I Have Found My People!

Since I started working outside the home, I have taken nine stitches (I counted). (It was the first nine of the top pear.) Tuesday night I brought my stitching with me to the hairdresser and got a knot in my floss before I even took one stitch. I didn't have my cheaters and the light was bad, so the stitching went back in the bag.

I've made some progress as you can see.

The other day one of my colleagues was showing off socks she had knit. We got to talking, and she invited me to come to the knitting circle* on Wednesday. Meet at her cubicle just before lunch, we were driving over.

At ten to twelve, I walked up to her cubicle and she was gone! I was devastated--mostly because I couldn't remember where they met. Fortunately someone saw her car still in the lot, so I raced down the stairs and out the door. She saw me and pulled over. "I kept saying I thought I was forgetting someone!" she exclaimed. I stepped over the dead squirrel, and off we went.

It's quite a diverse group and growing exponentially. My friend brought three newbies along, for example. We were about 14, so we had to move from the parlor to a more exposed location. The students were intrigued. There were a lot of "whoa!s" and "What are they doing?" murmurs, though none approached us. Anyway, it was delightful to be back among the stitchers.

So, good news, I'll be stitching and have things to show. Woot!

*They're looking for a better name. It's mostly knitters, a couple of crocheters, and the one cross-stitcher. If you have ideas, submit them.

Diapers and Bodily Fluids

This morning I found myself standing in the middle of a Starbucks on the phone with my bank holding an adult diaper.

Peggy Lee is heading to New Jersey for a nuclear power plant outage, so Catherine G. gathered us--Peggy, Brett, Cat, and me--in Chadds Ford for a tiny bit of stitching and more shopping. But your still worried about the diaper, aren't you?

I made sure to endear myself to everyone by correcting their grammar, complaining about shopping while buying the most, and getting cranky when I wasn't fed promptly at noon. And you wonder why I don't have more friends.

We had, as always happens when stitchers get together, a great time. We talked about everything from morning wood to what a girl should wear in Atlantic City, from where teenage boys should jack off to how much sleep we need now that we're middle aged.

It was a delightful time, and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did, even though I was my usual pain in the ass self.

GTG

Yesterday the dude and I conquered our fear of strangers and opened our house to some stitching goddesses. We had a little tea party and talked stitching, politics...and since we were on a roll, sex. We left out religion but that's only because the dude and I never think about it. Except when we are being unAmerican and trying to quash all religious belief. True story.

If you've never met up with other bloggers here's a funny thing that happens. You introduce everyone by their real name followed by their blog. So we had Jennifer "Sweetpea," Jenna "Shooting Star" or as we found out "Pole Star" (more porn later), Lee "Lake Stitcher" and Rachel--or as I always think of her Ruthrachel--"Willing Hands." Oh, also Terry came along and even though I tried to banish the boys to the study, they wanted to talk sex and politics with the womenfolk. We had a pleasant tea party with egg salad, cucumber, and devilled ham sandwiches; pumpkin bread with cream cheese, scones, and cupcakes. Some people actually stitched. I blabbed and blabbed which is a side effect of being socially retarded.

Rachel brought me a little gift--the bag matched my outfit and my bedroom (what? you don't dress to match your bedroom?). She made me open it. (This led to a little story about opening presents in public, which I find to be one of life's humiliations. Only because I never know what I might say.) I'm glad I did because it was lovely and lovely things should be shown off to those who will appreciate them. (See below*.) Lee brought me some cute and cheerful fabric and as soon as my Christmas stitching is done I know exactly what I am going to do with it. Thanks, gals! Those other ones brought nothing, but really, what can you expect? (Their company was pleasure enough.)

Sampler Girl
Tea with Jane
Stitched by Ruth for me.


Fabrics from Lee.
Look for them again in the near future.

I did work on the mermaid for about 30 stitches but I was talking too much and miscounting.

