Sports Night

sock sees a hockey game

So I did a little more traveling with a sock (different sock…the BSG socks are a little complex for a game) and joined Melissa and her knit night at a Philadelphia Phantoms game. (Stick and puck, apparently? Who knew?)

Melissa’s knitting group (the Philly Burbs Stitch’n’Bitch) is awesome. They had gift bags for everyone:

Grab bag!

Isn’t that awesome? Two skeins of Berocco (Jewel FX and Plume FX), a skein of Valley Yarns Southwick Southwick, a kiddie hat kit with three colors of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, courtesy of Supercrafty.com, and a delightful little keychain skein, from (as you can see) Kitty Grrlz.

But wait! It doesn’t stop there!

Prizewinner!

In addition to the grab bags, there was a raffle! And I won! Behold my new Namaste Oh Snap! bags, and! and! a subscription to Louet! A year of Louet patterns! Not bad for one raffle ticket, especially when you consider the proceeds were going to Heifer International. How much better can it get?

Clearly, spending the weekend with Melissa is good for my swag count and my posting count. I think I should be visiting her more often, don’t you? (Considering I am currently watching Slings & Arrows, eating whisky cheese, and drinking homebrewed Raspberry Chocolate Port… yes. She is lucky I haven’t moved in, to be honest.)

Traveling Sock

I’m visiting my old college floormate Melissa for the weekend, so last night she took me to her knit night. While that merry band was discussing the virtues of knitting looms and willy warmers, the Yarn Harlot blogged about Glenna’s BSG Socks, and linked to this humble blog in the process. (Probably because I’m blabbing about these awesome socks to everyone and anyone. I even handed my finished first one around the knit night, because how can you not?)

Anyway, once I got over the palpitations from seeing my name on the Harlot’s blog, I decided maybe I’d take a page out of her book and show my second BSG sock a good time. So today Melissa and I took it out to Longwood Gardens, which is the former estate of Pierre Du Pont, and we had a good look at the orchid show:

Traveling Sock - Longwood Gardens
Here the sock is enjoying the East Conservatory.

Longwood Gardens
Here is one of the amazing fountains in the Children’s Garden, which was one of the most delightful things I’ve ever seen.

Longwood Gardens
And some beautiful miniature orchids and a waterfall, which the sock liked a lot.

Longwood Gardens
On our way out we stopped in the Du Pont House, which is a museum, and checked out some of Mr. DuPont’s stuff.

The sock had a great time, and really wants to go back once it’s a little warmer and the outdoor gardens are all opened, which I think won’t be a problem at all.

Owl Treats

I will confess, to you few dear readers, of a shameful period in my past. A dark time, when I… was a devoted fan …of Harry Potter.

Yeah, I know, old news, me and six billion other people, except the ones who think it’s a work of Satan, and Harold Bloom, but he only likes litra-chur, we hear. Anyway, I was all into it for a while and I pretty much overdid it, and by the time the last book came out all I could think was Thank god, I can find out how it ends and move on. (For the record, I quite enjoyed the last book, but the epilogue I shall pretend I didn’t see.)

As a consequence to that overdoing, I generally avoid all the Potter-branded media that has been flooding the market for years now. I kept the few interesting things, and my books, and that was that. So I wasn’t terribly excited when Opal came out with Harry Potter themed sock yarn. Especially not when the colors were released. (Attn Opal designers: In what universe does Remus Lupin wear pink? Seriously.) I looked them all over, shrugged, moved on.

And then I got a second look at the Hedwig colorway.

HEDWIG SOCKS

Hedwig Socks

Pattern: Basic Stockinette Sock with heel flap
Yarn: Opal Harry Potter sock yarn in Hedwig
Needles: US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: Teehee. These turned out lovely, didn’t they? So well, that I am actually considering getting more of this yarn (the Ron colorway, perhaps?) because having a good mindless stockinette project is one of the best stress relievers I can think of.
I simply cast on 62 stitches, did some ribbing, and then just went to town. I know everybody goes on about short-row heels to “maintain the integrity of the stripe pattern” or some such, but honestly? I wasn’t that invested in the stripe pattern, and I much prefer how a flap heel fits. So I did one of those, and I’m quite happy with the results.

