a tale of two sox (and a few other items)

yesterday, i didn’t think i had anything to blog about (right—like i’m ever at a loss for something to talk about) and then today, it seems as if i have way too much, so that’s it’s taking me all day to organize this post, which will probably end up being way too long. oh well—here goes . . .

beckie and i started the weekend by driving up to beachwood mall in cleveland friday evening; spurred by a ravelry discussion about makeup (thanks you guys!) in the knitspot group, and each of us in dire need of a makeup overhaul (i’m too embarrassed to tell you how long i had my previous set of makeup), we decided to take ourselves to the bare minerals boutique and see what all the fuss was about. we each had an incredibly fun and informative makeup consultation—so much so, that we totally forgot to take pictures (and oh, how i wish we had). let’s just say that we loved the results and were impressed enough to “invest” before we left the store.

we followed up with dinner and then coffee and a long talk—a wonderfully relaxing evening. the only thing missing was kim. no worries though—we’re planning a bra shopping trip for her upcoming visit, heh.

i can’t remember much about saturday except that i didn’t knit all day as i would have liked. i worked at my desk for a good part of the day, then went out for a bike ride and took a nap.

(oh crap—to add insult to the injury of being so behind on this post, i was nearly at the end when i just somehow lost everything i’ve written because i went to find a link and—oh never mind. let’s see if i can recreate it. sigh).

i finished up my secret project on saturday evening and then worked on my dovecote shawl until i was nearly out of yarn.

just two more rows to knit on the body and then i can start the edging. another skein is on its way to me as we speak, so i should be able to finish the whole thing up later this week.

late that night while we watched TV, i was getting ready to rip back the gray cabled sock when david interrupted to tell me not to

he thinks it will fit fine just the way it is, even though two days before that, he said it was kinda tight. i decided to take him at his word (even though that’s probably a major mistake) because i’m a little worried about knitting the next bigger size with the yarn i have on hand.

one of the reasons i stay away form cabled socks (besides the fact that they take me forever to knit) is that i don’t have an ideal needle for working cables in sock weight yarn (i don’t care for working cables without a needle, especially in fine yarns. it’s a good method for twist sts, but i don’t like the way my cables look worked that way). anne marie gave me a nice needle that her husband made, but unfortunately, i was all thumbs with the hook part of that one.

my favorite cable needles are the little straight ones with the indentation in the center made by brittany. they come in a set of three different sizes which work really well for all my other cabled knitting. but the smallest size is still too big for sock yarns.

i was regaling david with a full review of the pros and cons of different cable needles (which i’m sure was about as fascinating as listening to water drip), ending in a tale of woe about my problem, when he interrupted me yet again to say he could make me one. you could have knocked me off the sofa with a feather—i was positive he wasn’t listening to a word of it.

actually, i had some unused brittany DPNs that are too short for comfortable knitting, so he took one of those and cut it down to the right size—awesome.

it slips in and out of the sts quick as a wink and the wood has just enough tooth to hold the sts but not so much that i have to pause to argue with it. it’s perfect.

BTW, i just adore this yarn—zen yarn garden squooshy, colorway moonlight—it’s a pleasure to knit with, makes delicious cables, due to its springiness. roxanne will be restocking it on her site very soon, yay.

an early start on sunday gave me a couple of spare hours before the spinners arrived, so i opened all the windows to the fresh fall air and set up my wheel for some individual quiet spinning time—rare for me these days. i worked on the second half of my chasing rainbows cashmere/tussah blend and by the time everyone else arrived, i was well into my bobbin.

there’s no way to illustrate how luxurious an experience spinning this fiber is.
worth. every. penny.
by the time everyone left for the day, i had spun more than half of it. not much left to go—i might be plying next week.

in the afternoon i got to work in the kitchen, cooking a load of tomatoes that were verging on being overly ripe—if you know what i mean. i cooked a big pot of tomato soup, which i wasn’t sure about—it seems to be lacking a little something but i don’t know what. we’re trying it for dinner tonight with sandwiches, so we’ll see; maybe my taste buds were just off.

i also made a batch of pasta sauce with fish, olives, capers, and chunks of crisp-tender summer squash that we ate last night—it was so good to sit down to a nice meal after working on my feet all afternoon.

but not for long—the light on the dish was so beautiful that i ran to get the camera for a photo you could drool over today. gotta feed the blog, too . . .

after dinner, feeling good about my finished secret knitting, my shawl progress, and the fact that i was not going to reknit the gray sock, i treated myself to winding up a bunch of yarns to play with during the coming week—i highly recommend this as a therapeutic way to end the weekend; personally, i indulge in it whenever i feel caught up and ready to start new projects. there’s a special space for winding yarn and planning that’s best experienced on a weekend evening.

topping things off for the week ahead, i got out the fearless fibers cashmere sport (top left) and the great northern yarns cashmere/mink DK (top right) that i talked about last week. these i plan to knit into a neckwarmer and maybe a scarf (or another neckwarmer . . . or mitts).

underneath from left to right are catherine’s superwash classic merino sport with which i’ll begin swatching for a sweater; zen yarn garden serendipity DK in tealicious, and lanas puras melosa fingering yarn in fern green.

swatching is the word of the week with the last three—two sweaters and some sort of winter set.

right, so getting back to the title of this post, i said there was a tale of two sox and then i proceeded to run on and on without mentioning it again. because, you know, i didn’t have anything to say all weekend and now i can’t stop.

one of the things i had to do while i was in my workroom winding yarn was figure out what other yarn i might knit those blue socks in.

i love the blue yarn with a mad passion, but it’s not the right yarn for the stitch pattern i chose for these socks. the yarn will not be forgotten—it is, after all, unforgettable. but i needed something plumper for the task at hand.

the deep blue dye dreams luster sox will become something lacier, i think. it deserves to be knit into a fabric that better shows off its beautiful sheen and sleek weight.

i have plenty of springy yarns, but a lot of them are a bit short on yardage for a man’s pair of socks. or the wrong color. i finally decided on the mackintosh skye sock yarn that i picked up at sock summit in colorway safari

it’s a colorway david will love. i started the sock cuff last night; the texture is great—i think it’s going to work well. i’m a little worried about the yarn supply, but if i’m careful not to go overboard on the leg length, i think i should be fine. a short-row heel would save yardage too—i’ll decide about that when i get there.

i’ll be posting the ice shawls next—one today and the other in a couple of days. these pieces appeared in the twist collective winter 2008 issue and now they will be offered in my own shop.

you know what? i think that’s it—i’ve gotten you all caught up on what going on around here. now i have a date with my yarn.