many things

here are my socks at the fair. :-D

Monday.. I think it was monday, it might have been tuesday.. I think it was tuesday, actually.. I went over to lexington and checked out a new-to-me yarn shop, The Needler. they cater to the needlepoint/cross stitch crowd as well, and don't have a vast selection of yarn, but there were a lot of things I'd never seen in person. I came home with this:



zitron life style. it's 100% merino superwash and sport weight, I guess. I got two balls, they will turn in to socks, I expect.. although it's possible they'll turn into a baby surprise jacket instead. I also got two balls of yarn for my knitty charlie brown, but I can't show you those, they're secret. :)

tuesday the mailman brought me some yarny goodness too.. this



from fancy image , sport weight merino superwash in the oregon ducks colorway. 2 skeins, it's going to be socks for my soon-to-be brother in law, who is an oregon duck, and perhaps a pair for my sister as well, oregon duck colors are, conveniently also william and mary colors so maybe I'll make the newlyweds matching socks. Or maybe the other skein will be a hat and socks for his new grandson. :)

yesterday the mailman brought me two packages of yarny goodness. this



mountain colors bearfoot from the knitter, ruby river colorway. this was an emergency order because I determined I was not going to have enough yarn to finish the anniversary socks (and the anniversary is tomorrow).. and this



yarn pirate merino/tencel in butternut color. I've been hearing about yarn pirate for yonks, never seen any in person and I do love me some merino/tencel, but it's hard to find at a price I'll pay, too.. so when I found a gal on ravelry destashing this, for a reasonable price that included shipping, I said yes please, send that to me. and she did. the last (first) time I got my hands on some merino/tencel, it did not become socks for *me*. I am hoping this batch will. :)

today I finished the anniversary socks.



they are finished. they are not dry. :) they are "earl grey" pattern from the yarn harlot, in mountain colors bearfoot, wilderness color. at least.. in wilderness color until I ran out (not quite) of wilderness color, when they became ruby river color. Thank you again, judy at the knitter! (if you visit judy, tell her anno sent you. :)). ted's been wanting me to make him christmas socks since I started knitting socks, and it's hard to find christmassy yarn a man will wear to work with a tie.. I decided this would do the job, and.. I think it does.. some day I'll make him some seriously christmassy ones, but.. these will do for the time being and they'll work year round and match.. or at least go with.. pretty much anything he happens to put on. :) tomorrow is our (28th.. wow :) ) anniversary, and.. I hope he likes 'em. :)

I saved the funnest part for last, and I'm going to start with a short ramble..

for months and months now, since I first saw them, I have been seriously lusting after a momma monkey sock bag. more than anything, really. love those bags. I look at 'em at least once a week. over the weekend I signed up for this halloweenie great pumpkin swap and monday while I was rummaging around to see what I had suitable to put in the box for my charlie brown, I came across this thing..



came in the giant sack of useless stuff I ordered from archie mcphee last year.. great source of stocking stuffers for the teens and 20somethings.. this particular thing was too cool for any of them, so I kept it.. and apparently hid it from myself too. it's so cool.. can you tell that it's made of that defraction stuff (firefox tells me defraction is not a word.. anyone know what word it is that I'm looking for?) that makes it so those gals actually hula and those trees wave in the breeze. it is.. seriously cool.. and it occurred to me that it was the perfect size for a sock bag.. so, my lust for a momma monkey sock bag has been assuaged a bit.

for the longest time, another thing I keep looking at and craving and never buying for myself is good-n-plenty colored sock yarn. I admire it every time I visit a yarn dyer and see they have some of this sort of pink/black/white colorway. never buy it (it's never on sale!), always admire it.. always want it.

today my halloweenie box came in the mail, and it came from momma monkey. :-D and I thought oh wow, wouldn't karma be laughing at me if there was a sock bag in there.. but I was sorta excited too, because it's not like I *ever* only have one sock goin', so of course I might even *need* two sock bags. :)

so, I opened that box up.. and really, karma is havin' a laugh at me anyway.. lookie!



is that not a wonderful suprise to get in the mail? there's a giant box of chocolate covered macadamias (I think I'm gonna give those to ted tomorrow with his socks.. he loves macadamias), and a smaller chocolate covered macadamia toffee (that's mine. sorry, ted..) and 2 packs of halloween treat rice cracker snacks.. too cute. you're not going to find those in south carolina.. and 3 tea bags.. passion fruit tea.. sounds tasty! and a halloween pencil and stickers treat, and a halloween cup, and 4 halloween erasers, and a cute hawaii flip flop keychain *and*..

look closer..



