Life, Knitting and the Pursuit of Roller Coasters

My mom has a knack for turning just about any hobby into a money making opportunity, and since her hobby is collecting dolls, we were up at the crack of dawn to setup a couple of tables and sell at a doll show on Saturday morning. It was exhausting, but I was able to finish a sock while sitting there watching all the local doll people mingle.

We wrapped up there and literally went home and all 3 of us crashed at 4pm. It was exhausting. And mom and dad will be doing another show this weekend in Grand Rapids.

Sunday for Mother’s day, we met mom’s aunt for brunch and I gave mom the socks I’d finished at the doll show. I had hoped to have time to make a different pair for her, but I’ll get around to them eventually. My knitting is just kind of being pulled in a zillion directions right now.

The finished socks are the stockinette socks in Trekking that I’ve been picking at for a while. I’ll be starting a couple other stockinette pairs for the summer as I have a few colorways of Knit Picks Felici that I want to play with. The Gelato colorway will be mom’s next pair, and the Coney Island colorway will likely be my park knitting for the summer.

But in the meantime, I’m focussed on the socks for my aunt and hoping to get them wrapped up yet this week so I can give them to her at the celebration of life on Thursday.

I also had a winning day on Friday which was a great end to the week after everything else last week. I was the runner up winner on Christina’s blog contest. Also, in the ultimate spot of enabling, I won fiber on A Verb For Keeping Warm. Camel/Silk blend no less. I think that marks the start of the slippery slope of spinning that I’ve managed to avoid until now. At least I know there’s an amazing spinning shop nearby where I can immerse my self in a new hobby once I’m ready.

Thank you all for the messages of sympathy on the loss of my cousin. She had a rough life  with more than her fair share of medical issues and it was a rough couple of weeks that lead up to her death. In lieu of a memorial service, there will be a celebration of life get together for family and friends towards the end of next week. As part of my grieving process, that creative spark in my head shot off and I’m working on a sock design in her memory. The initial pair from the pattern will go to my aunt as a belated mother’s day gift. And once I have it written up, the proceeds from the pattern sales will be donated to the American Diabetes Association in Chandra’s memory.

I am still moving through life as usual this week though. I’ve decided this year that in addition to my CSA, I’m also going to grow a few extra veggies on the porch. I’m also going to use some of my economic stimulus check to get a chest freezer so I don’t waste as much food when I have the CSA and veggie garden providing.

Since I’m in an apartment, the veggie garden is a few plants in a couple planters. And I picked out plants and supplies this weekend. I need to get some more soil and redistribute the plants a little bit since I only had enough soil to fill 2 of the planters, but it’s a start.

If all survive, I should have tomatoes, squash, eggplants, green and jalapeno peppers, cilantro, thyme and basil on the patio.

My kitties are indoor only cats, but since I was outside planting, I left the door open and they did a little exploring of their own.

What’s funny about that is that generally Gromit is my timid cat. He’ll warm up to people when he’s good and ready and not a second before and while he’s curious, he’ll usually let Lily explore something first before he indulges. Lily is typically far more curious and more social. But Gromit is also my window cat, so he’s more familiar with the outdoors at least in appearance. So, when given the rare opportunity to explore, he was far more comfortable and curious outside than she was. She didn’t leave the patio and jumped inside the door over every little thing.

He kept trying to leave the patio and go explore.

But once he started looking a little too comfortable and repeatedly wandered off the patio, we quickly got inside so there wouldn’t be any disappearing acts. I think if he’d seen a bird or a chipmunk or a squirrel while he was out there, he would have been on it in a heartbeat and I’d have never gotten him back inside.

37 is far too young.

You will be missed.

Chandra Page

1971 - 2008

Remember all those wee-tiny socks?

One of them has gained a purpose in it’s wee-tiny life.

I suppose I should tell the back story. Guard your children, this one is a little on the *ahem* adult side. Only a little though.

My coaster friend Craig keeps joking about wanting socks. His ulterior motive when I’m wearing or working on handknit socks in his presence is to get one from me and take it into a private place for a “photo session” ala Red Hot Chili Peppers.

So, when I made all the wee-tiny socks for the swap, I decided one of them would be for him. Because if he’s going to have a hand-knit sock for such photo sessions, he should have one that fits.

I gave it to him last weekend at Six Flags Great America. This was his reaction.

So, he’s decided that his project for this summer is for the sock to show up in photos on his various trips. This weekend, he took it to Indiana Beach.

You never know where that sock will pop up. I’ll keep the blog posted with updates while it’s visiting the amusement parks of the world this summer. I hear it might even make it to Europe.

The grass is green and the trees are starting to fill in.

The fan is in the window.

The Oberon is available again.

And I’m now out of Sock Madness.

