Sock It To Me

Those of you reading this blog for a while know that I don't knit socks. And if you read the comments you know that Ariel has made it her mission to wear me down and like Darth Vader tried do to Luke, turn me to the dark side of knitting socks. While I have followed other advice of hers: like buying yarn for no specific project in mind and watching Battlestar Gallactica because it's awesome (and because Apollo is hot); I have still held my ground with the "no socks" thing. But I may have been dealt a serious blow to my resolve this week.

She sent me socks for my birthday.

These are my first hand-knit socks. They are gorgeous and stripy and fit my freaky, "I have feet issues", feet. My feet are truly not worthy of these beautiful socks. I tried them on and they were warm and comfy and made my feet look good – really they are magic socks. That whole "why would anyone want to knit something just to put it on their feet?" argument that I've held onto for so long took a major hit. I'm not saying that I am going to start knitting up all of the beautiful sock yarn in my stash into socks; really that's just crazy talk. But maybe just maybe there is one skein in there just waiting to be socks or maybe I have to go buy more yarn.

There is a part of me that wants to keep the magic socks in my drawer in pristine condition rather than wear them and subject them to the inevitable wear and tear that I will ultimately subject them to. That is very like me and very wrong. I have a tendency to save things for rainy days instead of enjoying them in the here and now. Good intention, bad habit. I was going to wear them on my birthday this weekend but looking at the weather forecast it looks like it may be approaching 60 degrees and that's a bit too warm for wool socks for me. But Thanksgiving looks to be a bit chilly and my parents' house is always cold so I think they may make their debut there.

If you want to see more pics of the socks check out this post over at Ariel's blog where she also happens to say nice things about me. **blush** Really who doesn't want the blogosphere to read when people write nice things about them?

Ariel, thank you again for socks they are wonderful and they make up for the fact that you send me links to photos of bats.

Unfaithful

I admit it, I cheated on my knitting.

I have this project I'm working on with gorgeous yarn that I simply adore and yet over the weekend I set it aside. I wanted something quick and easy so I just feel the satisfaction of having completed a project. Having more than one project on the needles - people do it all the time, right? Really, it's no big deal. But you don't understand, there were no needles, it was crochet! Gasp!

It started so innocently I was surfing around on ravelry and accidentally had crochet checked instead of knitting when doing a pattern search. Suddenly all these cute patterns popped up. I started digging around in my stash and found some random sock yarn leftovers that someone had given me. And I had these little bone ring thingies in my sewing supplies that I bought for some project. Although for the life of me I have no clue what it was. I decided to make this cute bracelet using the instructions here at CraftStylish. I changed the yarn type, hook size and the layout of the rings and I got rid of the clasp and made it just a bit bigger so it can slide on and off but the basic how-to's are all the same.

Here's a detail shot of it before I decided to forget the clasp and make it slip on.



I like the way it turned out. Since it's kinda flat and made of yarn it doesn't clank against the keyboard which is what I spend a huge portion of my day doing.

And here's a pic of it in action.

Knitting is my first love but I can't say I won't stray again.

Good Riddance October

Went a bit MIA again, sorry about that! October was ...well how do I say this? October sucked. Big time. People were sick and cranky, it snowed and oh yeah, I got laid off. Well, technically my last day is a few weeks away but come Dec 1st I am unemployed. I have been awash in all sorts of emotions: stress, fear, anger, relief (I really was never happy there anyway). I had one official weekend of moping complete with chinese takeout and catching up on last season's Project Runway. And since then I have been really okay which means I am due for a complete freak out some time soon. So it will be either on my birthday or Thanksgiving weekend. Stay tuned for all the wacky freak out fun!


The good thing all that came out of all this is I realized just how awesome the people around me are. They have been so amazingly supportive and wonderful that I get a little mushy just thinking about it.


So hopefully I will get a new job right away and if not I may be churning out projects left and right and blogging so much y'all will get sick of me. Handmade presents for everyone! Seriously I've already told my dad who wants no hand knit wear (blasphemy!) that he is just getting a handful of yarn scraps. I think that's the knitter's version of "I got a rock". Those of you who partook in their annual viewing of "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" know what I'm talking about.


I hope everyone out there's October was much better than mine. Happier, yarn-filled posts to come!

Good Eats

Last week, before it snowed….yeah, you read that right, it snowed here yesterday, big white fluffy flakes coming from the sky for a good part of the day… in October. October!!! It forced me to stay inside and knit and nap and watch Gilmore Girls reruns and Netflix movies. Tragic! Luckily, the snow was all gone when I left for work this morning and by the end of the week it is supposed to be back to more seasonable temperature. Really, I may have some cute cold-weather knits to wear but I am really not ready to bust them out just yet.

