Calling All Virgins!

January 12, 2007 By

I’ve been astonished to learn that there are actually people out there in the world that have never tried Socks That Rock! It has occured to me that the best way I can help Blue Moon, and the greater world at large, is to do my best to rectify this situation.

CALLING ALL STR VIRGINS!!! LEAVE A COMMENT AND TELL ME WHY YOU NEED THIS YARN! ON SUNDAY JANUARY 14, I WILL CHOOSE, AT RANDOM, TEN LUCKY WINNERS AND THEY WILL RECEIVE A SKEIN OF SOCKS THAT ROCK. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. AND I’M GOING ON FAITH HERE THAT YOU’VE NEVER KNIT WITH STR!! But I have ways of finding out…mwahahahaha!

Go at it. Remember, you only pop that cherry once. Make it a good one!

ATTENTION VIRGINS!!!! BREAKING NEWS!!!! I JUST HEARD FROM BLUE MOON AND YOU HAVE MADE THEM LAUGH SO HARD THAT THEY ARE MATCHING MY GIVEAWAY – WHICH MEANS TEN SKEINS FROM ME AND TEN SKEINS FROM BLUE MOON!!!! THAT’S TWENTY LUCKY VIRGINS! KEEP IT COMING!

MORE BREAKING NEWS!!!! BLUE MOON AND I HAVE DISCUSSED THE FACT THAT YOU’RE ALL ABSOLUTELY INSANE AND WE’VE UPPED THE PRIZES TO THIRTY SKEINS – 15 FROM ME, 15 FROM BLUE MOON. I’LL BE CLOSING THE COMMENTS AT AROUND 11AM EST – TODAY. AND LATER ON I’LL BE BACK TO ANNOUCE THE WINNERS! SERIOUSLY. YOU ALL NEED TO GET OUT MORE.

Filed Under: Contest, STR

The Call for Calm

January 12, 2007 By

In reading through blogland, I’m thrilled to see so much support for the wonderful folks at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I want to reiterate that we shouldn’t worry about Blue Moon – they are strong, independent, FIERCE women who are perfectly able to defend themselves. There are lots of excellent, important reasons NOT to release the name of the bank. Trust them on this. They are not taking this lying down. Does this mean they don’t need your support? Of course they do. We can support them best by having faith in them, in their yarn, and most of all in our knitting and ourselves.

Filed Under: STR

Rock Your Socks

January 11, 2007 By

I feel like I’ve just seen an episode of the Twilight Zone. No doubt, many of you have received an email from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, the creators of Socks That Rock and my dear friends, outlining the recent troubles they’ve had. If you haven’t heard, or you aren’t part of the sock club, I’ll lay it out for you. The first incarnation of the Rockin’ Sock Club was so successful, Blue Moon decided to do another year. And this time it was PHENOMENALLY successful. So much so, that when payments began to come in for the club these last few weeks, the bank decided that it could not be a legitimate venture – there was no way that so many people would sign up for a “sock club” and that the only explanation was that it was a SCAM! The bank was so convinced about this “SCAM” they SHUT BLUE MOON DOWN. And decided that they would REFUND ALL THE MONIES COLLECTED. They did this without investigation, without listening to Blue Moon’s pleas for mercy – they did it unceremoniously and with possible grave consequences for a fledgling yarn company started by one woman with a love of fiber and an obsession with color.

You don’t need to worry about Blue Moon. I don’t need to worry about Blue Moon. Tina and Kaci and the whole crew out there on the Left Coast are resilient and strong and have a fucking fantastic sense of humor so they will survive. The sock club is back on track – no one will lose their spot – and the website, when it’s fully functional again, will be better than ever with new colors being unveiled soon. A tremendous set back, no doubt, but the yarn is too good to ever let die.

In the past week I’ve had many conversations with Tina, who has become a dear, dear friend of mine. I’ve known Tina for over a year now, and since our first conversation many moons ago, Blue Moon has grown in leaps and bounds. The company has gone from a one woman dyeing machine in a room the size of a closet to a full blown (albeit still small) production facility with multiple dyers. As with all growing companies offering a fantastic product, there have, of course, been bumps in the road. That’s what comes with success – especially fast success. But Tina and company have faced these bumps head on – and not once, from what I’ve seen, has the product, or customer service, suffered.

