Trevor thanks you all for the birthday wishes. He did indeed get extra treats, and has decided that everyday should be like that, as has been made clear by the inordinate amount of begging today.

As for me, Friday mornings are always a little challenging for me - in a good way. I have a blind student who's been coming for a few months finishing up a sweater for her son. She's really great, and sweet, and a good student, but it's challenging to try to explain knitting to her without being able to say "see this loop..." I'm her third knitting teacher, and I still don't understand why the woman who started her on the current sweater chose to start her on something in parts - two sleeves, a front and a back - which she then would have to pin and sew together. Sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to a blind student, if you ask me. For her next sweater I'm teaching her EPS.

So she worked her way in this morning, and got to work on the final inches of the second sleeve (I bucked the pattern she was given and she did top down sleeves in the round on two circs instead of having something else to sew) and in walked a large man and his small girlfriend... with a long white cane.

It seems I've developed a reputation as being the knitting teacher in the area who can teach the blind. And the greatest irony of this is that she turned down a class with my LYS (where I would love to teach some classes) because their beginning knitting teacher hasn't taught anyone blind. Huh.

This woman had never had knitting at all, so I was starting from scratch. And her sweet, yet controlling, and still slightly co-dependant (sighted) boyfriend was interested as well. But she wouldn't let him get supplies to learn. They argued a significant amount of the class, and were jovial and affectionate the rest of the class, and it was very odd. But they'll be back ("they" because he won't let her use a taxi service for the blind) and only she will take the class (because she won't let him knit).

I was thoroughly mentally exausted by the end, and have chosen to spend the rest of the day on the couch with knitting. Simple knitting. Nothing that requires thought.

And for Bess

My first (and currently only) daffodil of the season. I do have an itty bitty baby jonquilian bud on some tiny sprouts next to this one, where I think it split already, but other than that (and the fabulous temperatures), the only signs that Spring has hit the great Nawthun expanse of Baltimore...

I made a mess today...

Who could possibly cause me to knit five tiny swatches in such a chaotic manner?



LUCY NEATBY, of course!!!



I took Lucy's Allure of Lace class at my LYS today and had a blast. I taught her so much. (just kidding, I just threw that in there for Eunny, Coleen, and Laura) It really was fun, and I highly recommend Lucy as a teacher - she's great fun. I had more pictures to (particularly I wanted to show you Earnest, her purse) but my camera is being cranky again.

However, YES to those of you who noticed -

I (and the Spinning Wheel) did get a mention in Spin-Off! They contacted me a few months ago and I was thrilled and honored by the mention, which was on this page.


And for those of you who were concerned, after a trip to the grocery the other day, Foxy has been reincarnated


as a raccoon.

3 If By Land, 6 If By Sea!

Soapy the Soap Turtle
A Pattern By Me!
(once this is put on the internet, copyright laws legally apply. Please respect them - you may not profit from this pattern or in any way represent it as your own without my express written permission. In other words, yada yada yada.)



Materials: Small amounts of Sugar 'n' Cream cotton - less than 150 yds Main Color (MC) and less than 50 yds Accent Color (AC)
I would estimate three turtles could be made from each MC ball.

For the original Soapy, I double stranded Key Lime Pie (variegated) and Hot Green for the shell (MC), only because that's how I got the color I wanted, and used a single strand of Sage Green for the feet, tail, and head (AC).

Appropriate needles for knitting small circumferences and i-cord in the round - gauge is unimportant, just so long as you like the fabric. I used a set of 4 DPNs - the increases and decreases work out easily this way.

