister to high five me and say "your A's f*** up as bad as my Sox!!!"

Blankie Mania

There is a group on Ravelry called Blankie Mania. These folks make blankets out of sock yarn. I've seen some of the pictures and I spoke with several enthusiasts of this craft when I was at Sock Summit. Absolutely a labor of love! I haven't even finished a baby sized blanket made of worsted weight yarn that I started like 8 months ago! I would probably never finish an entire blanket made of sock yarn. But I have to say that these are some beautiful items. Mitered squares of many colors, sewn together with love. You couldn't do two alike if you tried.

This wonderful group has initiated a dessert-inspired yarn swap. 20 members of this group each purchase one full-size hank of my yarn from my Etsy site, and once all those orders are placed I send the whole thing to the group leader, Terri in Idaho. She will then painstakingly break each 400+ yard skein into 20 mini skeins of about 20 yards each, and then each participant gets 20 mini skeins. What a deal. But what an ordeal for Terri. I love the opportunity to get my yarn into the hands of 20 new customers, and I'm so going to enjoy seeing their work. Hopefully they'll share pictures of the blankets in progress!

Anyway, the first orders have come in, and here's what they've chosen so far. Nice array, eh? I think they're choosing a really nice variety.



On another note, I finished a pair of baby socks using Witch's Brew. They'll be gifted to Miss Marina so she can celebrate Halloween in style. But not until after I display them in my booth at Stitches Midwest next weekend!

Give me back my tiara

Okay...weird title for a post. I have never felt like a princess or a diva or anything like that. I'm pretty well grounded and down-to-earth, realistic, etc.

However, I am also one who considers 'roughing it' a room that doesn't offer room service. You will never catch me camping. Uh-uh. Never gonna happen. I need an inside shower with plenty of fluffy towels, inside plumbing that works, and a comfortable mattress on a box spring in a room that has a good HVAC. And cable TV. Preferably with HBO.

About 6 years ago I discovered I could hire a service to clean the parts of my house I hate to do and tend to neglect, like floors, toilets, sinks, and bathtubs. For $75/month someone comes in twice a month and does all that stuff including getting cobwebs out of the corners and the dust bunnies off the ceiling fans.

And when we bought this house, we suddenly had lawn to deal with. For another $75/month a non-English speaking guy comes over and keeps the lawn looking really nice. It's always mowed, edged, the flower beds are clean and tidy, branches aren't dropping on to the walkways, etc.

Then the economy hit the toilet. When Ray got his pay cut in December, we had to re-evaluate how we were spending and decided where we were going to cut expenses to be able to continue to live with his pay being reduced. Both the gardener and the housekeeping service were eliminated, along with premium TV channels (goodbye HBO...) and a few other non-necessities. We each had to start cleaning our own bathroom and get better about keeping things tidy.

And we bought a lawn mower and edger as soon as spring time came and the lawn was no longer dormant. After much research, we determined we wanted electric, primarily because they're better on the environment. We looked into the rechargable ones and the reviews were not good, so we bought an electric mower and edger and some really long extension cords. There is only one outside plug and it's on the deck, nowhere near any of the grass.

Ray's first time using the edger resulted in one of the sprinklers being totally shredded. So the edger only got used once. Before he left to work in SoCal, I asked him to be sure he mowed the lawn and cleaned it all up so I wouldn't have to do it. I was hoping the lawn would realize its caretaker wasn't here and go dormant...but the damn stuff kept growing. So I mowed the grass in the back yard yesterday. It really wasn't difficult, once I got hundreds of yards of extension cords untangled (he hadn't used the cord tender I'd purchased). But it was honestly no fun. The front yard has to wait until it's not so hot.

And I guess I am more comfortable in the proverbial tiara than I am behind a mower. I need a gardener again!

And yes, you may offer me some cheese to go with my w(h)ine.

Phil Vassar

As soon as I knew I was going to exhibit at Sock Summit, I immediately went to Phil Vassar's tour schedule on his website to see if maybe, just maybe, I'd get lucky enough to have him performing in concert while we were there. I was so excited that he was performing at the Tillamook County Fair on the 5th. So after the pre-summit yarn tasting luncheon, we drove to Tillamook, about an hour and 15 minutes from Portland, and we went first to the cheese factory and viewed the visitor's center, tasted some cheese, had lunch, and took this goofy picture of us as the parts of a cow...

