It's Like Cheers, Only Yarnier

Hey, if you wanna see some pretty crappy photos of a pair of socks, they're at the bottom!

I have this weird thing about being recognized. I think it comes from my extreme desire to be famous. I love when I'm out and someone recognizes me from a show I've done. I love walking into a restaurant and having servers know what I want to eat or drink. I really loved when they started saying, "Hi Alyson" at the gym before I handed over my membership card. (That day is long gone.) I loved, and this is almost embarassing, how the guy from the shoe department at Neiman Marcus would call and tell me that a sale was coming up this weekend. (Those days are also long gone...I'd rather have sock money than shoe money.)

More than anything, though, I love that Carolyn Greenwood sent me an email this morning to warn me that she was about to put up a whole heap of yarn for sale and she wanted me to know in advance, since she knew a total raid on her shop was imminent. (It's not at all sad that I took lunch an hour late so I wouldn't have to take my chances by leaving my computer...is it?)

It's funny, I got my tip-off to her yarn from the same place everyone else did (Grumperina) but I just jumped on it a lot quicker. And probably with more gusto than was really necessary. Today's purchase brings me to 13 skeins. I don't know that I even have the capability of making 13 pair of socks. (I'd like to point out that most of them will be for other people...I'm not completely greedy.) And I still have at least 12 pair of socks to be made from other lines...my Koigu, Bearfoot, Lorna's, Sweet Georgia, Lisa's Sock! yarn....I need to start making lists. (It's what I do - lists keep me sane.)

Hey, you wanna hear how stupid I am?? Secret Pal 8, right? I email my new pal, and I'm all secretive and everything and all "Haha I won't give you hints so don't ask" and clever...and she responds, very nice person, I'm liking her already...and I read it and think, "I'll answer her later"...and I pull the email back up to review it...and I blink...and I think, "No, surely I didn't just see that"...and I look away...and I look back...and yep. There it is. My NAME. Yeah, it asked for my name when I set up my super-ultra-top-secret anonymous email address and I forgot to remove it from my settings. So there's my whole entire full name in the "from" line. She was nice enough to not just laugh right at me, but she has to be thinking, "Great, I got the dumb one." And I so wanted to be good at this. Poo. Just.....poo. At least I discovered it in time for my One Skein pal to be truly secret. But, still, DAMN. I mean, I'm bright! I got into good schools! I had excellent test scores! I was on full rides at all my schools! Hey, I'll say it - I'm Smart! What the hell??

Sigh.

Okay, I present my new pair of socks:



What? I didn't say my new MATCHING pair of socks! And my options were too much light or not enough:



The Jaywalkers are in Artyarns Ultramerino 6 - I love the colours, but I'll be waiting a while to finish the second sock. I realized they're not superwash, and since it's Florida, I have no use for straight-up wool socks until winter. Otherwise they'll felt when I wear them, and I don't really need slippers. I am, however, really in love with the colours, even if they did pool funny on the top of my foot.



The other sock is the same half-pair of the Greenwood socks - I'm almost done with the second...I'm guessing I'll have a complete pair by Wednesday, latest. Man, if only I didn't have the pesky job thing getting in the way of my knitting.

WHEEE!!!

Oh happy day! I got my pal match! I can begin spoiling at will....and I can't wait! They gave me someone very different from me in a lot of ways, which I actually find very exciting - I may discover some new things. For example, she crochets, and she's not at all a yarn snob like some people I know (points at self). So I got lucky! I feel like I should at least pick up a little crocheting, since it does come into play, and maybe if I have a crocheting pal, it will inspire me.

AND this morning the Sweet Shop was back up and running! So I ordered a few different colourways for Travis. Hurray for handdyed yarns that are vibrant but manly, I was NOT looking forward to knitting him black socks - yawn - and now I can use that black Regia Silk for something nifty. And Felicia, the brilliant girl, assessed the situation and dyed about 20 more skeins of her Angel colourway - there are still quite a few left, so now that I have mine safely ordered, feel free to click the link and pick some up yourself!

AND I got a LOT of work done on my second Greenwood sock - cast it on Friday afternoon and I'm almost done. Okay, I probably could have finished it this weekend, but I was having severe bouts of stir-craziness...Travis and his dad have the task of rewiring pretty much the ENTIRE house (all 2200 two-story square feet of it) and I locked myself and the dogs in the bedroom to stay out of the way. I even pulled my knitting out briefly at Britt's birthday party - I believe Jen even got a picture of me knitting at a party. What am I DOING? Who AM I??

Travis and I went on a date Friday night - ice cream and putt-putt. I got the blue ball (obscure-ish Tiny Toons reference). Then I lost it. So I got a yellow ball. Then I found my blue ball again. Which I stuffed in my purse. (Hey, if you love something, set it free - if it comes back....steal it.)

Oh, and for the record, the score was...oh, it's too embarrassing. Let's just say I spanked that ass. >:-D

Oh, Boo.

