In search of ...

THE perfect sock pattern for a particular yarn. It's such a lovely hand-dyed yarn -- Blueberry Patch by Spinning Bunny. I can't wait to start using it! I have two colorways and I know I'll be making socks but I need just the right pattern.

I want a pattern that is nice to knit, won't take all my concentration and will show off the yarn nicely. A Cookie A. pattern -- such as Monkey -- might be a good choice. There are also some patterns in her book and in some magazines that would be nice as well.

I also have a project in mind for some of my Imagination yarn. A friend of mine bought me a skein of Wicked Witch. That's enough to do a sock with or a scarf. I'm thinking about doing a pair with the toe and heel of one in Wicked Witch and the body in Frog Prince. Then do the other sock in the reverse. I'll do these in Monkey because solid Alpaca is a little too warm. I have to do lace.

I think I might also buy some Mermaid Lagoon to go with the Looking Glass I have. I really love how buying sock yarn isn't considered adding to stash. That's a yarn stash rule and one that cannot be broken! I'm sicking to that story!

Oh!!! Maybe I'll do the entrelac socks out of the Blueberry Patch!

The search must continue until I finish the Monkeys on my needles. Then the rubber hits the road and I have to start with that yarn!

Lacy Bed Socks from Romantic Style? Traveling Stitch Leg Warmers (turned into stockings) from Knit So Fine? No. I'd need another skein at least and possibly two.

::digs through book, magazines and web pages::

Plaited Points? Hedera? Diamante?

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Knit or read?

I hate making the choice. But it's rather necessary.

I know. I know. Audio books. The problem with that is I don't like having the book read to me. I want to read it myself. Jim Dale reading "Harry Potter" aloud might be awesome but not for an entire book. Let me make the voices talk in my head.

But if I'm reading I'm not knitting. If I'm knitting I'm not reading. I might be reading about knitting but I'm still not knitting.

Then, of course, neither are spinning or weaving. There are just too many things I want to do and too many things I need to do. That's not even counting in what I spend 40 hours a week doing - working!

Aside from all the projects I want to knit and the books about knitting I want to read, the projects I want to spin and weave, the books on weaving I want to read, there are the books like "Unraveled" and "Jane Austen Ruined My Life" and "The Decaffeinated Corpse." All three are waiting for me right now. I'm actually reading "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies", "Pride & Prescience" and "Jane Austen Ruined My Life" at the moment. I sneaked in a peak at "Unraveled."

I need to find a way to warp the time-space continuum, dammit! More time, less silly stuff like cleaning and organizing to do. That's what I need.

I think a nice vacation would be good right about now.

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World wide knit in public day?

I don't get it. I've knit in public for years. I'm known on my bus route as "the woman who knits on the bus." Recently another woman has started doing that too and we are "the women who knit on the bus."

There are other women on the bus who knit but apparently they don't KIP.

When I ride the bus I have to choose the project carefully. If it's something very intricate that takes a lot of room (for different types of yarn or for the pattern charts) that's not very practical. The bus is crowded, I need too much room for the chart unless the chart is small, and I get sick if I have to read much while the bus is moving.

I get sick from the bus moving anyway but that's because of the driving and the twists and turns of the route, but that's another issue.

Socks are a great project for bus travel. I'm working on a pair of monkey socks using Tofutsie yarn. I like the yarn but there isn't much give. It is what it is -- much like linen but softer. And you'd never know it was made from crab shells except for the lovely sheen.

The one thing about knitting on the bus is the fun watching reactions. When I started riding the bus -- and therefore knitting on the bus -- about 10 years ago people would wait until the seat beside me was the last empty seat and then they would sit there. They were quite uncomfortable about doing it. I guess someone wielding pointy sticks intimidated them.

As people became more comfortable with the idea they would sit and ask about my project. Then came the point when people would bring a project along just so they could get a quickie lesson! That was when I knew I crossed the line from "scary, crazy lady knitting" to just "crazy lady knitting."

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Knitted beginnings

Mom and I were talking this morning, reminiscing over my beginnings as a knitter. When I was about 4 years old, mom taught me to knit. I started down that slippery slope at a very young age I know but I got the hang of it. Every doll I owned had a scarf, as did every flat surface in my bedroom. My dolls all had blankets as well.

A neighborhood friend of mom's also wanted to learn to knit but she insisted on learning to knit socks on four needles. None of the "basics" for her! So one day Lil comes in with a tangle of yarn going in different direction with newly invented stitches -- her sock. She asks mom what was going wrong. I was sitting in the rocking chair in front of the TV, watching Romper Room and knitting without looking at what was on the needles. Lil threw down her work and said "Oh, just forget it!"

I never went any further with knitting and finally stopped altogether when I was in middle school.

Years went by and one day while living in New York I was watching an old Cary Grant movie -- Mr. Lucky. Yep, the one where Cary Grant knits. I felt that urge once again. The next time I went to visit mom I asked if she would give me a refresher course and also teach me to read a pattern. She did.

Back home I went. I needed to find a yarn shop IMMEDIATELY! And find a pattern for a sweater to knit for my fiance. I wanted to knit him an Aran sweater for Christmas. Next time visiting mom I showed her what I got and asked if she would help me put it together once knitted. She said sure.

I took it back when finished and that's when she told me she never expected me to finish it because it was a very difficult pattern. It was at that point I decided never to be afraid of a project just because I had never done it before.

Now I have become a "collector of techniques." I love learning different ways of casting on and off, cuff down, toe up, different heels, magic loop, English, Continental, combined, etc., etc.

I asked mom this morning if she will once again teach me her cast on. She and I don't do the same cast on (weird!) and I want to learn her's. Just like old times.

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Again with the stash!

I've been thinking there has been something missing. Like most of my yarn! As I think it over, I tell myself that I don't have that much yarn out at the storage area. I can't imagine that I have put yarn where I can't readily look at it and touch it.

As it turns out I have at least five large bins, at least three small bins and a couple of boxes out there with yarn in them. Yikes! I wonder if I can get the large economy size bag of moth balls. Do they sell the stuff in 20 lb. bags?

I have to get out there and catalog the yarn I have. On the other hand I had some very pleasant surprises. I had yarn and projects that I had forgotten about in the year since I moved.

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