Summer of Love

Summer of Love
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ

These socks are knitted from a pattern called "Summer of Love", the August offering of the Rockin' Sock Club. I'm a bit behind. Finished these a week or so ago and I'm on the heel of the first October sock, a pattern called "Lenore" in a colorway called "Raven". I like this pattern a lot. It's the work of Stephanie Pearl McPhee, also known as the Yarn Harlot.

As for Summer of Love, I had imagined that they were going to be tricky to knit, but they turned out to be quite straightforward and knit up in no time. I got behind working on Christmas presents and the thought of the holidays looming in front of us has made it clear that I'm going to continue to be behind. Oh, well. Hope those who are lucky enough to receive handknit presents are suitably grateful! I'll show some of those after the holidays. No family spoilers here!

Lattice Walker

Lattice Walker
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ

This is Nora in the guise of an lolcat. These cat photos are captioned in a sort of a "cat pidgen" that you can learn by looking at a few other lolcats on line. They are pretty funny or sometimes just cute and occasionally incomprehesible to the uninitiated.

I found that when I posted these photos, they got a lot of views on flickr. While I realize that Nora is adorable, there must be something about lolcats that amuses people.

Thoughts of Gary Larson

Vultures
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ.

What's the Gary Larson cartoon? Setting: a couple of vultures sitting on a dead rhino. One says, "What a great day. The sun beating down on us, a dead rhino beneath our feet and friends flying in from all over." Well, this is the Connecticut version. The dead critter was a raccoon, probably a young one. I captured these three turkey vultures and one black vulture (the one on the right) enjoying a meal. Several other turkey vultures circled overhead as these kids feasted. Life is good.

Socks

Monsoon Sock
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ.

This is my "Socks That Rock" sock in progress. I finished both socks the other day without suffering too much second sock syndrome. I did have a small bout of "SSS" since this is a fussy pattern. I was particularly irritated at having to do a different rib for the sole and the instep. Meant I had to pay attention! I like knitting on automatic pilot or following a complicated pattern. This half-and-half business was just tedious. Anyhow, they are done! Alas, I agree with those members who thought this colorway looked like camoflage.



The finished product is above. I am modeling both sides--the inside and the outside of these reversible socks. The patterning on my socks was stripey while some other club members had pooling. There's actually a little pooling on the sock on the left even while the stripes predominate. Hmm...



And here is what I am working on now: yarn from Great Adirondack. I didn't know this company until recently, but I love their colors. I'm a primary color person more than a pastel or muted girl. GA has yarn with intense colors and lots of blues, my favorite. I have a skein of their "Blueberry" colorway waiting for me when I finish these socks. (It may have to wait until I finish the April Socks That Rock offering. I don't want to fall behind and spend December and January playing catch up.) Just how many socks can a girl have? Or give to friends? Lots, I think.

Nora in the Ficus

Nora in the Ficus
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ.

Nora loves to sit in all the flower pots. She also likes to destroy some of the plants. But look how cute she is. It's hard not to just let her do whatever she wants. (Natural lighting helps, but she knows how to pose and find her key light making the work of the photographer easy.) She's climbed the ficus several times, but lately she's decided there isn't anything interesting up there and seems to just like sitting in the pot--or splashing the muddy water when I come with the watering can.

Travelling Sock

Travelling Sock
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ.

This is the start of sock #2 from the STR (Socks That Rock) wool from Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Rockin' Sock Club. I took it to the Fashion Institute of Technology to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee give a talk at the launch of her new book Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off. Steph is the Yarn Harlot, a knitting-humor blogger. No one knew there was such a thing until she invented it.

The talk was delightful. The auditorium, which seats 750, was nearly filled. Each attendee was given a bag containing a ball of yarn, #8 needles and instructions to knit a 7X9 rectangle that would be sewn into afghans and given to people made homeless by flood and fire.

Steph gave the knitters a lot to think and laugh about: why don't knitters get any respect; why do "muggles" (non-knitters, a word appropriated from Harry Potter) think it is wasteful to knit socks when you can buy them in Wal-Mart rather than the other way around; why is there more an one way to size needles (metric and American); why are swatches lying little scraps of yarn; why, if you knit, it is assumed you want to date men regardless of your gender? I'll add, "Why is there no decent sock wool in Wellington, NZ, in a country with 30 million sheep?"

It was great to see so many socks in progress, so much beautiful yarn, so many enthusiastic knitters--some from Switzerland, England, California and even western Massachusetts! If you're a knitter and Steph comes to your town, run--don't walk--to hear her talk. Buy a book too.

Socks That Rock

Socks That Rock--Monsoon Colorway
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ.

I joined the "Rockin' Sock Club", a sort of a sock-kit-of-the-month club. Well, every other month. The first kit of the year included this yarn, the little skein on a keychain, a bumper sticker for "Notorious Sock Knitters" and instructions in a binder.

The women who own Blue Moon Fiber Arts and created the Rockin' Sock Club had their bank account canceled because the bankers couldn't believe that 800 people (mostly women) wanted to join a sock club. In the end over 2000 people all around the world joined. In a few weeks there should be 4000 socks in this colorway which is called Monsoon.

Here's how the yarn looks when it's made into a ball suitable for knitting.



Stay tuned. Photos of the socks as they progress will follow.