Holy crap, Tracey and Regan are having a baby! Congratulations, guys! Let’s just hope the Sydney photobloggers aren’t invited to the birth… 🙂

That’s ONE puffy sleeve!
One sewn in, one to go. It’s a wonder I even had the energy. What a week! In three days, we’ve had FIVE staff absences in the shop. Basically, this means yours truly (aka The Go-To Girl) was on her feet and serving customers non-stop. Normally this would’ve provoked a massive rant, but I’ve actually had nothing but really nice people. We had an American tourist who basically hung out with me for two hours today. On her vacation! Two hours! So at least the days have gone by quickly. And then I actually spent two hours tonight of my precious knitting time staying late to parcel out the Knit Picks (because I know y’all are itching for them). Now that’s dedication. Anyway, one side of the cardigan is now complete except for the kitty faces. The sleeve wasn’t too difficult to sew in, but as I was rounding the back of the shoulder I let fly with a string of obscenities. There, STARING ME IN THE FACE, were three random purl stitches interrupting my lovely blank canvas of stockinette. What the–? Did I go momentarily insane? I continued sewing in the sleeve while meditating on my options. I could chalk it up to an Amish mistake and just hope no one notices… or I could deal with it. The Snook was surprised to see me preparing for surgery. “You don’t understand,” I said through gritted teeth. “My Knitting Nemesis is also entering the competition, and I WILL NOT STAND to have her see such a glaring error on my piece.” So before I could talk myself out of it, I snipped. I snipped and I unravelled and I made a great big hole in the jumper I’ve been killing myself to knit for the past month. Then I picked up the stitches with some DPNs and began the painstaking process of grafting the stitches back together. (I should mention again that this is black 4-ply. Somewhere my optometrist is moaning in his sleep.) I cursed and I stressed and I had to make, like, three false starts, but I got there in the end. Once it’s pressed, you won’t notice a thing. And I’ll be able to sleep at night. Hey, isn’t that a nice puffy sleeve?

You heard it here first: THE KNIT PICKS ARE HERE! I’m unpacking the box at this very second. We’ve also got megatons of Debbie Bliss, including the Pure Silk (which is absolutely divine) and lots of Cashmerino in multiple thicknesses.

I just discovered that I’m quoted in this article about knitting entitled “Street art goes soft.” I think I remember giving the interview a while ago. (It gets hard to keep track of all my media appearances, dahlings.) She got one thing wrong though – we never had anyone from Quitline at the Knit & Quit classes. We tried, but apparently they have ZERO budget to support anything other than the phone lines.

Crazy Muncie. The Snook sent me that link.

VEGETARIANS, LOOK AWAY! The rest of you, check out these Deep Fried Cheese-Filled Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs. Mmm, low carb.

My Live Internet Debut
Dude, that was so fun! Well, yeah, I kinda got stuck with a random co-host. I turned up and told the producer that I was the last minute fill-in for the 7 o’clock slot, and she was like, “Oh, so’s this guy. Do you guys each want to do half an hour or…” And I was like, “Whatever.” I realized pretty quickly that on my own, I wasn’t going to be doing much other than answering the phone. So I figured I’d have him to do that. (Unfortunately he apparently didn’t tell me about most of your messages! Sorry about that.) But in spite of it, I actually had a really great time. The producer chick was really nice and we sorta teamed up. (She’s a pretty good knitter, too.) I had been pretty anxious on the way over there – Would I look fat? Would people think I was boring? – but I found that I got comfortable really quickly. What did you guys think? I haven’t seen any of it yet, but it felt pretty good. All of the other people I’d seen kinda just sat there and did nothing, or else they wore wacky costumes and hula-hooped. I just wanted to be different without being too over-the-top. I hope at least it amused you.

That said – I booked in for another slot! I’m going to be on Saturday morning from 8am-9am Sydney time. By my reckoning, that will be about 5:00pm on Friday Indiana time, so all the Americans should be able to tune in! The producer loved the idea of having a knit-in, so any knitters that want to come along, let me know.

PS – Did you guys see the Snook? He apparently walked behind as we were winding down. And then, of course, he and I pulled a total “bonehead” by sticking out our tongues as we left…

Search the web… with Kevin Federline. No, really.

Wow. Television Without Pity just got bought out… by a network. I’ve been reading that site for, like, ten years, back from when it was “Dawson’s Wrap.”

Nerdy to the Max
I was helping customers in the shop today when a lady asked if she could order some knitting needles. As I wrote down the order, I asked her for her name and phone number. Her surname was Babbage, she said, “like cabbage with a ‘b’.” “And like Charles Babbage!” I added. She smiled. “Actually,” she said, “he was my husband’s great-great-great grandfather.” GET OUT. We chatted about it for a while and she explained how the descendants of the guy who basically INVENTED THE COMPUTER wound up in Australia. And then I had to call the Snook and geek out. Isn’t that neat?