Hedwig Socks

I really love the colors in this: varying shades of grey, nothing flashy, nothing complicated. Unlike some of the colorways in this line, which left me wondering what they were thinking, these socks absolutely evoke a sense of Hedwig the Snowy Owl.

As you might have guessed, I’m generally in the fraternal school of sock striping — you can see where the colorways meet up, and on one sock it’s the toe and on one it’s the center of the foot, and that’s…just fine with me.

Having a nice easy project was magnificent, since in the little bit I’ve also been test knitting these:

Viper Pilots Sock Viper Pilots Sock

This would be Glenna C’s marvelous Viper Pilots pattern. Continuing that fine melding of genre fiction and yarn, Glenna designed a pattern inspired by the viper pilots from Battlestar Galactica, which airs its final episode, uh, Friday. It’s all twisted stitches and cables and insanity, and all of those things are entirely appropriate for the theme. I’m into my second sock now and loving every second of it. Go buy it, knit it, tell your friends, tell the whole Colonial Fleet!

February Wrapup

Oh, February. For such a short month, you certainly kept me busy — busy enough that I didn’t even blog about some of the things I knit. Let’s go through the list of Finished Objects, shall we?

MOM’S LOCH NESS GLOVES
Gloves

Pattern: Basic Glove Pattern from Ann Budd’s excellent Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock Lightweight in Loch Ness
Needles: US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: I wrote all about these beauties here, although the picture here is a new one, demonstrating the gloves’ snowball-making capabilities.

MOM’S HOODIE SCARF
Mom's Hoodie Scarf

Pattern: Mimi Hooded Scarf from verypink.com (pattern found thru Ravelry)
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather, with edging in Lion Brand Polarspun, understandably discontinued
Needles: US7/4.5 mm circular (used my KP Harmony interchangables) and an H (5.0) crochet hook for the edging
Notes: Again, this was discussed previously.

LAWYER BABIES III
Baby Surprise Jacket

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket; Christine’s Stay-On Baby Booties by Christine Bourquin
Yarn: Koigu PPPM, colorway P511L, picked up from a Rav destash
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm) and US 1 (2.25mm)
Notes: Seems like I was actually pretty good about keeping track of things this month! The Lawer Babies are exactly what they sound like — the newly arrived babies of lawyers I worked with at my last job. I have a personal philosophy that every baby should start life with at least one hand-knit thing to their name, so I do my best to make sure that happens. This layette was written up here. Due date is any day now and I am eagerly awaiting word.

LILAC HAT
Lilac Hat

Pattern: Basic Hat Pattern from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Louet Gems Sportweight in Lilac and Charcoal leftover from my Endpaper Mitts. Picked up from a sale basket at Loop in Philly.
Needles: US 3/3.25 KP Harmony DPNs.
Notes: This was a quick throwaway project, both to use up my leftover Louet, and to have a hat that would match my Endpapers. Feeling a little contrary, I decided that I would knit it in regular stockinette and then turn it inside out and wear it with the purl side showing. So I did. I threw a single row of purl stitches after the ribbing, so that the switch from the charcoal to the lilac would be clean — it’s not a trick I’ve used before but it turned out very well, and I’ll be keeping it in mind for the future.
I am not sure that I’ll use the hat pattern as much as the others in Budd book. The decreases are stacked pretty close together and make a folded effect that worked in this instance — but sometimes you want your decreases to lay flat, and this pattern doesn’t work as well for that. For this project, though, it worked out well and was very handy to have during that lion-like snowstorm that blew in with March.

I am in the middle of test-knitting some impressively complex cabled socks by Glenna C at the moment, as well as some Selbu gloves for my dad, some socks, and restarting my February Lady Sweater. It was ripped out on account of my gauge being a lying liar who lied, and the yarn has been Thinking About What It Did. I think we’re about ready to start working together again.