My love for Socks That Rock is long documented. One year ago last October I bought some yarn at a fiber festival and knit a pair of socks. It wasn’t the first pair of socks I knit, and it wasn’t the first sock yarn I’d used, but something clicked for me and quickly it became THE ONLY sock yarn for me. Sure, I’ve knit with others, but I’ve never enjoyed socks as much as I’ve enjoyed Socks That Rock. I don’t work for Blue Moon – I have no affiliation with them whatsoever besides the fact that I’m a good customer. And if for some reason Tina and I stopped being friends tomorrow, I’d still love Socks That Rock. In thinking about it, I’ve decided that my relationship with STR and socks is not unlike my relationship with Georgie and Bruce Springsteen. No! Seriously! Stay with me – you’ll see what I’m getting at. I’ve often told the story of how when I was falling in love with G, I also fell (a little bit) in love with Springsteen and how I can’t listen to Springsteen without thinking about G. I think the same thing kind of happened with socks and Socks That Rock. When I fell in love with knitting socks, it was really because of Socks That Rock. To me they are intertwined in a very fundamental way. Do I knit with other sock yarns? Sure, I’m not silly. But more and more when I go back to my beloved STR, I wonder why I ever left.

You may think I’m crazy. That’s okay. There are so many sock yarns out there – I’m sure you’ll find your one true love. I’m just so lucky to have found mine.

There’s another HUGE issue to talk about here. THE POWER OF KNITTERS. Dudes! We brought a BANK TO ITS KNEES. They didn’t BELIEVE that so many people would join up. They didn’t BELIEVE that YARN could move so many people. They didn’t BELIEVE such a large community could exist. We know better. We’ve seen it a million times. Raising money. Knitting hats. Knitting scarves. Gathering together in huge numbers. People joke that knitters can change the world, but WE ARE CHANGING THE WORLD! It’s about time we were taken seriously – by the blog world for sure (what do our numbers look like these days – I mean a new knitting blog is born like every ten seconds!) but the greater world most importantly. WE ARE A FORCE! Unfortunately, Blue Moon has had to suffer because of our powers, but we knitters are at heart a kind bunch, and our love will buoy Blue Moon and grow it even stronger. There is nothing we can’t do.

Thank you.
Cara

Filed Under: STR

A Tale of Two Swatches

January 9, 2007 By

My whole blogging schedule is so off it’s ridiculous. Usually I blog pretty early in the morning – depending on how big the post is and if I need to wait for some light to hit the apartment for pictures – and then it’s done and I do whatever else I’m doing for the day. But I’m in the middle of a big work project with an ever impending deadline and I’m trying to work in the morning BEFORE I blog. Today I worked in the morning (lots of tedious reading) and then I ran (WHOO HOO! I’m still intending my intentions) and then stuff happened and then I worked some more and NOW I’m blogging. I have so much to talk about and like no time at all. I’m not sure if there will be a post at all tomorrow – I’m lunching with the ladies in the big city and then, if I can stand it, I’ve got to squeeze in some work. I will try my best for Thursday.

Okay – on with things.

DUDES. Everyone and their 8 yr old brother knows: YOU SMELT IT, YOU DEALT IT. All I have to say is that I was out and about in my lovely little swampland town yesterday and I didn’t smell a freaking thing. (Besides, when we do smell stuff, we usually blame it on Lyndhurst.) Ahem.

