We talked about heroin and condoms!

And catnip cigarettes. Jenny the Bloggess and I did. See, tonight I went out to the Barnes and Noble out in the boonies to listen to her read from her book and have her sign my copy. It was such a treat to hear her words in her voice, which was, of course, different than I heard it in my head. It was also cool that everyone was having such a good time, laughing/gasping in all the right places as she read. The place was packed! It was beyond standing room only - people were spilling into other sections of the store. I'm just glad I got there early enough that I was able to get a seat where I could actually see.

Once Jenny finished the reading and the Q&A, it was time for the book signing. I came bearing a small gift: one of the alpaca condom cozies I made ages ago from some leftover sock yarn. When I grabbed it to give to her, I noticed that the condom was expired, so I threw it away because you can't go giving someone an expired condom, especially someone you just met and probably won't meet again. I told her about how the cozy was ribbed, because condoms, and that she could use it for whatever else she wanted such as storing tampons, or Lego minifigs, or as a cat toy. She thought it was just the right size for heroin storage: a nice, discreet little drug pocket that can go anywhere! I had also considered making a catnip cigarette for her Hunter S. Thomcat, but I didn't think of it in time, and it's kind of a dick move to get someone else's cat hopped up on the 'nip.

While I was there, I made plenty more progress on the Tea Time socks, which you can just see in the bottom of the photo of me & Jenny the Bloggess. As I had gotten there more than an hour before she was supposed to start, I had enough time to get through two or three rounds on the feet. I had completed the heel flap and gussets last week and with just a few more inches left to go, I hope to finish the socks entirely by the weekend. After that, I'm not sure what I'm going to feel like working on, but I'm pretty sure it won't be anything on size 0 needles.

Well, that's all I have for tonight, Friends. Until next time.

The socks are finished!

And I've started a new pair, even though I wasn't really feeling it.

But first, the socks I've finally managed to finish: I got the Rick socks off the needles and into a cold bath on Wednesday night. It seems like once I was able to get past the frustration of having had to rip out a week's work made the second time around go a whole lot faster. It also helped that I followed the freaking chart. The best thing about those socks, though, is the color. I had no idea when I bought that yarn at Sock Summit (two years ago!) that I would love the color so much. I'm sure it has to do with their being dyed with indigo and other natural dye colors. There's a softness to the colors that I find really appealing. Since I have to send these socks away, I'm determined to have something for myself in this yarn. As soon as I have a few bucks, I'll order some more from the folks at A Verb for Keeping Warm, maybe in DK-weight, and make myself a cowl or a shawl or something. I also like how squishy & soft these socks are after washing and blocking. I think my aunt is really going to love them.

The new socks are Stephanie van der Linden's It's Tea Time, knit from the skein of Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga that I purchased at Sock Summit (actually, all three pairs of socks my mom guilted me into making came from yarn I bought there). The color is Golden Orb Weaver, which I knew I had to buy as I had just seen that cool tapestry at the Art Institute of Chicago at the beginning of that trip. These socks seem to be moving along quickly due to the simple knit/purl patterning and absence of lace and left/right charts. The yarn is knitting up beautifully. One sock has a hint of pooling, but I think it will be alright. There's not much I can do about it anyway. It's not like I'm going to rip back 4" of leg if I don't have to. If I'm especially diligent, I could finish these in less than three weeks and then I can knit whatever I want with NO DEADLINES. Right now, I don't know what that would be, but I'm thinking it will be a new spring sweater for myself.

Anyway, that's all I have for now, Friends. Until next time.

Back on track!

The knitting was so much better this week! Once I got the Rick socks back on the needles (a two-hour process, btw), the gusset decreases went really quickly. It seemed like it took almost no effort at all. It might have had something to do with my having done this once already, but whatever, I'll take completed gussets over incomplete gussets anytime. I've also made pretty good progress on the feet. I'm not sure how that happened, but for me, it seems like once I can get going on the feet of the socks, my needles fly. Anyway, I've only got about three inches left on these socks before I can call them finished. I'm SO looking forward to these socks being done!

I also made a little more progress on the Columbines needlepoint, slow and steady with the background. What's nice about it is that I don't have to concentrate all that hard on it, so it's a good break from the attention that the Rick socks require. I'm getting pretty close to halfway through the field, and more and more I'm liking how it's coming along.

So that's all I have for tonight, I hope next time I'll be able to say that the Rick socks are finished and that I've moved on to my next project. I think I'm feeling like taking a little break from socks. I'm pretty sure I need a break from socks. Until next time, Friends!