Then we headed to the fairgrounds. Jillian and Noah were aching for funnel cakes (which I've never tasted...what am I missing?). They both know Phil's music, but have never seen him in person. We had a blast.

Sock Summit - FINAL DAY

The last day of Sock Summit was Sunday, August 9. The Marketplace was only open until 1:30 so it was a short day. But it was rather busy! Last minute shoppers flocked in with the lists they'd made but hadn't yet filled, kind of like what I do on Christmas Eve ;-)

A young lady by the name of Katie came in and struck up a conversation with Jillian, and I was only sort of listening. After an exchange that sounded possibly heated but probably in fun, this girl turned to me as if to say something, stopped, and turned to Jillian and said "I can't yell at her! She's like...my mom!" Turned out she'd come for Witch's Brew, but I'd sold out. I offered to ship it to her at my expense since I'd run out and she agreed. I just chatted with her on Ravelry a couple of days ago and she saw the companion to Witch's Brew I just dyed, called Tricky Treat, and she decided she wanted it instead. So it's off on its merry way to make her a happy Halloween.

Anyway, Sunday turned into a helluva lot of fun. Here's the story. And I don't think there is any way to make it short but I'll try.

My car, with my gps unit, was at the shop. I have no sense of direction, nor does Jillian, so the fact that we'd driven to the Convention Center 3 days in a row was irrelevant when it came to the realization that we had to get there without the aid of Garmin. Linus printed us a MapQuest instruction guide and handed us the keys to his SUV and off we went.

This would have been fine, had the freeway not have closed. There was only one detour sign telling us anything, and that was just to go this way (405) because the freeway we really wanted (I-5) was closed. This was obviously veering us in the wrong direction, so we exited the freeway. We asked a nice lady who was getting out of her car with her husband and kids preparing for this special bike ride across all of the effing bridges in Portland event, and all she said was "you need to be on the other side of the river but you can't get on that side today because they're all closed." And she cheerfully scampered away. She's lucky Jillian didn't get out of the car and kick her in the you-know-what.

So we parked, Jillian called the non-emergency Portland police line, and got a nice dispatcher who gave her turn by turn directions to get to the Convention Center. Score 1 for Portland's Finest. We got there, without having breakfast, but at least we got there.

1:30 came pretty quickly and when they say the Marketplace is closed they mean it. By 1:31 people from the exhibit trade show company were hauling down the aisles taking our chairs and wastebaskets. We broke down the booth and packed it up into the SUV by 2:45. What took us all day to set up on Thursday took us a whole hour and 15 minutes to pack up. Of course there wasn't as much to pack, but damn that was efficient!

We pull out of the Convention Center, bidding Sock Summit 2009 a fond farewell, with a minor snafu. We know how to get back to our hosts' home once we get on the freeway, but we don't know how to get to the freeway in the first place. Jillian can't find the paper with the directions that got us there, we don't know if I-5 is still closed even if we could figure out how to get to it.

And then the lack of sleep, the sheer exhaustion, the extreme hunger because we haven't eaten yet today, combine with the fact that neither of us has a sense of direction...and the laughing begins. Jillian makes this statement that we're two grown women who can't find our way out of a paper sack and that did it. I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard I couldn't see. I get control (sort of) and drive a couple of blocks and spot a police car. He's looking for someone to do something stupid so he can issue a ticket, and I'm sure we appeared a bit too happy. Instead of him pulling us over, we pulled him over. I walked to his car to make it obvious I was not intoxicated, explained the situation, and he gave me verbal directions. I think he saw my eyes glaze over and so he offered to lead us to the freeway. And he did. Two points for Portland's Finest.

We got on the road, had a really late lunch at Applebee's, and went to Corliss' and Linus' house to rest before a wonderful dinner.

And Sock Summit 2009 is officially over. What an experience. What fun, what a tremendous amount of work. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I hear I have to wait 2 years and get a passport because rumor has it the next one is in Toronto in 2011. Lots of shows between now and then!

