two books, two talks, two hats

one very happy penguin. The penguins got together the other night and wondered why I was still going around calling myself Penguin Girl if I didn’t give them any blog time anymore. Did I still like penguins? In my defense, I showed them my Pinterest Penguin Board and promised that when possible I’d do my best to include them in my posts. Today’s post is for Ping.

I was recently able to attend two book talks and finish two hats. It all goes together, trust me.

First up, the day after Rhinebeck, when this knitter was still in a sheep and wool induced coma (3647.5 yards of wool (aka about 2 miles worth), sport weight or finer came home with me. Oops?), I went to Park Slope’s Barnes & Noble for the first stop of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s book tour. We were a slightly difficult bunch, still recovering from our weekend of all things wooly. Stephanie didn’t let us tease her too much (watch out for the spindlers) and Ping is still talking about how happy he was to meet Stephanie. He’s also still yelling at me for not creating and gifting a coffee emergency kit for her tour. I deserve the rebuke. Many thanks to Limonene for taking our photo. I wonder how they plan the floor layout of of a book store.

Her newest book, All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin is pure Stephanie with a slight twist. They aren’t so deeply knitting related. I think muggles will relate well to many of the stories and I plan to read a few to E when the timing is right.

During her talk I pulled out my Porom Hat to figure out where I was going wrong in the crown decreases. Discovering my error while in a book store was a bit amusing. Apparently I misread the chart. They’re still slightly off, but it’s consistently wrong so I now believe I just rewrote the chart to fit my reality. This hat is knitted from about 150 yards of my never-ending skein of Lion Brand Fishmen’s Wool and is super warm. I wasn’t planning on wearing it any time soon but I received a very unpleasant semi-surprise birthday present in the snow storm that blew through here on Saturday. The hat fits well and is warm.

Last Monday, Ping and I went to the Craft Activism book talk and signing at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. I think Beverly’s book review is perfect. During the talk, I worked on my own little bit of crafty activism and almost finished another baby hat. Remember my 30for30 project? Thought so. Well, I have an extra hat to knit now that I’m yet another year older and I have a few new places to donate them to. I learned about PatPat’s Hats through Stephanie and have now set myself a quota of five hats by the end of the year. That’s completely possible right? I think so. I’ve finally gotten around to standardizing how I knit the hats so they are easier for how I knit. I hope to write up the pattern in the coming week and release it soon. Sorry about the fuzzy photo. My phone takes wonderful pictures if I allow it to focus.

• Category: books, handmade
• Tag: 30for30, knit