Random bits for Labor Day

Right. I'm just back from 10 days in the northern climes of England, and have waaaay too much energy to sit still and blog in a useful manner. However, I have several items of interest that are time sensitive, so here they are, for your edification:

Number 1: The Great London Yarn Crawl

This is the last week of ticket sales, so if you are intending to come and join us on our wild and wooly tour of London's LYS scene, you need to get your tickets before midnight London time on Saturday, 7th September 2013. Three of the routes are almost completely full (i.e. only 2-3 spaces left), so hurry over to the registration page to get yourself booked in.

Number 2: The Small Wool Gathering

After the fabulous P3 retreat last autumn (and spring, for that matter), it was with much sadness that the attendees learned that this year's event was canceled. Some enterprising P3 alumnae and their compatriot have taken it upon themselves to organise a smaller, simpler retreat occurring the same weekend (11-14th October 2013), featuring Amy Singer as the guest instructor for the weekend. Although all the residential spaces are filled, there are some day tickets available, so if you are interested in joining us, we'd love to have you!

Number 3: Because I need another project

One of the organisers of Number 2 and another P3 alumna have been clogging my Twitter feed with jabberings about a baby sweater knitalong. Because I do not have enough on my plate at the moment (see Number 1), I have succumbed to their entreaties. I do not have the correct yarn. I have not swatched. The knitalong starts on Wednesday. I do, however, have a wee nephew who will need a Christmas sweater. Right?

OK. Time to go for a run. The next post will feature updates on my wooly adventures in Yorkshire/Northumberland/Cumbria and far too many sheep pictures.



(told you so...)

My inner Yankee is curled up in a ball in the corner of a dark room, whimpering

As the days hurtle by towards 21 September, Allison and I have been spending a lot of time trying to pull together some cool schwag for those brave folks who will be joining us on the Great London Yarn Crawl. And as she is currently on the North American continent, much of the recent outreach for donations over the past week has fallen to me.

This is, quite possibly, my worst nightmare. Ask people for things? People I don't know? You mean, send them an email completely out of the blue asking them to give me, some faceless Internet stranger, something for free? It gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it. This is so far outside my comfort zone, that I have managed to procrastinate for a surprising amount of time on some of these emails, only to be goaded on by Alli sending messages saying "Have you heard back from So-and-so yet?"

But here's the very cool thing I'm finding: for the most part, people are happy to help out, and very often quite pleased to be asked. It's such a lovely surprise to email one of my super-dooper fan-girl knitware designer crushes and have her agree to send us a signed book for a door prize. It's fantastic to email a local designer and have her offer to give us pattern coupons for the goody bags AND donate a pattern for a door prize. It's a serious thrill to see people getting excited about the event.

All of this is balm to my wounded knitter/dyer psyche because I've had a bit of a set back on that front of late. I've been working on a sweater, using some lovely Green Mountain Spinnery sock yarn I dyed a while back. At the time, I was paranoid about dyelots, so I did all the skeins at the same time, and felt pretty confident that I'd managed to get them close enough.

Except, well, no:


And in case it isn't glaringly obvious from that shot:


Excuse my French, but fuck me. And having slogged though the entire stockinette back of this project, my enthusiasm for ripping out and alternating rows to blend the yarns, or trying one of the other skeins to see if it works better is non-existent. This puppy is going on the naughty step for the forseeable future, and I'm starting something new. Something reasonable. Like a lace shawl...

No more secrets

If you follow me or Allison on Twitter, you might have noticed a very special retweet that popped up on Saturday.

We can now finally reveal The Sooper Sekrit Project we've been alluding to off and on for the past few months. Presenting:

YARN IN THE CITY: THE GREAT LONDON YARN CRAWL

There is some debate about who should take the credit and/or blame for our embarking on organizing this event. Allison swears it was my idea, but that is certainly not how I remember it...to be fair, I don't exactly remember the conversation that took place too specifically (I think it was on the train on the way back from Wales last autumn - I can only claim exhaustion/wool-fume-and-cider-hangover). In any event, six plus months and a lot of research and work onward, and here we are.

On Saturday, the 21st of September, 2013, six intrepid teams will take to the streets (and buses and trains and Tube) of London on a quest to visit four yarn shops over the course of the day (thereby dramatically enhancing their stashes). We are in the process of finalizing the details of the shops and the routes, so stay tuned for more info. You can either check the website, our Facebook page, our Ravelry group or follow us on Twitter as @GLYC. If you are in London, or can get to London, and want to come hang out with a gang of like-minded yarn fanatics for the day, keep your web-ears tuned for further announcements and updates over the next few weeks. We hope to see you in September!