Mossy Cottage Knits

Bring Hats!

As much as some of you locals are surprised at how I was able to just “deal” with the Dulaan kerfuffle, trust me, it’s still making me want to drown myself in never-ending pints of ice cream. Literally. I want to pour countless pints of ice cream in a large vat, climb in, and flounder my way slowly to the bottom, sucking in large mouthfuls of Cherry Garcia as I go. So I was happy when, this morning, I was unexpectedly given a chance to dip my toe in the charity-knitting pool again but in a teensy-weensy way, just my pinky toe and just up to the cuticle. As you know, Stephanie will be here on Friday and, at each location on her tour, she is collecting hand-knitted hats that are then donated to a local charity. I have the pleasure of being The Hat Lady this go-round, so I will bring a box where you can put the hats that you bring. So…bring hats. To quote Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Per Stephanie’s “Harlot on Tour” page, her presentation will be at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park and starts at 6:30 p.m. Per the Third Place Books people, if you want to have your book signed, you’ll need to get a signing ticket (you can still get your book signed if you don’t have a ticket but you’ll need to wait until everyone else has gone up). I don’t know all the details but, as it was 'splained to me by the guy at the Information Counter, they’ll be calling people to come up by the letter on the signing ticket (A, then B, then C, etc.). Sounds a little Big Brother-ish to me, but that’s the deal, as I understand it (and, granted, the last time she was here, everyone stood in line at once and the line snaked in and around and up and down and through and across a store which, for those of you who’ve never been there, is quite large).

Stephanie, when I was at Third Place Books on Monday, as a staunch Harlotite, I tried to “represent," as you would say, and dropped the hint that there would be a lot of knitters there...and still got the inevitable, “Really?” So sorry.

Drenched in a panicked flop-sweat since I had so completely run out of time (I know; after 563 days, now I worry about a deadline?), I attacked the Olympic Squirrel collar with a vengeance last night and am surprised to be able to report that things are going well. The severely curling attached i-cord was removed and sent to bed with no dessert, and now I’m just going for a stockinette hemmed collar: A few rows on size 2s, one purled turn row, a few rows on size 1s, followed by hemming, most likely with masking tape, duct tape or double-sided tape at this late date. Think anyone will notice? Ironically, after all this, I have no baby to give it to. Oh, Frrrrraaaaankie...look what Mommy has for youuuuuuuuuu.

Re the comments:

Saralyn, KarenJoe and VisionSister...see you on Friday! As an added bonus, TMK will be there!

Valerie and Lee Ann: I was all over the knitted look of the Wii racing-cows game. I feel bad for the programmers. I mean, think about it: They put all that time and effort into creating cows, riders, jumps, scarecrows, silos, barns, fences, fields, trees, sky and clouds, never mind the actual racing, and all we knitters can say is, “Hey, did you see that it looked knitted?”

Rho: You can play all the Wii games against yourself/the computer as well as against other people. (Sounds like you've been sucked in!)

Rachel F: I haven’t had too much trouble with the Steam Scarf. My cables aren’t popping off but they are definitely tight at the transition point. I just really take my time with them and use some elbow grease and patience. I’m using Cascade 220 and size 7 needles. In retrospect, I would probably use size 8s just to make things easier and looser, so you might want to try using larger needles. Also, have you tried wood or bamboo needles and a wood or bamboo cable needle, instead of metal or plastic (if that’s what you’re using)? Sometimes the friction of the wood/bamboo can help keep the stitches under control.

Posted by Ryan at September 12, 2007 01:05 PM