Stitch n Pitch : Pirates beat St Louis 7-0!

Today was the much anticipated Stitch N Pitch in Picksburgh (translation for non-locals: Pittsburgh), PA. I brought kiddie winkie #2 and her sweetheart of a pal while the Darling Resident Marxist Curdmudgeon took #1 canoeing with a friend, and it's a good thing, because the sheer amount of Dippin' Dots consumed by the junior set would have made his hair stand on end!
Before the game we had a look at the exhibit table and saw our LYS owner as well as others who were involved in putting this very fun afternoon together. There were examples of knitting and needlepoint as well as a free bag o' swag for the Stitch N Pitch Stitchers.

During the game we met new knitters as well as saw some familiar faces. I made scant progress on the Green Gable, but as it was such a gorgeous day, I quickly became preoccupied with mandatory baseball game activities such as drinking beer, eating peanuts, staring at other fans (are tube tops suddenly appropriate again?) and yelling things like "throw the bum out!" (kidding). Our group was acknowledged at the seventh inning stretch and thankfully I was NOT on the jumbotron, as I am jumbo enough without the magnification that modern technology can provide. But our LYS owner was, and we were proud of her...All in all we had a great time, baseball and knitting go together very well indeed. The Stitch N Pitch schedule is only half way completed, and for those of you lucky enough to live in a city where your team will be sponsoring it, I recommend it highly.

So that's why you have an uncontrollable desire to buy yarn...

That Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon--when he's not busting my chops about turning up the burner too high when I make the Kiddie-Winkies their lunchtime Spaghettios or hovering outside the bathroom door in order to monitor the amount of water I'm using when I take a shower, he's making me laugh hysterically with his Dr. Freud routine. Why, just take the above-pictured half-torn ball band that he found stuffed underneath a cushion on the sofa. Examine it closely, notice its, umm, rather unusual shape? Does it suggest anything that Freudian types like my husband might find a tad telling when it comes to a gal like me who is ruled by her compulsions? He now claims that he finally understands why I'm so deeply compelled to buy yarn. Love that guy, seriously.
Tomorrow we're off to the Stitch 'N Pitch in Pittsburgh, it should be loads o' laughs. Anything with an 'n in the title that promises free knitting swag has my attention, can't wait!

Faith: Restored!

After last's week post of pessimism and negativity, the wheel of fortune has taken an upswing and I am back on a knitting high. Just after swearing off big projects to my LYS owner, my faith has been restored by a little pattern known to many as the Green Gable. Why am I so inspired by the Green Gable? There are many things to love about it, mainly the fact that it is worked in the round from the top down, hence no evil seaming scenario. It has an interesting, easy lace pattern that is done at the beginning, thereby keeping it interesting. When you're done with the lace pattern, it's just smooth sailing on the good ship stockinette and you can try it on as you go. Loving it! There's also a helpful KAL where everyone is nice and non-judgemental. It's so fun to do a pattern and have a way to avail yourself of others' expertise. I'm doing the Green Gable in Valley Yarn's Longmeadow, a perfect dk weight yarn that has the consumer friendly nice price of 3 and some odd change. Even cheaper if you buy enough to get the Webs discount...

Foshizzle my Sizzle!

Here you see two pics of Sizzle, which I finished knitting last week and finished this weekend. The knitting was a dream, loved the yarn--Cascade Pima Silk--and the pattern--Sizzle--is very well written and a pleasure to follow. My only gripe is with myself and my lack of mad finishing skills. No matter how careful I am, the end result is always somewhat of a letdown and it never looks as neat as I'd like. The seams seem to bubble and pucker and whereever I've picked up stitches it tends to look slightly raggedy. Simply put: I hate finishing! The moment I thread that needle for seaming an overwhelming feeling of dread overtakes me and I am instantly propelled back into 7th grade home ec class, which was basically my sewing primal scene, the place where I was humiliated beyond all belief by my teacher who told me that I didn't take pride in my work because my final project pillow looked like it had been stitched together in the dark by a one armed blind toddler. This pillow reflects very badly on you, she told me. You have limited potential. (So glad to have gotten the message sooner than later, thanks Miss Mitchell). Anyway, I wish to G-d that my LYS had a finisher because I would definitely utilize their services, without question and without asking the price! At least Sizzle is now in the FO column and thus no longer chipping away on my soul...