*Pop Quiz!*
Do you want a Box/Land Turtle or a Sea Turtle?
The original Soapy is a Sea Turtle - because I didn't want him to drown! If you want a Land Turtle, though, do the increases in the parentheses - you'll get a taller, rounder shell. The decreases are done the same for both "breeds".
~~~~~~~~
SHELL:

With MC, CO 3 stitches in the round

Round 1: Increase once into each stitch (6 stitches total)

Round 2: Increase (3) 6 times evenly around

Repeat Round 2 until you have 60 stitches total

Purl One Round

BO 10 Stitches

Purl 50 stitches

CO 10 Stitches

Returning to Knit, decrease 6 stitches evenly around until 12 stitches remain

Thread yarn through and pull tight.

HEAD: Uses AC
CO 9 stitches in the round

Knit around until neck measures about 1.5 inches

Increase 3 stitches evenly for two rounds (15 stitches total)

Knit 3 rounds

Decrease 6 stitches evenly for two rounds (3 stitches remain)

Pull yarn through and pull tight

(Option: Duplicate stitch eyes and a tiny smile on your Soapy's face!)

FRONT LEGS: Uses AC
About half an inch from opening on shell, PU 5 stitches

Rows 1 - 6: K, P, K, P, K (Seed Stitch)

Decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of each row for four rows, continuing in Seed pattern, 1 stitch remains

Repeat on the other side

TAIL: Uses AC
At center of shell's closed end, PU 2 stitches

Work i-cord for 4 rows

BO

BACK LEGS: Uses AC (optional - the original Soapy didn't have them)
About half an inch from tail on shell, PU 3 stitches

Rows 1 - 4: K, P, K

Decrease 1 stitch at each of next two rows, continuing in Seed Stitch, 1 stitch remains

BO

Finishing:
Sew head to "lip" at top of opening, weave in ends, stuff with homemade soap and have fun in the bath!

Years ago, when my precious Misha was an only child, people started telling me she was getting old. Now, this is a horrible thing to say, especially to someone as close to her as I was. Would you go to someone and say "wow, your mom's getting old. Bet she keels over at any minute!" Nevertheless, everyone mentioned how old she was (at NINE!). More and more I was thinking about her leaving me, which I knew would kill me. And I knew if I didn't have another cat in my life when Misha passed, I never would. If I had one to keep caring for, I'd get by, but if all I had was memories of her, no one else would live up to it. So I started thinking about getting a kitten.

Just then, GB announced that Elvira was pregnant by Meathead. This is not the scandel it could be, since Elvira and Meathead were the names the soldiers on the Naval base where GB worked had given to two stray cats who were seen 'round and about together.

So it was decided that I would have one of Elvira's kits - my pick. I had heard that alternating genders makes cat integration easier, so I'd decided to get one of the boys. Since Misha was named after a male dancer (Mikhail Baryshnikov) I had decided that my little boy kitten would be named after a female actress - Antoinette Perry, the only woman to have an Academy Award named after her (the Tonys).

About a week after the kittens were born, in early April of 2000, I went to visit GB and see a movie with him and with his son. During the entire movie, I heard a mother talking to her son. I never heard her son. I never saw her son. But throughout the entire movie I heard a contstant stream of
TREVOR-SIT-DOWN-TREVOR-BE-QUIET-TREVOR-WOULD-YOU-TREVOR-PEOPLE-ARE-TRYING-TO-WATCH-THE-MOVIE-TREVOR-I-MEAN-IT-WOULD-YOU-COME-HERE-TREVOR-IM-NOT-GOING-TO-TELL-YOU-AGAIN-TREVOR-BEHAVE-YOURSELF-TREVOR-I-MEAN-IT-TREVOR-SIT-DOWN-RIGHT-THIS-INSTANT-TREVOR!

And people think the cosmos doesn't give warnings.

We went to see the kittens after that, and they all looked almost identical. There was one of the boys who had the tiniest white fluff on the tip of his tail - maybe 15 little hairs. He was running around, slapping the other kittens around, jumping on them, bossing them around....
and as soon as I picked him up, he fell asleep in my arms.

Yep, this was my little guy.

A string was tied around his neck so no one else would take him (eventually all the kittens found homes, and Elvira was fixed) and when he was old enough, he came home with me. For a while, he was Trevor Perry, but on visiting my parents, my mother decided that "Trevor Miguel" had much more "yellability" - and he knows the middle name means trouble!

Misha hated him. She didn't want a kitten (she might have liked a puppy). And he was fearless. Lungs like you'd never believe something his size could have. He was sick a lot when he was tiny. The vet told me he was small for his age, and that his inners hadn't caught up to his outers in growth, so things weren't processing as smoothly as they could be. He outgrew it, and hasn't had a problem since. He jumped on everyone and everything - the world was his playground (the picture above is him spelunking through a pair of my father's pants at about 6 months old. He'd started at the cuff).

When he was eight months old, I came home from work to find uncooked spaghetti all over my apartment. The box was still in the cabinet, which was above my head. He had climbed up, opened the cabinet and the box, and knocked it over, to pour noodles down to play with. He could turn on and off lightswitches by jumping up and hitting the toggles (I'm sure my neighbors thought I had some sort of freaky disco going on most nights.) He turned on the air conditioning once doing the same thing. I had to have GB raise the chandelier in my dining room on one of his visits, because Trevor would take a running leap at it, catch it with his front legs, and swing like George of the Jungle. He still plays fetch with the little plastic rings from milk jugs, or his favorite toy, a little green and white stuffed chicken, which he knows by name
(Stephen - ).

And today he woke me up by jumping up and down on me --- MOM! MOM!! It's my BIRTHDAY!!!

And it is. My Trevor Miguel is six today. He'll get extra cuddles, and some cat treats, and maybe I won't yell quite as loud when he pesters Aslan or tries to ride Oscar. Any minute now he'll outgrow that kitten behavior, right? I'll cry that day.

He is everything a cat should be. Ferocious, and curious, and fearless, and loving. He will get into trouble where you think there is none. And then he will want to cuddle until the fear goes away. No mouse stands a chance with him around. And strangers better be ware, as well - I'm his mom, don't bother to try to steal my love (it took him years to accept GB!). He is by far the most affectionate cat I've ever lived with, though no one (myself included) would say he's the sweetest in temperment. He is my Spud. Spuderball. Trev. Monkey.

Happy Birthday, Trevor Miguel.
I love you.

1334 socks knit in 76 days, and, boy, are my arms tired.... That's 17.55 socks a day, and 67% of the way to our goal of 2000, with 289 days left - 79% of the year.

Holy cow, y'all.

Reporting has slowed significantly, but we're obviously still trucking along quite happily. And don't forget, the 2000th sock earns a heck of a haul, so keep on knitting!

