Knit a cup of tea....

Thanks for all the nice comments about the crappy current state of things. You guys are sweet, I wish I could pack you in my pocket for those times I'm sitting at work, contemplating banging my head on the desk... We buried my grandmother yesterday. It was pouring rain most of the day and was just extremely dreary and sad. However, my grandmother was 91 years old. She lived to know several of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And she was a very faithful woman who loved going to church every day she possibly could. The priest said at her wake 'she was better prepared for the afterlife than most people.' And knowing that she was loved, and knew that she was loved, and that she really did get to live out most of her days doing exactly as she pleased, these are things I'm trying to remember that are starting to make make me feel a little better.

And I've been trying to knit to feel better too- I present to you my knitting equivalent of having a nice, soothing cup of tea:


There's knitting you do for the end product, and knitting you do to challenge yourself, and knitting you do to experiment, and then there's knitting you do to feel better. Hats are the knitting that I do to feel better. I have know idea why, but there's something about stockinette, in the round, worsted weight or larger gauge that just soothes my soul. And this one is a bonus-it's a really soft pretty yarn called Caron Dazzelaire that has so unfortunately been discontinued. It's left over from a former life when a few friends and family members actually paid me to crochet baby blankets for gifts. (Crochet??? What's that??) Anyway, so this is actually a baby hat that I'll be donating to charity, which will feel good also. Feels so good I'll be casting on another one tonight.

And then you have those days like this...

That make you wonder why you even bothered getting out of bed today. Allow me a 2 second rant here- things are kind of crappy lately. The job thing is a total bummer. Unfortunately the office move did not improve some serious issues where I work. The company is not doing well at all and everyday we all wonder if that's the day we're going to get laid off. Ick. So I'm looking, and while it hasn't been hopeless, I haven't found a new place that I really want to work either. I'm really hoping to get laid off soon so I can collect some unemployment (benefits I've always paid into and never, ever collected on) and take a little break. But instead each day I'm continually surprised how things manage to get worse and worse, but not bad enough to close. And there I am still employed and having to find a way to drag my butt in the next day. To this crappy, crappy job. Yep, it really sucks.

Add into this situation the bad news I got this morning. My grandmother on my dad's side passed away today. She was very old and lived a very full life. Although she had been failing and bedridden for quite awhile she was always very much the matriarch of that side of my family. It's just a sad, sad thing and unfortunately no matter how well you prepare for it, it doesn't make it any easier when it happens.

So I'm trying to keep a handle on things, doing what I need to do, which is a lot of stuff I really don't feel like doing at all. Which is something that seems to make me feel more crappy. So I take a minute to sit down and try to do some knitting and relax and somehow I end up with this



Umm, yeah that's not making me feel much better either. This is a kit I have for a purse that I purchased at Stitches last year. I'd love to link to the company but I can't find anything about them online so I wonder if they're even around anymore. I zipped through the front and sides in no time earlier in the week, and now I just have to do this one last part, but the colorwork is tough. And it's making me curse. And sweat. And I don't really need the agita right now. So I'm going to put down the knitting for today and maybe when I come back to this it will somehow cease to look to me like the knitting equivalent of a car wreck.

Oh. Well.

Sorry for the whine all, hope your Saturday's are treating you better.

Done and done!

First, the finished Elizabeth I scarf

My patented "Slacker" blocking technique didn't affect it as much as I feared. It's not pin straight on the sides, but honestly I sometimes can treat my scarves pretty harshly. Even if it started out flat and perfect, trust me a few minutes stuffed down the collar of my coat will have it at least somewhat wrinkled. Which is how things sometimes get in the real world. Which is ok, we do make this stuff to wear after all right?

In addition to the scarf I also finished the toe-up red socks I've been working on forever.

They might look fine and dandy but you know, looks can be deceiving. My one major complaint? I didn't do some kind of modified stretchy bind off at the top. And boy can you tell when it takes me 3 minutes to get them completely on. When Freddy/Jason/the bogeyman comes to chase me these will not be the socks I reach for to put on before I leave the house or I will be toast. Once I get the socks on they're completely wearable, but still, it's a big lesson learned. Another thing-I somehow ended up with these big honking holes at the heel gussets on the second sock I knit. Go figure, it was the 4th time I worked those short rows, you'd think I'd get better with each time. They're not huge enough for other people to notice-just me! Which is enough. Still, they will get worn. These are superwash wool so I figure what I lose in putting-on time perhaps I will make up in not-having-to-handwash these socks time. And the toe-up sock thing is still very intriguing. I will be trying it more in the future. And I bet the next pair will definitely come out much better.

