You can take the girl out of the East, but you can't take the East out of the girl...

So the Midwest isn't quite as scary as I thought it'd be. So okay, I was right outside Chicago, but still. There was a dude with a mullet and a 10-gallon at Karaoke, singing country songs. And a woman named Debbie who wanted us to come transvestite-watching at Denny's with her. And scary drunk girls in the bathroom. And... Okay, the Midwest is still a scary place, and I was in one of the tamer parts!

It's incredibly flat. Our hotel was on "Bunker Hill Road." As a Boston-resident, this offends me. The hotel was actually super-nice. The company was fantastic. There was karaoke and hilarity and boob pictures.

And there was knitting. So much knitting that I shouldn't be posting this, because the pain in my elbows and wrists is phenomenal. Besides the lack of carpal tunnel symptoms, it hasn't been this bad since the problems started. I got some work done on my Central Park Hoodie, and started the Dream Swatch.

I also acquired yarn!



This is enough Malabrigo to make a sweater for me. 2 hanks Natural, 2 hanks Bobby Blue, 4 hanks Marrongon. I bought it a Fishbed, in East Dundee, IL.


Also from Fishbed, Laine du Nord in colorway 4015.


Angelia, from A Perfect Yarn made a custom (or rather, several custom) color for KnittingHelp.com, which is where I met my crazy internet knitting friends. This is my version:


What could draw knitters far and wide, from Canada and California, from England and Elgin, IL, to Algonquin? Fiber Fest!

Where I bought Socks that Rock mediumweight in Downpour...


...and 1,000 yards of Spirit Trails, hand-dyed, laceweight, 100% Bombay silk.



I am currently accepting suggestions for sweater/sweater vest patterns that do Malabrigo justice, and lace patterns that do my Spirit Trails justice.

I'm sitting in Logan Airport, having paid their rather exorbitant fee for wireless internet access. Because I wanted to finish downloading the World of Warcraft expansion pack. HUGE NERD.

I'm on my way to Chicago, where a large number of knitters from knittinghelp.com are descending on Crystal Lake, IL for Fiber Fest. Watch out, Midwest. In the mean time, my flight is delayed at least an hour--I have rotten luck flying. I brought my laptop with the idea that I would watch episodes of the Tick while on board, but I've been here for about an hour and I'm already down to 64% on the ole laptop battery, so I don't see that happening.

At least Terminal B is nicer than Terminal C--there's a Legal Sea Food and a Fox "SkyBox" and a few fast food-type places (McDonald's, ABP, etc.) in addition to the Hudson News. C just has the Hudson News. I'll probably go get some chowder soon, but I kinda want to wait until the Burning Crusade finishes downloading. HUGE NERD.

Answers.com Challenge

The lovely Julie of Dotmom's Knots recently posted a short story she wrote in answer to Answers.com's Creative Writing Challenge. (Haha, get it?)

The rules: Write a creative, less than 750-word creative composition (short story, poem, prose, etc.), correctly using the 10 given words, linking them back to their respective Answers.com pages, and posting it on your blog. Deadline is July 31st.

I have no delusions of grandeur, because I knocked this off pretty quickly, but it was fun and a good way of kicking my lazy writer's butt into gear. Never you mind that I shouldn't be writing poetry--or blog posts--at work.



For all intents and purposes,
the brown recluse spider
is quixotic, bouncing like a yo-yo
from its tangled web,
lurking in its quest to lure prey
into waiting fangs. Poison abrogates
opposition, the bite perfunctory,
the death a quid pro quo exchange--
quick release from pain, a tasty snack--
at least, the spider thinks so,
as he dreams of tropical pleasure gardens in Belize,
where mosquitoes the size of Chihuahuas
await intrepid spiders.
Alas! the ubiquitous honey trade
will trigger its melissophobia.