I’m headed for a counseling conference next week in San Diego. I’ll be there from the 14th-18th. I don’t think I know of any San Diego knitters, unfortunately, but if you’re out there, give me a shout. I’d love some knitting company or just peeps to hang out and explore a new city with.

I’ve recovered from swine flu and am back on the job and school, but also feeling like I’ll never catch up. Argh. At least I have pizza and coffee to get me through the hard times. I was going batty with the social isolation. Me in my apartment for a week and a half, with mostly only the cats. And the Gilmore Girls…and some knitting.

This video reminds me of Halloween from my childhood. My aunt recorded a whole Disney Halloween set of cartoons for us once, and my brother, sister and I seemed to watch them religiously. Or at least I did. I also got really excited when I remembered a cartoon called Witch’s Night Out. I found it on DVD on eBay and ordered it! What a wonderful world we live in.

Yo. I totally have swine flu. It’s definitely not fun, but it’s been kind of nice being forced into taking it easy at my apartment. Sometimes I’m going crazy and want to claw the walls because I miss my friends and fun activities tremendously. Other times it’s nice not to have to keep up with witty banter while in a medicinal fog. I should be doing schoolwork, for sure.

Instead… I made a hat, and wrote out the pattern. I’ve never written a pattern meant for mass knitterly consumption, so I was wondering if anyone felt like giving it a test run and giving me a few pointers on parts of the pattern that may be unclear.  It’s an ear flap hat with a ridiculously fun and jaunty pom pom, a welcome addition to any knitted cap/hat/toque collection I hope. I plan on putting up the pattern on my 3rd blogiversary (Oct. 20th) with some fun pics of it, for free of course. If you volunteer to test knit I’ll send a most likely less-than-stellar picture of myself wearing the hat so you can see what it looks like at least.  If you don’t want to knit it, but instead just want to look over the pattern and give me some feedback, that would be welcome too.

In the meantime I’ll be on my couch, maybe watching scary flicks to prepare for Halloween (Rosemary’s Baby was last night), and knitting to my heart’s content whilst continuing to procrastinate about more pressing school things. But hey…I have swine flu. In the oft used words of my friend Greg, “Gimme a break!”

Yes, I went there. Cheesiest title I could think of in the moment. These delicious little foot warmers are my favorite project right now. They’re a men’s size 10.5 and I don’t know exactly what I will do with them when done. They might be my favorites thus far, and it’s killing me that I didn’t make them in my size. They’re set to have some white stripes further up on the cuff. The yarn is Koigu and is this magical golden color in the sunlight and an olive green indoors.

This photo, by M. Taylor Long, will be used by my LYS, Hand Held to advertise a class on two-at-a-time-magic-loop-toe-up-with-a-heel-flap socks. I’m teaching this class starting on October 10th and for two additional alternating weekends. If you’re in the area and want to take a class, come on in! It’s my first time to teach a knitting class and I’m really excited. I might even make cookies for the first class.

This is my favorite way to make socks, and I alter nearly every pattern I come across to conform to my ways.

In other knitting news… I just bought some Colinette Point 5, a thick and thin yarn, in a lovely color called “Wasabi Squeeze.” The color is pretty accurate on that link. I’m thinking some kind of triangular scarf is in order. They seem to be all over the place in a good way right now. Still trudging along on the Minimalist Cardi. Just can’t seem to get up the excitement to work on a sweater back right now. I also finished a quick incarnation of the Mustard Hat (Ravelry link) for my friend Tyler’s 25th birthday. Pics are soon to follow. The Ravelry pic featured is actually my hat! I’ve made this hat at least 6 times for myself or others. It knits up pretty quickly and the fisherman’s rib design seems to be snug and warm.

Grad school is rearing its head once again as the semester kicks off. It’s shaping up to be much better than I thought, aside from the nasty statistics class that is merely one of six that I am required to take with the program. I know it’s for the best and will help me finely hone my researching skills at some point, but right now it seems dismal. Argh. My advanced marriage and family class is going to be wonderful and even the advanced individual appraisal class is surprising me with goodness. I guess it’s fall, folks.

The lovely owl pictured below is Patty Mayonnaise. She lives at the African Lion Safari in Ontario and is lucky enough to get to go home with my friend Greg a couple of times a week.

You might have guessed that the birds of prey folks at ALS have an affinity for the cartoon Doug, for those of you that remember it. It was recently discovered that Patty (the owl) is actually a fella.