Bad blocking and mind control....

In case you're wondering if all I've knit in the past 3-4 weeks was Fetching, I promise this is not the case. The green Elizabeth I Lace Scarf is being blocked.

I'm a little concerned. I really should have string blocked it so the edges would be sure to come out straight. Instead, you can see I chose the slacker option of "Oh, let me just try putting a bunch of pins in it and maybe it will come out straight." Stupid, I know. But we'll see. I'll keep you posted.

In other news Tracy made me follow her to the yarn store near where we knit on Tuesday. Sigh... Yes, at gunpoint and everything, it's true... When we got there I found this and somehow it just grabbed control of my mind and I knew there was no way of getting out of there without it.

It's Schaefer Elaine in the colorway "Rosa Parks." How cool is that? They actually name the colors after famous women like Edith Piaf, Emily Dickinson, Margaret Mead and of course, Rosa Parks. The colors are amazing and there's plenty here to make a cool scarf probably pretty quickly. What's with the scarves lately? Who knows. When the yarn is this pretty, why ask why right?

On a completely non-knitting related note- for any foodies who might be interested- did you hear squealing coming from the direction of New Jersey this afternoon? That would be me, when I saw a little 2 second blurb on the Food Network today that Nigella Lawson is going to have her own show on there in October. I am so psyched. I used to watch 'Nigella Bites' on E a few years ago and loved it and then it disappeared. Nigella is intelligent and makes some pretty good recipes. She also cracks me up because she has this thing where she is like almost always eating on the show. And if there are males in your house they usually don't complain too much about watching her either. My husband once said that they really should change the name of the show to "Nigella's Boobies." Yeah, men are just so subtle sometimes... Anyway, Food Network must have vetoed that one and instead is going for "Nigella's Feasts." Good choice. I'll be watching.

My new favorite things...

A new, big basil plant gifted from my in-laws last weekend, and my finished, fingerless Fetching gloves!

As I haven't already beat the dead horse into the ground the pattern is of course from knotty and I used the recommended Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. And yes, I managed to make the pair from one ball, there wasn't a ton of yarn left over but I don't see running into a problem when I make more and more of these in the future. Serious, I liked knitting these almost as much as I like wearing them. Fast, easy and cool as all heck if you ask me. As soon as it's cool enough to wear them here without sweaty palms, I will be wearing these babies a lot!

P.S. There's a new button in the sidebar for the Punk Rock Gift Exchange which is something I am very psyched about. Do you knit? Are you punk rock? Do you promise to be a good pal? Go sign up!

Hey Lunchbox!

Yep, I'm from Jersey. And if you know anything about where I live in Jersey I'm dangerously close to two celebrity hometowns. That would be Freehold-home to Bruce Springsteen. (Bruuuuce!!!!!) And also Red Bank-home to Kevin Smith.



OK, so it's not like Paris Hilton or Celine Dion type celebrity but still, there are many, many dedicated fans and we do hold the movie Clerks very, very close to our hearts. So was it coincidence or fate when this weekend on our knitting group night, in our knitting group town Netflix decided to have it's Rolling Roadshow featuring Q&A with Kevin Smith, autographs by the cast, a showing of the movie, and of course... knitting for everyone! Ok, so maybe we were the only ones knitting, but that's ok, it doesn't stop us.

Me and Tracy. Note the presence of the Fetchings in progress. We loves us the Fetchings!!!

Erin and Chris. Where's Chris's knitting? Hmm....

Colleen and Andy. Aww....

Oh and of course, you know wherever they go knitters are bound to make new friends...


How cool is that? It's a freaking Imperial Stormtrooper! He's promoting their 'professional costuming service' where you can rent these guys out for parties and stuff. Or to like randomly follow you around and help you with your errands if you want. You know, groceries, going to the bank, getting a pedicure.... Not that I ever thought of that....

Eventually the sun went down and it was time for some Bezerker.

It was a really fun night. And for all you movie buff's out there I really have to recommend you check out The Netflix Rolling Roadshow and see if there's one near you. They are free and really, really fun. They are trying show the movies outside in places where it was filmed or near there. Hubby is already totally disappointed he missed seeing the Warriors at Coney Island. The ones I wish I could go to? Well they're showing Ferris Bueller's Day off in Northbrook, IL, Raizing Arizona in Apache Junction, AZ, Field of Dreams in the baseball field in Iowa where it was filmed, The Searchers with John Wayne in Monument Valley, Utah. Not that I'm a big John Wayne fan, but how cool would it be to see any movie (especially a western) in Monument Valley. Sigh... One of these days I'm going to get that RV together and make all of them....

