What a weekend! (and contest)

Whew. It's taken me a few days to decompress after the frenzied and wonderful week end we had here at Chez Go-Knit-In-Your-Hat and Loop in Philadelphia. I don't even know where to begin to summarize how much fun it is to hang out with fiber friends, to be surrounded by creativity and yarns and finished projects to ogle, and to have a chance to spend time with dear ones who live far away... so I guess I'll start with a recap of the weekend.

It all began Friday midday, when I picked Franklin up at the airport. Miraculously, his plane was not delayed


and being the savvy traveler that he is, we didn't even have to wait for baggage claim. So I hit him on the head and threw him in the trunk of my car put his bags in the back, and we were off.


After lunch at our local diner,

we headed back to my place to knit, catch up and (in my case) wind yarn. It's always such a pleasure to spend time with Franklin; he always has so many funny and interesting stories to tell, and there is nothing more wonderful than seeing a friend you haven't for a while, and finding that it's all as natural and full of laughter as it ever was.

The afternoon sped by, and soon it was time to haul boxes of yarn into the city

for display at Loop. Craig was waiting for us, and had an entire table cleared off for the Black Bunny Fibers goodies. It was nice to have a chance to take everything out of the boxes and bins, plump it up, and arrange it in baskets on the table.

We also had the chance to display some samples, including my two newest sock designs, Josephine and Lucy, as well as my brand-new scarf pattern and yarn pack (more yarn packs coming later this week on-line). Then it was off to a great dinner with Craig and Laura (of Spool).



The next day, we were ready to go. Franklin taught his Introduction to Lace class,



which by all accounts was a great success. (I heard the knitters who took the class showering Franklin with praise after the class was finished, so I know for a fact it was good.)

From two to five that afternoon is kind of a blur. We were set up with copies of Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, and the wonderful It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons and I immediately snatched up my copy of Franklin's new calendar. Then the real fun began, as we had time to meet new friends and spend time (at least a little) with old friends. We got to sign books (special thanks to all those who brought their copies of my book(s) and/or purchased ones!! I truly appreciate it)



and take lots of photos and get hugs, and it was unbelievably gratifying and fun. I think because I do spend a lot of time on my own, while the kids are at school, working in a hermit-like fashion,


it especially meant a lot for me to get to see my customers in person, and to enjoy their reaction to my yarns, and to have real-world conversations rather than on-line ones.

After the shop closed, it was time for another wonderful dinner with my special pal, Laura Grutzeck. We had great Thai food, gossiped and caught up.


After returning to my place, we retired for the evening, my head still spinning from all the excitement. When the alarm rang the next morning, I couldn't believe it -- I felt like I could have slept ten more hours, but it was time for us to get back into the city and get ready for another exciting day. I taught a class with some wonderful students


eager to master the mysteries of yarn substitution, while Franklin explained lace edging to his class. After lunch was a special treat for me: I got to take Franklin's class on Photographing your Fiber.


If you have any interest in taking photos of your own stash, knitted projects, handspun or whatever, I urge you to take this class. It's incredibly helpful, packed with information, and designed for people like me, who are self-taught with their camera. Franklin explained so much about the way cameras work, why we have different functions on our cameras, how to use light and styling tips, that I felt like so much that confused me before now made sense. Now I can't wait to get practicing with my camera...


We had another chance to see some great folks on Sunday, and then -- as if we hadn't had enough excitement -- it was off to see Liza Lucy, fabric goddess and quilter extraordinaire, for dinner.


We had an amazing time looking at all of Liza's beautiful fabrics, quilts, and other things, and we got a chance to play with her adorable doggies, and spend some time with her awesome husband, and of course we left with fabric....


All too soon, Monday morning was here, and it was time to take dear Franklin to the airport. We were very sad to say good-bye,


but we are hoping to see each other soon, and to do another whirlwind teaching weekend, perhaps in the spring.

P.S. Neither one of us really knows what Dolores was up to all weekend


but I guess what happens in Philly stays in Philly, eh?


P.P.S. Tell you what: Let's do a quickie contest. Send me an email (goknitinyourhat AT att DAHT net) identifying the movies from which these photos came, and I'll draw a winner from the ones with the most correct answers. Winner gets a free BBF sock pattern of his/her choice in PDF form. Entries due by midnight Friday, Nov. 19th EST. I'll announce the winner Friday.

Note to commenters: If you left a contest guess in the comments, I won't publish it (otherwise it'll give away the answers!). But I'll hold on to it for the contest.

10 Reasons why you should stop by Loop this weekend

10. Lots and lots of Black Bunny Fibers yarn to fondle and purchase: my whole inventory, in fact!


9. "Yarn Substitution Made Easy" -- take a class with me (there are still spots left).