Sock Summit - day THREE

Day three was Saturday, August 8. This day proved to be most interesting in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with the show. We got to the convention center about 30 minutes early, planning to restock and maybe rearrange a little, and when we parked the key wouldn't come out of the ignition. AAA sent a locksmith who managed to get the key out, but advised me not to start the car until I was driving it to a dealership for repair because he didn't think I'd get it out of the ignition again. I had no luck calling local Ford dealerships because none would take the car that day, so Linus came and left his SUV and took my car to the closest dealership...that wasn't really close...but the only one he could find that would take the car on a Saturday. The call with the results didn't come until about 5:30 and there, of course, was good news and bad news. The good news? They could fix it and it was covered under the warranty. The bad news? They couldn't get the part until Tuesday. So guess what? We get to stay an extra couple of days which means we get to go look at scenery and waterfalls!!!! Not a bad thing.

Anyway, at the show Saturday was really quiet - almost eerily so. It actually was kind of nice though, because I was able to take the time to help a couple of ladies who saw me knitting 2 at a time toe-up and were very curious how to go about knitting socks in this way. I was able to show them in detail how to work across the rows and turn, and explain that while it "seems" faster, it really isn't. You're still knitting the same number of rows and stitches to get a pair of socks, but it feels faster because when you finish you're done. There isn't another sock still waiting to be knit. The other things I like about knitting socks in this fashion is that I tend to modify on the fly and I don't have to take notes to remember what I did to make sure I make the modification on the other sock, and if I misread the pattern and goof, I will goof on both socks in the same place...so they match!

Nothing eventful this day whatsoever, other than the car. We had a great time and because there weren't as many shoppers in the Marketplace we were able to visit a whole lot more with the folks that were there. I wondered if maybe the people who had classes all weekend were just burnt out this day too and didn't want any part of shopping. I know if I was taking classes that whole time my eyes would have been glazed over pretty well by Saturday.

I did walk through the sock museum and these two are my favorites. Arrr-gyle and these adorable anklets called Almost Saintly...I guess because they are hole-y. I wold wear those in a heartbeat.

Sock Summit - day TWO

It occurred to me that one of the most exciting things we did while in Oregon was see my favorite singer, Phil Vassar, in Tillamook. That happened Wednesday after the luncheon. But I'll save the details on that for later, after I get through all the days of Sock Summit!

Day two was Friday, August 7. Marketplace opened at 8 and closed at 6. We got there right on time, totally ready to go. Visitors to say hello today included Janet, who I met on Ravelry and one of my best customers! She came to the booth 'specially to say hello and bought some of her favorite flavors while she could pick them up and take them home and not pay shipping! Look at those colorful bags she's holding. Her yarn stash must be totally awesome.

Noah worked on homework (honors English - he had to read two books and have very specific notes for the first day of school), and helped us in the booth too. Lots of people who other than their natural hair color came in and we really enjoyed the color! I'd done mine Berrylicious, Jillian's had fuchsia in it, and we saw blue, purple, pink, and teal. As well as combinations of all.

I didn't realize I had no pictures on my camera of all of the funky hair...those photos must have been taken by our visitors. Oh well. One of the most colorful things we saw was this young lady's stockings. Hand knot thigh-highs in this wonderful color. She looked adorable, and I admire the length of time it must have taken her to get those knit.

Sock Summit - day ONE

The official first day of Sock Summit was Thursday, August 6. The marketplace was only open to students for 2 hours in the late afternoon, so we had all day to set up. Silly me, I thought it would be like a 2-hour job. I put on jeans and my favorite t-shirt, foolishly thinking we'd have time to go back to the house and change into cuter clothes before the Marketplace preview. Oops. Anyway, we left Corliss' and Linus' house in Tualatin and drove the 12 miles to the Convention Center. Corliss followed in their SUV toting all of the boxes I had shipped to them in advance. We unloaded in pretty quick time, considering we'd never done this before, and got to the booth and it was like...YIKES!! I screwed up. I ordered a counter instead of a table, so it was really high. The convention center was going to charge me full price for a table and only refund half of the price of the counter, so I said screw it and we'll make the counter work! And we did.

Noah quickly got busy with the hammer putting the grids together. Jillian and Noah worked on them together for awhile, but Jillian was anxious to see and touch yarn. She's been hearing about this for months, but hadn't actually seen anything. So she got the task of hanging display socks while Noah and I worked on the grids for awhile.

Next, it was time to put some yarn into the grids (what a concept!). Jillian has a great eye for color and really wanted to do the layout, and I have no problem whatsoever relinquishing responsibility and delegating :-) So I went on a Starbucks run while they worked. I ran into people I'd seen and spoken with on Ravelry in the really long line, so it was good conversation!









