the safety line

once upon a time there was a sock knitter who thought she could knit lace. as with most things in life, she threw herself into the yo’s and k2t’s with wild abandon. yarn and needles blurred together with the ferocity of a hungry lion. and when she happened upon a mistake, undeterred, our herione would read her knitting, fix the problem and knit on….

the sock knitter rarely picked up a project that wasn’t a quick knit or quick fix. heck, she never knit anything that she couldn’t take with her anywhere. why bother? she had seen the woes of other knitters who had to rip back hours of knitting to fix a glaring mistake. but how could it happen to HER?!?

still, the thought nagged at her, ate away at her confidence every time she had to tink back or pick up a missed yo. when she wasn’t knitting she lamented the “what if” of having to rip back. the scenario consumed her, even when she brushed her teeth she thought, “surely you can’t as esily fudge a mistake in knitted lace”….then…dental floss in hand, she struck the knitting jackpot – A SAFETY LINE.

floss saftey line
please excuse the pic, can’t get the color right!

of course!! and knit picks has these handy little holes for which to thread the floss. (didn’t she read that somewhere?).

cavity free knitting!

and the idea came none too soon. for today our heroine had to rip back 10 rows because of a glaring mistake.

but no matter. because the saftey line had saved the day. the end.

reading time!

i often lament how little time i have to read books…i just discovered a service that can nudge me along with my literary goals. the service is called dailylit. it allows busy people to read by dividing public domain books into bite-sized pieces and delivering them to you via rss or email! how cool is that? i have yet to try it out….i’m deciding what i should read, any suggestions?

want to use those spare moments to get a couple of rows in? how about librivox? librivox provides free audiobooks (public domain) for you audiophiles. i’ve listened to a couple of sample chapters of different books. the quality ranges from ok to excellent! but there is little room for complaining since you don’t spend a dime and you don’t sacrifice knitting time.

i found these things while researching phones…butter just got a blackberry 8830 world edition phone. so cute. i want! however, i wonder if i should just stick with palm and go for the treo? any thoughts? i had a treo for 2 seconds. while i loved the familiar interface, it seems sluggish compared to the blackberry. sigh. i’m thinking too much about it, aren’t i?

here’s one of my not yet blogged about projects….(at least, here’s a photo of the yarn i’m using)…

misti cotton in natural | worsted weight 2 ply
1 skein | 83% peruvian pima cotton : 17% silk | 100 g : 191 yds
destined to become a baby bolero (thanks for the idea gena!)
oh, so soft!!!!

 edited to add:  i did get the hp book on saturday…and i devoured every single page.  poor butter, he washed and waxed my car while i sat inside.  (k).  i won’t give any spoilers…but i will say i LOVED the book.  the ending was a bit too neatly tied up for me, but…i still loved it. 

why i will never tire of socks

i feel like i should have washed out my mouth with soap when i said the sock siren’s call was waning. it sure hasn’t.

here is my short list why:

• i like warm feet
• everyone wears socks, mostly
• socks are the unexpected accessory
• socks promote world peace
• sock projects are portable
• you can knit socks in the summer and stay cool
• socks cure boredom
• socks are fat-free and calorie-free
• socks are easy
• socks rock
• socks are challenging
• socks cover smelly feet
• socks are new
• socks are old
• socks are traditional
• socks are saucy
• socks work for a.d.d. knitters
• socks spark imagination
• sock yarn is affordable
• sock yarn supports indie artists
• sock yarn doesn’t count as stash
• sock yarns are beautiful
• sock yarns are bold
• sock yarns are graceful

socks make me happy. period.

i bet they make you happy too. i mean, how can you not smile when you see these:

sweet georgia superwash sock in black orchid
100% merino wool | 50g:185 yds | 2 skeins

yarnlove scarlett o’ hara in tuscany
60% merino wool:30% bamboo:10% nylon | 4 oz:410 yds | 1 skein

the waning call of the sock siren

also entitled: i’m really not over socks a bit, i’m just a little distracted at the moment.

i’ve been working on a lot of non-sock knitting/crochet in the near past. ravelry tells me that i have 5 active projects on the needles. i also know it doesn’t tell me of at least 3 other projects i haven’t got around to posting about.

(btw, i’m loving ravelry. it’s one of those things where you bonk yourself in the head and say, “why didn’t i think of that?”. i’d say that it really brings everything together. i especially like the stash section. except that i would add functionality to be able to track partial skeins and calculate total yardage. i bet it will eventually….but i digress….where was i?….)

oh yes, non-socks…i think i told you about my former lace scarf didn’t i? well, i got bored rather quickly after i knitted the lace edging and proceeded to the garter stitch section (the MAIN section)….so i ripped it out. then my eyes spied the lovely arctic diamond stole in ik winter ’06.

arctic diamond stole from ik winter ’06
in cth supersock solid turquoise
started: july 2007
needles: kp options US 4
notes: too wide?!? color is off in picture

lace has appealed to me (like socks) in that often times a swatch is not necessary before diving into the project. i think that this was one of those cases where i might have investigated the blocking properties of the yarn before committing to the project. i cast on for the complete number of repeats….and after finishing the first vertical repeat, i am now painfully aware that the shawl is very wide and may therefore be too short with the amount of yarn that i have for the project, about 1200 yards of cth supersock solid in turquoise.

