Knitting and spinning. The fun never stops.

A new sock project!

As I said yesterday, this is Tempted Good Grrl yarn (100% merino) in the Emergency colorway (love that name).

The design is, of course, my own that I’m working up. Hopefully you’ll see some major progress at the next blog post.

This means, of course, that I finished the Ribbon Candy socks. Ta-da!

I plan to write up this pattern and will let you know when it’s available for sale, should you be interested in knitting a pair of Ribbon Candy Socks for yourself.

Thank You

Thank you so much to the many of you who offered your support in my comments and signed the petition concerning the animal abuse perpetrated by the Richmond Fox television station. Several of you asked if there was a list of their advertisers available. If you go to their homepage you’ll see that a number of their major advertisers are shown on that page.

When I went to the page this morning to get the link, I saw this statement at the top of the page:

A colony of feral cats is living behind WRLH. We have contacted a number of organizations to help with the humane and non-lethal removal of these animals over the next few days.

Major eye-roll here. What they didn’t add, of course, is that this statement was added after they bulldozed the habitat, killing some of the cats. And they no doubt added the statement because of the public outcry at their cruelty and inhumane treatment of these animals.

And further, here is the Richmond SPCA’s response to their statement.

To close on a happy note, here is my little princess, knowing full well that she is not supposed to be up on the table.

All along while I was knitting the first sock, I kept thinking it reminded me of something, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then when I asked for suggestions for pattern names, Ansley put me out of my misery by saying “I think the socks look like ribbon candy the way the zigzag is.” Yup, that’s it — ribbon candy!

Clearly a lot of you thought that was the name meant for these socks, judging from the voting. So Ribbon Candy it is.

Anyhow, I am close to finishing the second sock and have high hopes to do just that tonight. Then it will be on to a new sock, knit from this.

This is Tempted “Good Grrl” sock yarn in the “Emergency” colorway. While I am really not so much of a “red” person, I love this colorway. I’ve worked up a design that I think will be good for it.

Verena Knitting

Have y’all seen this magazine?

I think L-B told me about it, so I subscribed and received my first issue yesterday. There’s a total of 53 (I think) patterns in this issue, and a lot of them are very nice, I think. Well worth the cover price of $6.99 US!

I Love Kitties

This afternoon L-B brought to my attention this very sad story about a colony of feral cats in Richmond Virginia.

Another online friend set up a petition about this situation here.

Just a few minutes ago L-B sent me this update from the Richmond SPCA:

——

Update, posted 4:30 p.m. June 25.

It has come to our attention that viewers calling Fox Richmond today have been told that the station has been actively “working with the Richmond SPCA” to resolve the situation regarding the colony of feral cats on and around the station’s property. The station is also claiming that they called the Richmond SPCA weeks ago and that they decided to bulldoze the cat habitat today in anticipation of our arrival, to make it easier for us to trap the cats.

These statements are completely untrue and we have asked that Fox Richmond and staff immediately cease making any such statements to the public. We have and will continue to reach out to the General Manager of Fox Richmond to try to reach an agreement whereby the remaining members of the cat colony can be managed in a non-lethal, humane manner, but no such agreement has been reached between the Richmond SPCA and Fox Richmond or Sinclair Broadcast Group.

It is our understanding that the station has asked the pest control company which they had contracted to kill the cats to stop that action and to not kill any additional cats at this time. Otherwise, the fate of the cats and kittens on the property is undecided at this point. We will continue to try to work with local officials and Fox representatives toward a positive outcome. Please continue your calls and e-mails expressing concern over the actions of Fox Richmond and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A large and unified public outcry against the extermination route previously chosen by the station may prove very helpful as our discussions continue.

—-

While it may be too late for these kitties, signing the petition and/or expressing your opinion to the perpetrators may well raise enough awareness to prevent future atrocities.

Thank you.

And my sweet rescue kitty Lucy thanks you as well.

Y’all came up with a lot of creative and fun names for my new sock pattern. I had a hard time narrowing it down to just a few choices, but I did. So it is time to vote!

Here’s a “nice” photo of the first sock to help you in choosing a name.

And here is the second sock in progress.

I am being succinct here because I’ve not much time for blogging for the next couple of days. (Or knitting either.) So . . . carry on. Knit ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

Twisty Bits

Remember my Twisty Bits sock pattern? It’s now available at The Loopy Ewe, here. There were still copies available when I checked.

Lucy Pix

A couple of you asked about the photos of Lucy in the blog. Do I take photos every day or do I stockpile photos for use?

I do try to take pictures every day and use photos from that day. However, sometimes I go back and use an older photo, usually from a few days earlier. If it is darker than usual when I come home or if the little princess doesn’t feel like cooperating, I’ll use an older photo. Or if I happen to have taken several really good photos, I will want to use all of them. The photo above was taken just a few minutes before I wrote this blog post.

Lucy sez:

The life of a supermodel is not an easy one. But do I complain? Well, maybe a little.”

Although she is simply exhausted from her supermodel lifestyle, she would like you all to know that she has fun in her “down time.”

Like playing with one of the fun new toys that Tiny Tyrant sent her!

I totally forgot to make mention of that yesterday.

My current sock-in-progress is my kick-off project for the Summer of Socks ‘08. I decided to start with some sportweight socks to give myself a little “atta-girl” — sportweight socks knit up really fast. How fast? I finished the first sock last night.

The yarn (Yarntini sportweight) is wonderful to knit — very soft and yummy. And the skein is a generous 260 yards, which makes a very decent-sized pair of socks.

The pattern is my own — I doodled it up on graph paper last month and stuck it in my “pending” folder for future reference. It is currently called “May12a.”

Anyone have any ideas for a prettier name? Remember, I don’t give my patterns color-specific names (or at least I try not to).

So . . . Summer of Socks. Will I knit only socks this summer? Right now I’m not sure. I might feel the urge to make something lacy or to knit a cotton sweater. So I make no promises!

I do have a lot of cotton in my stash and I’m thinking that as much as I really don’t enjoy knitting with cotton, I’d quite like to have another cotton sweater, seeing as how I’m always too warm to wear wool. So you just never know . . .

Meanwhile, Lucy waits patiently for me to get off the computer and come play with her.

You probably did not know that about me, did you? But I do.

I try from time to time to like stripes, but I just can’t. I just can’t. I feel like a clown on the rare occasions I wear stripes (and my feelings about clowns are well-known amongst my friends).

I did used to knit with self-striping sock yarn when it was first introduced a few years back. But none of those socks were ever seen on my feet.

This is a round-about way of saying that no, I will not be knitting striped socks using the pink and green yarns pictured in last Thursday’s post. Even contrasting heels are borderline for me.

While I like the idea of fair isle socks, I wouldn’t use sportweight yarns for such a design — that would make a very thick sock!

So, I picked the pink. Even though green is my favorite color. No worries, I’ll get to the green eventually.

Last Friday I had lunch with a blog-buddy (betcha didn’t even know she was down here, huh?). She brought me a lovely little box of chocolates from her sister’s company:

Yum!

Believe it or not, there are still 2 left. But not for long . . .

Public Service Announcement

Susan of The Rainey Sisters recently blogged about  the Wrapped in Care program. The purpose of the program is to provide hand-knit shawls to women who have experienced the death of a newborn at United or Childrens Hospital - St. Paul.

She has links to information about the program on her blog.

Back here at Wendyknits, Lucy says she is too exhausted to come to the blog right now . . .