Land of 10,000 Lakes

I first met Amy C. Rea through her blog, Knit Think, where her motto is "As ye knit, so shall ye rip" -- Leah K, and where she writes about food, flowers, knitting, poetry, and Star Trek collectible glasses. Amongst other things.

She recently ran a contest on her other blog, A Closer Look at Flyover Land, where she writes about the beauties of Minnesota. I won!

Not only do I have my own, signed copy of her new book, Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes, but also a collection of poetry from Minnesota, Where One Voice Ends, Another Begins, and the delicious skein of hand-dyed yarn by Aisha Celia in the photos.

Of course, the first entries I looked for in the index were "book stores" and "yarn stores." Plenty of each, of course...

Thank you, Amy, for the books, the yarn, and for our friendship.

(blushing) she really likes me!

(blushing) thank you! Bridget of The Ravell'd Sleave named me for this award. (blushing) thank you!

I met Bridget through Knit the Classics, which no longer exists on the web, but which lives on in Knitting Nineteenth-Century Novels on Ravelry. (We're reading Vanity Fair right now. What a treat!) Go and visit her to read about how we met, and about our friendship.

Now, I'm supposed to nominate 4 blogs I love. Only four? Gracious. Ok, then - in no particular order:

Knitting Nineteenth-Century Novels is moderated by two women, including my friend Pixie Girl, a/k/a the Happy Haunted Turtle. Not only is she funny, smart, literary, and a haiku poet, but she also is on her way to becoming a librarian! I love her blog!

Penny, a/k/a Penguin Girl has been like a long-lost sister since we met. The story is here. Penny writes about about books, food, Judaism, knitting, writing, travelling, organizing, photography... and I love her blog.

Kata, a/k/a Kataish and I met through a swap, and we've been amusing each other ever since by writing real letters and enabling each other as our greed for love for all things papery and inky has overtaken our lives grown. We also have a great time as Plurk buddies. I love her blog!

Kata's fiancee, Will, blogs at Musings & Rants, where he writes (really, really well) about all sorts of things, from politics and religion to observations about London, Ontario. I'm looking forward to meeting him and Kata next year in Manhattan. I love Will's blog.


The fine print:

1. Post the award on your blog.
2. Add a link (in this case, links) to the person/people who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 4 others.
4. Leave a comment on their blog so they can pass it on.

beshert; or, an excellent adventure

A Rabbit, a Penguin, and Betty Boop walked into a bar - No, actually, they walked into a bookstore and visited a Harlot, but I'm getting ahead of the story.

Betty Boop (my penfriend Terry from Idaho) flew to Manhattan for a visit last week, and Rabbit (that's me) spent two days with her. We indulged ourselves shamelessly. We were gluttonous, greedy women -- but neither for food nor jewelry. Oh no! We went for yarns, pens, and books!

(Oy, did we indulge ourselves on pens and ink. I bought two pens, including this beauty, and enough ink to [insert writing goals here].)

If you are not a letter-writer, you probably are wondering whether two women who never met in person are really friends. Yes. Terry and I have been corresponding for 20 years, conversing and sharing as close friends do. Do not confuse the medium with the message. The medium -- pen and ink, e-mail, teletype -- is incidental. We are who we are. In our case, our favorite apparatus occasioned the splurge.

Where was I? Oh yes. Rabbit and Ms. Boop had a vegetarian dinner at Zen Palate. Then, they decided to visit the Yarn Harlot at Columbus Circle. They should have taken a taxi. By the time they reached Borders, the Harlot had finished her talk, but they bought books to be signed anyway.

"Look!" said Rabbit. "There's Helen of Troy!" Seriously. Helen (of Troy) was there to see the Harlot, too. I introduced my friends, and looked out at the crowd of knitters waiting to have their books signed.

Penguin Girl (Penny) had e-mailed to say that she might visit the Harlot that night as well. We had never met (in person). I'd seen pictures, but I'm not good at translating from 2-D to 3, and I do have the typical Rabbit skittishness about crowds. But I saw a small woman wearing a beautiful Logan River Wrap, and I intuited - and I was right! - that the woman was Penny.

So the Rabbit, the Penguin, and Betty Boop walked into a bar - no, actually, they walked into the Borders cafe, where they were joined by Helen of Troy and Helen's friends. A chatty and companionable time was had by all. My Rabbitty skittishness was eased greatly by a ginger cookie, British Breakfast tea, and the unmistakable scent of synchronicity: the near-random meeting of women, knitters and friends, occasioned by the witty and encouraging writings of The Yarn Harlot. It seemed, as they say, beshert.

What else did Terry and I do? We visited the Museum of Modern Art, where we met up with Penny, had another delightful tea-and-talk, and saw two exhibits. One, "Color Chart," did nothing for me. Except for Andy Warhol's inspired portraits of Marilyn Monroe, the entire exhibit looked (to me) like paint chips from Home Depot.

The other exhibit, "Design and the Elastic Mind," is described as an examination of "disruptive innovation." Just that phrase is enough to delight me, and I remain utterly enchanted by the honeycomb vase, created by one designer and 40,000 bees.

I don't allow any visitor to NYC to leave without a visit to Tiffany's. I love Tiffany's. I've never bought anything in the store, and probably never will - but - the old-world, easy elegance of that store charms me and amuses my abductees. As Terry said, "There's a little bit of Holly Golightly in us all." Definitely so.

Betty Boop has flown back to Idaho. The Penguin has returned to Brooklyn. Rabbit is back in her warren, but maybe now she'll be a little less reluctant to emerge.