Whirlwind weekend

After arriving home from Franklin's booksigning at Loop Friday night, I could barely sleep, I was so vibrating with excitement. The day had been a whirlwind of activity: the airport run (I saw a hilarious sticker on the escalator that said "God has a plan -- to kill me."), a quick stop at the house to drop off his things (Franklin's, not God's), we hit the elementary school for a sneek peak of Elvis' debut in the school musical:




we grabbed a late lunch and then it was off to Loop.

Not surprisingly, people turned out in droves to meet Franklin (or see him again, as the case may be), including the fearless Anne Marie and the lovely button creator Regina,



and then Regina (hmm, can it be that Regina is a ham? well, if my hair were that pretty, I would be too) posed with His Nibs himself:


A Franklin fangrrl came wearing this beautiful Bohus sweater (from a kit direct from Sweden):




I was thrilled to meet meet blogreaders Kim and Mary Ellen (thanks for introducing yourself! comment once in a while, willya?) and I was also very excited to meet Heather Ross, author of Weekend Knitting, who was appearing next door at Spool. While there, I got to meet the famous (and infamous) Jay McCarroll of Project Runway fame, who grew up just a few miles from where I did, and I had the great fortune of going out to dinner after the signing with Heather, and her publicist, and Craig, and pals Laura G. and Jim, and Craig's delightful partner Mark, and Spool co-owner Laura, and the charming Tom (not my Tom, though, another charming Tom).

Now, Heather is one of those people who would fill me with an inferiority complex (she's gorgeous! she's blonde! she's talented! she's funny! she is an excellent raconteur! she's taped a Martha Stewart episode!) except she's so nice and warm that she makes you feel right at home. I also became very fond of her sidekick Leslie (how'd that booty call go, Leslie?) who was also funny and smart and fun. So thanks to Craig for inviting me along and for bringing Franklin to Philadelphia.



I had barely dropped Franklin off at Loop so he could teach his lace class, when I had to rush back home to prepare to attend the last two performances of Cinderella (the Rodgers & Hammerstein production), with Elvis as the Herald. It was astonishing that a bunch of nine-, ten- and eleven-year olds could put on such a wonderful show.



(I'm very proud of those three red costumes on the right, above -- I made them!)



Elvis' brother



and sister



were very proud, too. (Would Miss Thang give up the chance to assume what she views as her rightful place, i.e., a throne?)

It was a busy and extremely fun weekend, and it was a nice break from my frantic knitting-on-a-deadline. Come back soon, Franklin! Your Philly fans miss you already!

The KSF Blog Tour. . .

It amuses me to no end that I have a publicist, but nevertheless I do, and she has helped us set up a kick-ass Blog Tour to celebrate the release of Knit So Fine. Our blog tour is going to go one step beyond the usual and in addition to giving you background information about the book and designers, we're going to feature a Skinny Yarn Of The Day. Each blog post will feature one specific skinny yarn that we love and used in the book. We'll talk about the qualities of that yarn, and why we used it for the specific project we used it for, and each blogger who's hosting us will have been sent a sample skein of that yarn to play with. In other words, you'll get a mini-yarn review with each blog post.

Later this week, I'll add the blog schedule into the sidebar but I'll leave it in this post, too. You'll see some names you recognize but maybe also some you don't, so you can discover new blogs to add to your regulars. A special thanks to all of the bloggers who volunteered to host the tour, too!

Knit So Fine Blog Tour: June 2 through 15, 2008

June 2: Andrea Lyn of The Fiber Forum which covers all aspects of the fiber arts. Andrea Lyn is a crocheter, spinner and needlefelter, and some of her work is shown on her fiber arts site. She is one of the new faces that I met through the blog tour. Yay!

June 3: RosieBlogs (the blog of Rosie's Yarn Cellar), which always has something interesting to show us or entice us with. Courtney Kelley will be doing the honors for RYC in this one; Courtney is a talented designer whose patterns go by the name Smith Island Pattern Factory (gorgeous lace shawls!).

June 4: Faina of Faina’s Knitting Mode. Faina is another one of the new-to-me bloggers that I've been excited to meet through the blog tour. Faina and her co-author Dawn have a book coming out this summer called Casual Elegant Knits: Classy Designs for Men and Women so look for it in July!

June 5: Kat Coyle, fabulous designer whose work has been featured in Interweave Knits, KnitScene and more, and who recently released her kids' book Boho Baby Knits: Groovy Patterns for Cool Tots.

June 6: LynnH of ColorJoy, who is a knitter, designer, artist, singer, dancer and teacher! (Did I leave any out?) She is a prolific knitters of socks and has the distinction of having knitted her own self-portrait.

June 7: the inimitable Shannon Okey whom I met standing in a line at TNNA two years ago and who just released How To Knit In The Woods: 20 Projects for the Great Outdoors (the latest in a line of books! she must not sleep much) and who just opened a bricks-and-mortar shop called Stitch Cleveland devoted to all things crafty and cool.

June 8: DK, the Nautical Knitter, of Knit With Us, a place for knitters to find videos, podcasts, and blog posts and more... DK creates and runs the Secret of the Stole Knit-a-longs, while her husband makes it all run smoothly on the web.

June 9: the talented Connie Chang, who is on fire with all kinds of spectacular patterns in the last couple issues of Interweave Knits and other fine publications (I really like the Henley Perfected from this winter's IK).

June 10: Cristi of Turtlegirl’s Bloggy Thing -- Cristi is an amazing spinner and knitter of gorgeous things; she also has a very fun and cool blog with great photos and much merriment. I mean, where else are you going to learn all about Testicle Toss?

June 11: Rob of Threadbear Fiber Arts, who not only owns one of the coolest shops in the world that I have yet to visit (sigh) but also has designed some great patterns, like the Broadripple Socks.

June 12: Cindy, the FitterKnitter is a graphic designer and illustrator by day, and a knitter, designer, aerobics instructor and long-distance cyclist in her non-work time. (Another one who doesn't sleep much, eh?) Another new blogger I've met.

June 13: Véronik Avery -- oh yes, we all know about my long-time crush on Vévé, designer extraordinaire and all-around cool Canadienne. We all know by now how much I lerve her book,
Knitting Classic Style, her husband, her design sensibility, her latest Knitty pattern (Lace Ribbon Scarf), her adorable daughter, her kittehs, basically everything about her... and she has a gorgeous website and blog, too.

June 14: Franklin Habit -- Franklin who? Hah! Another object of my stalker-love, this tremendously talented and charming illustrator, raconteur and sheep-handler is releasing his fan-tabulous book of essays and cartoons this fall: It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons. Rumor has it that Dolores may poke her head into the interview so I can serve her with my small-claims court complaint to spice things up.

June 15: Myra & Suzie of Woolbearers, a knitting shop in Mt. Holly, NJ, which is on my list of places to visit this summer, since it's not that far away. . and it looks lovely from the website! In fact, I am going to be in Mt. Laurel this Saturday -- hmmmm.

So there you have it: 14 stops in 14 days, full of yarn reviews, inside stories, and more. . .