I'm ba-a-ack! I don't have time to write much, but it's nice knowing that I don't have to cram in as much as possible. I can just post tomorrow! And the next day! Man, I loved my holiday so much. I'm not entirely ready to be back, but I'm OK with it.

No slow re-adjustment to Taipei for this lady, though; I was back at the office at 8:30 this morning, and there was an "emergency" editing job waiting for me. Yeehaw! However, I was told by some coworkers that I look "thinner" and tanned. And it must be true, for the Taiwanese are not known (by me) for false compliments. (I've become used to comments like "You look tired and very bad today" and "You look like pregnant in this dress.")

I went to every blog on my links page today, from Action Hero to X-treme Knitting. (No Z knitblogs that I know of.) I'll save the page of new-on-the-ring blogs for tomorrow. There are probably a hundred to check out.

I'm hoping to bring you some pictures tomorrow! It would be about time, wouldn't it?

I can't sleep, so I'm going to try to cover a bunch of the knitting-related stuff I want to tell you.

1. Oui, c'est vrai! I did indeed meet ~Jo~ and Veronik in Montreal a few days back. (And I swear on a stack of Debbie Bliss cashmerino that I didn't tell Veronik how many fish I caught!) We had a lovely few hours together that involved coffee and pastries, a pile of old Interweave Knits mags, and opinionated discussions of various knitting patterns. It was a huge treat for me.

2. Yarn stores overwhelm me (part one). Also while in Montreal, I went to a yarn store called A la tricoteuse. So much yarn! I was with a friend and we were hungry, so I zeroed in on the sock yarns and bought two balls of Regia mini-ringel in a green-based colourway. I was actually pretty successful at ignoring all the myriad other yarns. Alas, my indifference was soon to falter.

3. Yarn stores overwhelm me (part two). On Friday, Bill and I went to Toronto for the afternoon, and I went to Romni Wools. I wandered around like a zombie for a while and left empty-handed -- and bummed out, actually. Of course I should've had a specific pattern with me. I did remember that the pattern for Sitcom Chic calls for Lion Brand Cotton-Ease; I asked about that yarn, but the guy working just shrugged. (He actually just shrugged. I found that a bit weird.) Anyway, it was cool to see lots of the yarns that I've read about: Rowan, Noro, Debbie Bliss, etc. The store's Web site actually says that one will find "a bewildering variety" of yarns; I'll vouch for that.

4. Yarn stores overwhelm me (part three). We're staying with Bill's parents in Ancaster (a 'burb of Hamilton, Ontario), and today I went to the lovely Needle Emporium. Did I learn my lesson at Romni and bring a pattern to the store? Well, that's a negative. Once again, I fawned over all the beautiful balls of yarn. (They had everything.) Once again, I didn't buy anything.

5. Crappy craft stores, on the other hand... Have I mentioned in the past that I'm cheap? This is something that I'm working on, but I still hate to part with my money. I went to a big craft-supply store today and picked up yarn for a few different projects: a few pairs of socks' worth, a fuzzy scarf's worth, a toddler sweater's worth. That made me happy. Fancy yarn stores are beautiful, but let's face it, fancy stores make me nervous. Crappy craft stores are my kind of people.

6. Books + yarn = good times. I almost forgot this one. Rewind back to Montreal. Another friend took me to a used-book store whose back corner contains shelves of yarn. How good is that? I want to make myself a striped sweater, so I chose five colours of Patons Canadiana. Marlo and I had the shop owner take our picture in front of the wall o' yarn; he said, "You know, you aren't the first to have me do this." It made me happy to think that other people are out there having their photos taken among yarn.

7. Me + Vintage Knits = drooling. I bought Vintage Knits today, and I'm in love. I want to make a lot of these patterns. I'll pick one in the morning and see if I can find some appropriate yarn. I'm leaning towards the pretty ribbed camisole. We'll see. Has anyone made any of the vintage knits?

8. Mooky! OK, enough with the knitting. The aforementioned Marlo is my kitty's foster mommy. While Bill and I are in Taiwan, Mooky is living with Marlo and her partner. I stayed at their place, so I got to Mook out! It was sooo good to see him. No, I'm sure he didn't recognize me (it's been over a year and a half). But I was very happy to find him as soft and shiny and affectionate and happy as ever. I took a few pictures (which is really all you can do with a black cat -- every picture looks exactly the same!), so I will post them when I get home next week.

