Thanks to each and every one of you for your words of advice and/or encouragement yesterday. Last night Meredith took me aside and said, “You know how the TSG club stood for The Shady Girls? Today Regina decided to change the S. The club is now The Sex Girls.” Jeff and I agreed that a line had been crossed. I’m meeting with the principal tomorrow morning to have the most awkward conversation I hope to EVER have with an elementary school principal. Thank God he’s nice. And sane. And doesn’t seem like one who would support a third grade club for sex girls. (Tonight, as I wander in the Land of Nod, Fluid Pudding will receive 35,493 hits from people who were definitely not looking for photos of yarn. However, buckle up. I’m about to tell you about last week’s trip to Illinois.)
On Friday morning, my mom and I picked Tempe up at 5:00 and the three of us made our annual trip to Schaumburg, Illinois for Stitches Midwest. This was our fifth year, and it did not disappoint. When we first attended Stitches back in 2007, I came back with nothing but sock yarn.
In 2008, I purchased the supplies to make this sweater:
In 2009, I fell in love with this sweater:
Yeah. It’s not really finished, is it? I’m hoping to change that sometime in 2012.
Last year we decided to skip Stitches and go to Memphis. Graceland was very good. The yarn stores? Not so much.
This year, my only plan was to get some fiber. And I did.
This Jimmy Durante lookalike is actually a pound of BFL/Tussah Silk fiber. It’s the first purchase I made at Stitches, and if all goes according to plan, it will eventually be spun and knit into a sweater. After I achieve this goal, I will surely feel invincible.
All of these were purchased from Lisa Souza, who is sort of a rock star. She was one of the nicest and most interesting people we met at Stitches, which is definitely a thing because I now want to devote a shelf in our office to Lisa Souza fiber.
When we went back to the market to kill a bit of time before the drive home on Saturday, I accidentally bought two sweater kits.
This one will be my everyday cardigan (brown! with pockets!) for this winter.
This one will be my snazzified artsy meets swanky sweater.
This is the stuff that happens at Stitches, and this is why I love going there. Sadly, only 17% of you really understand how jazzed I am right now about my loot.
May I say something that just might jazz an additional 38% of you?
Do you remember Aaron’s bike? I am pleased to report that the money is in. The bike has been ordered. Aaron will have his bike, and I couldn’t be more excited. Thanks once again for your support! ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>
Tears of joy to all of this!
I dig it.
Awesome loot.
Good luck with the principal! I thought school was tough when I was a kid, but man, seems really rough nowadays.
I’m drooling over your yarn. I don’t really knit much yet (I’ve made 1 scarf, and half of a scarf as practice, and am working on, you guessed it, another scarf that I think I might actually finish) but I love yarn shops and have high hopes for myself. Have fun with your projects!
YAY! I only wish I had your talent and taste in clothing/knitting/basically anything.
In the five years that we spent with public school, I had two face to face meetings with the principal and one telephone conference. All were very good experiences. I have faith in you that this meeting will go off well. What a way to start the school year though, huh?!!?
Did you lose your head the day that you were wearing mauve sweater?
I think it is wonderful that Meredith is telling you these things and that you are dealing with them. I came from a home with a lot of bad things going on that everyone knew about and was an easy target for bullies. By the end of high school I had attracted the attention of one bully who made sexual innuendos directly in front of the teacher. The teacher, my mother, the guidance counselor and principle all knew he was bullying me but because he used innuendos they couldn’t just suspend him. I was too shy to explain what the innuendos meant and so I had a very difficult time until he finally did something that was blatant enough to at least move him to a corner of the room far away from me and I was placed where I was surrounded my my bully-proofers; half the junior football team who took remarkable care of me in a way that lasted until we graduated (thank God for coaches). It was horrible and colors far too much that year of my life. i hope no other child ever faces a Patrick but I imagine that is impossible; however you are doing what you can to save your children which is awesome.
Love the yarn! I don’t knit at all, but it still is pretty and I totally understand how jazzed you are. I am starting to get that way about digital scrapbooking. Totally love the green sweater you haven’t finished! I hope all goes well tomorrow and so happy for Aaron!
Mitzi – I was wondering the same thing. I also forgot to mention I loved that sweater too and the dragonfly pin. I wish I could look half as cute as she does.