(will it end up a mini-blanket?!). i’m pressing on, though. i love it so far and i don’t have the heart to rip back. if necessary, i’ll buy more of the turquoise supersock; if it doesn’t match, i’ll overdye and pray to the dyeing gods…or….butter and i can share the stole-blanket and we will be cozy and happy!!

FO: broad spiral rib socks

can i just say once again that socks that rock yarn really does rock? it does. rock. really. go get some if you haven’t tried it yet.

anyway, these were finished by the dying light of the fourth of july. we were sitting on a lawn waiting for red, white and boom! to commence. (are you crazy? i would NEVER go downtown for that thing. to many friggin people and way too much traffic. i don’t care how many funnel cakes you give me!)

the first sock pooled a bit but the second formed a pleasing stripe. now, i’m not one to frown on flashing….i just would like um….two ‘flashy’ socks versus one, okay? no matter, these socks are lovely. soft and cushy, with a handsome cuff to boot!

broad spiral ribbing pattern from more sks
STR in peaseblossom (rockin’ sock club – july) by BMFA
4.25 oz / 360 yards ; 100% superwash merino
started: june 20, 2007
finished: july 4, 2007
needles: 2, #1 addi turbo circs
notes: in a former life, the yarn was this; toe up, 60 stitches, short row heel, p2k4 ribbing

i love this cuff. here’s another pic.

i like socks. i need to work on my own pair now.

bertie bott’s every flavor beans

i bet every harry potter fan has wanted to try bertie bott’s every flavor beans (by jelly belly). these are just one of the delightful candies that harry discovers when he enters the wizarding world. and they do mean every flavor.

along with buttered popcorn, tutti-frutti and cherry, there are flavors like vomit, dirt, booger and earthworm. ugh. (okay, technically the jelly belly sight doesn’t list these, only mugglenet…but maybe they are the mystery flavors? or the sight isn’t updated?).

have you tried them yet?

a word of warning though….

avoid this color. it tastes like dirt. no, really. just like potting soil.

we had a ton of fun at the movie premiere. we spotted many muggles dressed as hogwart’s students, waving their wands or showing off their house colors (i’m a griffyndor, what are you?). while we waited for the movie to start we tortured ourselves by eating these things…and then stuffed our faces with candy, popcorn and soda. the movie was awesome!!! true, it swayed from the book a bit, but do you actually expect for all of the details to shine through? i suspect that non-fans might get a bit bored since the character and plot development were a little thin…still though, very entertaining!!!

in knitting related news…along with some bare laceweight merino, pockets for my needle case, and 32″ – 2.5 mm, 3.0 mm & 3.25 mm circs…i recieved this:

kp gloss in cocoa – 880 yards

it’s very lovely. i think i will make it into a small shawl, i think. or if i give into my “only superwash rule”…i may cave and do some cabled socks. but maybe i’ll knit something outof my charmed knits first…

socks for me!!

i started a pair for me!! i had wound this into a ball in case i finished my broad spiral rib socks on the fourth of july. i didn’t start them until the next day, since darkness fell quickly.

at first, my intention was to employ the new sock construction techniques that i learned in cat’s class from knitter’s connection. alas, i was too lazy to pull out my notes to start a pair. hm. now that i’m writing this i’m half tempted to rip ‘em out. what do you think?

lace socks from more sensational knitted socks
cider moon flurry in jackie o
started: july 5, 2007
needles: 2, #1 addi turbo circs
notes: toe-up, increased to 60 stitches

compared to socks that rock, this yarn is more loosely spun and less “squishy”. it knits up to a very soft fabric that i’m looking forward to wearing on my feet! i think it is very similar to the yarntini yarn that i got a while back.

now the question is, do i start another pair for new sock construction, or do i rip back? i guess i’ll work on my blanket until i figure it out.

oooo!  fess up….who’s going to the harry potter premiere tonight!  i am.  can you say IMAX?!?

the sweetest gift

butter and i try very hard to show k (my step-daughter) how to be kind and thoughtful. it’s so easy to throw a gift certificate into a card and call it a day, you know. but that little something extra you bring into your daily life is guaranteed to bring warm fuzzies.

have i told you this story already? maybe not.

anyway, for mother’s day, k gave me a giant bag of yarn. six skeins of craft store yarn in blinding shades of red, orange and yellow. it was worsted weight. and yes, it was acrylic. yikes.

“wow! thank you k! it was so thoughtful of you to buy me some yarn!”. then she said the sweetest thing. “i remembered that you were obsessed (was i obsessed?!? cough. um. yeah.) with finding yarn for the flame socks you really wanted to make, so i asked pa-paw if he could take me to get some yarn for your socks. you said you wanted these colors, right?”…..they are the perfect colors.

fire blanket (baby size) in carron wintuk
yarn gifted by k
ripple pattern in single crochet
started: july ?, 2007

now, of course i wasn’t going to make acrylic worsted weight socks. but i’m definitely going to use the yarn and i’m definitely going to let her know how much i love the colors and DEFINITELY going to tell her over and over and over again how impressed i was with her thoughtful gift.

i have since bought some regia solid sock yarn to make the socks. (no pics yet.  oy! so very behind on ravelry pics and what not.)