Potpourri

January 5, 2007 By

I’m all over the place today, so let’s go random.

— Yesterday, while working on the sofa (seriously – I was really working!) I went to put one of my feet up on the ledge and notice what I thought was a pill on the back of my sock. I wish.

You know how sometimes you think things and then you write them down or say them out loud and you wonder if you just tempted the fates and brought on EXACTLY what you didn’t want? Well, that’s how I felt yesterday when I noticed the hole. The first hole I’ve ever found in one of my handknits. The first hole in one of my precious socks. The first hole in one of my jaywalkers. The first hole in my beautiful Socks That Rock.

I was devastated. I may have cried a little bit. For a good five minutes I wondered why we ever knit at all – especially socks – if they’re only going to get holes in them. Seriously. I was ready to quit on the spot. But then I looked at the hole – which, by the way, is on the LEG of the sock in a place that has never rubbed against any shoe – and I realized that it is only one stitch. It must have gotten caught on something and snapped. I have no idea. And I do think it is completely fixable. I mean, it is only ONE STITCH. I have looked at some options – namely at Grumperina’s recent post and the Knitty article she linked to and I will fix it, but for now, I’m not in the mood to be reminded that things don’t last forever. Hits a little too close to home. So I picked up the socks I’ve been knitting – the G-Rocks and January One socks and I got back on the horse. Hopefully I’ll have a perfectly mismatched finished pairs of socks to show you Monday.

— Reason No. 4,391,628 why I love The INTERNETTTTT. (See? No S!) The vast majority of blogs I read are knitting blogs – but I don’t just love them for the knitting. Lately I’ve been running down memory lane because of a couple of blog posts. First, Jane mentioned When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit in a post. This was one of my absolute FAVORITE books as a girl. I thought I had my dog-eared copy – the one with the gray cover and ink line drawing on the cover, but I couldn’t find it. So I went out and bought it and read it and loved it all over again. I was a little bit afraid that it wouldn’t hold up to my memories, but it did. And honestly, because of a part in that book, I can’t be sick without thinking of it. And then, just yesterday, one of the Two Black Sheep sisters (fess up! Which one of you was it?) mentioned my OTHER MOST FAVORITE book: The Westing Game. I’ve read this book more times than I can count. And as soon as I’m done the book I’m reading now, you can bet I’ll read it again. What I love about these posts is that these are books that are mine – that I never really talk about or ever really talked about growing up – I don’t remember my siblings ever reading either of these books or friends or anyone for that matter. Yet here are two people, who are really strangers to me, sharing something about them that is just like me. Thank you for that. It’s really a nice feeling.

So I’m going to throw out another title – a book that came along way before that Harry guy – Half Magic, by Edward Eager. I loved this book and I hope it sparks in someone else the same feelings the other bloggers sparked in me. Happy reading!

— I’m not sure how many ways I can say this, but I found someone else using a photograph of mine without my permission. In theory, I didn’t object to the way the photo was being used, and there was a link back to my site and credit for the picture, but YOU HAVE TO ASK ME FIRST! I’m not sure how much clearer I can be. I OWN the picture, I OWN the words. THEY ARE MINE. ASK ME FIRST. I hope this is the last to be said on this matter. (And, again, it’s not you. Unless you and I exchanged emails about this – where I was very friendly, I thought, and told you you could use the picture, just ask next time – then it’s NOT YOU.)

— I’ve been really missing my spinning lately. I waited forever for my WooLee Winder (over six weeks!) and then I got it and it was a disaster. I’ve been seeing all this great yarn being spun all over the place and it makes me sad because I’ve still got my wheel in time out. It’s not the wheel’s fault and after reading Judy’s post today, I’m going to spin on Sunday. Distaff Day. It’s as good a day as any and if the WW doesn’t work out – I’m taking that sucker off and I’m spinning without it.

— There will also be some swatching this weekend. Look what came in the mail today:

Margene has been singing the praises of Beaverslide Yarn (grow up Annie!) for forever. The Friday night before my birthday, after serious consultation with Margene, I placed my first order. Huckleberry Heather is the color and I love it. Get yourself some color cards. Totally worth it.

This yarn is a departure for me, what with it’s 10% Kid Mohair. I’ve gone on the record many times about how much I HATE mohair, angora, alpaca – any of those hairy yarns. But Margene assured me that I wouldn’t even know it’s there and then she sent me a snippet that I stuffed in my bra and wore around for the day and I barely noticed it at all – and when I did it was to remark at it’s softeness. I can’t wait to knit it up. What’s it going to be? A Central Park Hoodie. Because all the cool kids are making them.

