It Must Be Christmastime

Well, it's Dec. 21 and I have yet to mail a card, but they are coming along slowly. I've hedged by bets with "Happy Holidays", but by depicting a Christmas icon I've basically assured myself of looking like a slacker when I mail them later this week (fingers crossed!) or next. Other projects are coming along apace, and this weekend I bought tickets for three Spring Training games in AZ in March, and maybe we'll get a little snow tonight. No complaints from me.

Merry Christmas!

Two Toe Tuesday: One of These Socks is Not Like the Others

I've not been talking about socks very much lately, and for good reason--I've barely been working on socks at all. Or much of anything else, really. I'm knitting a little bit here and there, but I've also been working on Christmas cards and shopping and (believe it or not) running 3 or 4 days a week. I've still got a lot to finish knit-wise before the holidays are officially here, but I'm trying not to get too stressed out, which means I'm just getting further and further behind.

So what about these socks? Two are a little alike, because they are they are both knit from Shelridge Farm's soft touch heather, and both are knit from ribbed Nancy Bush patterns. However, the Yarrow rib, in green, is gi-normous, being knit for a man. And the Spey Valley socks, in purple, are a few sizes smaller than my feet, being knit for a woman with smaller feet than mine. I love both of these socks, and need to get cracking on sock #2 of Spey Valley. Sock #2 of the Yarrow rib is just about ready for a heel, so I should power through that as well.

The third sock has not made an official blog appearance yet, although I started it in July. It's still on the needles, because I wanted to make sure that I end up with socks that are the same height and use as much yarn as possible. The yarn is Yarntini self-striping sport, in Blue Hawaiian. It's great yarn (I've used the semi-solid before, and love it), with great colors, but I don't like this sock. The heel is a standard short-row heel, and I hate it. I think that it has to do with the weight of yarn more than anything else--even though I picked up the wraps, the turns look messy and I don't like the way the heel interrupts the stripes. This is why it took so long to get to the heel--I was thinking about using a heel flap pattern, but I have less experience with those. And I really needed to get past the heel, so I would have a nice plain sock to knit at the movied. Bad reason to rush through, and I'll probably just rip it out. The stripes would make a really cute hat, wouldn't they?

Hope that everyone's holiday preparations (such as they are) are coming along well. I'm hoping to get my knitting / blogging mojo back in the coming weeks, and I keep seeing projects that I'd love to take a crack at once I've finished up some other things (but keep me in mind if you have any recommendations).

Stories From the City

I went to New York a few weekends ago, and I only took photos of two things on my camera.

Top Photo: Paparazzi taking photos of Katie Holmes & her daughter through the window of a restaurant they went into. It was horrifying--this was taken after much of the crowd thinned.

Bottom Photo: a store that knows better than to oversell itself.

I didn't take any photos on my camera of the great rock show E___, R___ and I attended (Langhorne Slim--highly, highly recommended), but should get some from E___ soon. I didn't take any photos of the long bus ride from Boston to New York, or of the walk from the World Trade Center to Soho to the Village, or lunch with M___ and J___, or the delicious skewers at the Miracle of Science. I was really just too busy cramming as much good time as possible into three days on the east coast, and I think I succeeded.

On the flight to the east coast, I did start a new project:

I'm knitting on a 16" circular, so there's not much hope of stretching it out better for the time being. It's a lacy (duh) neckwarmer, the pattern is Spiraluscious by Anne Hanson, and the yarn is Skinny Bugga from the Sanguine Gryphon that I purchased almost accidentally at the Loopy Ewe. I was on the site totally by chance when the yarn was posted, and before I knew it I had ordered this skein. I've been trying to buy less "stash" lately, because I keep coming across yarn that I bought without a plan and am wondering how I'm ever going to get through it all without turning knitting into a chore. However, I am really pleased with this yarn. The color is a really beautiful, rich semi-solid, and the little bit of cashmere in it has made it a pleasure to knit with. This neckwarmer should only take about 1/3 of the skein, so there will be enough left for more neckwarmers, or maybe mittens. Or maybe I'll just pass along the leftovers to another knitter? I suppose I should wait to see how this turn out!