There is progress to report on the Blue Sky Alpaca Fitted Tank in Blue Sky Dyed Cotton, color #602 'Honeydew'. I am now finished with the ribbing, if that means anything to you, and am ready to make a dent in the stockinette portion of the pattern. This yarn is lovely, such a pleasure to work with and not at all like most cotton which tends to stretch and split like mad--I'm even doing this with Addis which tend to increase the whole stretching phenomenon, but I must say that this is not the case here, that's why we pay the big Blue $ky Alpaca buck$, right?

What a ruse...

Oh sure, I could show you recent pointless acquisitions from Knit One in Pittsburgh like this On-line sock yarn and this Claudia's Hand Painted Sock Yarn in Passion Fruit from Stitch Your Art Out in Pine Grove Mills...or I could show you pipe dream pics of this Valley yarn in Longmeadow that I will supposedly be doing the Green Gable out of (as if), or pictures of the Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton Fitted Tank pattern that I'll no doubt be completing very soon (once I cast on for it, that is...). Perhaps I could interest you in this dreamy handspun and hand dyed yarn from Sugar Creek Farm, a sheep farm in rural Wisconsin? A friend, someone who is my oldest partner in crime, sent it to me last week out of the blue. Maybe you'd like to see photos of my second Jaywalker, my Fiber Trends Leaf Lace sock or the nearly-at-the-bust-increases front side of Sizzle. How about a shot of my Nashua Handnnits Tank Top with Peplum?
But seriously,what would be the point? It would be nothing more than a shameless attempt to divert your attention from the real issue at hand. Real issue? That would be, of course, the glaring paucity of actual finished projects. Because there aren't any. All we have in that department is lack...and I'm not happy about it! I thought I could multi-task this whole knitting thing, I mean it seems to work pretty well in other areas of my life. I somehow manage to make dinner and read the mail while talking on the phone and drinking a gin and tonic. I am perfectly adept at rereading back issues of the New Yorker and brushing my daughter's hair while watching Project Runway and eating nachos, so why can't I finish these bleeding projects? I am so sick of all of them, I'm even sick of the ones that I haven't even started yet. What is wrong with me?! Knitting is making me feel mentally ill, like all of these semi-finished projects are some sort of outward manifestation of my inward state of extreme distraction and lack of focus. Someone pass the Adderall, stat!

Against my better judgement or, . . . Sizzle indeed!

Like everywhere else in America it is hot as hell in Nascar, PA. So hot in fact that a detour to the pool was in order this morning. The photo above was taken earlier today just before ferrying both kiddie-winkies to camp--it's a nice view, no? There are many less-than-ideal aspects to living here (ratio of people who still inexplicably like Bush to sensible people, lack of coffee shops,good bookstores and whole grain bread, alt.culture in general, etc.), but the view is one reason to maintain some liking for the place.
The junior set is at camp this week, the Marxist curmudgeon is doing his proton routine at the lab in Durham, and not, as the tiniest kiddie-winkie told our friend, 'experimenting with croutons'. All of this lack of togetherness means that I am on my own drill this week, and all good knitters know what that must mean, right? Knitting my a$$ off day and night!! Yes people, nothing or nobody can stop me. Just try... Apart from several meetings and a manicure (when did I become so... err shallow) this week, I will be knitting ad nauseum. This sense of freedom has compelled me to make a rash decision, that of taking on an entirely new project while I am in the midst of several other pressing ones.
The project that has my attention is Sizzle over at Knit and Tonic. I just love Wendy's patterns, so much so that I am concerned that Wendy, the blogger/designer behind K & T, will think I'm stalking her due to the many downloads of patterns from her site. I'm not Jennifer Jason Lee in Single White Female, I swear! In any case, I'm making excellent progress on Sizzle--so aptly named for this week, isn't it? I'm doing it in Cascade Pima Silk and hope to finish the back tonight, what with all my freetime and all...I'm curious, what patterns are calling your name right now in a big way? Which ones are seducing you, making you want to forget your current WiPs ever existed?

GypsyKnits yarn...hell yeah!