So I’ve been swatching. Lots and lots of swatching. And I love my Beaverslide yarn so much after all this swatching I bought two more sweaters worth. No kidding. I am LOVING this yarn. Did you all get your colorcards? DO IT. Now. Anyway, I started swatching on Friday on US 8 needles, which is what the Central Park Hoodie calls for – by the way, there’s a KAL if anyone’s interested in joining. I made a beautiful swatch and measured it carefully, then SOAKed it, and laid it out to dry. This yarn is really really interesting. If you’re going to knit with it, make sure you swatch and wash your swatch the way you intend to wash your knitted item. First off, it blooms really nicely. My unblocked swatch was 19.5 stitches per 4″ and after drying it was 18 stitches to the 4″. BUT, it shrinks up in row gauge! My unblocked swatch was 26 rows per 4″ and that squished down to 29 rows per 4″. Huh. Interesting right? The pattern calls for 17 stitches and 24 rows per 4″, so I thought, let me swatch on 9s, see what I get. I got my US9 Addis out of their package sleeve in my needle drawer and swatched again. For my swatches, I cast on 36 stitches, knit four rows of garter stitch, switch to stockinette with 3 stitch garter borders until it seems about square then finish off with four rows garter. I don’t pin out my swatches when they’re blocking, just let them dry.

I enjoyed swatching with the 9s just as much as I liked the 8s and I’m thoroughly LOVING the yarn. I cast off and started measuring out the swatch. WHAT? It’s almost EXACTLY the same as the gauge on the 8s and worse yet – the row gauge is even SHORTER. This time I measured the dimensions of the swatch before I washed it. 71/4″ x 71/4″. After blocking the dimensions became 71/2″ x 63/4″. Shrinkage. I was totally perplexed by this yarn and actually called Margene to ask her about it – since she’s the one that turned me onto the yarn in the first place. She said she knew about the blooming, but not the shrinkage. (I love that this yarn expands and contracts at the same time!)

Here’s where the story becomes either extremely funny, or awfully embarrassing. Depends on if you’re Ann or Me. The next night, Sunday night, I went back to the needle drawer and took out my OTHER size 9 needle. I had a quick project I wanted to knit up (I’ll talk about it later this week) and I needed two circulars for it. I went back to the couch, where I knit the swatch the night before, and looked for my other size 9 needle. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I found a few needles that seemed like they could be 9s, but I check with my needle gauge and they’re 8s. Where the hell is the other 9?!? I ripped the couch apart. Blamed G (who threw up his hands and said he knew better than to EVER touch my knitting stuff) and got thisclose to throwing stuff because I couldn’t find this freaking needle.

THEN I figured it out. You know where I’m going don’t you? A few months (weeks? who knows the last time I tried to clean my disgusting house) ago I put away all my needles laying around. At Rhinebeck, I had picked up a handy new needle gauge to go along with the other two I have. The new one was special though!

It was made SPECIFICALLY by Skacel – the people who make Addi needles and since I pretty much knit exclusively with Addis – I figured it would be THE needle gauge to have. (It’s the one on the top right in the picture.) One problem – this needle gauge STICKS even when the needle is the RIGHT size. I figured out that all those weeks? months? ago when I was trying to put my needles away I must have mistaken an 8 for a 9 because I had a bit of trouble getting it through the 8 hole. Which makes perfect sense because I was short a size 9 Addi package and I keep all my packages.

Am I making ANY SENSE? I’ll spell it out for you. I KNIT TWO SWATCHES ON THE SAME DAMN NEEDLE SIZE! Laugh your asses off. I deserve it.

We won’t talk about the fact that I have no less than 5 size 8 circulars because the real problem is that I only have ONE size 9 circular. I couldn’t do my little project. But I could swatch again.

The good news out of all of this? Besides the irony of the fact that I never swatch and now I’ve made three – swatch #3 on size 9 needles got me stitch gauge. Which is much more important to me than row gauge because I can crunch the numbers pretty easily for that. Also, I can probably block out at least one more row. I think I still ended up with 29 rows per 4″. I have to count again. Furthermore, look how pretty the swatches are:

The fact that I can’t wait to cast on for the actual sweater after three swatches is a testament to this yarn. I’m planning on doing the back and fronts together, so I have to read over the pattern a bit before I actually do cast on, but look for it soon.

