Had the most surreal week ever. Overwhelmed, overjoyed, exhausted, bursting with love. My life has officially changed forever.

Right after birth; all cleaned up and meeting mommy for the first time:

Daddy and baby checking each other out:

Hanging out in the bouncer:

Big yawn:

Want to hear something funny? I was scheduled to be induced this past Tuesday, but the baby decided to get things started naturally a couple hours before the induction. And I had a crochet project packed away in my hospital bag. Yep, I figured during the induction I would be bored. Turns out, by the time I got to the hospital, I didn’t have time for a thing (things progressed way faster than anticipated). I suppose that crochet project will have to wait. (Maybe during nursing sessions when I’m also catching up on Project Runway and Top Chef episodes? Hehehe)

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ETA: If you can handle it, the birth story is here (password: nathaniel) =)

Beware, this is a somewhat picture-heavy post. =)

I’d say, half the fun was the Stitch ‘n Ride train ride itself. I didn’t get a snapshot of the goody bag that each of us got, but let’s say we were all very impressed by it. =) We were even interviewed by a local paper and got our SnB group pictures taken and everything. So that was fun!

This is how crowded the Market was. Sometimes it was hard to get around because of the sheer volume of people in each of the little booths.

Just a few of the MANY walls of yarn displayed:

Books (the line at the Webs booth was huge):

Alot of groups all over the country and Canada were there, as well as some well-known knitting personalities! I have to say, I’m a bit shy, so I didn’t really approach people… I always feel stupid about that since they must get alot of attention already as it is. I went by the Ravelry booth, and Jess and Casey were very very nice and down-to-earth.

Can you believe that wall is made up of THOUSANDS of Ravelry member avatars? People would stand in front of it, staring at it, looking for their own avatar (I didn’t even try).

There was also a knitting fashion show (runway and all), tons of spinning wheels, exotic yarns, exotic needles/tools, and everything in between. I thought one of the coolest parts of all was seeing everyone attending, who was wearing a knitted item. Almost everyone was wearing or displaying a knitted piece, and in a crowd, you can easily pick out a handful of knitted items of patterns that you’ve seen online, in a magazine, or wherever. And that was pretty awesome. Everyone’s stuff looked great!!

We got back on the train go back home – and share in all the bounty we had purchased. I held myself pretty well and didn’t spend more than $200. Others, well, I can’t speak for everyone else, but some went all out, and I’m sure some stashes were increased twice over if not more. I’ll leave you with a final picture – one of my favorites of the day.

Angela, sniffing some of Cheri’s yarn:

=)

Flasback #1:

A friend recently sent me a picture. The photo is a year and a half ago, so it’s not that old, but for some reason, it felt like AGES ago. Freshly excited from my growing knitting skills, I hosted a tea party + crafting get-together at my place in the summer of ‘05.

Most girls were from my church at the time; eager to learn how to knit. I vaguely remember Cindy, Caitlyn, and I helped everyone learn how to cast-on, and then do a simple knit stitch in one session. And that’s all I can recall from that day. I don’t even remember the tea party portion of that afternoon (What did we drink? What did we eat? I hope we had nice finger foods!).

So here’s my take of what I think was happening at the moment:

It looked pretty fun (if only I can remember it)! Although by now, I’m not sure if there is enough interest level as there was back then. People have asked whether or not the “knitting craze” is over… although, in my opinion, it seems like the whole homemade/”domestic” crafts thing is making a comeback in general. If it seems like the knitting fad is fading, it’s probably transitioning to a bunch of other things – crochet, cross stitch, scrapbooking, quilting, sewing, embroidery, cooking, card-making, candle-making, it goes on and on and on.

Nevertheless, the process of teaching and passing on the tools of these crafts has not only been fun, but tremendously gratifying. Maybe another knitting party again, one of these days? =)

Flashback #2:

Anybody remember this cute little FO? It’s been a full year since I’ve knitted it up, and the parents finally snapped a picture of it in action:

Isn’t she a cutie?? And that dress looks so much better on her than on any old hanger. =)