Sorry for the long silence. There was a week of extraordinary busy-ness, with two jobs, much report editing, a final exam paper, a final sewing class, a mad dash to the airport. Delays. Wailing babies. No sleep. Inter-terminal sprints (an Olympic event in the making, should the Games ever come to Newark, NJ), with pauses to be air-jetted in some really obnoxious new security machines. Boston, braving the Harvard commencement mayhem. The excellent Fogg Art Museum (my boy Inness, Whistler, David Smith, and many other favorites). The Worcester Art Museum (Hi, Mrs. Perez Morton! Hi! Hi, all you other old buddies from art history class – I didn’t know so many of you lived in Worcester!). And then, a wedding:

(Click for ginormous and not blurry)

This is my bestest four-year roommate, confidante, instructor in fashion and craftiness, and co-conspirator in all facets of college life, Mia. She wed her sweetheart Eric last Saturday and is pretty much the happiest woman on the planet. (At least I hope she still is. She is a newly minted doctor and started her internship on Wednesday. Pray for her, my friends.) And as you can see, I am very happy to see her so happy. I was also just about this gleeful when she let me play with her spinning wheel on Tuesday when we met up back in Boston after the nuptial festivities. The extremely ugly little woolturds I spun in no way reflect the loveliness and seductive qualities of her Majacraft Rose. Even the gentlemen present were hypnotized by its awesome dual-treadle action. Eric’s status as a suitor worthy of my beloved friend was sealed when he gave her this wonder on her last birthday.

In the midst of all this fun was a dash through two other states, a memorial party for my grandmother that became a full-blown reunion of both sides of the family, and a visit to the legendary Webs (I wanted to pitch a tent and move in). We came home. I got laid out by a vicious sore throat, which is still gnawing at my vocal cords with its nasty pointy teeth, but is giving way to a cough. Huzzah.

Anyway, it’s been a busy time. I’ll show you some piddly little scraps of knitting soon, and the skirt I just finished in my beginner’s sewing class. It’s actually pretty cute, even though I didn’t get the zipper exactly right. But right now I need some beauty rest. Tomorrow is Anniversary Day chez Garter, and the hubby has lined up a lovely romantic getaway at the Columbia Gorge Hotel. Scraps of knitting and skirts with wobbly lines of stitching totally look better in luxe jazz-age hotels, right? Right. I somehow suspect there are very few papas among my readers, but if you’re out there, Happy Father’s Day, dudes.

After exactly three weeks, our furry little adventurer is home. He’s safe and sound, but for a couple of little abscesses and 15% of his body weight. A kind soul who lives more than a mile away saw our poster in a coffee shop and realized this was the cat who’d been hanging around his place, demanding lap time on the front porch and fighting with his own cat. I was away at an educational symposium all morning with the car; Mr. Garter leapt onto his bicycle and pedaled up there, and this fellow had our kitty in his arms in the driveway. He passed Mingus over, and the little booger hissed, realized who Mr. G was, and started purring like mad. The neighbor was kind enough to lend his cat carrier and chauffeur Mingus back to our doorstep.

Thanks to each one of you for your prayers and good wishes to us and our errant kitty, and for all your little kindnesses to strangers. As much as the news might make you think otherwise, the world is full of good people helping one another, and that makes it a beautiful place. Especially right now.

I never showed you the fruits of my (admittedly selective) Habu pillaging! It was my first visit to the famous New York fiber lair, and I went in with a certain regimen of mental training behind me. I’ve been psyching myself up for this one for a long time. I knew I was going to be waylaid by sensual delights and my personal pitfall: stuff you can’t get anywhere else. The thing is, a lot of Habu’s products are intriguing, but flummoxing. (I gawp at the names alone.) What exactly am I going to make out of that nifty paper “yarn” — wouldn’t wearing it be a little like dumpster-diving in one of those big mobile shredders? And how exactly do you wash it? Or that stainless steel and silk combination — a versatile chapeau cum pasta strainer? Or those cobwebs of luxury fiber that look so fine you might not be able to feel a single strand between your fingers — a negligee for Titania’s booty calls to Oberon?

