April 24, 2007

Pop Quiz

What do you get if you mix a sick knitter who's been working flat out for 25 days with her home and no commitments?

Apparently, nothing.
I got home on Sunday and stopped, or maybe the world stopped me. I'm not sure. The cold I'd been fighting off for days landed on me foursquare and my wool and I went to bed. Or Chesterfield, or chair or anywhere at all that wasn't vertical. I'm feeling a little better today, but my expectations of myself are very low. Very. I knit a little bit. Before I went down hard though...I was in Kentucky, but before I tell you anything else, I want to talk about Fifth Third Bank.

I, like everyone else in the world, has had a scam/phishing email from Fifth Third Bank. (Turns out that 98.13% of phishing emails are about it. Who knew?) So I would get these emails, urging me to do do any number of things. Send them my personal information, log onto a website and clear up some misconceptions, respond with my correct credit card number...all that stuff that a bank would never, ever ask you to do online. Every time I got one of them I marvelled at the stupidity of these guys. I mean, if you're going to try and trick me into giving you my personal information so you can rob me blind...at least come up with a plausible name for a bank!

Fifth Third Bank. C'mon. Seriously. Who's going to believe that's really the name of a bank? I chalked it up to someone with a poor grasp of English trying to make it sound official and missing the mark by a whole lot. Fifth Third. No way.
Then I'm walking down the street in Lexington and what do I see?

Fifththirdb2404

Dudes! It's a real bank! Seriously! I just can't believe it. Does this simply STUN anyone else? Fifth Third Bank. Unbelievable.
It messed with me the whole time I was there. Every time I saw it I had to boggle. I managed not to boggle at it in front of these guys though. (I think.)

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Since it was a book fair just full of authors, the ladies of Magpie Yarns were able to gather a car-full of knitting book mojo. That's Susan B. Anderson (Itty Bitty Hats ) in the back with the brown hair. (On the left. On the right is an editor...and not that I don't love editors, because she was charming, but I don't recall her name.) Then front left is Ann Hood (The Knitting Circle) and Stefanie Japel (Fitted Knits). All lovely. (Remember folks, I'm just linking through Amazon because it's fast and easy. Support your local independent bookstore where you can.)

I met knitters en masse...

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and free-range. Here's Denise and Melanie, come all the way from Georgia.

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(I don't actually know if that's far. It sounded really far. It could be that I think it's far because Georgia is really far from Toronto but not so far from Lexington, Kentucky...they teach us about as much American geography in Canadian schools as they teach you Canadian Geography in American schools, so who knows. Maybe I'll google it when I don't have a cold anymore.)

Kelly,

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Ambie, with the most used, stained, mangled copy of Knitting Rules
I have ever seen. It had coffee all over it, the pages were folded down, she had notes in it...

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I was very flattered. It looked like a book that had been useful. (Since I write mostly useless books about knitting, I was quite chuffed.) She got the new one too, I hope it has at least a few crumbs in it by now. I look forward to seeing it similarly abused- though it isn't a very useful book.

Cami was asked to make socks that don't match.

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It's giving her a twitch. She's a woman after my own heart.

Holly postponed her wedding to hang with knitters.

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(I'd call her crazy but I thought about doing it when I found out that Tracy Ullman was coming to Toronto to talk about her book on my wedding day. Had already sent the invites though.)

Joanne,

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Who I know in from the internet and was trying her best to look like a Canadian (that was the plan...right Joanne?) wearing her very best woolies. Fabulous socks...yes? (It was hot in Kentucky. Joanne looked - besides fantastic, like I always do...warm.)

Finally, Sue,

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with a wee felted beaver (that sounds dirty, I know) that she made me because I'm "a busy beaver". (Get your minds out of the gutter.)

I went back to the hotel room after all this excitement with many knitters (and after a meal with my stalker Brooke and her team of stalker-ettes) and fell down. Totally. Slept for an ungodly amount of time and then got up and went to two local shops. Rebelle (lovely shop, very funky and has a wonderful mother/baby care shop in the back.) and Magpie Yarn. (No website, so that's just a map and phone #) The Magpie ladies (Jane and Diane) seen here in their beautiful shop

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...opened the store for me (even though they are closed on Sundays) and let me poke around having a grand time. There may have been a small yarn accident. (Not my fault...it was Rowan Yarns. I am helpless.) More about that later. For now, I'm off to do some recuperating, coughing and sneezing...and

Knittingnow2404

Knitting. Peace out.

(PS. Lene wanted a horse picture. This is Calumet farms

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with a horse. It's hard to see, but it's there.)

Posted by Stephanie at April 24, 2007 11:53 AM