I’ve been carrying the Timey Wimey Jaywalkers around with me for months, putting on a stripe here and there, not really paying attention to how long the foot was getting. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that when I measured the sock, I’d gone several rounds past where I should have started the toe! Grumbling, I un-knitted three rounds, got all the stitches re-aligned properly, and then put the sock on a corner of my desk while I worked on other things and went to Canada on vacation. (Yes, Canada. Yes, in February. Yes, I’m crazy. I’ll tell you all about the Canadian trip in the next entry.)

The sock stared at me every time I sat down.

When I couldn’t take it any more, I told myself that even though I had lots of deadlined projects for babies to work on, I could take an hour to finish the stupid sock and cross the project off my list. So I did! The two socks are almost, but not exactly matched. The first one has a little tip of white at the toe; the second doesn’t. This may have been due to dyeing discrepancies, but more likely it was changes in my tension as I worked.

This was my first time using KnitPicks Felici yarn. I thought it was good in some ways and less good in others. For the good, it is quite soft and smells deliciously of wool and dye. For the bad, it’s slightly thinner than regular sock yarn. Also, the two balls I had started in wildly different places in the striping sequence, so I lost a significant amount of yarn in making the socks match up. (Yes, I like my striped socks to match. Yes, I’m willing to sacrifice sock height to get matching socks. Yes, I’m crazy.)

These are the third pair of Jaywalkers I’ve made. I guess that makes it my favourite sock pattern? It really is a great pattern: the socks fit snugly, striping yarn is shown off even better than usual, and the chevron pattern is interesting but not at all difficult to remember, so they make good traveling socks. I’m sure I’ll knit another pair of them eventually.

Aubrey M. Tinyfierce lost her fight with FIP yesterday. In the end, her fierce was just too tiny for a disease which is inevitably fatal. To say that we’ll miss her terribly is an understatement. At least for now, her picture will stay in the banner of my Etsy shop, which should be opening for business in the next couple of months. If I can’t do it to support her any more, I can still do it in her memory – and to build up a fund for Floyd T. Underfoot, should he happen to get sick. Right now we’re grateful that he’s healthy as a horse, sleek and energetic.

Friend Stef came over yesterday to keep me company and help distract me from thinking about Aubrey too much. I showed her the Winterlude Hat ™ which I’d blocked over a perfectly-sized ceramic bowl¹, and she fell in love with its awesomeness. Then, because she has more sewing experience than I do, she helped me pin the fleece lining for the hat. It went much more smoothly for having an extra pair of hands involved. We had a good time chatting about craftsy things while I began sewing it up. I’m so close to being done with it and I can’t wait to try it out when I get to Canada in a week and a half.

While I’ve got the sewing box out, I need to sew the magnet-snaps into Michael’s Fleeps. And on the subject of projects which are really, really close to completion, I’m within a few stripes of the toe on the second Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Jaywalker. I’ve been working on it here and there while I wait for things like car maintenance and allergy shots. The other day I pulled it out to knit a few stripes and was actually surprised to discover that it’s almost finished!

I didn’t get much done on the blanket this past weekend, but I plan to work a couple of hexagons in tonight. And soon, if I’m feeling tired of crochet and want to get back to knitting, I can start on the pink and purple sweaters for the twin niecelets.

________________________________________________________________
1. Which shall be my hat-blocking bowl forevermore, when it’s not serving its usual role as a fruit dish.

Yesterday I was so tired when I got home that Pirate-Husband suggested that I should take a night off from knitting. “You’ve told me,” he said, “that when you’re tired you shouldn’t knit.”

“No,” I mumbled through a fog, “I can knit on something stockinette. I could, really. I could.” But I didn’t. He made dinner and we watched television with the cats draped across our laps, and then we both went to bed early. Not a productive evening, but a very comfortable one.

