Two Toe Tuesday: Frieda's Watching Out For These Two

Was it only six or so weeks ago that I couldn't bring myself to work on any socks? In May and June, I worked on blanket squares, and triangle shawls, a scarf, and even finished a really old baby sweater, but barely any socks. Evidently, those days are over--I've pretty much only worked on socks for the last month, except for the 4th of July dishcloth. I'm even close to finishing another pair--I'm just about ready to to start the gussets on the second Strawberry Van Dyke (on the right). As mentioned previously, this pattern is from Wendy Johnson's new sock book. The instructions are really good, and I like the fit, but it's a little bit boring, lace-wise. The color is so bright, though, that it doesn't really need a lot of other stuff going on. I can't say enough good things about this Yarntini sport weight yarn--it's squooshy, it's vibrant, and it knits up wicked fast (as they say in Boston).

I'm also pretty close to finishing the first Sock Summit logo sock (on the left). The Sock Summit sock colors are growing on me more now that I'm in the real colorwork section, but I still sort of wish I'd gone with a more solid black and a solid (or even slightly more solid) contrasting color. In Boston, I picked up some gorgeous Shelridge Farm yarn that would be perfect--and by "picked up", I mean that E____ ordered it for me when she ordered the yarn she needs for her Sock Summit class, and it arrived while I was there. A solid black, and a limey green--maybe for another pair?

Two Toe . . . Uh, What Day is This?

I can't believe it's July already, and that it's already the second to last workday of this week. I'm also having trouble believing that I picked up and stored together no fewer than six pair of unfinished socks in my quest to neaten up my knitting for my brother & nephew's visit this weekend *. Nor can I believe that upon turning the heel of this Orion Sock while drinking (only one) beer at the Wilco show, this baby fits like a glove. Maybe I should stop being incredulous, and just roll with it?
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* note that two pair have been on hold because I misplaced the patterns, which I also found while I was cleaning up, so there is some hope that I'll continue with those pairs soon.

When We're Not Sure We're Not Alone

Whenever I plan to post about a concert, I have the best intentions of infusing my post with the pure rock emotion of the actual show, and I fail every time. I'm not a poetic, lyrical writer, as much as I'd like to be, which makes it difficult. I'm a boiler-down of ideas, if not a master-summarizer, with a small side order of humor and self-reflection. A very small side order. Any attempts to stray from my writing style reeks of smarmy-ness, which isn't really an issue if I'm writing about knitting, or dachshunds, or baseball, but I worry that it flattens out the rock show experience into Wesley-Willis-style reviews. You know, "I went to the rock show. There were about 100 people at the show. The rock show was awesome, it whooped the camel's ass" (for those of you unfamiliar with Wesley Willis, this is as close to a direct song quote as I can get without digging out a cd). Plus, while I take a lot of (semi-focused, point and shoot) photos, I don't write down anything during shows, so while I remember many of the hideously 80's inspired clothes that todays youth were unfortunately wearing, I can't faithfully recreate a set list--basically, I'm short on useful details, and long on tangents.

Anyway, that's a lot of space to apologize in advance if I undersell the Wilco show I saw last night at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, because it was truly a great show. Possibly the best Wilco show I've ever seen, with perfect sound, an incredible venue, and incredible energy. Note that I say this even though I tripped and badly turned my ankle almost immediately after getting out of my car, which made standing on concrete (and getting jostled by stoned hipsters) for hours physically uncomfortable. And if you are my brother K____ and reading this, I turned my ankle before having a single, 12-oz Heineken, so no smart comments.

Wilco's new album is coming out on Tuesday (currently streaming live here), and they mixed in the new songs with the old, which is always a plus--I hate to go to a show and hear one or two old songs, then an entire new album that I haven't heard yet, a couple of other old songs, and then one big hit as an encore. Stylistically, maybe it makes sense, but as a live-music consumer (ugh, what an awful term), I don't like it--it's too compartmentalized. Anyway, Wilco's set was really well balanced, if a little light on songs from their first album. I think that every album was represented in the set list, but I don't always remember which songs are on which albums so I can't say for sure. They didn't play my all-time favorite two-song Wilco combo (Blue Eyed Soul and Too Far Apart from A.M.), but maybe next time? Pretty please? You want song highlights, and not just the two songs that I wished I'd heard? I loved "You Are My Face", and "Hate It Here", and "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" is a really great live song. And I could go on and on.

Now a little something for the knitting-only readers: Since I was travelling by myself and am unfamiliar with the Berkeley area, I arrived over an hour before the doors opened, so I had a long wait & was glad that I brought some knitting. Then it was another long wait before Okkervil River (who were also really good--must get one of their albums immediately) went on. I had a nice shady spot in line and in the theater, and I managed to finish the gusset and turn the heel of the first SS09 sock, as documented in the iPhone photo below. I'm a little afraid to pick it up today, in case I made any mistakes. Also, although the photo is very fuzzy, there was a sock monkey onstage. A semi-goth, charcoal/black striped sock monkey.

O.K, this post is taking way too long, and it's time to ice my ankle again. Comment away, if you want more details about the show, the sock, the sock monkey, or the ankle.


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"When We're Not Sure We're Not Alone": Wilco, "You Are My Face"

Two Toe Tuesday: I Told You I Was Starting Something New

After blogging about the Bee Fields shawl last week, I immediately started a new pair of socks, and in only a week, the first sock is done (it's on the right, obviously). It's Yarntini sportweight, in the Cabana Boy color from her semi-solid summer sock club. I love this yarn--it's really squishy, it's incredibly bright, and since it's sport-weight it knit up quickly. I love the second yarn in the club also, and I'm looking forward to the third yarn, which should be in the mail soon. The pattern is Cotty (Rav Link), but I made one small "modification". "Modification" is in quotes because really I just misread the pattern, and instead of working three plain knit rows in between each lacy row, I only knit one plain row. The result is a lacier pattern, and I liked it so I just kept going. I've cast on for sock #2, and am expecting it to be a quick knit as well, though probably not quite so quick.

Then there's that other sock--it's the sock shown in the Sock Summit logo, the pattern came out over the weekend. I'm using some STR lightweight from the 2007 (?) Rockin' Sock Club, and some blackish Claudia Handpainted that's been in the stash for awhile. I'm not totally sure I love this color combination, and have seriously been thinking about ripping it out and using another yarn, but that may just be because I wish that I'd used a true solid black instead of the handpainted grey/black (it's Claudia handpainted). I also wish I'd just used a blue and black, so that the sock would exactly match the Gothsocks that the pattern resembles so far. But a bright green and black would also look really cool. The pattern itself is great, and I'm learning how to knit jogless stripes (via Techknitter). I do wish that the pattern wasn't six full color pages, it seems a little wasteful--I ended up skipping the first and last page, but it's still a lot of paper and ink! Anyway, I am still thinking about how to proceed, so in the meantime maybe I'll get back to the second Cabana Boy. Or maybe I'll just rip it out. What to do????