About a week ago, I was able to go to College Station to visit a friend, meet her new puppy, and watch the Fightin’ Texas Aggie football team Beat the Hell out of Baylor! WHOOP!
Turtle and I got all marooned out for the game. Can you tell I’ve got on EXTRA sunscreen?


Here is Miss Penny in the pumpkin I’d begun carving. She was so cute and tiny that her mom had to hold her to keep her from falling into the pumpkin!

She was so fun and sweet; it was great to meet her!

Ps. We also got to visit the twins again, but I was too busy holding and cuddling them to get pics this time. My apologies for not sharing their excessive cuteness.

People that know me well can tell you I’m a little bit of a spaz. This has never been more apparent to me than when Meghan and I were discussing our adventure to the Yarn Harlot’s* book signing in Austin. I couldn’t decide what to wear, if I should take any finished objects with me, or which knitting to take. I settled on a plain black top, jeans and my still slightly damp from a wash Joshaqan socks. I took a picture of the WoW blanket on my phone and both my current Works in Progress. I don’t think I’ve been this nervous since TH and I were dating. I had plans to discuss topics with the Yarn Harlot while she signed my book that probably would have taken a good half hour. I think Meghan was beginning to worry she might actually be forced to pry me from the YH at some point. I asked her to regularly remind me that there was no way she and I and Stephanie were going to end up at dinner…but I’d discussed a plan on the off chance that this happened. I’m more of a planner than we have time for in today’s session.

We arrived at Book People and I began to realize something. There were going to be a lot of people there. After there only being about 10-15 people rsvped on Facebook, I felt like there were at least 100 people at the book store. They actually made an announcement that they couldn’t add any more chairs due to fire codes. Then, Stephanie arrived; she is even funnier in person than she is in print. She opened with comments about how close Texas is to the sun and we fell under her spell. Texans seem to really respond to people that respect the fact that we all survive Texas summers. The funniest thing to me was that it was so much cooler on Sunday than it had been that I was terribly close to wearing a sweater….true story.

This just in, it is a little difficult to get a good picture of a person while they are reading. Sorry, but this is the best I could do.

Prior to arriving, I was worried that Austin knitters were not going to show up and she might not come back next time, but the line for signing was actually very very very long. The kind of long where they hand out different color bracelets and call people in groups. Nevertheless, the YH was very nice and when I asked to get a photo with her, she said, “I live to serve.” If I’m not mistaken, I think she mumbled something about being short halfway under her breath and then smiled.

me and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (thanks, Meghan!)

Two seconds after we walked away, I realized I’d forgotten to show her my Joshaqans AND my sock in progress (a sock I worked on until 1 am Friday night so the entrelac would be done when I handed it to her for a sock photo). Oh well. Somehow, I wasn’t upset. Mostly because, I’d ALMOST forgotten to get a picture with her I was so awestruck to be that close to her. There was no need for me to monopolize her time when there were so many folks waiting in line. Overall, I behaved with decorum and I think Meghan was pleased that I didn’t make a nuisance of myself. It was so lovely to hear her read and I’m so glad she made it to Austin!

the long-suffering Meghan with Stephanie

Ps. Meghan and I met a lovely knitter from FL, Karin…..hope you enjoyed your visit to Austin! :)

*The Yarn Harlot (YH) is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

I was inspired to carve what I thought was an original idea into a pumpkin…a Celtic Knot. So, I googled it to see what I might find expecting few if any hits. Turns out, not only have people done it, Martha freaking Stewart even has a couple of templates. Sigh. Oh well, I guess if she has templates, I should just use them. No sense re-inventing the wheel, right?
At the time, I felt a little bit like I was cheating. Now, I’ve lost count of how many hours I’ve spent cleaning and carving and it no longer feels like I cheated. In fact, last Friday night when I took this picture, it felt like a hand cramp.


The hours kept adding up. It took me over an hour to get a decent picture of it lit.

I had the idea not to cut all the way through to preserve the structural integrity of the pumpkin. And also, to preserve the structural integrity of my digits.


In the end, I was pleased with my efforts. Original or not, this pumpkin is a darn site better than my last attempt at pumpking carving. Turns out that Martha Stewart can make a mean template.

And as my lovely friend Bonita said, “that’ll teach me to trust my cell-mates”.

Ps. Special thanks to Turtle for the use of her sink. :)
Pps. If you go to Things Celtic on Facebook and “like” one of the photos of my pumpkin, I’ll be forever grateful! I’ve entered it in a contest and I’m just a wee bit competitive.