Hey, I went to a quilt show this weekend. It was the first one I've been to and after hiking down from the parking lot only to discover that I'd only brought 8 dollars and 12 dollars was the toll required to get past the quilt ladies at the door, I almost didn't get in.

Story of my life, too there was a money machine right outside the door that the nice quilt ladies referred me to, and after trying it once and being summarily rejected, I realized that my debit card isn't on any of the networks the cash machine was on. My reaction was: "Huh?" What year is this?

Anyway, so after the showdown with the cash machine, I trudged back to my car and wished a wish that maybe Dave had some quarters in his change holder or maybe even dimes or even 400 pennies. Anything, as long as I didn't have to start up the car, drive out of the gigantic stadium parking lot, my spot being 4 miles from the entrance (Section:Bumblefuck) and go track down a money machine on the Cirrus network.

As luck would have it, Dave had 8 quarters and I had 3 floating around in the bottom of my bag. I cleaned him out, then rounded out the needed 4 dollars with pennies and nickels from the floor of the car. Then I walked back to the quilt ladies, got in the EXACT CHANGE lane (because lady, I sure had exact change although I am sure you were not expecting to have to count so many pennies...) and got into the show.

Whew, and after finally getting in there, I was a bit overwhelmed and had no focus, so I just wandered around and after about 5 minutes I walked by a booth were a woman was demonstrating miniature needlepunch rugs. Cool. When I say tiny, I mean 3 inches by 7 inches, or 2 by 2 or tiny! Totally useless and what will I do with it, but nonetheless, very cool. Worthy of some cash.

So, I bought one and here is where I am so far:

Punch, punch, punch...

I've always wanted to try rug hooking, so perhaps this is a nice teeny tiny way to start off.

I am learning to weave and am working on some striped wool tape right now. I am having trouble with the tension but am sure that will get better with practice. Here's hoping!

One little flax flower.

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to help harvest some flax. This basically involves planting your feet, grasping the stalk and pulling the entire plant out of the ground.

It's not hard and is actually very satisfying.

The seed pods make a nice rattly sound.

Well, as you know, a few weeks ago I started knitting those monmouth caps. One for Eric, the guy who likes funny yet charming hats; one for Noel, who likes anything red; and one for Becky, same as Noel but make it pink. Then one more for Eric, this one brown.

Then I decided to make one with some random old Noro yarn I had sitting around doing nothing. So, one hat for me. As I knit it, I decided to change the pattern around a bit just for fun.

I can't seem to stop. I am addicted to hat knitting. It's as fun as sock knitting, but there's no heel to turn! That requires some thinking and recently, I haven't felt much like doing any mathematical thinking.

Really, there's no time I sit down and feel like solving a good mathematical problem. I am the one who can't even hang in for a long punchline joke, let alone a riddle or some mathematical thing about some guy in a room with no doors and how did he get in there in the first place?

No, not for me.

Isn't this story super exciting? Hat. Hat. Hat. Hat. I made hats. Uh. Math. Me no like. Weird, eh? See--a little mad hatterish over here.

Well, anyway, without further ado, here is the knitting portion of this post:

Mythical Noro yarn hat, shade 124

Anyway, while I was knitting on the mythical Noro yarn hat, a guy, let's call him, Louis ('cause that's his name), saw it and started telling me about how his ex-girlfriend used to knit. He asked if I would make him a "colorful hat like that "and I said sure.

There once was a time when that might have bothered me, but I enjoy knitting small things for people. If he had asked for a sweater, uh, forget it. Friends and family get the sweaters. And maybe a few unlucky dogs...

Besides he was appropriately awed by my hat knitting prowess. (ha!) He was also amused by the fact that I had a tape measure with me and he said, "I just knew you would since you are a knitter!"

My knitting philosophy boils down to this: people only need so many hats (of this style!) and I was starting to need a few more guinea pigs to knit for.

We took the kids to Pittsburgh's PNC Park to see their first baseball game. The Pirates played the Cubs. Although I didn't really watch the game, I think I like baseball. The highlight of the day was when some batter (see I wasn't paying attention) forgot to keep holding onto the bat when he was swinging and he winged it into the crowd.

Oh, no, wait, the highlight had to be the Pittsburgh Parrot shooting hotdogs into the stadium. Condiments not included!

Oh no, I am wrong again. The highlight had to be the Mrs. T's Pierogy Race. That was something. I forget which pierogy won but boy could he run. And I was paying attention to this.

Who knew all this went on during the commercial breaks?

How do they get their grass to do this?

What did you expect?

Over the weekend, I knit 2 hats, one Rogue hood, a felted scarf (felted it too, bonus) and a sock.

Where's my gold star?