The weekend approaches quickly

This weekend is going to be very exciting, but somehow I keep forgetting to blog about it!

I'm taking a little road trip with my knitting friend Rachel down to Maryland for the Sheep & Wool festival! I haven't been to Maryland yet (the festival, that is, I have been to the state), although I have hit Rhinebeck two years in a row now, but it's still very exciting. I'm also excited because I get to see Amanda's DC house and other kitty and dogs.

Oh, and then there's yarn too.

All in all it should be a great weekend, and I'll try to remember to actually take pictures.

In other news, I think Pan is trying to tell me something:



Listening to: Rusted Wheel ~ Silversun Pickups, Stand Inside Your Love ~ Smashing Pumpkins

And a bit of crochet...

Yesterday I learned to crochet lace!



I made that snowflake all by myself! A few of us had a little workshop with the amazing lace-crocheter Rachelle, and got to try this simple little snowflake which is - get this - only 2 rounds of crochet! I should have included something for scale, but I'd say it's about the size of a tangerine. It needs to be starched and blocked so the picots don't roll in, but overall I'm very happy with it.

In other news, I'd like to share some socks. These socks are not handknit, in fact they were purchased for about $2 because I saw that they had stars on them and I just can't resist. However I did NOT notice what happened when the designers tried to reverse the image and apparently didn't think very hard.



Yes, my socks say "RATS" on them. I'm amused.

Eleanor Socks

Another pair of blue socks, and these ones are for me too!



Pattern: Eleanor from Socktopia
Yarn: Black Bunny Fibers in Sapphire
Started: 3/26/07... barely ;)
Finished: 4/24/07

These socks got neglected a lot early in their WIP life and came to sock camp with barely the ribbing. I worked on them a bit there, but mostly they got done after finishing the Bday socks when I needed some relatively mindless knitting.I really liked the pattern and would definitely consider knitting it again for a gift. :)

Coincidentally I also listened to the Sense and Sensibility Librivox audiobook while I was knitting these socks - how appropriate! In truth the most of the listening didn't occur at the same time as the knitting, but it was during the same time period.

This is a really multi-purpose sock - I knit it for the Black Bunny Hop as well! Also, upon finishing this pair of socks I realized that I am keeping track of a lot of numbers! So, here goes.

This pair of socks is:

my 76th pair
my 20th pair in 2007
my 4th pair for the 52 Pair Plunge (April 1 '07 to April 1 '08)

It's over?

I got my last package from my amazing Knittyboard SP8 rockstariel today! It was a great package, but I'm a little sad that it's all over now. Although I haven't figured out her true identity yet...

My lovely friend Catherine met me at the post office where I picked up the package and we headed back to my place to open it before going to dinner and the Museum of Science.



Here is my package before I started unwrapping the little gifties inside.

A group shot:



Either my pal is psychic or she really blog/knittyboard stalked me. She sent me Thornton's choccies in the apricot and almond flavor, which a previous SP sent me. I have been desperate to get some ever since! She also sent me some chocolate covered marzipan, kitty face push pins (so cute!) some beautiful blue superwash roving - can we say sock yarn? - and some scratch tickets (not pictured). Believe it or not they were my first ever lottery tickets! Unfortunately I am not independently wealthy as a result, but hey it was worth a shot. ;)

She also sent a card which took me just about FOREVER to get. I kept trying to figure it out in columns although we all know that we read left to right top to bottom in this country. But I finally did get it, did you? It's the tagline for my blog!



Mmmm, fibery goodness...

Thank you so much, rockstariel! You've been a great pal - now tell me who you are! ...please.

Spring Fling, Socks, and Stash

Well, the stars have aligned to give me plenty to blog about today. First off, I got a birthday package from my Knittyboard Spring Fling pal! Actually it should have arrived earlier but I wasn't home and had to go pick it up at the post office. I picked it up this morning, opened the box at the post office and shoved all the tissue-wrapped goodies in my bag and didn't even get a chance to look at them til I got home tonight.



