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Jon and I are taking off for a Caribbean cruise tomorrow, so I figured I’d write up a quick post to publicly apologize for abandoning the cats on favor of icy Pina Coladas and non-stop buffets for a week. Sucks to be you, kitties.

I also wanted to cover a few things before leaving. First is that I had a freaking blast last week celebrating Wendy’s birthday in JP. I love me some Wendy. My gal Melanie was in attendance and I had the pleasure of meeting Elisa and Jackie, two great, funny bloggers, and all-around good-time Charleys. It’s so good to know that the internet houses such wonderful people. I also met a bunch of non-blogging-but-still-totally-cool friends of Wendy’s. I can’t wait for her to age another year so we can do it again!

Next, I wanted to concur with Melanie about our first (and last) trip to Wild and Wooly in Lexington. I realize that a lot of people are loyal customers, so it can’t be all that bad. It’s a nice store with a huge selection of yarn, but we felt extremely uncomfortable with the sales woman on duty. As soon as we walked in, she asked if we needed help or were looking for anything in particular. I appreciate this and often take people up on the offer. But this time we thanked her and told her we were just looking around. I think she may have decided not to like us when we asked about the pricing of yarns. None of the actual yarn labels are priced individually. It turns out that either the shelf is labeled or you have to ask. Maybe she thought we were cheapskates. In my case, she would have been correct in that assumption. What can I say, I love yarn that’s on sale. Is that so wrong?

Anyhoo, we wandered around ooh-ing and aah-ing and touching the pretty yarns. I’ve never actually spent much time with Rowan yarn, so I lingered a little, trying to get a feel for the different types I’ve heard so much about. Again, she asked if we needed any help finding something in particular. We politely declined, repeating that we were just looking. There were lots of books to dig through, so we were poking around. A few minutes later, she came around the corner and said “You’re still here?” and started handing different books to us. Books we either had already seen or would have gotten to. She seemed frustrated and it weirded us out. It sounded like she was wishing we had gone. With that, we made our way downstairs. The woman there asked us if we needed anything, we said no thanks and that was that. It was entirely pleasant to browse through the vast selection of yarn. When we were done, we thanked her and headed upstairs where we were greeted with “Oh! You’re still here?” With that, we abandoned any thought of loitering long enough to make a purchase and left. It was very uncomfortable. Maybe some stores don’t want people just looking around, but I rarely go into a yarn store with something exact in mind. Maybe it was just a bad day. Maybe we just didn’t seem like we were going to spend a bunch of money and we were taking up floor space. Who knows. But it’s one of those things I felt I should share. I’m not advocating anyone boycott the place, I just figured I’d mention it.

We ended up going to the always warm and friendly Knitting Room in Arlington where I bought some Feeling and some Berroco Suede (on-sale Berroco Suede – mmmmm). While we were there, someone dumped an entire cup of iced coffee on all of the books. The woman working there dealt with it so beautifully. I was impressed with her grace and kindness to the extremely embarrassed and apologetic customer.

In knitting news, my hoodie is just about done! I decided to try blocking before seaming to see of that makes it easier. I haven’t had time yet, so when I get back, that will be the project at hand. I’m looking forward to wearing it. It’s the less sophisticated little sister of Melanie’s newly finshed (and beautiful) Rogue. It’s made of the same yarn, some is even the same color. Hers has a hood, mine has a hood! Hers has a front pocket, mine has a front pocket! Hers has amazingly intricate cables throughout, mine . . . is covered in cat hair and pizza crumbs.

Last, I wanted to show you what I’d be doing while floating around the deep blue sea. I started another Bonne Marie Burns brand ChicKami. It’s a variegated (yes, I failed Spellcheck again with this word) yarn (Endless Summer Sonanta, thank you Elann!) that I was all set to hate, but I really like the stripeyness of the yarn. It’s not pooling as badly as I was afraid it would. My goal is to be wearing this before the cruise is over (on Friday – booooo!)

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I also got Lavish Lace that was delivered in light speed from Amazon. I didn’t expect it to arrive so soon and I couldn’t be more delighted. What a gorgeous book! I have 4 skeins of Koigu KPPPM (my first ever) and will pick something to make while I’m lounging in the sun.

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There’s not a whole lot you could do to wipe the permagrin off my face at this point. As of this very moment, life kicks ass!

Have a good week, everyone!

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