The final booth arrangement. Not much room! There was a line in the first Jaws movie in which Richard Dreyfuss kept saying "We need a bigger boat..." well, "we needed a bigger booth." I thought if things didn't "move" I'd rearrange as the weekend went on, but the only thing that changed was figuring out how to display the Kiddie Scoops (mini skeins for those who are not familiar with my line). Bev, who test knit Paw Tracks for me, stopped by. As did Cara. And Sheila. And I don't even remember who else. There was this loud cheer from the Marketplace (inside) when the announcement was made that the doors were about to be opened for the masses to enter. And there was an even louder cheer from the Marketplace (outside) when the doors opened. Jillian and Noah both just looked stunned. Really??? All this excitement??? Over socks??? Oh yeah...over socks.

The booth, right before the marketplace opened, Sandy and I, boothmates, and Bev Latham and I showing off her pretty knitting.

Secret Pal Swap

So the SP14 swap is rather interesting. I thought I'd figured it out (who my partner was) but the person who I thought it was brought me something hand-delivered at Sock Summit. Unless I am right and she was wearing someone else's name badge. Which is what I'd do. Hmmm...it's more fun if I don't really figure it out anyway!

Sending my partner's August package today, just finishing packing it up. I wish I could take a picture to show but I don't want to give away the surprise.

So in the meantime, here is my friend Corliss and I at one of the waterfalls on Monday, and Jillian and Noah just goofing around as any good mother and son would do.

Sock Summit - pre-summit luncheon

Wednesday, August 5, 40 lucky people were guests at Gino's Restaurant in Portland for the pre-summit yarn tasting luncheon. 5 dyers, myself included, were asked to provide free yarn for all of the attendees, which gave us all a great opportunity to network and strut our beautiful yarns. A different dyer and her yarn was presented with each of the 5 (can we say full??) courses. Mine, of course, was dessert. It was awesome. Here are some photos. On the left, the front of the restaurant. It is a charming little restaurant in downtown Portland. On the right, one of the many wall paintings that adorn the interior. The face in the middle of the woman with the brown hair and glasses was our host, whose family owns the restaurant. It is quite unique in that the produce is local and much of it organic, with eggs coming in from her farm!


We were surprised by Chrissy Gardiner giving us all a copy of her new book, a collection of wonderful socks knitted from the toe up.

I've already started a pair of baby socks using the star toe, something I've never done before, and I'm ecstatic to have this new book! I'm even more excited that she talked with me about being part of her next project, featuring 25 indie dyers!














And finally, when it was time for dessert, I got to get up there and introduce my yarn. I chose to give away a variety of flavors, as opposed to one flavor to all attendees. I kind of blanked out standing up there...most of what I thought I'd say got lost in my head. But the attendees seemed to be quite receptive, and I loved seeing them trade out some of their yarn if they preferred another flavor. Jillian and Noah attended too...what a handsome pair they are!!

On the road!!

On the road to Sock Summit!! Jillian and Noah will be at the airport about 11 and then we're on our way. YAY!!! Chanel really wants to come. She's never even been in a carrier, so when I dropped her off this morning and had to put her in a cage I cried. She cowered down with her ears all flat and just looked totally confused and had no clue why she couldn't stay with me. omg here come the tears again. Time to turn off the computer and get going.



If you're going to be at SS PLEASE be sure to stop by booth 1115 and say hello!!!

My first pattern!!!

It's finally come to fruition. I designed a sock pattern quite awhile ago, but haven't had time to knit it all up. I played with it to the point that I knew it worked, and I knew it was going to look the way I wanted it to, but I just didn't have time to knit it. So I recruited a couple of folks from The Testing Pool on Ravelry, and I now have real, original socks. The pattern is called Paw Tracks, and I will get it up on Ravelry hopefully before Sock Summit. I plan to give it to customers who shop with me at Sock Summit too. Look how cute!! Chanel thinks so too...

Secret Pal Swap

So I got my July package from my Secret Pal yesterday. I think I've figured out who she is too!!! The box contained 11 balls of some super yummy baby pink cotton that is such a perfect color for me. Some cute stitch markers and some cute odds 'n ends. The 3 balls of wool are a wonderful shade of pinky tweed and will be perfect for charity knitting projects! Our Benicia store is reopening hopefully in September and I'll wait to see what the next project is, and I'm really hoping it will be hats again because this yarn will be perfect for hats, or possibly afghan squares. Will have to wait and see!! Anyway, Ruth, thank you for the package and for taunting me. I'll see you next week at Sock Summit!!