OK, it's 2:00 a.m. I'm going to give sleep another go. If I don't post again tomorrow, I'll catch you on the flipside. We fly out of Toronto on Monday and arrive in Taipei on Wednesday (that zany International Date Line!). Bon weekend!

And the winner is...

...the lovely and talented Ms. Veronik, who guessed that I caught eight fish in the Crotch. Eight! Bwah-ha-ha! She will soon receive her so-called excellent prize. As well, suprise! The lovely and talented Ms. Cari will also receive a prize, because I picked her name out of a hat from everyone who ventured a guess as to my angling success in the Crotch. Thanks everybody!

As usual these days, I have to run. I have lots to tell you, but it will have to wait. I'm into the last few precious days of my holiday now, and there are haircuts to be had and circular needles to be bought.

Enjoy your weekend!

I've updated my links page as well as the Rock-Along Gallery. Woo!

Some of you have come very close, but no one has yet guessed correctly: How many fish did I catch in the Crotch? Guess early! Guess often! (Oh man, imagine if one could catch crabs in the Crotch! If I did, I'd never tell.)

How many fish did I catch in the Crotch?

It's a contest! I just spent seven days fishing; did I catch anything? In my books, a fish is "caught" when it gets on your line, you reel it in, and you remove the hook -- doesn't matter whether you keep the fish or throw it back. Leave a comment over the next day or two with your guess. (If more than one person gives the correct answer, I'll choose the winner randomly from those people.) Excellent prize guaranteed! I'm serious!

I'm flying to Montreal in the morning. Sheesh! This holiday stuff is hard work! I miss blogging and reading blogs. At least I'll have lots to read when I get back to the office. ;)

I'll update for real soon. Miss you all. I hope all is well. xo

I'm in Vancouver now. I have so much to catch up on! For now, just some quick bits, since time is flying and I'm going out to see a friend in a few hours.

1. Vogue Knitting Quick Reference. The big Vogue Knitting book is pretty expensive, so I bought the mini version. I'm happy to report that I'm set for knitting books now (but my suitcase is really heavy).

2. Knitting needles. My brother was helping at a big garage sale and was told to help himself to whatever was left over. He brought me a small box full of double-pointed sock needles (mostly). Seriously, there are about fifty needles. Some are bent, but there are definitely a few complete sets in there.

3. Thrifting. Only time for a few quick thrifts, but I've still got the touch: a bunch of vintage knitting patterns and booklets in good condition; a still-in-the-package 3mm circ (have I mentioned I want to knit more socks?); and three basic cardigans -- one black, one beige, and one light blue with a big flower embroidered on one side (because there's no such thing as too many cardigans). So far.

4. Regia raglan. Remember a while back when I finished a little top-down sweater only to find that the neck opening was too small? Well, I fixed it yesterday morning (by pulling out five or six rows at the neck, picking up the live stitches, knitting up a 2-by-2 ribbed neck, and binding off with a bigger needle) and presented it last night to the recipient. OK, Noah was kind of busy eating blueberries and tossing bits of cucumber onto the floor, but his parents were suitably impressed! What's better than finally giving a knitted gift? Well, giving two!

5. Haiku. Last week I gave the Haiku cardigan to eleven-month-old Quinlan's mom, and she was also properly happy with it. It thrills me to give people things that I've made. Plus, both sweaters are a little too big for the kids, which is what I wanted. It's a relief, since I'd guessed at the sizes.

6. Confetti yarn. Just this morning, I had another opportunity to buy yarn that I've heard of but never actually seen. I'm staying in Burnaby with my friend Allison (a.k.a. 2L, to my 1L), and it turns out that she's two blocks from a yarn store! I went in this morning and was confronted with at least ten different Confetti colourways -- ack! I settled on two balls of #168 (brown and blue).

7. New links page. You may have noticed that my pink links page is terribly outdated. Just before I left, I made a new links page; it's not totally complete, but it's an improvement. A few important links are missing, because I couldn't remember if the proper address was .com or .net, or was blogspot or prettyposies. (Long story; I made the page at home, where I have no Internet connection, so I had to rely on memory.) So don't feel dissed! This means you, Cari. And Rene, and Lisa…

I've got to run. I know, I know, I haven't even really told you anything about my holiday! I'm having a great time. I don't know when I'll blog again. I fly out of Vancouver tomorrow morning, and by Saturday, I'll be at the Crotch! Whoa! Whoa-oa, Holiday! Slow down, girl!