Posts from — October 2005

In honor of Mim’s blogiversary…a picture of my feet. Hey, don’t judge my homage to Mim’s knittiness! She asked for it! I felt the need to give myself a pedicure for the occasion, but by the time I did that hell would be frozen over, or at the very least her contest would have ended. So instead, I chose to dress them up a bit with some fabulous wool I purchased in Florence, Italy. Italian wool makes any foot look more attractive, no? Molto bella!

Sometimes I wonder if I really have any social skills whatsoever. I was supposed to attend my first Cincinnati Knitting Group morning meeting today. I left a post on the board about how excited I was to finally have a morning meeting. I RSVP’d “yes”, I would be attending. I even drove to the Coffee Emporium in Hyde Park, half an hour from my home and parked. Wearing my first jeans of fall (just so I could wear a pair of hand knitted socks with clogs that would just barely show if I sat so as not to draw obvious attention to my knittiness but to allow for a conversation starter after sitting, crossing my legs and inevitably dangling my shoe from the toe of my crazy socked foot…even Loki and Bodhi thought this was a good idea) I made my way to the door with my knitting bag in tow, half an hour late (more on that later). On my way to the front door, I spotted 8 knitters happily chatting/knitting/caffeinating away. So what did I do? I glanced their way then hurried inside to buy some :java:. While waiting in line, I managed to convince myself that since a) there was no more room at the table, b) I was late c) I had never attended one of their meetings yet and d) did not see my “security blanket” Julie (she qualifies as a “security blanket” because I’ve met her ONCE and in my world, that constitutes a less scary social situation) that I should haul my sorry, late, socially inept self right back into the car…which I promptly did. In an effort to console myself, I made my way to Fiber Naturell in Kenwood. I don’t go there very often since it is quite a bit out of the way, but since I was already somewhat near (and they are one of the only shops in the area that almost always has SOMETHING on sale) I decided to go. I’m glad I went because they had something I actually “need”…size 35 circular needles I was about to order in stock. Although they aren’t quite as lovely as these handmade needles I planned to purchase, they were much needed instant gratification. Oh, and I also found some yarn (BIG SURPRISE). Several skeins of fall colored wool (except the nice lilac which will go well with the wool I got at the wool gathering) for felted bags at 25% off!!! Major score. I immediately began to feel much better although still disappointed in my social incompetence.

Oh, so why was I a half an hour late? While we were in Palm Springs (nope…still haven’t gotten around to that post…underwear to wash, dogs to play with, yarn to knit, etc) a delivery from a California wine club was attempted three times. Fed Ex won’t try any more after that and I was lucky that they hadn’t sent the package back yet. New Fed Ex facility is great for them, sucks for me. I had to schlep down to the Mt. Zion road exit in Northern Kentucky to pick up my wine…um just realizing here that this really doesn’t sound worthy of pity at all…”oh while I was on vacation my wine couldn’t be delivered” BOOfreaking(I like to try to keep my blog somewhat G rated despite my fondness of the “f” word…I am right up there with Samantha at times)HOO, right? Anyway, since I had to wait around half an hour for them to find the package, it DID make me late for my fiber fix, which I’m sure must be worthy of sympathy.

While reading the Mata Mohair-i post by Gina, I got a great flashback to the 70’s (not acid induced…”sorta” fiber induced). Does anyone else (of, ahem, a certain age) remember the “The Year Without a Santa Claus” cartoon? For the longest time it was played year after year and always left me singing “He’s Mr. Heat Miser, he’s mister sun. He’s Mr. LALA, he’s Mr. 101″ for weeks to the delight of my parents. Just in case you need a memory jolt, HERE is a clip from Amazon (towards the bottom). Catchy, no? Year after year I have wondered why “they” (silly networks) don’t play it anymore. So wholesome, so classic. Was it one of those things Ted Turner bought and now no one else can ever play it without paying him eleventy googleplex dollars? Maybe I should just get with the program and buy the DVD. My husband has never seen it (WHAT?????) and despite my attempts to explain, he doesn’t quite grasp the allure of the Heat Miser song. I guess it’s one of those things that needs to bee seen to be appreciated.

As I pondered the plethora of my poignant pontification to post, it pained me to the point of petrifaction. It has taken me a while to start writing at all…thus the petrifaction. So of course now that I have finally started, I am taking the easy way out. Knitting content…a finished object…technically half of a finished object: the petticoat sock. I cast on during takeoff (I did mention Palm Springs, right? More on that later when I am less blocked) and cast off last night. I actually took some notes on this one and I am happy with how it turned out. One great reason to use a lace pattern on a longer sock is that you don’t have to do any increasing to get the top part to fit. Lots of stretch my friends! Notice how the top appears slightly larger? Just the stretchiness doing its job. I also “invented” (invented might not be exactly true…for all I know this is a “real” cast off with at “real” name…someone will have to let me know) a stretchy cast off so the circulation to my foot wouldn’t be cut off. Here is how I did the bind off on k2, p2 rib: Using the backward loop cast on method, M1 stitch before and after every knit stitch as you do the basic pass one stitch over the next bind off (for example, K1, M1, pass the K1 over the M1, knit the next stitch, pass the M1 over the K1, M1 and so on), purl the purl stitches continuing with the basic bind off. It has the perfect amount of stretch to fit over the calf without being too tight. I might even post a “pattern” to this one, since I finally remembered to take some notes.

:wave:Hi everyone! I’m back. Betcha didn’t even know I was gone (love those pre-dated posts). I have this bizarre need to keep my vacation partings to myself. I don’t know why…I’m pretty sure burglars and house squatters don’t read blogs to find out which house to target…do they? Anyway…me, Jim, wine, pool, hot tub, frolicking and…my mother-in-law????? Stay tuned.