I just got back from Orlando and man, is that place barren.

I did not see one yarn store. Or fabric store. Holy boucle, I didn’t even see craft stores giant franchises!!

Obviously, that place is in need of an immediate revolution.

And the novice knitter is just the one to lead it.   

Pink hair and all.

Armed with super-pointy #15s, I shall conquer them all! Oh, yes, I can imagine it now…

Muahaha. VICTORY SHALL BE MINE!!

Fin.

I just finished reading a great book, Chicks with Sticks: It’s a Purl Thing by Elizabeth Lenhard. It’s really awesome and it should win a million billion awards because not only is it well-written, it’s about KNITTING (giving me something to blog about while my camera continues its cantankerous-ness crusade)!

Chicks with Sticks is about four vastly different Chicago high-school girls: Scottie, Amanda, Tay, and Bella. Scottie, the main character and narrator, is a meek, decidedly un-artsy daughter of a modern artist mother. Scottie is in mourning for her favorite aunt who recently passed away. Amanda is a gorgeous, wealthy girl with a secret severe learning disability living on Chicago’s exclusive Gold Coast. Tay is a punk freshman dealing with her parents’ rocky divorce. Bella has been brought up in a  New-Age, hippy-ish household and is just starting to try to form her own identity. What is the only thing that could possibly bring these chicks together? Knitting, of course! 

It even has some great knitting patterns in the back! And a preview for the next installment: Chicks With Sticks: Knit Two Together. It looks to me it might be a little romantic, which is just fine with me if it mentions yarn at all!

Oh. Almost forgot to mention. The copy I read is Danni’s*, but I kinda got it a little (completely) ruined, so I’m going to have to buy her a new copy. Don’t read this, Danni.

Now go out and do some reading!

*Name changed. Sick of this, yet?

Today I went to Gigi’s* house and she made the most INCREDIBLE brownies the world has ever seen. They really were delicious. All fudgy and crumbly and chocolatey and … sigh. Plus, she said they were really easy to make! And she gave me the recipe!

If I ever get around to making them (which I should), they had better turn out better than the last batch of brownies I made. Oh, man… those were horrible. I used the wrong kind of chocolate and it turned out pale and bubbly and really, really sweet. Totally saccharine. (Geez, I love that word!) I was very grateful my digital camera still isn’t working so as not to frighten my readers. This recipe doesn’t use baking chocolate, though, so I think it will work out okay.

For those whose eyes are not in the mood for deciphering sized-down handwriting:

Ingredients: 1 c. butter, 3/4 c. brown sugar, 1 c. white sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt, 4 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 1/4 c. flour

Directions: Melt butter in large saucepan. Add sugar, cocoa, and salt and mix well. Add eggs and beat well. Add vanilla. Add flour and mix thouroughly. Put in greased 9×13 baking dish (she used Pyrex) and bake 25 min. at 350 degrees F.

*Name changed. Gigi. Hahahaha!