The coolest part of my package from Beaverslide – the stamps!

This is so totally going to be a superhero sweater! Have a great weekend!
L, C

Filed Under: Central Park Hoodie, Hard Rock Socks, Socks

I’m thinking I know what you’re thinking

December 27, 2005 By

So yesterday we went down to Philly for some Chanukah festivities. Our first stop was at my Aunt’s where basically my mother’s family and some extras got together for a deli tray. (Do me a favor – don’t ask about the deli tray – if you don’t know, you don’t want to know.) In the olden days, we’d all get together at my grandmother’s for Chanukah and a deli tray, but Grandmom’s not into entertaining anymore and my aunt seems to be all into the family thing these days. One of the things she requested when she sent out the printed invitations was that all the adults bring a $5-10 gift for a pollyanna type exchange. Normally, I DO not like to participate in these things. First off, I can’t stay within a budget (as any of my secret pals might attest to) and also, what the hell can you buy for $5-10? Apparently a lot.

After eating and the kids opening their presents (I mean, c’mon, how much happier could my grandmother have been when my nephew jumped up and said “How did you know? It’s JUST what I wanted!!! My sister was pretty stoked too since she bought the gift for my grandmother. Good deeds all around. Warms my heart!) it was time for the adult gift exchange. Have you ever done this? Everyone gets a number and you go in backwards order – person #10, for instance, picks a gift. Then person #9 can either pick a new gift, or any other gift. So if you’re #1 you basically can choose from anything. These things can get kind of raucous. Especially when a NON-relative takes away your 85 yr old grandmother’s jet propulsion foot massager and said grandmother winds up with a flask. Fun, fun, fun! Anyway, to make a long story even longer, G’s gift ended up being one of those 20Q toys. Have you seen these?

You think of something, and then the artificial intelligence machine asks you 20+ questions until it guesses what you’re thinking of – the thing is freaking freaky! It pretty much always gets it right from Aardvark to Tampon. I shit you not. My sister was the one who contributed the gift and we had many hours of fun before the exchange. Anyway, so G is in line at Dalessandro’s Steaks (because one of our agreements when he comes to Philly is that he gets to try yet ANOTHER cheesesteak place. He fancies himself a connoisseur. If I’ve told him once I’ve told him a million times: no matter if he married a Philly girl, no born in Boston raised in Chicago and Jersey City boy is EVER going to be a cheesesteak connoisseur!) and he’s completely engrossed in his 20Q game when some guy, with his kid standing next to him, starts tapping G on the shoulder. He looks up and the guy pulls his own 20Q game out of his pocket and proceeds to say: “Last night I thought of the most vile disgusting things and it got them all right!”

If that’s not an endorsement for a toy, I don’t know what is.

Okey dokey. Because it NEVER gets old, The Hard Rock Jaywalker:

Socks That Rock – Hard Rock Colorway. ‘Nuff said.

And in the it’s getting REALLY old it’s multiplying category:

Yup! That’s right folks! We’ve ADDED gifts to the pile that can’t be opened until my birthday. I’ve blogged about this before, but my Dad gives us all a birthday book – a special book from him – since we were born. So when I saw him yesterday he gave me my book(s). With explicit instructions NOT to open them until Jan 1. He does this every year actually, so it’s a no brainer. And usually it’s the only present I open in the morning (G gives me his presents at midnight) so I don’t mind waiting. Now I’ll have a BONANZA! Yippee!

Off for a much needed haircut and lunch with my honey today! Have a great one!

Filed Under: Hard Rock Socks, Socks

Thundercrack!

November 28, 2005 By

baby’s back.
This time she’ll tell me how she really feels.

This post will have something for everyone! Consider it Random Wednesday. Only it’s Monday.

