KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Well, I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but it is nice to come home to a quiet house. You know how it is, it is always lovely when you have visitors from out-of-town, but it is also lovely to have your house back to yourself. Irwin’s sister and her husband were visiting from Vermont for five days to attend Irwin’s gathering last Sunday. And of course I tried to be a good hostess which was terribly interfered by the nasty cold I brought back from Germany. So I hope, they had some fun - at least they said so when they left yesterday morning.

And now, I need some serious downtime or better "Claudia-time" after all these eventful months and weeks - full of emotional roller coasters - with Irwin's gatherings in NY and Atlanta and all the travels and preparations for that. "Claudia-time" is coming up with a bunch of fiber-related events. More about that later.

So, now the doggies and I are back to our little family routine. They seem to be happy campers, snoring away at my bedside while I am typing away on this blog entry.

Yeah, don’t look at the wads of fur – I know I need to vacuum. Some other day…

I have to say we had a great time at Irwin’s gathering on Sunday. Lots of lovely friends showed up to remember my husband and we shared stories and just had a wonderful time sitting outside on a porch of a beautiful old Southern mansion with good food and drinks in a sunny Georgia fall day. It couldn’t have been better and I am very grateful for such a bunch of terrific people to carry me through these tough times.

Two people made the day especially great – y’all did – but they gave me something special that day.

Katey went to Alabama (or as I say Abalama) the day before the gathering to see Franklin. And she brought me back a copy of his new book, not available yet...

That itself would have been terrific but…

The wonderful friend Katey is, she talked Franklin into signing the book for me. And I got an extra sheep from him – HEH! Well, I was pissed, too, that I wasn’t there! I wanted to be one of the 1000 knitters on his tour . And the truly grateful friend I am, I scolded Katey right away why she didn’t tell me about the event. And she said that she had to sign up in July – just after Irwin died – and she didn’t know how and what I was doing on October 11. OK, that is a truly and valid point. Maybe I’ll catch Franklin some other time. And I truly adore my book. SO.AWESOME.KATEY!!!

And then Jane gave me a box and a card at the gathering. She said I should open it at home and she apologized ahead for probably making me cry. And I cried, but it was a very sweet cry because Jane is one of the most thoughtful friends. OK, get your tissue boxes out. Here is what was in the box.

And here is what she wrote in her card:

Dear Claudia,

Love,
Jane.

That is so beautiful, I had to stop several times while typing. What more can I ask for, if I have friends like Jane and Katey, and all the other lovely friends around me. And the rock (aka Irwin, my rock) is my new talisman in my purse.

I promise I will move forward. I am pretty sure there will be set-backs and yucky days, but then I have my friends to pick me up and a couple furry friends like these guys…

Those wet noses are still a very lovely welcome every day when I come home. ;-)

OK – let's stop with the syrupy stuff. After a glass of very nice port wine (18% alcohol and from Irwin’s stash), I could go on and on…

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am headed back to New York this weekend to attend a wedding. So, I was raking my brain what to wear… Here is what I am thinking about for an outfit.

Tell me – YAY or NAY?

I bought this coat before I knew about the wedding. It has a Tom Jones saying embroidered on the inside – Where there is love, there is life! So I thought that it might be good karma to wear it to a wedding. The skirt I bought in Italy when I was there with Irwin in 2002 and it has layers of chiffon and it's all crunchy ruffles, as well as the blouse. The shoes are black and dark purple, matching the embroidery. Sorry about the crappy picture… It is really awful when you have to take pictures of yourself in the mirror without a flash...

And to add some zing to the outfit, I will bring my Jeanie shawl (knitted with Tilli Tomas Disco Lights for another wedding back in December 2007 when things were still good and I had Irwin as a date for weddings). I figure I should bring that fabulous shawl for a wedding in Manhattan. Don’t want to look like a country gal from the outskirts of Atlanta or the Bavarian forests. ;-)

So, after extensively playing ball with the pooches, an impromptu knitting group meetup (because I could leave work surprisingly early - despite the firm event that finally took place today and we at the office were working on so frantically), three loads of laundry (washed, dried and put away!), cleaning the house, seriously reorganizing my closet and changing more light bulbs, I guess I should go to bed now. It’s early enough… I hope that cold is getting better soon. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

OHHHHHH – another example for impossibly fabulous friends… before I really let you go for tonight… When I mentioned that I would be in NY for the upcoming weekend, Jane and Jen said: "Oh, then we’ll see you at Rhinebeck (the famous fiber festival)?” Hahahahaha, and here is my scatterbrain, yet again…. I seriously totally forgot about Rhinebeck… And so I googled the directions… I will be 1.5 hours away from Rhinebeck. I would be a total fiber idiot if I wouldn’t go, right? Now, I just need to tell my friends who I visit this weekend that I will desert them Sunday for fondling yarn and roving AND I need to figure out what to wear. Knitted items, of course… But which ones???