(See! I managed to write an entry that lives up to it’s title – long and boring. Just like Dickens. Although it’d be nice to get paid by the post. )

Filed Under: Central Park Hoodie

The Promised Land

January 8, 2007 By

Hey all – crazy busy here. Didn’t spin this weekend, didn’t work this weekend – all I did was knit swatches and get mail together. I’ve got lots to talk about, but no time today. I’m leaving you with some new You Tubes (which by the way is the greatest thing since the old illegal Napster – remember that? I’d sit there downloading songs from the minute I woke until I went to sleep.) Anyway – it’s some fantastic Bruce. Really, though, for the more adventurous among you. It’s all good, I swear, but they’re a bit long. Worth every second truthfully, but I’ll understand if you don’t want to take the time. They’re a little bit of what I’m all about!

Promised Land

She’s The One


Thundercrack

Enjoy! See you tomorrow!
L, C

Filed Under: Bruce

SALE! SALE! SALE!

January 7, 2007 By

ALL GONE! THANK YOU!


ALL YARN HAS BEEN STORED IN PLASTIC BAGS IN PLASTIC CONTAINERS IN A SMOKE FREE, PET FREE, LOVING ENVIRONMENT.

PAYMENT THROUGH PAYPAL ONLY.

ITEMS SHIPPED USPS PRIORITY MAIL. SHIPPING INCLUDED IN PRICE TO ADDRESSES IN THE CONTINENTAL US. ALL ITEMS SHIPPED OUTSIDE THIS AREA WILL BE CHARGED AN EXTRA $5.00.

I’ve tried to be as explicit in my descriptions of the yarn as I can be. What you see is what you get. THANK YOU!

Felted Flower Basket Bag Kit


I bought all of these materials to make the Felted Flower Basket Bag, which appeared in the Winter 2004/2005 issue of Vogue Knitting. The pattern is by Nicky Epstein. I’m putting everything together as a kit:

Cascade Magnum

100% Pure Wool

Each skein is approximately 123 yds, 8.82 oz

Color: 0050 Black / Dyelot 6682 THREE SKEINS

Color: 9431 Red / Dyelot 7011 TWO SKEINS

Color: 9430 Green / Dyelot 7014 TWO SKEINS

Color: 9415 Dark Green / Dyelot 6773 ONE SKEIN

TOTAL: EIGHT SKEINS

Very Fine Copy of Winter 2004/2005 Vogue Knitting with Felted Flower Bag Pattern

COMPLETE KIT: $110.00 BARGAIN BASEMENT PRICE: $80.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

ARTYARNS SUPERMERINO – PURPLES AND PINKS

Artyarns Supermerino

100% Merino Wool

Each ball is approximately 104 yds, 50g

Color: 108 Purples and Pinks

THIS YARN IS HANDPAINTED; EVERY SKEIN IS UNIQUE.

All skeins were purchased at the same time for better color matching.

10 SKEINS FOR SALE: $70.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

ARTYARNS SUPERMERINO – APRICOT

Artyarns Supermerino

100% Merino Wool

Each ball is approximately 104 yds, 50g

Color: 116 Nearly Solid Apricot

THIS YARN IS HANDPAINTED; EVERY SKEIN IS UNIQUE.

All skeins were purchased at the same time for better color matching.

9 SKEINS FOR SALE: $65.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

JO SHARP SILKROAD DK TWEED – BOHEME

Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed

85% Wool, 10% Silk & 5% Cashmere

Each ball is approximately 135m (147 yds), 50g ball (1 3/4 oz)

Color: 404 Boheme (blue tweed) / Dyelot 198

13 BALLS FOR SALE: $65.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

JO SHARP SILKROAD DK TWEED – PAPER ROSE

Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed

85% Wool, 10% Silk & 5% Cashmere

Each ball is approximately 135m (147 yds), 50g ball (1 3/4 oz)

Color: 406 Paper Rose (pink tweed) / Dyelot 01

15 BALLS FOR SALE: $75.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

JO SHARP SILKROAD DK TWEED – CEDAR

Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed

85% Wool, 10% Silk & 5% Cashmere

Each ball is approximately 135m (147 yds), 50g ball (1 3/4 oz)