Happy Blogiversary to me!

Yup, it's been a year. Where are we going? Why are we in the handbasket? Is the blog getting bigger? Better? Who knows. But I haven't gotten arrested yet, so I suppose I'll just keep going!

Guess what else? My office has been moved. My life has been chaos for the past week or so, and my new reward is a 10 minute longer commute. I know, I know, sure I'll take some cheese to go with my whine. Many people, especially in this area have much, much longer drives every day. The upside though? 20-30 minutes in a car is enough time to inspire me to put on the ipod. And on that note- a couple of new podcasts that have caught my fancy:

Insubordiknit Love, love, love this one. Sometimes it's about spinning and sometimes it's just good stories, but the production value is up there with Cast-on, it could practically be a professional radio show. And Jacey is very entertaining and I just keep tuning in.

Math4knitters Stop laughing! My math shortcomings are well known to my knitting group, but that's not why I listen. Lara Neel is really easy to listen to and even though Math is in the title it really is a podcast about knitting. I'm really surprised how much I like it. Give it a chance and you will be too.

KnittyD and the City Ok, I can totally understand if there are people out there who don't like this podcast. But I do. This podcast is a little less structured than most. A lot of the time you kind of feel like you're a fly on the wall listening to Wendy and Christina just hang out and knit. Which is kind of cool. After spending your day with attorneys like I do every day, getting in the car and listening to girls crack up over nerdy yarn jokes can break a lot of that tension you're carrying come quitting time.

And of course I will always love Cast-on and The Mosh Knit. I suppose the longer commute may not that bad after all...

Drool.

Drool. Drool. Drool. I opened my email this morning to find a link to this. It's all the new KnitPicks yarns for Fall 2006. Yay! Can I just say I can't wait to try almost everything on here? Especially Gloss, the new Merino/Silk sock yarn. Yum. Also there are new colors of Suri Dream which is nice because I've wanted to make this throw pattern forever and I wasn't to thrilled with the original colors they had to offer. And I also think Quarry looks like an awesome new quick-scarf yarn.

Oh well. Alas, it will probably be awhile before I'm placing an order with KnitPicks though. The postman brought this for me the other day

36 bucks worth of soft fibery goodness. These are going to be used for Fetching from the new Knitty. It's all the fault of Amy from my knitting group. First she came in with the yarn one day, and it is so bee-you-tiful and soft and pretty. Then the next week she had one glove finished and I was able to try it on and confirm that it would fit me (I was worried my hands might be too chubby) and well, it fit like a glove! And now I just have to have them. I know the pattern says you're supposed to be able to knit a pair from one ball but I'm paranoid about that stuff, and I figure if I have left over I can just make more or use the yarn for something else. I'll keep you posted how I make out with that.

And finally I have to say thank you so much for all the positive feedback on the Forbes Forrest scarf. The pattern is from the Scarf Style book, sorry I forgot to mention that. It's an awesome book, and this was in the end, a really great pattern. Even though the scarf took awhile it was not that hard to do and the end result is really such a pleasure. Now it's going in a plastic ziploc bag until Christmas, when I'm giving it to my godmother. I really think she will like it.

Lunacy

You would think it would be lunacy to finish a big complex project and then pick something very, very similar for your next project. Right? Well, as I type the Forbes Forest scarf is done and happily blocking away on the dining room table.

It is very pretty, and a great warm, soft scarf. I'm so happy I did it, even though it did seem like so much work and chart-reading at times, it was totally worth it.

I don't know why the color is off in that second photo, the first photo is much better. Anyway, definitely towards the end of this I was dreaming of starting something simple, something in garter stitch, more headbands, maybe dishcloths, items that didn't need patterns, in worsted weight that would go pretty quickly. This is why it is a mystery to me that somehow this has found it's way into my knitting bag:

For some reason this weekend I chose to start another green scarf that I need a chart for. (???Lunacy, I tell you.) This is the Dainty Bess Pattern from the Elizabeth I patterns I got from KnitPicks. It's my first laceweight project ever, which is neat. The yarn is so fine, but it does seem to go faster than I thought it would. This chart is pretty simple too, it's purls all across the wrong-side rows so that makes it a little faster than Forbes was. I do like it as a project in and of itself, I'm just not sure this is the right thing for right now. Still I'm such a stickler for finishing stuff out. Maybe this will just have to be one of those long-term things I'll break up with other little projects in between.

