good-natured ribbing

Shocking! I haven’t started knitting anything since I finished those 3 single socks. That’s almost a week with no knitting! I’ve been thinking about it a lot though. Now I have quite a long list of next projects – I’ll settle on one this weekend and get going. Of course the other 3 socks are still waiting, but they can wait a little longer :)

I did do a bit of spinning this week. We went on a little trip to Guelph, Ontario to visit some relatives and of course, I stopped at the local yarn store – Stitch Niche. It was pretty tiny, but I was please to see that they had some spinning supplies – there was a spindle spinning class in progress. I picked up a 4 oz braid of merino. I foolishly let Ava pick out colors and ended up with blue/green/yellow – which is lovely, but not for me. And it isn’t pink so she won’t want it :) Here is the resulting yarn:

I also picked up some Colinette Jitterbug is a nearly-solid dark green – lovely color. I’ve only seen Jitterbug in one store around here and it is always the brightly colored variegated. I was excited to find the solid colors.

And just a few other fun things to share… Megan‘s Fiberlicious Flickr group is great fun. Here my recent contributions:

This is some Koigu I bought at Purl on a recent trip to NY.

And this is the leftovers from Ava socks: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Flamingo Stripe (thanks again, Sherry!!)

Go have a look at the lovely Fiberlicious photos, and maybe contribute your own!

I recently finished two pairs of socks from the pool of eight I’ve had in progress for months (and months). In May I finished the Victorian Diamond Lace socks in olive Regia Silk and gave them to my mom for Mother’s Day. I’d recommend this pattern to anyone who is looking for a sock with a nice design and stretchy cuff. They were really fun to knit, too — the most detail at the cuff, with less and less detail as you accelerate to the toe.

This month, I finally finished a pair of socks for Kira — a pair I started a million years ago:

Baby Cable Socks on Kira’s feet, from Sensational Knitted Socks. Gems Merino Opal, Size 2 needles.

These are Thank You Socks for a craft favor from Kira. Kira made a fantastic set of Barbie clothes for me to give to my friend Fiona, who turned 9 last November. She and her mom appreciate Barbie fashion. Here are three of the garments Kira made, the knitted ones (see the rest of the wardrobe):

Thanks, Kira!

I have a few pairs of socks in progress. They are now all at the same stage: one down, one to go.

Here’s what I’m working on. I started Embossed Leaves quite a while ago. When it became clear that they were not going to fit me, I slowed down a bit. I couldn’t bring myself to rip it out and start over because they were so lovely! They will be a gift. The yarn is Natural Dye Studio’s merino/alpaca sock yarn.

I ordered some Reynolds Soft Sea Wool a while ago and had a few false starts. After all that, I decided to go with a simple stockinette sock – 56 sts around with short row heel and toes.

Finally, I started this one most recently. The pattern is Mad Color Weave and the yarn is Claudia Hand Painted sock yarn. The sock feels great – I love that Claudia!

I do intend on moving on to the mates to all these socks. But I also have some other plans that include lots of socks as well as some non-sock items. I just don’t have enough time!!

Chapter 38

I took a taxi back to the office. I didn’t want to try to wrestle a car myself with the sling on the left. I was also worried the dangers of driving wouldn’t get through the last pill I’d taken a couple hours back. It was early morning, the city sputtering as I stepped onto the sidewalk. What day was it? Thursday today, a little over a week since I’d left. I first headed to the Picot, a breakfast would help. An American breakfast would help, more than what I’d been eating.
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Chapter 37

It was still Greek to me. Cronides assured me it was knitting instructions in English. It had been written in Greek on the beams of Rolf’s enclave. Cronides thought Rolf had excavated a bit already, found it in the town underneath his little kingdom. Cronides had some books to write still.
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Chapter 36

Later, think about it later. What the hell was going on? I aimed to bowl Stash over, got the old legs going, I was having a hard time not thinking. First one now the other, what was going on? Stash was out of the way by the time I arrived to knock him down, they were slugging it out in the road now. How was Dahlia going to win this? Where was the gun, I headed across the road where it might have gone. Hadn’t Dahlia brought a gun?
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I received my final package from my Secret Pal 10 pal today. Wow! She really out did herself. Check it out:

Click for the itemized list of goodies.

Here are some close ups of the yarn. First, Plymouth Sockotta in a great colorway with green and blues:

And some fabulous yarn I’ve never seen before: Fiesta Ballet. It is 50% superfine alpaca and 50% tencel and boy, is it soft. It has a great combination of colors and I can’t wait to see how it knits up. Oh, what could I make with it?! There is 350 yds – a very generous skein.

Thank you so much, Anne, for the wonderful presents! I have loved each of them (this one, especially!).