One of the great things about being a fancy-free knitting academic is that the summertime is just one giant knitting cluster fcuk! I can pop down to my LYS 2,3 even 4 times a week (who am I kidding, Saturday I was there in the a.m. AND the p.m.) for help, supplies and oh yes, more yarn. One of my on-the-way-to-work local shops just posted their new yarn acquisition on their blog and I am chomping at the bit to high-tale it over there, and my very local lys just acquired a massive amount of GypsyKnits sock yarn. This is a fairly new Mom & Pop operation from Cumberland, Maryland that spins and dyes all their own yarn and is only carried in one retail outlet--my LYS! Me so lucky! It's also available at Etsy, but you should hurry, this stuff is killer and if you recently got burned trying to obtain Vesper sock yarn while it was in stock for 5 minutes over at Kpixie only to find that it would be in stock again at some future date, probably some time when you will be visiting your elderly parents at a cabin somewhere in the North Woods and won't have internet access, you best act with alacrity! Our local shop had a demonstration and meet and greet with the owners of Gypsyknits this past weekend, sadly I missed it, being wrapped up in the whole travesty of the Italians winning the World Cup and all. Anyway, The yarns up top from left to right are Bubble Gum, Fresh Veggies and Big Top. The colors are stunning and the names alone sealed the deal on the purchase. Big Top? I always loved a three-ring circus! The yarn pictured here that has been wound into the hockey puck is called Strawberry Fields. Perhaps you're wondering how exactly I'm going to work these new yarn purchases into the whole 'omigod-my-sock-yarn-stash-is-out-of-control' complex/existential crisis that I so anxiously described earlier this summer. Based on much helpful feedback I received from commenters on this blog, I've decided to let the whole stress of that affair go and embrace my inner yarn hog. So these GypsyKnits skeins can just take a number, get in line and join the disfunctional a.d.d. knitting party!
Lest you think me a selfish type that only acquires yarn for myself, I purchased these little headband kits for my daughters and their pal, who is my best pal Babs' daughter.
They are all three budding little stitchers, and have made significant progress already. The project is an easy one and only requires casting on 8 sts and just doing a simple garter stitch. My rationale is this: any non-Disney channel related activity these days is a positive one, and this way when we go to yarn store they'll have something to occupy themselves with. Parenthood: it's all about creating the illusion that we do these things for them and not for ourselves!

World Cup Knitting, cont'd...

Ok, so maybe the World Cup isn't so great for working on projects that require concentration, like the Fiber Trends Leaf Lace Socks pictured above. I'm doing them in Sandnes Lanett superwash merino ull (love those Norwegians and their wacky letter combinations!). My LYS owner told me I needed to challenge myself this summer, so I decided to give them a try. I honestly love anything with a leaf motif and green is by far my favorite color. They are coming along nicely and it is fun to see the leaf pattern slowly emerge.

Knitting and watching football didn't exactly help my Lisa Knits Ribbed Shell either, come to think of it. I got so carried away that I dispensed with the whole swatch concept--I know, I deserve every bit of sorrow I brought upon myself--and ended up with 5 inches lengthwise of the back of a garment that my intrepid LYS owner figured out would basically measure out to be about 70 inches around the bust! Now, those who know me know that I am well endowed, as the French say, il y a du monde au balcon. But not 70 inches worth, that's a rack that even the luscious Mamie Van Doren herself couldn't lay claim to! So I frogged that sucker, started over and now have a much more appropriately sized tank on the needles. I predict I will finish it just in time for the chill of September...


A project I am super-jazzed about and totally motivated to finish is the Tank Top with Peplum. Luckily I can knit this project and watch the games with little trouble. It's from the Nashua Handnits Vacation Leaflet and is being done in Nashua Cilantro. The peplum edge was a challenge, but now it's smooth sailing on the bodice. It's being done in the round which is my new favorite way to do sweaters--I figure I should be ready for the Hourglass after this project.

I am eagerly awaiting the final World Cup match on Sunday but my loyalties are divided...as a red-blooded American female how can I resist the chiseled good looks of the Italian team, esp. Buffon and Toni? But as a French teacher how can I not support les Bleus? Such a dilemma...

One Jaywalker down...thanks World Cup!

