FINALLY!!!

If Dr. Cox (you know, from Scrubs) was a knitting instructor, right about now, he would say:

"My GOD, Nancy, if you'd taken any longer to knit this pair of socks I reaHEEElly think that all yarn in existence would have [pause for breath, shake head to right ever so slightly] risen up in revolt against you, grasping tiny DPNs and lunging at you will all their collective strength, [pause again, narrow eyes a bit more and grimace while making little jabbing gestures for emphasis] pOKing and pRODDing at you until you cry, [rapid-fire in girl voice] 'No, no, please stop, I promise to never shame myself by attempting to knit again, as my very knitterly existence is a blight upon all mankind.' But [super-fast head bobbles while deciding whether to throw a bone]...you just managed to get it in under the wire, there. Good job, Newbie."

(You have to picture me doing this for it to have the effect I want. If you haven't met me, then that might be more of a challenge for you. Suffice to say, I've been watching this show since Day One, recording episodes and subconsciously memorizing John C. McGinley's every mannerism. I could probably fill in for him on set if he's ever ill. Yeah, it's a gift.)

But here they are, in all their knitted (unblocked - hey, they're just for me) glory. Yep, I still LOVE this yarn. And yes, I realize I'll have to finish projects much more quickly if I have any hope of being the next Yarn Harlot.







Yarn: Greenwood Fiberworks cotton/lycra sock yarn in Neopolitan II
Pattern: Sockbug Hollie's Lacy Sock
Needles: A favoured set of size-one British-manufactured feather-light, super-fast, wonderfully pointy needles that were in a massive batch of eBay-purchased DPNs.
Start: April 15, 2006
Finish: May 10, 2006 (eek.)
Notes: No need to alter the pattern if you're a tight knitter. Otherwise, it might require an adjustment to the number of stitches cast on. I loosened up my gauge pretty significantly somehow for the second sock, and it's a bit saggy. (The one on the left foot...can ya tell? Heh.) My next skein will be knit up in the pattern Carolyn wrote for this yarn...then we'll compare.

I did quite a bit of the second sock last night when I finally embiggened myself enough to sit down at Sip n' Knit's knitting circle table last night. There was about an hour of milling around and mindless purchases beforehand while I tried to decide if I was feeling brave enough to pretend not to care that I didn't know a soul there. I took up only one skein of to-be-gifted sock yarn and a trinket for my SP at first...but Doni informed me that everything was 35% off. Ummm....so yeah, I fell off the yarn-diet wagon. I didn't buy as much as you'd think, though. I may, however, need to go back Saturday, when everything is once again 35% off.

In other news - I want to point out that my poor Little Bit isn't as miserable as she looked in that photo from Monday - she was fast asleep right before I took that picture, and I think I'd disturbed her, so that was more a glare than a pitiful face. It's great how completely unphased she is by that weird collar-thing, even when it causes gut-bustingly funny serious and not-at-all-amusing issues with vital tasks like getting up the stairs and sniffing around for the perfect potty spot. She's a trooper. Oh, and Brodie ate her bottle of eyedrops today. (I have no idea how he gets a hold of these things, nor why he chooses to eat things like eyedrops and super glue. But our vet is very patient, now allowing us to just call and read him a list of ingredients of whatever was ingested this week to see if Brodie needs to be brought to the vet or just allowed to, ah, work these things out himself. "He's just being a puppy," I'm told. I'd rather he not eat these things on our SOFA, but .... he's just being a huge pain in my ass puppy.)

I feel I should, for the sake of my own reputation, promise we are not completely irresponsible - we've managed to never poison each other, and our two cats and other dog are healthy, happy, and vital (if not a bit quirky) and we humbly credit ourselves with that. Oh, okay, there's the issue with Little Bit's bruised eyeball...but I'm thinking that was a Brodie-induced injury. But Brodie? Well, Brodie may be what one would term a "special" creature. By "special", I mean "possibly brain-damaged, but absolutely adorable." Sometimes I think he's extraordinarily bright....but he can be mind-bogglingly, um, off his game sometimes. He should grow out of it in about six years.

Finally: My friend Sarah took this picture in California that I just loved. Someone in Berkley wants you to know: