Kristine, if I had my way–and who knows, maybe!–I’d be at Stitches East signing books come September, and visiting my hometown of Bethesda on the side; can you make it to Baltimore? Or you could always move back here again (I wish!)

Teresa, you should have heard me guffawing at your last word there! Stitches West is absolutely huge. Before they wised up and set up an online pre-registration for the market, I was in a 90-minute-long line just to pay the door fee to get in. Stainless steel/wool blend yarn? Who thinks of these things? There’s everything yarnly there you could possibly imagine. The best, though, for me, is getting to see so many old friends. I’m easy to spot; y’all come say hi. (And be patient with me while my brain scrambles to put emails to faces and names.) If you ever get to go, don’t miss Lisa Souza’s booth ( lisaknit.com for those who can’t go): the most gorgeous yarns you could ask for. Speaking of which: she got a call from a woman in NYC a few days ago asking about her Wild Things colorway. Lisa told her the name was inspired by how the colors matched Maurice Sendak’s book. The woman then told her she was Sendak’s editor, and wanted to knit him a scarf! How cool is that!

I’m just a lurker who enjoys reading your blog.
I just finished your post about the wonderful x-ray tech. Even though you don’t know his name, writing a letter to the medical facility with information regarding the dates, times, descriptions and especially the great experience you had with this tech would be a really generous thing to do. They’ll be able to trace who did your x-rays. Often hospital workers do not get the recognition that they deserve – sometimes a bit of deserved recognition can even come with a small amount of monetary compensation, not to mention a record of the achievement in his personnel file. A letter takes all of 10 minutes – the gratification for both of you will last a lifetime. Take care.