Every four years there is an event that brings me close to missing my ex-husband--le Mondial! See, we were GREAT as pot-smoking buddies (it was the '80s), we racked up credit card debt on carefree, live now-pay later vacations to Italy, France and Morocco (4 times) like nobody's business, had so much fun spending our twenties letting the wine flow at late night parties in Athens, GA. with slacker pals and, most memorably, bonded over professional sporting events. Good times. (And I'm still paying for them, literally and figuratively). However, when children and responsibilities were introduced into the picture, the house of cards came tumbling down and the marriage went south...The World Cup was our primo event, we always had a blast together. His dad was a professional player, he had encyclopedic knowledge of the game and a lot of enthusiasm and taught me much about it. Gradually it became the only guaranteed stress-free period of our life together. That was a long time ago, and now we have both thankfully moved on and have negotiated a much better, healthier relationship as friends. He lives in Brooklyn and owns this store. I am married to the Darling Marxist Curmudgeon with whom I am much happier, he's truly the love of my life and I can't believe I get to spend every day from here on out with him. Nevertheless I have been enjoying the hell out of the World Cup and am knitting up a storm during the matches while I fondly remembering the parts of the first marriage relationship that weren't a problem.


I finished the Jaywalker this afternoon, and I have to say I am happy with it and feel energized and ready to start number two. I feared the second sock syndrome but instead the opposite has occured-- I fervently want to finish so I can have a guilt-free start on the Koigu socks. Go Argentina and Jaywalking forever and ever!

Summer A.D.D. : at loose ends

I don't get it--sometimes looking at other knitting blogs I feel so, well, inadequate. Log on to any knitting blog these days are you are likely to find avid knitters completing projects on a regular basis and proudly displaying their finished objects. I feel like they know something I don't know, perhaps they have some time-management skills that are under-developed in me. Maybe I am unbeknownst to myself actually knitting underwater, because there are some terribly speedy knitters out there. I assume that these knitters also have jobs and families and aren't on speed, yet somehow they seem to be able to knit around the clock and produce many, many hand knit garments. I am jealous.
For some reason this summer the A.D.D. has been kicking in something fierce. The last several weeks I seem to have a pathological need to begin new projects before finishing old ones--this is the lamentable story of my knitting life. Rather than actually complete a project during the great expanse of time known as summer, that time when academic types like me have a 4 month reprieve from lesson planning, advising students and daily trips to campus, I dilly-dally around and don't seem to manage to finish a darn thing. It's almost as if I need the pressure of a daily work schedule to actually get anywhere with my knitting--suddenly when I can knit all day, every day, I spin my wheels. How lame!
I will say that I have made progress on the Jaywalkers, although I agree with the Lone Knitter that they take forever. But I am liking them--trouble is, the second sock syndrome is kicking in, before the first one is even finished. Oy gevalt!

Because the Jaywalkers tend to require at least a modicum of concentration, I realized that I needed a no-brainer project that I could grab and take to the pool, so I impulse purchased a Lisa Knits pattern for a Ribbed Shell. I love the Lisa Knits patterns because they are so easy to follow and she is a localish (Latrobe, PA.) gal. I am knitting the shell in what has become my default yarn:Skacel Polo. The pattern requires the broken rib stitch, have you tried it? (row 1: p1 k1, row 2: k). Sounds easy, right? Not to be a complainer, but that broken rib stitch is kicking my ass! I have been working on that thing non-stop since Thursday and have only accomplished about 3 inches--it's taking.
If you have read this far and haven't stuck a needle in your eye because of all the knitting negativity, I thank you and promise not to be such a kvetch next time!

Princeton and environs yarn crawl

Part of being on vacation for a knitter is, obviously, checking out local yarn stores, right? If I were a stamp collector (which I used to be, 32 years ago--egads!) I would spend my free time searching out appropriate purveyors of all things philatelic. But I'm not, so instead I spent my evening visiting two stores and scoring some yarn that is not available within a 100-mile radius of my home--I include this info in case my husband the Darling Marxist Curmudgeon is reading this and wondering what in the hell his wife the A.D.D. Knitter is doing buying more yarn. The good news, honey: I spent less than $63! The bad news: Princeton is still the playground of the ultra-rich!

