When my youngest son was a toddler, my oldest son decided that the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes was an indispensable component of any childhood and as a result, my oldest spent many hours reading from what I came to think of as “The world according to Calvin” to his toddler brother.

This love of all things Calvin and Hobbes was the catalyst for the amigurumi tiger, Boo-boo:

By the time my youngest had reached the the age of six, he could share, from memory (complete with accurate and lengthy description of the accompanying drawings), almost any one of the several hundred cartoon strips that had been read to him over the course of the previous four years.

One of his favorite collections of Calvinisms (as I have come to think of them) was Yukon Ho!

First released in March of 1989, the book begins with a lengthy poem of the same title, in which Calvin details his plans to run away to the Yukon with his tiger, Hobbes, to escape the rigors and rules of civilization. This poem was my youngest son’s favorite, and at some point, I began to sing it to him at bedtime. Over the years whenever we have embarked on a new adventure, we indicate our enthusiasm for what awaits us with the phrase ” (insert adventure here) ho!”

So on April 7, 2011 (just minutes from now as I type this), the registration for the Knit & Crochet Show in Minneapolis this July will be going live.

I have yet to decide exactly which classes I will take, or even how I will get there, but I do know that whatever I decide, it will be an incomparable adventure.