I’ve made progress on Michael’s Fleeps, but it will take a minor miracle to have them finished before I see him on Friday. There’s a lot to do tonight that isn’t knitting, like packing for Thanksgiving in New York, but maybe I can find a few moments. And I’m sure that Grandma won’t mind if I knit while we talk about everything under the sun. So, maybe! Fingers crossed.

Both of my socks-in-progress will be coming with me on the trip, too. Pirate-Husband pointed out, “We’ll be taking your car, there’s plenty of room for knitting,” and also commented “I know you love to start new projects, but I think you should finish the current socks first.” He is, of course, right on all three counts.

As for new projects, there is a LOT of baby knitting coming up. We will know the twins’ sexes tomorrow, so I’ll finally be able to buy the yarn for their sweaters. I am going to bring the KnitPicks catalog to New York with me, so that my sister-in-law can pick out exactly which colours she prefers. And my friend Gwen has just announced that she’s expecting her third, due in the end of May! I’m not yet sure what I’ll knit for her. Another sweater? A little toy? I’ll come up with something good.

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
12/1 ………… Dad’s hat
1/1 ….………. Gift for Janis’s baby boy
2/1 ………….. Mitten tops and thumb caps on Fleeps (almost done!)
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat
3/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters
4/15 ….……. Gift for Gwen’s baby

In six years of knitting, you’d think that I would have learned one very important lesson: that I should never knit anything more complicated than stockinette in the round when I am exhausted. And readers, yesterday I was very, very tired. A combination of things had conspired to keep me from sleeping on Wednesday night, beginning with kittens hopping on my ribs at 02:00 and ending with the fact that, for some reason, it was approximately seven million degrees (Fahrenheit, though I think at that temperature it doesn’t matter much) in our bedroom. As a result I spent much of Thursday shuffling about in a zombie-like daze, but I couldn’t resist the siren call of the yarn in the evening when I sat down at my desk.

Because I was ahead of schedule, I rationalized, I could work for an hour on one of my own projects and still manage to get everyone’s gifts done in time. I reached for the second of the Timey-Wimey Jaywalkers, figured out where I’d left off (in the middle of the gusset decreases) and knit an entire stripe before I realized… I’d been forgetting the slipped stitches that edge the stockinette sole. I had no recollection of these stitches at all. I examined the first sock – yep, there were slipped stitches there. I examined the parts of the gusset that I’d knit back in July – slipped stitches there, too. Rats!

Someone recently asked on the Ravelry forums if she was alone in making mistakes, if other people knit everything perfectly the first time around. I’m pretty sure everyone who read that had a good laugh, because there is no such thing as perfect knitting all the time. Even super-prolific knitters like the Yarn Harlot and Wendy Johnson make mistakes, and they blog about them, and we all have a good laugh and a “yeah, me too.”

The greatest thing about knitting is that it’s so forgiving. 99% of the time it’s possible to just pull the needles out, rip the yarn free from mistaken stitches, and do it over again. No harm, no foul. So I’ll be ripping out everything I did last night and doing it over again, including the slipped stitches this time. It’s just the way things go sometimes.

(Actually, no. The real greatest thing about knitting is that I have perfectly fit, delightfully customized wool socks, scarves, hats and gloves that I could never buy in any store.)

Last night I was knitting on the Wibbly-Wobbly Jaywalker when I noticed my stitch count was off; I’d forgotten to make an increase two rounds back. Rather than unknit the three rounds to fix it, I took a deep breath, took up my crochet hook, and dropped down to the wrongness. It took a few moments for me to visualize the right way to pick up two stitches into one, but with some concentration I was able to figure it out. Hooray for intrepid knitting!

After a few more rounds of Jaywalking I decided to begin the second Stripey Striped Sock. It’s been a good six months, if not more, since I finished the first one; it’s probably time for me to grit my teeth, knit the second sock, and get it off my WIPs list. I don’t like the yarn at all, but I love how the colours play out, and I seem to remember that the first sock fit me perfectly. I’ll be very, very glad when it’s done, and I think the two matching/mismatched striped socks will look great together.

