Archives for April 2008

Thank you for all your very kind and congratulatory comments about my upcoming sock book. I am very much looking forward to its release. I’ve seen some sample layout pages for it and am beyond thrilled with how it looks, so I hope you’ll like it too.

And speaking of socks, I finished the St. Louis Socks.

To recap, these are knit from Neighborhood Fiber Company merino wool sock yarn in the “Logan Circle” colorway, using a 2mm needle.

I started a new sock:

(That’s Lucy’s fluffy paw modeling the toe.)

Knit from The Sanguine Gryphon Eidos sock yarn (can you tell I like this yarn?) in the “Agathon” colorway.

In other sock news, sign-ups are now open for the Summer of Socks 2008 over on Jessica’s blog. Run, don’t walk, over there, get yourself signed up, and snag the very cool button for your blog. Why? Because I said so!

Well, no, you don’t have to sign up because I said so. But I do happen to know that there will be extremely cool hijinks associated with the SOS 08, and it is a stress-free event — you only have to do as much as you wanna.

And all the cool kids are doing it.

And speaking of socks, the Knit Together podcast that was recorded at the Spring Fling is now up — here. Go! Listen! I listened to it and I didn’t make too much of a goober of myself in the interview.

Lucy is now worried that the sock I started is for her.

I went to the office this morning.

No one wanted to have a photo taken with me.

No one wanted me to autograph anything.

No one was happy to see me.

Yup, back to reality. 😉

Right now all I’m knitting is my second St. Louis sock. But I’m making good progress.

That reminds me that I did not show you the sock pattern I designed for the Spring Fling. Named, very creatively, “Spring Fling Socks.”

I knit the sample from ShibuiKnits sock yarn, and the pattern is written so they can be knit toe-up or top-down. It’ll be available for sale in the next couple of weeks from The Loopy Ewe for any of you non-Flingers who would like to have it. In fact, I’ll have a few new patterns available then.

It’s been a long while since I released any new patterns for sale, but I have a good reason. As some of you already know, I have recently completed work on a book of toe-up socks. It will be published by Potter Craft and the publication date is April 14, 2009. Yeah, almost a year from now. In addition to 23 sock patterns, it has an extensive reference section with step-by-step illustrated instructions for toes, heels, and bind-offs for toe-up socks, along with all the tips and tricks I know to make sock knitting fun and easy.

So I was busy with sock patterns for the book for a few months. 🙂

Okay, gotta go knit.

Lucy sez:

“The things I put up with for Wildside Salmon . . .”

That’s what I hit today. It’s a very good thing I took today off from work, because I’ve done pretty much nothing today, apart from a bit of laundry, a couple of errands, and a whole lot of being cat furniture for Lucy, who seems to have figured out that if she sits on me all the time, I won’t be able to leave.

Sheri posted a great entry that nicely summed up the Fling experience, here. Sheri sure knows how to put together a Fling, let me tell you.

My sock-in-progress got a lot of attention over the weekend. Here it is, completed:

I’m calling this pattern “St. Louis Socks.” I have started the second one, though I’ve not done much work on it. The sock yarn is from Neighborhood Fiber Company. It is 100% merino fingering weight, and the colorway is called “Logan Circle.”

I did finish the Twisted Logic Socks Wednesday evening before leaving for St. Louis.

I’ll let you know when this pattern is available, but I now need to go back to being cat furniture for Miss Lucy.

I returned home safely from The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling this afternoon.

Yeah, definitely a good idea to leave the computer at home. Every waking moment when I wasn’t teaching a class I was being treated like a rockstar: posing with knitters for photos, autographing my patterns, and hanging out with an incredibly fun group of people.

Although the Flingers have been chatting on Ravelry for months, pre-Fling, I’d only met Sheri and Janice in person. That’s all changed. Within an hour of my arrival at the Fling, I was lunching with Amy (who I met on the flight to St. Louis) and Wollmeise Claudia and we were all laughing together like old friends. Claudia, I will always share my fries with you!

Thursday afternoon I sat at the registration table in the hotel lobby so I could meet as many Flingers as possible as they arrived. I recognized gorgeous Tempted Stacy from her photos as she came through the door and was delighted to meet her wonderful “entourage” — Kaye and Del. Ladies, you must come to the east coast. And soon. And I was delighted to meet the amazingly talented Cookie A. — I only wish I could have taken her class, but we were teaching at the same times, so that was not possible. But I was able to spend some “down” time with her, so that was a consolation.

So . . . many . . . wonderful . . . knitters! We laughed, we swore at our yarn, we oohed and aahed over each other’s socks.

Speaking of socks, we had an ugly sock incident. I started a sock on the plane out to St. Louis, and completed it Saturday night. This was a sock with personality. See?

My sock is making friends with Sarah.

But things turned ugly . . .

See what I mean? I’m afraid to take it out of my bag.

The above photos are courtesy of Tammy. Yeah, I didn’t take my camera out of my bag all weekend. Sheri and I did a podcast with Sarah and Tammy, so watch for that on the Knit Together website. I also did a podcast with Aimee, so watch for that one here. I announced some exciting news on both podcasts. 🙂

I’ll show you some knitting in the next blog entry, but tonight I’m going to hang with this little girl:

She tells me she had lots of fun with her daddy, but she’s happy to have her Momma home.

P.S. To Kellie — should you decide not to return to New Zealand, my offer to come live in my stash room is always open!

Contest!

I neglected to mention earlier that Zarzuela (Queen of the Summer of Socks) is having a contest to create the official button for the Summer of Socks ’08. You have until 5:00 pm Friday (April 25) to get your entry in. If your button is selected, you will win a fabulous prize (ahem!).

Twisted Logic

I’m so pleased that y’all like my Twisted Logic socks.The pattern will be available for sale at The Loopy Ewe in the near future.

Did I finish the second sock? Not yet, but I’m close!

I’ll likely finish it tonight and start a new sock for the trip.

Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis

I am off to St. Louis for The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling in the morning. Someone asked a day or two ago what classes I’m teaching. It’s just one class, but I’m teaching it 4 times — heel and toe techniques for toe-up socks.

I decided against bringing my laptop with me. I figured it really wasn’t worth schlepping it all the way there as I likely won’t have much time to be cruising online. And I won’t promise you much in the way of photos when I return, as I tend not to take too many when I go to knitting events. I don’t want to annoy the other attendees.

So, no blog post tomorrow. I return home Sunday afternoon, so you might see a post from me Sunday night.

Then again, you might not see one until Monday.

By far the hardest thing I have to do tomorrow morning is to say good-by to this little sweetheart until Sunday afternoon:

She, of course, will be having a high old time with her Daddy. I fully expect her to be disappointed when I return home. You know: “Well, Daddy lets me do this” and “Daddy lets me do that.”

Children, eh?