First of all, let me say that in all my shallow glory I am completely smitten with Princeton, NJ. If you've ever been there, you know the intense cuteness that I am talking about. Shops with Lily Pulitzer pink-and-green togs on display in the window, completely buff lacrosse players with awesome tans (I know that thinking lacrosse players are cute is not politically correct right at this particular moment, but lacrosee players are undeniably HOT and although it's certainly a sure sign of middle-age to be leering at barely out-of-adolescence 20 year old boys, I stand by this obervation), super-smart Poindexter types coming off campus for a quick shot of espresso before they head off to their political economy courses, and well-preserved Episcopalian women d'une certaine âge strolling the streets with their wicker purses and patchwork pants--hey, I love it all.
There are several establishments that I want to draw your attention to, one of them is the killer yarn store pictured above: Pins and Needles. This store was definitely worth the trip! They are open late on Thursday nights and so had many customers to deal with, but both employees were terribly friendly and quickly apologized for being so busy. No matter--I am the kind of customer that likes to browse on my own, anyway. That whole early 90's Gap-employee-greeter-in-your-face thing is such a pain, in my book. After browsing around I zeroed in on some Koigu PPPM, I'd been coveting it for a while and wondering what all the fuss was about. I bought two colorways--#120 and #146--and am eager to wind it and get moving on some socks.
Just around the corner on Nassau Street there is one of the best bookstores I've ever been to, EVER. Somehow over years I've begun going to those big box stores like Barnes and IgNoble and have started to believe their bullsh*&^ about it actually being a good bookstore--this has happened because, as I have stated before, there are no independent booksellers where I live. But going to Micawber Books has reminded be what a good bookstore is all about--they have new and used titles and their new fiction selection is the best I've seen. The children's section is huge and caters to every taste--in my case, this taste is for reprints of books from the early part of the century. Love Micawber Books and the nerdy yet stylishly hip crew that works there!!
I visited another yarn shop near Princeton in Pennington, NJ called The Woolly Lamb. This is a very large knitting and needlepoint shop that has a huge selection of yarn and canvasses. I believe you can judge the overall economic health of an area by the number of needlepoint stores that it can support--let's just say that Princeton had a lot of needlpoint stores, and Nascar, PA. has, well, none. The owner slightly freaked when I wanted to take a picture of the store for my blog--apparently a blogger had written some unkind things about her shop and she was gun shy--but after convincing her that my pen was not of a poisoned nature she let me snap some pics--SUCKER!!!
Totally kidding, her shop is great with an excellent selection--the only thing I bought was a Monkeysuits Sweater pattern. I'd never seen these patterns before and am looking forward to getting one on the go when I go home.
All in all, this early evening outing was just what the doctor ordered for this knitter who has been spending all day grading AP exams and feeling depressed about the state of secondary language education in this country...

Jaywalker Dispatch from the Road

This dispatch is coming to you from the road! I am away from home for one week serving as a reader for an AP exam, which means that for one week I'll be correcting high achiever high school students tests and trying not to go mental. This is the closest I've ever been to an AP exam since, well, I wasn't really the AP type of gal in high school. The only advanced placement I achieved in high school was in gabbing on the phone and hanging out with the fun stoner crowd--I'm an academic late bloomer, so to speak. So I jumped at the chance to see what this was all about. I could give high fallutin' reasons for my reasons for wanting to be an AP reader, something about interest in assessment and testing outcomes or professional development, but mainly I'm just doing it for the cash!

Above you see the half-completed Jaywalker sock that I have been working on since Monday. Note the particle board table that it's resting on, proof that I am writing this from a dorm room! My goal is to finish it before the end of the week. I am loving this pattern! Grumperina is quite the designer, I must say. I am doing it in the Opal Hand Painted because a. it's the yarn she did it in, and I'm such a sad ass person that I try to imitate the designer's instructions completely and b. I had some in my stash, just by chance. I love the purple and green together. Once I got the hang of the double decreases, I was off and running and highly encourage anyone who thinks that this pattern might be too complicated to go ahead and give it a try.