There's a momma monkey needle case! I did not have a needle case. I had not gotten around to lusting after a needle case yet, because I hadn't been browsing since I assuaged my sock bag lust, but I can promise you it was going to be next on my list. :) It's so cool.. I've already stuffed some needles in it.. I had to unstuff it, to take it's picture.. then I stuffed it back. :) *and*..

hahaha.. now I've gone from never seeing/petting much less having any yarn pirate yarn to having 2 skeins in 2 days.. merino this time.. in "pretty pirate" colorway but if I had named this yarn, I woulda named it good-n-plenty.

this is just the coolest box! I'm so excited. this yarn is definitely going to be socks for *me*. I can't wait til I get another big chunk of the christmas knitting done so I can reward myself with a pair of *for me* socks. :)

tomorrow while my pal carrie is braving the crowds to go to the football game and then go to the fair to visit my socks :-D, I think I'm going to go over to lexington for a knit-in, if I can psych myself up for inserting myself into a group of strangers that know each other.. I'm workin' on it, I'm pretty sure I'll have fun.


oh.. aidan's sweater..



nearly done. it's been sitting there like that for days now.. there's something just a smidge wonky on the back side where I grafted the bits together and I don't want to undo and fix, but at the same time I can't make myself finish it until I do so it's just sitting there.. the anniversary socks took priority.. I'll have to deal with it soon.

*edited to add: oh. hehe.. I did not mean to imply that aidan's sweater has been sitting out on the front steps for days. it is safely in the house, sitting. over there. in case anyone was concerned. :)

oh..

did I mention that my socks got a first place?!? :-D

we went to visit them today.. picked up the kids on the way so it was extra fun. they took pictures, maybe I'll get one eventually. :)

a few things

I took my socks downtown and dropped them off at the fair, tuesday. :) I hope they have a happy trip, it'd be a good self-esteem boost. never done anything like that before, submitted my stuff for public scrutiny. well.. except for once when I was in high school, I put a print in an art show. not really of my own volition, more a coerced into it thing. it got 2nd place though. 10 bucks. :) it musta been 1972. maybe it was time to do it again. :)

I don't know how likely it is that they'll be successful, I think they're probably my best socks ever, which is sort of sad really, because I've thought that since they were finished in.. march or april, and they've been sitting around unworn since then, because when I finished them I said "these are my fair socks!" and never wavered from that certainty. they had to be entered in the "any other knitting not listed" category, which is kinda broad.. but perhaps because it is kinda broad there'll be lots of ribbons. :) no sock category for knitting at the SC state fair. 8 categories for knitted afghans.. go figure. I've been afraid to see how many categories there are for crocheted ones.

still, I'm glad the socks went to fair because I will definitely go visit them.. I've missed fair the last 2 years, it's more fun if you go with more people than just the two of us and last year we intended to go, but the nights ted didn't have to work too late were rainy. I don't remember why we didn't go the year before. I was hoping my sister was coming down for fair this year, she did once before but it doesn't look like that's going to work out. I expect if I put some effort into it I can convince erin and alfred to go with us.. see.. it's funner if people go because then there's someone to ride the tilt-a-whirl with me. ted swears he'll ride it with me but he *hates* the tilt-a-whirl and you'd think by now.. we're celebrating our 28th anniversary this month.. he'd understand that while I appreciate the sacrifice he's willing to make, there's no fun in riding the funnest ride in the world with someone who is miserable! erin and mary sue both love it as much as me, so.. I prefer to go with one or the other of 'em. I'm not a huge carnival ride kinda gal but I do seriously have a life-long love affair goin' with the tilt-a-whirl.

going to visit my socks and getting some of the best fried mushrooms in the world will be enough to get me there this year, one way or another, even if I have to go by myself. :) I love fair.. but it was definitely more fun when we had little kids to go with us.

ok.. so I went to the fairgrounds, circumnavigated them 3 times before I figured out where to go to drop off my socks. dropped off my socks. then I went to visit the new-to-me yarn shop downtownish. had a bit of a driving adventure locating it too, but did eventually, and had a nice visit... bought a skein of sock yarn and another ball of the knit one crochet too ty-dy, figuring 2 balls was more useful than 1 (I had bought the one at half-price closeout a while back.. today I found something to do with them and believe I need 2 more balls so.. I have an excuse to go back again! unless I can stalk the yarn on sale somewhere else before the end of fair.. I really liked half price better..).