Color: 408 Cedar (dark green tweed) / Dyel
ot 777

14 BALLS FOR SALE: $70.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

JO SHARP SILKROAD ULTRA

Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra

85% Wool, 10% Silk & 5% Cashmere

Each ball is approximately Length: 55m (60 yds), 50g ball (1 3/4 oz)

Color: 712 Truffle (chocolate brown) / Dyelot 108

17 BALLS FOR SALE: $75.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

FILATURA DI CROSA ZARA

Filatura Di Crosa Zara

100% Merino

Each ball is approximately 137yds, 50g

Color: 1481 Dark Denim / Dyelot 0160

8 BALLS FOR SALE: $65.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PURCHASES!

Filed Under: Stash Sale

Need one of these?

January 6, 2007 By


SNEAK PREVIEW

OF TOMORROW’S SALE YARN

AFTER THE JUMP!!!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Stash Sale

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

A Plethora of PPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

January 3, 2007 By

The Pretty Plucky Julie has plopped the letter P in my path! Thank you Julie! The way this meme works is that you get a letter from someone and then you have to list ten things, themes, theories, etc. in your life that begin with that letter.

PRESTO! IT’S P!

Photography If you had told me a few years ago that my main source of income would be from photography – let alone that I’d have my own business where naive parents have me come to their home and photograph their kids for all posterity – I’d have peeshawed right in your face. No way. Yet, this is my life. And I love it. I love developing my pictures after a shoot and finding that perfect shot. The one I know will bring tears to a parent’s eyes because THIS IS THEIR KID! Not the fancy dress goofy background shot they get at Sears or JC Penney (not that those studios don’t have a place in the world of kid photography – I mean where would we be without those awful pictures to look back on?) This is the picture that captures the essence of a child – who they really are. It’s a moment in time. And I’m thrilled that I can do that for a family. Thrilled.

Prose Just like I try to take photographs that are a moment in time, that’s what I used to like to write. Short Stories. Unlike novels which can span a lifetime, a short story, in my opinion, needs to begin with a single moment – and the story must grow out of that moment. I miss writing stories. I miss telling stories. I do write everyday – or almost everyday – right here on this blog and you know what? That writing DOES COUNT. It does. And I need it in my life. But in my soul I need to be writing fiction. I hope that one day I’ll get back to it. I really really really do. It tortures me that I don’t do it. Writers Block is a particularly pernicious poison in a writer’s soul.

Pickles Right now we have no less than four jars of pickles in our house – five if you count the sweet relish I like to put on my hot dogs – but only boiled or microwave hot dogs – not on bbqed hot dogs. Anyway, back to the pickles. I love pickles – sweet pickles, gherkins, kosher pickles – there really isn’t a pickle I’ve had that I didn’t like. Growing up (and by growing up I mean, like, last week) pickles were the main attraction at any holiday meal. My grandmother – god bless her – is not the greatest cook in the world – so all of the kids – my sisters and brother, my cousins and I – would devour the pickles set out in the pickle dish before the meal. I swear they’d be gone in like five seconds. I’ve never had the pickles we eat at my grandmom’s anywhere BUT at my grandmom’s. I’m not sure why – it’s not like they’re special or anything. Some kind of peculiar kosher blend I guess.

Panic Unfortunately, panic is an everyday part of my life. I’ve learned to live with it, to be sure, but it’s always there, playing possum, waiting to pounce. Sigh. I’ve accepted it as a way of life and every day it gets a little bit better.

Pimple The other day I made Georgie inspect my face for wrinkles. It’s not that I’m particularly vain or anything like that – it’s just that I don’t really have any wrinkles. A fact which amazed G. He had me scrunch up my face then relax it and proclaimed that No! I don’t have wrinkles! You know why? Because I have pimples instead. A dermatologist once told me that because of my large pores and my oily skin I won’t wrinkle badly at all. At that time, this wasn’t that much of a panacea because c’mon – who wants some humongous PIMPLE on their face? But now that I’m aging gracefully, I don’t mind that pimple as much. Makes me look young(er) don’t you know! The only really bad thing about pimples is that I’m a picker. Pimples and Picking go together but when you pick, it can often lead to pockmarks.

