This is what it looked like when I started:

Now, I’ve been messing around with my spindles for a while — I have this big generic one that I got cheap at Rhinebeck years ago, and it was just too heavy for me to spin comfortably with. It wasn’t until I picked up my Golding that things finally started falling into place.

And how.

Say hello to 91 yards of roughly sport-weight, chain-plied YARN. Yarn that I spun, all by myself.

The skein is sitting next to me right now, because I can’t stop patting it and touching it. Guys, I can make yarn! This changes everything!

In fact, I’ve already started spinning more. As the internet would put it, MUST SPIN ALL THE FIBER. If you’ll excuse me, my spindle awaits.

I have been off doing summery things. Would you like to see? Never mind. That’s a silly question.

I had a houseguest in July, my best friend J, and we played tourist at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens:

I’d never been before, but I will absolutely be going back. There’s something very satisfying about knowing just a few hundred feet away there’s a whole city outside you, but you can’t even hear it, surrounded by so many beautiful trees and flowers. Even if we did get rained on. And by rained, I mean poured. It was still fun!

And then we went to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There were some very long lines involved (protip: the “flex ticket” is not the same thing as the “reserved ticket.” See also: things I know now I wish I’d known in July) as well as some sunburn and some surprisingly decent if overpriced cafeteria food. And of course gift shops, because nothing says National Site of Historical Significance like a snow globe.

I brought the traveling sock with me that day:

We enjoyed the view from Ellis Island, and then we went and found my great-grandfather’s name on the Wall of Immigrants. He and I share a birthday, which is one of those random facts about me you will probably never need to know again.

I did other stuff this summer, too. My little brother’s baseball team made the championships, so I spent a lot of time on bleacher seats drinking ice cream sodas while I cheered him on:

(I have titled this picture “Badass.”)

And my friend Melanie and I went to see our favorite artists Vienna Teng and Alex Wong perform in the city:

I love Vienna Teng‘s music so much I cannot even tell you, and if you do not know who she is I suggest you scoot over to her website and check her out. Or you can listen to the short video I managed during one of her encores. (Bonus points if you can pick out where I’m singing along.) It was a marvelous concert, and an entirely suitable birthday present for myself.

Oh, yeah. And, uh, I had a birthday. They keep cropping up every year. My family gave into my begging and gave me the best thing ever.

Oh yes. Red velvet birthday cake, and a Nook. Now, I know there’s people out there who think e-books are the sign of the apocalypse, but I am not one of them. I grew up reading sff and watching Star Trek (part of the reason my Nook is named Tiberius) and all of my reading in grad school was done through pdf files I read on my laptop. So reading a book on a screen is second nature to me, and the fact that I have so many books squeezed onto that little delight makes me giddy. Also? I can read and knit at the same time now, since I don’t have to worry about holding the pages down. This isn’t to say I’m giving up my hard copies of Pride & Prejudice or any of my Zimmermans, but I really love having the choice. And (geek alert) it’s like my very own PADD. I even have a bunch of knitting patterns uploaded to it.

At the moment, I have the Hunger Games trilogy waiting for my attention, but as there is a hurricane barreling up the East Coast threatening to soak my weekend, I am going to save them for when the power goes out. That, and my new yarn:

Melissa spun this for me, out of BFL roving from the Painted Sheep, in a colorway called “Wild Flower Honey.” I’m thinking a Rhinebeck shawlette, but I haven’t settled on a pattern yet. It’s got to be something worthy of such a gift, you see. (Suggestions welcome!)

Here, have a closeup:

I KNOW, I’m such a lucky girl. Also, how talented is my friend?

Clearly, I will not be lacking for amusements if our power does get knocked out. I’m almost kind of hoping it does, for the excuse to sit around and read and knit and not have anything more pressing to steal my attention.

And…now we’re caught up. Hi, internet, how have you all been?

While Traveling Sock sat back and enjoyed the view, its knitter braved the waves and wiped out several times. (Strong surf, today!) She then proceeded to acquire a delightfully tender patch of sunburn on her left knee. The sock is not sympathetic, because clearly the knitter should have paid more attention when she reapplied her sunscreen.

The knitter had such a nice time that she’ll put up with it. Next time she will be more conscientious about her sunscreen.

So. I cope by hiding in the air conditioning, and I knit socks, because they are nice and small. I finished one today:

I am making a pair of Jaywalkers out of Lorna’s Laces sock yarn, because Glenna’s collection of Lorna’s Jaywalkers is inspiring, and like her I aspire to own a pair of them for every day of the week. (Two down, one in progress.)

These colors are so amazing that even though it’s too hot to even want to touch wool I cannot stop knitting. The colorway is called Gold Hill, and it’s just enchanting. Seriously. Look at this colorway.

It’s like the Lorna’s people took all of my favorite colors and shook them up and put them on yarn. (Well, almost. It’s missing blue. If it had a nice dutch blue in there I wouldn’t need another color of yarn ever again.) I want more of this colorway. I am actively considering tracking down every skein of this colorway in existence and hoarding them, just so I will never run out. (Don’t laugh, I did that when Knitpicks discontinued their Dancing sock yarn.) I’m not sure I will be able to wear these socks when they’re finished, because I’m going to be too busy admiring the colors to actually stop and put my feet into shoes.

That, and it’s just too hot to wear socks right now, but you get the idea.

I eagerly await the return of sock weather. Tomorrow would be great.

Stop laughing. Dreaming of sock weather is the only thing that gets me through heat waves. Sock weather. Mmm.

Today we are free to pursue the happiness of merino (and alpaca, and cashmere, and BFL, and tanguis, and silk, and…)

And so, I say unto you, my fellow American knitters, go forth and celebrate your independence! I know I am. =D And if you have a free moment, Franklin would like you to read the Declaration. Sit down, John, and open up a window, and we’ll all hang together today. And the rest of you…well, happy Sunday!

