I’ve been working on the test-knit sock pretty religiously lately. I tried it on Friday night. apparently, I have fat ankles. the toe area fits quite nicely, but the ankle part gets all stretched out. meh. I’m far enough up the cuff that I’m going to finish it as is so that we can see how the pattern looks in my sock’s stripey state, and then probably frog past the heel and sort that out before I start sock #2.

The weekend knitting also consisted of making the body of Soapy, using the leftover cotton from one of the bibs (the white/green/brown one, which I think is called Landscape). dh thinks it’ll work fine as a scrubby without the appendages. alrighty then.

I also started the Broken Cable Hat (door prize from the Harlot-fest) using LB Fisherman’s Wool. Mine will be slightly different, since page 2 was missing (darn printer!) and a few of the rounds are mislabeled, so I tried sorting it out on my own (which turns out to be close but slightly different). I emailed ML Egan today and she’s sent me a copy of the chart and will be sending page 2 at some point soon. Thank you! anywho, this will be Dulaan Hat #3.

in other news, I’ve already finished reading Casts Off, and dh has taken to stealing it now and then and reading it. and laughing hysterically at seemingly every other line. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not. (though he is starting to understand about the wool fumes, and is a bit concerned about the wool content in my stash.)

I’m also taking recommendations for books on CD to ‘read’ while I knit. bonus points if I can get them from one of my ‘local’ library systems (HC, Mpls, GRRL, and ECRL. yes, I’ve heard of interlibrary loan, but all are near home/work or easily on the way and I don’t have the time limits I would if I just summoned them.). This weekend was spent with Stephen Fry reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to me. (dammit, now I need to summon the rest of the series. I read the whole trilogy about 5 odd years ago, but still. I hate being left dangling.) next up, The Scarlett Pimpernell. I’ve already listened to all 6 HP books. I am a fan of reading the books of Broadway musicals I love (Phantom of the Opera - read it in both French & English, Les Mis was started, though I’m not sure I have the stamina for it, Jeckyll & Hyde was a great quick read.). I also like books in a series (I get attached to characters). I’m open to reading the classics or something a bit more current. all things French and Russian earn bonus points, though I’m not sure how well I’d fare on the comprehension should a book be IN that language (I can read Russian with a good bit of effort, but have no clue what most of it means. and it’s been a good 10 years since I studied French.) (I was rather ambitious in my AP English class in high school and thought I’d read Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamozov. I think everything I learned about that book came from Cliff’s Notes. I should revisit it.)

so yeah. leave your suggestions. I feel this has contest potential. no real rules at the moment, but there may be prizes if I like your suggestion(s).

O Canada. not mine, just randomly searching.

I had plans. the plans included meeting up with Batman Chris & Amy (and whoever else ended up making it) for dinner. the world had other plans (thankfully, nothing as crazy as the Harlot’s attempt to get to Ann Arbor). so I finally made it over to St Paul around 5. popped into the Yarnery to grab a copy of the book. ended up with a bit of souvenir sock yarn as well, while resisting the Fleece Artist that was calling my name. contemplated arriving to dinner late, found a map of Grand Ave and realized that the meeting point was way the heck down at the other end of the road. change of plans! so I poked in here:

(hey look! an R2 mailbox)

Bread & Chocolate. where I had bread (a muffin with dates in it) and chocolate (it was very cold, so I had a hot chocolate). started reading Casts Off while I ate. then realized that I left the donateables in the car. and that I forgot to get better directions to the venue (I didn’t have that same ‘follow the knitters’ feeling that I had in Eau Claire). so I ran back to the car and poked back into the shop and got myself sorted out.

started walking up to the venue and heard my name. Chris and crew had found me (apparently they were the car that would have run me over if I hadn’t moved off of the in-ramp on my way back to the shop).

there was a moment of panic as I was checking in - I wasn’t on the list. (what! I signed up in person). so searching the list I found my first name nearby and realised that they had misspelled me. whew! (yeah, that happens a lot. a look at my mail reveals that people can’t distinguish an O from an E or an A.)

the talk was great. (love the end of the recent pretentious party she attended.) I got distracted a few times by the ASL interpretter that was there. I love watching them (I would love to learn ASL better one of these days), her facial expressions were so great!

those were both taken during O Canada

the sock meets us

I think we need to get shorter podiums for her.

