Socks on the Beach

Pardon the gap in postings, but I've been getting ready to leave for a 3 week dog/cat/house sitting trip to Oregon. Last Friday was my epic travel day. It began with a noon flight from my local airport to a 10:45 landing in Eugene, Oregon. In that time, I cast on and knit through the heel turn on my new watermelon yarn socks. 

Today, after dropping my friends off at the airport for *their* trip to London/Ireland/Amsterdam, I trekked out to the coast to dip my toes in the Pacific. (Damn. It's cold water!) while I was there, I cast on the 2nd watermelon sock while sitting on a piece of driftwood. 

I then continued up the coast a bit, but the Sea Lion Caves were doing maintenance on their elevator, so no trip to see Sea Lions. Maybe I'll make another trip once my Nikon arrives. 

Weekend happiness

Not much better than Sunday brunch followed by more coffee and knitting. The heel is turned on sock 2 of Fred and George and I'm about to pick up the stitches on the flap. I love how these socks are turning out. 

Mug by my unbelievably talented cousin, Kate Johnston. http://ktjohnstonpottery.weebly.com

Fiber Overload

Thursday. Arrived at Dutchess County Fairgrounds for our pre-NYSW festival class. Beautiful day, piles of luscious fiber in a pile in the center of a circle of whirring spinning wheels. It was a great class taught by Jillian Moreno. I know so much more about yarn construction now.

Then it was back to the hotel room for some pizza and knitting. Our brains were full! 




Friday Morning:
My eyes open with a random thought. I grab my phone from the nightstand and do a quick check in the map App.
Me: You know... Web's is only 2 hours away.
Pause
StringthingGirl: Let's do it. {it's her birthday today, btw} That's what we're doing today.

A few hours later, we crossed the threshold.

I know why people say "I was high on yarn fumes" 

Yarn. Yarn. Needles. Spinning supplies. More Yarn. Amy Herzog.

Yup. Spotted the lovely creator of CustomFit in the check-out line. I'm a few rows from being done with the first sleeve. Not in time for the festival tomorrow, but I didn't think it would be done.

Spent some time this evening plotting tomorrow's fun. Can't wait!

Beta testing Roadtrip to Rhinebeck

My dear test knitters are approaching the slightly tricky but very cool part of my sock pattern. The leaf motif on the back of the sock begins at the bottom of the heel - perfect for when you wear your open-back clogs (or birks). I hope they don't have a problem with the instructions. I can't wait to get this pattern out there!

Second Sock Syndrome

Sock one. Dog in the background
hoping for a treat.

I love knitting socks, and have never suffered from second sock syndrome. Until now.

I am forcing myself to make the second sock. I don't like this pattern. It's not a bad pattern. It's well written. It's creating a very pretty sock. Great designer. But it has a yarn over at the end of two of the rows in the lace pattern. I hate that. It's making me crazy. I was trying to do the pattern as written - needles included - since it's from the Sock Knitters Master Class book. The yo at the end of the row on 4 double point needles was making me pretty stabby. Not a good place to be when you're already holding little weapons. I switched to my standard circular needle and it's better now.

The upside, is that I love the Knit Picks yarn I chose. 

Of course (never fails), the birthday for which these socks are being knit is approaching very quickly. Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight...

Sky Scarf

I'm actually keeping up with the row (ok. Two rows - across and back) a day depending on the color of the sky - sky scarf project. This year so far has been pretty gray. I'll be happy to add more blue!

Monster time

Met up Saturday with my BKF for coffee, chatting and a book exchange. She loaned me The Big Book of Knitted Monsters. I was able to *finally* finish Irving. He's nearly done - just waiting for a belly button and a mouth.

Cold

Close-up of the reverse stockinette
of the toasty-warm sweater.

It's cold here in NEPA. Really cold. Freeze your nose hairs when your take a breath cold. It was a whopping 1 degree out this morning when I took the brats to school / bus stop. At least the high school had taken care of the mess that was their drive way. I made it in/out yesterday with the 4wd (I lurve mah Jeep!) but apparently, many people got stuck. Janitors had to be called to help get folks out, and C's fav teacher was late because traffic was so backed up.

I'm in the office today. The cop fixed the heat in the Jeep last night after we froze on the way to/from the movies.*  It only needed some antifreeze (pfew) and now it's all toasty again. Would not have enjoyed 90 minutes each way with no heat.

The only upside to the cold is that I get to wear my lovely wools. Today it's cold enough to warrant the reverse stockinette stitch sweater made of kitten-soft Cascade 128. I adore this sweater. It's boxy and short and has a lovely cable/twist on the back. Maybe I can add a photo of the back later. I love this yarn. I have one skein left, I think. Oh... what to make. I'm thinking a cowl of some sort - it's just SO soft - it begs to be against skin.

*Saw The Hobbit. In 3D. It was amazing. The casting was perfection. They could not have done a better job with Bilbo. Now I have to go back and reread the book. It's been ages. Can't wait for part 2 to be released.