The socks are Opal’s self-striping sock yarn in the Toucan colorway. Greg does not work with toucans on a regular basis, but I thought a bird-appropriate colorway would be suitable. If only they made one in spectacle owl… maybe I’ll have to create that myself.  When Patty grows up she’s going to look like this:

That’s Cleveland. He’s incredibly sweet. He makes this freaky little cooing noise when you pet him. I wasn’t sure if it was a  good or bad thing, but Greg reassured me it was good. He’s one of the few owls there that loves to be pet, and he also had the luxury of being the office owl. I think a spectacle owl colorway would be just lovely.

I just got back from Canada and had so much fun! I went to Lettuce Knit and ran into Laura, aka Cosmicpluto. I was a little bit starstruck to see a blogger in person! Especially one whose blog and designs I really admire. I was only there for about three and a half days, but it was a wonderful getaway. I will blog soon with more details about the trip and a pic of the Minimalist Cardigan progress.

Hanging at the airport in NW Arkansas waiting for my flight to Chicago that will connect me with a flight to Buffalo that will connect me with a young Canadian fellow who will take me to Toronto. This is a pretty last-minute and spontaneous trip. I’ve never been to Canada and I’m really excited.

The plans so far are to visit the African safari where my friend Greg works, try and see Passion Pit tomorrow night, visit Lettuce Knit in Toronto, and just see what else happens. I expect that Greg has many plans to squire me about town and introduce me to his friends.

I’ve been working on the Minimalist Cardigan almost monogamously for the past week. I even knitted during Julia & Julia yesterday with no mistakes. There’s an Ishbel hanging out on the needles, and a pair of socks at the gusset decrease stage as well. I’ve been horrible with the progress shots lately.

I’m considering investing in a nice SLR camera, but I want some guidance because I have a tendency to get crazy and buy more than I’ll really need from a camera. I think that could inspire me to blog a bit more than once a month… Any favorites or recs?

I Second that Emotion by Smokey Robinson

For some reason that song seemed to go well with this post. “If you’ve got the notion…” or in this case, the Notions Purse from the Purl Bee blog.

I made this for my friend Susan as a belated birthday gift. For a knitter it can hold those little notions we don’t want to misplace in our potential plethora of knitting carryalls. Pictures again by M Taylor Long.

The project was quick and satisfying. It forced me to crochet a little as well. The button is crocheted around a large stitch marker. It was a little awkward at first, but pretty satisfying in the end. I will probably make more buttons like this in the future, but the Clover stitch markers I used were flexible. I think something more stiff would work best, or possibly doubling them.

I don’t know what kind of yarn I used for the button (miscellaneous scrap), but the rest of the purse was made with Malabrigo Silky Merino. It’s glorious stuff. I still have some sock yarn from my last Christmas that I haven’t used. Be warned, the Alcaucil color is far more black than green, as it appears on their website. I don’t know if I’m into black socks, but I think they’ll make a beautiful lace pair one of these days. I think half the fun is making outlandishly colorful socks.

Still on the needles: simple stockinette socks for a friend with ginormous feet, Copper Penny socks in a baby blanket kind of colorway for me, and Ishbel in a rusty orange color for my friend Elaine. As these end and some needles are freed, I plan to get going on the Minimalist Cardigan, which I’ve had the yarn for since last summer, and some socks for the boy similar to these with my usual toe-up magic loop two-at-at-time treatment. Always thinking ahead.

And if you just want a laugh: Le Le – Breakfast

This post is a bit late in coming, as I have been back from NY since the sixteenth of June. I was lucky enough to be in NY for ten days. I went with a friend and stayed at Hotel Marrakech on the Upper West Side. The hotel was pretty decent for the cost, though they would often forget about the little things, like soap, when refilling items in the room.

For the most part we just roamed the streets aimlessly for good parts of the day and ate delicious food when we stumbled upon it. I really prefer vacation to feel like a vacation, and that means taking a fairly laid back approach to seeing the sights and planning for me. We went to a couple different Magnolia Bakery locations and smashed cupcakes in each others’ faces. The smell of that bakery is enrapturing. The smell of every block in NY is an entirely new experience.

My favorite part of the trip was probably the music. I got to see PJ Harvey and John Parish at the Beacon Theatre, a lovely lovely place. I saw Apollo Run at Knitting Factory and School of Seven Bells at the Bowery Ballroom. It was three glorious nights in a row of good music. I had never heard Apollo Run or School of Seven Bells. I went to Apollo Run on the recommendation of a friend who knows some of the band members. How could I miss a show at a place called Knitting Factory? Really?

