Beth had a party!

Beth, channeling Elvis, had a summer solstice party at her shop

The was spinning in and outside, natural dyeing, many snacks &, of course, much silly.
Yes, Lynne did buy that spindle.
No, Kat did not buy that Jensen wheel.
Kat & Sandy drove across the state to play. My Sandy pictures are blurry :-(
Abby came latter, yes, that Abby. She walked through that open door after I was back home with the children.
Where's Carla? Well, we thought she had an accidental hangover, from a bottle of Coppela wine while watching P.S. I Love You, but it really was a migrane - much less fun.

Ears and Beers

We had some 9 year old birthday ear piercing around these parts last week.

Before










Right after, can you see the relief?
No tears, just a little flinch.












All of a sudden she's grown up













Then we drank, it was my birthday too!


















Hooray for the bear









my beer was as big as the water carafe & I may have had more than one.........


































The reality, birthday or not.

Wild Kingdom

Following in Amy's post-footsteps we continue with (Mutual of Omaha's) Wild Kingdom.
We had a big snapping turtle lay her eggs in our yard.
We are at least a mile from the small to middle sized pond where she lives.
I think she was in love with the bowling balls all over our yard.
It took her 2 hours to dig her hole with her back feet.
30 minutes to lay her 20-30 eggs - that looked like pearls, but were the size of ping pong balls.
30 more minutes to fill the hold and stamp down the dirt.
Then she just walked off, back to the pond.
The babies won't hatch until the spring.
I was amazing to watch, she looks like a dinosaur
Take a look:

More things I loved about TNNA

This was absolutely true! Amy lost her voice, before the show started - enough said. Fiber people bring out the silly in me, I know my face hurt from smiling and my stomach from laughing. Also I love all of the hugging.


Here's the Classic Elite booth, featuring my new Curvy Knits designs - look at all of that space devoted to fat girls!!! I'll give you a tour of the designs closer to pub date.

I have bunches of pictures to put up - birthdays, fiber, lots to show and tell!

Birthdays & TNNA

It's my birthday, I'm 45 and I can't stop smiling.
Each year gets better and each year I'm happier.
I share my birthday with some cool cats - Maurice Sendak and Howlin' Wolf.
But this is my favorite birthday sharee and my favorite birthday present ever:

Yep, born on my birthday. She's 9 today. I'll take the birthday picture later, she'll be getting her ears pierced after school.

• TNNA was a bucket of love. It's a yarn slumber party. I forgot to bring my camera. The Harlot and Amy have photo recaps and more will be added to Flickr I'm sure. So I will recap some in bullet points:
• Amy lost her voice before the show started. I've been working with her for years on Knitty, but having to step in and do the big talking with her standing right there - terrifying.
• 
  
• More Big Girl Knits signing - we signed so many books that my pen ran out of ink. There was lots and lots of Big Girl love
• 
  
• Classic Elite and Curvy Knits - I have my second booklet of Curvy Knits patterns coming from Classic Elite this Fall. This is really where I am kicking myself about the camera. All the garments were there. There was a display with the garments, and blown up photos from the booklets. I nearly cried for two reasons: 1) my designs on the wall at Classic Elite - holy f*ck. 2) a gorgeous big, sexy, succulently sexy woman modeling knitwear on the wall- ON THE WALL UP FRONT in a major yarn company's booth. It made me swoon .
• 
  
• Did you feel the earth shake when Knitty & Ravelry met in person for the first time? Really, the earth shook, angels may have sang.
• 
  
• I told Cat Bordi I'm going to spin yarn for her sock class - now I really have to do it
• 
  
• The Stitch Co-op Girls - there was buzz and there were orders. I belong to a co-op of indi knitting and crochet designers organized by the medialicious Shannon Okey, that sells our patterns into yarn stores. We laughed a lot, also there were nuts, and Nathan Fillion in nut oil.
• 
  
• Miriam Felton - a new friend! We adopted Miriam and made her do wicked things. She makes me want to knit lace shawls.
  
• 
  
• Clara Parks has an awe-some high school hall smile & nearly made me pass Guinness through my nose.
• 
  
• Carol Sulcoski cusses as much and maybe even more than I do, we had an f-bomb fiesta.

• Franklin was there :-)

• 
  
• Sandi Wiseheart - we met, we hugged, our boobs shot sparks.
• 
  
• Julia and the Twist Collective. Have you seen the gorgeousness?
  
• 
  
• Abby was there and we fondled fiber.
  
• 
  
• It was Beth's first TNNA, wait til you see what it did to her shop
  
• 
  
• There was beer

• I've taken a crochet challenge

• 
  
• Jenni's ice cream - the Harlot says it best

TNNA is the best kind of reunion it leaves your body exhausted but your heart and your little gray cells full!