I'm a knitting pusher

It's like a drug pusher, only more dangerous. I try to convince people to knit. My latest victim is my temporary roommate*, A, who is a natural at it. Last night, I cast on about 20 stitches for her, showed her the knit stitch, and within two rows she didn't need me to watch her anymore. Her stitches are becoming more even and she rarely drops a stitch or picks one up. I wish I could say I caught on that easily, but alas 'twas not so.

I am getting close to the end of the pumpkin socks. I should be able to finish them this weekend. Then, I'd better concentrate on holiday gifts. Where has October gone, I ask you?

I am one of the three knitters in North America who will not be at Rhinebeck. After hearing about it last year, I decided I'd try and go this year but then that whole pesky move to California took up so much time and money that it's just not in the cards. I wanted to play blogger bingo and watch people attempt to keep the Yarn Harlot away from the Grafton Fiber booth and eat lamb chops next to the sheep building, but it is not to be, I guess. It's not like I even really know anyone there, but it would've been nice to put faces to names. There were even perfectly acceptable sheep and wool festivals in this area of the country, but I didn't manage to make it to them, either. But, that didn't bother me much. What were they? Did they have a multitude of knit bloggers flying in from all over to attend? Were they set in upstate New York near the end of fall when you'd want to cut out the middleman and just wear the sheep? Had every blog you read been talking about them for days?

So, it is with heavy heart that I stay home this weekend, knitting pumpkin socks and nursing a head cold (why, oh why do we have sinuses? Is it part of God's punishment to Adam and Eve? "Thou shalt have pain in childbirth and every spring and fall thou shalt have a terrible pain in thy forehead and there shall be much wailing and gnashing of teeth and sudafed except that I shall make the unworthy want to buy sudafed to make a terrible chemical from it and it shall be most difficult for the righteous to buy sudafed and therefore thou shall have to satisfy thyself with sudafed PE instead."). At least I now have a knitting buddy living with me.

*A is staying with my and Roommie because her husband also moved to LA in September (it's like an epidemic around here) and she is desperately trying to finish her PhD. Luckily, we still have a futon for her to sleep on.