I’ve mastered the Figure-Eight toe, I think, since this is the fourth time in a row that I’ve gotten a good toe on the first try, without dropping a stitch or mis-counting. I knit the first two stripes last night, and the next two stripes will see the end of the toe and beginning of the foot, at which point the Second Stripey Sock will become my traveling companion. Whatever else I may think about the Kureyon Sock yarn, it travels much, much better than the softer Felici does!

This may look like the first of the Timey-Wimey Jaywalkers, but it’s actually the second. Yes, I knit the second sock before the first. Time can be wibbly that way. I’m exceedingly pleased that I’ll have just enough yarn to make the first sock match the second exactly; for a while I thought it wasn’t going to happen! It will come out with just a few yards to spare. I’ve cast on for the first sock right after I finished the second, and measured the tails together. They’re within two inches of each other, so I should have some very closely matching socks indeed.

Right now I’m not wearing socks at all; I’m wearing a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSOs. They’re super-comfy shoes that are about as close as it gets to being barefoot. I love wearing them in the yard and climbing around on the boulders, and also out in public. Some people might think they’re horrifically ugly, but I’ve gotten more compliments on them than complaints. So even if I can’t wear handknit socks with them, they’re still pretty cool. I’d need to knit some really fine-gauge toesocks to wear under these, which is probably not going to happen.

And now, I’m off to work the ribbing of the second – no, the first – Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Jaywalker.

I have a good excuse for not finishing the first of the Timey-Wimey socks this weekend. Actually, I have two good excuses and one sorry one! The sorry excuse is that I have been taking Celebrex for my ankle injury, and I feel like a zombie. If I sit down, I have a tendency to fall asleep. I did knit for a while and I’ve started the toe decreases. I think that I might have measured properly so that I’ll be able to have matching socks. It’ll be within a few yards, but I think it’s possible. Fingers crossed!

This is my first good excuse: in my efforts to stay awake, I went down into the garage with Pirate-Husband and worked on the next set of our wine bottle lanterns. We got the idea from Gerardot & Co. via Make.

We’d made one of these lanterns last fall, and had some ideas to improve on them for the next set. Our house is right in the middle of Virginia wine country, so we’re going to collect a variety of our favourites from local wineries. To keep the labels from peeling off, we’ve given the bottles a coating of clear polyurethane from a spray can. I drove some sturdy sticks into the ground, then slid the bottles onto them so that the bottoms could be sprayed as well. They’ll get a second coat some time this week. The humidity caused the spray to give a hazy finish, which I actually like better than if they’d come out clear.

The original instructions suggest using a cap to keep the wick dry when it’s not in use. Our first lantern lost its cap in less than a week, and has acquired a few inches of water underneath the oil in the lantern. To keep the cap from getting lost again, I got out “ye old chainmail kit” and made a chain of ten links. An eleventh link was soldered to the top of the cap, then hooked up to the rest. At the other end, the last link was put around the split ring hanger. The cap may still fall off, but at least now it won’t be lost! I discovered that I really enjoy soldering when I took a stained glass class, and this was a fun opportunity for me to play with molten metal again. Pirate-Husband deserves thanks for letting me do much of the soldering work, because I know he likes it too.

Unfortunately, the shiny copper-plated hardware didn’t weather as well as I would have liked. Real copper turns a beautiful green in the outdoors, but this stuff just sort of looked dirty. Rather than spray it with the polyurethane so that it stays shiny, we hit them with a flat black spray paint. Pirate-Husband is going to teach me dry-brushing techniques to make them look properly weathered, and then the clear polyurethane will seal in that look.

And this is my second good excuse: Sunday evening, just as I was settling in to finish the sock toe, we heard a rumbling from outside. Pirate-Husband’s former co-worker had somehow gotten his deuce and a half up into our driveway, and asked us if we wanted to go for a ride. There was really no thinking about it; I dropped the yarn and off we went on the loudest adventure ever! Even though I was wearing ear protection, I still feel slightly deafened. We drove to where the paved roads end and kept going, forded a small creek, saw a small spotted fawn, and had a wonderful time. I hope you don’t hold it against me that as a result I have no knitting to show today – and if you get the chance for an adventure like that, I hope you’ll also drop your yarn and run to meet it!