Deciding on School of Seven Bells was tougher because they were playing on the same night and roughly the same time as Sunset Rubdown, a band I’ve loved for awhile now. I watched a couple of YouTube videos of School of Seven Bells songs and that decided things for me. I have been listening to their Alpinisms album over and over since then. You could not forcibly pry it from my ears. It is magic.

We went to the MoMA and the American Museum of Natural History. I adored both of them, especially the MoMA.

I could take up permanent residence within its walls. Here’s the chair I will knit in.

We saw the Tangled Alphabets exhibit. My view of cursive writing is forever altered. Unfortunately it was an area where pictures were not allowed, but I’m contemplating buying the book to have a more tangible representation of my memories.

A very threatening purse:

Here are a few images from the American Museum of Natural History. I had to take this picture, for my love of the Squid and the Whale.

And here is a squid:

I went to Mecca, ahem, Purl and bought sock yarn (it’s a compulsion) and knitting supplies for my friend Greg so I could promptly teach him how to knit. He’s working on a hat, or more appropriately, a toque (since he’s Canadian).

We went to the Bronx Zoo and saw a bunch of crazy animals, you know, like one typically does at a zoo.

Peacock wedding dress: (Yes, I know it’s a dude, more power to him).

We also went to Habu (heaven) and I bought some of the silk/stainless steel yarn in a taupe color to blend with some laceweight mustard colored yarn of theirs, and another sage laceweight color just in case I need to make two scarves… I really want to work with this yarn as soon as possible, but as I have three projects on the needles right now, I feel I shouldn’t allow myself that kind of indulgence, yet. Somehow three projects feels like a good limit for me. It’s good to know one’s tolerance.  (I should specify ACTIVE projects, as I’m remiss to mention the sweater, blanket squares, etc. in that are out of sight and mind at the moment).

I’m incubating an idea for an art project with the silk and stainless steel yarn for the fall Art Amiss show. I’ve been mentally reworking some knitted wall art for quite some time now, and I suppose I should just get to it. After Ishbel and the two pairs of socks I have on the needles. Argh. I will be posting in-progress pics of those projects soon.

I will probably post more NY pics at a later date. I didn’t want to overwhelm with images.

Enter the Monkeys of Happiness…

I thought it was about time I jumped on the Monkey socks bandwagon. I had to do it in my own fashion of course, the standard two-at-at-time-toe-up-magic-loop-with-a-heel-flap madness that I can’t seem to rid myself of when it comes to socks. I just like having the option of using all of the yarn, even though I set about 21 grams aside for a square in my future Barn Raising Quilt.

So far I’m raising the barn all by myself… I’m have about four squares and I’m making them bigger than called for. A ball of sock yarn for me is yielding about two squares rather than three for that project. I started it last summer when I bought the Knitalong book, which I love. Such pie in the sky hopes can only fizzle when I try to make myself knit square after square with no reprieve. I even took the little baby squares to an amusement park which-I-shall-not-name for it’s associated country-bumpkinness and I was approached by several children and adults curious about knitting as I waited in line for the roller coasters. Knitting in public is usually a great way to start conversations. Most people said things like, “Whoa, you’ve got a long way to go for a blanket.” Maybe that’s what wore me down in the end. Or the distraction of a new project… Speaking of distraction! That was quite a tangent… now, for my Monkeys…

The yarn I used for this pair was titled “Bluebird of Happiness” from Gaslight Dyeworks on Etsy. I fell in love with her yarn and bought three skeins for socks in a moment of excess a few months ago. I’m now working with another colorway from her called “Bikini” with the Copper Penny sock pattern, but I’ll probably call those something like “Great-grandma’s baby blanket socks.” Oh, you’ll see… I’ve already been asked if I’m with child while knitting these socks, I think because of the lace/color combo. Hopefully I can post some in-progress pics of those before I head to NY.

I’m pretty satisfied with the way my Monkeys turned out.

The pattern is interesting enough to keep you engaged while intuitive enough that you don’t have to look at the chart for long. I feel I could have done more ribbing at the top, but I wanted to set aside enough yarn for the blanket square. I think I took out one of the pattern repeats. It’s nice and snug around the foot, but I suppose it could be looser around the leg. I don’t mind it, but it seems a bit stretched in the photos.

As with the last post, the lovely photos were taken my my friend M Taylor Long. I adore his photos so much better than my own that I can’t go back now! I’ll have to make him a knitted reward one of these days.

I like the squish of these socks and they seem like they’ll stay up well. I’m two pairs shy of having a week’s worth of socks for myself for wintertime, but one of the pairs was made with Lion Brand Sock Ease, which I still can’t wash all the itch out of, so onward march. It feels good to be back in a sock frame of mind.