Sock Summit Prep...nearly done! maybe

The process for getting ready for Sock Summit has been intense. Exhilarating. Creative. Fun. Exhausting. Anticipation. And much more...

It's winding down. My goal was for this week to do no dyeing. At all. That whatever I'd dyed through Saturday 7/25 would be it. I'd then get it all skeined, packed up in the suitcase Sheila is taking for me on Southwest and the rest in my trunk. And then the Dye for Glory voting started. Creating some special flavors for that event has proven to be quite successful. Witch's Brew is by far the front runner in my Etsy shop now. I dyed an extra 40 skeins just to fill orders and make sure I had some to take with me to Sock Summit. I've got a little yarn store in Utah asking for some too that they can sell during the Halloween season.

Portland's Passion has done well too. I had to make another 20 or so skeins of it to make sure I had some to take to Sock Summit. It would be rather weird to get to the summit and have none of the yarn that got named 'specially for the event!

This is all so amazing to me. I knew when I started this that I had some great ideas for different flavors and I was sure I could make 'em pretty enough to want to buy. But the response has been tremendous. And now I'm worried that I won't have enough for Sock Summit. But I'm not going back in the kitchen right now! Can't do it...too much else to get done.

On the to do list for today: make signage. Laminated menus to be placed around the booth so people know what stuff costs. Time to get off the blog and get that done! If you hear snoring, you'll know that I fell asleep trying to get the signs done.

Two posts in one day...wow

But I can't resist! I sent some yarn to my friend Nina in OH to test knit some socks for me for display. OMG they are just too cute. The pattern is by Anne Hanson and is called Summer Fun Socks. They're perfect for my yarn because the pattern is little ice cream cones!!

Root Beer Float, and Sprinkles. It's obvious which is which.

How did this happen?

I'm not sure how I ended up here. This is my daughter Lissa who turned 21 at 1:19 this morning and I'm just not quite sure how she got to be 21 already. What have I accomplished in the past 21 years? A quick look at where I was then and where I am now...well...I've accomplished quite a bit. But enough about me. This is her day!

Her birth was (relatively) peaceful. My doctor had gone on vacation so his partner got to play the role of Johnny Bench at the end of the delivery bed. She went from me into a warm bath and all was quiet and well. Then once she was home she screamed for the next 4 months. Sleep deprivation does really weird things to new moms. And the people who live with them. And the neighbors.

Lissa is low-functioning autistic. She lives in a wonderful group home with 4 others about her age. They don't interact much, rather co-exist. What can that co-existing teach the rest of us? I want the bumper sticker that says, simply, co-exist using all the different symbols of religions, political beliefs, races, etc. I don't want a bumper sticker on my car bumper, but I'll display it somewhere.

Back to the topic. So she's 21, and celebrated in grand fashion with balloons, talking Elmo toys, lots of pretty clothes, and of course cake and ice cream. This cake should be called death by chocolate. Chocolate cake, chocolate mousse filling, and chocolate icing. Give me a teaspoon or so of the chocolate mousse and I'm good. I bought 2 different kinds of ice cream and the kids devoured it. Ice cream is reserved for very special occasions. I have to say that this 21-year-old's birthday party was a whole lot more tame than most. No alcohol, I don't have to worry about her going out partying or being stupid. So there are definite perks to being the parent of a special needs child!

The Hello Kitty sticker book was a big hit, as were the balloons. And Elmo singing The Hokey Pokey is always fun.

And at the end of the day, a great big slobbery kiss for mom. What more could a mom of a 21-year-old ask for?

The rant

I've gotten quite a bit of support from folks who agree with me on the panhandler thing. Thank you! Pam said she sometimes will take them inside and get them food and it reminded me of something that happened when Jillian was little. We were exiting a freeway somewhere in SoCal, so she had to have been about 9 or 10, and there was a rather disheveled man standing with a sign that said he was hungry and needed money for food. She wanted to know if we could help him, so we went through the drive-thru at whatever was closest and bought him a meal. We took it back and he cussed me out, with Jillian in the car, for having the gall to bring him food when what he wanted was cash. Well, then why does your sign say you're hungry?? That soured me on giving to the panhandlers, so all the panhandlers of the world that cross my path can blame him for why I don't stop.

