KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

GUYS - You are such a sweet and loving group. I am very glad that I met you all and that I am part of such a fun and boisterous bunch. YOU ROCK!!!

And here is why!

They planned a special party for me at Starbucks yesterday. We lost our space at Why Knot Knit for the Friday group and started searching for a new place. Since that Starbucks location was pretty close by and also close to a MARTA station, we decided to check it out.

So, when I got there, Steve and Brett were already there and knitting away. Brett was working on my b-day gift, a beautiful lace shawl from A Gathering of Lace in silk... YUMMY!!! This was the first time I saw the shawl and it is AWESOME. I have to take a picture in progress, so y'all can drool on your keyboards. And Brett baked a rhubarb pie from scratch. I love rhubarb - so tart. :-)

Steve gave me this:

A cone of beautiful Alpaca! That calls for a lace shawl!! How much is a cone? A brazillion yards???

When Lou showed up, he gave me this:

More lace yarn - Knittivity Merino - 880 yards - I have to find a pattern for this dye, which is called Beach Glass.

Doug gave me a beautiful Pashmina shawl - I love the colors:

And Miss Diana - ever the crafty and talented girl - made adorable gift cards. I can't get over it how much work she put into these cards. I think I am going to be selfish and not send them to anyone...

She also made chocolate cup cakes from scratch.

And then Nancy and Melissa showed up with the MOST AWESOME CAKE OF ALL CAKES! Of course, also made from scratch. It was a two layer cake with balls of yarn and knitting needles as decoration. And because I am a dork, I did not have a camera with me that night. Nancy took cake pictures, and I will post them as soon as I have them.

Melissa also gave me cute doggie stitch markers:

THANK YOU GUYS AND GALS FOR BEING SOOOO GENEROUS!!!

We had so much cake and pie and cupcakes that we shared with the Starbucks employees who were a total hoot.

When I got home, I found another package. My parents' package from Germany arrived. And mom produced another gorgeous sweater. She is a tricky litte thing. While I was visiting in April, she started a sweater for me. A pattern out of one of the German Verena magazines (which, by the way, is discontinued - darnit, darnit, darnit) - lacy with long sleeves in some burgundy red cotton blend. And that's what I expected in my package. But she also showed me another stunning sweater pattern and asked me which of three different yarns would look best on her.

So when I unwrapped the gift, out came "her" sweater - OMG:

Mom used Austermann Lino, a linen/cotton/viscose/acrylic blend. It feels gorgeous - very silky. So, when I called her to thank her, I asked what happened to the other sweater. She said she wanted me to have a sweater I could wear during the summer in Georgia and therefore she knitted up this one really quickly and I'll get the other one some other time. Unbelievable!

And, yes, I am as tired as I look. I had this sugar rush from all the cake and then crashed afterwards. And I think the hot and humid weather is not helping either... Or maybe now I am getting really old...