As I mentioned on Friday, Thanksgiving went really well. The food was great, company better and it all went off without incident. Except for the fact that my sister got a cold Wednesday night and felt miserable all day Thursday, it couldn’t have gone better. My contribution (besides watching the kids off and on all day to keep them out of their mom’s hair and vaccuuming) was a salad. I modeled it after my favorite salad of all time from Gigino’s in NYC. It’s the Peperina salad and I made it with mixed baby lettuces, shaved pear, shaved parmesan, pecans (I thought they used pecans, but I guess they use walnuts) and pomegranate seeds sprinkled with white balsamic vinegar. I was really pleased with how it came out and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I’ve got no pictures of the kids because I didn’t take my camera with me. I know. Blasphemy. But I’m sick of taking pictures and I’d just download them to the computer and they would sit there. Besides this was a break from photography work and it worked because yesterday I got A LOT of work done and I’m feeling like I’m back on track. At least a little bit. But I got a lot of cuddle time with the kids and they got their new bunk beds which was a trip in and of itself. My nephew ended up sleeping on the bottom bunk and my niece slept with me on the floor. The baby is big as can be – if I could only show you his monster thighs – but he’s so much fun! He giggles nonstop and just smiles so sweet and he’s such a cuddler. This is definitely one of my favorite ages. They’re still babies, but they can engage you in that wide eyed wonderful way. All you have to do is smile and his whole face lights up. I miss them.

She moves up, she moves back
Out on the floor there just is no one cleaner
She does this thing she calls the “Jump back Jack”

I hit the mail jackpot on Friday. Georgie was particularly impressed. I always call him to find out about the mail when I’m away and his standard reply is junk junk and more junk. This time HE called ME. There were lots of lovely thank you cards from all those boxes I sent out the other day – so sweet! An email is plenty, but a card? In the mail? For me? I was really touched. Thank YOU! Vicki‘s card was my favorite – check out this knitted thank you:

I tried to find the card on the artist’s website, but it wasn’t there. Hey Vicki! Where’d you get the card? It’s SO LaPierre!

But what really impressed Georgie was the package from Hong Kong. I got my Crossed In Translation book! Yay! The book is really beautiful – think Rowan meets the House of the Rising Sun. And the freaking pattern is TWO pages. Lucky for us, knitalongers, there’s barely any words to go along with the pattern. It’s all charts and schematics. We should be able to figure this out no problem, right? G-Love thinks I’ve completely lost it. He may be right.

Oh and rest assured, seeing the sweater in it’s native language has only made me love it more.

She slips, she slides, she slops, she bops, she bumps, she grinds

Now if only I could stop making socks:


Kaci – this pictures for you! Mwah!


I finished one…


and started another!

For all you Jaywalkers out there, I’m planning on doing an FAQ for this Friday’s update. So if you have questions – let me know in the comments, or in an email. And don’t forget you can always email me or Kathy (who, by the way, is an inspiration to me! First Jaywalker, and now Grumpecue! Kathy, you’re killing me!) Basically everyone seems to have similar issues, so we’ll address them this week. Namely gauge and the bar increases (yes – the holes are supposed to be there! It’s a design thing! 😉 ) But if you’ve got other questions, let me know.

My heart’s wood, she’s a carpenter
She’s an angel in the night, what she does is alright

As much as I love my socks, I’m sort of getting frustrated with myself. It’s like I can’t knit ANYTHING else. I think about all these projects I want to knit – mittens, finish my gloves, work on the Prairie Blanket. I just can’t seem to concentrate. I’m trying to go with the flow like Margene says, but I’m antsy. And this doesn’t just relate to my knitting either – when’s the last time I read a book? Can someone tell me please? How pathetic is that?

We’re not going to even discuss the fact that I just got off the phone with the embryo people – I was late on my payment to keep those totsicles frozen. When’s that shrink appointment again?

Dance with me, partner, dance with me, partner
Dance with me, partner, all night

If you’ve got the DVD, make sure you watch the supplemental material on documentary disc. I can’t stop watching Thundercrack. Over and over and over again. It’s simply stunning. D
O IT! WATCH IT NOW! You can thank me later.

Filed Under: Carbon Jaywalkers, CIT KAL, Hard Rock Socks, Miscellaneous, Socks

Pretty In Pink

November 22, 2005 By

We’re all about full disclosure here at January One, no matter how embarrassing. What you see in the picture above is indeed more sock yarn. You know what? It’s really not nice to make fun of people and their disabilities, i.e. obsessive compulsive disorder. Lately I’ve been really into pink (no, really?) – I don’t know. I’m not really what you’d call a girly girl but I like pink these days. I have a couple of pinks shirts heavy in the rotation and a pair of pink cords I like to wear and well everyone should have a few pink days here and there. The yarn on the left is from Felicia over at the Sweet Shop. Not only is the yarn bright and vibrant and PINK, Felicia does a wonderful job packaging everything up. There’s a great tag on the yarn and the whole thing came with a lovely personalized note – nice work Felicia. I’m sure the attention to detail will become very apparent when I knit up the yarn. The stuff on the right is Vesper – Neopolitan. Good enough to eat! I’m a sucker for ice cream. When I was growing up we always had ice cream in the house (it’s a Philly thing I think) and we’d often have vanillachocolatestrawberry in the freezer. I always thought it was interesting that the vanilla would be gone first. Then the chocolate and lastly the strawberry. Simple pleasures. Sock yarn and ice cream. Tell me, what’s better than that?