Two more stripes went onto the Timey-Wimey Jaywalkers last night, and I decided that it was time to try them on.

Eek.

Felici is slightly finer than what I think of as ‘standard’ sock yarn (Opal, Regia, Lang, etc.) and so the sock barely made it over my heel. It fit just fine once I’d tugged and pulled and cajoled it on. What a relief! A good blocking when the socks are done will help with that tightness, so I’m not worried about it at all.

I am a little worried about running out of yarn on the second sock. Because the two skeins that KnitPicks sent started on different colours, I’m going to have to cut out three stripes from the beginning of the second skein in order to have matching socks. I’ve cut it really, really close, and my fingers are crossed that my measurements are on the short side instead of the long side. KnitPicks has totally sold out of the Time Traveler colourway, so if I run out I will either have to beg for a length of the proper stripes or have a mismatched sock toe.

Knitting Vintage Socks has been on my wishlist for quite some time now, and I finally gave in and bought it for myself. While there are several patterns in the book that I could see myself knitting, it was really the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady (Ravelry link) that finally did it for me. These stockings are beautiful; every time I see another pair completed, I want to knit them for myself. For those of you without a Ravelry account, here’s a link to a picture of the socks on Flickr. And here’s another, showing the delightful calf shaping. I love how the ribbing goes down into the heel flap, and the ‘seam stitch’ formed by purling down the center.

Disappointingly, many of the patterns seem to be one-size-fits-anyone-but-Pirate, so I expect that I’ll have to make some adjustments to get a proper fit. Extending the length of a sock foot is easy enough, but what does she mean by “fits a size 7 foot”? Is she referring to length or width there? Swatching will almost certainly be a necessity for most, if not all, of the stitch patterns. I’m not a fan of the “just go up a needle size” theory of enlarging socks, but I can figure out where stitches can be added to or subtracted from a pattern to make it slightly larger or smaller, and I’m not afraid of tinkering with a pattern to get it to fit well, whether the adjustments need to be in length or width. Hooray for intrepid knitting!

There are other patterns in the book that I’d like to knit as well, but I think the Evening Stockings will come first. (After I’ve worked through some of the patterns that I’ve already queued up, I mean.) I’ve been really into the idea of kneesocks lately, even though I know they will take forever to knit, and there are several patterns in this book that fit the bill.

The book includes a variety of heels and toes, with detailed instructions on how to make them. This will definitely come in handy when I’m designing more of my own sock patterns! I think the only other sock book that is missing from my shelf (for now) is Cookie A.’s Sock Innovation. I’m not as into the patterns in Cookie’s book, but its real value is in the wealth of information about designing socks.

In actual knitting news, the Timey-Wimey sock is coming along. Although the Felici yarn doesn’t travel well at all, I’ve brought it with me today to keep me occupied during the farewell lunch that we’re having for a co-worker. We’re a fairly large group, and whenever we go out to lunch together it seems to take forever to get everyone drinks, take orders, and bring out the food. My co-workers might look at me funny for knitting while we wait, but I’m glad to have something to do with my hands that doesn’t involve eating large quantities of breadsticks!

I’m just past the gusset decreases and into the foot of the first Timey-Wimey Jaywalker, and very near the toe of the second Sibling Sock, so I’ve swapped them out: the Jaywalkers are going to become my traveling sock and I’m cranking away on the Sibling sock right now, hoping to finish it (and the pair!) tonight. Pirate-Husband and I are going to be at a party from tomorrow morning into Monday afternoon, so I should be able to put a few more inches onto the Jaywalkers then. One of the goals of the gathering is to fell three large trees, something I’m just not physically up to right now, so I plan to knit and watch stronger people swing axes and wield chainsaws.