Sock of the month club

The Summer Sock Challenge has taken an interesting turn. After having finished the Eat Your Veggies Claudia's Hand Painted socks (see pic below), I had a little bit o' extra yarn, which should come as no surprise given my extreme impatience with the cuff. As I had yet to finish the baby sweater for the Sweet-as-Pie colleague from Iowa, I decided to whip up a pair of baby socks and achieve the dual goal of having a baby present for a baby that was born on Mother's Day and feeling like a thrifty knitter, the type that actually uses yarn up out of her stash rather than endlessly acquires it and leaves it on a shelf to collect dust. I used the Cabin Fever Little Speckled Toes pattern, which was so easy and required me to use 5 dpns for the first time (normally I go the 4 dpn route). Huge fan of all Cabin Fever patterns, they are well written and very easy to follow.I have to say that completing these socks was such a pleasure--they are so miniature and, well, perfect! Giving one pair of socks as a baby present seemed semi-chintzy (sp?), especially for such a nice gal, so I decided to enroll her baby in the first-ever, A.D.D. Knitter 'Sock of the Month' club, (not as choice as the 'Fruit of the Month' club, for sure, but it's better that a lot of other baby gifts, I suppose) which means that I get to make a pair of these adorable socks every month for a year. I am so excited about this! I know I need to get a life, but the idea of getting to spend a little time on these every month is very appealing.

Poll: What's your most indispensible knitting book?

I have accumulated a lot of knitting books--some more useful than others. Sometimes I go through phases of what the Darling Marxist Curmudgeon refers to as 'late-night clickety', which is basically ordering things from Amazon.com in the wee hours of the night when judgement is impaired and wants and needs are amplified. It usually goes a little something like this: Jane Q. Knitter raves about a certain knitting book on her blog, I follow the link and am instantly seduced by the lurid photo and salacious reviews on Amazon.com [N.B. I do not normally promote large multinational corporations and/or big-box stores and always root for all that is marginal, indie and local, but there are literally no independant booksellers where I live, so please forgive me.]. And then I order it. And I forget all about it until I arrive home from work (hopefully before the DMC) and pluck the package from my porch. After several moments my memory is jogged and I remember, "oh. it's that book". And then the package sits there for anywhere from 15 minutes to 36 hours, and I open it. Blah blah blah-blah-blah. Usually the book is somewhere between fine to mildly intriguing. The most recent late-night clickety produced a book that was so much more than that, as it is (are you ready?) literally the best knitting book in the entire world. I have been waiting for a book like this for a very long time. Charlotte Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks is nothing short of a miracle. It's amazing--everything about the book is helpful. Similar to the Ann Budd books, the patterns are all based on gauge, which is incredibly freeing. Like the Vogue Stitchionary series, there are close-up images of all the stiches featured in the book. Schurch also provides instructions for each pattern using 4 dpns, 5 dpns and two circular needles--again, totally useful. Her book is so strong because it can be adapted for use by any knitter, no matter what her style and ability. Simply put, this book is indispensible for any sock knitter. I [heart] Sensational Knitted Socks!!
My unbridled enthusiasm for this tome has me thinking about knitting books in general. Some are average, many are not worth the money, others are riddled with errors, many are all flash and no substance and a great deal of them feature impossible patterns. And yet somehow others are indispensible. What makes for a good knitting book? A balance of technique and artistry? Awesome photos? A big-name celebuknitter? Tell me: what is your most indispensible knitting book?

Sloppy Seconds

Sock #1 in Claudia's Hand Painted Yarn 'Eat Your Veggies'
The appeal of the Sock Challenge is wearing off mighty quick...and it all has to do with a phenomenon many will perhaps identify with, that of the mind numbing tedium of the second sock. That initial rush of pleasure and excitement provided by the first sock, that well-known first blush of romance that happens as you discover how the yarn reveals itself (what's coming next in the pattern? More stripes? A Fair-Isle motif?) is sorely missing and turns into drudgery, a form of knitting torture. From tout beau tout nouveau to familiarty breeds contempt. The difference between the first and second sock is somehow massive. Why is this? What's the big deal? I need someone to bitch slap me back into reality and remind me that I am not being held against my will at a secret CIA prison in Eastern Europe and being required under pain of death to knit as a way of saving my life. No, I am just trying to complete a pair of socks.To make matters worse, I have accumulated even more sock yarn since my last post. Yes, that's right, your eyes are not playing tricks on you, I said more sock yarn. How quickly innocent shopping, accumulating and collecting becomes pathological hoarding! More Froehlich Wolle Blauband Jacquard and a super cute little number called GypsyKnits Traveling Sock Kit purchased at my LYS. Like I really needed this? What is the point of trying to make a dent in your sock yarn stash if you're only going to keep buying more yarn? Uff-da!

Summer Sock Challenge...