I have had some adventures.

I went to a baseball game. My team did not win, but I got to see some fireworks as well as Quackerjack, my favorite badass mascot:

He acts all sweet around the kids (and the couples getting engaged, another thing I got to witness!) but this is one truly attitudinal duck. He will waggle his tailfeathers at the opposing team in a most insulting manner, and he expects them to thank him for the privilege. Now if only the rest of the team could pick up on that attitude…

There’s been actual, honest to goodness ducks around here, too. Don’t believe me?

My Sister the Teacher does a Duck Unit with her second graders every year in June. They adopt duck eggs from a local farm, and watch the ducks hatch and grow in order to learn important facts about life cycles. All three eggs hatched healthy ducks this year, so unlike years past we are not having to dive into the toughest lessons right away. Instead we get to enjoy the ducks being fluffy and adorable for a few more days, until they go home with their new adopted families.

I can’t stand the cute. I just can’t stand it.

In between all of that, I made some socks.

Summery, yes? My usual top-down/heel-flap stockinette, from my carefully hoarded stash of Knitpicks Dancing. This colorway is Ballet. They are not exactly difficult, these socks. I could knit my “usual” sock recipe in my sleep at this point. (Actually. I am pretty sure some of these socks were knit in my sleep.)

They make me very happy anyway.

Tune in later, when we play a fun new game called I Ran Out Of Yarn For This Shawl I’m Working On And I’m In Denial But While I Work On That Please Help Me Figure Out What Color Would Work Best To Finish The Border. First I have to finish gnashing my teeth and shaking my fist at the universe, but that shouldn’t take too long.

Anyway. It was a lovely weekend and it revived my spirits, so it was only fitting that I ask Melissa to help me photograph my Revival Socks.

REVIVAL

Project: Revival Socks, by Glenna C
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Spinnery Sock Art-Forest, in an unnamed blue color
Needles: US2.5/3.0mm
Notes: I LOVE THESE SOCKS.

Seriously. Look at these socks.

(Also that spectacular photograph!) So Glenna has a knack for twisted stitches, and she uses them perfectly in this pattern. It’s not hard to knit at all: the pattern has a great rhythm that is very easy to grok and once you get the hang of it you won’t need to look at the chart again. I had so much fun knitting them up I was sorry when I grafted the second toe. However, I am also looking forward to wearing them, so I have gotten over that.

If you’re looking for a pattern to learn twisted stitches on, I think this would be a great choice. And if you want to recapture your sock mojo? Also, great choice. Glenna’s brilliant and I am very glad she keeps making up designs for me to knit. (Wait, what? She’s not just doing it for me? I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say that.)

In short? Knit these socks. You will not be sorry.

And now, back to watching the World Cup. USA/England just wrapped up, and was that not an awesome game? This is going to be the best month of football ever.

It was, so I let her get a look, and she spent a good five minutes exclaiming and asking questions while I explained how it worked. She wasn’t a knitter, but she must know knitters, because she knew all the right questions to ask. Then she wanted to know if I had made up the design, so I explained that no, but a friend of mine had.

“Well, it’s lovely! You should tell her!” And off the conductor went, clicking tickets on her way through the car.

Conversations like that are a little burst of energy to get a sock done:

But then the grill got fired up to make hamburgers and I got distracted but how surprisingly pretty sunlight in smoke can be.

Can you blame me? No, you cannot.

And then Startitis hit.

It started with socks. This is Revival, by my buddy Glenna, who has a way of making twisted stitches bend to her every whim. She released this pattern about a month ago for a design contest and I gleefully snatched it up. I cast on Sunday evening, and by the time I got on the train home on Monday night, I had the above. Before I knew it I’d knit a whole leg.

Yum. I love a good twisted stitch pattern.

But that wasn’t enough. I was still restless, and last night, almost without realizing I’d done it, I cast on lace.

That is Miriam Felton’s Flutter Scarf, for which I’m using the leftovers from some of that gift knitting I mentioned above. It’s going to be lovely.

I think the Startitis is better now. I’m going to see if I can get through to the end of the week without casting on anything else, because trying to decide which of these two beauties to knit is difficult enough already!

EMBOSSED LEAVES SOCKS

Project: Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt, originally published in IWK Winter ’05, reprinted in the Favorite Socks collection.
Yarn: Holiday Yarns’ Jennifer’s SockFlock Sock Yarn in Gecko.
Needles:US 1/2.25 mm
Notes: So this yarn was one of the delightful things Rebecca kindly brought me back from last year’s Sock Summit, having noted my fondness for a good shade of green. They went marvelously with this pattern; I’ve knit it several times now and I will never get tired of it. It’s comfort knitting, and it was nice to finally work it in actual leaf-appropriate shades:

I did modify this pattern, just a little. (Is anybody surprised? I’d hope not.) I did a regular slip-stitch on the heel flap instead of the stockinette the pattern calls for, which is just my personal preference; I did a flat toe instead of the round toe in the pattern, for the same reason. To be honest, I do a slip-stitch flap and flat toe on all of the socks I knit for myself. I know exactly what will fit best and I just default to that. I keep saying I need to expand my repertoire, but when the results keep coming out this cute, it’s hard to remember why.

FlockSock shows off texture really well, and I’m really happy with these socks. I have a couple of kits and other skeins of Jennifer’s yarn in my stash, and I really need to dive in and knit them up. Her stuff is unfailingly fun to work with, and always pretty. AND the yardage is great: 400 yards. It’s a generous plenty, and far more than I ever need for my socks. I reskeined what I had leftover (on my new niddy-noddy) and I have over 100 yards still to play with:

My sock blanket yarn collection will be very happy to claim that skein.