The math to convert my Fleep-Tops to a larger size for Michael was giving me fits. I mis-read my notes, then I mis-judged, and then I mis-calculated, but eventually figured out what to do. The numbers should all be right now, but there’s only so far I can go before I’ll want him to try them on for perfect sizing. Once I have the first one done, the second will be much faster.

Happy news: I just found out that my friend Angie is pregnant with her first! She’s only seven weeks along, but I’m already planning out what to knit for her. I ordered the yarn from WEBS this morning, and downloaded some patterns from Ravelry. Knitting babyclothes is total instant gratification!

I’d been putting off writing out the pattern for the Sibling Socks for too long. There were a few portions of my notes that made sense to me, but I knew that I’d have to be more clear if I wanted to share the pattern. So after I made myself sit down with my notes and just write them out already, I felt that I deserved some kind of prize for getting the pattern published and released into the wild.

There are some things I’m already wondering about – should I have made the heel flap longer on the larger size, or is that the kind of thing that knitters will adjust based on the sock’s recipient? Did I describe what I meant clearly enough? Are there any horrible mistakes or typos? I’m sure it will be just fine, and if it’s not, then surely the first few people to knit the pattern won’t hesitate to let me know if I’ve made an error.

My reward for publishing, with some poking from my sister the Ninja, was to cast on for a new pair of Jaywalkers with the Felici Time Traveler yarn. First, I figured out that if I wanted the socks to match, I’d lose the least amount of yarn by starting with the red stripe. Then I cast on and worked on the cuff while we watched Saturday Night Live. I knit while we watched the F1 race in Monaco, I knit while Pirate-Husband watched the Mazda MX-5 race at Virginia International Raceway, and I knit (and drank beer) while he played Assassin’s Creed 2. I haven’t had a whole day to just sit around and knit in a long time. It was lovely.

I like the Felici yarn, but I’m not yet sure if I love it. It is soft and it smells nice, but it feels just slightly thinner than what I think of as ‘standard’ sock yarn like Regia, Lang, or Lana Grossa. So far I’ve had minimal trouble with it being splitty, even in working the double decreases. The real test will be how well the finished socks wear, but they’re going so fast that it won’t be too long before I find out. (The socks are further along than this now, but it got too dark to take good pictures.)

KnitPicks has my vote based on shipping speed alone – I ordered this yarn only two days ago, and here it is. That is amazingly fast! This is the first time I’ve seen the Felici yarn in person, and already I’m pleased with it. It feels very soft and smells deliciously of wool. The only disappointment I have is that the skeins don’t begin with the same colour, so I’m going to have to skip a few stripes of one in order to make matching socks with the stripes properly lined up. It will be incredibly difficult to keep myself from casting on for the new Jaywalkers tonight. I haven’t been this excited about starting a new pair of socks in a while!

When I told Pirate-Husband about this yarn, he quipped, “If you knit the socks for me, then you could be The Time Traveler’s Wife.” *groan* Awful.

Last night I took the new Trekking Ribbed Sock to SnB, and I stitched while I bitched and then suddenly realized that I’d knitted where I should have purled. Drat. Intrepid knitter that I am, I dropped the stitch and tried to pick it up the right way. Except I dropped it again. And again. Lissa took the sock from me and got all the stitches back on the needle, then Gwen got them all turned around the right way, and now I have purls where there should be purls, thanks to the wonderful women I knit with on Wednesdays.

When I came home I got to work on the Jaywalker toe. I knit as fast as I could, but it got to be bedtime and I was still only about halfway through the toe. Am I a slow knitter, or does time go faster when it’s almost bedtime? Anyway, tonight I sat down with determination and I have finished! my! socks! They fit great, though as is usual for Jaywalkers, they’re a little hard to get on. I know they’ll break in just fine.

Something else from last night – Lissa told me I was the most efficient knitter she’d ever seen. Well, how about that? I guess I do knit with an economy of motion. Not only that, but she volunteered to teach me to spin on one of her wheels! That’s the coolest thing ever. I am so excited! (There may be a wheel in my future. It might be my birthday present. I’m not thinking about that yet. It’s too far ahead and who knows what might happen between now and then.)