Anyway as I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, last week I got the chance to see Alton Brown host of cooking/food science/ pop culture skewering TV show Good Eats It was a family outing, as I went with my mom and brother-in-law. My sister was supposed to come too but was feeling a bit under the weather.

Since it is kind of hard to do a reading from a cooking/ behind the scenes book he just took questions from the crowd. Both Charley and I got to ask him questions. Mine was about his favorite food writers. His favorite is John Thorne, if I remember the name correctly. I instantly forgot it after he said it then remembered it again and forgot it again and finally had to do a wikipedia search today of all food writers until I recognized the name. Seriously I am getting old. I will have to check out his work at the library. Charley’s question which was “If you could switch shows with anyone else on The Food Network who would it be?” was much funnier than mine since it led to some gentle mocking of Semi -Homemade Host Sandra Lee. Alton Brown is very funny and quick and it was much more like seeing a comedian than a chef.

Here's a some of him signing books after the reading. I tried but I just could not get a good photo of him during the reading; the theatre it was held in was way too dimly lit for my puny camera to get a good shot.

I'm excited there seem to be a whole bunch of authors I like coming to town in the next few weeks and this Saturday is the Boston Book Festival with a whole slew of signings, readings and other events.

Preparing for an Early Winter...

It has become cold awfully early this year, seriously it was in the 30s this morning! It's a good thing I finished up my latest project so my head will stay toasty warm.

My sister had given me some of her leftover weaving yarn cones and they've been hanging out in my stash for a while. It seemed to be fingering weight-ish and the red and cream colors were really similar to the yarn I had used in my Anatolian Mittens. I decided I needed a matching but not really matching hat. It's stranded and red and white but otherwise a completely different design.

So here is my Selbu Modern, a wonderful free pattern that can be located right here at Kelbourne Woolens. It's a really well-written pattern and the only modifications I made were to go up in needle size because I have both a big head with lots of hair and seem to knit my stranded work pretty tight and it all always seems to run a bit small. This time it came out just the right size and I am really thrilled with it.

This picture is of the side design.



And I was delightfully surprised by how the top comes together in a giant star/snowflake thingie.

Happy Columbus Day!!

I don't get Columbus Day off from work. I don't know about celebrating the "discovery" of a country that clearly had been already discovered by the people who lived here. But there is one tradition of Columbus Day weekend that I love. Windsor Button, my LYS, has their annual sale every Columbus Day weekend and that means all yarn is 20% off! I also had a couple of gift certificates hanging out on my fridge waiting for just the right day.

After lots of yarn fonding, I came home with these lovelies. Apparently I am in my blue period.



On the top is Cherry Hill Supersock Merino. Then clockwise is Malabrigo Worsted in Indigo and Malabrigo Silky Merino in Indiecita. The Silky Merino just called to me. I have no idea what I am going to make with it but I just had to have it. Really- I had to have it.

Enjoy your Columbus Day, I hope it involves soft gorgeous yarn.

October Already?

Hello everyone out there!

I seem to have fallen off the face of the blog for the past few weeks. Sorry 'bout that. For over a week I was in a truly crappy mood and seem to hate everyone. The mood has since passed and I am again my sweet and charming self. (That noise you hear right there- is my sister choking on something.) Anyway...while in that foul mood I also came down with some weird Knitter's Block. I couldn't figure out what to cast on next and everything I started was frogged soon after. I did managed to knit a few squares for the Pine Street Inn Knit-A-Thon so at least something got accomplished.

Good news - remember the Endpaper Mitts that I finished and wasn't really thrilled about? I brought them to Stitch n Bitch and I had my friend Laurel try them on. They looked great on her - truly great, like they were made just for her. Maybe they were? Maybe the knits knew more than then knitter? Hmmmm...

A few weeks back I went to the first meeting of the season of the Common Cod Fiber Guild, where the speaker was Kristin Nicholas discussing The Joy of Color. It was really a great talk. Kristin does great things with color (duh!) but also combining knitting and embroidery. I have in my craft book library, her embroidery book and I really should get around to do a project from it. The photos in her slide show were just gorgeous and she brought samples from her new book coming out (next person I know who has a baby is getting a sweet baby blanket from that book) and Kristin hung out and chatted afterwards and answered all sorts questions.

The CSA windfall continues....the early season greens have now given way to an abundance of eggplants, potatoes, butternut squash, melon, peppers and kale yes the kale is back...I am roasting a bunch of eggplants and peppers as I type.

My cousin, future magazine editor and style maven has taken my theory, Bacon, it's the new Cupcake, and run with it in this post on her blog. Yeah, there's a bacon bra, which makes me feel good since no matter how weird I am there will always be weirder out there.

I have cast on a new project, I'm back to my stranded ways so hopefully I will have some photos in the next post. Happy October! Or Socktober for those who are into such things.