I will add though that when I was working in San Francisco it crossed my mind that if I gave to every person who had their hands out on that short little walk from the train to my office, that I would soon be one of them. There was one man who was honestly hungry, and when Martha and I would go to lunch she would always box up what we had left over and give it to him on our way back. I tried that one time when Martha wasn't with me and he gave me the evil eye...so he would only take food from select people and I wasn't one of them. Oh well...

Lots of yarn drying, lots waiting to be skeined, and a bit more waiting to be dyed. Time to dye!!

This is gonna turn into a rant

Okay I've never used my blog as a place to rant...but...there's a first time for everything, right? I wish I knew how to make a vote-type of thing so I could see how many people feel the same as I do on this subject.

I went to the local shopping center to pick up my mail, lunch, and a few groceries. No big deal. But after picking up my mail and lunch at Subway, I walked over to Safeway. I could see as I got closer that there were solicitors in front of the door, and that always bugs me. But there wasn't just a solicitor...there were 3 of them. A homeless man (with really nice shoes) holding his cardboard sign that said simply "homeless please help", and a woman at a little foldable desk on one side of the door and another woman with a little girl on the other. The little girl was quite outgoing and made sure I knew that she wanted my attention for a donation when I came out.

Now, a little about me. I have charitable causes that I support. But I don't give money to panhandlers, and I don't put money in the buckets of people standing outside of grocery stores. Ever. A box of Girl Scout cookies? Sure. But pretty much any other cause...not gonna do it. And it annoys me to no end when I am accosted at the entrance/exit of retail stores. When I drive up and I see them at one door, I park by the other door to avoid them. But this time I was walking from Subway, and the only way to avoid them would have been to go to my car and move my car, which seemed kind of stupid when I was only going into the store for some grapes and air freshener.

I mentioned to the store manager that I really didn't like having any solicitors at the door, but 3 was just over the top. He looked surprised, and said 3? Really? He only approved 1, and the way it works is each group can only be here one day a month. So I told him he might want to go outside and check. The homeless man probably wasn't an approved solicitor, but there were 2 others. He went outside immediately to deal with the situation and get rid of the unapproved one, and I turned to the woman who was in line behind me and apologized for taking that additional 30 seconds to voice my complaint. She then proceeded to chew me out saying why didn't I just walk by and ignore them. Because I shouldn't have to walk by them, that's why. Target doesn't allow solicitors in front of the stores, but unfortunately I can't do my grocery shopping at Target.

Charitable organizations need donations - I get that. I used to do animal adoptions for the local shelter every weekend, and we had donations jars in our adoption room. But we didn't ask for any donations. If people are feeling it, and they want to contribute and are in a financial position to be able to do so, then they do. But all of these folks that are taking donations for every little thing under the sun just drive me nuts as they park themselves in front of the entrances to retail stores. I do what I can for the organizations I choose to support, and I don't need to be asked to do more when all I'm looking to do is buy a pound of grapes.

Rant over. Yarn is calling.

So what is a proper burial?

We live in Cordelia, kind of a wind tunnel. It's really windy here like all the time. So the other day I find a half of an eggshell on my walk, and so I started looking for the nest which had to be in the trees right there. Couldn't see one. Then I found the baby bird, dead, in the driveway about 20' away. So poor little thing had fought his way out of his shell only to get blown out of his nest. I presume. I didn't think it was appropriate to leave him in the driveway where he'd get squished by tires, so I took him to the flower bed figuring that would be a better final resting place. Is that appropriate? I hope he has a peaceful forever after such a rough, and short, beginning.

It's been pretty hot for the past couple of days and it hasn't been windy at all so the yarn is drying very fast! A good thing since I leave for Sock Summit 3 weeks from today. YIKES!!!

It's not carpal tunnel!!

None of the treatments prescribed were working for my wrist, including that totally painful cortisone shot, so the hand specialist ordered a MRI because he couldn't understand why nothing worked. I got the results yesterday and I've got ganglion cysts in there. Oh joy! I had one removed close to 30 years ago and they told me at the time that these things are notorious for coming back...and it did. And it brought a friend. Because now there are 2.

The good news? Never cancerous, never dangerous.

The bad news? When it does start hurting like hell I brace it and live with it. Until there is time to have the cysts removed. Which isn't going to be anytime soon with Sock Summit, Stitches Midwest and Stitches East coming up.