So, as I mentioned earlier, I got some bought some yarn when I was in San Francisco. I was lucky enough to be staying at a hotel that was only a couple blocks from a yarn store. It was Artfibers. Everything in the store was very unique: all their yarns are made for them. As you can see in these photos, they have lots of swatches done up – all the yarns in all the colors!

Because everything was new to me, it took a long time to decide. I must have looked at every yarn and felt every swatch in there 3 times! But I did finally settle on two yarns to get:

This is Tsuki (40% silk, 60% mohair) in a dark green. There is 515 yards (40 grams) which is enough for a nice lacy scarf, which I bought the pattern for. This yarn comes on a large cone and when you decide which you want, you go to the ball winder to wind off the amount you want. Pretty cool.

This is Andromeda which is 30% angora and 70% silk and it is so so soft. There is 1300 yards in this skein and it is was very reasonably price (something like $35). I don’t know what color(s) I’ll dye this yet, but I think it will become a big wrap or something. The woman at the store told me that they now offer an undyed version of all their yarns. These aren’t available via the website yet, but can be ordered over the phone.

I couple months ago I went overboard and bought 6 lovely skeins of Claudia handpainted sock yarn to make a shawl. All the way through the project I was not convinced that I did a very good job with the selection. And at times, I was convinced that I did a bad job.

Now I am done and I’m sure I did a pretty good job. I love how it turned out. And as Christina pointed out, it will go with every possible outfit.

I believe I will use this shawl quite a lot. It is large enough to use as a lap blanket or get cozy in on the couch. Perfect!!

I’m on a roll! This was taken just minutes after I bound off.

It must be pretty comfy! It is blocking right now – I’ll post some better finished object photos soon.

Thanks to my recent trips to New York and San Francisco, I have a completed pair of socks. All but the the first few inches of the first sock were knit in the air. Interestingly enough, only San Francisco airport security thought my metal needles were anything to think twice about. My bag got a second trip through the xray machine but everything was OK. I can’t imagine the horror if they confiscated my DPNs half way through a sock!

Pattern: New Year’s Day Sock
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwoll – Brombeere
Needles: KnitPicks DPN’s Size 2.5mm

I really love these socks and I’ll definitely use the yarn again. In fact, the leftovers are a whopping 3oz (85 g) so I might even get another pair of socks out of it. How lame would it be if I made Ava matching socks?

Just for fun, I thought I’d put up a comparison of NYD (left) and Monkey (right) – many of you noticed how similar they are (especially since I did both in red!):

(I tried taking a new picture of the two socks but I’ve worn Monkey so much they look kind of sad next to the brand new NYD!)

Chapter 35

I hurt all over. Someone was shouting nearby. My hands wouldn’t move so good, I was lying on the ground. I tried to open my eyes, I had to blink something red away, must’ve been conked on the head. I could see a man, the professor, kneeling just in front of me, Stash was standing behind him looking over the professors head. Stash was doing the shouting, it didn’t make sense yet. I tried to get my hands to move, now I could see someone had tied them up with dirty rope. The professor didn’t look so cheerful now, gray, tired. I couldn’t see Jack.
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Chapter 34

“Ahwright, Joe, ere we are, mah agent should be ere ahlready, we can find zis Cronides, and see what she is ze toot!” Even a run-down Esperanto enclave had to have breakfast. We cheered up a lot, trotted.
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. . . cupcakes! Mmmm…these look amazing. I don’t have the patience to make them, so all I can do is gaze and covet. Enjoy!

Knit Night Cupcakes

Yes, I still knit – just not very much lately. That whole sock fiasco sort of discouraged me for a bit. But I’m back in the saddle but with not much to show for it yet. But I will soon!

At this very minute, I’m sitting in a Westin many miles from home. I arrived in San Francisco this afternoon and after arriving and the hotel and going through all my emails from the day, I set out on a yarn excursion. While I do have my camera, I don’t have any cables with me, so this horrible picture from my cell phone will have to be enough for now.

I should also point out that I cast on my 2nd New Year’s Day sock at the airport this morning and got about half way through the heel flap on the flight. At that rate, I should be sporting a lovely new pair of socks by the time I deplane in Detroit!

More pictures when I get home!

Chapter 33

The woman in the smart uniform took a lot of my money, and gave me back a ticket. “Any luggage?”

“No, ma’am, I don’t have any luggage. thanks.”

She screwed up her nose, “Report to door C at midnight exactly.” Clearly you were supposed to have luggage, but I needed this trip to be short.
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Chapter 32

I poured a drink and drank it. A guy like me can forget that he’s solving problems for people, focus just on the problem. The people still get upset.
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