Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did miss the entire month of August. Yup, I even missed most of September. But guess what. I got to go see my mom. That made a whole lot of issues seem not quite so important. Love you, Moma!

I'm back at ThreadBear, now, though, and we've been through a series of classes with Modeknit star, Annie Modesitt, a blowout summer clearance, a phenomenal Yarn Tasting, and a whole heaping pile of catch-up. No, not ketchup. Catch-up. As in dragging my ass out of the fire back into the frying pan for a change. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like I've had my head up ass for the last several months, and I feel like I'm just starting to get that crick out of my neck, when low and behold, the weather's starting to cool off. That means our season's a-comin', folks. We're wool people. And it's looking like a seriously major season on the horizon.

I'm just now catching up on getting classes scheduled and published. Rob, Sabrina, our independent instructors, and I are being joined this season by staff Malabrigo monster, Suann, and our friend and regular face (and laugh) about the shop, Jean, for a few interesting offerings of their own. Amy Singer of Knitty and Jillian Moreno of Acme Knitting Company (co-authors of Big Girl Knits) are rolling in come late November for a series of weekend classes, and we're gearing up for a blow-out weekend. It's never a dull time with those two around, and this time, we're doing pajama parties on the river all weekend. Lord, Old Town won't know what hit it.

As of today, I am thirty-eight years old, and I am morbidly obese. That's the medical term for it. I'm so overweight that it could literally kill me. No, I'm not going on a crash diet. No, I'm not having liposuction or joining a cult. What I am doing is getting things under control. ThreadBear is a big boy, anymore, and while it still needs constant supervision, it doesn't need every moment of our time and energy. And we... I, in particular, need to spend some real time getting life back in order.

For now, though, I'm back to work to get yet more on the calendar that's already been scheduled. Like I said: catch-up. But there are lots of site updates and other such projects looming. And today, we finally replaced the trusty Sony Mavica that has been our stock and trade for the last six years at ThreadBear. It was a workhorse, but I'm very happy with the quality of the images we're turning out with the new camera. I'll leave you with a few samples shot in the shop this afternoon.

See you soon.