I got a bunch of little Almond Joy bars and some Dove truffle eggs (yummy!), Silja sock yarn that will help with my new sock goal - I'm sure it will look great in a more complicated pattern and I'm kind of short on solids. I also got some star scrapbooking paper, Living Juicy - a book about being creative, and a cute little blue pouch for knitting notions or whatever. There was also a gorgeous card which I'm thinking that my pal might have made... at least someone made it because it actually has pieces glued on, not just printed. It's really pretty!

Thank you pal!

Now for the sock portion of the entry - socks #75 - the Birthday Socks!



Yarn: Trekking 104
Started: 4/10/07
Finished: 4/17/07

I started these socks on the ride to Anacortes right after my birthday brunch. I knit them on the ferry, did the majority of the knitting in the Grok the Sock class that the Yarn Harlot taught on Wednesday, and finished them up after I got home. I didn't knit at all on the plane back, it was a red-eye and I was exhausted so I slept. The small amount of knitting on the later days at camp was mostly spent on my Eleanor socks and the Mystic Sea socks that I started there.

You may have noticed my new kitty sock blockers - a gift from Chappy, my sock camp roommate. I love them!

And last, but certainly not least, the stash. I realized that I had kind of promised that once the stash got situated in the new place I would show you pictures. Well... the sock stash at least.

Remember in middle school when girls had posters of hot boys on the ceiling above their bed? Well when I look up from my bed this is what I see:



What better to give a girl sweet dreams?

Those are the yarns still in hanks, the ones I've wound or the ones that come in center pull balls live in a square cubby:



So there's the sock stash in its new home, for your enjoyment. :)

A brilliant plan

At Knitsmiths yesterday Dani was talking about her newfound hat obsession, and it gave me a really good idea. Since it seems clear that I will never fulfill my goal of knitting less socks, how about knitting a whole book of socks?

I've decided that Knitting Vintage Socks is the one. There are some simple rib patterns for my more exciting yarns, and plenty of fancy stuff to keep me busy. Now, I'm not promising to knit the socks as written - there are two pairs of bed socks that I'll probably modify to use the stitch pattern in a normal sock since I don't wear socks to bed. In addition there are a few pairs of mens' socks. As I am certainly not a man (and I have tiny feet!) I might change those to be smaller. That or I'll have to find some male sock recipients! I'm sure I can find some young feet for the baby ones. ;)

Speaking of socks, I actually didn't get a ton of sock knitting done at sock camp (shocking, I know) but I do have a pair that I started there that's almost finished - a plain ol' pair of Trekking socks for me. Although I've knit with Trekking before I don't own any socks knit with it, and I have quite a few balls in the stash because of all those good blues.

And now a thank you to my knitting buds for some lovely fiber-related presents:



Cathy gave me some superwash Spunky Eclectic roving, Catherine gave me the light up scented pen (!), and what's that on the right?



Oh, a very very tiny book from Amanda! Rumor has it that the actual book is on the way.

Thanks ladies!

More Sock Camp

I'm going to try actually *writing* about sock camp now that I have stable internet and a bit more time.

Tuesday:

After taking the ferry I got a ride to camp where I met my roomie Chappy-of-sock-blocker-fame, threw my bags in my room, and headed over to the main mansion for intros and cake. We got to bed at a fairly decent hour, which was good because Wednesday was a big day!

Wednesday (my B-day!):

We got up at the crack o' dawn (why? I honestly don't know!) and went to breakfast. Then we headed to the "store" There was tons of yarn, but there were also tons of eager knitters so the selection was a bit slim by the time I got there. However I did manage to get some yarn (pictures later).

Our first class was with the Yarn Harlot and was about basic socks, foot anatomy, and some awesome German books.



We learned that most people really do have feet the length of their wrist to their elbow.

The second class was the community blanket knitting that I posted about earlier.

After that we had a bit of "free time" for dinner and then gathered again for chicken games.

Here's Frieda with her chicken, complete with many chicks:



Afterwards we all hung out and chatted and knitted. Cookie had fun with a leg, although this one was living and attached to Alice!



Finally we went back to our room and knit a bit before bed.



This could only happen at sock camp! (And no, all that yarn is not mine!)

Thursday:

On Thursday we went on a whale watching trip! We didn't see any whales, but we did see some other wildlife.



We saw a few bald eagles, some African deer imported to a private island, and sea lions.

