big plans

Paul Z has been a blog buddy for years.  Finally, he moved from New York out here to the left coast  and at last we got to meet face to face.  What a darling!  Had tea with him and MJ in Aurora and evolved a plan for a mad hatter's knitting retreat at MJ's beach house in May.  The place sleeps ten, so get your reservations in early.  I will do tea at the end to celebrate the results of our labors.

Think about it.  Is there a technique you want to learn?  A hat is small enough to finish in a weekend.  And if you don't know anyone who needs a hat, there are a bunch of orphans in Romania who would really appreciate something to keep their heads warm.  If you knit slowly, you can knit caps for babies.  Preemies have heads the size of an orange.  You surely could finish an orange-sized hat in two days.  Not to mention all the knitting you could do if you can get someone else to do the driving on the way up.  Let's talk about this!

And I need to move forward on the piece-a-thon stash-busting party for my birthday.  We'll need sewers, pincers, pressers and sorters. (Sorting for dark, medium, light fabrics.) And rippers.  Lots of the fabric will be ripped into strips because this is quick and dirty piecing for speed.

Benita already contributed a huge box of fabrics, and again I marvel in the joys of using other people's palettes.  I am attracted to bright, loud, big prints.  Benita sent a lot of subdued little plaids and small scale prints and I am wallowing in the beauty of fabrics I would have overlooked in the store.  What an eye-opening treat this is!  Thank you, thank you, Benita!  I hope we don't have any guests in the near future, because the guest room bed is covered about a foot deep in  fabrics.  Ohh, this would looks so wonderful with that!  And then add a little of this and a pop of the other.  Squeee!