More about the prize at the end of this post.

In the meantime, let's talk about TKGA/CGOA in Valley Forge this past weekend. We had our noble Kirsten minding the store, and so we were able to go without worrying about anything back home. No matter what we do, we never close our store. It's very important to us that when you drive to see us, someone is always there waiting excitedly for you.

To pack for this show, we brought our usual piles of yarn bags in plastic bags:This great pile frightened the security guard when we went to lunch and didn't return until 2:00. She was afraid that we would never get the booth set up by our deadline of 6:00. But we are seasoned professionals. Kim had worn her sturdiest OSHA-approved cabana sandals and painted her toenails blue and silver as inspiration:


Cynthia similarly inspired herself by wearing her Wicked Witch of the West striped knee socks:


And by 5:00 we were set up and ready to go:

We loved the bright pink, especially the boas.

The Crochet Dude stopped by our booth that evening and advised us to get even more boas. We took his advice--so the final booth had even more fluff than you see here. (People kept asking us if they could buy the "feathered yarn." The answer was yup--at Target in the little-girls' area.) One person asked us where our Johnny Depp poster was. Don't worry: we'll be bringing him back to Stitches.

We had a great time all weekend. We talked to lots of fun knitters and crocheters, and we even had a chance to take classes with Pauline Turner (Kim) and Melissa Leapman (Cynthia).

In the evenings, we had a great time at the King of Prussia Mall, which was right next door. We particuarly loved goofing around in the Sephora makeup store, a store with a breathtaking supply of makeup, a store where we were able to try out any makeup on our hands, where we could rinse it off at rinsing stations whenever we had reached maximum smearing and striping....


...and start again. Did we buy any makeup? We'll let you judge whether we look more glamorous when you stop by the shop.

We stayed up till 1:00 a.m. every day because when we were done shopping at the mall, we we still keyed up from our adventures and started thinking about what we wanted to do with our Stitches East booth this November. We took the opportunity of the quiet time together to get our ideas down on paper. And then we got up at 7:00 every morning to make it to the show with enough time to get ready for the day.

At the end of the weekend, we were tired but happy:

All good things must end, and sleep must at some point become a priority. We are back home now.

And we are in the middle of our next event, our Christmas in July this Saturday.

We had such fun at the show, and are in such a Christmas mood that we are going to give a prize, your choice of this skein of beautiful hand-dyed cotton yarn from Wool in the Woods....

or this fabulous 6-pack of quilter's fat quarters....


(you can see that we're still in a kind of pink/purple mood)

....to the random winner of those who correctly guess the answer to this question, or, if no one guesses the answer, to the person who gives us the most creative answer:

Why on earth did Kim paint her toenails blue and silver?

Send your guesses to stitchyourart out (AT) yahoo (DOT) com by Saturday, July 22, at 5:30, with the word TOENAILS in the subject line. If you come into the shop and ask us to answer the question, we will happily tell you, which will increase your chances of winning. (Phone calls don't count.) If you live far away and send us email, we will happily mail you your prize if you win.

Good luck!