The pattern released on Monday morning and I spent all day knitting and picked at the sock some on Tuesday, but I wasn’t anywhere close to being fast enough this round. So, I took a nap on Tuesday and I haven’t picked up the sock since then. I’m still hoping to finish this pair this weekend or early next week though and I’ll start the next one soon since it releases on Sunday.  They are gorgeous and I made it further than I did last year. I’m honestly happy to have made it as far as I did and I’m also thrilled to be done from the competitive side. I think 3-4 rounds is just about right as SM was starting to cut into my life a little more than I’d have liked and I just started losing that competitive edge this round. And hey, I still get new socks and some extra patterns out of the deal, so it’s all good.

Sock Madness Round 3.  I completed the pair earlier this evening and was the 10th finished in my division out of 12 going through for the round. So, I’ve officially made it further than I did last year. While I’m still going to knit like mad and try in round 4, I’m pretty sure I won’t make it through to 5 and beyond. I mean, I can be fast but there are some insanely fast knitters playing along.

Slippin’ Stripin’ Socks - Sock Madness Round 3

Knitpicks Shadow (laceweight!) held double, in colorways Jewel and Oregon Coast.

Once I was back in the realm of the living (after grafting that second toe), I went through email and one of the winner’s I’d drawn, Holly, already had a copy of my pattern. So, I’m still going to send her a little something, but I drew a replacement winner as well. Congrats Jen!

What a crazy week.

First off, thanks again for all the lovely comments on the blogiversary post! I had so much fun discovering a ton of new-to-me blogs and making some new Ravelry friends as well. I closed the comments shortly after midnight last night and copied everything over to a spreadsheet so I’d have numbers to feed into the number generator. It selected Holly and Rachel as the knitter winners and Dave as the coaster winner. Check your emails folks.

Speaking of last night, a certain YarnHarlot was in the general vicinity, and my friend Rachel and I headed out to Ann Arbor after work to hang out with all the knitters. Her talk was fun and funny and fabulous, just as it was the last time I saw her. I didn’t spot as many of the local knitters that I recognize as I thought I would, but we had fun anyway. (We’ll pretend that that isn’t a blurry dark photo with the camera still in macro mode and the flash turned off, ok? I was star struck, who thinks to check the camera settings?)

I was knitting away frantically on sock 1 for Round 3 of Sock Madness the whole evening and we sat at the end of the row and talked to just about everyone as they passed by until the end of the book line caught up to us. I was just finishing up the toe, and actually kitchnered it closed shortly after while we waited for dinner. I’m working frantically on sock #2 today, hoping to get the pair done and submitted tonight and maybe make it through to round 4.  More info on the socks when the pair is done. Must get back to frantic knitting right now.

My wee tiny sock arrived at it’s destination late last week. My recipient was KnittingGnome.

And the one headed my way made it on Saturday.

Here it is in all it’s wee tinyness with the adorable sheep stitch marker she sent with it, from Sheep In The City Stacey. Thanks Stacey! It’s adorable.

And Thanks Yarn Miracle for hosting the whole wee-tiny sock swap. It was great fun and far less work than a lot of the other swaps.

Reversai was the pattern of choice for this round of Sock Madness.

We didn’t have the full 40 for each group in round one, so some of us got traded to other teams. I had started out as a member of the Uconn team and was traded to Tennessee. They welcomed me with open arms, but this round especially has been the fastest group. 20 from each group will get through this round and I was #14.

As a April Fools, they gave us the pattern on Monday instead of Tuesday which completely threw off my whole week. I lost an hour of knitting time Monday night while setting up an April Fools of my own on Fun Factories (we swapped out our background image on all forum themes and had some made up headlines in our news fader).

I averaged half a sock a day this week. I had the first sock to the heel on Monday night, turned the heel at lunch on Tuesday and knit the foot Tuesday night (finished at 2 am). Wednesday I cast on and knit to the heel on sock #2. And today I turned the heel at lunch and snuck in a few more rows in the afternoon. The pair was fully finished just after 10 pm.

There were some complaints about the stitch count being too high on this pattern, and while I can sense that mine may sag a little with some wear, they initially fit pretty well. And as much of a pain as the garter stitch sole and toe was to knit, it seems to wear really cushy. I think they were made extra cushy with my yarn choice, Gypsy Knits BFL in Merry Go Round. This stuff was like knitting with butter clouds. The yarn has a bit of a sheen to it, and the garter stitch especially is so soft. Luxury socks indeed.

I loved the garter stitch short row heel especially. I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed any of the short row heels I’ve knit in the past. I was never confident that I was doing it right and I didn’t like the fit of the ones I’d finished so I think of all the socks I’ve knit to this point, only 3 pair have had a short row heel. But between the garter stitch and the way the yarn striped in the heel, it really made sense this time. All my wrapped stitched were a different color from the center stitches I was working, so it made it really obvious which stitches they were. And the added stretch plus the “squat” stitches of the garter make them fit my feet really well.

Bring on Round 3!

Can’t make just one.

Wee tiny socks for the wee tiny sock swap. From left to right yarns are Sunshine Yarn, Lana Grossa, Claudia’s, and Fiesta Baby Boom. Now I just have to decide which one to drop in the envelope to my swap match on Monday. Or maybe I’ll just make a half-dozen more.