Warning: This Posting Contains Disturbing Images of Obscene Sock Yarn Stashage!
A few skeins from this yarn store here, a few more from this one there (not mention the ones from here and here and here), and suddenly the extent of this knitter's yarn gluttony becomes undeniably apparent. Yes, there's a problem. How can one knitter have so very much sock yarn and not feel mentally ill because of it? This is my question. So now that the semester is over, the grades have been calculated and submitted, the junior set is still in school for several more weeks and the Darling Marxist Curmudgeon is safely ensconced one mile underground in this Nuclear Lab doing unspeakable things to protons, I have courageously brought the sock yarn out from the nether regions of my overall stash, done a quick inventory and have come up with the following results: supposing that one skein or set of skeins will only make one pair (which with my notorious impatience with the cuff we all know that more than one pair per skein is indeed possible, but let's move on), I have enough yarn here for 33 pairs of socks!
Isn't part of the AA addiction credo owning up to what your reality is? In the spirit of this I present to you the official tally of the obscene sock yarn stash:
-10 skeins Opal (This highly addictive yarn was the gateway yarn to other, equally addictive sock yarns)
-5 skeins of Mountain Colors Bearfoot (so soft and seductive, it has a very special place in this yarn fetishist's heart)
-14 skeins of Fortissima Colori, enough for 7 pairs of socks. (I am a sucker for the bright colors featured in these colorways, esp. the ones with the disco thread that make it super '70s and shiny)
-4 skeins of Claudia's Hand Painted Yarn, enough for 2 pairs if I'm lucky. (Newest edition to stash and will remained unknitted for a shorter period of time than the other skeins as I am working on a pair right now, see below.)
-2 skeins of limited edition Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn created especially for Purl, my pathetic purchase of this has already been discussed here.
-3 skeins of Froehlich Blauband Maxi-Ringel. (I love orange so was immediately sucked into this yarn, not mention that any yarn with only German on the label is terribly appealing. Words like stricken and farbe make me week at the knees. Deutschland über alles!)
-1 skein each of Reynolds Swizzle, Plymouth Sockotta, Lana Grossa Meilenweit Inca, Zitron Trekking XXL, and On-Line (Have no idea where I got it and can't find a link. Note to manufacturers: don't name your product On-Line and expect customers to be able to look it up with ease on line...). These sad little lonely skeins that must be turned into socks in order to alleviate their feelings of alienation and solitude.
Grand total: 44 skeins
How sick is that?
In order to rememedy this untenable situation, I have set a goal for myself, I'm calling it my own personal Summer Sock Challenge. My goal is to knit at least 17 pairs before classes resume next Fall in order to make a dent in the Obscenity. I know this goal seems unrealistic, especially given the fact that I was completely done in by the sleeve of my Klaralund sweater during the recent Knitting Olympics flame-out, but I will be spending a lot ot down time at the pool with the junior set and my best pal Babs, and since I don't plan on getting into a bathing suit (which means that I should actually be setting other, more pressing fitness goals for myself, but one goal at a time, right?), I figure I should come pretty darn close. I am already out of the gate with my first pair (Claudia's Hand Painted, colorway: 'Eat Your Veggies-) started Sunday evening. I will keep you all posted on my progress and am wondering if anyone else has any similar, ill-conceived knitting goals for the summer?

Fruit loops!

Many of the appealing traits that make the Darling Resident Marxist Curdmudgeon the lovable lad that he turned out to be, can be directly traced to his mother, Jean. The way he bobs his head for emphasis in a conversation, his ability to chat about any topic, and his kindness to children and small animals are all aspects of his personality that the two have in common. She is a living doll and a one-of-a-kind gal, so I thought it fitting to make her something special for her birthday, which also happens to fall on Mother's Day. I chose the Sigma Tank from Knitty, which despite the math involved, was a quick and fun project. I did it out of Zitron Polo, a recently discontinued yarn distributed by Skacel. What is it with me and disconinued yarn? Perhaps my affection for a certain yarn necessarily dooms it to the close-out bin. In any case, my younger daughter claims that this colorway (#600) reminds her of everyone's favorite breakfast treat Fruit Loops. An interesting observation, given that to my knowledge she has never actually had Fruit Loops. As a mother, I've indeed devoted real effort into her having mainly Cheerios, but that's beside the point. Calling this tank the Fruit Loop tank is entirely appropriate, since the recipient of the tank is a little loopy herself. Jean is over 70 but has the body of a 23 year old (seriously), so I say say FLAUNT WHAT YOU GOT, JEAN in this tank! This is a woman who plays platform tennis, regular tennis, and bikes every day, plays with her grandchildren until they are tired, and was doing headstands on a regular basis all around the world (we have the snapshots to prove it) until several years ago when her doctor told her to cool it. Needless to say I love her, she's a real pip and making this for her was a lot of fun.