In other news: I leave for NY on Sunday. I’ll be there for 10 days, so probably no blogging. Although I’m not necessarily good at that while I’m here and doing nothing pressing… I will see PJ Harvey and John Parish on the 9th! I’m very excited. I don’t have much of an agenda while there aside from general fun, probably a trip to Purl, the Bronx zoo, Magnolia Bakery, and whatever else strikes our collective fancy. I’m meeting a new person there that I’ve only known in the realm of the internet, so it will be an adventure of all sorts.

Oh! And if you don’t know about TED talks, you should check this out. There are tons of amazing speakers on a wide range of topics. All the talks are roughly around 20 minutes. My two favorites so far are by Helen Fisher on love and cheating and the brain in love. What can I say? I’m a sucker for love. And I like to know all about the sociological/biological/psychological elements involved. These talks are just the tip of the iceberg lettuce. I started watching the other day and watched about 8 talks that day. Good fodder for knitting background, and as a bonus, you can download them to iTunes and listen to them at your convenience. Enjoy.

Hello ladies and gentlemen of blogland. I have returned. I promised pictures of Ishbel in the last couple of posts, but I’ve come to an unfortunate snag in the pattern, I’m sure of my own misunderstanding and miscounting and I need to unravel her a bit. Instead, here is the cap I started way back in February in Portland. Yes, it’s a bit warm for wool caps these days, but it’s good to finish the project nevertheless. Everyone needs slouchy hats. They’re soothing to the soul.

N-cap imitation

My good friend Taylor was kind enough to have a fun little photo shoot with me. Now he will be forced to take all of my blog photos because none that I take will ever look this good. Poor poor fella.

This is an imitation of N-cap, (Ravelry link), which I saw on Ravelry and fell in love with. This is my third incarnation of that hat style. The first hat I loved and lost within two weeks. I still miss it, but I hope it’s keeping someone else’s head warm. The second is a pale blue hat that I wear from time to time. This one has more droop, but I’m a fan of the colors. I used Paint Box and started one ball at the center and one at the outside, alternating every two rows.

I just did altered the purling and knitting for four rows apiece and then decreased when I felt like it. Scientific, no?

This one is just for fun:

We had happy hour photo time and it was happy. I can be a ham in front of the camera sometimes, but I usually take the best pics of myself because no one else has the patience. I’ve never liked photos of myself so much. Dude has a good eye.

I’m working on socks. They’re Monkey Socks made with hand-dyed yarn from etsy in the Bluebird of Happiness colorway. So, they could be dubbed the Monkeys of Happiness perhaps. I will be posting at least one related pic of them soon. The color is bright blue with flecks of bright orange and yellow. It truly is happy. I had a dream the other night that a little bird was trapped in a cupboard. When I let it out it was colored like the yarn. I didn’t catch the significance of the coloring until later that morning when I was thinking about my dream. Letting the bluebird of happiness out…

I graduated last Saturday with my master’s in counseling. I skipped graduation in lieu of taking my parents and sister to the local farmer’s market. I heard the graduation ceremony ended up being about four hours of boring, so I’m assured that I made the right decision. Now I have a two-ish month break before I begin the summer class that launches me into the PhD program in counselor education. Hurrah! School never ends. I don’t now if this is a good thing… Avoidance of reality? Meh.

I will be taking a trip to NYC in mid-June if anyone has any suggestions for brilliant fun.

Hello. I discovered some knitting therapy in the form of Ishbel. We’re in love, even though I had to tear back most of the project just as I got to the lace because my numbers were off. Why oh why don’t I count sooner? Blind knitting confidence. She is red, a color I don’t usually choose for much knitting or clothing, but I’m loving it so far. I need to post pics, I know. I’m sure these posts seem lifeless with no color. I have only my banter to rely on. Notice I didn’t claim it was witty…

The socks and hat are on hold. I just can’t seem to get back into them. I think I do that with socks. I make three or four pairs and then I’m burnt out on them for a good long while. I need to start thinking of summer projects. Any suggestions? I’m thinking the Razor Cami will have to be toward the top of the list, perhaps with some silk or bamboo sock yarn.

In other news…I got accepted to the PhD program at the University of Arkansas for counselor education. I’m very excited! Four more years…I could also be crazy. Very glad to have the inteview process over. Now I just have to look into those fellowships. They didn’t keep me in suspense very long. I got an email within an hour of my interview saying I had been accepted. Great for instant gratification lovers like me.