Socks and Mail

Well, the rainbow sock is finished which brings my sock count up to 90 pairs total, and gets rid of that pesky 1/2. Not too long to go til 100!



Yesterday I went to the post office and picked up a couple of packages, and then got home to find another waiting for me - a very good yarny mail day.

First off, my final SP9 package from my amazing pal jochibi:



I was lucky enough to meet her this spring at Maryland Sheep & Wool along with a bunch of other knittyheads, so when she told me we had met it wasn't *too* much of a clue. She sent some beautiful Socks That Rock in the Space Dust colorway, which was my camp name. She also sent emergency chocolate, a cute fish bath fizzy, honey to go with the myriad of different kinds of chai that she has added to my collection, some more chai, Werther's Original candies that are a little different from the normal ones, and come nice hand lotion.

Thanks jochibi for being such a great pal! :)

Now on to some other mail...

I got my latest Yarntini club shipment:



With some orange, but actually quite pretty yarn, orange lip balm, and one of those nifty little DPN holders.

I also got some Wollmeise via a swap with Peachy:



The colors are Veilchen (violet, like the flower) and Mitternacht (midnight).

Listening to: Undone ~ 27, A Desolation Song ~ Agalloch

Actual Sock Knitting Adventures

If you've been reading for a while you might remember how these socks became this disaster. Well, now they're on an adventure and on their way to becoming whole again. (In the literal sense, although it sounds like the socks have undergone some sort of emotional trauma which may also be true if socks have feelings!)

First I picked up stitches from one of the last good rounds before the chewed up section:



It's a little harder than I thought it would be on a sock that someone's been wearing - the stitch definition is just not like it once was. Then I snipped...



frogged...



and matched up the colors with the leftover yarn, because yes I am that obsessive!



Then I was on my way to re-knitting the sock for my sister! Knitting a plain stockinette single sock is faster than I remembered - I'm already to the toe decreases!

You've been patient, so here's a treat!

I realized today that I promised more info on my Taste of Germany package and then left you all hanging! Life (both real and knitting) has been hectic lately. But now things have calmed down a bit so here goes:

When I heard about the Taste of Germany blue kit I knew I just had to have it. I mean, blue sock yarn! What could be more me?

I lucked out and got a spot (actually Alexis got it for me because I was on a train somewhere in Philly) and received my beautiful yarn fairly quickly afterward.

In alphabetical order, to be fair...

Das Schneeschaf Marisilk



This is the one everyone was drooling over at the last FiberCult recording session. It's also my favorite colors of the bunch - blue and purple, who knew? Still not sure if I'm going to keep or gift this one - I'm not a fan of silk and I'm sure many people would love to have it.

Drachenwolle Merino/Silk/Ramie Sockenwolle



Handgefaerbt Sockenwolle Merino Light in Downstream



Sheepaints Sockenwolle in Wunsch Brunnen



Wollmeise Sockenwolle in Vergißmeinnicht



I think one of the most interesting things was to see how differently all of the dyers interpreted the 'blue' theme. The Drachenwolle is more of a slate blue, the Wollmeise is just blue, and the others are some combination that contains blue. But they're all lovely!

In knitting news, the tight deadline design socks are done and off in the mail (2 more pairs completed, but I can't show you of course!) I am usually a pretty quick sock knitter, and I don't think I really thought very much about how different it is to crank out a pair of socks from a pattern and to write a pattern and then knit the socks while triple-checking every word. They took much longer than my usual pairs!

And now that that's over with it's time for me to start my Secret Spook projects, but never fear! I'll do some non-secret knitting too so you guys have something to look at.

Listening to: She Came On ~ Super Deluxe, 405 ~ Death Cab for Cutie

New Yarn!

Despite my yarn-dieting (yes, I've been very successful despite dreaming the other night that I totally forgot and bought a sweater worth of yarn) I have still been getting some new yarn!

Rachel picked up some yarn for me on her trip to California and gave it to me when I saw her this week. It came complete with a guest cat inspector.



Pan and Java will be jealous, I'm sure.

Then today my first package from the Woolgirl Sock Club showed up!



I love this yarn, it is totally my colors! The pattern looks cool too, so I'll probably knit it.

Speaking of sock knitting, the current secret knitting is almost done. Up next... MORE secret knitting! (Yeah, I know...) That, however, is not on such a tight timeline so I'll be working on other things too.

