Oh, I Do Knit With That Stash

As proof that I have been knitting lately, not just obsessing about the state of my stash I offer the following.

I Knit seven coasters for my new set of co-workers. I used odds and ends of cotton I had hanging out in my stash. I love that I look at the colors and see bibs of love, burpies, and washcloths as well as the quick knock out coasters. My co-workers seemed to like them, but maybe they were just being nice. I felt good making the coasters so I guess that is all that counts. Speaking of good intentions, I knitted this neck scarf to help a customer from good old LC library. This pattern was good intentions going awry. The woman found the pattern in Martha Stewart's Living Magazine and wanted my help with the construction. The pattern was cryptic at best and it required me to go to my knitting mentors. After much consultation, I took what I had learned back to the lady. She was less than receptive to my help and told me I was wrong you had to follow the pattern exactly. Yikes, it was ugly, but I soldiered on and tried to help the lady out. I kept the silly thing in my locker as my work project. One day she came in and said the pattern was all wrong and she had found a different pattern to use. In the end I have a finished scarf with the thought that it will find its way to the right neck this Christmas.



And finally I have another sock done. Not just any sock, but a toe up sock knitted on a single circular. Which brings my sock debt to 5 finished socks and one more to go. This morning while waiting to see a doctor about a lavagna burn on my leg I got a good three to four inches done. on the mate to the lovely below. I am excited soon I will be out of the hole on the socks and then I can start a whole other pair! Wait what did I just say? I mean, I can move on to another project.

Old Flames and hot nights

After 25 years I broke my record and went to see the Cardinals play in the now not so new stadium. It was a great game with home runs, fireworks, frozen pink lemonades and for the grand finale a win for the hometown favorites. There was joy in Mudville.

But I wouldn't have broken such an established record of avoidance and sweated my butt off (okay maybe only a small portion of it) had it not been for a good reason. I do consistently turn down baseball tickets and any conversation that begins with the word "cardinal" gets tuned out. I made the exception today for someone very special. But to get the whole story I have to take you back about 25 years. I grew up in a small town in Crawford County, MO. The only thing remarkable about the place was the big water tower that had the town name, Bourbon, painted on it. Like many small town kids, I felt constrained by the small town mentality. I wanted out and I wanted to see the world. I kept wishing for my life to start, and that would never happen until I was away from Bourbon.

In the fifth grand I got hope. A new kid came to our little school and rumor was he was from some place else. I also noticed every time I saw him he had his nose pressed in a book. He was different, and I wanted to know him. It took sometime, but by the 8th grade we were friends. He spoke in big words that I had only read in books, he had lived overseas, and he seemed to know everything. I was fascinated. We even would call each other and talk on the phone for hours much to both our parents annoyance.

We grew into young adults and with our hormones raging we even dated our junior and some of our senior year. He fascinated me even more with his easy laughter and gentle humor. I never understood what someone so smart would have ever seen in me, but he did. He gave me hope that there would be life away from small town America. I had a plan we were going to both go to college, then get married, travel the world, have two kids, and then travel the world some more.

One of our favorite things to do was go to the Cardinal Baseball games together. We both got bleacher seats for being A students, so in total we could go to 4 games a season. The last time we went we got horribly lost and ended up in Bridgeton, when we were shooting for Eureka. It was funny at the time we had no idea how to find ourselves, but in the end everything worked out and all that was lost was time.

Today, we meet up to remember being lost together and I think to remember finding ourselves as being different in a place that did not value different. Oh and so he can see a good Cardinals baseball game when he is in town. It amazes me that after so much time that part of us still clicks. We talk about everything, we laugh, we laugh, and then we laugh some more. I feel so lucky to know someone so funny and charming. And I guess he feels lucky to know someone who rarely gets lost in downtown St Louis. And did I mention he has traveled, and I...well I knitted a red sock while life moved blithely on all around us at the baseball game.

Thank you Randy.

More on the Sock Saga

Scoreboard

Tempest 4

Socks 2

I am gaining on my sock debt, and I am a monogamous knitter again. Just one more pair of socks to go, I am feeling very full of myself right now.


I was so stoked with my accomplishment that I wore my socks to work on Monday, despite the fact that wool socks in late spring is a little sweaty. But I didn't care as I crowed to co-irkers, about my knitting prowess. I love that these socks are cammo colored. This pair, like the first was knitted with Plymouth Happy Feet. I love that the yarn is a wool and nylon blend knitting up to a springy fabric. The socks were comfortable and will match my very green wardrobe.



So here is the problem while at the LYS I stumbled across this lovely Knitcol yarn by Adriafil and saw some brightly colored socks on my size 10 1/2s. I couldn't stop myself I bought the yarn and needles to do the two at a time on two circulars. I want to start them now! Apparently, I want to knit more socks and want to fall off the monogamous knitting wagon. But can you blame me with this crazy yarn?

Happy Feet?

I am on a quest, a quest to love my inner sock knitter. If you remember I previously blogged about my not so successful first pair and how it took a year to knit them. (http://tempestinapot.blogspot.com/2008/11/again-no-pics.html ). But I am not deterred, in January I took a sock knitting class using two circular needles with the goal of doing two socks at a time. The class went well, I got a single sock done.

I have even started the second sock, but....

On the last day of class I had Ariel ,the awesome instructor, help me get started on the two socks at a time on the two circular needles. Ariel even came in for a guest appearance later to help me with the gusset. These socks are turning out great and my gussets are gorgeous.
You could cut butter with those stitches on that gusset, but why would you want too?
But they still aren't done.

Finally, last Tuesday I started a new sock class, the Basic Toe-Up Magical Socks on a single circular at Hearthstone with Georgia. It was intriguing to think of myself knitting two socks toe up satisfying that inner miser who wants to use up all her yarn on a sock.


You can see how far I've got on that sock, a whole toe.

So all the sock up or down and with two circulars or one aside. In my quest I am now in a world of sock debt. I have three pairs of socks started and only one sock done. Looks like I might need a couple of years to catch up. And worst of all I am now a knitter with 3 project going at a time. I have fallen off the monogamy wagon and I am all tangled in sock yarn. Is this where I yell, "Help, I am sock knitting and I can't get a pair done!"

Socks!

Okay, first I have to admit that I am one of those people who don't like to think about let alone look at feet. Even pretty and pedicured feet kind of give me the queasies. So the fact that I am prominently displaying my foot in a sock should be a clue that I am damned proud of myself for knitting a sock (notice it has no mate at this point).

After I completed the sock I tromped around my front room in one sock shouting, "SOCK!" as if I were a cavewoman who had just invented fire. Not that I invent knitted socks and that people have been knitting them for millennium. Forget also that the sock is slightly too big and the heel feels a little weird, I novice knitter, made a sock. Yes, I am flush with the victory of it. Granted I have two feet and I have to replicate my efforts for a second sock. Still, I get knitter cred for having knit a sock. Okay so for you non-knitters this seems like a ridiculous post, to them I say, "SOCK!"



On other news I must admit that I have changed my route to work, I no longer drive by Chicken and Waffles. It had become just too tempting. I knew one day I would stop and have to go in and who knows what would happen next. I would become addicted to the place and then I would force all my friends to traipse up to the northside to experience the enigma of Chicken and Waffles. So count your blessings.