I leave for Stitches in the a.m. and to say I am unprepared would be, well. . . an understatement. I have no idea how it got to be October 9th. Seriously. I am still somewhere in early August. I haven't even made it to Stitches Midwest yet, but the calendar says October and my calendar says I'm to go to the airport tomorrow to fly to Baltimore for East. Okay, I'll do as the calendar says, but I swear, it's truly only early August.
So first, I must post, Pixie's finished Duster (cue the trumpets, please):
It is "dahling" as I would say with my Boston accent, which I don't let out very often, but every now and again :) Really, it is exquisite - for all of the ribbing we give Pixie for her pickiness about which increases to use, which seaming technique is best, well, the garment speaks for itself and her skills. I know you can't see the detail and I'm sorry I didn't take close-ups of some of the points she's made in the podcast. Remember that speed/calendar problem I'm dealing with? I'll see what I can do when I get back. For those of you coming to Baltimore, it will be there, on display. Come see it, try it on, fall in love with the Tilted Duster. Mine is coming too! It's just not quite as, how can I say this. . . finished?? Yeah, that's it. But it's coming along. Anyone interested, just ask :) Remember, if I can make this, so can you! We'll have lots of Peruvia on hand or our Berkshire if you want to substitute.
On the podcast today (which we recorded without Steve which was another totally weird part of today. Seriously, my timing was completely off, I felt completely out of sorts, it was just plain weird. Never again.) Pixie discussed the shoulder seaming and her preferred technique (okay, let's all quietly giggle at Pixie and her "preferred/better than the rest way" but we must all acknowledge that darn it, she's right). Here is the the two swatches she references:
So listen on Saturday or download the episode when you can (available also Saturday) and you now have the visual to go with it.
Okay, now it's time for some yarn love. Alpaca Sox from Classic Elite came in during the deluge and although we talked about it on the show, I never quite got it on the blog. So here it is:
Love this yarn. Now, it's not machine washable and I know this will be an issue for some of you. I get it. But the yarn is yummy, the colors outstanding. Here are my two favorite:
And yes, I did write down what they were when I took this picture last week and do you think that scrap of paper is anywhere to be found? Oh, we've got a winner folks! Gold Star to the reader from Oregon who just blurted out "Heck no, you are in some weird time warp, you are trying to get out of town, your behind schedule, the kids are cranky because you are leaving again and not being very cooperative and that piece of paper is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND". The reader is correct and I am sorry. I will try to figure it out and edit somewhere down the road. (NOTE: Betsy, et al at Classic Elite, if you can add a comment with the colors, I will be forever indebted).
So, here it is, 7:15pm. I'm blogging and trying to get the boys ready for bed and get their KBAR done (Kick Back And Read), which I have asked Jackson to handle and read to Jonathan to kill two birds with one stone and I've got laundry going which I pray is almost dry or else, well, someone in this family is going to be short some important garments in the next few days and I have sweater models that HAVE TO FIT IN MY SUITCASE which I am not at all confident is going to happen, even if I do only bring two pairs of pants for the entire show, which is so completely not how I pack, but I digress. It's 7:15 and the phone rings - the forward progess of all of the above comes to a halt. I go to get the phone and think "If this is Steve calling to check in, during what he KNOWS is the insane time of the day on a regular day, much less a day when we're down to one parent who has to travel in the a.m., I swear I'm going to snap. I pick up the phone and on the other end I hear "Hi Honey, how's it going?" All cheerful and kid free and adult-dinnered and probably adult-beveraged with no laundry worries or packing issues or anything. Yup, it's Steve. I ask if his watch is broken or lost, he says no. I ask if he went somewhere else besides Baltimore that included a time change and he again says no. I then say "I'll call you back". He's not happy but since he is getting adult-dinnered and beveraged, I trump him.
So, the only other quirky part of the day happend about 15 minutes before I was leaving to record said show "alone" with Pixie. My office phone rings and I answer "Hi, this is Kathy" and on the other end of the phone a voice, a familiar voice, says "Hi, it's Stephanie. Please don't fling yourself off the roof of your building because I haven't receive my yarn". Now, there was more to it than that, but you get the gist. Guesses, guesses, any guesses? It was the Harlot, who is oh so patiently waiting for an order (not just any order, but you'll need to keep up with her blog for all of the details on that - I'm short on time, remember?) that still has not arrived. Seriously, I can get yarn to the lovely Amanda and Sasha in Australia faster than I can get it to Toronto. I posted on her blog about the flinging myself off our building and skipping Stitches to drive the yarn to her. She was kind enough to call and tell me not to waste my time, not because she didn't appreciate my valiant efforts but, any ideas why she would take the time to do this? How's about because she's a nice person? Well, she is very nice, but no, that was not the reason. Maybe she decided she doesn't really like the yarn but will accept the order when it arrives? Nope, not that. Still in lust with the yarn. No, she was nice enough to call and tell me this: we (WEBS) simply do not have any more of the yarn. It's gone. All gone. So, if the package, two weeks in transit does not arrive (note: she says this amount of time is still reasonable for US/Canada deliveries), the package containing her "reward yarn" for finishing her book, I cannot do a thing to fix it. There is no more yarn. Yeah, I'm so stoked at this point in the conversation I can barely stand it. Now, later in the day, I think I was thrown a life preserver, but I'm keeping that under wraps until I truly need it. You know who you are - for your safety and my sanity, please stay quiet :)
Okay, that's it. KBAR is over. Steve deserves to say goodnight to his boys so I need to call him back and I need to put in the links, add the pics, finish the laundry, pack and get out of Dodge. See you all in Baltimore.
Kathy
P.S. It's 8pm, later than usual for bedtime, but they're done, this post is about to be posted, Steve and the boys connected and I THINK my laundry is dry. Woohoo!