Perihelion Today is the day that the Earth is closest to the sun during it’s orbit. I think. At least that’s what perihelion means. But this passage isn’t really about perihelion, it’s about the fact that Georgie reads the paper every morning while I’m on the computer and oftentimes – sometimes daily – he’ll shout out a word to me and ask me what it means. Oftentimes – sometimes daily – I have no idea what it means and I reach for my favorite dictionary: Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary – the red one I bought to take to college. I love when G asks me what a word means. I love looking it up in the dictionary and I love giving him the meaning and I love asking him if that makes sense. It’s just a little thing that we do, but those little things add up to plenty.

Partridge Or more specifically, the Eye of Partridge heel. I decided to use this heel on my new pair of socks. So far I like it! Usually I’m a slip 1 knit 1 kind of girl, but it’s nice to mix things up a bit. The Eye of Patridge heel is simple and the directions can be found here. You have to pay a little bit more attention, but that’s okay. I’ve had a couple of questions about doing socks on two circulars and I wanted to give you a couple of links. I first learned how to do socks on two circulars here. The whole site is actually a great resource and I especially like this page. There are no hard and fast rules with knitting. I do my socks on two circulars, yes, but when I get to the gusset I move things around on double points and shift the knitting so that half the gusset and half the instep are on one circular and the rest on the other. When I’m done with the gusset decreases, I shift the stitches back to the way I started. That’s what works for me. You do what works for you, of course. And two socks on two circulars? I cast on each sock separately and join them in the round – THEN I move both pairs together. There’s a way to cast them on at the same time – or on the same set of circulars, but I couldn’t figure it out. You can find all of this information by doing a simple google search.

Philadelphia Born and Raised. I’ve actually lived outside of Philadelphia about three years longer than I ever lived there, but I still feel the connection. I’m a Philly Girl no doubt about
it. Ask me something about the city, though, and I probably don’t know the answer. I grew up about 45 minutes from Center City (still in Philly) and pretty much all my family is still there but I never really explore the city – save for the trips we took as kids. (I’ll never forget the itty bitty stairs in the Besty Ross House.) Most of the time when I go, I’m visiting the family and sometimes we venture out with the kids, but mostly it’s close to home stuff. I know all the good yarn stores though. For sure.

Perfectionism Ahhh. The double edged sword of perfectionism. Knitting helps me – sometimes. One of the things I love about knitting is that I can go back and fix my mistakes and it can almost be perfect. I love too that I can have a vision and many times translate that vision into a knit. I can make the yarn do what I want. I can’t say that about my other creative endeavors. Perfectionism is a sickness, no doubt, but like the panic I list above (of which pefectionism is a contributing factor – it’s all about CONTROL baby!) I’ve grown to live with it and love it for what it is in my life. I try not to let it get me too crazy.

Passion Did you see these awards? Did you see the one I got? Most Enthusiastic! Thanks girls! I take that as a high compliment. Everyone should have passion in their life. And not just the romantic kind, but every kind. I thoroughly believe in loving something – hard and deep and with verve! Why not? I find it very hard to believe that when I’m on my deathbed I’ll regret being head over heels about something – geez. I wish I loved that knitting a little less. I’m passionate about being passionate, sure, but who can blame me? There is so much to be sad about in this life – so much pain and life is very difficult. I feel it all the time. So why not balance it out with as much passion as possible? One of the best things I heard this end of the year was on The McLaughlin Group. Georgie likes to watch the Sunday morning news shows, and I like to sit by him, so I’ve taken to watching them as well (even though they have me frothing at the mouth half the time.) The year-end awards on TMG are always fun and the last weekend of the year Mr. McLaughlin asked for everyone’s resolution then he gave his own:

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: More mirth in my new year. That’s my New Year resolution. Mirth is underrated and so is unadulterated exuberance. Laughter is healthy and needed, so I’m going to seek more.