~~~~~~~~

Well, I have lots of exciting photos to show you, but iPhoto isn't cooperating with my Easy Share camera. There's been some foul language, some suggestion that perhaps the "Easy" isn't meant in a flattering way, some yo-momma trash talking... it's been really shameful.

Of course, I mean all of this has gone on between the camera and the computer. I have found it quite offensive to my delicate feminine sensibilities.

But finally I sit, surrounded by fingernails and hair weaves scattered about the room, and at last, the pictures you have yearned for.


I made this for a certain someone - know who? It's a bona fide soap turtle - a bar of soap fits inside the shell, so it will make a super fun bathtub toy. No pattern, made up on the spot, but if anyone really wants it, I can write it out and post it or something.

Tonight I was at Joann's picking up fabric for another project, and I saw this.

So of course they came home with me. And when I showed it to the girls, Laura said "Oh, how cute! Now if you find out someone you know is having a baby, you've already got a gift ready!"

I know. She's nice otherwise, really, but...

Give it away????

The baby blanket in the little set will likely go on the back of the armchair for the cats, since right now they're sleeping on the remnants of the very first sweater I knit. I knit it before I really and truly understood the concept of gauge. Now everyonce in a while when I need a scrap of wool I frog a bit of the sweater and use that. Because I will never fit into this sweater.


