Good Friends & Soon To Be Friends.

Good friends are those who bring flowers for the "first-day-back-to-school" in order to make the end of summer and the beginnning of term a little less painful. (US colleges start back so early! Why not wait until *after* Labor Day, people?)


Soon-to-be-good friends are those like "Bubby" here, patiently awaiting some appendages, a face, some major finishing--

Not Much To Report

EDITED 9/27/06: my attempt at a tutorial for making this needleroll is found here.

Given that writing is taking up *WAY* too much of my time these days, I haven't accomplished much knitting. I'm still working my way up (slowly) on the Lorna's Laces knee high sock. But I do have a photo of the needle roll case which I sewed a few months ago. I simply took two placemats, folded one up in the middle of the other, sewed numerous lines to create needle slots, and tied a ribbon around it.



I apologize for my lack of clear directions, and I would be more specific about how I did this, but I don't have a good photo to show you of the case opened. Therefore, given I'm such a visual learner/instructor, I'll take a clearer photo of the needle roll opened right up, and then I'll do my best to give clearer instructions on how to take two placemats, and make them into a handy roll for your precious needles.

Until then--EDITED 9/27/06: my attempt at a tutorial for making this needleroll is found here.

Found Object, Finished Object, Fetish Object

First, the Found Object. This Sparkling Lemonade is the cat's meow.

Next, the Finished Object. The Friday Harbor Socks by Nancy Bush, which I call my Riverwalk Socks because, as explained in a previous post, I procured the yarn while in San Antonio for the first time, and it now reminds me of the lovely Riverwalk in San Antonio where Guido and I skipped out of a conference in the afternoon in order to have a lovely lunch in the blazing sun (and hence, the very strong Margaritas which were gulped down), followed by a slumbering walk about in the tree-lined, meandering pathways of the city's river system. (That sentence, rambling on and about, is very much like the socks and the Riverwalk itself--)

Pattern: "Friday Harbor Socks" by Nancy Bush, and published in Knitting on the Road.

Yarn: Fortissima Sockotta (75% cotton; 25% nylon), US 2 dpns.

Final Thoughts: I really loved this pattern, and found the lace chart to be easily memorized, thereby making a speedy process to this sock. I also really like the yarn. It's sorta squishy, and I think that I might like this cotton yarn more than I do most wool-sock yarns.*

Finally, the Fetish Object. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock.

*So when I say above that I might enjoy cotton sock yarn more than wool sock yarn, I believe that my first experience with what is the joy of Lorna's Laces is obviously going to rule out the judgment pretty quickly. For so far, I luv luv luv the feel of Lorna's Laces.

And as you can see, I'm doing these the toe-up way, a new method for me. I'm basing these socks off of Streets and YOs *fabulous* stripped knee-high socks. She gives excellent instructions. I found Misocrafty's excellent description and helpful links for the Magic Loop Turkish Cast-On which, as I was using it, blew my (small) mind! "Who thinks of these things?" I kept exclaiming to Guido all night. I'm not kidding. I was *so* amazed by the 80cm circular needle doing its "magical" thing...

Those are all my objects for the day. Later--eh?**

**Please excuse the Canadianism. Feeling a bit homesick today for Canada...

A Found Object and an FO Teaser and an "UGH"

I planned to write a long blog post today, showing my Lorna's Laces knee-high socks in progress, and giving all of the details of my finished "Riverwalk" (aka Friday Harbor) Socks. Instead, I leave you with a found object on my way to campus today, and a teaser of the completed socks. I'll give all the specs soon when I am feeling better. Now I'm just going to go home to bed, for "UGH" is how I am feeling right now.

This Is What Love Feels Like...

"Guido" was in NY for 10 days for a research trip, and look what he brought back for me*-- :)

Indeed, unbeknownst to me, he wandered over to Purl SoHo just to get me this: 3 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn. I've never splurged on this stuff for myself before, though I heard over and over again just how lovely it is. It is certainly lovely; I've already started a toe-up knee high sock with it. (I finished my Friday Harbor Socks that very night just so I could immediately cast on with my new yarn.** Now if only I could find a similar motivation for the dreaded-D-thing.)

So I say, "thanks Guido" for loving me and for supporting my new addiction to all things knitterly...

Speaking of love...we've recently sort of been made to adopt this guy.

We're trying our best to learn to love him, but he sure is making it hard on us (for reasons which I won't mention as they are much too gross to be included in a blog entry under the title of "This is What Love Feels Like..." Indeed, I don't want to attract any real pervs by their googling of 'love,' & 'worms,' & 'butt.' 'Nuf said!)

*Guido also brought me home the NY T-shirt in the photo as well as many wonderful books: The Anthropology of Turquoise; a novel by Jose Saramago; and a book all about birdsong. What a guy, that Guido is...

** FO photo of the Harbor Socks with details to follow in the next few days; I really like the way they turned out and can't wait to "photo-shoot" them-- :)

A Small FO and Some Yarn For Sale

Just a small bath mitten, made with kitchen cotton. The soap is handmade by my partner's uncle and is the nicest soap I've ever used. One bar is Oatmeal. The other is Lavender. I've been trying to get him to teach me his trade but he never seems to have time and I'm rarely in the same place as he is. (I'm thinking that this mitten and soap would make a nice gift to a dear friend.)


BTW: check out some of my YARN FOR SALE at the new "Destash" Fickr group, instigated by FigandPlum.