The Harlot is Coming to Town!!!!

I have spent the last 45 minutes trying to locate one of my favorite pictures of all time - The Yarn Harlot and I, both with our socks. I would never ever delete that picture, because it's awesome, but it's gone from iPhoto. It's gone from all of my photo backup discs dating back to 2006. I was so excited that I had a good picture of me with a knitting rock star, but it's gone, so picture this:
The Yarn Harlot, in front of a gorgeous wall of yarn, holding her pretty blue socks, and yours truly, with my eyes actually open in a picture (it's rare), holding my pretty blue socks.

She came to the store about 2 years ago and I had just quit for a new job. (Still trying to remember why I left the store in the first place.) The owner asked me to come help, and I not only heard her chat, took pictures, and got autographs, I went out to dinner with the Harlot (and a few famous Nashville bloggers too). We drank wine and knitted and ate good food and it was such a fun night.

She's coming to town again, tomorrow night, and it should be just as much fun (even though I don't have the dinner invitation this time.) I'm starting some socks tonight to honor the occasion, and a good friend will be here too!

On a side note, the happy socks didn't make me happy. At all. My mind was set on a cool diagonal lace pattern, and the colors pooled no matter what size needle I used. After 4 hours and a headache (and a glass of wine) I finally put them down and decided they needed to be stockinette socks, no funky lace. It doesn't pool anymore, but I'm waiting for my magic loop class to begin for those - it's an excuse to knit a sock along with the class.

I picked up some psychedelic-lookin' Arucania sock yarn recently, and started a pair last weekend (or was it the weekend before?). After a lot of careful swatching and about 4" of leg knitted, I tried it on to show off to a friend and realized it was way too small. Painfully small. It wouldn't even fit over my heel. Whoops. Tonight, after I get my other work done, I'll start with 8 more stitches and see what I can get done before tomorrow night. The timing is great - I'm in the mood for something lacey yet psychedelic.

I've been working on another, somewhat secret, project. I have a great dress - brown, strapless, with a strip of pearly-white embroidery under the bust. It's perfect for summer parties and weddings, but I feel somewhat exposed in the dress, and need a little cover up. I thought about designing something, but that takes a lot more time and energy and I might wear the cover up in about a month. That was too much pressure.

I bought some Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk and started to crochet Short 'N Sweet from The Happy Hooker. It was cute, but the fabric wasn't exactly what I wanted. So of course, I'm designing something, kinda. It's a cop-out design - I'm taking a great short sleeve wrap pattern from an old issue of Rebecca Magazine and changing the lace pattern and shape to fit my needs. I can't publish it, but it's coming up very quickly. Here's a sneak peek:


I started graphing and swatching on Saturday night, and now have finished one sleeve, the back, one front, and am 4" up the second front piece. It's just gorgeous. Hopefully it will be blocking by this weekend, but I'm not holding out too much hope for this week. Thursday is SNB so I work late, Friday I have a late lesson and am babysitting after that, then Sunday and Monday I'm helping a friend move. Ugh. Looks like I'll have to take my pencil, calculator, graph paper, and new design wherever I go.

Wait, didn't I just say that I'm re-starting that sock tonight? I'll start the sock, then work on the design.

Hope to see everyone at the Harlot tomorrow! It's at Borders on Franklin Road in Brentwood - just go here for details.