8. Loop's fabulous selection of yarns, including Koigu, Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter and so much more.

7. Meet Franklin Habit from 2 to 5 today!

6. Take a class with Franklin -- lace and photographing your fiber.

5. See the new BBF scarf kit and buy one in time to knit a holiday gift!


4. Pick up a copy of Franklin's new 2011 calendar with some of his incredible cartoons.



3. Get your copies of "It Itches," "Knit So Fine" or "Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn" signed (or buy copies if you live under a rock and haven't seen them yet, then get them signed).

2. See the 2 new base yarns I've dyed up: one laceweight and one sockweight. Or check out some of my introductory worsted weight offerings.

1. DOLORES!

Hear me, see me, meet me

I've been slacking off lately, eh?

Well, since last I blogged, I had the pleasure of podcasting with Kathy Elkins, the WEBS lady, who I dearly, dearly love (as well as her foxy husband Steve) and the show will go out Saturday morning; you can download it for free from I-Tunes, too.

I am pleased to report that I will be in Chicago next weekend (yes, I know it's TNNA in San Diego, but I'm skipping this TNNA so I can afford to go to the June one) celebrating the Inauguration a bit prematurely with my darling Franklin and also the Knitters for Obama group from Ravelry. If you live in the Chicago area, please come and meet me and get your books signed at Loopy Yarns:

• Friday, January 16th, from 6 to 8 p.m.

• Saturday, January 7th, from 1 to 3 p.m.

And the week after that, I'll be signing books at Loop in Philadelphia, on Sunday, January 25th, from 1 to 4 p.m. I'm hoping Jody Pirrello will be there, too, since she designed the kick-ass Chevvy socks that are on the cover of KSWHY.

I promise I'll post some real posts soon...

From the dining room table at Chez Go Knit In Your Hat

There's just not enough coffee in the world for how I feel, looking at the mess Dolores left. Forgive me, but this is all I can muster up for you today:

What a day!

Okay, if you have a hard time with breathless gushing and frequent exclamation points, you might want to pour yourself a very large Bloody Mary or glass of wine before you start reading this one. I promise I will not use the word "squee" -- besides, I think the lovely Anne Marie, fearless leader of the Montco SnB, used up southeastern Pennsylvania's quota of squees yesterday.

Yesterday was Franklin Habit's 1000 Knitters shoot at Woolgathering, in Kennett Square, PA. I don't even know where to begin. I also don't want to steal Franklin's thunder since this is his baby.

But I am now totally in love with Woolgathering, so today I'll tell you about the LYS which hosted the shoot. Woolgathering looks like this:

and this

and this.

It is located on one of the main streets of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which is a charming and historical town in the heart of a charming and historical part of PA, near the Brandywine Museum (think Wyeth) and Wawa University.

The owner of Woolgathering is Jacqui

Jacqui is one of those people who give off a gravitational force field of personality. She draws people into her orbit with her humor, warmth and enthusiasm. (I mean, the French clearly invented the phrase "Joie de vivre" for this lady!) You can tell how much the folks around her love her by the fact that she had so many wonderful people helping out, even at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, and when we kept asking these sweet and kindly worker bees "Do you work at the shop?" they all kept saying "No, we just love Jacqui!"

I can see why.

Jacqui has the most adorable Pom rescue dog named Turbo. (as in Addi Turbo) I can't find my photo of this doggeh which totally bums me out, but he is like a walking pom-pom. Fluffy, with a little wolfy face, and so loving. He sat in an armchair with me and just let me pet him. But Turbo, too, has been sucked into the Jacqui orbit and, understandably, had a hard time letting her out of his sight. (By the end of the day, I kind of felt the same way.)

Because we simply do not have enough yarn in our house (right, Tom?), I indulged in a few choice skeins:

Two skeins of the yummy new Manos Wool-Silk blend, and a skein of the new Rowan organic cotton to swatch with.




A skein of Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere on the left (Jacqui gave me the most adorable scarf pattern she invented, and I'm hoping to cast on tonight) and a skein of Claudia Handpaints handpainted linen on the right. I want to play with the linen and figure out whether I should start dyeing some myself.

The festivities just keep on coming: today Franklin and I are heading up to New Hope for brunch with QueerJoe and the saucy Curmudgeon:

Mar spent a good bit of the day with us and looks great! (Must be the FWF/FWB she's got squirreled away in East Stroudsburg...

By the time we left, between Jacqui's organizational skills and Franklin's charm, I think it is safe to say

Franklin Habit owns this town.

Coming this week: more on the 1000 Knitters shoot and other Franklin-related festivities...

