CatKnitsandThings.com

I feel like I just spent the morning hanging out with knitting celebs from the past and present. I just finished reading the two articles in the new VK - “Knitting’s Old Guard Speaks Out” [an interview with Kaffe Fassett, Alice Starmore, Mari Lynn Patrick and Meg Swanson], and then “Chatting with Knitting’s New Guard” [Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Clara Parkes, Debbie Stroller, Shannon Okey and Vickie Howell]. There were little synopses about each person, as well as a small tribute to EZ - of course! - and even a phone conversation with Barbara Walker, who says she hasn’t picked up a set of knitting needles in the past 11 years! It was such a fun read, and kind of a new twist for me because I’m really more of the “look at the pictures” girl with knitting mags. So in order for me to sit captivated by a couple of interviews, it really had to have the right feel. It FELT like I was sitting there in a coffee shop, hanging out and laughing, or nodding in agreement, or being amazed at the collective wisdom - especially of the ones they’ve deemed “old guard” - and that kept me interested and reading to the end.

It seems strange to me that Vogue Knitting has only been in publication for 25 years. But, there you have it - they’re celebrating their Silver Anniversary - and did themselves proud with this issue. Beautiful lace scarves and sweaters in there by some great designers, as well as all the haute couture a knitter could desire - if one is in to that - but I think these interviews are really the highlight of the issue.

After the PinkSock4 episode wrapped up, I went to my meager stash to find my next sock project.

While I was there, I also pulled out the dishcloth yarn to see what I had there, since my dishcloth supply has also recently been depleted, and I like to keep a few of those on hand for hostess gifts. So….the two bags came out.

This is not the entire sum of my yarn stash, but I really don’t have anything like what I’ve seen on knitting blogs around the internet. I have some handspun, and another bag or two of baby yarn, and that’s about it. I guess it helps that we live in a small house, and have a small family budget - because my sewing/quilting stash used to be quite respectable “back in the day” - so I’m quite capable of hoarding fiber. ***grin***

Anyway, there I was with the dishcloth yarn and the sock yarn. I dumped the bags out on the bed to see what I had, and when I did, I heard coins jingle. “Hmmm…says I…where’s the coin noise coming from?”

There was an envelope in the yarn bag. It had a post-it note with two plastic stitch markers taped to it inside - and $34 and change! Don’t you just love it when you think you may have found some change you didn’t know you had, and it’s all hanging out with folding money too? Very cool!

How did THAT happen, you may wonder?

Well - we have one vehicle - and I work from home. Months ago, DH was on his way into the big city, and I told him I needed some things from JoAnn’s. He volunteered to swing by there and purchase some dishcloth yarn and stitch markers that I needed (the stitch markers taped to the Post-It note were samples of the kinds of stitch markers I did not want). So, he planned to ask for assistance in the yarn department, tell them these were the SMs I already had, describe the ones I wanted, and purchase them along with a variety of dishcloth yarn. I sent him with money my mom had sent for me to spend on yarn. He had put the change in the bag with the yarn.

Apparently, I was so focused on getting the stitch markers, I just took those out of the bag, and a few skeins of dishcloth yarn, and I put the new dishcloth yarn stash in the closet with the rest of the sock yarn - and the envelope of “change!”

So guess who’s going yarn shopping this weekend?

And that’s not all! Along with the yarn money windfall - Amazon.com just e-mailed me a gift certificate.

I heart windfalls!

Has it really only been a month and a half (or so)? It seems like this sock has been in progress for a year. Maybe it’s because I actually started trying to make socks from this yarn in February of this year… and things went downhill from there. A couple of different toe attempts, a pattern change or two, and finally I settled in to this incarnation. They’re for my mom. My son’s cynical prediction was that I’d make one shorter than the other - and I must admit they’re not both exactly the same length, so there IS still the possibility that one toe will come out and be re-knit before they’re actually mailed - but at least NOW I have the finished object photograph!

I like the pattern. It’s easy to follow, and easy to pick up and continue on after being away from it for a while. This was my car-knitting project, so wasn’t a daily thing. A quick “PinkSock4″ search on this blog will show there’s been lots of OTHER stuff going on during the process. So, once I did that, I didn’t feel quite so bad about how long it has actually taken from the day I chose the yarn, until the day I finished the socks.

The yarn bloomed some after washing, and is even softer now (also a “plus”).

Here’s the Specs:
Yarn: Gedifra 4207 purchased from Astrid.
Needles: Profi Bamboo DPNs size 0 (2 mm) - also from Astrid.
Gauge: 10 spi (oops!) Where did my 8.5 spi/gauge go???
Pattern: More Sensational Knitted Socks - 4-stitch patterns - Seeded Ribbing Check on the leg, and plain Seeded Ribbing on instep, inside-out Eye of Partridge German Chain heel, plain stockinette toe.
Size: I knit them for a size 9 narrow foot, so the tighter gauge is probably fine, especially with this stretchy pattern. I used a 64 stitch cast-on.
Began: June 1, 2007
Finished: July 23, 2007