Yeah. I know. It's not Monday, it's Wednesday - although it does have a wicked Monday vibe to it. I came home from Oakland on Monday after a really amazingly great time at Verb, and then - well then I have no idea what happened. I got hit by a train, I think. As always, everything here at home was in complete disarray upon my arrival, made worse by the minor flooding we had in our basement during the last big rain. There's been dudes outside for the last few days doing some other improvement/change/waterproofing, and I love how they talk. They seem completely convinced that this will be the time that they stop the basement from leaking. I don't believe them. Not even a little bit. At this point, every time the basement leaks I just can't understand why we don't give up. Take all our stuff out of there, put the laundry on the second floor, and then seal over the damn pit of despair that is the whole cellar, and get on with our lives. That's what I think, because really, if it leaks again after this, it's more likely that the tide of my hot bitter tears will do more to damage the place. (You can see now why Joe's the one talking with the guys outside. I can't go near them. I would yell things like "LIAR, YOU'RE LYING" or "STOP PRETENDING YOU CAN FIX IT, WE ALL KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO."
I've got a million things to show you. I leaned some crazy knot tying thing, and you're going to love it. I'm done Omelet, I just need a half hour to block it, and I'm almost done Flow, and almost done Lizette, and although no spinning at the wheel happened while I was away, I got a little done last night and want to show you that. I've got a ton to blog about, and all that has to happen is an extra 16 hours in this day, and I'll be all organized. (Maybe today isn't the day it all comes together.)
For now, I have three things I can show you.
1. The knitters I met at my talk in Oakland. (They were nice.)
2. A really huge plant. 
This freaked me right the frak out. I feel like that plant is a houseplant, a tiny little thing that sits on your desk, and you give it a sip of water once a week. This version, the California version, is a behemoth. Look. I've added knitters for scale.
See that? (That's Kristine and Adrienne, owners of A Verb for Keeping Warm)
3. I can show you this week's karmic balancing gifts, and my gratefulness to all those who donated to our little family team so far. We leave in a week and three days - and your generous donations are almost enough to distract me from my terror.
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Two beautiful gifts from Susan at The Spinning Bunny. First, a kit in the colour of the winners choice for the lovely Santa Clara wrap (including needles and everything!)
and that will be going off to Rebecca K, then (as if that were't enough!) a Spinning Bunny Bare Bones Toe-Up Sock pattern plus your choice of color and fingering yarn (Panda or Woody) plus two 24"/60cm US 1/2.25mm orange Dreamz circs and Susan will be sending it to lucky, lucky Marie W.
Shana T will be getting beautiful custom stitch markers from Susan (YarnDork)
these are just an example. Shana will be choosing her own colours and style.
The inestimable Judy Becker will be mailing Ericka M an autographed copy of her very nifty book Beyond Toes
and not to be outdone (the also inestimable) Cat Bordhi will be sending her complete digital library - that's one PDF copy of each of these three books -
To both Kate L, and Lynne E
It's good news for Trish W, who has won one of the most coveted of gifts...
A stash weasel. These weasels are the brainchild of young felt artist McKenna, over at A Tangle of Weasels, and they're brilliant.
Charming Beckett, over at Artbeco, has offered a set of stitch markers for a donor. 
That's just a sample. Michelle M will be choosing her favourites.
Nina and Mark over at SoapMarked have a $30 gift certificate that they're sharing.
Jan C is going to be very clean.
Jennifer over at Holiday Yarns is a longtime friend of the show, and she's got three gifts to send into the world to spread the love. A Spring is Sprung mitten kit will wing its way to Georg H.
Emily F will get a kit for the Patmore Bag (I love Downton Abby stuff)
and Kristy HM will be choosing her favourite skein of FlockSock. (I stole that picture from here- so it's not very good. The actual yarn isn't blurry at all.)
Jocelyn over at Deco Noir has some bloody brilliant knitter tee shirts, and she's sharing. 
Kim S will be telling the world that she has Knit for Brains, and Peri U will be Knitting her Heart out.
Georg (yeah, the Georg who was randomly draw for a prize today, the planet loves balance) has some great stitch markers to send out. She's a sock designer, not a stitch marker distributor, which is too darn bad.. because ...
as Lisa L will soon discover, THEY GLOW IN THE DARK.
Jaime, who's just the nicest knitter, has a copy of the Haapsalu Shawl that she's going to be sending to Theresa M.
Jane Richmond has a wonderful gift.. two $25 gift certificates - one for Donna C, and one for Kelly Y so that they can choose a bunch of amazing patterns... like this one...
or any of these.
Anne Hanson over at Knitspot. (C'mon. You all know about Knitspot) has generously donated not just a $25 gift certificate to her pattern store, but a fabulous tee shirt.
I love that shirt, and I hope that Ann F enjoys the patterns and the shirt as much as I would.
Sally has the loveliest gift to share. She sells Longaberger stuff (I'd never heard of this company, but it looks like they've got buckets of good stuff) and she's donating a beautiful Social Gathering basket
and filling it with delicious, life sustaining coffee. She'll mail it to Claudia K, who I hope will just love it.
A thousand thanks to this weeks givers. I appreciate all you've done for us.