Summer cool down

They're talking temps over 100 here in a few days. You know what can cool you off and get that hair up off your neck and out of your face right? A new headband!

I first saw the Wild Yarn Saving Grace Headband on Persnickety Knitter's Blog and just wanted one immediately. Ok eventually I would like to have several but this is going to take time. Anyway, my main motivation is not the heat unfortunately. I'm still diligently working away on my Forbes Forest scarf and it's so close to done I feel like I can almost taste it sometimes. But then I remember that that is the slowest scarf pattern ever. And well, I just needed to have something done now, I feel like I haven't had a finished object in ages! Enter this great pattern. I used KnitPick's Main Line that I had left over from my short sleeved cardigan. But this pattern would really look great with so many yarns- I can't wait to use the Silk Garden I have left over from my Clapotis. (that should look awesome) Also eventually I'm hoping to try out Molly's Headband from Interweave. Because I am growing my hair out (much to the chagrin of my mother, oh well!) and this July is starting to get uncomfortable heat-wise. But first, yes first I will finish that Forbes Forest Scarf. This was a nice break though.

** Quick fyi I have no idea if I made this 15 inches like the pattern specifies, I pretty much just kept at it until it barely reached around my head. I also used a provisional cast-on and kitchnered the ends together so I wouldn't have to seam. Yup, I really do hate seaming that much.

Have ya seen it yet?

The new Knitty is up! And much unlike the last issue (sorry last issue Knitty lovers) I adore it completely. I am dying so much to make these and these and these have actually made me reconsider gloves. Yes gloves, which I swore off forever after the nightmarish hot-dog finger incident I had trying to make them before.



Oh that photo makes me cringe so. Ok, yeah so there's also a pattern for some knitted wings in there (wtf??) and while this pattern is very, very pretty whenever I look at it there is a banshee in my head screaming "Hot Dog fingers!!!!! Hot Dog fingers!!!!" (Ok deep breaths... Calming down now...) Otherwise I really think this issue is such a winner. For me, this is what summer knitting is all about. The summer knitting, the socks, the handwarmers, the small things. I'm supposed to go to the Knit and Crochet Show in Pennsylvania next week. You can bet yarn for a couple of these things is going on my list of stuff to look for.

P.S. And don't forget the pretty, pretty beaded wristwarmer pattern. Someone in my knitting group made beaded wristwarmers a few months ago that had us all unabashedly drooling. Girls just love those pretty sparkles sometimes.

That is so cool!

So I sit down to watch my tivoed episode of Knitty Gritty yesterday and who is the guest knitter but Kelley Deal of The Breeders. And what do you know but she's showing Vickie Howell to knit a really cool bag that I will seriously contemplate for a future project? I always like to watch Knitty Gritty, even when it's something I wouldn't really consider knitting myself. But this bag was really cute. And it was so neat to see Kelley Deal on there. Even the husband was impressed. I love it whenever I can say "See? I told you it was punk rock!"

Happy 4th of July!

Even though as I type this New Jersey's state government is shut down due to a bizarre budget impass and I am the snarky type more likely to agree with Bill Maher than Rush Limbaugh on the current state of events I am fully cognizant of how lucky a person I am to live in this country. I hope everyone gets a nice day off and a happy 4th to enjoy doing whatever they like!

On another celebratory note Chris (also known as the Crocheter) got married!

Chris and Joe got married in May on the beach in sunny, gorgeous Bermuda. Sunday their families gave them a beautiful wedding reception in Sea Bright. Look how sweet and happy they are together! The Zebu knitting crew was all in attendance to congratulate the happy couple, laugh, eat and drink and willingly take part in the desert buffet!

Top row (l-r) is Tracy, Colleen, me and Erin, Bottom row (l-r) is Chris and Amy

It was so nice to be there to party with Chris and Joe and all, and we all had a great time, and without a single knitting needle in sight!

A forest in Jersey....

Well, the Forbes Forest scarf is continuing to grow. To me this picture shows just how slow this is knitting up. Granted, I feel like for some reason I haven't been knitting as much as I normally do (where exactly the time is going I have no idea) but still, the cables and bobbles and popcorns slow things up also. Still I think it will be very worth it, the pattern just gives it such a warm, springy texture, I think this will be a great winter scarf and I think the recipient will really like it.