anywho, back to the event. I have no idea how long we waited in line, as I was busy chatting. at which point I realized I missed my sock (why had I left it at the chair?) and went back to grab it. borrowed Chris’ tape measure (why did I leave mine in the car?) and realized I was close to the short-row heel point, so I consulted with KnittyMama & Catherine and a few others nearby as to when I should start the short-rowing for the heel. (thanks for the help!)

got my book signed in the wake of Stephanie’s discombobulation.

and then more chatting ensued as we tried to figure out what the after-plan was.

the sock yarn I bought is Sockotta (there’s a great lack of cotton in my sock yarn stash), the Yarnery (who did an awesome job hosting this, even if they did mistype my name. I won’t hold that against them) tote that you’ve likely seen elsewhere by now, I won a hat pattern as a door prize, and of course, the book. oh, and my sock, at that point was about two rows into the short-row heel. (that’s the test-knitting sock, fyi)

we had a few realizations:
1) an awful lot of knitters raised their hands when asked if they blog. there’s not an awful lot of knitters (around 60) in the MN Knitters webring. this needs remedying. perhaps a contest? (I need to figure out a good prize. if any current members would like to help sweeten the prize pot, I’m open to that too)
2) we like seeing each other. we should have gatherings (like the TCKnit picnic) more often.

and a realization I made this morning - lots of short row talk. I believe Chris was asked to send knittymama an article on short rows. I want to see it too. Please. Thanks Chris ;)

*-*-*-*

so on the bus this morning, I discovered a knitter sitting across the aisle from me. knitting a scarf. out of a chenille of some flavor. I was eyeing the scarf she was wearing and, when eye contact was imminent, tried to glance away without looking like I was staring her down (which I was doing to the scarf.). we have not yet made verbal contact. if she continues to knit on the bus, I will have to though. (although I’m not sure what will be different. a different trip had a frequent knitter and I never quite mustered up the courage to chat with her). we’ll see how this goes. (I’m also mildly irked whenever someone feels the need to sit next to me while I’m knitting when they could just as easily share the seat behind me with someone who’s napping or reading or something. but no, they need to encroach on my elbow room. maybe I’ll take the lead of a couple of the laptop guys and just sit on the aisle the whole trip… ok, so I like my space on the bus.)

in other news, my coworker who knits wants to move beyond blankets and scarfs and wants me to show her how to knit in the round. woohoo!

Showcase Minnesota lists that they’ll have “The Guru of Knitting” on tomorrow. Today’s show ended less than an hour ago, and they already have info from the show up. Some bits have video clips, others just a blurb and links. I wonder if they’ll have video of Stephanie’s appearance tomorrow?

EDIT: there’s no video clip. yet. I’m sure if enough knitters emailed them and kindly asked if they might consider making it available. (there’s a contact us link on the site). otherwise, if someone wants to tell me how to get it off of VHS and onto YouTube or something similar, I’m up for trying. I watched it when I got home. I need to analyze how she knits. (the clip was good. good upclose camera shots. and Corbin asked some pretty book-specific questions.)

I’ve been a joiner lately. I just joined the Slow-Poke Socks KAL, which was created in response to the crazy talk* that is the 52 Pair Plunge.

I also joined Dyeing to Dye Socks Swap (now closed). And then, while working on flashing the stash and staring at the stash spreadsheet, the extra skein of dyeable sock yarn seemed to be missing. I investigated, and what I thought was sock yarn was actually worsted. doh!

so the test-knit sock that you saw a couple days ago amongst the WIPs is no more. (I was only a few rows past the toe, so it wasn’t a great loss). I enlisted the help of dh and a few dining room chairs and we rewound it into a monster skein so I’m all set to dye it for the swap.

so, back to the test-knit sock. it’s being reworked in Knit Picks Landscapes in the Tropical Sunset (sunrise?) colorway. I really like the way the colors are working out, but I’m not sure how the pattern will look in it. I guess we’ll see when I get past the heel. anyway, reknitting it is going pretty quick. I made it thru the toe in one night (took a couple days first time thru), and now I’m about half-way up the foot.

*There is no way in heck that I can whip out a pair of socks in a week. Much less consistently week after week for a year. I am in awe of those knitters who can. Good luck to ya! Maybe one day I’ll be able to pull it off.