then I went to earth fare and got a few can't get out this way groceries, including a sack of.. pea chips. actually, pea-doodles is probably more accurate. pea snacks.. shaped like pea pods, crunchy like snacks. very tasty, I need to go back there sometime and get more of those too.

then I got completely lost on my way home, I still don't know how I managed to totally miss the main drag through downtown, but eventually I came to somewhere I knew how to get home from, so.. home I came, on a whole different interstate highway than I had intended.

that was the most exciting part of my week outside the house.

inside the house, I believe I am going to finish aidan's sweater tomorrow.. I've started the shoulders so.. all that's left is finishing them and doing the neck and grafting the armpits. the sweater has been consuming almost all of my knitting time for the last week and a couple, and I will be glad to get it finished.. excited to get it finished! my first adult sweater! and get back to the socks for a bit.. I'm going to force myself to finish at least one pair before I start bryce's tomten.

that 6 skeins of peace fleece I swapped some sock yarn for, to make bryce (he'll be 3 in january) a tomten jacket? If I don't get aidan's hybrid finished with 3 of those skeins, I'll only be yards short.. once I finish the tomten, I'm going to be lookin' for something to use up another 700 yards or so of this stuff. :)

thai peanut stuff

that's what's for dinner tonight. I was going to make pad thai, but I went to the grocery store yesterday knowing I needed to go but having no idea what I was going to buy, so all I remembered for sure that pad thai wanted was green onions and cilantro and bean sprouts. kroger didn't have any bean sprouts. so there will be mushrooms and carrots and snow peas in the thai peanut stuff tonight. since I'm not feeding any thais, probably I won't get in too much trouble for this. :)



here's a less sad looking picture of roza's socks. fair is coming, and I have to deliver my fair socks on tuesday or wednesday and I decided they would probably have a happier trip to fair if they were blocked, so I finally broke down and bought some sock blockers. snazzy red ones, from the loopy ewe. they only have small and extra large in stock at this moment but last week they had large (which is what I need, all the women I knit for wear between 8 and 10 shoes, so the small ones may be a little over-blocked.. next time I have money to spare I'll buy a pair of mediums), so I got those, and a pair of xl ones for man socks too. I've been having a lot of fun blocking the christmas socks that are completed, so they look better for gifting.

I got some yarn too, a huge splurge, full-priced yarn, I don't know when I've ever done that before!



this superwash BFL from gypsy knits, it's called "merry go round",



and this wool/bamboo blend from zen strings, it's called "sedona". it doesn't make much sense to me that it's called sedona, in my memory, sedona is more redorange and green.. but that's what it's called anyway.

I ordered yarn because I always choose to pay for stuff rather than shipping.. and because I just couldn't resist. :)

I ordered a lot more yarn actually.. but not sock yarn this time! are you amazed?! I swapped some sock yarn for 6 balls of peace fleece on the knittyboards a few weeks ago.. I started a swapping conversation with a gal who had a bunch of yarn she wanted to swap for a skein of sock yarn, and she mentioned cherry tree hill as being one of the things she would like.. and I'm wanting to make a tomten jacket for my nephew's stepson, so I thought maybe this yarn would do the job, and I have.. well, not as much now as I did before, but a lot of CTH hill ends.. and I usually don't buy one that's less than 9oz and it rarely takes 3oz to make a pair of socks so I had some to spare, so I asked if she'd be interested in that, and showed her a couple to pick from, and she asked if I'd like to swap them both. and this was 10 balls of yarn we were talkin', that was more than reasonable so I considered it.. and I considered the yarn, and decided that the yarn wasn't actually suitable for that jacket anyway and suggested she'd probably rather take a different offer. but she liked that yarn, and asked if there was anything else I'd like to swap for it, and I said I'd like something tweedy and wooly to make a tomten jacket for a 3yo, and she said she had 6 skeins of peace fleece, how would that do? and I said OK. even though she was happy with that trade, I felt guilty so I added in a 3rd batch of CTH and then wound off an ounce of solid to go with, in case one or other of 'em didn't actually make a whole pair of socks.. I'm sure the first two will but the second.. not quite as sure.. so I made sure there was yarn for the heels/toes just in case. and I still know I got the better end of that swap, but..