The red toe up socks are moving along also. Come to think of it, these are my traveling project, so maybe I've been knitting on the road more than at home lately? Dunno. Anyway, the verdict is still out on the toe-up thing, I'm getting better at the short row toes and heels, but it's far from being second nature just yet. Another thing- this picture totally does not do this yarn justice. This is Brown Sheep Wildfoote sock yarn I got for a song at Stitches last year. The colors are mostly reds and purples but there is also brown (and maybe some greens) along where you can tell the dyes overlapped. It is very, very pretty. The only drawback? It's a little thin so these are being knit on size 1 needles. Which aren't that different than the size 2's I'm used to, they just seem kind of sharp to me, and they've definitely warped already from the warmth of my hands. A couple of them are pretty curved, but I'm going on and sticking it out anyway.

Btw-cool blog post of the week? If you have a minute, go to Say's blog for a fun read about one of the most exotic Stitch and Bitch meeting I've heard about in awhile. Also , there's some amazing sky photos and a bear encounter adventure that will definitely have you on the edge of your seat. Say is doing forestry work for the summer which is so cool. Last week I was complaining about having a barbecue in a tent? Well, she's spending her summer in one. Very neat!

Why our weekend sucked, and rocked!

We saw it coming. Our barbecue date for Saturday had been set weeks ago, but as it got closer and closer this week, the weather report did not improve. Words like 'torrential' and 'flash flood' threatened. So on Thursday we put our tent up which we figured would somehow avert the rain, because we figured of course with our luck, if we go through the trouble of putting up the tent, then it probably won't rain right?


But no dice, and we didn't want to reschedule, because what if we rescheduled and then the same thing happened? And we figured well, we could always all just go in the house right? We could make the best of it right? But well, it rained a lot. And it's just not fun to cook in the rain. But the show did go on, and all in all it looks like it went on ok.

Everyone liked the tent! There was plenty of room, and of course tons of food and drink is always a convenient distraction...

And yeah, we've had good barbecues before, and the weather's always been great. But this one we'll remember for awhile. Really, how lucky are we, we still had like 20 people or so show up and we all laughed and ate for hours. And you know these are all really true friends. I mean, I could probably get people in off the street to hang out in my backyard and eat my food. But these guys, in the crappy weather we had yesterday, they not only showed up, but they helped carry stuff in and out, and made me gin and tonics (trust me it rained that much, you'd need gin too) and helped us keep the propane and charcoals lit. Awww....

Knitting content to follow, I promise. This past week was spent cleaning up the backyard, putting up the tent, vacuuming, grocery shopping, etc. Don't worry, as exciting as all those activities sound, none of them comes close to beating out knitting for the favorite hobby position.

A weekend at the lake

Meet the in-laws!













This is Pennie. No she doesn't always dress to match the kitchen, this was a complete coincidence.











And this is Dom. Dom does not like having his picture taken so much. But he's a very good sport!

And this is their summer weekend getaway-the lake house

The lake house is quite idyllic. While it might be simple, it is quiet and friendly and relaxed and there is Satellite TV so I don't have to worry about my husband getting all tantrum-y over some stupid hockey game. Which you know is so stupid really, who wants to watch hockey when you could watch this-

There's also a lot of eating in to country, see that picture of Pennie in the kitchen? Yeah, she's there a lot. Pretty much once the breakfast dishes are cleared away, they start making plans for lunch. After lunch comes ice cream by the pool, then "cocktails" (see how idyllic there is? there is no "cocktail" meal in my dreary daily life!) and of course then dinner, and then snack. Oh and if you get hungry in between there's always something by the fridge. Oh and less you think "cocktails" are only drinks they are often accompanied by copious amounts of finger-food, dip, antipasto and ironically this weekend-shrimp cocktail.

But you know the best part for me of course right? You see this coming from a mile away. Of course the best part of the country is this

and also the fact that Dom and Pennie let me do this all weekend and often in front of their friends! And still to this day, they have yet to file a formal complaint regarding my marriage to their son. Because I totally realize to the rest of the world this probably looks completely bizarre. I don't really even look that relaxed. But I am. It is good. It is a very, very good thing.

Genius!

What was with that spacey post yesterday? I think I had a little touch of cabin fever. I am feeling so much better today. Especially after I heard my new favorite song EVER on Cast-on. "Knitta, please" is an amazing rap by Mike Bryant. Ok maybe not amazing (you do know I tend to get overly excited at times right?), but definitely reminiscent of rap in my high-school Digital Underground/Monie Love/Kris Kross days. And it's about knitting! How cool is that!!!