Nice segue, no? Actually, the jury’s still out on these. I’m not sure. I LOVE the reds and pinks and I like them together with the black and grays but I don’t know. I’m reserving judgement until the sock is done. This is 17 repeats. I’ll start on the heel today. I went to bed at around 12:30PM. Georgie and I had a good night last night – lots of reconnecting, which we desperately needed. We do our own thing so much of the time and when we get really busy it’s so hard to feel that connect. We went to dinner and talked about how more than half the married people in our families have gotten divorced and it was awfully sad but at the same time, it brought us closer together – we work hard at what we have and know how fragile and precious our marriage is – no matter how strong as well.

I’m so PUMPED to see how many people have signed up for the Jaywalker KAL. I’m planning a big surprise in January. Should I tell you now? I’m thinking we’ll need some big time fun after the holidays to help keep us from those S.A.D. duldrums. How about a race? We’ll start sometime in January and see who can knit a pair of Jaywalkers the fastest. What do you think? We’ll put lots of specific rules up there (no. of repeats, etc.) and pick a first, second and third winner. Socks That Rock as the spoils of course. Oh and it goes without saying that even though I might race along with you – I will not be one of the winners. Well. I’ll be a winner because you’re all WINNERS! More details as January approaches.

Filed Under: Hard Rock Socks, Stash

Excuse Me, Ma’am

November 21, 2005 By

Yes, Officer?
Do you know how fast you were Jaywalking?
Yes, Officer, duh. They don’t call them Addi TURBOS for nothing!

Have I ever told you my goofy story about my Addi Turbos? I was a fairly new knitter – eh – I don’t know – maybe a year in? And I had seen these Addi Turbos at yarn stores and I was intrigued. But I was nervous. Everything I read said they were super fast. I wanted something fast – it would make me feel like a real knitter, I thought. But how fast was fast? So I’m in an LYS buying some yarn with a non-knitting friend and I say to the sales person, “So do these needles go really, really fast? How fast are they?” (I guess I was looking for some kind of miles per hour equivalent – like minutes per row? MPR?) She looked at me in all seriousness and said, “Well, they go as fast as you can knit.” DUH! I love that story. Not sure my stupidity translates so well in the retelling, but trust me. I felt mighty stupid.

Anyway, it’s been suggested in the comments that maybe I have a problem with a certain yarn and a certain sock pattern and a certain singer whose first name begins with B and last name begins with S. I’m just saying. Why can’t the Jaywalker pattern become my stockinette sock? If I’m getting results as wonderful as the ones in the picture above, why should I get bored? Or feel the need to move on? And for some reason – I’m not sure I can articulate it – these socks go RIDICULOUSLY FAST for me. Maybe it’s because I know all the numbers in my head? So I can count my progress and immediately know where I am in the sock? All I know is that it took me a month and a half to finish the cuff on my Retro Ribs socks, a pattern I will probably never pick up again, and they’re only a couple inches longer and have less stitches. I know the cuff is short on these, but I don’t think they’re THAT short. Whatever. I’m not making excuses, I’m just casting on again:

Last time I checked, the blogpoll race between Carbon and Hard Rock was still pretty tight, so I’m sticking with my plan to do one Carbon, one Hard Rock, blah blah blah. I can’t WAIT to see how the Hard Rock knits up. I’ve finished the ribbing and did one pattern repeat. Today I’m going to visit a friend in the hospital, so I think the progress will be good. I’m not going to kill myself on this sock – read finish it in three days by staying up until past 2AM three nights in a row. I’m freaking exhausted. I need to break the stay up late cycle. I have too much work to do and I’m tired of the holidays already. Yeah. Bah Humbug to you too.

I’m updating the Jaywalker KAL page with names, and also Natalia has started a pair toe-up with some notes, so I’ll put a link on the page as well.

Filed Under: Carbon Jaywalkers, Hard Rock Socks