So tomorrow, the Trekking Ribbed Sock and I are off to the airport, where it will keep me calm as I wait for my flight, which is almost certain to be delayed. I hope the TSA doesn’t steal my needles; this is the first time I’ll be trying to bring aluminum needles on a plane.

A day of steady sock-knitting has gotten me to within a few inches of the toe. My goal is to have it done before Friday evening, so that I can have a Whole New Sock cast on for airport knitting. Hopefully the airline won’t have a problem with five size 0 aluminum DPNs!

Now what I have to do is decide on color. I’ve already decided to go with the Trekking XXL, and I’ve already picked a ribbing pattern, but I have two colorways (66 and 90) and choosing between them is difficult! I’m leaning towards the 90, which is deserty browns with a little bit of blue thrown in. 66 is dark greens, purples, navy and burgundy. Pirate-Husband says the brown one will go with more of my clothes, so I think that’s going to be the winner this time. I’ve taken it out and have it on my desk to remind me that if I hurry with the Jaywalker, I could be casting on for a new sock (and wearing new socks, too) in just a few days!

In spinning news, I’m eyeing wheels and drum carders. What a dangerously costly hobby this is turning out to be.

Okay, the stripes *almost* match from the first Jaywalker to the second, but they’re close enough that I think I’m going to just stop worrying about it. The heel is turned, the gusset stitches all picked up, and here comes the foot!

Pirate-Husband gets “Awesome Points” for the following conversation, in which I told him about the thing that’s been bugging me for a few days:

me: …and when I’m done with the Jaywalker, I’m going to cast on for the second Pomatomus. The only thing is…
PH: What?
me: Well, the stripey striped scarf is almost done. That’ll leave me with two lacy projects that I can only work on at home. So I was thinking I’d cast on for a second, easier sock that I could take places with me.
PH: Oh, well yeah! You need a traveling sock!

No hesitation. No sarcasm. I need a traveling sock. It’s just a fact of knitterly life! I don’t know why I thought that I might be, y’know, going overboard by having two socks going at once. Maybe it’s a concern that I’ll only work on the simple one and not finish the more complicated one? Anyway, I decided that it’ll be a simple ribbed sock with some of the Trekking XXL that Janis gave me for my birthday. I may have said that before, but now I have to decide which colorway (purplish or brownish) and how many ribs of what width.

But first… Jaywalker foot!

Last night I got through the heel flap on Jaywalker #2, but decided to go to bed rather than turn the heel. That’s the kind of thing I prefer to do all in one go, so I don’t lose my place and have to start over. I was right, the stripes are off by two rows, but I’m going to ignore that. They’re close enough that I’ll consider them matching!

I also spun up another section of orange roving. Man, pre-drafting makes that go so much smoother! I kept having to stop and pick out little bits of straw and crap, which was a little annoying. I’m happy that I seem to be gaining a little bit of speed with the spindle. Pirate-Husband wants to know what I’m going to make with this yarn once it’s done. I’m really not sure at all – guess I’ll have to see how thick it turns out after plying, what kind of yardage I get, that kind of thing.

I haven’t worked on the Stripey Striped Scarf since last week’s SnB, so I’m going to bring it with me tonight as it’s the only current WIP that’s simple enough for me to work on while I chat. Though I said I was going to end it when this ball of yarn is done, I found some leftover Kureyon from a Booga Bag I made, and I’m thinking of extending the scarf a little. This thing will never be done at this rate, or it will be as long as a Doctor Who scarf! The theme of tonight’s SnB is “Show and Tell”; I’m looking forward to seeing what people bring!