I was determined to stay practical, Dear Readers. No impulse purchases. Nothing I couldn’t immediately imagine a good use for. So this is the lot… if only I’d written down exactly what it is, because the chatty ladies behind the curtain operating the super-sweet fiber-related power tools don’t give you any kind of a ball band or tag once you’ve told them how many ounces of this, that, and the other thing you’d like. I believe that what I have is this — counterclockwise from top left:

1. a-145 kasuri cotton: 10/2 sumi cotton tegasuri

It’s laceweight cotton, in a colorway that seems to be titled “wine” on Habu’s website, but I’ll be calling it Japanese maple, for reasons obvious in this picture. I think I have three ounces, which I shall knit on largish needles into a very light and airy summer pullover of my own design. Stay tuned, although I may or may not get to it this summer…

2. a-174: 1/8.5 cotton gima
According to the website, gima means “fake linen” (only the Japanese could have a word for this) — it really does look like their linen paper yarns, but it seems sturdier. And cotton is pretty practical. My colorway is #53, “oak”, but it looks like butternut squash to me. Four ounces, I’m pretty sure, will make me two gen-yoo-wine Mason-Dixon curtains for the corner of the basement we’re sprucing up and officizing.

3. a-34: 2/26 cashmere

Cashmere, bay-bee! And it was (and I quote from the ballband) !!! 15% OFF !!! SALE YARN — w00t! (okay, the w00t is mine). I never buy cashmere, but $11.48 for 202 yards wasn’t going to break the bank, even with New York City sales tax added on. I figure I’ve got enough for some scrummy Wine and Roses Mitts from the Winter ’06 Interweave — although “mitts” hardly seems the right term for these delicate and ladylike confections. And these are deeply practical: if they prevent chilblains next winter, it’ll be $11.48 well spent indeed. Heck, it’ll be worth it if I run out of yarn and have to buy a second ball at full price.

I don’t get to cast on any of these right away, alas. I’m busy with ShibuiKnits projects I can’t yet show you, and with a little sweater I’m designing for my friend Abbie to knit for her small nephew. I’m thinking my own small cousin will be the recipient of the prototype, which should make for some truly adorable pictures next winter — my cousins could compete for Cutest Little Boys on the Planet. I’m also itching to cast on for a long-stashed summer sweater, and I’m cooking up a design challenge for myself that I’ll tell you about this weekend.

It’s done! It goes with things in my closet! Pardon the strange facial expressions… this was not our most successful photoshoot. But as you can see, Glee is a success: shapely but not too snug, so I can still wear something under it (Garnstudio Silke-Tweed is definitely less prickly after a wash, and I did wear this top throughout the evening against my skin with no discomfort, but you can tell it’s half wool), easy to introduce into an outfit, and relatively fetching, if I say so myself. Mr. Garter digs the peek-a-boo hook & eye closures. But look:

This is me smirking because even at this angle, Glee can hold down a PG rating. Three cheers for short rows! I’ll wear a camisole under it when it comes to work with me — elementary schoolers tend to be eye-level with whatever there is to see in this department, and I don’t want to warp any tender young minds — but it’s modest enough to go out among adults with no underlayer.

Just the facts, ma’am:

Glee by Zephyr Style

All of five balls Garnstudio Drops Design Silke-Tweed

US #3 needles

Modifications: longer sleeves (I was going for elbow length, but ran out of yarn a little short), short rows across the bust and a few across the back, lots of added waist shaping, got lazy about reading the pattern and worked the hem to match the sleeve and neckline rib instead of doing the deeper ribbing suggested.

Complaints? I firmly believe that any pattern written to fit close to a woman’s body, as the photos on the Glee pattern sleeve and website would suggest, ought to decrease a minimum of 2″ either side at the waist. If you’re one of the rare women this wouldn’t flatter, it couldn’t be easier to eliminate the decreases and keep knitting straight. But most of us want a cute top, not a gunny sack, and no matter what our proportions, we tend to be a little smaller in the middle than at the bust and hips. This is such a straightforward pattern that it ought to be a dandy choice for beginners, except that beginners are far less likely to go off-book and modify a design to fit their bodies better. I really think the designers could have taken the extra step to suggest a little waist shaping. But other than that, this picture best sums up how I feel about Glee:

And it goes perfectly with this:

It’s my swanky new little handbag from Tortilla Girl! Tortilla Girl is, of course, none other than the inimitable Becky — I had to get in on the ground floor of her design career, because she’s going to knock the French fashion world into next week. Thanks, Becky — this little number rocks!