I was going to post a link to a YouTube video or something about ganglions but..uh...when I typed in ganglion cysts into google I found a really gross video with some idiots cutting open a guy's neck and squeezing out more nasty stuff than you'd think could ever be there. Ick! "Yeah doc I uh have this big infection on my neck because I let my friends operate on me..." Duh. I won't share that video here since it's really nasty.

Time to go back to dyeing...

Stowaway Attempt

I started packing up boxes to ship up to Portland for Sock Summit and when I came back into the room this is how I found my empty box...

You don't even know how much I'd love to take her with me! She's so even-tempered. She sits on my lap or in the passenger seat in the car, puts her paws up on the dashboard or stands up to look outside the side windows. And she'd be a joy...but I can't ask our friends who are putting us up that week to have another cat running around their house. I'm going to miss her so much!!

And to anyone reading this who is now thinking my yarn is cat-contaminated, it never comes in contact with the kitties! They're in the room, but never in contact. After it's skeined I zip it into a ziploc bag and this box may have cat hair in the bottom of it, but the ziploc bags are sealed before they go in the box.

It's taken a week but...

It's taken a full week using the electric skeiner to get everything I'd dyed already wound and ready for sale. So tomorrow it's back to the kitchen to dye more yarn! Interesting experience though when I leaned forward and the skeiner was spinning...just about gave me a concussion as it went off the table and nearly through the 8' living room window. It took about an hour before I could see straight, but neither of us were badly hurt. I keep forgetting about the welts on my head and scratch the itch, which serves as a quick reminder that there are bruises there. No worse for wear though!!

Katie is doing extremely well...so much better than I expected. She's gained well over a pound since the vet gave her the pills to increase her appetite and curb the nausea. She's playful and no longer sunken in. Her purrsonality has completely changed too. She's no longer skittish...at all. Just the opposite. She wants to be held, preferred pose is over our shoulder just like a baby, and carried everywhere. She kneads on everything and purrs constantly. I'm glad I gave her the chance because those first two weeks after her diagnosis I was ready to go ahead and pull the proverbial plug. Now you'd never know she is sick!

SP Swap Questionnaire

So I have signed up for a secret pal swap and here's the questionnaire and my answers:

Here's the SP 14 Questionnaire!

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I love cotton, silk, and bamboo. I really hate mohair, synthetics, and anything that is even slightly scratchy. I can wear wool on my feet but I've tried even the softest merino, cashmere, or alpaca feels fine to work with but when I wrap it around my neck it feels like sandpaper. My feet get really hot really easy, and I've found the wool socks I've made in sock weight/fingering yarn get too warm pretty quick so I'll save them for winter. My favorite thing to knit are sweaters, lightweight cotton, silk, and/or bamboo.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I have one that I bought at Stitches West a few years ago that zips closed and has zipper pouches to keep circulars. It's bulging, so I need to find something that will store more, but I like the compact nature of this particular storage solution.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I learned to knit when I was pregnant with my 2nd daughter, who will be 21 at the end of July. My first project was a zig-zag patterned baby blanket. It took me forever to do, and I was using soft cotton baby yarn. I hated synthetics even back then! I did more sewing than knitting back then, but now I just knit.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I had never even thought of creating a wish list...I do have a "save for later" cart at KnitPicks and another at QVC.com.

5. What's your favorite scent?

I love floral scents - lotus, freesia, and my all time favorite is plumeria. Believe it or not, Avon used to have a plumeria scent in their Naturals line that I bought a whole bunch of when it was discontinued and put on clearance, and I've not found another one. I did buy a nice bottle of Hyacinth in Vegas last October that's nice, but I miss the plumeria.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

I have a horrible sweet tooth. I try to stick with sugar-free though to try to avoid the excess calories. I drink splenda-sweetened Kool-Aid, strawberry and lemon-lime are my favorites. I also like most of the flavored sugar-free waters that are now available.

I actually really like spicy foods, Mexican being my all-time favorite. Spicy salsas pack lots of flavor with little caloric consequences.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I started my own yarn line, so I spend most of my time dyeing yarn. I don't spin, and I don't think I'll learn...I just don't see time in my future to learn another hobby! I have done some scrapbooking and enjoy it but there hasn't been much time for that either. I have all of our wedding pictures waiting to be turned into a great scrapbook and someday that will happen! I bought the book and the pages but still need to find the right embellishments (and the time...can my partner send me some time please?).