Ok, I know sometimes people don't want to do the whole podcast thing, so if you only have a few minutes please, please, please go here and if you scroll down on the right hand side of the page you can download or listen to this track for free. I promise you will laugh your butt off! He talks about 'don't take no flak from the crochet b*tches' and actually has the line "I like big needles and I cannot lie..." See? Genius I tell you. Yes, I've listened to it like 100 times already.

Oh and to the Fun-Fur Bandit posse I knit with on Tueday nights- guys I say once we get those new matching shirts in we gotta go and get us some nice high tops and big M.C. Hammer pants (you know, circa about 1990) and find a high school talent show where we can get on stage and lip-sync this song. Dude, we'd be like the coolest knitters in the whole school I promise!!!! C'mon who's with me???

Spaced out...

I missed work today due to a crappy migraine that has lasted way too long lately. I don't know about other people but I find the drugs that are prescribed for this problem particularly harsh-i.e. they usually make me feel kind of like maybe I'm in a coma but I can't be in a coma because I'm awake. Yeah, that spacey. Why anyone would ever take these drugs recreationally you got me, there must be some sick people in this world. Anyway, I'm a little concerned my sleepy behavior is starting to rub off on my housemates.

I swear I walked over him like 4 times before I took this. His ears twitched a little once so I know he's still alive, but otherwise he's pretty much in a kitty zone out session.

One cool thing that happened today? I got the idea to make this. It's a cool necklace/choker thing you make out of a ticket stub. How cool is that? Screw paying $40 for some stupid crappy t-shirt that doesn't fit me right or shrinks down to barbie doll size after one wash anyway? This is so much cooler. Only change I'll probably make? I promise mine won't be for Bette Midler like the one the lady one the show made. Hey there's a time and a place for Bette I promise, she's just not the first artist I'll put in my punk rock choker to show off, that's all...

I started my Christmas knitting...

Can you believe it??? No neither can I, but there it is-the beginning of the Forbes Forest scarf from Scarf Style.

I had originally purchased this yarn for another scarf from that book, Backyard Leaves. But it's not the yarn named in the pattern and when I started to get close to starting and was facing facts I realized the yarn was much better suited to this pattern, and this pattern is actually better suited for the recipient. So it's all good.

I had also bought myself a couple of goodies-the pair of Lantern Moon needles I bought for inspiration will have to wait until the next time I need a size 7. (Aren't those plastic Lion Brand purple needles just so sexy instead? Hey-they get the job done right?) I also bought myself this little tool to help me with my chart reading. (I'll blog more specifically about that later when I have a good picture of myself using it. Hint-it's awesome!) And so far the chart reading has gone pretty smoothly. While this scarf is probably the slowest knit scarf for me ever (what you see took me about 7 hours spread over 3 nights so far) I am really enjoying it and learning so much. Besides knitting bobbles and popcorns for the first time and learning about those, I think I'm just getting a lot more comfortable with chart symbols in general. I'm starting to try to know what cable is coming up by the symbol itself and not just referring to the key all the time. And on the wrong side rows I realized I'm really just repeating the stitches below. So the whole thing just feels very intuitive and I really feel like I'm doing something very new that will help me down the road with other projects. Very, very cool.

Ronald McDonald socks done

As I mentioned when I got back from last weekend's trip, I went back to the needles, hard. Put it this way-the first sock was started April 10- finished May 25. The second was started May 25, finished yesterday June 4. First sock took 46 days, the second sock took 11. Yep. Well that's what the first sock gets for being a traveling project for so long I guess.

Details- The yarn is Knit Picks Sock Garden in Zinnia. Which they don't even sell anymore. I knit them on size 2 bamboo dpns. Regular stockinette cuff down socks. I like the stockinette socks a lot lately. I like the lace patterns I've done, they're pretty and interesting but the stockinette just goes so fast and requires so little attention. It's great for car knitting, which is what my socks usually are. And it's nice that it goes fast, I made these a little longer than other socks I've made. This time I made the leg 8 inches before starting the heel as opposed to 7. I like it that they're a little longer, I figure I can wear them with boots in the winter when it gets snowy and cold and I'll be snug and comfy!

On a blog related note I just wanted to say thanks to all the cool people who leave comments on my blog for me. It's always so neat to get feedback and just to meet you guys and have new blogs to add to my list to read. I really appreciate it. So anyway, I just wanted to say thanks and hi and nice to meet ya! Happy knitting all!