Monday, October 31, 2011

Centi-sock

I've had a finished object on deck that's been a long time coming (not a penguin sweater--they quickly announced they've gotten all they needed). Ravelry tells me that I started this project on January 1, 2011.


I guess it could be worse. I've been working on Mystery Wedding Project since 2010, and Mystery Wedding is long since over.

The copilot and some of our friends and I have a tradition of going to see a ski movie that 'tours' around the country for one night only showings. We made our annual pilgrimage last week, and as the lights went down and the first shot of overlapping ski tracks on pristine powder appeared, I shook the copilot breathlessly whispering, "It's just like my socks!"

Ski tracks - the namesake of the Powder 8s

Sidenote: I totally got shushed at the same ski movie last year. A little background: it's the type of movie where there's an MC, giveaways, and group participation like cheering is encouraged. Shushing someone would be like asking someone at a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show to tone it down. So of course we were pointing out what gear we thought was cool, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at impressive jumps and tricks, etc. A grumpy looking couple was sitting in front of our group, and at one point the girl turned around and asked me, "Are you going to talk through the entire movie?" I may have imbibed a few adult beverages by this point, and I asked, "Are you having trouble following the plot? They're skiing." There was no shushing this year, but one of my friends did periodically ask each person in our group if they were going to talk through the entire movie.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the sock knit up after I put my mind to it to work on it. With that in mind, I started another one. I had purchased some Socks That Rock on a visit to Seattle entirely too long ago with every intention of making some man socks. Shades of gray, natch, since all men are colorblind (right?). I didn't even pick a pattern, just cast on a reasonable amount of stitches and started up--men are also patternblind.

Here's the thing, though. I don't think there's a huge market in the way of men knitters (sorry, dudes) and men tend to have big feet. And you know what they say about men with big feet....they need big socks.

Are you seeing what's wrong with this picture?

That's right.

My biggest nightmare. 80% of the time, if I wake up in a cold sweat, this is what I was dreaming about (the other 20% is when you realize that you have to take a final exam, but have forgotten to go to any of the classes--isn't that the worst?).

So what else could I do? I unraveled the top of cuff and attached it to the toe. It's now like a snake eating it's tail.

An ouroboros of sock (or suck).

I've done this once before and it worked fine, but knitting isn't always exactly the same unraveling from the top as it is from the bottom (actually, it usually isn't). If there's only one type of stitch, fine, but even the ribbing of the cuff is too complex to come apart easily. This....may take awhile.

Can we talk Indian Summer for a moment (Native American Summer if you want to be PC about it). Just two weeks ago, this was WI.

Note the shorts, and the lack of frost on the ground.



Now most of the leaves have changed, and the handknits are out. I might be rethinking all of my bitching about summer....no, I take that back. I'd just like a longer fall!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

My entire life up until now has been preparation for this

One of my friends pointed out the subject of today's post.  I thought I'd be updating you on the crap I've been making, or my latest kerfuffle one of the local weirdos, but we have more important things to talk about today.

Penguins. New Zealand. Knitting. BOOM! I'm ON IT.

I've heard of this before--the sweaters keep them from swallowing the oil when they try to preen their feathers. And seriously, is anything more adorable?


Me and Murray on the NZ shore....stay out of the water!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

ZOMG Adorable

I'm not usually one for internet acronyms but 'zomg' just seems to convey the appropriate amount of extreme excitement for my new stitch markers. I couldn't resist when Stephcuddles showed off her newest stitch marker creations, 'Afternoon Tea'.



I should have put a scale marker on the image, because these things are petite. The tiny detail is beautiful and impressive.  You can check out her Etsy shop here if you're interested.  

Full disclosure: I'm not entirely sure what my tea time treats there in the background are.  I think maybe I requested cookies? Oh crap, cookies are called biscuits in the UK. So what are UK cookies? Thoughts?