Sonnet Stitches

Knitting, mostly. With occasional kvetching, lots of adventures, gratuitous cat photos and a healthy appreciation for the absurd.

Friday, April 11, 2008

KITH me, I'm awake

Knitting in the Heartland wrapped up Sunday night, and I'm just now returning to the land of the living. I've got a lot of housework catching up to do (not to mention knitting catching up to do), but at least my living room no longer looks like this:
KITH packing

It was a ton of fun hanging out with Stefanie, and I heard good things from the people taking her classes. She is more beautiful than her photos, she is smart, she is hilarious, and she is a class act all around. I wish she could have stayed longer and taken the Grand Kansas City Yarn Shop Tour, but, alas, it was not to be. Fortunately, Amber stays open late on Friday nights, AND she's down the street from Blue Koi, so we got to drop in on our way to Crispy Tofu with Awesome Sauce.


Everybody who's in the guild is going to get tired of me chanting these names, but I don't care. They deserve to be remembered in song: Sandra, Holly, Christine, Jo. While Teri and I were stumbling around sleep-deprived and walking into walls, these ladies were taking care of business. If you're going to head up a committee, the supposed ideal situation is to have people who, when you say "jump," they say, "how high?" On the contrary, these ladies, when we said "jump," they said "Yeah, lamebrain, I just set a pole vault record while you had your thumb in your eye." They were unbelievable - including Christine, who is getting married in two weeks. Who gets involved in planning a knitting conference two weeks before her wedding? A rock star, that's who.
HPIM1337

Also... Teri? The woman is a machine. We met at 8 a.m. Friday and did not stop until late Sunday night. Picking up stuff (and people), running errands, making phone calls, going to the airport during rush hour -- and she still found time to do Mom Stuff like attend parent-teacher conferences while I was home muttering to my very slow printer and rocking back and forth over my sixth cup of coffee.

Needless to say... my job? Other than stashing stuff in my living room, driving people crazy by pelting them with checklists, and going to Kinko's at 2 a.m.? Easy peasy. Everybody else was amazing.

The conference itself was fantastic. It's so exciting to me to see other people geeked out about knitting, so of course KITH was a blast. The market was full of beautiful stuff, people were whipping out projects left right and center, and I heard all kinds of conversational buzz about learning new techniques. Stefanie's publisher generously sent us 50 copies of "Fitted Knits" to give away for classes and the book signing, which was just awesome. Nobody else scrimped on the freebies, either - we had to have extra door prize drawings because our donors were so generous -- and if you've heard a rumor that you won a prize that you weren't around to claim, don't worry. We have a list, we have your contact information, and we will track you down and give you your goodies (much as I might like to keep them).



Also, I got to team-teach a class with The Other Jo, which was an adrenalin rush and a learning experience. I'd definitely do that again!! (It was also encouraging that when Teri and I dropped by the morning guild meeting to stash some stuff back in the cabinet, two people waved their finished class projects at me! Yay!)


We also got to meet The Most Well-Dressed Baby in the Universe, AND we know now why Stefanie is so sweet and so much fun - it's genetic. Stefanie's mom and in-laws took turns Mazie-wrangling and they were all lovely people.
Mazie is exhausted from all the praise heaped upon herStefanie and her mom with their matching thousand-watt smiles

We really have a fantastic knitting geek scene in Kansas City and I feel so fortunate to be part of it. I was just as excited to introduce Stefanie to all the local knitters and yarn pushersvendors we have here as I was to introduce Stefanie to them. I honestly kept forgetting that she was just here for the weekend, and, as you can see, we drove her back bearing all the marks of someone who has moved into our treehouse for keeps:
stef hearts misknits2
(Yes, that's a MisKnits T-shirt, Happy Feet from MisKnits, a circ from The Studio, and the first sock she says she's knit in 5 years. On her lap is one of Carmen's sock bags, which have become a ubiquitous sock knitting accessory in KC. The moral of the story? Resistance is Futile. You will be assimilated. Even if you're a Best of Interweave Readers' Choice Nominee.

|

Monday, April 07, 2008

KITH market haul


KITH market haul
Originally uploaded by sonnetstitches
My memory is a little hazy, but I appear to have gone yarn shopping this weekend. Clearly, sleep deprivation didn't cloud all areas of my judgment, because I picked up some good stuff.

