spaazlicious

Thanks to everybody for the birthday wishes! Don't forget to check out Minou and Sparky's donation page--remember, your US dollars go farther in Canada ;)

Speaking of things in Canada which go far...

Today I went to The Grove and joined a bunch of other knitters in getting their books signed and listening to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ("that's Pearl, not purl," anybody else remember that from the KnitList? Bonus points if you remember her Knitflame nickname) talk about knitting phenomena. Then I drove home listening to Open Source Radio on the iPod all about...knitting phenomena.

So I've done more listening to talk about knitting than knitting. Today, at least.

When we went to Disneyland I brought the Victoria Tank to work on, but eventually ripped it to the balls while in line for the Pinocchio ride.
Gauge was way off, and apparently I was high while knitting most of it. It finally got too wonked up even for me. So it went.

Today I knit on what will be the heaviest Tivoli T out there, made from Reynolds Gypsy mercerised cotton. I don't know that I will ever wear it, but it's a good carry around knit project.

I've finished spinning up the green BFL for the faux-Noro Butterfly, I'm just going to immersion set the twist and then I'll probably leave all of it in some sort of a box and knit it up in a couple years. I mean, I'd hate to break out of my routine here.

Here's what's spinning up now:


There's that merino/silk blend all predrafted like a mofo and spinning up around lace-weight to be plied to around a DK weight. No specific plans for this, but it's spinnin' up real purty.

Okay, here's the Choose Your Own Adventure™ portion of the post. If you want to read more about the Yarn Harlot today, keep reading. If you want to read what books I've read since I last posted, scroll down to where it says What Books I've Read Since I Last Posted. Yes, it's a creative kind of day.

I didn't realise, but apparently my camera has a drug habit. These are the two best pics I got today:

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee throws out Toronto gang signs to her peeps in the crowd.


The girl with psychedelic dreads and a bloated-looking Harlot, all out of focus. This is A Very Bad Picture. She actually reminds me of a girl Nick and I knew up in Sacramento who was very aptly named Jolie.



Anyway, to the meat of the thing. It was amusing, I bought a book and had it signed:



And she was enjoyable to listen to (more so when she dropped the sheaf of papers and did Q&A) and chatty and approachable while signing and all the things publishers could want their authors to be.

Maybe it was just me, but I definitely felt a "blog crowd vibe." You know, where almost everyone is a blogger and knows it, and there's this sense of "okay, what do you know about me and what are you going to say over the internet about me and this? What am I going to say about you? Should I take a picture, or is that too stereotypical desperate blogger-sheep?" Do you know that feeling? I didn't quite pin it down, if someone knows what the hell I'm talking about, please tell me.

What Books I've Read Since I Last Posted

Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King. This is the latest in the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series. I liked it for all the historical San Francisco stuff and the dash of Hammett (pardon my pun) but she really built herself into a little box and it was so damn predictable. I read it though, so that says something.

The newest Harry Potter. Did anybody else have the Spiderman song stuck in their head after they finished this one? All set up for the finale. Good thing for the pensieve, eh? What a useful narrative tool that thing is.

Mystic River by Dennis LeHane. Nick and I read A Drink Before War way back when because we were told that his series was "better than Spenser," fluffiness of which we are very fond. So we tried it and found him to be trite, sentimental, and overly fond of weak-willed characters with an unpredictable streak of violent righteousness that never turns out quite right. And so it is with Mystic River. You just keep reading hoping for something better.

Multiple Choice by Claire Cook. Fluffy and cute, this is like a lighthearted Mermaid Chair. No daddies dead under mysterious circumstances or mommies hacking off bits of themselves in penance, but a fun summer read with similar themes nonetheless. ;)

Etc.

Tomorrow is the start of PC Turnoff Week which just happens to coincide with our evacuating the flat while some dude takes apart our bathroom. So, I guess I'll see how long I last without this particular idiot box.


See you next week?

Oh, WAIT!
Before you go, who's up for a North County Yarn Store Crawl next Saturday? Shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment, and we'll work it out. (edit: Let's make it Sunday. Nancy can't do it Saturday and without Nancy it won't be any fun. So Sunday?)