Wake Up Call

I woke up at 6:34 AM ET this morning and I was ready to party. I was wide awake and there was no chance of going back to sleep, so I decided to work on my blog update.
The excitement of the week really started off with the Betsy Greer signing at the Barnes and Noble this past Tuesday. A good crowd showed up and we were all sitting and listening to her speak and knitting (or crocheting like me). G (her name really starts with an A but I know too many A people so she gets to be G taken from her avatar) and I got our books signed as well as a copy for H who was working that night. I really like Betsy’s book Knitting for Good and I forgot that she had an essay in Handmade Nation otherwise I would have brought my copy of that book to sign as well. The coolest thing about the evening was meeting a rep from the local Project Linus chapter. I’m a blanketeer now! A and I have gone through our stashes for donations and I have two of those Ziploc XXL (Like the size that goes up to your waist) full of yarn leftovers or stuff I realize I will never use in my lifetime. Then I was thinking, well, yarn is great, but I really felt the call to make a blanket for them. I decided to go to Jo-Ann’s and I was looking at the Vanna’s Choice Baby yarn because it is soft, machine-washable and it comes in a lot of bright colors. I was looking at the display and then I saw a copy of Vanna’s new book, Giggles & Grins, which is 12 crochet patterns to crochet for baby. I was flipping through it to see if their was a pattern I could make that didn’t require me to buy a ton of yarn and I found the granny square blankie. It’s a crib size and only requires 6 skeins but I think there will be a couple of colors where I will have leftovers. I started square 6 last night before I went to bed (out of 12) and I can’t believe how easy it is!!!! Prior to this, I had only made two tiny granny squares and that was when I first learned how to crochet and I had no clue what I was doing. I am also going to re-attempt to make the big sushi for my felted sushi wallet. My first attempt turned into a little sushi hat.
Friday, I took a day of vacation and I went to the eye doctor for the first time in 5 years. This was a combination of not having good insurance until now and having good eyesight. I think the doctor was amazed my glasses held out this long. I can still wear them but the finish is wearing off all over the frames, and the eye pieces are gross. I ended up getting a pair of Kate Spade “Elisabeth” glasses in black. I tried on the emerald green ones and they looked pretty on me but I just could not buy green glasses, so I ordered them in black from one of their other locations so cross your fingers because my greatest fear is that I will get them and they will be total puke on me. I feel like I have great expectations because I have had my current pair forever.
After the eye doctor, I ended up coming home and starting the blankie while watching Flight of the Concords Season 1. This show is AWESOME!!!! I am kicking myself for not going out and buying the cd at the same time. I also discovered that it is really hard to crochet and laugh at the same time. I also bought a new aluminum water bottle at Whole Foods. It’s a Sigg and it has Hello Kitty and hearts and it’s pink and red and it’s like a huge valentine to the environment. I made the dumb mistake of telling my sister about it and now she wants one because she is in the process of trying to quit pop completely. So I guess I will end up buying her one as a valentine’s day present.
Saturday was like the funnest day ever (I realize that is bad grammar, but funnest is really the best word to describe the day). G picked me up and we went to a new yarn shop on the east end of Raleigh and it is my new favorite yarn shop. They had the new Noro cotton yarn (which doesn’t fcel like a brillo pad but still has the great Noro colors), lots of sock yarn, Manos, a little Malabrigo, Cascade, Debbie Bliss, Claudia’s and a lot of other stuff that is on the A-list of yarn. They also carry Namaste bags and they had the pink version of the Zuma bag that I had just ordered from Scout’s Swag over Christmas. I bought four skeins of Mission Falls in a charcoal gray, a skein of Flat Feet (this is the new sock yarn that comes in a flat panel and you unravel it as you knit – flippin sweet), the keychain sock blocker sock kit, a Noni pattern for these Technicolor oven mitts, a sock pattern for my Mom and I think that was it. I know I fell off the yarn wagon, but I never go to real yarn stores that often and after waking up to 17 degrees on Friday morning for the first time since I left the Midwest, I felt called to make myself a new scarf out of wool.
Then G and I had lunch at Panera Bread and ended up just sitting and talking for a few hours. I had a blast hanging out with her as usual, she is a certified drama-free friend and we have a lot of similar taste in music.
The hilarious part is after I came home from our adventure, my Zuma bag was sitting on my doorstep and my Starbucks inspired stitch markers and crochet hook had arrived. I had just been lamenting at the yarn store about how cool the pink bag was in person and how I hoped it arrived for crafty day next weekend. By the way, I can fit my little Linus blankie in this bag and there is so many freakin pockets! I also received my Skull & Crossbones sock ruler keychain set (search for this on Scout’s Swag, it is really cool.
About an hour later, I received a call from the apartment people to notify me that the pipe that carries water to my building had busted (probably due to the unusual cold snap) and our water was being shut off. This happened right at dinner, so I had frozen pizza instead of mac & cheese like I was planning. Luckily, it was fixed and the water came back on a couple of hours later.
Anyways, I am probably going to hang out and work on the Linus blankie and do my usual Sunday morning Starbucks run. I might end up going to Whole Foods and at some point this weekend I need to return the oddly fitting hoodie I bought at Old Navy early in the week. I do not like hoodies that are not long and this one barely sits at my waist and it looked longer in the store. I also forgot to mention that I finished reading Labor of Love by Thomas Beatie and Food Matters by Mark Bittman, both awesome books.