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

Country, country, and more country. I listen to modern top 20 country artists like Trace Adkins, Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts...and my all time favorite is a composer who has put out I believe 4 studio albums by the name of Phil Vassar. He comes up with a new song and I download it from iTunes that day. He's amazing. I am not a huge fan of Taylor Swift, but her single Love Story intrigued me enough to buy her new album, Fearless, and it's pretty good. I'm anxiously awaiting Carrie Underwood to put out a new album - she seems to have disappeared of late which makes me quite sad.

I have an iPod Touch and I buy CDs and load them into iTunes, and I occasionally download something instead.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I'm a pink girl - baby pink to fuchsia. I'm not a big fan of blue or green or red, but mix two of them together for a nice purple or teal and that works too. And the three together, pink, purple, and teal? Yeah baby. So I guess I love jewel tones.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

Married with 6 cats and a dog. Sofie and Nelson are huge 15+ pounds of Maine Coon mix that we adopted 8 years ago. Bailey was born in our bathroom to a semi-feral cat that adopted us when we moved into our little condo in Vallejo in 2002. We got his mom and his 6 siblings fixed and adopted but Bailey wanted to stay. Simon came along in 2004, born in our vet's office and decided he wanted to live with us. Katie was a year later, adopted because the other 4 had all picked my husband as their person and I really wanted a lap cat. My husband wasn't allowed to even look at her, she was just mine. She has now been diagnosed with kidney failure and is not expected to live more than 3-6 months. And Chanel turned 1 year old on July 4. She's my princess. All white with pink ears, nose, and paw pads. I hand raised her and her siblings from the time they were about 4 days old, got her siblings all adopted out and she is my joy. Prada is a little Yorkie who was dumped at the shelter in April 2008 by the only family she'd ever known. Initially I fostered her since I'd never had a dog before, but she kind of grew on us and is now here for good.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Scarves yes, but only plant fibers (cotton, bamboo, silk) because even the softest merino or alpaca itches around my neck. Interestingly enough, I can wear my Burberry and Coach mufflers and they're cashmere and merino - maybe it's because they're woven rather than knitted.

Hats, mittens, ponchos no.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

When I was commuting I got into sock knitting because they're so portable, but now I'm back to sweaters. I really enjoy knitting the Multi-Directional Short row scarf and I made it for myself first, but the yarn had a wee bit of mohair in it and I couldn't wear it. I gave it to someone (without photographing it for my Ravelry page first). Now I'd like to do it in a nice, soft, lofty cotton just for fun.

13. What are you knitting right now?

I'm working on my Carnival top out of Noro Taiyo and after that I'm going to do my Sahara sweater out of Tilli Tomas Pure & Simple. I've got a couple pair of socks on needles too that I tote around with me when I'm in a waiting situation.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Of course!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Only circulars. I use the KnitPicks 40"-47" circs for socks (magic loop 2 at a time) and I use Addi turbos for everything else. I bought one of those square ones from Kollage to do the Taiyo sweater just because I was curious, but the cord is a bit too flimsy so I won't be buying more. Addi's rock!

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Yes - and I use both every day!

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I found the blanket I started crocheting for my daughter when I was pregnant and she will be 21 on July 25. That blanket will never be finished. No point. I have a few UFOs from the last couple of years that I will get back to. Problem is I've lost a lot of weight and I literally have to re-knit them completely.

18. What is your favorite holiday? What winter holiday do you observe?

My favorite holiday is Halloween. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. Winter we observe Christmas but a good friend is Jewish so I buy Chanukah gifts for her.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Anything modern Mickey Mouse. Don't care for the vintage look when he had the really long pointy up nose, but after he was in his "classic" pose with his vibrant clothes just love it!

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I gave up quite a few subscriptions when I became unemployed in January and I would like to have those back. Knitters and Cast On (Knitting Universe and TKGA) specifically. I also gave up my knit.1 subscription and now they have good patterns in every issue and I regret that one too.

I have lots of knitting books/patterns.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Not really

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I do knit socks, I wear a size 8 shoe so my foot length is like 8 1/2 - 9" but nobody else can knit socks for me unless they're footies. I have to adjust patterns for the leg.

23. When is your birthday?

May 15 19something

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?

On Ravelry I am TheCraftsMeow. On Etsy I'm just CraftsMeow.