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There are many reasons to feel like this today, not the least of which is the Democratic sweep of the House and most likely the Senate. And the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld and hopefully a better handle on the situation in Iraq. And that we have the first ever female Speaker of the House. Our future is looking brighter than ever.

And on a more personal note, well – ask Marnie.

*thud*

(to be continued when I’m more able to retain my bodily functions.)

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In a last minute Hail Mary Pass, I will be signing books at Stitches East in Baltimore this weekend!! The fine folks at The Elegant Ewe are letting me sit in their booth in Friday, Saturday and Sunday! I am beyond delighted at their generosity. I did a signing at their store last Saturday and they have a gorgeous selection of yarn and original patterns. Definitely worth the trip. Moreso than Dunkin Donuts, even. Their booth appears to be back by the stage, it’s #1124. You can see a layout here.

Looks like we’re near the Knit Doctor. I think I may bring my sad little Branching Out scarf. It was going so well.

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And then I messed up the lace pattern and started in the middle of one repeat. Or something. I’m not really sure how to undo fuzzy mohair lace. I’m hoping the answer isn’t to restart the whole stinkin’ thing. It’s been in hiding for about a year and a half now, I think it’s time to address this situation.

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While at the Elegant Ewe signing, the MOKS was gifted with it’s most inspired piece yet. ErickaJo of Armed With Pointy Sticks presented it to me. She is a fellow lover of all things bad-in-a-good-way. I was‚ stunned that she was willing to part with it. It’s truly a thing to behold. I was rendered speechless, such was my horrified delight.

I give you the Teddy Bearstrocity, modeled by my loving mother, Stella.

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Here she is engulfed by a raging sea of tiny bears. You can see that there’s one inexplicably patriotic one on the left side.

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And here are the stealth butt bears. They kind of blend in, but if you keep staring at my mom’s backside, you’ll see two stragglers on the bottom right side of the sweater. It’s strange, almost like the front of the sweater was just a little too much for them, so they strolled around back. Maybe they snuck back there to smoke a cigarette, who knows. This thing is like a Faulkner novel in the making. There’s a lot of story among these little bears. Thanks, ErickaJo!

And lookie here! A finished object. Two, in fact, but it’s kind of hard to photograph both hands at once without a complicated system of levers and pulleys. Or a tripod. Anyhoo, each one only took a few hours, it was in incredibly satisfying project. Simple, but interesting, and hella fast! Plus? I love them! They were made to go along with the Irish Hiking scarf. I guess I should make one of those now. You can find the pattern for the wrist warmers here.

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I used the cormo I got from Fox Hill Farm at Rhinebeck. Soooo soft. I have Kellee‚ to thank for my new fave yarn. Such an enabler, and that’s why we lurve her.
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I found it! After years of searching, I have found the world’s most perfect visual representation of The Weather Girls’ classic homage to the nearly constant homoprecipitation that befell the earth in the early 1980’s. Oh, it’s raining men alright, and Roger from the MOKS Marketing Department just loves splashing around in the puddles – IF ya’ know what I mean.

Jon and I drew the winners for Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo! Without further ado, here they are:

A skein of Scout’s faBoo Socktober sock yarn goes to Karen from Musings of a (mostly) Self-Taught Knitter

Ten skeins of Classic Elite Follies from Melanie goes to Ann of Annie Knits

Five Skeins of Alpaca with a Twist’s Big Baby from A Craftsman’s Touch Alpaca Co. goes to Amy of Crazy Lanea (please note that I left it in the sealed bag, unfondled. I do have will power after all! Go me!)

Knit and Planty’s very clever Gettin’ Knit Together Kit goes to Anjeanette from PURLEWE

A skein of autumnal lovliness from Briar Rose Fiber goes to Kris of Kris Crafts! (Must. Remember. Will. Power. Must stop wondering if she’d notice if I replaced it with Red Heart and kept it for myself.)

A klassy alpaca tie knit by yours truly using a pattern from the MOKS book goes to Jenny at Eat.Knit.Sleep. (Jenny, I swear I’ll weave in the ends before sending it!)

