Tour Diary pt 1: City of Knitterly Luv
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.
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).
pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.yarn: One Sheep Hill, available at the Yarnzilla storefront
needles: 2.5mm Addi circular
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.
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July 25th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Yes!! Elizabeth’s hand-dyed sock yarn are the Philistine Team colors! Must! Have! If I have anything to say about it, we’ll soon be Philistine Team sock twins.
And here’s hoping your vacay is going swimmingly (it’s Hawaii, how could it not be?), and PLEASE come back to Philly soon so I can meet you! Please?
July 25th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Thieves just plain suck. All I can say is thank goodness you’re recovering in Hawaii. I’m a true Minnesotan (love the snow), but Hawaii is still one of my favorite places! I immensely enjoyed a trip on a glass-bottomed boat to look at sea creatures. Hiking Diamondhead rocked, too.
Good luck piecing your paper back together, and I hope your partner’s presentation goes well.
July 25th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Have a wonderful time in Hawaii. Hope the reconstruction goes well when you return.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Glad you are enjoying Hawaii! I hope your committee is able to help you with a draft of your dissertation.
What lovely yarn! And the Monkey socks look great–exactly what your pal requested.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Glad you had a great time (I did, too) and sorry I couldn’t stay longer. Next time you’re in town (because Flint is so close to Philly) we’ll have to do it again but with drinks and more free time!
July 25th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Sounds like it was a wonderful time–I’m sorry I missed it!
I love that Gee you Knit sock yarn! I haven’t had a chance to get to Loop recently, but I definitely might go now that they’re carrying it. I’ve been wanting to see that yarn in person.
July 26th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Hawaii - nice - a perfect place to be after your debacle from last week!
July 26th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
oooh, i should have warned you. The Fire is infamous for bad sound. oh well… glad you guys had a good meet-up!!
Where in Hawaii are you? I was there for a conference in November and *loved* it (and i never thought the tropics were really my style… guess I was wrong!)
July 26th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
It looks like you had a lot of fun meetups! Your SockPal socks look really great. I think she’s going to be thrilled. Enjoy your time in Hawaii
July 26th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
i’m sooooo jealous…… i ended up having to work for someone (he dropped a giant shelf on his head), and couldn’t make it
I’m glad you guys had fun, though
July 26th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Just read about the computer theft. I think the @#%&!r F*&^%@# should be hung up by their *&#@$! Damn, can I be crude or what?
But really, I am sorry about the loss.
The meet up and socks look fantastic! Glad you had so much fun.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
You’re in Hawaii? Are you going to meet up with the Aloha Knitters there?
July 26th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Pamela, you are the epitome of grace under pressure. Have as good a time as you can in Hawaii. Somehow, it will all work out.
July 27th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Loop is definitely the best yarn shop in Philly. where do you go for a veggie cheesesteak?? (and how sacrilegious is THAT?) Looks like great fun with the Philadelphians!
July 27th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I had so much fun! You should move here and we can have a knitting party 24/7.
July 27th, 2007 at 12:31 am
ack. i keep meaning to write you and say how i am a jerk for missing the meetup especially because it sounded like SO MUCH FUN….the cat thing happened and then we had friends who we hadnt seen for 6 months (really) call and invite us over for dinner…..excuses excuses i know. i am SO BUMMED i missed it.
sidenote: my bf had a brand new mac laptop stolen from the office of a gallery at an opening of an art show that HE was in. so assfaces who came to see his opening also stole his computer for some sort of wacked out memento.
sidenote #2: notice how that happened in nyc and not philly? just sayin’.
i hope hawaii is the best ever.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:34 am
So glad you had a carefree, fun meet-up!
July 28th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Yay for the prettiness.
July 29th, 2007 at 6:51 am
Hooray! Knitblogger meetups rock!! I hope to meet up with some more peeps at SAFF.
P.S. Your glasses rock my world.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Wow, what fun! I must be so nice to meet your fellow bloggers in the flesh.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:17 am
I like how you are seeing silver linings. I hope that Hawaii ameliorates all that ails you (and that the laptop theif gets electrocuted).
August 1st, 2007 at 3:46 am
Ugh, recreating a conference talk, too? That sucks, although it definitely sucks less in Hawaii. I don’t recall ever seeing computer science conferences in Hawaii… I’m sure it’s well attended!
And I heart the geeyouknit yarn with it’s little blips of blue.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:07 pm
SO glad you are having a blast in Hawaii, what a place!!
p.s. you glasses rock!! And your mix CD is never off my ipod now! Kate Bush forever….
August 6th, 2007 at 2:18 am
I hope someone finds something useable! I think Hawaii is just what the Dr ordered to help deal with losing that much work. I lost quite a bit of data when my hard drive crashed a year ago - I threw quite a fit!