Listening to: Don't Look Too Far ~ Anathema

More Swap Socks

My pal Suemoon got her socks, so now I can post them! (She has pictures on her blog too!)



Pattern: Child's Sock in Miranda Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Sunshine Yarns in Sweet
Started: 8/19/07
Finished: 9/2/07

I'm going to leave it at that for now as I'm pretty busy, but I'll be back later with more content, promise!

As promised, yarny goodness

Well today I had a chance to get to the post office and pick up a couple of packages - the first was from my knittyboard Rut Bustin' Sock Swap partner, who turned out to be Bad Amy!

The outside of the box had pictures of people knitting - one even wearing yarn on her head! The whole thing before unwrapping the little individual packages:



The Thelonious pattern, treats for the furry residents of my household, and star beads - I'm really going to find an occasion to wear those in public!

And after some unwrapping I found these lovely goodies:



The sheep tape measure is just adorable, and I can never have enough tape measures as they seem to always get (temporarily) lost. I find them, stockpile them on my dresser, then take them every time I can't find one in my bag. Eventually I go through older knitting projects and bags I don't use frequently and look under the bed and find them all again.

The Toblerone brings me great joy since I have always longed for one. Now, don't laugh, I'm being totally serious here! I have had the chance to taste Toblerone before, I've had small pieces of other peoples' and I think I had a few mini ones once. However I have never had my very own full size Toblerone, and I look at them and think about how I want one every time I see one in the store! Apparently at those times I always decide to 'be good' and I don't ever buy them.

There's also some Mandarin body scrub, a little peanut butter chocolate nubbin, and a new kind of chai to add to my collection.

And now the yarn you've been waiting for:



Both of these beauties are Fleece Artist mill ends.



The purpose of the swap was to send yarn that busted the recipients "sock rut" - my rut is blue, in case you didn't know. ;) I think my pal managed to do this quite well and still send yarn that I love!

And a teaser for next time... I got my Taste of Germany package!


What? I never said I didn't like my blue rut!

Listening to: Moonlapse Vertigo ~ Opeth, Don't Know Why ~ Saves the Day

Another kind of needle

Well, I finished a pair of socks for KBSX2 this weekend, but those will be secret til my partner receives them. However, Sunday I went to a friend's house for some swimming and a bit of sewing:



I'm making a denim skirt. We did a lot of it on Sunday including pockets, which I'd never done before, but I still have to get a zipper so I can finish it.

Today I got to meet Helen who was here in Boston on her honeymoon. She has a lovely new husband who was very tolerant of having to meet some weird internet knitter on his honeymoon, and he even took this picture of us - ignore the strange mischievous grin:



He only made fun of us slightly for whipping out a pair of socks in a graveyard to pose for a picture. ;) We did a good portion of the Freedom Trail and had some coffee in the North End.

And since it's been sparse on the knitting lately, here are some cats to make up for it:

Java likes to help me knit.



Pan is just too lazy.



Listening to: Only Happy When it Rains ~ Garbage, In My Waking Life ~ Saves the Day

The Epic Yarn Diet Challenge

On Friday morning while I chatted with Amanda before work an idea was born. She was saying how much she needed a sock yarn diet (my need is pretty apparent!) and I said maybe we really should. We could pledge not to buy yarn before the weekend of Stitches East - she's probably going, I'm probably not.

My suggestion for a "punishment" should we fail was that we would have to give twice the amount of our yarn purchase to the other participant, but Amanda said this wasn't severe enough. Her punishment is that we don't get to buy any yarn at Rhinebeck!

We do have a couple of exceptions - buying yarn for our SPs or Secret Spook pals and receiving yarn we previously purchased/ordered.

One of the last skeins I got in is this yarn I special-ordered from Tyler a while back, but which is ready now:



I don't have the yarn in hand yet, but he sent me this lovely picture. I gave him the idea of "variegated black" - basically a dark yarn with a black base that had slightly variegated shades of dark grey, blue, and purple. He says the picture is a bit lighter than the actual yarn, which sounds about perfect.

Of course today I spent the day at the yarn store and thought about buying yarn about 10 separate times before remembering each time about my yarny challenge with Amanda. So finally I caved and bought this instead.

The knitting lately is mostly secret, which is why I've been pretty quiet. However I have a couple of knitting-related packages at the post office waiting for me to retrieve them on Tuesday so there should be more content soon.

Listening to: A Million Years ~ 27