I’m in the middle of the heel flap of the Jaywalker, and had to take a break, so I’m stretching my fingers out and typing a little. For some reason, I didn’t want to start the heel. I think it was because I did my best to get the stripes to line up, but eventually came to the realization that I would be two rows off no matter what. Either the second sock leg will be two rows short, or the stripes on the foot will be offset by two rows. Eventually I decided that I would rather have my sock legs be the same length, and started the heel… only to stop two rows later and daydream about a pattern for the next sock.

This is silly – the next sock is going to be the second Pomatomus of the pair. Then I thought, “but I’m almost done with the Stripey Striped Scarf, and that will leave me with two projects I can only work on at home – Pomatomus and the Ostrich Plumes scarf. I’m going to need a simple traveling project.” Well, simple doesn’t require much daydreaming, does it? I think I’m going to do a ribbed (4×1) sock in some of the Trekking XXL which Janis gave me for my birthday. That oughta be simple enough to travel with.

This weekend I upgraded my WordPress installation and added a new feature – a JavaScript lightbox effect. Try clicking on a picture. Isn’t that neat? If you’re the type who likes pictures to open up in their own tabs/windows instead of getting the animated effect, you can still right-click > open in new window, or middle-click if you use Firefox and enjoy that tab thing. Middle-click may work in IE7 as well.

Also this weekend I mentioned to Pirate-Husband that, other than socks, I’m running out of things I really want to knit for myself. Kinda. I want to make the Shedir hat (link to pdf), and some purple-and-green armwarmers to go with my green-and-purple scarf, and a pair of fingerless glove-convertible mittens. He said that I should feel free to knit him a sweater. A cabled sweater. A big warm gansey, in fact, is what he has in mind for himself. I laughed. If anyone’s getting a hand-knit sweater around here, it’s me – but other than baby sweaters, I’m not sure I’m interested in making one. It seems like a lot of work… who knows? Once I say “oh, I’m not interested in that,” it’s almost a sure thing that at some point in the future, I’ll be interested.

This is just a few ounces of the eight *pounds* of fleece currently awaiting rotation through the freezer. I am thrilled to have it; I just need to decide what to make! Alpaca mittens would be nice, or maybe those fingerless gloves I keep thinking of – or maybe convertible fingerless glove mittens! Yeah!

Unfortunately, pictures of this green roving don’t do the color justice at all, though I tried and tried. I found two bags of the same color, but they were obviously two different dye lots, so I’m going to card them together and split the difference. It’s very tightly compressed right now and feels a little bit rough. Originally I was thinking of making a hat with it. If it still feels rough when I card it, I might have to change that idea, or make a lining so it’s not too itchy on my head. Here’s an older picture of me, from two years ago, but there are my eyes… and there is this roving. It’s incredible. I’ve never found anything this color before, so if I’m ranting a little, please forgive me!

Another thing I bought at Pennsic is this cobweb-weight silk/cashmere blend. It’s the same as the coppery brown stuff I already have, and bought from the same person. She says she keeps this and several other colors in stock, or I’d've been tempted to purchase two spools of purple as well. it’s amazingly fine. I spent a long time in front of the tent just admiring the different colors and gently touching the yarn.
When Pirate-Husband picks out a pattern of lace that he likes, I’ll put the project in my Ravelry queue. I’m certain that I will be able to make two cuffs for him by next Pennsic. If I make it three times the circumference of his wrist, it should ruffle nicely from the cuff of his shirt and look really spiff!

Speaking of lace, here is the Ostrich Plumes progress, gently pinned out this time so the pattern shows up better. I’m still not sure how long I should be making this, but I’m developing a reputation for dressing however I please and still pulling off the look – so I’m confident that it will look good whether it’s short or long. I’ll just wrap it around my neck and go. How could it be bad?

The Stripey Striped Scarf ought to be finished before autumn, since I really want to wear it with my gray coat. I am so pleased with the way the colors are playing out! It doesn’t seem like it should work, then for some reason it does. It may sound egotistical to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway: one of my motivations for finishing the scarf is to hear other people’s reactions to it when I wear it.

