That's what one teacher at school says when the crazy kids at school pass through. My friends and I had a whole barrel of laughs and fun this week so intense that I totally forgot about international knit in public day. Imagine that! I did do a minute amount of knitting on the trains around Japan, but it was tough. Most of the time I felt like a mom dragging around my two little kids, and was mostly too busy translating, explaining, keeping track of luggage, timetables and weather patterns, and making sure that everyone was happily fed (no offensive foods), ticket in hand, throughout our journey. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every minute of it, but how do you moms do it?

When my friends first arrived, they unpacked all the essentials that I had requested. Face wash, shampoo, granola bars and knitting books. I was casually enjoying Mason Dixon Knitting when I made the mistake of reading "Places We Have Tried to Knit and Failed" out loud. One friend was totally horrified and asked me please not to turn into one of those crazy people. Too late, I chuckled to myself. I just referred to Kay as my mom's friend, and then reminded myself not to take any pictures in public with the knitting for this trip.

This is a cropped picture of an old version, but it accurately shows my progress.

I did, however, manage to sneak in some major knitting on fair isle glove number two last night, when we laid around, ordered pizza, and watched Grey's Anatomy until we passed out. It might have been the most simultaneous fun that the three of us had the whole time.

My knitting did inspire a little interest in one of them, and I am still patting myself on the back for putting this back into her hands after I taught her to knit a few years ago. She fell off the wagon but just needed some nice yarn and the safety net of someone sitting there who could fix her mistakes. She even took it with her on the plane! What is it that is so satisfying about spreading fiber fever?

I've got a work conference in Tokyo next week so I'm heading up early to enjoy the city (read: look for jeans that fit as the Gap near me has stopped stocking the "husky" sizes) and try not to blow all my savings on nice yarn. It has been MONTHS since I've bought any, and hey, I've got baby gifts to knit! Possibly the best part about this trip is that the universe has aligned so that I can go to Tokyo SnB again. Yahoo! Be back next week.