Commission Socks

My new boss, Dr. Boss, is a man after my own heart. A man obsessed with socks. Specifically, a man obsessed with crazy, quirky, eccentric socks. His obsession has reached the point that his wife has had to make a rule: for every new pair of socks he acquires, an old pair of socks must be disposed of.

He found out that I knit socks. He heard me wax eloquent on the joys of custom made handknit wool socks. He saw the crazy socks I have made for myself. He decided he needed socks.

Since Abilene has no yarn shop, and since the few craft stores/superstores that carry what passes for yarn do not have sock weight, I emailed him some links to online sock yarn suppliers. I did not realize what an ordeal selecting a yarn color would be for him.

In the end he decided he wanted to go with Berocco Sox, which I was going to order from Jimmy Beans Wool. But even after narrowing it down to a brand, he had a hard time narrowing it down to a color. Back and forth, back and forth...he kept changing his mind. Finally he got it down to two colors: Lancaster and Humberside. He could not decide.

That was when I had my moment of brilliance. I would make two pairs of socks...one in Lancaster for him, and one in Humberside for his wife. That way, maybe, he wouldn't have to get rid of a pair when he got the new pair...after all, she would be getting socks, too!

He went for it, and I ordered the yarn. Unfortunately the Lancaster was back ordered and has not yet arrived...the Humberside is here though, cast on, and started. Maybe I can get the Humbersides done before the Lancaster comes in. Fingers crossed!

Winding Whiz!

I admit it. I was a little worried about how the nostepinde was going to work out...what if I crashed and burned as a yarn winder? A lot of the instructional websites warned that many people end up with oblong yarn balls, and that the stackable upright kind I prefer are hard to make.

It was with great trepidation that I embarked on my first winding attempt. I decided to use the Classic Elite Alpaca Sox yarn in "rose" that Mom and Dad got me for my birthday, since the nostepinde itself was a birthday present. (Come to think of it, the swift was a Christmas present from them as well...aren't they just a lovely pair of fiber-fanatic enablers!?!)

I followed the instructions I had found...and...Voila! A beautiful, upright, center-pull, stackable ball of sock yarn just waiting to be used!

I am hooked.

Not only does the nostepinde look like a magic wand, it makes me feel like a wizard!

So, last night I went ahead and wound another skein of yarn...this time Malabrigo sock yarn. I love having yet another "productive" activity to justify all the time I waste watching DVDs!

And, as long as the novelty hasn't worn off...I have scads left in the stash to wind: Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, 1000 yards of lace-weight Egyptian cotton, 4 skeins of mercerized cotton, Cascade 220, 2 different colors of chunky llama...I could go on...

Who knows, I might just unwind the balls I have done in the past, and rewind them as center-pulls...although, I should probably knit again at some point...

Techno Knitting

I have an iPhone.

I love my iPhone for many reasons: the built in iPod, the built in GPS, constant email access, remote facebook access, internet at my fingertips, high quality camera, etc.

But now I have a NEW reason to love my iPhone: the "EweStash" app.

This app allows me to not only catalog and keep track of all the yarn in my stash by color, fiber, gauge, and yardage...it is also fully searchable, AND lets me take a picture of the skein with my phone to save with the record. It also has a section to catalog knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Needless to say, this is a library knitter's dream come true.

Now when I am out at the store, if I come across a pattern I can make sure I don't already have the yarn at home. And, once I use a skein, I just delete it from the stash!

I am in love.

Withdrawal

I have knit a total of 10 rows of one dishcloth since I moved.

I did reorganize the craft closet, but have just had too much to do around the apartment to find even 15 minutes in which to knit.

The 10 rows I did get done only got done because I happened to have the dishcloth in my desk at work, and things quieted down enough for me to actually take my break.

I need to knit.

I am going through withdrawal.

...maybe tonight?

Knowing What Really Matters

I spent a good part of yesterday with my friend Sushi looking for an apartment. I had been hoping to move the beginning of July/August.