The family armchair does, though...

~~~~~~~~

Last but not least are some beautiful roses sent by my ever-absent husband. It's hard to be apart....

Jump, Johnny!

Don't you love it when you forget about something nice coming in the mail and it surprises you even though you should know better?

Or am I the only ditz that does that?

In any event, some time ago I won the "Name This Bag" contest at Green Mountain Knitting Bags (I named this bag). Because I'm fickle and couldn't make up my mind with all the gorgeous things she had to offer, I was very wishy washy and a lousy customer to deal with, I'm sure, because of my non-committal-ness (it's a word... now). But then I was browsing again last week and saw a gorgeous bag with a goldy-greeny fabric on the outside with blue cornflowers and johnny-jump-ups (which I love, because who couldn't with a name like that - and I was just suggesting them to SueWoo, thank you, Irony.) So I spoke to Martha, who is a doll, and she very pleasantly agreed to stop my whining about indecision and send me that bag instead, along with an accessory case.

(why yes, I have been accused of having a gift for run-on sentences, why?)

Today it arrived!

Isn't it gorgeous?

Beautifully made, too.


While it wasn't my intent, it hangs quite nicely on Delphine, for holding fiber while spinning (thereby possibly preventing future occurances of this) and still allowing searching by bomb dogs. (Bomb dogs get second shot at sniffing or bomb cats slap them, so Trevor had already performed his searches, with a brief attempt at seizure of the shiny magnet closure inside.) I'll have to play around a little to see where it can hang from the wheel while I'm spinning with the least amount of disruption, but for now I'm still just swooning at its beauty.

Thanks, Martha!

R.I.P. Foxy

You were not loved long, but you were loved well.

~~~~~~~~

Foxy's last days were filled with a little more love than even his rugged exterior could stand, as I got kicked in the rear, ribs, and nose by a sinus thing. I came home from a very fun evening with the girls and went to bed, then woke up to the phone ringing around 8:30 Tuesday morning (which is extremely late for me). It was GB telling me he wasn't able to come home as expected, but I wasn't really able to make out many of the details because I was feeling very much like one of those flattened cartoon characters that have been run over by a cement truck. I called the store and cancelled my class, then sat down to knit... I woke up four hours later long enough to go to the store to get TheraFlu (nector of the gods) and Sudafed (shiny blue capsules of the gods) and came home and went back to sleep. All in all I was awake for about four hours total yesterday.

Today was much better in that I was awake for nearly eight hours. I know - I'm a wild woman. The cats have been checking my pulse regularly, along with finding fun new positions that allow them to both sleep on me without actually touching or making eye contact of any kind.

All of this meant that Oscar didn't get the attention he deserved, which meant that Foxy got all the misplaced affection and then some, and it meant paying the ultimate price....

It took some great distraction to get Foxy (and Foxy's inerds, which were scattered all over the house) into the trash can without a mutiny. Now I just have a depressed pitbull on my hands.

If I have the energy, I may have to go on a hunt for Foxy II (the sequel) tomorrow.

one of those pesky forwarded e-mails???

... or something that might put some much needed positive energy into the universe?

Knitting is a peaceful activity. Sheep are archetypically placid. When they cross a road that you are driving down, there is nothing to do but wait. It never crosses your mind to honk the horn or try to drive around—where I live the sheep graze in fields so rocky that you’d pierce your muffler if you tried—you just turn off your engine and admire the ungainly woolly lumps brushing past your front bumper. Knitting starts with the sheep.


I like natural yarns that are full of lanolin. That way I can feel the life of this animal that needn’t give its life to yield up this wonderful product that I use to knit. I fondle the yarn and start to rack my brains and my library for inspiration. My knitted things have no borders. I use a Swedish wool to knit mittens using a twisted Eastern stitch. The mittens turn out not to be warm enough, so I knit mitten liners out of Chilean alpaca. The hat on my head is of Japanese yarn, knitted from a Norwegian pattern. I knit my hat in the round from the top down, and once I passed the awkward double point stage and worked onto a circular needle, I slipped into the meditative state that arises when I knit stocking stitch in the round. My mind wanders, first to my work day then, eventually, to the private part of my day, my family, my friends, the wild thyme that the sheep graze on in the rocky fields up the road. I become part of a world bigger than that enclosed by the ends of the sofa where I sit knitting. My mind wanders through the world that has led to the knitting in my hands and because I am knitting, engaged in this quiet, peaceful activity that starts with the placid sheep, my mind wanders through a peaceful world.