One more for Jan

I couldn't bring myself to put the Rick socks back on the needles this week (not until two days ago, anyway), so I worked on something that I thought I could finish fairly quickly: a needlepoint pillow made from a canvas that my friend Jan had finished before she died.

When I was going through the totes that held her quilting supplies, I found a completed needlepoint canvas. It was a dragon stitched in wool, just waiting to become a pillow. I figured that since we knitters were making blanket squares for Jan's niece, maybe one of Jan's sisters would like to have the pillow Jan probably would have made with this completed canvas.

So last weekend I went out to Joann's and picked up some fabric, trim and a pillow form. Once I got home from the store, I pinned the canvas to my cork board, sprayed water all over it so it would be blocked into a nice straight rectangle. After giving it a few days to dry, I was able to start sewing! It was pretty straightforward: strips and gold braid for the front, two overlapping pieces for the back, et voila: a pillow. I'll take it our regular knit night and hope that one of the girls can get it to Jan's sister.

I hope next time I'll have a happy update on the Rick socks, and maybe some more progress on my Columbines needlepoint. Until next time, Friends.

Home stretch? Not so much.

So, this week I thought I'd made some progress on the Rick socks, turning the heels and completing the gusset decreases. I'm not sure why I blew off the top-of-foot charts, though, but I did. What I got was a twisted foot to each of the socks that had no chance of being wearable. Of course, I couldn't really tell until I got the gussets decreased and had both tops on one needle and the soles on the other. Once I could see how twisted the socks were, I started ripping. A whole week's worth of knitting. So frustrating! I guess I'll just have to consider it another lesson in humility. Read the chart. Follow the chart. Trust the chart.

In better news, I've gotten a little farther along with the columbines needlepoint that I set aside for the Christmas knitting. I'm very pleased with how the background color is looking against the flowers. I'm so glad I chose a color with enough contrast. Now it's just slow and steady to get it done. With the 18 mesh canvas I'm working on here, that's 324 stitches per square inch. It's a lot of stitches!

Well, that's all for today, Friends. Let's hope for a little success.

Sick knitting

It's what I did when I had to stay home from work for a couple days last week. I had a pretty vicious cold, which is mostly gone now, having taken my voice with it. Right now I sound a little like a cross between Lauren Hutton and Joe Cocker.

Anyway, when I wasn't sleeping off the fever or coughing my head off, I was working on a fast, fun infinity scarf that I saw in the current Amirisu magazine. The Walnut Snood seemed like an ideal project because I had a natural-colored bulky-weight yarn in my stash, so all I had to do was buy the pattern and I'd be off.

After the provisional cast-on, I got started on the cable chart, which knits up fast, especially since it's bulky yarn and size 10 needles. So different from my usual sock knitting! Once I got going, it was easy to keep going, although I started getting bored after about the seventh chart repeat. I eventually completed all 11 repeats and was able to wash and block the scarf this weekend. It ended up being a little longer than the pattern's 67-inch length, but I think it will be fine for winding around my neck once it gets cold again. (It's 48 degrees F today.)

Well, that's all I have for today. Until next time, Friends.

In Memoriam

I've been thinking about this post for a couple weeks, since my knitting friend, Jan, died. Her death was unexpected, leaving our group stunned and saddened. Jan was kind and generous, with a quietly sardonic wit. She was devoted to her family, especially her niece. What I didn't know, at least until after she died, is that she was comparatively new to knitting. One of things I'll remember most about her was her willingness to untangle other people's yarn. She spent weeks undoing a pile of yarn barf that anyone else probably would have written off. She will be missed.

The day after we all found out about her passing was our usual Thursday night group get together. Jan's sisters sent over her yarn stash, insisting that Jan's friends have some of her yarn. As we were going through it, many of us noticed that there was a lot of Cascade 220 in there, and so we decided that we would make squares for a blanket to give to the niece that Jan loved so much. For myself, I took a skein of Kentucky Blue Fiber Co. Alpaca 2 ply sport weight. I imagine Jan might have chosen it for its rich color, thinking it would become a really luxurious little accessory.

With that in mind, I searched the Ravelry pattern database for projects that called for 200 yards of sport weight yarn. As soon as I saw the pattern for the Elis cowl, I knew it was just the right thing to make from Jan's yarn. It was a super quick knit: it took me about 2 evenings to finish the knitting and I was able to block it the next day. I love it. It has a soft, elegant drape that makes me wish I had something better than a bunch of printed t-shirts to wear with it.

It still feels strange thinking of Jan in the past tense, like she only missed a couple of knit nights, but she'll be at the next one, knowing that she won't, really. But we all feel that way when someone we care about dies.

Until next time, Friends.