Come and meet Franklin (and get your picture taken)

Hey, GKIYH readers in the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley area: In case you haven't heard (hah!), Barack Obama is not the only cool, handsome guy from Chicago who is appearing here this weekend. My pal Franklin Habit, blogger extraordinaire, chargez d'affaires to Her Nibs, Dolores Van Hoofen, is snoozing right now in my spare room. (I'm not exactly sure where Dolores is sleeping right now, but that's another story.)

I apologize for the excess of exclamation points. Yesterday I picked Franklin up at the airport. I was a bit early (okay, I'm a bit excited, can you tell?) but as I came up to the gate, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this woman from the back:

I figured only Dolores would wear hot pink velour sweatpants that read "Boopalicious" across the ass, but, sadly, I was mistaken. Thankfully the Homeland Security folks were very understanding when I tried to explain that I was not a big weirdo accosting the charming Japanese tourist -- I was a big weirdo who thought that she was goosing her friend's slutty talking sheep.

As soon as they let me out of the holding cell, I found darling Franklin. Franklin was then treated to a typical suburban day: lunch at the diner, as you saw yesterday, a cello concert by Elvis, introductory lessons in Wii (he's very good at target practice and won a bronze medal his first time playing), a quick stop at the elementary school to see the "art show"



Fuzzeh Bunnehs courtesy of Miss Thing.

dinner at Chili's, and of course, constant inter-sibling bickering.

Having known Franklin a while, I already knew how fun he is to be around; yet it still amazes me at what a smart, funny, altogether charming man he is and how lucky I am to know him.

So if any of you are within driving distance of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (which is a scenic and historical town close to Longwood Gardens), please stop by tomorrow between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the lovely Wool Gathering and get your photo taken by Franklin for the 1,000 Knitters Project. Details about the shoot and Wool Gathering are here. Me, I am all too eager to sniff around what looks to be a beautiful yarn shop that says right on its website that its specialty is "natural fiber yarns". . . and to meet the owner Jacqui, who has the excellent taste and discerning judgment to have made this photo shoot possible. Yay, Jacqui!

Okay, I'm off now. I'm afraid I've gone from my usual cynical, wisecrackin' self to a breathless giggling schoolgirl.



See you tomorrow!

He's here!!!!!

Here's Franklin at MY LOCAL DINER!!!!

Some new projects

Found on the kitchen table of Chez Go Knit In Your Hat:

I can has Franklin?

Recent conversations around my house

Tom: We really have to fix that broken towel rack before Franklin gets here.


Carol: Does your old Mac notebook still work?
Tom: No.
Carol: We better get it fixed before Franklin comes -- he prefers a Mac.
Tom: If he brings his own, he'll be able to use our wireless internet!


Elvis: Am I going to like Franklin?
Tom: Of course! I like him and I've never even met him.
Carol: Plus if you're nice to him, he'll teach you curse words in Latin.


As you may or may not know, when Franklin makes his Philadelphia-area debut at Wool Gathering for the 1,000 Knitters Project, the weekend of April 19th, he will be staying with me. Me, me, me! Nanny-nanny-poo-poo! [insert raspberry sound]

Don't worry, I shall share.

A little bit.

But I am excited.

A lot. (Scroll way, way down to the bottom of my blog to see exactly HOW excited I am.)


Tom: Do you think there will be screaming hordes of knitters running up and down our street, like when they chase Ringo in that Beatles movie?
Carol: Maybe I better call the township to see if we can borrow some traffic cones.

Making progress

Here is a photo of the new BBF skein label:

Looks great, eh? Thanks, M. Habit.

And then I filled these



with these



so the first shipment of the Sock Club could get on its way.

Coming attractions

Thanks to the inimitable Franklin, I was able to begin running my first official Black Bunny ad on Ravelry this week:

When I win the Powerball (which I insist on calling Rollerball to my husband's never-ending annoyance), Franklin shall get the entire west wing of our mansion for his new home, or if he prefers more privacy (believe me, nothing puts a damper on the old sex life more than worrying about five-year-old twins walking in on you), he can have the carriage house. (It will be a very large carriage house.)

So as not to disappoint the hordes of rabid Ravelers who will be clicking on said ad, I will be updating tomorrow morning around 11 a.m. my time. I've got a nice armload of the superwash merino/tencel blend

which will make wonderful socks, as well as my last five skeins of the Rideau Arcott wool blend sock yarn,



and some other goodies.

For those of you keeping track of Disease-a-palooza 2007, the current breakdown is:




now that Tom has been officially diagnosed with pneumonia. (He's so unoriginal; he couldn't even get his own disease, but had to copy Nick's.)

Coming tomorrow: another No-Bull Book Review...