Knitters radiate peace. When I see a stranger moving a pre-natal sock around and around a ring of double points, he is engaged in creating warmth for someone he cares about, an expression of peace. When I see a friend with a lap full of grey alpaca, lovingly being worked in moss stitch for her new baby, her quiet handiwork sings peace.


I would like to channel this peacefulness. On March 21, every stitch that I knit will be dedicated to peace. I would like to invite everyone who knits to join me on that day. Will it stop people from hurting and threatening and frightening each other, the antithesis of peace? Who knows. When I knit on March 21, I will be saying with each stitch that peace is possible, that human intelligence and compassion can triumph over fear and greed, that terror and war can give way to discussion and peace.

Knit for peace.


* * *
Randy Sklaver
Visby, Sweden
knitforpeace@yahoo.com

Nothing up my sleeve...

I spent all day yesterday in a less than stellar chair knitting for a demo at the store. I did finish the knitting portion of the sweater, but man, was I hurting this morning!

Add to that I couldn't find any pins to get set up to do the final seaming, and what you see here is my attempt to distract you with the adorable button (1 of 5) I managed to sew on.



I did go out to get those pins, which turned out to be possibly the most expensive T-pins on the planet. Because after all, I was completely faithful to my mission, and didn't get anything that wasn't on my list. Just the pins, ma'am, nothing else. (Wha-- Hey! Who put the registration for class with Lucy Neatby and those hanks of Cotton/Tencil yarn in my bag???)

Okay, so maybe I did get distracted and veer slightly off course. But it's not my fault. I washed the sweater last night for some light blocking before sewing, and laid it out to dry. Then when I spread it out on the bed this morning, it looked....

Well...

HUGE.


And I haven't been through labor yet, so I really don't want to trivialize anything, but I kinda thought babies were small. I had planned on knitting it a little bit big, because of the timing with the seasons, so they could use it again in the fall when it starts getting cool again. I thought I was doing the 18 month size, but is it possible I misread and I was doing the 18 year size instead???

Seriously, folks, someone please tell me he'll be able to wear this before college (at which point the ducky buttons could inspire some merciless teasing) - it's about 13 inches across the torso, and 14 inches from shoulder to hem. That's actually a little bit smaller than the schematics the pattern suggested, and I was dead on five stitches per inch the whole way through. It just looks like it would fit a four-year-old at this point.

Sucky Knitting gals, you'll hopefully be able to see the finished (and seamed) sweater tomorrow night. At this point, I have one button, both shoulders and one sleeve seamed (but not attached). And I'm totally unmotivated until I know there's hope of this not being an absurd gift, so I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy and knit a sock. That will fit me.

Charming

You know what they say about the third time, right?

Remember this?

And this?

I kept putting off finishing up this baby sweater because I had all the time in the world. But damned if somehow it didn't get to be March 17 when I wasn't looking. Baby is now a year old. And while I'm sure his parents have clothed him in lesser garments up til now, I have certainly been remiss in my duties as a knitter who loves him.

So I busted ass this week, knitting like the wind, and did both sleeves and this:


which is half of the body. (it's knit sideways, so you're looking at the right front of the sweater, the right armhole, and half of the back.) The other half will get done at work tomorrow, and I should be able to seam it up tomorrow night.

Then it will look vaguely like this, only better



I did some work on the body today, during a class, and after I was more than three inches up I noticed a problem. I had knit a seed stitch border all the way around the edging, but it occurred to me that I didn't want that border along the shoulder seam - I wanted that to be the same stocking stitch as the rest of the sweater. Which meant I could either rip back three inches of knitting (seventy stitches wide times eighteen rows is one-thousand-twelve-hundred-sixty stitches) and redo them, or I could fix the seven stitch border for the three inches (one-hundred-twenty-six stitches).

Which would you pick?

Yeah, me too.



I dropped the 126 stitches and reknit them, and now that section looks glaringly sloppy to me, but it's better than even money that blocking will fix it.

Thankfully I had the tiniest bit of experience in dealing with my procrastination habits foresight and chose to knit the pattern for the 18-month sizing, instead of the 12-month. Sure, baby is just turning one today, but I figured it would be better to risk having it a little big right now, but have it be wearable in the fall when it starts getting cold again, rather than have it only fit for the next thirty-seven minutes.