And now, the Jaywalker. By some miracle, I got the second sock to start in almost the first place as the first sock. I think the color is only off by two rows. I’m going to start the heel in the same place so that matches, because no one will notice if my socks are an eighth of an inch different in height, even me, especially if they slouch a little. I love that the tip of the toe and the tip of the heel have that tiny little bit of light blue in there. If both socks have that, I shall be very pleased indeed! Once the Jaywalkers are done, I’m going to go back to the Pomatomus sock and make a mate for it. After that… well, I really want to start designing my own socks. I’ve been really inspired by the patterns that Wendy has been coming up with during the Summer of Socks, and I’ve had some great ideas (at least, I think they’re great) for patterns of my own.

And I decided not to take any pictures of the Ninja’s Sekrit Yarn Gift. She’s just going to have to wait until I see her in person!

Ahhh, vacation. I finished one Jaywalker and am halfway down the leg of the next. Everyone who saw the socks-in-progress was impressed, which makes me happy even if it is a very simple pattern. I tried carding some of the alpaca fleece but I’m not sure I know what I’m doing – and mostly it was too hot and humdi to work with fleece, so I knit instead. I’m hoping someone at the SnB knows about carding alpaca fleece and can show me a trick or three.

Things I bought: 50g white silk/cashmere cobweb weight, to make lace cuffs for Pirate Husband’s SCA shirts. 8 oz or so of beautiful green wool roving that is exactly the color of my eyes – mostly green, with some orange and some flecky bits and some blue. Some SHH QUIET IT’S A SEKRIT yarn for the Knitting Ninja, partly because the color just screams NINJA and partly because I was drunk at the time, but sober enough to say “no no no I’m on a yarn diet… hey, that means I can buy it for someone else, doesn’t it!”

Thing I did not buy: A spinning wheel. But I really, really want one. I was mesmerized by it. Round and round and yarn twisting out of fluff and round and round some more. (This is when I bought the Ninja’s sekrit gift yarn. I’d been to a margarita party, see…) When I buy a house and have room for a wheel, it’ll be one of my first purchases. Again, I’m hoping someone at the SnB has a wheel and will let me try it. I hear that people can be picky about letting unskilled hands on their wheels, but maybe if I ask around someone will take pity on me.

The house is full of laundry, both washed and unwashed, but other than that we’re pretty well unpacked. Everything smells delightfully of woodsmoke, except the yarn and roving, which was carefully kept in an extra cooler, serving double purpose as packing materials for some pottery. And tomorrow, it’s back to work! Life is pretty damn good right now.

On Wednesday, I took my scarf to the Stitch ‘n Bitch and had a much easier time multitasking. Other women were also commenting that they find it difficult to knit and converse at the same time, especially given the involved sorts of conversations that we often have. I found a few mistakes on the Jaywalker. Though I didn’t think they were worth going back for, I didn’t want to make more mistakes, so I brought the scarf. I’m about halfway through the second two balls now, and everyone loved the thing.

There’s another SnB scheduled for this coming Wednesday, but I’m not sure if I’m going to go. Pirate-Husband will be out for the evening, which gives me a chance to sit and curse at the sewing machine. I started this miniature quilt experiment, see, which was meant to become a pillow, see, since our couch pillow recently split along one seam… but I’ve never quilted before, and while I can use a sewing machine, I do tend to get incredibly frustrated and no fun to be around while I’m using it. Therefore, sewing is something I prefer to do alone. Very, very alone. With the music turned up. And lots of cursing. I do want this thing to be finished before my two-week electricity-free vacation.

Today I brought my sock down to my parents’ house and knit while visiting with family. I’ve finished the gusset! Actual progress has been made! A milestone reached! Just the foot and toe remain… and, oh yeah, the second sock of the pair. I wore my first pair of Jaywalkers with my new paisley skirt and received lots of grandmotherly compliments on the construction, the softness of the wool, the beauty of the colors, etc. etc. etc. She was amazed that my handknit socks are machine washable. Ahh, the wonders of modern yarn technology.

Pictures soon, really!