Austin calling

I'm off to Austin again tomorrow. I got the letter from the county clerk and it needs to be apostilled. Just when I thought I'd never again have to do this one day driving extravaganza, here I am. I don't know how couples who both work do all this. If I had a job, we'd be so screwed. I guess there might be agencies we could Fed Ex to who would get the apostilles done. There has to be something. What if I lived in El Paso? Austin is 3.5 hours from Dallas. It's a hell of a lot longer from El Paso.


We should get a court date tomorrow, hopefully. I forgot to ask for two originals of the letter and I didn't think about it until after my agency closed tonight. I hope one copy will do. We usually have to supply at least two originals of everything because we have two complete dossiers in Russia. I hope I don't have to go back to the county clerk next week and request another letter. Seriously.

I never reported on my trip to Austin two weekends ago. When we received the downer news that our court date had been postponed, I received an e-mail from Liz. She and Tasha could think of nothing that would cheer me up more than going down to Austin with them for WWKIP Day (That's World-wide Knit in Public Day for you none fiber folk...yes, it is real...yes, We celebrated it last year.) I agreed. Franklin was the best consolation prize ever.

Why go all the way to Austin for WWKIP Day? Franklin. Franklin was teaching a class at The Knitting Nest and we, his Dallas fan girls, wanted to go see him again. Franklin is the guy I sat for last year for the 1,000 Knitters Project. Really great guy. I managed to snag one of the last two places left in his lace knitting class.

I did not take more than five photos all weekend with my camera, so I have had to wait for others to share. My shutterbug tendencies have really fallen off with the Rockstars because Liz is the official Rockstar photographer. Melanie took some photos of me, though. Kristina and Diana were at the class, too, but left right after it was over and we didn't get to spend much time with them at all!

This is me modelling Franklin's class shawl. He knit this just because he wanted to. And uses it for his class. It is beautiful. He tells us he doesn't often have the opportunity to wear his lace knits...we told him he could wear them around us with impunity. We understand. He didn't take us up on it, though. He is probably wise to be wary of knitters with cameras who say things like that.

I was impressed with his class. I'd never taken a knitting class before (yes, it is ironic that I have taught one but had never taken one). I am an intermediate or so lace knitter. I wasn't sure what the class would be like. He covered lace topics and he also talked about the history of lace knitting, and that was really interesting. The whole class was fun and totally worth it. Then after class and after lunch, we hung out and knitted with Franklin, who is trauly a fun person to sit around and knit with and then we went to dinner with him and the folks from The Knitting Nest. A real privilege, that.


I was probably the only Rockstar in Austin who really knitted in public that day. I'll knit anywhere. I have to restrain myself regularly when I am around C because nothing embarrasses him more than me whipping out the knitting at a concert or basketball game or other event. Airports and waiting rooms? Fine. He's down with that. Other places? Not so much. But with my sheeples, I can whip out a baby dress while waiting for my dinner to show up. Have I mentioned how much I love my sheeples?

Yes, I chopped my hair off again.

If you'd like the full hilarious run-down of our visit to Austin, it can be found here, on Alissa's Adventure blog. Flat Alissa went everywhere with us. Trailer park breakfasts, sweet tea vodka, the farmer's market, queso omelettes, pork cracklins, the Harley Davidson truck stop...the Rockstars know how to take a road trip.