Flint Knits

You probably already know that Ashley is totally awesome, and superbly talented, right? But have you seen her fabulous patchwork scarves? Because they’re, well, fabulous.

She and I spent Sunday afternoon together, in matching Rowanspun sweaters, and did some serious burrito eating (Chipotle) and yarn shopping (Threadbear). And she gave me one of her brilliant new scarves. I might be in love.

Check out her post, because she took all the sweet photos, and both her camera and her prose are vastly superior to mine.

Threadbear has a great stock of Dream in Color worsted weight right now, and just happened to have the color I needed to finish my Elizabeth Zimmermann baby sweater. So I spent my Sunday night not preparing to teach on Monday, but watching two new classics of American Cinema (Slingblade and Ghostbusters II), and finishing up the sweater.

pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann, baby sweater on two needles, from The Knitter’s Almanac

yarn: Dream in Color worsted, in Cool Fire
needles: US7 Addi Turbos

Then I cranked out a pair of two-hour booties. I don’t much like the look of worsted weight booties, but jeez, they’re fast.

pattern: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, from Lion Brand.
[PDF from Dreamweaver Yarns]

Both the sweater and the booties are for my wee, adorable niece Claire who, as a twenty-first century baby, has her own blog.

They’re shown here on a table (actually one of a set of 5 TV trays) that my late grandmother Pamela Wynne (yep, I’m her namesake) made 30 years ago.

She was a photographer in the UK during WWII, and was one of the most talented artists I’ve ever known. She did everything — painting, sewing, knitting, sculpture, ceramics, home renovation, furniture building, dollmaking — and she did it well.

She was always game for any new thing (this led to some unfortunate periods in the 1980s that included plastic canvas needlepoint and puffy paint art), and she taught my mother and me everything we know about crafting.

This sweater is totally my grandma’s style — exactly the kind of thing she would have made, were she still around, for her great-grandaughter (though she would have used pale pink yarn and much frillier buttons, and probably added some matching satin ribbon).

Thanks for teaching me how to make stuff, Grandma. My life is much better for it.

So, BEFORE the drama of the break-in in New York, I had an awesome second date with Minty. We met up near Harold Square, and walked to a great Korean restaurant, where I ate way too much of every little dish, plus a huge bowl of soup. SO good.

We then zipped over to Purl Soho so I could find some yarn to coordinate with my lavender-grey Koigu (didn’t find any, but I did get two other skeins of Koigu).

Then she bought me a lemonade at a street fair in Soho, and we snapped this picture. Minty is, of course, the queen of self portraiture.

Then I went home, and left the next day for a week in Hawai’i. Vacation photos on Flickr if you’re interested.

Hawai’i is, of course, beautiful. It’s also home to some of the most destructive, racist, and all-around fucked-up tourist practices in the world. If you’re interested in such things, you might check out Stephanie Black’s excellent documentary Life and Debt, Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, Michelle Cliff’s The Land of Look Behind, and/or Haunani-Kay Trask’s From a Native Daughter.

Also, one of my favorite knit-bloggers, Desiknitter, has been sharing the most thoughtful and thought-provoking posts about her recent travels in India. Check it out.

Anyway, then we went home, and left the next day on tour. Again. I’m in Madison, Wisconsin right now, after having rocked Peoria and Keokuk. If you’re interested, the remaining tour dates are listed at myspace.com/emptyorchestra.

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So I thought to myself, “self, you’re going to be on the road for weeks at a time this summer, with nothing to do between shows but sit in the tour van and occasionally drive. Think of all the time you’ll have for knitting and blogging!”

Not quite.

I have been knitting a bit, but blogging? Duh. That takes a computer, and an internet connection. At the moment, I have 236 unread emails in my inbox, and 660 unread blog posts in Bloglines.

Damn.

So I’m going to have to beg your patience and forgiveness — there’s just no way I can keep up with all the fabulous developments on Flickr and your blogs. If you create something spectacular, or there are major life changes I should know about, please email me or call! xoxo

for all your support, sympathy, and good wishes
for your generous offers of computers and yarn and stress relieving bathtime soaks
for your righteous rage on my behalf.

Seriously, you have no idea how much you’ve all helped me get through this. The latest update is that I’ve got a sexy new computer, and my committee members and writing group colleagues are currently searching for any earlier drafts of my diss work that they still have lying around. And it looks like our home owners’ insurance will give us a bit of money for the computers. Plus, I’m writing from my hotel on Waikiki Beach. Life goes on.

As the lover works to cobble together a presentation for the conference tomorrow (the original paper was lost in the theft), I’m sitting with a glass of pineapple juice and a macadamia nut muffin. It seems like a perfect time to blog about the lovely meetups I had last week.

