This morning I went to Old Navy on a quest for some new jeans, since I found a tiny hole in my favorite pair the past week. I used to be able to find jeans there, but this time it wasn't so easy. It seems that as we get fatter, we're supposed to still have skinny legs, and since I am not only overweight, but also have tree-trunk-muscular legs, I don't fit that profile. I found a pair, but they're a little too small through the thighs, and a little too big through the waist. Oh well, they were only $20. I also got a cute ribbed v-neck top and my total was less than $30. I love Old Navy.
On the way to the Knit-Out I stopped at a bird store that I had frequented in the past, until they moved and I hadn't had a chance to check out the new store yet. I needed a few things for Kili, my parrotlet, and I like to play with the birds they have for sale there. I had forgotten how much work it was to tame Kili. Baby birds can be a little nippy, and I got bit. Ouch. She's asleep now, or else I'd take a picture to share with you.
Then it was off to the Knit-Out. I didn't really know what our venue was like, but I knew we had some space in the visitor's center at the park, and a limited number of chairs, so we were supposed to bring our own. I brought two quad chairs and a blanket to sit on in the grass. I also brought some bottled water, and two sweaters to display, aside from my Madli's Shawl and my beads to make some jewelry. So I was carrying a lot of stuff. And I thought it would be good to look cute and try to represent a younger contingency as much as possible, and since I was going to be sitting knitting and not walking around, I wore my most favorite wooden high-heeled thong sandals. Big mistake. I wandered and wandered and wandered on the gravel paths and still couldn't find the building we were in. I tried calling two people I was expecting to be there, but neither answered their phones. Finally, I found the sign laying in the grass. Aha! I wandered further down the path towards a building, around which I didn't see any knitters, but it turned out we had a lovely paved patio area (no need for a blanket), and were basically hidden behind a tree. People coming in through the entrance near our building would see us easily, but people coming in the entrance I used would have a hard time. Oh well. It was a nice facility in a cooled room and the patio was in the shade. And we had a cooler with sodas and water, so I didn't need to bring my own. Tomorrow I'm wearing comfortable shoes, and I'm leaving half the crap at home.
It wasn't quite how I pictured it, though. I pictured a whole bunch of people, guild and non-guild members sitting around knitting away, attracting attention. Basically, it was a few guild members sitting around, and then people would come and check us out, and we'd teach some of them to knit, but we did that inside the room, so unless you went into our little cave, you didn't realize we were teaching. And we did not attract attention. [sigh] Not sure what to do about it, though. We did meet a lot of neat people, and "drum up some business" for the Guild. But it felt like a Guild activity, not a Knitting activity. And, I got sunburned from all the wandering around.
I did however get to teach a 7-year-old to knit, sortof. I don't think she really got it, but she had fun and was grateful that she could take the needles and yarn. Her mother said that the girl's grandmother could knit, so Grandma would work with her. I think the girl thought she could sit down and make a whole scarf right there - not quite a long enough attention span yet. But it was fun. Her mom asked me how old I am, and when I told her, she said "You're lying!". Yippee! She thought I was in high school. Then she asked me if I had any children because I was so good with them. Yikes! :-0 No way. I'm not really, I just don't have any, so I have the patience of Job, and I don't have child-associated wrinkles. The girl wasn't the only teaching I did. I also got to teach Mary Ann (one of my knitty friends) a little crochet so she could finish a sweater she's been working on. And I sortof taught another lady how to knit in the round, except that by the time she got to the end of knitting the first needle it turned out she had been knitting with the tail, not the yarn from the ball, and it was too late to fix it; it was time to go. I insisted that she take the yarn and needles anyway, and told her how she can come to the Guild meeting a little early, and someone will help her. Oops.
Now I really want to start a new project that's just stockinette, "so I have something to work on" there. But that's stupid, because I have a sweater that I could make sleeves for that would be almost as simple as stockinette, and I have those socks I haven't worked on since I lost one of my needles. And there's even another sweater that I just remembered that I could work on. So no, I should not start on the yarn I bought at Stitches Midwest, no matter how fun it would be.
And I'm very excited. Donna (another of my knitty friends) has volunteered to buy some Merino Top for me the next time she goes to Taos so I can make some thrummed mittens. She's a spinner, so she knows what kind of sources we have around here, and her verdict was: none. I could buy a pound of it, but since I'm not going to make eight pairs of mittens, that's not very practical. Yippee Donna! Way to enable.
No pictures today. I promise I'll get some tomorrow.
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