So hopefully tomorrow night we'll have some pictures of a charming (and finished) baby sweater!

One-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-five socks.

That's how many we've knit in just sixty-three days.

Wow.

That's 61% of our goal in less than two and a half months - we still have nearly 83% of the year left. We've averaged 19.4 socks a day.

Impressed yet? Good, because the lucky person who reports the two-thousandth sock to me will get a pretty impressive stash - handspun from me, yarn from Amy-Boogie, some Koigu, more handpaint.... and anything else someone wants to toss in the pot. (in fact, if you've agreed to donate something, let me know - I'll be contacting you in the next week or so to let you know my address to ship the stuff to me, then I'll mail the whole package out to the 'winner'. If you'd like to donate something but haven't let me know yet, click on the little flying envelope over there to the right and send me an e-mail)

~~~~~~~~

Speaking of the prize, know what this is?

The very roving that will become the handspun sock yarn from me to the winner.

Here it is spun up in the first section of singles (it'll be a two-by-two cabled self-striping yarn when I'm done, kinda like this)

(catnip not included, but it was tough to get a true color image... that's the closest, but still not quite right)

I've also been spinning this merino from Stony Mountain Fibers

which will become a Shedir for myself once it's plied.

And this week I bought this adorable little bag at AC Moore (less than $10 after the 40% off coupon) which has a little section to needlepoint an initial or a flower on the side of it


Wow, Amie, we didn't know you knew how to needlepoint!

Yeah, shut up. I don't. But I can learn fake it.

Non-Knitting Content

Stop Picking and Choosing

Tragedy

Sometimes the ones who give help need to get help.



Please consider donating.

Chocolate, anyone?

We're at 1126 socks. That's an average of 18.7 socks per day. We're 56.3% to our goal, and 16.4% of the way through the year. In answer to some questions, yes, I'll keep the tally going as long as you guys keep reporting to me (at least, I'll keep it going through December 31, 2006, which was the original time limit) It'll be fun to see how many socks we do get done all year - maybe we can even give prizes for each thousand sock milestone? Right now the person who reports the two-thousandth sock to me will get at least four pairs worth of sock yarn, some handspun, some handpaint, some designer... Good stuff all. Again, if you feel inspired to donate to the sock cause, just let me know. Folks can mail the prizes to me, and I'll put together the goody box to go to the winner (I promise I'll give it all up, but I can't promise there won't be tears when I say goodbye to it).

~~~~~~~~

I had a wonderful, fantastic, fun and chocolate-filled weekend. This is a tiny bit puzzling to me, as I have never really been a chocolate person. I've never really disliked it, but it's never been what I yearned for. But since going back on the blessed synthroid this past time (about six weeks ago) I've had freakish cravings for chocolate. Chocolate and coffee. Can't get enough of either. Anyone else with thyroid/synthroid issues out there have new food cravings going on?

But it was a great time with great friends, and sweet Delphine got some issues fixed that I was unable to do on my own. (Fiona the Lendrum is a fantastic wheel for learning to spin, but less so for learning to trouble shoot on spinning wheels, and I had to guess on a lot of set up issues for Delphine. She spun well for me before, within some limitations, but now we've made some progress in getting those resolved!) When I got home my mother called to report on how the furry boys had been in my absence. Actually, she called to tell me that she thinks Oscar has a crush on her and that he loves her more than me. Oscar swears this isn't so, but I suspect that like most dogs he's a bit loose with his affections. The expression "Dogs have masters, Cats have staff" didn't come about accidentally. Oscar's a slut.

Today I had a grossly invasive and uncomfortable medical test done, so to reward myself I had chocolate cheesecake at my knitting group. (I actually just bought it because, hey, it's chocolate, and it's cheesecake, and that means it's good, but Julie asked what I did to deserve that and when forced, I can justify darn near anything, so that's my excuse).