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We arrived in Philadelphia a whopping 8 hours before our show, so of course I headed straight for the nearest yarn shop. I found myself at Loop, where I was thrilled to find a beautiful display of Elizabeth’s sock yarn.

And then I realized that Elizabeth herself was there, working at the shop! She gave us all kinds of useful info about where to go for fabric and for veggie cheese steaks (yes!), and showed me the Charade socks she’s knitting with her Martha colorway. They won me right over, so I picked some Martha up for myself.

Speaking of Philly knitters, aren’t these your colors, Megan?

I also bought a tapestry needle so I could properly kitchener my Sockapalooza socks (you may recall that my pal requested both “crazy colors” and lace — I tried to deliver the best I could).

Later, I met up with some other Philadelphia knitters for a fabulous comfort-food dinner at A Full Plate. (Elizabeth led us there after the restaurant I’d originally chosen turned out to be a pizza stand with no chairs. Oops.)

Sarah and Krista are a smart, funny, adorable couple, both originally from Michigan. Specs was one of those quietly witty people that we motormouths so admire — when she talks, she’s always got something worth saying. I only wish we’d had more time to spend together.

After Sarah and Krista rescued a kitten from under a truck (no kidding!), Elizabeth came to our show at The Fire. The sound guy arrived 90 minutes late and completely stoned, so the show was pretty crappy, but Elizabeth stuck it out like a trooper, then hung around all night to drink beers and chat with me about knitting and music and so on. She’s just as kind and funny as she is cute.

Next up? The dish on my second date with Ms. Minty. For now, there’s a balcony off my hotel room just begging to be sat upon.

Dear Jerkface,

You must have been thrilled to break into our van and find three notebook computers you could walk away with. And such dedication you showed in ransacking the whole place — no simple smash and grab for you, no sir. Only a complete trashing and defiling of our belongings would do.

So, congratulations! You are now the owner of the only two existing copies of my half-finished dissertation, which are on the computer and back-up drive that you stole. If the dissertation bores you, please feel free to instead browse the hundreds of knitting patterns that I have painstakingly collected over the last several years, or the hundreds of priceless family photos I have taken. I’m sure the last surviving images of my dead grandmother will mean just as much to you as they do to me and my family.

My lover hopes you enjoy leafing through the rare primary research materials, clippings, articles, and photographs that you stole along with his computer, and which he has spent several months collecting for his dissertation.

My friend Jeff hopes you like military-themed gay porn — his computer is full of it.

And Ian would like to thank you for deciding that his belongings weren’t worth carrying, and for leaving his clothing, passport, and birth certificate in a trash bin, even though they would certainly fetch more money for you than my crappy old Dell laptop. It appears that you don’t know a good thing when you see it.

I mean, look what else you left behind:

So thanks for not stealing the yarn, or my sockpal’s socks, or Laura’s bottle of whiskey (which we were very happy to have once the police left). I truly hope you get some good money for our stuff, now that you’ve got it.

Take care, jerkface.

Love and kisses, Pam

***Also, a special shout-out to the apathetic asshats who sat up in their gazillion-dollar air-conditioned TriBeCa lofts and watched it happen. Because they are special, special people.

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To my online knitting buddies: I miss you. There are 482 new posts in my Bloglines, and I intend to read skim every single one as soon as I have my new computer up and running. I’ve also lost nearly all of your email addresses — so, if you have a moment, please leave a comment and/or send an email so I can re-add you to my address book.

And please tune in later this week for a wrap-up of some finished projects, and of this week’s lovely knitty bloggy meet-ups. My recent time off from blogging hasn’t been all bitterness and disappointment and grand larceny, after all. Life has been pretty good.

Plus, I’m off to Hawai’i today, and not a moment too soon. I need a fucking vacation.

The unofficial Summer of Rock Shows and Knitblogger Meetups begins tomorrow. The knitblogger part of the tour might be a disaster — mostly because it won’t be until the last minute that I know details like when we’ll be arriving in a city, or leaving it, or whether there will be any time for knitty meetups and fun.

Then again, all that time on the road means lots of knitting (I hope). For updated July and August tour dates, see myspace.com/emptyorchestra. It looks like we might have a free day to spend in the DC area! Woo hoo!

Attn: Philly folks! Our show at The Fire has been rescheduled for Friday, July 20. Also, I have 10 discounted tickets (at $2 each instead of $7) that I can sell to anyone who wants ‘em. If you’d like me to set one aside for you, email me!

Would it be possible to gather together a few of you zillion Philly knitbloggers for dinner on the 20th? If so, (1) who’s in? and (2) got any suggestions for veg-friendly restaurants close to The Fire?

(Sadly, this means that the Bridgewater, NJ show was canceled. But we’ll meet another time, Kristy!!)

Oh, and lest you think it’s been all rock and no yarn, look what I just started for the second time. I’m using fatter yarn and fatter needles, so let’s hope this one fits.