More Purple Sock Yarn!

I mentioned in my last post that I won purple sock yarn. It's on its way to me even as we speak.



I stole this pic right off of Norma's blog.

I feel so lucky!!!

I've got a Cool Sock Project Bag!

I've been meaning to blog about this ever since it arrived, and here it finally is:



Darn it, my pic came out a bit blurry. Let's see if my pic of the bottom is any better.



OK, that's a little better.

It's reversible, too, but I was a bit too rushed to dump everything out to take a pic of the other side. You can see a glimpse of the inside fabric in the first pic, and the bottom of the inside is the same as the main outside fabric.

These are by Knitting Ewe on the Go, and you can order one here, although I see on her site that she is taking a little break after pumping out a ton of these bags. She made these in conjunction with Sockapalooza 4, but having actually participated in Sockapalooza 4 is entirely optional. I didn't, as it happens.

Knitting Ewe gave great service! First of all, everyone gets to pick all four fabrics that go into these bags, and she has a great selection, all either sock monkey themed or colorful dots.

Then, when my bag didn't come out to her satisfaction, she ripped it all out and did it over, and emailed me to explain the delay and give me the option of picking a different fabric (she had to get some more in of one of the ones I had selected).

I love this -- she really cares about the quality of the bags she's pumping out for $15, and communicated with me every step of the way if there were any hitches at all. Go, Knitting Ewe!

What's in the sock project bag, you ask? Why, my current sock project, of course. This is a great bag to carry what you need for your sock project and is still small enough to go everywhere with you.



This is my second Coriolis Sock. If you're following along at home, in the book this is actually Sock 1. Yes, I knit Sock 2 first. I had some delusion that the direction of the whirlpool toe would match Sock 2 better, and that when I knit Sock 1, I would figure out how to reverse the whirlpool. That plan is out the window. But in this pic you can actually see the beginning of the spiral, which goes in the opposite direction of the other sock. I love it.

What else? Well, my knitting notions that I need for a sock, of course. To which I have recently added these:



They are from J.L. Yarnworks. Love them! I have yet to actually use them, though.

Cat Bordhi's new sock book has started a craze for lettered stitch markers, since she makes liberal use of stitch markers that she refers to by letter in her instructions. Now, it has been pointed out to me that a Sharpie and some openable stitch markers are all you really need. Or you could hang some cardstock on your regular stitch markers using some yarn. All this is quite true. In fact, I made my first Coriolis Sock (which is actually Sock 2, if you'll remember) without benefit of lettering my stitch markers at all, because I didn't find it necessary. But these are purdy, and I gave in.

While I was there, I happened across this:




She even winds it up for you if you just ask. At first I mis-read the gauge specs as "7.9", which freaked me out because it was so darn precise. "7-9", that I can deal with.

Purple sock yarn. Somehow a lot of it is ending up in this house. Couldn't be me.

I even won some purple sock yarn at Now Norma Knits from a drawing she had for people who donated to the Red Scarf Fund for Foster Youth. Yep, purple sock yarn. Thank you, Norma! Thank you, Ronni, for donating the yarn.

So you see, it isn't me. Really.

Proud Knitting Scout

I was listening to Cast On tonight and knitting. This combo has to rate as one of my all-time fave pastimes. I was listening to Episode 54, being one behind the most current one.

I had seen and coveted the Cast On Knitting Scout badges, but hadn't yet swiped any. I wasn't sure I had really met very many of the requirements.

Then, during the podcast, Brenda commented that she had seen someone who had earned the “I Will Crush You With My Math Prowess” Badge ("The recipient has applied the principles of higher mathematics to knitting including, but not limited to hyperbolic planes, Fibonacci sequences, Klein bottles, Moebius strips, fractals and Flying Spaghetti Monster hats.") by reverse engineering and knitting a Klein Bottle hat.

Well, heck, I've done that.

And so I hereby proudly award to (ahem) myself the coveted "I will Crush You With My Math Prowess" Knitting Scout Badge:



Of course, there is also the Proselytize Knitting badge, a requirement for all Knitting Scouts:



("A requirement for all Knitting Scouts, the recipient must do his or her bit to present knitting in a positive light, whilst at the same time avoiding all references to “hipness”, grandmothers, and yoga.")

I think this blog qualifies, myself. Also my attempts (futile, so far) to teach my fellow SnB'ers the joys of sock knitting. Two of them begged me to teach them, then showed up without any of the stuff I told them they would need. Well, maybe next month.

This one, I think, needs no description or explanation.



Pass the wine, please.

A Whole Lotta Nothin'

I took pix of my Coriolis-sock-in-progress, and they came out awful. I didn't even want to put them on the blog, they are so bad.

However! I have nothin' else to show you, so I am going to make you suffer through these:







My model was DD, who was not the most cooperative. I usually get better pix with no flash, but as you can see these uploaded way too dark. I swear they looked good in the camera and on my hard drive.

And I hurt my wrist. Not on the computer this time, but knitting. So I took a break from knitting for a couple of days, plus work has been really, really busy, ditto my fund-raising campaign for the school, DD has started playing soccer, making me a soccer mom, and I am supposed to be getting the GS troop cranked up for the year. Whine, whine, whine.

I have promised myself that next school year? Zero school volunteer work. Something's gotta give.

Crap-tastic photos notwithstanding, I really like this sock. Interesting to knit, and it fits well, too. When I do the other sock, it will spiral the other way. I know you can barely even see the spiral in these photos, but bear with me. There is a spiral, from right to left across the top of the foot. There is something I find very pleasing about the reverse spiraling planned for the other sock, despite the fact that I usually like my socks to match, and couldn't be bothered to, for instance, reverse the cabling on my socks so that one goes one way, the other goes the other way.

And Mom is about to buy mattress #4. Mattress #3 was determined by the factory inspector to be defective, so she gets a store credit! Whee! I have encouraged her to run down to the store today. Well, she did call me up to whine about mattress #3, after all. Of course, I am only slightly motivated that if she orders a new mattress before the weekend, I won't have to go with her.

What does a knitter use for packing material?

Wool, apparently.



DD left a pair of flip-flops behind on our visit to Lisa and her family. Lisa kindly shipped them back, in this box.

Now we can play with some felting!