A Corporate Sock
I couldn’t resist. My first completed sock was in my bag, and my mom was shopping at Wal-Mart. I bought a coke and waited for her, but the camera in my bag proved to be too much of a temptation. There’s something incredibly incongrous about hand-dyed yarn, hand-knitted into a sock, against the background of the cliche of corporate monsterdom.
Then I headed outside, and took a few more pictures. I was slightly afraid that maybe a store employee would notice me, but no one did. This might be related to the fact that it was late in the evening and I was hidden in the shadows.
And yes, I found out that taking pictures of your own foot is hard. Very hard. And involves odd contortions that probably had more than one Wal-Mart shopper shaking their head.
I don’t care, though, because I saw a beautiful person there. There seem to be few beautiful people in my town and this very beautiful tall, slender African American man in an oversized white shirt over a tank and a pair of shorts walked by me—with a fluid, easy walk—and this lovely waft of cologne followed him. This marked the one time in my life that I have ever smelled a cologne that was attractive; a little beachy, a little tropical, a little entrancing. I’m not sure how to describe him, because he was dressed causally, but he had this indescribable air of lithe elegance that so few people have, especially in shorts.
So, this post is a mix of anti-corporate-monsters, pro-nice-cologne, and mixed-how-did-I-twist-my-body-that-way. I know, I’m insane!
Disappearing Yarn: An Ugly Yarn
This Saturday was my third spinning class and I stuffed my bag with
- 1 nearly completed sock-that-is-now-completed-and-shall-soon-be-shown-on-this-blog
- 1 cardigan, sans needed buttons-that-shall-also-be-shown-soon
- 1 small handful of cleaned merino roving
When I once again sailed through the yarn store door, a diet coke in one hand and my over-stuffed bag in the other, I sensed a change in the atmosphere. Pat’s (who runs the yarn store) husband was helping the other Pat—who is taking the class—with her spinning wheel. But I did not see ‘my’ Ashford Traveler anywhere. It wasn’t in sight.
What worried me even was that my two bobbins of badly-spun yarn were also gone. We were going to learn plying this week, and I had just about the right amount so that I could ply some yarn. But…the bobbins were gone, disappeared along with the wheel.
Patricia, on the other hand, had lovely, crammed bobbins. She rented her wheel and spun some alpaca to ply with her wool; she owns 3 rescue alpacas and one yielded 10 pounds of creamy-white fiber. It looked amazing and my alpaca lust reared its ugly head again. 10 pounds!
Then, Pat-the-lys-owner showed up, with her usual grace, beauty, enlightenment….and the news that the Ashford Traveler had been sold. Pat works the weekends and some other days of the week and Leanne usually works during the week and hurrah! She had sold a spinning wheel. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to my yarn yet. Pat didn’t know either. So, there I was, ready to ply, with all my yarn disappeared.
Well, not quite.
Two bobbins of very badly spun and ugly yarn were retrieved; I think I may have spun part of it. It was a mix of white-brown-and-grey singles that looked very much like someone drunk - In any case, Pat helped me set up a Lazy Kate and I used an Ashford Traditional. I prefer a double-treadle, but I’ve finally gotten to the point that I can keep a steady rhythm on a single treadle.
I found out that plying is very easy and that this yarn looked very uglier once it was plied. However, I leanred how to use a niddy-noddy—fun!—and am now left with an extremely ugly skein of handspun yarn.
However, after I finished plying, which only took a short time, I finally felt ready to spin with my special roving. Included with the class is 10 ounces of Lorna’s Laces roving and I zoomed in on the Devon colorway.
This (which I deliberately shot on the concrete for a surreal look) is the roving:
The yarn is still a little inconsistent but a huge improvement over my first handspun. And with 10 full ounces of this stuff, I will probably end up having enough for hat-scarf combo or maybe a hat-mitten combo. Pat sent the bobbin home with me, to avoid a repeat of the mysteriously-disappearing-Barbara yarn.
I have to admit, I wouldn’t be very sorry to lose that ugly handpsun!
Smoky Spring: Sock Knitting
I have promised to show off my cardigan this week, but I’m still looking for buttons. Meanwhile, I have
- started and finished one cowl
- ripped out the cowl
- used the cowl yarn to start a pair of Spring Forward socks, from the summer issue of Knitty
I’m using my Elizabeth Bennet sock yarn in the Sunshower colorway and honestly, I think that this yarn and pattern are a match made in heaven.
The pattern is exceptionally simple, one of the easiest that I’ve ever knitted and really looks fabulous. I did, however, narrow the heel from 30 stitches to 24, because my Monkey socks ended up bagging around my narrow heel rather a bit. I’ve reached the gusset decreases and so far it’s looking good.
Certainly better than the cowl that I tried to knit. It was the Pashmina Cowl from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Get this: the yarn striped. Yes, at 130 stitches, the sock yarn made narrow, soft stripes, but that didn’t bothered me. What bothered me was that the cowl was just too baggy.
So I ripped out the entire cowl and am now knitting these deliciously smoky colored lace socks with my carefully customized heels. I think this is going to work.
Hat Trick: My Two-Day Koigu Hat
Pattern: My own basic ribbed hat
Yarn: 1-1/3 of skeins of Koigu Kersti
I’m particularly proud of this hat, because I just winged it. I cast on 112 stitches on my sixteen inch circular, knit until it looked right, and improvised the decreases so that the ribbed look was maintained. I finished it in two days. I don’t know, there’s something magical about hats for me. I always finish them quickly. My Gretel beret took less than a month and my handspun hat took even less.
Ah, adolescence, what a smooth complexion you have bestowed on me—not. Tonight is poetry reading at our local Borders, and after the reading (I participated) I stuffed myself into a leather chair with some knitting magazines and the latest sock that I have started, and which should appear soon.
When I first showed off my hat to my dad, his mouth twitched slightly.
”You know,” he said, “I just don’t think that hat is your kind of hat, Barb.”
I think it’s because he is convinced that ribbed ski hats and fingerless gloves all belong to hobos or bums. Honestly, it’s really too hot to wear this hat now anyway, but I know that I’ll be glad to have it once autumn rolls around. Last year, I really wasn’t prepared for winter. Now I know that I’ll have a couple hats, some socks, a scarf and (coming to this blog soon) a cardigan to keep me warm.
Even if I do look like a bum.
Busy Knitting: Milestone Approaching
I promise that there will be some new finished objects appearing here soon…just busy knitting right now.
Trip Back: Saturday Summarized
A fire truck full of cute fire fighters threw candy at me.
Yes, it was a parade.
And yes, they were giving candy to everyone.
And yes, this parade was so small that they could have stopped and handed it to me instead of throwing it so that it scattered all over the road and under the car.
And yes, although I managed to get a picture of a giant foam Statue of Liberty on my mom’s cellphone…
no cute firemen pictures.
Trip to PA: Friday Summarized By Food Consumed
- Two biscuits with sausage gravy and half a carton of milk: Holiday Inn Express
- 1 scoop of blueberry ice cream: Montrose Blueberry Festival
- 1 and 1/4 gigantic funnel cake: also the Montrose Blueberry Festival
- 1 large cup of hand-made lemonade with blueberries floating in it: duh, the festival
- Two Rol-Aids
- 1 grande Starbucks double-shot on ice, sweetened
Arrived hotel: 1:00 in the morning
Thank God for caffeine and Roll-Aids to wash away the sin of my dissolute life-style