A $25 Gift card from the best Little Barn around goes to Susan, aka Ringer at WormSoup

A signed copy of The Museum of Kitschy Stitches goes to Anne at Sittin ‘n Knittin

A skein of something lucious from Carol, the proprietor of Black Bunny Fiber goes to Heather at paperclips

Sock yarn from Carole’s private reserve goes to Carolyn of see kay craft. I can’t wait to see what vintage Carole chooses!

The drawing for players who found everyone on their bingo card was really easy. Only one person managed to do it!

A $25 Gift card from the best Little Barn around goes to Melissa C., who is blogless . . . for the moment. Let’s send her some peer pressure vibes, shall we? Nice work Melissa!

Congratulations everyone! Thanks for playing, I can’t wait until next year’s game!

Oh my stars, I haven’t done the drawing yet! OK, I’m going to do it tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. If you managed to find everyone on your card, please let me know so you can be in a second drawing. Everyone who signed up is automatically entered in the main drawing. I need to figure out the best way to do this thing. I think I’ll have the hubby pick out some random numbers. Everyone is listed in a nice, color-coded excel spreadsheet, so I think that’ll work well. I have 10 prizes to give away. I’ve gotten to fondle four of them, and those were pretty darned good.

Rhinebeck has been over for days and I’m still exhausted. I can actually feel the bags under my eyes. But what a blast it was! I spent most of my time at the booth signing books, but I did venture out now and again. I made it to the blogger meetup on Saturday and it just cracked me up to see everyone running to a fro with their bingo cards. I feel like I gave everyone homework. I guess I did. But I was delighted to see everyone having such a good time. I met loads of people and still didn’t get to say hi to everyone who was playing. I feel like I missed a lot this year. There were people I meant to look for at the festival and I missed Carole’s Winebeck party. I bought wine and everything. It was Pinot Grigio called “Ciao Bella” and the label featured a lady wearing what I decided was a wool sweater and hand knit beret. I also ended up falling asleep early on Saturday night and missed out on an evening with fellow Rhinebeckestonians in the lobby of the hotel. I also didn’t make it to the Morehouse Merino event on Saturday night. Geez, I’m no spring chicken, I’ll tell you what.

But it was lovely to play the Diva and make everyone come to me. Not a lot of Divas put out cookies, but I did lapse into Whitney Houston mode and started referring to people as “Bobbaayyy!” for a while. Next year, Kellee, Elisa, Maryse, and Melanie are demanding MOKS Staff t-shirts. I think I shall comply. Maryse was my sherpa on Saturday morning. She helped me lug four heavy boxes of book to the grounds. Kellee was my handler on Sunday afternoon to make sure I had some time to shop a little before getting back to the booth to do more signing. Melanie and Elisa were my unwavering supporters, and they lounged with me on Saturday night so I didn’t feel bad staying in.

David and Mel, who ran the booth where I was stationed, where just as adorable as can be. I actually really missed them when I got back to work on Tuesday. Monday is a blur. I was catatonic for most of the day. I think I got over socialized. I had signings in NJ and NY from Wednesday through Sunday, so I did a lot of driving (and getting lost) and met a lot of people and . . . well, you know how when you pet a cat for too long and they all of a sudden start biting you and kicking you with their back feet? I started to feel like that. Waaaay overstimulated. I almost went bunny feet, you guys!

All the signings went really well. I finally got the hang of it and now that I don’t use notes, it’s lot less stressful. If I forget to say something, it’s no biggie, I just think of something else. Easy peasy. I ended up blowing a bunch of my Rhinebeck budget at the yarn stores I visited before getting to Rhinebeck. I’ll take photos in the next couple of days and tell you about the places I visited and the stuff I got. October has been a crazy month to say the very least. And it’s not over yet! I’ll be at the Elegant Ewe in Concord, NH on 10/28 at 1:00. Drop by if you’re in the neighborhood!

My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who played bingo, stopped by to see me at the signings, have left comments and been so supportive. It really means a lot to get the amazing feedback that I do. I often get too busy to respond to everyone or spend as much time as I’d like with people, but just know that I really do appreciate everyone’s well wishes and good thoughts! Thank you!!

And now that bingo is over (for this year), I’ll actually have a bit of time to do some non-bingo-related blogging! Wheee! I actually have some stuff to show you, too! I just need to catch up a little at my day job first . . . (famous last words if I ever heard ’em)