some socks

I bought some Austermann Step at WEBS the other day. It's treated with aloe vera and jojoba oil. I decided to make a pair of socks for my mom, since her feet get really dry. Plain vanilla socks: these will have a 2x2 ribbed cuff, a heel flap, and a stockinette foot. I wasn't sure what the colorway would look like, so I decided not to risk some sort of pattern clash.

I'm a few inches in and here's what the colorway looks like: thick stripe of dark blue, thin of cream, thin of gray, thin of cream, thick stripe of light blue, thin of cream, thin of dark blue, think of cream, thick stripe of gray, thin of cream, thin of light blue, thin of cream, repeat. In other words, thick stripes in three colors. In between, small triplet stripes which consist of two cream stripes sandwiching a stripe in the color that does not appear on either side of the triplet stripe. Yeah, a picture would have been better. You guys will just have to wait.

I love the way the stripes are coming.

I also got a skein of Misti Alpaca Handpaint Sock, which is amazing. It's like a dark maroon/purple. It's for me, someday.

A Very Harlot Sunday

Whee! Today the Yarn Harlot came to WEBS. It was super fun. Here's how things went.

The WEBS event is, of course, huge. Stephanie was there from 11-1 signing books, then went to the Calvin for speeching at 2, then back to WEBS to sign. I'm sure she's still there now.

I showed up shortly after 11:30 and found WEBS an absolute zoo. Mobs of people at the cash registers. I found Tina and then got in line with Knitting Liberally. I acquired my Knitting Liberally t-shirt and made my way through the line. It was kind of fun to move slowly through WEBS as we went through the line. I usually move so quickly through there that I don't have time to peruse the yarn the way I did today. Anyway, there were so many people that we almost didn't make it to the signing table before 1. We gave Stephanie a Knitting Liberally mug, learned a little bit about the Canadian political system, and broke for lunch. Oo, and since there was such a mob at the cash register, we got to leave our signed books on hold so we can pay for them later this week. It pays to know someone on the inside.

We stopped for lunch at Luna before making our way to the Calvin. Poor Luna - they were totally unprepared for the fact that they were one of the most convenient eateries between WEBS and the Calvin. Mimmo's (the pizza place across the street from Luna) wasn't open when we went in to Luna, but they were opened by the time we got out. I think someone sent them a memo.

The Yarn Harlot's speech was hilarious and insightful. I'm so glad I went. It was very funny, and she also convinced me that as a knitter, I am in a healthier mental state, better at learning, happier, and less susceptible to mental trauma. Score!

In other news, I need to finish the surprise. I think it will involve un-knitting about 700 stitches and then re-knitting a large number of stitches. No worries, though. I've more or less finished the first bmp sock (the one with the little dudes) and I'm going to start the second (high score) sock soon. I'm also making some good progress on the Henley Perfected. Cherie Amour needs sewing up. And I should probably do some homework one of these days...

Oh, also, I just discovered that sometimes people post comments on the blog! I've changed the settings so now they'll be emailed to me. Thanks for the comments, guys!

IK summer 08

The Interweave Knits Summer 2008 preview is up. Aaah! I love it so much!! So much lace! The lace hoodie is a the very top of my list, but there are tons of patterns I want to make in here.

babies!

I have some square dancer friends who moved out the western Mass about a year and a half before I did. They had a baby 7 weeks and 1 day ago and so I decided to knit her a hat. Yesterday, I went to their house to deliver it.

Sadly, the hat was too small. But that's ok, baby hats take like no time to make and I'm happy to make another one. They mentioned that she might have a doll who the hat could fit on. So I have another hat in the making. Pictures:


with flash

no flash

I am one of (it seems) the minority of knitters who don't really care about photography. I may get into it at some point...

Anyway, it was really great to see Seth and Bethany again, and to meet baby Alina. I haven't seen them since I moved out here, so there was lots of catching up to do. I couldn't stay for dinner because I needed to run off and write a paper, but I definitely want to visit them more.

The hat is from the Pea Pod set from Interweave. When I make the new baby hat, I think I will go for the matching sweater as well. Probably aiming for about nine months here. When she's six months old, it'll be August, and you won't need a sweater, not even in wintry Pelham.

While I'm posting pictures, I might as well show you a test knit I recently finished. This is a "Bamboo" Lace Jacket (made out of silk) by Kristin. The lace turned out lovely...




...although my photography, as usual, did not.

startitis continues

Woodside is coming along nicely.

Cherie Amour was looking really good in the below-waist skirt (peplum?) area. Then when I got to the ribbing, the colors started spiraling, which I found incredibly pleasing. Unfortunately, the return to lace after the ribbing resulted in nasty pooling. It was upsetting. So I ripped back to the ribbing and now I've been working two rows with one hank, two rows with another hank, on and on. So that's going, although I've put it aside for the last few days.

My mom visited and I managed to convince her to take me to WEBS and buy me $100 worth of yarn. ON SALE, so it's even more yarn than it sounds like. I got 9 skeins of RYC Cashsoft DK, which I plan to use for Henley Perfected from the winter Interweave Knits. I'm doing this as a mini-KAL with my friend Vera. This was actually premeditated yarn: I put some yarn for this project on my wishlist for Christmas. My mom was all set to get it and then realized that the store was in Northampton, and decided it was silly to ship it to Kentucky, then fly it back to Northampton. So instead she forgot about it, and then we decided to go get it. I'm glad because I requested Dale of Norway Falk, which I have not met in person, but I felt some Dale of Norway Hauk and did NOT like it at all. This RYC is a much better call, I think. Hmm, the WEBSite tells me that Hauk is treated with Teflon, while Falk is "wonderfully soft". Well, anyway, the yarn we did buy is delightful.

I also got 4 skeins of my very first Cascade 220. It's in a color and will be used for a project that is a surprise. If you're on ravelry, you can probably click on the SURPRISE WIP bar and find out more about it. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the project and really enjoying working with this yarn.

Last, I got 5 skeins of my very first Cascade 220 Superwash, in a reddish-brownish heather. This is for a vest for my mom. Mine will looking nothing like those pictures, as it will all be in one color. I hope to make the front a little like the back in terms of ribbing and cables. Hopefully it will work out.

In other news, I have pictures of Sheldon! This is a project I knit for Knitting Liberally's charity knitting project. I believe he is currently at NELCWIT. He was super fun to make. I made him in two colors of green Valley Yarns Superwash, generously donated by WEBS, and using needles sizes 3 and 4. He is much lighter in person, these pictures came out a little dark. I love this little guy.