how do I expect anyone to read when I don't post?

(Funny truth to this title: this post has been sitting and waiting here on my computer for three days. I think I'll just wrap it up so I can close the browser already, hmm?)

I believe I swore this wouldn't be a knitting-only blog. But since this is the address most of my knitting-blogger friends visit, somehow I feel obligated to report on the knitting, or apologize for the lack thereof. So, knitting people: there will not be yarn in this post. Sorry. I think.

It's been a busy month over here in the Fray, but much of it goes unscheduled and unrecorded. I've been tearing through old books at an amazing pace, preferring to read and enjoy things I've read before one more time. Old Mimi Smartypants, old children's novels, old sci-fi. I managed to finish Bujold's Shards of Honor in about twenty-four hours, and only managed to put it down for a night before I started on the next book in the series. Understandably, this curtails the knitting quite a bit.

I have gotten out a couple times in the last several weeks to knit, though forces have been conspiring to keep me from the Stitch n Bitch group and I've only managed a couple Thursdays. This means I am forced to declare* the Mercury Cafe the best KIPpin' place ever; I left my pattern there on Thursday (the one and only copy of my Diamond Nightmare Fantasy** pattern) and they were still holding it for me on Saturday morning. I had a celebratory cinnamon roll and thanked my lucky stars.

Also: go listen! Kris Delmhorst, one of my recent favorite chick singers, got interviewed on NPR for her latest album. It's worth a few minutes of listening.

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*I really like the Mercury. I like their Lamingtons pretty well. I *love* the space they've got. But the drivers in the neighborhood are about to run me over, and the pedestrians and the bikes are always jumping out in front of me. When I figure out what happened to my chauffeur, it'll be just as pleasant to travel there as it is to knit there.

**The lace, it is crazy-making, and since I started this post I un-knit quite a bit and re-knit to fix an imaginary mistake. Thus we are in stasis and will never wake up. Technically, you could call it knitted lace, but since the front and back YO's don't ever overlap, it's really still lace knitting. You're not seeing pictures because it will be a present to someone. However, I think this one will end up being a birthday present and not a Christmas present, and then I will carefully file the pattern away and resolve NOT to knit anything with holes in it for a while. Accidentally or on purpose.

Yes, Jenna, there really is snow in Mongolia.

This afternoon I braved the cold gray weather and drove out to the Dulaan knit-in hosted by Franklin. Several important things happened:

I got to see Schecki and catch up a little. Whee!

There was big important news to be shared with the knitfriends (missed the big important news? You'll have to email me.)

I met Franklin! And hugged him! I was, of course, so nervous about this hug that I leaned in too fast and bonked him on the head, in a weird platonic replay of the first time I kissed a boy. Smooth, 'Trope, real smooth. I'm sure he'll remember you as the woman who put a bruise on his skull. He is understated in person and quite funny, and has a camera that is not to be sneezed at, and walked around a few times with plates of cookies and brownies and made each and every one of us feel like he was genuinely glad we were there.

I won some yarn! Lovely, lovely sock yarn! El says it is shawl yarn, but I disagree. I can't wait to swatch it up. (Did I just say that? The girl who has knit maybe twenty rows in forty days? Yes, I did. Because...)

I knit a mitten.

Even better, I knit a kid's mitten that is going to go to Mongolia and get worn by a kid who will then keep her hands warm and stuff them in the pockets of her coat (please, God, let her have a coat) and wipe her nose on them and eventually lose one and go get another from the good folks at FIRE. I saw a little documentary, which is how I know this is likely. The doc described a bunch of FIRE projects but spent a couple minutes just talking about Dulaan, and showed some footage of a bunch of kids milling around in a classroom with hand-knit hats and mittens and a couple sweaters. And suddenly, I knew what I was knitting for and it seemed like a darn good reason to knit. Nothing in the last several weeks has been reason enough to knit, but this other mitten just might be it.