I also saw the patented Cookie Face...



and some Cookie feet...



In fact there were a lot of feet.



And some knitting:



(Can we tell I'm a Cookie fan? Seriously, she was just easy to photograph!)

Friday:

By Friday I was totally exhausted and consequently forgot to take many pictures.

Our first class was with Cat Bordhi, in which we learned some new sock architecture, and she demonstrated knitting with a helpful camper:



The second class was color with Tina, and I didn't take any pictures. Then I went back to my room and switched bags and left my camera there, so sadly I didn't get any photos of the closing. I won a "Rowdy Rooster" prize... I think that means I'm a troublemaker. ;) However Christine (blogless and with me in the chicken pictures last post) also got one, and I liked her a lot! I guess being the rowdy ones isn't so bad.

Saturday:

I got up waaaaay too early and the lovely Christine gave me a ride back to Seattle. I'm flying back to Boston tonight. Camp was amazing and I met some great people there. I'm going to try my very best to make it next year!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Tuesday morning I had a lovely birthday brunch with my mom, sister, two exchange students staying with them, and my aunt and uncle. The chicken is my sock camp mascot. Then my mom drove me and dropped me off at the ferry to Anacortes.

On the ferry the knitters were pretty easy to find, and I met many of my fellow campers.



This morning the shop opened and it was pretty chaotic, but I did manage to score a few skeins of yarn and a sheep to shoe kit.

Today was the first day of classes. The first class was with the Yarn Harlot and she taught us all about socks. In the second class we worked on a community blanket knitting in a circle.



This evening we had our event revealing the chickens and my chicken and I made many friends!



Hizknits got a great garterlac chicken:



And Cookie's chicken had a tender moment with mine.



Notice anything special about the chicken's foot?

Camp is great, I'm totally exhausted, and I really don't have time to tell you about all the amazing stuff. But I'll leave you with some Blue Moon socks!

Socks #74

Socks #73 were a test knit so I can't say much about them, but socks #74 are here!



Pattern: Monkey from Knitty
Yarn: Socks That Rock in Carbon
Started: 2/11/07
Finished: 4/8/07

And a close up of the stitch pattern:



And now to bed! I'm in Seattle and it's waaaaay too late in Boston. :) I have to get up tomorrow for my birthday brunch and then head over to Sock Camp on Orcas Island!

Dyeing Young

Thursday night I headed over to Catherine's house to dye yarn. And Cassandra, Alexis, and Amanda were there too. Amanda took this picture of the rest of us crammed in the kitchen.



At a lull in the dyeing we went to Emack and Bolio's for ice cream. The nice guy who worked there (he was dealing with six of us standing in the tiny store) asked us what we were doing and Amanda answered "Dyeing yarn." He looked at her very strangely - apparently he thought she said "dying young"! Of course we joked about that for the rest of the night.

We returned and watched some CSI while our yarn steamed and hung to dry:




Mine is the darker blue hanging in the back - a semi-solid slated for the Clessidra socks.

WIP of the Month

Last month's WIP (Cherie) didn't go so well. I read on a few blogs that people had been having problems with the pattern and the collar wasn't turning out right. Sadly the collar was the part of the sweater that I wanted most, so I wasn't very motivated to work on it. :(

Which brings us to this month's WIP! I've decided to work on the "fun blanket" this month. It's a gift and I'm not sure if the recipient reads my blog so I won't show any pictures, but I'm hoping I'll be able to finish it this month and gift it.

Flash Your... oh wait...

Well, I won't be flashing my stash this year.

Why, you ask. Well, because yesterday I was moving my stash (and all my other belongings).

I do have a picture of some of my sock stash in its new digs - my new room has great wall shelving to hold sock yarn!

This is just the bit that I unpacked last night before bed.



And the hanks:




I'll get another picture after I've got it all unpacked.

So, how about I flash my move?

Me, carrying stuff out to the van (including a swift!)



Catherine plays Tetris with the boxes:



The boys move my dresser:



And Alexis took the pictures. After a long day of carrying heavy stuff we went out for pizza, then I came home and unpacked yarn. :)

Listening to: Fake Plastic Trees ~ Radiohead, Happy? ~ God Lives Underwater