More later. Despite several days of living on coffee and Advil, I had a great time this weekend. Teri and I are doing photo consolidation and I want to wait until I can type in complete sentences before doing my real post-KITH post. All the gushing I need to do about the fabulousness of the vendors, teachers, event organizers, army of volunteers, and, of course, Stefanie, will be better if it's coherent.

|

Thursday, April 03, 2008

T minus. . .

... 4 days and counting:

KITH planning blog, stardate 040308, excerpt from the commander's log:

"Event is shaping up nicely. Sent 36 e-mails today. 32 of them were to Teri. Had an entire conversation with Stefanie that seems to have taken place in about the length of time it took the ship's crew to inhale a pineapple and tomato pizza. Have only a hazy idea what happened with the conversation OR the pizza. Must use my forensic skills to decipher the following notes from my subconscious: 'Baby car seat' 'Free books' 'Sexy purple minivan' 'Yarn shopping' and 'Yay!!!!'

"Later, became lost among the boxes between the ship's deck and the mess hall. Called for help, then was rescued by the insistent chirpings of a fat grey cat that had stowed away in a large basket covered in sunflowers.

"Went to bed by 1 a.m. - a huge improvement. However, lay awake worried about things I may be forgetting until at least 3 a.m. Woke up 2 hours later to find my kitchen table covered in bullet-listed sticky notes."

3 days and counting:

"Rewrote class handouts at oh dark thirty. Couldn't read them the next day. Sent them to Jo Minor anyway.

"Later, intercepted telepathic message from captain to first mate as follows: 'Dear Christine, Jo Major is driving me crazy. If she sends me another e-mail all bets are off. I'll tie her up with my shiny new green tape measure if you'll slit her throat with your DPNs. Love, Teri' Sketched outline for court martial over threatened mutiny but decided it would have to wait until next week."


2 days and counting:

"Made plans to spend the evening calling the volunteer army, but could not find Sacred Mystical White Binder Containing the Combined KITH Wisdom of the Ancients, wherein was written the names of all the volunteers along with their phone numbers and addresses. Tore up house. Wailed. Gnashed teeth. Sent e-mails to aforementioned mutinous crew members accusing them of sacrilegious acts such as Accidentally Walking Off With the KITH Binder After the Ritual of Mass Nametag Assemblage. Finally resorted to hacking the captain's Googledocs account to get phone numbers.

"Spent four hours on the phone rallying the troops. Heard unholy amounts of ravelry gossip but also answered at least once the question 'What the heck is ravelry?' Asked spouse if he had seen Sacred Mystical White Binder Containing the Combined KITH Wisdom of the Ancients, which has been in the house for the traditionally appointed time of a year and a day. Spouse said 'What binder? Why are all these boxes full of crap all over the place?'

"Barricaded self in the ship's brig. Updated hacked spreadsheet. Struggled to remember the spelling of the word 'koi.' Heard muffled yelling from on deck that sounded like '....this binder?[mumble]...kitchen?' Yelled back 'Where did you find it?' and received the answer 'On the[mumble] ... refrigerator.' Opened mouth to ask for clarification (On? Near? Or, God forbid, In?) but decided it was best not to know, and said 'Thank you' instead.

"Had the most amazing dream I've ever had. Strangely, it ended up being about... sleeping."

1 day and counting...
"Descent into madness has been swift and complete. Found e-mail in my sent file as follows: 'Dear Christine, did you send those e-mails I've already asked you six times if you've sent? My brain is mustard.'

Have no idea when I sent this e-mail but have been giggling every time I think of the word 'mustard.'

|