Looking for a good time? Call a bunch of knitters! Seriously. I had the pleasure of hosting a small get-together on Saturday and it was such a blast! Know how I know it was good? Everyone’s husbands and/or boyfriends kept calling them and asking when they were coming home. Each devoted little knitter would say “Soon, honey! I’m leaving in a few minutes.” After about an hour, the men were calling again. “Put a sock in it, Mister. And I want the dishes done by the time I get home!” soon became the new battle cry.

And with each lovely knitter came delicious treats! I do love tasty treats. Melanie made strawberry-cinnamon muffins, Elisa brought a delightful selection of Japanese candies, including gummy “Fry Eggs” and some chocolate Melty Kisses. Wendy brought some brownies with Jr. Mints melted atop (great idea I’m stealing it) and a fan-friggin-tastic Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

Ben brought a beautiful salad with almonds and currants and a bag of hazelnut chocolates and some soda to balance out the healthy effects of the salad. Maryse stopped at Trader Joes and got some sparkly Pear Apple and Raspberry juices and some fiber to help move all the other snacks along. She also gave me some cute sweater-shaped point protectors for circular needles! I probably forgot a bunch of things because there ended being a metric ton of food. It was perfect!

After noshing for a bit (noshing is when you cram as many handfuls of shrimp cocktail into your gullet as you can, right?), we got to knitting and chatting and laughing and general merry-making. Everyone got along great and time flew by. I even learned how to say everyone’s name properly!

Here’s Melanie knitting in front of the dollhouse Charlene’s grandfather made for her mother. Whenever one of the cats runs into the basement, they head right into this house. It’s cute until you try to pry them out.

‚ 

And here are Ben, Elisa, and Wendy.

‚ 

We were also joined by my friend, Charlene. She doesn’t knit, but she was working with needles and fiber, so we let her join our club. Here she is practicing embroidering a mascara wand. I’m going to knit and felt some cosmetic bags, she’s going to embroider them, and we’re going to sell them for our community group’s charity thingy this summer. My project on Saturday was to knit a panel that I later felted so she could practice on the real thing. I’m also happy to report that despite a raging tooth-ache, my sister-in-law, Shannon, was also able to enjoy the festivities. I think she’s ready to try cables after chatting with the ladies about it for a bit. Yay! (I didn’t get a picture of her alone, but you can see her behind the various Vanna’s below.) I tried to get Dot and Chi-Chi to join us, but they got freaked out and ran back upstairs. Pussies.

One of the highlights of the evening was the yarn swap. Everyone (well, almost everyone. I’m looking at you, Bags ¢â‚¬Ëœn’ Trash) had packaged their yarn in pretty gift bags. I’m glad the party was at my place because I was able to run upstairs to get a pretty bag for mine. We did it Yankee Swap style, so everyone picked a number and we took turns selecting a bag of yarn. Each person was able to steal the previously selected yarn if she liked it better than the yarn she had selected herself. But who would ever do such a thing? Who would go to someone’s house and STEAL their YARN? What sort of pers . . .

Oh. I see.

‚ 

Here is Elisa making off with my alpaca. You can’t see it in this picture, but my heart was broken. Smashed to bits. I did get three skeins of fluffy Jaeger Aero in return, so I will have mercy upon her soul. It’ll make a pair of great fuzzy mittens. That way, I won’t leave any fingerprints behind when I – oh, never you mind, dearies.

As each person selected their bag, I made them Vanna it for the pleasure if the entire internet. These girls can really work it! I’m going to try to post these in order of the picking. I’m probably wrong.

‚ 

‚ 

‚ 

‚ 

Everyone brought great stuff to swap, not a bad egg in the batch! I didn’t get pictures of everyone’s prize, but I did manage to capture Maryse doing a great Princess Leia impression with her newly-gotten wool booty. May the force be with you, mon cher.

‚ 

The evening came to the perfect end when we all followed Rule #3 about meeting bloggers. The Sharpies came out, as did Wendy’s torso (one can only assume that her chest was full of other people signatures), and, well, I don’t have pictures, but she does (run, don’t walk, over there!) I think she should make this memory permanent. If only we knew someone who was married to a tattoo artist . . .

In summation, I’d like to say that you’ll never find a finer buncha knitters in the land, but I do recommend trying, because these get-togethers are loads of fun! I can’t wait for the next one! My rumpus room is ready for more rumping! Uhhh. I’m not really sure what that means. But when I find out, I’ll let you know!

‚