When we said goodbye, the dude and I jumped in the car for Sunday dinner at my cousin's. During dessert, with the kids out of the way, we scripted a porn movie. Because that's just what you do at Sunday dinner. It all started with me telling my sister she could have more icing by sucking it out of the pastry bag. It led down a predictable path. Or maybe not so predictable. But this is a family blog. Anything more of this talk would be unAmerican.

*Not photographed the matching tin of tea. Matching. I'm going to have to keep it in the bedroom.

I'm Not There

I won't be at the KOP mall stitching in public. I haven't been sleeping well. Jenna can't make it. Next time. Maybe I'll host a GTG in October. That would be nice. Let's do it. Details forthcoming.

Craft Corner

Last night I went to the public library's "craft corner." The woman in charge called me the wrong name almost the whole night. I kept repeating my name, but she wasn't getting it. I really have to come up with a polite way of correcting people. Anyway, she finally asked me for my e-mail address, and when she saw it written, she started using the right one. Two librarians, two friends, and I were the only ones in attendance. The two friends were the kind of people that go to a public stitch in and then just talk to each other. Nice. Good thing you left the comfort of your own home. They only stayed for an hour. The librarians were super friendly, so I think I'll go back next week.

We got on the topic of this local yarn store that closed, and one woman said she didn't carry things that were that different from AC Moore. I cannot confirm since I never went to the store, though I meant to. Then they were talking about the bead store and saying they hoped she survived. The woman who said the Technicolor Sheep was like AC Moore said she had been in to the bead store but hadn't bought anything. I told them about the classes I took, and said they had a lot of stuff that you can't get at the craft stores. Which is totally true. It's just more expensive, and I suspect that that is really the underlying reason that these people think that the big box craft stores are good enough. But I am here to shed light not to condemn! Next week, I think I'll bring my beading projects to see if I can get them interested in actually shopping there. I also turned the younger facebooking librarian on to ravelry. It's just one good deed after another.

I ran out of Harvest Basket for my aunt's gift, but I do have some on the way from Jenna so I should finish up soon. I found some fabulous flannel for a pillow finish, but I was thinking I wanted to make a ruffle on the pillow. Then I thought I might use five fabrics (four different ones around the pattern and a fifth for the ruffle) so I've got to get more fabric for finishing it. This may be put off until June (my parents arrive for ten days 4/30 and my MIL for 14 days on 5/16).

I've substituted Curly Q Ewe for my travel project. But people I have just realized that my birthday exchange is rapidly approaching. Yikes! Gotta get on that! (Well, I've been buying things for it, now I've got to get to making things for it.)

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Challenge
It looks like we have critical mass for the challenge. I'll start looking around for freebie patterns--if you have any ideas, just point me toward them. And I'm thinking about the prize thing. I'm a little wary of collecting money from people, and I thought it might be nice to have prizes for the top three...but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

Meet Up

Went to a GTG at Cathy's in Lititz. That's Lit-itz not La-titz as we've been saying around here to make ourselves giggle. I met Cathy and Jenna and Cathy's non-blogging friend Karen. Who is my new best friend. We caught Jenna's enthusiasm for her new ONS; admired Cathy's children, especially Joshua's Superman costume; and had a virtual museum display of lovely needlework. I'm lusting after Jenna's needleroll (and Jo's stitching prowess). We taste tested some lovely recipes and actually got some stitching done. Photos tomorrow.

An Invitation

I've been thinking of this for a while now. Whenever I talk about the Strawberry Sampler being my LNS or when I announced my recent move to Havertown, I get a few people who comment and tell me they live nearby (or right around the corner from my favorite Home Goods store). I think we should get together in real life.

I'd offer my home, but since the dude, sissy, and I have to fight over who gets to sit in the two upholstered chairs (the loser gets the ottoman), I just can't host many people. I was thinking we could get together at the Starbucks near me. It's the one on West Chester Pike at Eagle. There's a big room with comfy chairs out of eyeshot of the barristas.

Comment here or e-mail me, and we can make a plan!