My two nine-year-old granddaughters, Bailey and Maddie, are coming to Grandma camp this week, starting today.  I have an entire itinerary set up for the three of us as I share my passions with my two youngest granddaughters.  We’re starting off this afternoon with a pedicure, followed by cake baking and decorating.  (Jazmine and I have now completed the cake decorating class—although I have yet to master making roses and clowns out of frosting.  Still, it’s been great fun.)

Following the baking, I’ll be giving knitting lessons . . . that’s when the real fun begins.  The week will conclude with a marathon shopping session and lunch out.  I’m sure there’ll be plenty of giggles along the way, too.  Does this sound like fun, or what?

I’m back from STITCHES, and am proud to tell you that I can now do the purl stitch in three different languages—German, English and Norwegian.  Knowing how large my stash of yarn already is, Wayne said, when I got home, "Surely you didn't buy more."  I assured him I didn’t buy a single skein and then asked if he’d be willing to roll the multiple skeins I did purchase.   ( He should have known better than to ask! )

While at STITCHES I heard a wonderful story about an older woman who was an avid knitter.  She and her husband were downsizing,  and he asked her what she intended to do with all her yarn.  He said, “My goodness, you must have a hundred dollars worth of yarn packed away.”  That story had those of us with huge stashes rolling in the aisles.

The Niles Public LIbrary  tea and signing last night in a suburb of Chicago was a huge success.  It was an evening to be remembered, with good food, laughter and books!  I am reminded once again of the value of libraries and their commitment to the community.

Today is the start of Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg, IL, and I’m eager for all the activities.  I’m staying at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel, which is incredible.  It’s the first hotel I’ve encountered that features a television in the bathroom mirror!  It is sensor activated.  The first time I walked into the bathroom and the mirror spoke to me, I nearly jumped out of my skin!

I unpacked my suitcase from Gettysburg this morning, dumped my dirty clothes in the hamper, and took a serious look at the carry-on bag I used for our trip to Pennsylvania, thinking I could reuse it for Chicago.  No way!  I’m heading to STITCHES , and the yarn market there is—in a word—INCREDIBLE.   Just for all the yarn I intend to cart home, I’m going to need every inch of space I can find in the largest suitcase the airline allows.  

Although this has turned out to be a busy, busy travel month, it’s been wonderful.

Sunday, our final day of vacation, we had a wonderful visit with our friends Minda and Leon Butler in York, PA. When you read 8 SANDPIPER WAY, note the dedication page, which includes my dear friend.  Minda and Leon gave us a personal tour of York and the fair grounds (Leon is one of the directors of the fair).  They also took us to dinner at the country club (Wayne grumbled, but he gracefully wore something other than his jeans!).  We are headed back to Seattle this evening so I can unpack and then repack for Schaumburg, Illinois for the Stitches Midwest conference.  My knitting needles are already humming.

I was standing on hallowed ground in Gettysburg.  Today Wayne and I walked the site of Pickett’s charge across the open field with Gary Roche, our  Civil  War guide, and Dale Gallon, a  Civil  War artist.  It was humbling to know that thousands of men fell right where we had walked.  I’ve never considered writing historical fiction, but I sure feel the emotion of this battle.

My dear, sweet husband loves war; more specifically, the study of it.  Because of his passion for the Civil War, we’re flying out tomorrow morning for Gettysburg for the second summer in a row.  It helps that our friends, Gary and Marsha Roche, are meeting us there.  Gary is a trained battlefield guide and has the knack of making history come alive.  Last summer I tagged along, sitting in the back seat, content to knit away.  Before long I set my knitting aside and leaned forward so as not to miss a word.  I’ll send updates from the road.

Wayne and I spent the weekend in Colville, Washington,  for his family reunion.  We reconnected with aunts, uncles, cousins and more kids than we could count.  We realized that not only are we related by blood  to all these wonderful people, but many  are  also dear, dear friends.  We passed around photos from the reunions thirty and forty years ago, and I realized that Wayne and I haven’t really changed that much.  Okay, there’s less hair and more of us, but that seemed to be the way with everyone else, too.

It was Stitch and Pitch night at the Mariners baseball game last night at Safeco field.  I attended with two of my knitting friends and we had a fun evening, cheering on the home team.  As a bonus, the Mariners won on the bottom of the ninth inning. 

An even bigger bonus was that as many as twenty yarn stores had set up booths and were selling yarn.  I couldn’t resist.  Yarn is my weakness.  If I had to choose between yarn and chocolate, I’d grab hold of the yarn . . . well, maybe it might depend on what kind of day I’d had.  Have a fun weekend.  I’m off to join Wayne in Colville for the big Scott Family reunion.

I had my first cake decorating class this week.  My granddaughter, Jazmine, and I are taking the class together.  Really, just how difficult can this be?  I found out Tuesday night.

We started off learning how to make decorative roses.  Mine, however, show little resemblance to any flower.  In fact, they look like artfully arranged bird droppings.  I did improve, though, and by the end of the class, if I squinted, I could actually believe that shape on the end of my stick was indeed a rose.  I learned that a rose by any other name just might be . . . . something else.

My husband is my hero.  Late last night I was sitting at our kitchen table, reading, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something scurry across the hardwood floor.  That something turned out to be the biggest spider I’ve ever seen.  It looked about the size of a dinner plate, although in retrospect I now realize it was a bit smaller.  Once I found my voice and called out to Wayne, my wonderful husband took immediate action.  Once the life threatening monster had been destroyed, Wayne calmly said, “You’re safe.”  At which point he went back to watching the ten o’clock news and I climbed down off the table top.

I left my heart in San Francisco, along with my pocketbook.  Who knew one city would have so many incredible yarn stores.  Candi Jensen, friend, designer, and producer of the Emmy-nominated PBS series Knit and Crochet Today, took me and several writing and knitting friends out for a yarn crawl.  Okay, so technically I was in town for the big Romance Writers of America  Conference, but I made sure there was free time scheduled for other important matters, such as shopping and exploring.  Other than the  Conference, and the fabulous yarn crawl, I did make one other rather exciting discovery:  San Francisco is a great town for chocolate!