I was itching, burning, cracking to get into Sweet Georgia's shop yesterday and pluck free the only skeins of sock yarn I have ever seen Travis look genuinely interested in (his motocross colours - white, grey, black, red), and her server crashed - no shop until at least Monday. This is a lot of pressure. I'm stressing over this, for some reason, as if those were the last two skeins of yarn on earth.

I have to rant for a moment, and this isn't really knitting-related, but it it crafting-related: So I sold all my scrapbooking supplies on eBay just to get them out of the house - I should have just given them to a friend instead, but I'm dumb - and I didn't bother setting a reserve. I shipped by UPS instead of the post office like I normally would, and yesterday I got an email from the buyer - the box arrived busted open and some stuff had been a bit messed up. She said she'd inventory this weekend and let me know if anything is missing. Um....thanks? What will you want me to do about it? Run up to Michael's and ship new stuff to you to replace it? Oh, and I forgot to mention one thing...

She paid ONE DOLLAR for this stuff, plus the actual cost of shipping. Factoring in eBay and Paypal fees, I LOST money on this transaction. It chaps my ass that because of damage done in shipping - NOT my fault - she might gripe about a missing pair of scissors or something when she paid A DOLLAR for easily fifty bucks' worth of stuff. This is why, generally speaking, I dislike people.

On to happier knitting news: I finished another sock last night, whooo. Out of sheer determination, I managed to knit pretty much the entire foot portion, the toe decreases, graft the toe, and weave in ends - I started at about 7:00, and I was still in bed by 11:00. I was whooping ass and taking no prisoners on that poor little sock. I took one blurry picture and then my camera's batteries died. (I opted for the Canon Powershot with the flippy screen but no recharging option...good ol' AAs.) My wonderful Travis bought me a battery charger and rechargeables, but they're still in a box somewhere...so no pictures until I can dig those up.

Oh, The Humanity Llamamanity!!

This is probably the last thing Harry saw before it all went black:


(Archive photo)

This is the last thing I saw before Brodie retreated to the back corner of his crate after a stern nose-thumping:


(Archive photo)

And this is Harry after the events that transpired on the morning of Thursday, May 4 while I was recovering from a morning migraine. (Note: this did NOT help.) Warning: The images you are about to see are graphic. Discretion is advised.


(Not a dramatization.)

This is Harry, my little furry llama friend who tagged along with me when I came home from my most recent visit to Taos. I like gathering up goodies for the house from each trip, the more fiber-related, the better.

This is Harry's face after a brutal Brodie-Attack. In an attempt to remove some Brodie-slobber and nose remnants, he's been brushed with the kitty-comb (as Rooster stood by, meowing something at me that I think translated to, "You dirty trollop!")



I can do some reconstructive work on this, but Harry will not be the llama he was. For God's sake, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a .... whatever professional it would take to restore Harry to his full llama glory.

On to more positive things...I'm feeling a bit woozy again...



The first Greenwood sock is complete! I wanted to wait until they were both done, but...I...didn't. (What? I have no other excuse.) The pattern shows up not nearly as lacy as the original pattern would have in a plain old sock - but I actually like it better this way. And this sock is comfy with a capital "omfy". As always, my camera hates stitch definition, but I tried:



Oh, the colour's not quite so screaming-mimi pink as it appears here. And I guess Grumperina's probably right - it would do best in a stockinette base - check out the nearly perfect striping on the botton of the foot:



I don't normally care for self-striping variegated yarns as much as good handpainted solids or semi-solids or randoms, but I LOVE THESE SOCKS. (Er, THIS SOCK.) Good thing...I have eight more pair to make with this yarn line.

It's Knitmas in May!!

Oh Lordy! I got almost everything I've been expecting in the mail today. The post office was even tricky enough to put it all in one package locker so when I only got one key in my box, I was only expecting one package...but no! Two skeins of Greenwood cotton-lycra sock yarn (no more for a while...eight is enough), about six or seven sets of Addi Turbos, two sets of rosewood circulars, three skeins of red bamboo (that may or may not turn into what I would like it to turn into, a pattern written for a cotton blend), and a gazillion (or six-ish) skeins of hemp that I'm planning for a shawl that should be knit from linen (but, to be fair, I was told the pattern would work well in hemp, which I found for $13 PER SKEIN cheaper than the linen I wanted to use).

I have a serious problem with knitting a pattern in the yarn it calls for. Weight? Whatever. Gauge? Yeah, yeah, sure sure. Yardage? I dunno, I'm probably close...ish...

My cute cap-sleeve top may turn into a dog sweater, it may be a duvet. Can we pretend I'm a process knitter? But I'm not entirely delusional - if something is clearly not working, I'll frog. Actually, I've been known to doubt myself too much and frog even when something clearly IS working. So yeah....maybe process knitter.

(But seriously, how do I learn without doing?)