The Most Awesome Birthday Present Ever....

But first, of course, I have to show you something else since I've been gone a month. I lost my sewing mojo a while back, but the knitting one is always there since I can sit in the den with the family. I finished a shrug but can't drag myself upstairs to seam it together on the machine, so I started aNOTHER shrug to keep my hands busy. Then it got complicated so I decided to knit some little gifts for my 3 office employees, since they're doing such a great job. I also wanted to use stash yarn. I was going to do 3 dishcloths, but I ran out of washable cotton, so I decided to try a hairband in this organic cotton that can only be washed in cold and laid flat to dry. It has a big twist in the center, but I've done cables before, so what's the big deal?

Oh crap, I totally screwed that up...or did I? I just kept knitting after I verified with my mother that you work the cable stitches right to left as usual. Everything turned out fine!

Okay, so back to my birthday, which is Tuesday. Dean gifted me with a weekend at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee sewing with Natalie Chanin! WOO-HOO! It's one of those "away" sewing workshops with just 11 other women, and I picked a skirt with couching, since that was the most complicated-looking thing. (I mean, if you're paying for one of those expensive workshops and you've already made a dang Mardi Gras dress from her book, you've got to shoot for the stars, am I right?!) But not only that, he's also flying my SISTER in from Wisconsin with her cross-stitching for a girls' stitching weekend! How relaxing can it get?

So she and I board our respective planes tomorrow morning, enjoy a champagne reception and dinner tomorrow night with Natalie and the crew, then commence to sewing our hearts out. I'll post plenty of pics, but I'm quite intimidated about meeting Natalie, so we'll see if I get one with her or not. I imagine it'll be like meeting Sandra Betzina....or not. Our first meeting consisted of my mouth gaping open and saying the usual fluff while she sat down in front of me and lifted my shirt to measure my waist - GET to know me! (That was an SNL reference.)