What I've been up to.

1. Fall Lookbook photo shoot:

2. Preparing for a workshop and trunk show this Sunday (October 17th) at The Yarn Spot in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. (The trunk show is from 4-6pm, and I'm very excited to see my old friends and to meet more of you!)

3. Not sleeping well due to a 60 pound chocolate brown horsedog who keeps me awake at all hours. How are dogs nocturnal? How?

4. Repeat steps 1-3.

5. Not blogging due to steps 1-3.

6. Not blogging due to Fall Lookbook preparations. We're in mile 22 of the marathon now. What I need are some people standing on the sidelines with cups of water I can pour over my head as I shuffle past. Or better yet, cups of coffee and pieces of chocolate.

P.S. Does anyone know of a toddler boy who wears a size 2T-3T in the Duluth, MN area? I need a model for our Lookbook. The parents would get a professional quality print of their child, and it would take less than an hour of their time. Hit the Contact Us button on the right and drop me a line if you do!

My trip to Tulsa!

I had a magnificent time in Oklahoma -- the weather was spectacular, the knitters most gracious, and the yarn shops superb.

Case in point:

How could you not visit a store with a convertible as its mascot, and a placard that proudly proclaims:
Yarn * Classes * Fun? Having visited many a yarn shop in my day, I can wholeheartedly recommend both of the stunning Loops locations (Utica Square and Renaissance Square in South Tulsa).

Shelley and her staff take to heart the creed: "Find a great project fast." They are experts at helping people match yarn to project, select colors that work together and figure out how much yarn a garment requires.

Every customer that comes in the door is attended to in a friendly fashion -- this is not one of those yarn shops where the staff sits behind the counter, deeply engrossed in their knitting, pausing only to stare at you over the tips of their reading glasses, as if you were a horsefly harrassing them at their picnic.

And this little genius of an idea is quite popular as well: a computer for customers to look up patterns and yarn requirements. Who among us hasn't wished we could remember how many skeins we needed for that one sweater we saw in a back issue of a magazine that's in a closet somewhere at home? Or held one delectable skein in our hand, wondering what we could make with it?

If only my high school students were this enthusiastic. (Although most of my students were lovely, rare was the day when someone greeted me at the door with a "Welcome!" and some shamrocks next to my name.)

 Has anyone ever experienced this phenomenon? Knitting people tend to have very interesting backgrounds. In Tulsa, I met someone who was a heavy equipment operator in the Army (and who served for a year in Iraq):

A medical student who was obviously brilliant but who could not have been older than 17:

(Sorry, darlin' -- I'm sure you've been told that 10,000 times. Take it from me, at some point in the near future looking younger than you really are will cease to become a detriment, and you'll be thanking your lucky stars that your genes are what they are.)Among those I did not manage to snap a picture of: a hydrologist, an interior designer, a chef, and a CPA.  We probably could've spent half the workshop discussing the intricacies of everyone's chosen profession. In addition to being silly, I'm also a nerd. I love to learn new things, and there is much to learn about the world.

I know you're waiting for the yarn pictures.

Fine, I'll stop yammering and pony up:

Loops Tulsa, you could not have been nicer or more chic. Thank you for having me!

Workshop peeps, I could not have asked for a better group. I hope you both learned something and enjoyed yourself. You were worth the long trip!

The trunk show will hang out in Loops South through October 10th -- please stop by and say hello to my babies!  

Things that I wish for.

Today, as I sit in the Chicago airport on a four hour layover after waking up at 3:30 in the morning to make it here, there are several things that I wish for.

These are not important things, perse. These are not things like world peace and the end of polio. These are just little things that I wish for sometimes, like when I'm sitting in the airport for four hours.

1. Airport sleeping compartments. What I wouldn't give for a little privacy and a bed right now. Something like the sleeping compartments on a train. You pay a little money, you get to use the sleeping compartment for four hours. I could take a nap. I could read. I could alternate between napping and reading and watching a movie on my computer in peace.

I cannot sleep sitting up -- can you sleep sitting up?

