The Point of No Return

Our Planet Purl newsletter went out last week with a blurb about this blog (say that 3 times fast!) and a mention of the book in progress. The Point of No Return, I think. The link to this blog page continues to be the most clicked link in the newsletter, so I guess it's official, I am writing this book.

Today is another big day -- we're mailing out postcards to hundreds of Deep South yarn stores inviting them to be considered to be featured in the book. Then starts the job of choosing patterns and projects from the shops to be featured. At least I won't have to knit those myself. I have so many patterns in progress for the book as it is that I have nowhere else to stack project boxes. I've discovered that the space between my couch and garden doors will hold about six big banker's boxes without being visible when I open my front door. I have room for one more box, but the yarn for the Smoky Mountain Throw should arrive today and that will take care of that!

The Williamsburg "Rag" Rug is coming along nicely and I have to say it makes the perfect "in front of the TV" project. It's not at all portable though and I think once it gets to be 4" across, storing the work in progress behind the couch will not be an option. Mr. Purqueen has been eyeing the rug and is, I think, thinking he might want it in his home office. We'll see when it's done, since I haven't decided how big to make it. It's kind of addictive working the pattern, seeing the pattern and color take shape so I'm afraid it could end up 12 feet wide by the time I make myself stop!

Yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to take a break to work on perfecting my caramel-pecan divinity recipe for the book. I turned the thermostat waaaaay down to pull the humidity out (a necessity for making divinity if you live in Florida), fired up the stand mixer and the stove and went to it. Mr. PQ loved the last batch, but it was so messy to make, I thought there had to be a better way. I gave it some thought over the last week or so and hit on a solution that I wanted to test. And boy did it pass the test. When Mr. PQ got home last night, the first thing he said was "where's the divinty?" He popped an entire piece in his mouth and pronounced it perfect. Woo hoo! But now I have almost two pounds of divinity sitting on the kitchen counter, with strict orders not to throw it out. So today will be a test of another kind -- my willpower. I think I'll go put on a pair of pants that are a wee bit tight instead of the sweatpants I'm wearing now. Otherwise, I might have to come up with a story about how 2 pounds of divinity disappeared in one day.....