Unadulterated Exuberance. I couldn’t agree more, Mr. M. Couldn’t agree more.

So there are my Ps. Would you like your own letter? Ask me in the comments and I’ll try to get one to you asap. This was kind of fun. Thanks Julie!

Filed Under: Memememememe

If I could walk 500 miles

January 2, 2007 By

dudes, I would be in GREAT shape. As it were, I’m not in any kind of shape these days. Did you see what Rachael’s doing? The 100 Miles by April 1st thing? Yeah, I’m not signing on per se, but let’s just say I strapped the girls down into my new sports bra and headed out on the trail today. I’m not making any resolutions here – I’m more in the MamaCate camp in that regard. The older I get the nicer I try to be to myself – if I make a resolution it’s kind of like setting yourself up for failure. So I’m making an INTENTION. My goal is to be running at least 20 minutes straight by April 1. I’m doing a ten week beginning runners program and I’ve given myself about a three week cushion. I should be able to do it. But all I can do is my best.

Along with running comes trying to live healthier. Baby steps though – once the running gets back into habit mode the rest may just fall into place (eating better, sleeping better, all of that.) At the least I’m going to try to be more conscious about my health. I want to feel good – I don’t really care what I look like to be honest. Would I like to lose fifteen pounds? Sure I would but more than that I’d like to be comfortable in the clothes I already own and feel better – have more energy – get rid of some aches and pains that have been creeping in along with the years. Blah blah blah. Same as everyone else, I suppose.

The birthday was grand in that it was a total nonevent. It may seem oxymoronic but having such a big birthday (I mean, who are we kidding? The whole WORLD celebrates it!), which I love, don’t get me wrong, puts just a tad bit of pressure on you. Because of that I like my birthday to be sort of normal. Which it was. In totally normal fashion, I ran some errands, got a headache from the rain, knit on my socks, watched some decent movies and cuddled with my honey and really that’s all I can ask. And of course I was treated to wonderful birthday greetings from all of you every time I sat down at the computer! Thank you for making the day so special, but not overwhelming in any way. 😉

Speaking of socks, here’s how the G-Rocks January One socks are progressing:

I continue to love the stripey goodness and I can totally see the advantage to doing two socks at the same time. Because when you’re done – you’ll have a PAIR of socks. It does seem to be going quite slow and I’m a little bit daunted by the fact that when I’m done I will have one of each pair, but I love this yarn so much that it doesn’t really matter. It always surprises me when I haven’t knit with Socks That Rock for awhile and then go back to it how soft and wonderful this yarn is – FOR ME. Others might not have the same opinion but I do love this yarn and often times wonder why I knit with anything else.

Now I need your help with a problem. I bought these new fantastic shoes – Dansko Camilla in Black Oiled Leather – and they’re super cute, feel good and show off my socks spectacularly. BUT when I wore them the other day I noticed that the edge of the lip rubbed against my socks in a very bad way. Here are some pictures to illustrate:

You see, I had a lot of fuzziness/pilling/whatever at the edge of my heel – right where you start to turn the heel on the sock. When I got home, I shaved it down a little bit and it looks fine now, but I’m afraid this will wear my socks out really fast. I could leave the pilling, but it doesn’t look so pretty – or I could not wear handknit socks with these shoes (not really an option since these are the only socks I have now) or I could hope that with wear the shoes will stretch and relax and the back won’t cause pilling. The shoes are absolutely the right size. And there’s nothing really sticking out or anything on the lip – nothing that I could sand down or some solution like that. Anybody have these shoes, or shoes like them and have any suggestions? I have enough socks to alternate a lot so that I’m not wearing down the same socks over and over, but still – I don’t want to unnecessarily makes them wear out faster. Thanks for the ideas.

Thank you again for all of your good wishes – birthday, holiday, health-wise – over the past few weeks. They have meant more than you can know and as always I thank you so much for spending some of your valuable time here with me. I wish all good things for all of us in the new year!

Filed Under: Life
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