Oops!

Sorry to have vanished (again). I've actually got many knitting tales, but sadly the only photo I have to show you is of the tragedy that befell our still-under-construction sculpture during last Thursdays windstorm at the FHCRC, where I work: This is (was?) Vessel, an Ed Carpenter piece that was commissioned by the Center and was engineered to withstand very high winds, earthquakes, vandals, etc. Apparently there was a flaw! It wasn't that windy on Thursday...It's quite sad really, as I was getting quite fond of the sculpture, which was 55 feet tall. They plan to rebuild but it will take at least until next spring to determine what went wrong and to build new parts.

As for knitting, let's see. Wednesday night Rachel and I went to see Laurie Perry (Crazy Aunt Purl) at the downtown Barnes & Noble. They were woefully unprepared for the onslaught of knitters, but Laurie was hilarious and heartfelt and I'm so glad Rachel suggested that we go. And, Rachel bought me Laurie's book, which I finished in just a couple of days. Thank you Rachel! What I enjoyed about the book signing was that it felt like she really wanted to talk to everyone, not just move through the line, and I really appreciated that. Plus, she has a twang just like my cousin Danielle, who I haven't seen in years, so that was nice. Now that I think about it, you don't encounter many southern accents in Seattle. Why is that I wonder?

On Friday Anne-Marie and I went to the Louet trunk show at Village Yarn & Tea, which was also fun. They had wine and cheese plus lots of Louet yarns I hadn't seen. I bought two skeins of linen/mohair laceweight, which is really interesting stuff. The linen gives it strength and keeping shape ability, but the mohair makes it a bit fuzzy and softer. I also bought some Rowan Damask for a Dream Swatch (PDF link) scarf. They had it knit up and I fell in love with the yarn, which is soft and was in perfect colors to match what I was wearing. I always check out store projects, but I think this might be the first time I've just gone and bought the supplies for one right then and there.

Otherwise I don't have much to report. I'm about half done with the second Selbuvotter mitten (thank you for all your comments on my mittens!!!), and charging along on one of my gift projects. Last night I worked on the Drops cardigan a bit, but only about eight rows. Slowly but surely I guess. The mittens are way more interesting to work on and it's already late October (eek!) so the Christmas gifts are moving up the queue...