anyway, the yarn arrived, good lord what a lot of yarn, it's DK peace fleece, so 2100 yards in the 6 skeins (color is a little off in the photo.. but it's gorgeous :)), would make sweaters for an army of toddlers so I decided to make a sweater for my son, and I expect I'm going to have enough left to make that tomten too. I'm making aidan the seamless hybrid from elizabeth zimmermann, following the lead of brooklyn tweed so I had to order another skein for the hem facings, in a contrasting color. :) then I swatched the yarn, and washed the swatch a couple times, and fell so in love with it I decided I needed yarn for more sweaters, so I sent off for wholesale info and placed a wholesale order and a week later 24 more skeins of the stuff arrived at my house. rofl.. I am insane, I don't even know if I can make a sweater!




but I'm tryin'. :) so far it's just a tube with a hem, so.. not too challenging (although it took me 3 tries to be happy with the hem..). we'll see what happens when it gets to the sleeves..

september

so far, just sockdown socks.

the sockdown categories this month are toe up, or grumperina designs. since I just did my first ever toe up socks and.. while those turned out great, am still resistant to the whole concept, I'm knitting grumperina.

first, roza's socks from the spring issue of interweave knits.



lorna's laces shepherd sock, purple iris colorway, 2.5mm needles. these are for my mother in law for christmas. :)

and for my second trick,



I'm giving jaywalkers a try again. it's been almost a year and a half since my first dismal attempt, and this time, it's working. 84 stitch version, 2.5mm needles and considerable more experience in the sock department has produced a sock that does actually go over a human ankle, so I'm very happy with this.

I bought this yarn in germany in january and it's been chilling in my stash since, waiting for me to be in the mood to knit it and find a pattern that suits it. I think this pattern does suit it, dandily. :)

in other news, I swapped some sock yarn for some dk weight peace fleece, and am pondering a sweater. I need to order a skein for contrast, for the facings and I need to either finish my curtain (problematic, since the yarn I got to finish it doesn't *match*) to reclaim that needle, or obtain another size 6 circ.. I need to swatch and wash and measure.. I need to *read* knitting workshop.. twice maybe.. and then I'll be ready to go. :) I'm going to attempt a hybrid sweater. unless I change my mind and decide to do the cobblestone sweater from this issue of IK, instead..

have not worked up the enthusiasm to do the heel on the I love gansey sock yet, and the second regia galaxy.. jupiter.. whichever.. something spacey.. sock is languishing just before the heel on the second sock too, but it'll get done before too long.

oh! ordered up some of those new harmony dpn's last saturday from knitpicks and they arrived yesterday (along with more sock yarn), one set hopped straight into that jaywalker, you can see 'em peeking out. I *love* them! not bendy! nice and smooth! good points! I can't decide if I'm relieved or disappointed that they are not so garrishly colored as they appeared on the website. a little of both, I think. :)

here we go...

the finished campanula for the cure socks.
knitpicks risata, burgundy color.. none of the photos look anything like the color the yarn actually is.. at least not on my screen. 2.5mm needles.

I really enjoyed knitting this yarn pretty much, and I like how it feels on my feet. I like that it's a fair bit cotton, that's a boon in this climate.. at least for this part of the year. I wish it came in more colors. girlier colors. :) I believe, based on the quantity of the leftovers from these socks, that I will require 3 balls if I'm going to knit mansocks. there are leftovers, but man socks will need more stitches in addition to more rows, and I don't believe they would be sufficient to get the job done. I did find a knot in each ball, which was a surprise.. each time.. not hugely inconvenient I guess but I would have preferred to not have to deal with that.

still.. I like the yarn. :) I'll order a couple more balls next time I'm tossing some money at knitpicks.

you can tell which one has been finished a while and tried on a bunch, and which one just came off the needles, 'eh?

shameless

I didn't finish any knitting to show you.. maybe tomorrow. :)

I did find a shirt you all need though! georgia from threadless.com. it's a sheep all dressed in balls of yarn for fleece. very cute. on sale for 10.00 until 9am tomorrow, too. and if you click that link and buy it, I'll get a 3.00 credit. :) but please don't feel obligated to use my link.. it's just really cute and I know you'll want one as much as I do. :)