Peasant feet alas..

Another realization to add to my recent accumulation of narcissistic observations: not only am I not now nor have I ever been an aristocrat, I am endowed with peasant feet. Mine are not the long, delicate pieds that one could only suppose that say the Mitford sisters surely had. No, my feet are cloddish, even block-like. Perhaps even Clydesdalesque. Bruegel the elder would have felt perfectly at home painting them. They would no doubt have been suitable for field work, standing for 18 hour stretches spinning or weaving in a cotton mill, or spending long days hanging out laundry, all jobs that my Lancashire great-grandparents did without complaining. My feet are lacking in grace in every possible way. No matter, I will still subject the gentle reader to them—turn away if you fear your idealized image of the A.D.D. knitter cannot withstand the sight of her clodhoppers. They are pictured here because I finally completed the second sock of the Mountain Colors in Ruby Red, completed just in time for sandal weather! The first sock was feeling awfully lonely, forlorn, and without a purpose. And I was in need of a quick sense of accomplishment, so I sucked it up and finished it. I have a heck of a time finishing that second sock; it’s a perpetual issue for me. The romance of the first sock (how will it turn out? what’s coming next in the self-striping pattern?) fades quickly and somehow the second sock seems tedious, chore-like, like I’m a teenager and my parents are asking me to clean my room or mow the lawn. But I soon got over that bout of recurrent adolescent ideation, only to be faced with another crisis: for a frantic 10 minutes, I thought that I had done the unthinkable—lost my 98 % completed sock that only needed to be kitchener stitched! After madly rifling through the DRMC’s (Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon) office, convinced that he and his piles of papers had something to do with it—again, blaming and shaming are also a part of my m.o. — I remembered to look on my Kountry Krafting table, and beneath a pile of knitting magazines and patterns, there it was. Fancy that! I can now begin a new pair or socks without fear that the Knitting Police will shut me down and issue me a citation! For those who prefer to see the socks not on the peasant feet, they are pictured below...

Rowan Taste on a Red Heart Budget or, my friends call me the Contessa!

Yo people, this weekend I had a minor realization: I am about as snobby as they come when it comes to knitting and all the various accoutrements and ancillaries that make it possible. Addis and Lantern Moon needles vs. Takumi Bamboos and those metal jobbies you see might see at a Kountry Krafts with a 'K' shoppe? Clearly the former win out. Cashmere/Merino vs. anything acrylic? Do I really need to answer that question? Rowan and Colinette vs. Red Heart and Patons? Please...There is a lot of excessive spending that has been happening here. Case in point: my needles. Let's just say I have a lot of them. And there are many, many duplicates, like at least 4 16 inch size 8s, which will come in handy if I ever invite some triplets over to make baby hats. I went through this weird phase where I would buy new needles for every project, even if I had them at home, Hell, I usually wouldn't even check. I got over that real fast, but I did a lot o' damage. Bottom line: I don't have the bank to be spending what I spend on knitting. I'm a French teacher, not an entrepreneur for crying out loud! This fact was pointed out to me ('80s credit card ho, student loan debt the size of the g.n.p. of Lesotho) by my husband, the lovable Marxist curmudgeon (zero debt, big time saver, HATED the '80s). I made the terrible mistake of asking him to grab a pair of Addi turbos for me from my Kountry Kraft Table, where they are all neatly packed away in their original packaging--yes it's a sick fetish, I know--and he got to have a first hand look at the sinfull excess that is my needle stash. Flipping through those packs of needles (with the price tags regrettably still on the outer package) the way an executive flips through a rolodex, I can only imagine the horrid moment of recognition he suddenly experienced: Mary Mother of God, I am married to the Devil. He accused me of thinking I was an aristocrat. Despite the fact that as a child I always did believe that I surely must have been a member of some royal family somewhere, I most certainly am a peasant in every way. But you wouldn't know that to look at those Addi turbos, that's for sure!