Kiss My Knits!

But first, I can report that my neighbor took the basket, smiled, and retreated into his house. It was a very brief interaction. I think I might have caught him in the middle of something. Sorry to disappoint.

Pat pointed out that when I drove up to the building, my daughter’s first grade teacher from last year happened to be walking out, pushing her son in a stroller. This is the kid I made the sweater for last year. I think it’s safe to say that he’s outgrown it now. So we caught up for a few minutes. Small world, eh?

So! We all hugged and squealed a bit, as we are wont to do when we meet. We hadn’t seen each other in quite a long time. I am also pleased to report that even after her surgery, Pat has a great rack. With the preliminaries out of the way, we went inside and signed up for a drawing. There were about 30 booths. It appears that the big thing this year is screen and linoleum block printing. We spotted some nice jewelry pretty quickly, but put it aside to come back to later. There were also some sewn items. Here, one of the vendors, the proprietor of The Monkey And Me, recognizes that Pat is a fellow fiber fanatic and shares the wonders of the Hancock Fabric catalog. Apparently this was quite a revelation. The conversation went something like this:

Cro Magnon 1: “You Cro Magnon?”
Cro Magnon 2: “Yes! You Cro Magnon too?”
CM1: “Yes! You know about fire?”
CM2: “No? What fire?”
CM1: “YOU NOT KNOW FIRE? OMG CHECK OUT FIRE!” (waves burning branch)
CM2: “OMG NO WAY! FIRE GOOD!”
CM1: “I KNOW!!! FIRE SO GOOD!”
CM2: “FIRE! FIRE! ALL HAIL FIRE!!!”

Needless to say, CM2 – I’m sorry, I mean Pat – was bowled over.

By the way, , check out This monkey onesie. That fabric look familiar?



Speaking of being bowled over, I spotted this super-cute felt mouse-bowling set at the table of Megan Marshall. We all squealed over it and exclaimed over how cute it was, then kept walking, since we hadn’t seen everything yet.

After we made the rounds, we went back to Metamorphosis Metals where Laura had spotted a necklace she wanted. She went back to it a couple of times over the course of the day. She was dithering over it, so I went ahead and got it for her. My personal rule is that if you go back to it more than twice, you want it enough that you’ll regret not getting it later. The proprietor of the shop is Sandra Coulson, and the necklace was this gorgeous Russian ammonite pendant. It was very reasonably priced.

Of course, Laura got all emotional about how I shouldn’t get it for her, and then I had to point out that when we were in Annapolis, she saw me drooling over a pair of earrings and went back and got them and mailed them to me, and this was the least I could do, and then Pat was all emotional because we were all sweet and selfless, and then we were all hugging in the middle of the store, and then everyone around us got diabetes from the sugar shock. The end.

Later when I spotted this ring I wanted, she insisted on buying it for me. It cost exactly the same as her necklace, so that kind of cancels that out. The ring is from Ashley Brodie. I had picked it up and admired it earlier, but on my second round, when I picked it up I noticed that the little wheel spun. AIEEE! I can sit and think about stuff and absentmindedly spin the little gear! That put it over the top. I’m very grateful to Laura for getting it for me.

Pat, for the record, spent the bulk of her cash at a fabric store in Wake Forest, where she purchased knitting needles. She’s a quilter, so the only reason I can imagine she bought needles is that even from that distance, my knitting mojo was rubbing off. Sorry, Pat!


I still needed something for Emily. There were approximately a billion and a half hair clips there, but Emily doesn’t really wear those. I went back for the mouse bowling. Megan was super-excited. I kind of got the impression that every single person had gone by the table, said, “AW, THAT’S SO CUTE” and then kept walking. As a merchant I know that’s gratifying, but it’s even more gratifying to actually $#)@)* sell something already. The price she wanted for it was lower than I thought it should be, so I kicked a little extra her way. She insisted I take some cards, so I did. Those are the design from yesterday that I used for the note to my neighbor. Here’s Megan, all happy and cute. Aww.



She was sharing table space with Stephanie Statham and I picked up this card from her. Laura was shocked, as I do not project the air of girliness that this card seems to embody. Pat was less surprised. Eh, I just liked it, what can I say?



At this point, the fair was closing down. We hung around to see if we’d won the raffle. We didn’t. Then we went to the parking lot, where I demonstrated a drop spindle for Laura and loaned her our Firefly DVDs. We walked over to Pat’s car. Pat had brought this big bag of super-soft merino for me! AWWWWWW! It’s gorgeous! I thought about bringing some of it to Brownies tomorrow, but I don’t know that I want to share it with the little heathens.


Laura suddenly remembered that we hadn’t partaken in the traditional pastime of the Sisters of the White Dot. Pat, a good sport, was game to give it a whirl, too. So we walked a block or so to a seedy convenience store and bought a bag of plain M&Ms. Let the games begin!

It’s a tradition dating back to the time-wasting homework-stalling days of college, the Tossing of the M&M. We got pretty good at catching them in our mouths. Yes, the hopping and leaping does help. This is a very athletic pastime. However, these days, we’re a little rusty, and I can’t throw worth a darn. But we all caught some. Pat got one on her very last attempt! Congratulations, Pat, you are now a Sister of the White Dot!

I had such a fantastic time. Pat said she couldn’t remember the last time she laughed so much, and I feel that way too. I can’t wait until the next time I get to see these two lovely ladies.