Jumping Ship

Hi All -

I've been having nothing but trouble with blogger these days, and I think that's contributed to some of my blogging ennui. In order to mix things up a bit, and (hopefully) to make myself a little less frustrated, I've jumped onto the typepad bandwagon.

Please stop by and visit me at:
http://concateknit.typepad.com/concateknit/

I hope to see you over at my new digs soon!

Picture Post

I mentioned I went to Portland - but I forgot to mention which Portland I was in. I guess I assumed you would know which Portland I meant.

Okay, I assume that you assume too much. I know this.

Here - let me help you guess which Portland I was in:


Powell's, the most awesome bookstore EVER.

Ah, now you know - I was in Oregon! Remember, I did grow up in California, so I kind of always assume Oregon when I hear the city of Portland mentioned.

While I was there, I also saw these cutie patooties:


These little elephanty guys were so cute that I had to wave at them when I saw them. Does that ever happen to you? You see something really cute, and no matter that it's an inanimate object, you still feel the *need* to wave at it? No? You say it's just me. Huh - who knew?

By the way - Portland was a lot of fun. They've got some great beer there, a Nordstrom Rack, and people are friendly. Now, I'm not saying anything about people in Boston, but, well, the people of Portland were just *really* friendly.

So, last night I had some muffins to make. (No, we're not big on segues here at Chez Concateknit. Thanks for asking.) I mean, you know, I went to MD, and I bought a little yarn (and really, it was only a little yarn, in comparison to what some people left the festival with).

Do you want to see my pre-muffiny fiber pile?


I fortified myself with this:

Ha! I know you think I was going to show you a picture of beer or wine or gin, but I fooled you! It's tea! I have TEA when I make muffins! Ha!

The mug is from one of my favorite places to visit in the whole wide world: Oakdale Cheese & Specialities. Now, for you Wallace & Gromit fans out there, you'll understand that this word, specialities, should really have 5 syllables. Y'know - spesh-ee-al-i-tees. Yay!

I drank my tea, and made my muffins:

Yummy.

Lolly-pants and I each bought a skein of the blue and brown wool/mohair yarn that you see in the bottom left corner of the picture above. We're each going to make a felted bag with the yarn. We don't have a pattern in mind - the idea is that we'll each make a bag using the same yarn and just kind of see what happens. Nifty, huh? I get a little giddy each time I think about it.

I'd like to end this post with something almost unheard of at Concateknit these days: knitting content.

Here we see my Lara the way she usually looks when I work on her:


Imagine my surprise when I realized that I was actually knitting this:


Again, I say - who knew?

While my girls (and I know they're not really MY girls - they're EVERYONE's girls) are heading to NH tomorrow, I'll be here in Boston, dreaming of my dearest Mr. and Mrs. Lolly's visit (soon, dearies, soon, please), knitting on Lara, and buying some rollerblades. You want some fun? Watch me rollerblade. I guarantee it'll be a laugh a minute.

Hey - maybe someday I can be the rollerblading knitter.

Stop laughing.

Adventures of The Girl*

There's been a little, ahem, concern about my lack of posting.

Um, yeah, I really haven't been posting at all, have I?

Sigh.

It's been a rough couple of months, and without wanting to complain, let me just say that by the time I get home from work these days, I can barely even stand to turn on my computer, let alone put together any kind of a coherent post.

To be honest, I haven't even been knitting really.

I've been *looks both ways, makes sure no one can overhear me* reading. And not Bookish Girl style, where I knit, and converse, and read all at the same time. No. I've just been Nose in the Book, Don't Talk to Me, Yes This Book IS an Impenetrable Wall of Silence reading.

I really don't want things to go on this way, though. I have been sorely out of balance, and I used this past weekend as a way to begin regaining my equilibrium.

How, you ask?

I went to Maryland:



I took this one picture on my way from my car to the fairgrounds:



I had dinner with these fabulous and amazing and wonderful and witty and lovely and terrific women on Saturday night:


I haven't linked to everyone yet, but I will update with the rest of the blog links as I have them. Needless to say - all of these women were great and you would never have guessed that many of us were meeting each other for the first time. Did we talk about knitting? You bet. Would we still have had things to talk about if the subject of knitting had been banned? Absolutely.

Okay, that's not entirely true. We all spent a goodly amount of time feeling up Donna (she's the hottie in the gorgeous blue hooded cardigan sitting between awesome Rebecca and elegant Eilene) in her finished Mariah. Freakin' unbelievably gorgeous.

I bought a little bit of yarn:



And I had a hell of a weekend.

I know that in the greater scheme of things I didn't take a lot of pictures, and I'll tell you why - even though I went to the festival primarily to "meet" bloggers I've only met through the knitblogging community, it felt like an offline vacation. Michelle and Lauren both opened up their homes to me, a stranger, and yet I never felt like I was going to meet people, I felt that I was going to visit with friends that I don't get a chance to see often and because of that, I didn't really feel the need to take lots of pictures or think about feeding the blog while I was there. I've been so blessed to meet the people I've met via blogging - Wendy, Jackie, Melanie, Debbie, and Maryse to name only a few - and they are people that have really become friends rather than knitting friends. This means that I see them more often than I blog about seeing them, and I think about them even more often than that.

Going to meet my Maryland girls felt the same, and it felt pretty personal.

So, what I'd like to tell you is this:

Michelle and her wonderful family Mike, Marah, and Gabe hosted me from Thursday to Saturday, and Lauren and her incredibly generous husband Kris (plus their lovely family - Jen, Bella, Rusty, and Quincy) hosted me from Saturday to Sunday afternoon. I had a wonderful time the whole time I was on vacation, and I have some particularly favorite memories that I know will be special to me for years to come.

*Michelle's son Gabe spent the majority of my visit calling me The Girl, but in the most adorably charming way. Hee hee.

Happy knitting all.

Hi, I Didn't Run Away

I just went to Portland for a business trip.



Be back soon.

Love,
Elisa

Bling Bling

I took the day off work today to get some new bling:



That's right - your very own Ms. Concateknit is a 30-year old freak with braces.

No, it doesn't bother me much.

Not really.

Not really.

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Luckily, braces don't effect my ability to knit:


Yarn: Knit Picks Sock Garden (awesome yarn, btw)

This is my first sock knit on two circular needles, and I think I'd really love it if I wasn't using stupid Inox circs. Has anyone else had trouble with their Inox joins being really rough? I feel like I'm scratching the hell out of my yarn.

The solution? I stopped by the Snow Goose and bought myself two pair of US 3 Addi Turbo circs.

I think I deserved a little knit-therapy today.

I May Not Be Safe Here Much Longer

Not if Stitchy has anything to do with it.

Now, no matter what she says, you have to believe that I'm not nearly as insane as that photo of me would lead you to believe. Ahem - you believe me, right?

I was thinking today (no jokes now, you funny-pants) and I hope you don't think I do nothing but hoard yarn. I knit. I even finish things I knit. Evidence:


One finished flower washcloth, thank you very much.

So, with Stitchy out there gunning for me (or pawing for me, as the case may be), what I want to know is this: If I have to make a quit getaway, can I hide out in your town?

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Oh - Jay asked how I managed to finagle such cool gifts from Nancy. The answer? I honestly have no idea. Nancy just rules.