Random knitting things

Thing 1.

The other night I pulled myself together and organized my stash, what there is of it. Ella wandered into my room during the process, and her eyes positively lit up when she saw all the balls of yarn scattered on the floor. I had to shoo her away with the promise of some of my leftovers before she could dive in and help herself. B witnessed the exchange and just sighed, saying, "You're indoctrinating her early, aren't you?"

Thing 2.

I had lunch a few weeks ago with a friend who is a non-knitter. She knows I knit, so she told me a story about her neighbor. The conversation went something like this:

J: My neigbhor knits, and she loves to show me her yarns. They're all from alpacas raised in the Peruvian highlands or something.
H: Yes.
J: The yarn is all hand-dyed and spun and costs a small fortune per skein.
H: Yes.
J: She gets together every Saturday morning with friends, and they knit and then go to lunch and knit some more.
H: Yes.
J: So none of this sounds strange to you?
H: No.

Thing 3.

A friend from high school, R, is in town this weekend for SXSW, and I met her for dinner last night along with another friend from school, J (but not the same J as in the last story), who moved here last summer. It was fun to get together with them. R and J had seen each other this summer at our class's 20 year reunion, which I had missed. I hadn't seen R since graduation, 20 years ago. Anyway, R is a knitter, so we had dinner at Guero's on South Congress precisely because it's across the street from Hill Country Weavers, which I had promised R I'd take her to.

After dinner we strolled up the stree to HCW and promised J we'd try not to scare her in the store. She said she promised not to touch anything, and R and I both immediately said, "No, that's the point of going! You're supposed to pet the yarn and feel how soft it is and think about what you'd make with it." J looked a little concerned. She really did spend most of her time in the store sitting in the corner, trying to stay out of the way, while R and I wandered around exclaiming over the yarn. I had thought maybe we could convert J, but no such luck.

Thing 4.

After a few weeks of almost no knitting, I've gotten back in the swing. The rough spot I went through during the last few months sort of sucked my will to knit out of me. But now I'm back. I've finished one sock for B and have a good bit of the second done. I also finished a gift for a friend who just had a baby. Now I need to manage to get the gift to her before the baby grows out of it. I can't wait to get B's socks done so that I can start on socks for me out of the Mini Mochi I bought while shopping with my mom. Plus I need to knit Uncle T a hat, not that he'll need it for months and months.