The group that meets at Borders and while I was paying, the clerk at the register asked if I wanted to join some discount club or something that was free, and just needed my e-mail address. I gave it to her and she said "Rosebyany? Do you ... umm... blog?"

Why, yes, I do! So, hello, person who's name I don't have permission to put up on the internet and wouldn't do without that permission, having mentioned your place of work already!

What did I buy? Well, these magazines: Knitting and Knit Simple. Take a look at this

Anyone else bothered by the fact that the cover item on Knit Simple is CROCHETED???

I also bought this book

using the excuse that people keep having babies so lots of patterns are good to have, but really it was for these two things:


You really can't go wrong with baby lap blankets that have sheep or giraffes on them.

~~~~~~~~

By the way, someone on the Spinning Wheel blogring contacted me to let me know about a dead link, and in trying to find it, I found several other members who had removed their codes or lost them or something, and since the ring is now so large I can't get all the way through it, I haven't come across these when I've wandered randomly. Please let me know if you have troubles or find any other dead links! We want the Wheel to spin smoothly!

Holy Cow, She Knit a Sock!

This will get washed and lightly blocked tonight, then popped in the mail tomorrow. My thought is that having a sock up at Crazy For Ewe before I teach there next week might get a few more students in. The yarn is Marks & Katten Clown, a cotton/wool blend and it's knit toe-up (of course). I rather like how the stripes worked out for the heel flap area.


So there. Add another to the total for me, okay?

Speaking of which, the person who reports to me the two-thousandth sock knit is looking to get quite a little haul. They'll win handspun sock yarn from me, some Koigu, some handpaint, and more handspun... that's a lucky knitter who'll be set for sock yarn for sometime. Heck, even the person who knits sock 1763 will get a little gift from It Girl, who has just a wicked enough sense of humor to make me have to remember that number as I keep the tally (I mean, even I can remember 2000, but she's making me work for this arbitrary number!) (If you'd like to make a donation to the lucky knitter, just let me know! I'm taking things here, then begrudgingly packing them up into a care package for the winner!)

I am thrilled to report that Coleen was the reporter of the one-thousandth sock! All the comments on my blog are sent automatically to my e-mail, and the e-mail automatically sorts these by their incoming time, so that's the order in which I read them. And Coleen's second Goose Sock, knit in Stork yarn (I get a kick out of the aviary theme) was the one thousandth reported. I'm thrilled to report this because Coleen is a new friend in the real world, and a fantastic cool chick. And I'm doubly thrilled because I live near her, so I'm gonna get to see the gorgeous yarn Amy sends her. So she's lucky to win, I'm lucky to see the yarn she wins, and I'm lucky to know her, too.

~~~~~~~~

GB was home for almost thirty hours this week, and we saw the new Harrison Ford movie "Firewall" which both of us agreed was one of the better action movies we've seen in quite a while. It's not making any deep political commentary, it's not high art, but it was a good movie. Lots of suspense, full enough of action and big booms GB was thoroughly entertained, but enough character development that I didn't feel like it was one long special effect.

Then today I got my commentary fix (I love commentaries. I will watch a movie three times in a row if there are two commentaries on the DVD) and watched the commentaries for both Walk the Line and Rent. Both commentaries were really good! The director for Walk the Line looks at performances the same way I do, and it was neat to hear his take on things put in a way that took me back to my theatre days. And Rent - well, it would be hard for me not to love that, and to hear their takes on things... just fascinating stuff.

~~~~~~~~

And one last shot, a little purse that's a store sample. It's a funky new polyester yarn that people kept saying looked beaded, but is actually a simple polyester cord wrapped randomly and sporatically with colored thread. Tricky to knit with because it was so stiff, but it makes a cute purse (which isn't lying right because it hasn't been blocked - it'll get stuffed and hang on a wall, I'm not concerned)


No pattern, I made it up as I went along when I was working at the store one day, and I eyeballed it to end up with literally three inches left in the ball. (You can't tell from the photo, but there's a bobble on the front of the bag that serves as the button, and the eyelet on the front which the ribbon is threaded through goes around that as a closure.)

Okay, Delphine and I are off to play for the weekend - have a good one!