A De-Stash Break and Some Good News

Thanks for all your support for Fancy Nancy's De-Stash. I spoke to her yesterday and she is overwhelmed that I have been able to send her yarn to people who will knit or crochet (or yarn bomb) with it.

I was away a couple weeks ago at a Needle Arts convention. While there, I did four book signings. My new book, Up, Down, All-Around Stitch Dictionary was a huge hit, and I got some great news about it: It was named one of May's Best Books by Amazon.com! I was floored when I heard that. At any rate, the book distributors are reporting that they're already having to restock it even though it hasn't been released. I think that the reason it is getting such a good response is that is unlike any other stitch dictionary out there. In it, I have converted over 150 stitch patterns to flat, in the round, top-down and bottom up! I just checked, and it is #2 in Craft Books and it hasn't been released yet. Yay!

Here I am, signing books (photo by the talented Jill Zeilinski).

You can see that I am smiling here.

Today, I am not smiling despite the good news.

I will tell you a short story about what happened about three hours after this picture was taken.

I apologize in advance to Somali Pirates.

I got in a taxi headed to the Indianapolis Airport.

We got there. I handed the driver some bills.

He fanned them out.

I realized I underpaid him. I said, "oh! hand the money back to me! I miscalculated!"

I added some more bills to the wad. Handed them back to him there in the front seat.

He fanned them out again and gave me a huge, long scary side-eye.

I realized I still didn't pay him enough, again. So, I said (again): "oh! hand the money back to me! I miscalculated."

He slowly handed it back to me. And oh, the look in his eyes. I took a deep breath. Tried to calm down, and re-calculated and added a five-dollar tip (10-min cab drive--and their ads said that the trip would cost 10 bucks less than his meter said, but who cares at this point?). 

For the third time, he fanned the money out slowly--I tell you what, he could play a lead role in a Somali Pirate movie (again, no offense to Somali Pirates)--gave me an even stronger side-eye and just kept staring at me, and this time sorta waved the money as if the money was his tapping foot.

And then I said in what I meant to be a nice voice but it came out sort of flip: "I have luggage in the trunk."

Whoa boy.

Let's just say he did something to make the trunk open and then I knew I had better vamoose. I got myself out of the taxi, scooted over to the trunk and yanked my luggage out.

Friends, I have a serious back injury.

The ride home was agonizing. Let's just say a two-year old frolicked for five hours in the middle seat while her mom slept and I frantically thought of ways I could escape. If I had a hari kari knife I would have ended my misery. Seriously.

The last two weeks have been a blur.

P.S. I did a little research and Somali Pirates aren't as bad as I'm making them sound. From what I understand, they rarely kill people, they have friends in high places, and what they do isn't necessarily illegal. Find out more at "10 Things You Didn't Know About Somali Pirates."

Stay tuned. Next week, I will be posting some ideas for making a cowl on the fly with my new book as well as clueing you into blog tours and book giveaways. I'll also be doing a giveaway on my own, and follow it up with more De-Stash for Fancy Nancy.

And if you're interested in podcasts, check out Episode #62 on the Yarniacs web site. Sharlene and Gayle are lots of fun and I had a great time talking about yarn, knitting and what I've been stalking on the Internet (other than Somali Pirates).