Dear Yarnista...

Dear Yarnista,

Long time no see. I know you've had a rough go of things with several weekends in a row at home instead of being on the road. How are you holding up?

Love,

Yourself

Dear Self,

Good to hear from you! I am hanging in there. It has been exceedingly difficult to avoid the allure of airport food and cramped plane conditions, so I have once again succumbed to the siren song of the sky. I've decided that my return foray into yarny travels would be best spent on a short hop to Chicago, to visit my friends at Windy Knitty.

Does Saturday the 17th work for you? I'm attaching a flyer, in case you're interested.

Keep in touch, yo.

Love,

Yarnista

P.S. I already know I'm cuter online than in person. Got the concept well in hand, no need to rehash.

Yarnista,

What? Someone actually said that to you? Who would do that?

--S

Self,

Yes, actually, more than one person has told me that. In fact, I now get regular emails from people about the following topics:

1. My clothing choices. (More specifically, what I should wear more of, what I should buy, and what people never want to see again.)

2. What I should or should not be doing with my hair. (Barbie hair good, buns bad!)

3. Whether or not I am in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest person everEVEREVER in the recorded history of time.

4. People with sons, grandsons, brothers, cousins, buddies, and friends who are single and ready to mingle. Am I interested?

5. My dog is more beautiful, lovable, charming, and sweet than I am. (What does this say about me? It can't be good things. My dog is more charming? My dog who eats garbage? The one who lacks a neocortex? Am I that boring? Do I need to go away to finishing school so I can learn to make sparkling, witty -- but not too intelligent, that would be intimidating -- conversation. What?)

Most of the emails I get are actually very nice. They say things like, "Hey! I got my package in mail today, and I am in love!" So it's still a little strange when people take the time to email me to say that I need to stop wearing my hair up because I look too matronly, or that my lipstick is too dark and distracting.

I'm learning that I cannot please everyone. Someone will always dislike my clothes or my hair or my lipstick or the sound of my voice. It can't be helped.

I hope those people do not live in Chicago, because I am planning on having a good time, one in which people say, "Wow, I love your yarn!" instead of, "Dude. Call the fashion police."

Love,

Yarnista

Dear Yarnista,

Wow. That is...wow.

I can assure you that the fashion police do not live in Chicago. Only nice yarnophiles.

You're going to have fun. How can you not have fun when you spend an entire weekend surrounded with yarn?

By the way, saw these pics on your desktop...drool!

These are both bamboo cotton fingering, right?

Love how shiny this one is!

This is the cotton/rayon sport?

The bamboo cotton worsted is so incredibly soft! Pardon me while I mop up my keyboard.

Can you pick out the best stuff and save it for me?

Love,

Yourself

Dear You,

What kind of Yarnista would I be if I saved the yarn for you? That wouldn't be fair to the people who registered for the class or attended the trunk show, would it?

But yes, it is yummy.

--Yarnista

Yarnista,

You ARE cuter online than you are in person.

And you are also very mean, evil, mean, and evil. And you are not my friend.

Yourself

Self,

Grow up.

And do something with your hair.

Love,

Yarnista

 P.S. But still come to Windy Knitty this Saturday. I might be able to hook you up with a little something.

behind the camera

My children are used to seeing this version of me.

But on a recent tromp through the woods near our home, I nervously handed over one of my cameras to my kids.

I could tell you about how children have a different perspective on the world, and isn't it refreshing to see the wonderment that young people experience in something as simple as blade of grass?

I could tell you that. And it would be true.

But I could also tell you that my kids were whining about it being muddy and were lobbing pinecones at each others' heads, resulting in ear-splitting screams.

And also, they felt very hungry and exceedingly thirsty. Because mom, you never, ever feed us, and we did not just eat breakfast.

And that would also be true.

I told them they could each have ten minutes with the camera, but only if they behaved themselves.

The first thing this young 'un did was take a picture of me. (Above.)

Then she said, "Cool! Mom! You have big legs!"

"Here, I want to take another picture of you!"

<Side note: Yes, she picked that outfit out for herself. Yes, she is my daughter with the turquoise and hot pink. Don't think I wouldn't wear that if they made it in my size.>

"Let me see if it turned out."

"Oh, wait. The camera is upside down."

"Look at you, mama! You have big BIG... camera!"

Let us take a moment to thank our lucky stars that she used the word camera instead of the 19 other inappropriate words she could have chosen to complete that sentence.

*****

And now it is time to play a game. Let's play a little round of,

WHO TOOK THAT PICTURE?

Mom or four year old?

If you said four year old, you grossly overestimate my four year old's camera operating skills.

<Another side note: This is the river I grew up several blocks from. There are many waterfalls and swimming holes with fast moving currents. I was here with my sisters nearly every day in the summer, swimming, unattended.

I would like the record to reflect that my mother let me swim here without lifeguard or adult supervision at age 12, and I lived to tell the tale. I jumped off all the rocks. One time I slid down a waterfall and cut up the backs of my legs.

I would also like the record to reflect that my mother will not let my nine year old play in her backyard unattended while she sits at the kitchen table, which is next to giant windows that overlook the backyard. Her backyard in a quiet, residential neighborhood.