We went to a very nice complex and talked to the management, picked up a rental application...and most importantly toured a vacant apartment.

There were several things that I definitely needed to know, such as: does it include a washer and dryer? is parking assigned? what utilities are included? is high-speed internet available?

Still...in the end...I knew what really mattered:

Would the closet hold all of my yarn?



(Turns out it would...so I went ahead and rented it. Now instead of mid-summer, I am moving next Saturday! My stash and swift will finally come out of storage!)

The Scarf That Went With Everything!

I needed to knit something for myself. I know that this sounds horribly selfish, but every now and then it's true.

I spend so much time knitting for other people, and gladly doing so, that sometimes I neglect my own warmth needs. (The exception here is socks. With very few exceptions, socks are ALWAYS for me.) Still, it is like the old saying about the cobbler's children going barefoot. I get cold, and have nothing with which to wrap my neck. At this statement I fully expect everyone I know who has seen the bin-o-scarves to burst into uncontrolled laughter...the thing is that the bin has a lot of scarves, but they are all very outfit specific. I don't have just a good go with everything scarf.

Or at least I didn't...until now.

I was reading "The Blog" back in November and, since the Yarn Harlot is essentially the mother ship/inspiration for all knitting bloggers/She-Who-Is-Without-Equal/my knitting idol, fell in love with the scarf she was making. Granted, she called it a fad from a year ago, but I must have had my head in the proverbial sand when it was going around (or just been totally caught up with moving to CA).

I went to my LYS and picked up some Noro.

I started the scarf.(Pattern is available here. Misplaced the ball bands, so am not 100% sure, but I think I used #08 and #284.)

Other projects got in the way, but I continued to work on the scarf. It was fun, not knowing what color was going to pop up next. I only had to break the yarn once due to the stripes bleeding together too much.

It was even the project I was working on at New Years.

Well, I finally finished it. And just in time, too, for my trip to Washington DC. I wore it with pride all day on Saturday, and have worn it several times since I got back. It is amazing. It literally goes with EVERYTHING I own. It has every color in it, and can work with the brown neutrals or the grey neutrals. It can look dressy enough with a sweater for church on Sunday morning, and at the same time is casualy enough to go with jeans and sneakers for walking around. I LOVE IT. I am thinking of making a beanie out of the left overs.

In my head I have already knit several more of these lovely things in my head, including a very masculine one for one of the guys in my family. (Now I just have to get through a few more stash projects so I can justify purchasing the yarn for said scarves. They are addictive!)

A Yarn For Every Knitter And A Knitter For Every Yarn

I was walking through a yarn shop the other day and saw what to me was a HIDEOUSLY HORRID yarn. (Said fiber will go unnamed so that no one is offended and I don’t get sued by the manufacturer.) I thought to myself, “Who would buy that, what on earth would they do with it, and why would they even want to?” I kid you not, mere moments later another patron walked through the door, made a beeline for the shelf, and scooped some up. Apparently, she LOVES that yarn and uses it to make some sort of purse. (I still can’t envision that being at all attractive…) This got me thinking though about yarn personalities.

If I were to lay several balls of yarn out on a table and invite the knitters close to me to choose a skein, each would be drawn to a different fiber. This is because not every knitter likes every yarn. We are like addicts with drugs of choice. I can with almost 100% certainty predict what is going to turn on my friends:

NorCal Gal would immediately pick up something soft, probably worsted weight, machine washable, and blue.

Mom would go for a self-striping sock yarn in jewel tones, or perhaps a new color way of dishcloth yarn.

The Aunt would want something cheery, a novelty yarn that she could use in a garter stitch scarf, most likely a chunky weight.

I would look at the ball bands and pick an unusual fiber…or alpaca, anything in alpaca, and probably orange.

Princess or Prada would grab something glitzy and glam…fuzzy or sparkly…and then hand it to me since neither one knits.

This way every yarn eventually gets knit…just not by every knitter.