I am DROOLING over that fiber. Yum.
I didn’t get a chance to comment yesterday, but hope that your principal is responsive. My oldest daughter was cyber-bullied in sixth grade (and as a result I bet I can predict what’s in store w/Regina), and the way her teacher and the school at large reacted is a lot of the reason she wasn’t more permanently scarred.
Oh – I didn’t get to respond yesterday – but I believe that change for TSG is what we would call “a precipitating event.” I hope Meredith will quickly find some fun, literary, music loving American Girl enthusiast girls to hang around with.
As for the Stitches loot – ENVY!!!!
I really need to learn to knit faster (or find someone who does contract knitting, so that I can have ALL the knitted objects desire, but in a time frame that completes them SOON!)
Also – yay for Aaron’s bike. Good stuff.
I am part of the 18%, wooooooooooo!
I am so late to the TSG thing, which you probably don’t want to go over again. But I’m with you, I really am.
If you’re as excited about your knitting stuff as I am about my bag sewing pattern, I am with you there as well.
Yarn! Ooooo!
Yarn envy!
Gorgeous fiber! I hope you post pics of it all spun up.
I have GOT to dig out my wheel and start spinning again. You have guilted…I mean INSPIRED me :)
DANG! I missed Stitches AGAIN! Ugggghhh!
Love the yarn! Regina either has older siblings or parents who don’t pay attention to her. Sad for her, but it is better if Mere remains a distant acquaintance. She’s a brick (Ben Folds).
Love your blog, even if I don’t get a chance to visit often. I’m glad Scout and Henry are working things out. I hope that Henry gets the house-training thing figured out soon. :-)
I AM SO HAPPY HE GETS HIS BIKE! (all caps were a must)
Um. I would like to have a good NO MA’AM talk to Miss Regina.
Work today was like navigating Dante’s 7 circles, so I went to the AC Moore and used a $10 off $25 to buy $50 (after discount!) worth of knitting mags. I’ve decided to take the day off tomorrow and I think I’m going to take myself to my favorite yarn store. I feel better just thinking about it.
I hope that my little girl (now 7 months old) feels as comfortable talking to me about these things.
Also, I completely lost my head at Sock Summit this year, so I understand the fiber-love.
oh, I do love it when a situation evolves on its own.
This whole shady girls thing has me a little tense.
But that brown cardigan has pulled me out of it!
I *love* the brown sweater and wish I knew how to knit just to make that beautiful sweater…for me, my mom, my 3 sisters and my sister-in-law–all in different colours of course….a girl can dream…
and WOW–definitely time to pull the principal/teachers/supervisors into the situation for Regina George…Meredith is how old?! Scary/sad–I hope Regina George gets the help she may need….
1. Love your new fiber and your new sweater projects. I got to wear a new sweater yesterday, and decided I need to make more in wool/silk blend. Yesiree.
2. TSG needs to be disbanded before someone gets hurt. More hurt. I’m so impressed that Meredith trusts you so much. You must be a wonderful mama.
3. Did I mention how much I Love your new fiber?
Although I shouldn’t be shocked that a 3rd grader knows about sex, I am appalled. Hopefully the principal will nip this in the bud. Have you met Regina’s parents by any chance? I’m glad Meredith is talking to you and more importantly, listening to what y’all have to say about this.
GAH!! I live in Gurnee IL … not incredibly far from Schaumburg… and yet I have never been to this and was completely unaware. You have your finger on the pulse of the knitting world. I’m upset that I missed it AGAIN.
Wow, and I thought having three boys was hard.
Thank god for yarn, eh?
I’ve never been to stitches midwest but there used to be a cross stitch and embroidery show in the 90s that made a stop in Des Moines. When I lived there my mom and I would go there and buy beautiful things to cross stitch or embroider. I still have some of those kits, I may or may not still take them out and pet them once in a while.
I’m glad that your brown! with pockets! cardigan has the same name as my daughter :)
TSG sounds a bit like somebody in Regina’s house is introducing a 3rd grader to more about sex than she needs to know… icky. Get her out of there. Regina might need friends, but I don’t see that Meredith needs the angst, guilt, pain, scars & hurt, and you don’t need to be paying for the therapy afterwards. I know it’s important to be nice, but… sometimes you just have to walk away.