I'll wait a moment for the record to be reflected.>

Back to the game. Mom or four year old?

I believe this is a blurry picture of the side of our dog's mouth.

If you said mom, you grossly overestimate my desire to lower myself a not inconsiderable distance in an effort to take a blurry picture of large mammal slobber.

This one's a little harder. Mom or four year old?

Props to the preschooler for noticing some of the first orange leaves in the forest.

Mom or four year old?

Also the four year old. A great example of how children's brains notice things -- like orange lichen on the side of a birch tree -- that we don't, because their brains haven't habituated the information yet. Hence, the wonderment that children often experience in the mundane.

I still got nothin' on the pinecone throwing.

Mom or four year old?

This one goes to the mama. And to the horsedog, who could have played swim-and-bring-back-the-giant-stick-because-it-is-my-biological-destiny-as-a-Labrador for sixteen hours, if allowed.

The day after her tromp through the woods with mama's camera in hand, Miss Four Year Old set off for her very first day of Montessori preschool.

This girl has more spunk and joie de vivre than anyone I've ever met. I wish I could bottle it.

She chose the dress. Don't think I wouldn't wear that if they made it in my size.

Ah, little one. How quickly you grew from this:

To this.

Cut it out, would you? It's going by too fast.

Pardon me while I daub my eyes a little. No, I'm fine. It's just allergies.

Sniffle.

Giveaway winners!

Boy, what an awful job that was. Looking through thousands of beautiful knitting projects. Just horrible.

Send chocolate. Feel sorry for me immediately.

</sarcasm> Except about the chocolate. Do send that.

It took me a bit of time to go through our amazing Flickr gallery and eliminate the duplicate and work-in-progress pictures for our giveaway winners. But it was worth it. So much gorgeousness, all in one little corner of the web.

Even though Flickr lists the item count as 1,541, I determined that there were 1,284 unique projects, not including my own.

I disqualified myself from this drawing. I don't deserve to win.

I told Random.org to pick three winners.

Random chose #849 as our first winner:

faerieflings, what sweet little mittens. You won a $100 gift certificate to anything in our store! Congratulations!

Random chose #283 as our next winner:

And the winner is...

lalaith_e! You won a three month subscription to the club of your choice! Check them out here, and take your pick!

Love the color on you.

And our last winner, chosed Randomly, is #137.

TTanninen, oh dear. I fear that dress on that little girl is too, too cute.

But you won three skeins of a custom colorway -- yay!

Thank you all so much for entering -- we had an amazing time browsing all the projects, and I know others will love seeing them too.

If you haven't yet, take a moment to look through the projects on Flickr.

faerieflings, lalaith_e, and TTanninen, please use the contact button in the upper right to drop us a line and claim your prize!

What exactly am I trying to say?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Anything?

Hello?

I know I'm trying to say something. I just can't quite put it into words.

Project inspiration + giveaway!

There are so many amazing knitting projects out there. I could make a profession out of being a knitting voyeur.

But my favorites are the projects knit from our yarn. Like this, knit with our new bamboo cotton fingering.

lizarrow

Or this, a Samovar knit from Springvale DK. The larger gauge made it a beautiful baby blanket for the knitter's niece.

autumnbriars

I'm in love with weaving with hand dyed yarns. All of the colors, none of the pooling.

elfielori

Look at the curls! The chubby cheeks!

And the sweater is adorable too.

matilda62315

Riordan is such a great colorway for dudes of all ages.

judyka

A: Amazing original design.

B: Great color on you, jimiknits.

Sweaters! For twin babies! I love babies!

I especially love babies in sweaters.

mama27

I had the pleasure of seeing this in person. I would wear this baby every day if she were mine. (Another Samovar.)

crayolaab

Here's what to make with one skein of awesome yarn. Fingerless mitts are great for cold hands at the keyboard.

Am I the only one with that problem?

heath22

And here's what to make for cold hands everywhere else. I'm a sucker for a great cable.

DebbieO

Which brings me to our contest!

We're giving away three super sweet prizes:

1. A $100 gift certificate to anything in our store.

2. A three month membership to the club of your choice.

3. Three skeins of a custom dyed colorway on Springvale Worsted or Adorn Sock.

Here's what you have to do to enter. You must complete all the steps to be entered to win.

1. Between now and midnight Pacific Time on September 7th, 2011, upload your finished project photos into our Flickr pool. Feel free to upload more than one picture of your project, but only one of the pics will be eligible to win.

2. One picture from each finished project already in the Flickr pool will automatically be entered. (No need to upload again.)

3. Projects can be of any nature, and can be knit, crocheted, or woven. But they must be completed. I love me some handspun yarn, but the yarn needs to be made into something other than yarn.

4. In the description under each photo, please include: the colorway name, the yarn type, and the pattern name. If you made up the pattern as you went along, you can just say it's a personal pattern.

5. I love seeing pictures on Ravelry and on your blogs, but in order to be entered to win this contest, the projects must be in our Flickr pool. (It's free and easy to join.)

6. The finished projects must either be made from Three Irish Girls yarns, or from one of our patterns.

Three winners will be randomly chosen on September 8th, 2011.

Have at it!

And thanks for feeding my knitting voyeurism addiction.