Rock stars!

This year I decided to host an impromptu Halloween shindig. We all came dressed as rock stars and played some Rock Band in the front room. The neighborhood kids got a huge kick out of it, and looked who joined us:

(Photo courtesy of Tika!)

Dolores! She took time out of traveling the campaign trail to visit us, and play a few tunes with our band, Fyrewyre. It wasn't as eventful as a night at the Lucky Horseshoe, but she seemed to have a good time.

Despite the rain, we had a good turnout of trick-or-treaters, and I think one of the little boys from across the street invited himself over to play sometime.

I guess that's the sign of a good party, right?

To interrupt our normal programming...

You can hear how I came to spinning in the most recent episode of Cast-On!

(Upcoming posts will include our AWESOME Halloween shindig. And some knitting.)

Enjoy!

I'd like to thank all the little people...

A few months ago, my friend Brenda wrote up a pattern, and asked me and Mom to pose in her pictures. Imagine my surprise to find that On the Vine was one of today's recently added patterns page in Ravelry- and guess who was modeling?

Wait. What's that in the bottom left corner?

Hey! That's me! (and Mom.)

If you want to see more, here's the Ravelry link for the On The Vine Pattern.

Today, knitting patterns; Tomorrow, the WORLD!

New Pathways in MY BRAIN!!!

A few years ago, I read that when you learn something new, it creates a wrinkle- or a pathway, in your brain. After the class I took with Cat Bordhi on Saturday, I'm feeling the effects cerebral wrinkles. Effects include:

1- An uncontrollable desire to drop everything I'm working on and knit a sock with a new architecture.

2- Daydreaming about knitting during other activities (working, meetings, spinning). Specifically, knitting a brilliant sock in handspun yarn.

3- Using the new sock as a carrot for finishing other tasks (like plying up the singles that have been resting).

4- Admiring the baby sock I did in class with vanity and pride beyond compare:

I'll be honest- when I cast on my Footprint (a brilliant, simple architecture), it was 11PM, and the ONLY reason I didn't cast on something more challenging was because of the late hour. It seems to be going faster than a traditional sock. Since the construction was published in the Twist Collective (as the Houdini Socks), I'll let you explore it yourself.

Here is the process of my socks thus far:

(Two completed footprints, with the stitches picked up.)

(A close-up, so you can see for yourself.)


(Snip!)


(Opening up the stitches.)


(Ta da!)

As far as the class is concerned, I recommend Cat as a teacher ANYTIME. Her background as a schoolteacher gives her the experience to pace the class so that the students absorb the most when they're fresh, and as the day went on, the material seemed to get simpler.

Despite the fact that there were 25(ish) students, all of us got one-on-one attention from Cat, and it seemed like all the students had that "aha!" moment. I haven't felt this smart in AGES!

Holy Shawl, Batman!

I was just working away on my computer, when I saw that I got a Facebook message from Marie, telling me that she was (fairly certain) that I was in the new TKGA catalog, on page 13.

So, I found page 13:

What?!

I'll be damned! It is me. Now you all can say you knew me when. (Also in the picture, the fabulous Brenda Patipa and Audrey the Amazing Lace Knitter.)

Maria Bamford and my sock!

Last night we went to the Punch Line in San Francisco to see Maria Bamford. The three opening folks were surprisingly good, and Maria was absolutely hysterical.

She was also a good sport and posed with me and my SOCK! (Three times, due to technical difficulties. Triple "good sport points".)

Evidently, she too is a knitter. She admitted that she has been working on a scarf for four years, to which I replied, "It's a process."

If you get a chance to see her live, do. If not, she's been on the Comedians of Comedy tour, has a couple of Comedy Central specials, and has a couple of CDs out.

A Quarter Of A Century

On Saturday, we celebrated my 25^th birthday Minion-style: we went on a ROAD TRIP! After a fair amount of haggling and wrangling, we ended up with a Christian Youth Group style van (seats 13) for a song. (The best part about renting this van was seeing people's faces when I was driving it. I look about 14 without makeup, and here I was, commandeering a land yacht.)

See how comfy everyone is? They had to be- to get to Sacramento, it's a 2 ½ hour drive each way.

You might wonder why we would choose Sacramento- I would, too. Franklin Habit was there doing a shoot for his 1000 Knitters project. How cool is that?! The Minions were all good sports, and the ride up and back went as smoothly as anything could. (Well, it could have been a smoother ride. Colleen may have caught some air after we hit some of the bumps on the freeway.)

We got to Sacramento around noon, found the building where the shoot was scheduled at and went and had lunch at a terrific Mexican restaurant. Not only was the food great, but you could order ceviche by the POUND. I did. It was glorious. Then, by some act of evil Minionage, this happened.

Sombreros. Singing. Startling. When I find out who did this, there will be a proportionate response.

We went to the shoot, and Franklin charmed each and every one of us. I didn't know that most of the Minions don't like to be photographed, but evidently, he managed to immediately put everyone at ease. As always, we have a shot of the Minions with Franklin, and Franklin with my sock.

I have to admit, I was completely uncool. I was so star-struck that my brain just froze. Franklin asked what the yarn was, and my brain went BLANK. I stammered. I don't STAMMER!

I looked at the yarn, and I started talking. "She has a 'C' name… She does that wonderful silk…"

Finally, Mom saved me with "Claudia?"

"Yes! Claudia!"

Ok, I can remember where, when, and how much I paid for yarn. I can usually tell you the yardage from memory. I may not know what today's date is, but I KNOW my yarn!

All-in-all, it was a pretty terrific 25^th birthday celebration.