2. More leg room. Not just on planes, although that is very important. But more legroom, generally speaking. More legroom in the world. Who wants their legs to be smushed up near their collarbones? Clavicles and patellas were designed to be far apart. This is nature's intention. Why are we trying to defy the laws of nature?

Nothing good will come of it, I can assure you of that.

3. The Pneumatic Yarn Tube. Why isn't this built yet? I demand to know exactly what my tax dollars are going towards, if not a PYT? That's it, I'm writing a letter.

"Dear Barack Obama," my letter will say.

"I know being the president of the United States is a difficult job. Half the people in the world hate you, and the other half love you. I know there are entire cable networks devoted to little but discussing how you're doing. Back and forth, back and forth, you're horrific, you're fabulous, you're a train wreck, you're amazing, we hate you, we love you, on and on.

Which brings me to the topic of my letter: The Pneumatic Yarn Tube. Exactly when is it going to be functional? I know it will begin in Duluth, MN, but can you please elucidate the fiber world on where its first destination will be? If I may be so bold, sir, as to offer a suggestion: rural Canada is in dire need of the PYT. Packages take weeks, months, years, eons to get to rural Canada from the United States. The people of rural Canada are cold, and in need of soft, brightly colored wool with which to amuse and warm themselves.

I would like you to see that the PYT is completed before November 1st so that the good people of Canada -- nay, the world --  will benefit from the soft, brightly colored wool that will help usher in the era of peace and forgiveness as only wool can. Studies show that conflict, fighting, yelling, bombing, anger, and indigestion are all reduced in the presence of soft, brightly colored wool.

I also believe that if the PYT is completed on schedule, there will be praise and thanksgiving throughout the land, and you will take your place in yarn history as one of the primary benefactors of sheep, sheep's wool, fiber artists, dye, dyers, knitters, crocheters, weavers, and their mothers.

If it is of assistance, you may designate all of the Three Irish Girls corporate income tax revenue you receive towards the construction of the PYT.

Thank you for this prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Yarnista

P.S. I know you are well versed in the legal-ease in which I have composed this letter, but if this missive is being read by a college intern, what I am trying to say is, Hurry The Heck Up With The Pneumatic Yarn Tube. Please."

Those are my wishes on this early Monday morning in Chicago: sleeping compartments in airports, more room for kneecaps, and yarn that can be vacuum-sucked to the far reaches of the globe.

Do you ever?

Do you ever check into a hotel, draw the blackout shades, turn on some white noise, and then wake up at EXACTLY THE SAME TIME AS YOU ALWAYS DO the next morning?

Do you ever tell yourself, "No, go back to sleep! You can sleep past 6:00!" but the more you talk to yourself, the more awake you become?

Do you ever calculate how non-scary you have to make yourself look to leave your hotel room and get breakfast downstairs?

Do you ever wonder if you're the only person in the world who can spill coffee from a spill-proof mug?

Do you ever wonder how it could be possible that you wake up with puffy eyes when you ate a salad for dinner the night before?

Do you ever wonder whose job it is to create, manufacture, distribute, sell, and install automatic toilet seat covers, like they have in Chicago's O'Hare airport?

You and me both, dude.

P.S. I'm here in Tulsa! Come say hello today at Loops South!

Just as it should be.

If you see me in Tulsa this weekend, I may look a little disheveled. But that's OK. My luggage is 90% yarn and workshop-related paraphernalia, 10% clothing. Not even my fuzzy pistachio bathrobe would fit in my suitcase.

In fact, I have already googled and printed the directions from my hotel to the nearest Target, because goodness knows I will have been unable to fit something at the last critical second.

So, if I'm rumpled, missing a sock, or otherwise look as though I live on the street, you can smile to yourself knowing that all is just as it should be.

In the contest of yarn vs. clothing, yarn wins.

P.S. Yes, it is 4:38 in the morning.

P.S.S. I can't wait to see you tomorrow at Loops South for our workshop and super-spectacular trunk show!