Friday, May 9, 2008

I guess I'd been knitting a lot of socks

Life always seems to get in the way of knitting. I guess that's why I like knitting so many stockinette socks. That, and I have a penchant for hand-dyed yarns, which are best displayed by very plain stitch patterns. But I can make stockinette while reading, watching tv, or working. *Nothing* gets in the way of my stockinette socks.


Except driving, but I don't think I should try to change that.


There were a lot of socks in that last post. There are a few more here. Sorries!




Autumn Socks


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For the Mystic Light shawl, I swatched with a yarn I had picked up while out of town. I liked how it was looking, but didn't really have enough yarn for a shawl. I called my favorite yarn store to see if they had my yarn. I was looking for Classic Elite Alpaca Sox. "You can't make socks with alpaca yarn." At the time, I didn't even *want* to make socks with alpaca, but I got a diatribe about how you *can't* make socks with alpaca. Needless to say, they did not carry my yarn.


I went on a Milwaukee yarn crawl with Orion a little while later. Misti Alpaca makes a beautiful hand-dyed worsted weight yarn, so soft and vibrant. I wanted it, loved touching it, but couldn't imagine what I would make with it. It was somewhat expensive, and I don't generally like multicolor yarns. Just for socks, but this was a worsted weight alpaca yarn. Orion pointed out that I didn't have house slippers like I'd made him. Alpaca slippers it is. You *can* make socks with alpaca yarn, you just can't expect them to hold up to hard use. These socks are a comforting luxury to come home to.




The Tragedy


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These were socks I cast on a while back. I brought them to the yarn harlot event in case I finished the project I was working on before the event was over. I handed them over to Anna so that she would have something to work on. I brought them with me on the trip home to Seattle last weekend. These are socks with history.


They were made with yarn with history as well. I used this yarn to make a heart sachet for Carrie's 3-year bag. I didn't remember that until I ran out of yarn, about 3 inches from the end of the second sock. Ouch.


I've picked up some yarn in a coordinating color for toes, heels, and cuffs, for when I go to remake these. I just don't know if I'll have the heart to start on that any time soon.




Sorries to Sher


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This is a poncho I'm making for my Aunt Sher, both as an apology for an insensitive conversation on my part, and because I want to make her happy. I think the purple color is happy and very Sher. I'm also hoping that the poncho will be easier for her to put on than her sweatshirt, but still comfy. I obviously haven't gotten very far with it, though.


Every time I work with cotton, though, I swear never to do it again. And then I do. I wish it didn't hurt my hands so much.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Take your knitting to work day

Work has been weird this week.


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On Sunday night, one of the urinals on my floor overflowed, then continued to run water until half the third floor was flooded. Then it continued to flood the second and first floor as well. It's been pretty wet. We've gotten some hard-core equipment in to deal with the problem.


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Those red things stacked to the left are all of the fans that were in the offices and hallways. There were also dehumidifiers everywhere. My office was apparently hard hit, because it was one of the last to get the "dry" signoff, and it got its own fan and dehumidifiers. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that. They did have to tear out the baseboards in much of the offices. The following picture is typical:


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We hope to have our offices back by next Friday.


Fortunately, I work in a place which can take such things in stride.


I can't tell whether this makes legal seem more or less scary.
Please wear hazmat sandals.
Just so you know, eating brains does not, apparently, make you any smarter.  In case you were wondering.


So I decided to go to work and take a bunch of pictures of sock.


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Now you have a glut of socks. Stop complainin.