[Here is a shot Rachel got of me during the 1000 Knitters shoot:]

Some long promised FOtos

Here's me wearing the Pearls of Wisdom at D&M's wedding:


A better shot:



While we were working on the Shanty, I met Amy Singer:

I blocked my Print o' the Wave:



And until I get a shot of me in the shawl, here is Colleen, wearing it like a shroud (she may have declared that she wants to be buried in it):



I know I've promised more, and they're coming.

Pet-a-Harlot!

It's been a week of driving for me, and yesterday was no different. I had debated going to the Petaluma Yarn Harlot book signing/talk, but every time, I was like, "Petaluma? Ehh…"

After driving to Livermore for wine and spinning and San Francisco for stand-up comedy, Petaluma (at an estimated hour and a half drive) didn't seem so far. Mom and I decided at the last minute that we were going to go.

Alison and I had been e-mailing back and forth about spinning dog hair (Alison was the recipient of Elphie's puppy coat from her first brushing), and she mentioned that she and Nancy were going. She also mentioned that she had conned her non-knitting son into chauffeuring them to Peta-freakin'-luma.

It's enough that he was going to shuttle them for a 3-hour round-trip, but after discussion with some incredibly trustworthy sources, this turned into an 11-hour day. Leave at noon, drive up and have dinner there, and miss the SF traffic. This is a lot to ask of someone who is not only a non-knitter- and when there is nothing for a non-knitter to do around the venue. (I would have felt less sorry if this was in SF, or ANYWHERE more interesting. No offense intended, Petaluma-ians.)

"I have two seats in my car that are open," I offer, "Tell the kid he's off the hook."

They took me up on the offer, and we made plans for the next day. Mom flaked, last minute, but that was ok. We got up to SF in less than 45 minutes, where we took a scenic drive through the Marina district before getting back on the road.

(You know you're having a good time when you've been in the car for two hours and upon arrival a passenger says, "We're here already?" I swear, Alison said that.)

We met Patricia there, who had been dutifully holding the first spot in line since 9:30. (By the way, Patricia is the BOMB. Read her blog, join the fan club. I have.) We decided to leave one person holding a place in line and Patricia and I took Alison to eat. (She can't do sun, so eating in line was a definite no-go.)

They are attractive people, don't let the poor photography fool you.

Anyhow, there was waiting in line, chatting with other knitters (join Leslie's project), and then, there she was. Stephanie was waiting in the wings while the manager hyped us up. (Unnecessary, but appreciated.)

I sat in the second row, behind Alison. You can see me in BOTH of the Harlot's pictures. (Ahem, second row, bright pink sweater.)

[Pictures "borrowed" from Stephanie's blog.]

We got our books signed, and I got yet ANOTHER celebrity sock photo:

See? She's holding my sock, and I'm holding hers.

Also, I told her that I was her "biggest fan" last year. I hadn't seen "Misery" yet, so I didn't realize how scary that could have come across. In an attempt to appear sane, I did not take the "No Parking" sign that I liberated after her Los Altos signing for her to sign.

It lives in my work cube. (Sssh… don't tell her.)

Patricia took us to an Ehh yarn store (so Ehh that I bought NOTHING), and we had a great time. We hit the road at 10, and I was home just before midnight.

Patton Oswalt!

Andrew and I drove up to San Francisco to see Patton Oswalt and Janeane Garofolo live at the Laugh Factory. If you ever get a chance to see either of them live, do.

It was so good, my stomach muscles and face both hurt after.

But that didn't stop me from getting Patton to pose with my SOCK!

Taylor Swift and My Sock!

I have a super-cool job. We had a special event where Taylor Swift came and performed for us.

She's a terrific performer, she's cute as hell and she didn't blink an eyelash when I asked her to

pose with my sock!

(She even said it was cool.)

**NOTE: I am not eight months pregnant, as this photo may imply. I am not pregnant at all, just the victim of bad angles.

**NOTE #2: Taylor Swift is an award-winning country singer. And she's like, 18.

Stephanie, the Rockin’, Sockin’, Yarn Harlot

Yesterday, the MOTPS made the trek up to Full Thread Ahead to hear Stephanie Pearl-McPhee [the Yarn Harlot] speak, and to get our books signed.

Andrew was a champ. Here's how the day went:

2:00 PM: Andrew drives up to FTA alone, to get us signed in.
4:15 PM: MOTPS pile into Colleen's van, and drive up.
4:45 PM: We get there, claim our seats, and half of us go to Jamba for refreshments.
5:00 PM: Hollis does a few contest-y things. Andrew got to stand for three of them. He feels that he is an accomplished knitter now.
5:30 PM: Stephanie comes out to the podium, there is a roar of applause and cheers, and this:

I'll admit, I was a total dork. The dorkiest, even. I took her a Space Bag, the miracle invention that allows Andrew some storage space in our house. Every knitter should know and love the Space Bag. When Stephanie pointed out that they can't get plus-sized Ziploc bags in Canada, I stood up with pride, shook out the Space Bag and ran it up to the front for her.

Andrew said her expression was either shock or that she had seen the Holy Grail of yarn storage solutions. I'm going with the latter.

After the talk until 8:00 PM: Dinner at a sushi joint.
8:00-10:00 PM: Hanging around, chatting with knitters until the line slows down for signing. The MOTPS were second to last in line.

In a moment of temporary panic, I considered running out of the back door. I am such a huge fan, that I was overwhelmed for a moment.

Anyway, in classic Jasmin fashion, I admit that I am totally stalking her. In a good way. I suppose "SuperFan" may have been the more eloquent way of saying it, but Stephanie took it with good humor, and even took a picture (with the sock!) with the MOTPS. She had the misfortune of having to crouch in front of the three shortest MOTPS, and having to hold the crouch until the picture was taken.



Stephanie, the MOTPS love you, and next time you're in town, we should have beer. Or Shanty's. Or margaritas.

Oh yeah, and in true SuperFan form, here you go: