The Return of the Traveling Sock

Traveling Sock took a little trip today. My friend Vhary has been in town this week (in advance of a move out to San Francisco for grad school) and we met up today in the city and wandered around the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as I had never been there before and Vhary felt it necessary to rectify this.

I took some pictures, as one does.

St. John's Cathedral 5/28/11

St. John's Cathedral 5/28/11

I love grand cathedrals and churches, and I had a wonderful time wandering in all the chapels and corners with Vhary. Afterwards, she agreed to hold the Traveling Sock for me while we were walking around the grounds:

St. John's Cathedral 5/28/11

(This was supposed to be March’s socks. I’m a little behind.)

Once the heat got to be too much, we repaired to a coffee shop and had lunch and lingered over coffee and tea, and then we went to Knitty City, to look at the yarn and the colors. Now, Vhary can knit, but she doesn’t do it often. Her hobby is blues dancing, which is a horse of a slightly different color. But she fell in love with this yarn:

Malabrigo

so she bought it, and I am going to make her a shawlette. We discussed patterns briefly. I had one of my Simple Things with me, which she liked but declared not lacy enough. She was fond of the sample Shetland Triangle[rav link] hanging up, but I’m thinking this is not a good yarn for that pattern. Anyone have suggestions, before I hit the Rav pattern database?

Yes, I bought myself yarn too. It’s Madtosh.

Madtosh Lace

You are not surprised.

Multi-craftual

I’m working on a bunch of gift knitting at the moment, but I needed a bit of a break.

So I started another project. Startitis? Me? You must be mistaking me for some other knitter.

Ishbel on the train

Say hi to my new train knitting, an Ishbel that I am making in Madtosh Merino Light celebration yarn that I bought the day my new job called to tell me I was hired. I felt like partying, and picking up a skein of yarn and discovering it was named “cameo” (which jewelry I am quite fond of) seemed like a sign. So I bought it, and am knitting it now and I just adore how it’s working up.

I’ve actually done a bit more since I took this shot on my trip home last week; I finished the stockinette portion and am into the charts now. It’s chugging along nicely and I feel refreshed and ready to retackle my gift knitting, which is exactly what I needed.

IN the meantime, my crafty mom surprised me today with these:

dream of cities

City pillowcases! When we went into the city a few months ago to check out those awesome quilt shows, we found these great city-themed fabrics in the City Quilter, my favorite quilt/fabric store in Manhattan. So we got them, and Mom made me a set of pillowcases. Yes, that second one has the subway map on it, and I love it to bits.

This deal we have of trading knitting and sewing with each other is pretty awesome. She keeps threatening to teach me to use a sewing machine, and I keep threatening to teach her to knit, but I think we’re both pretty happy with this arrangement as it stands. At least, I am! Now to see what I can offer her in trade to get her to turn my old tee-shirts into a quilt…

Catching Up

I’ve been really busy.

I started a new job, which means a new commuting route:

Commuting Knitting

So there is more train knitting.

I bought some yarn too:

Little Red Bicycle Hipster Sock

Isn’t that luscious? I’m still trying to decide what I want to do with it.

And I made my sister a shawl for her birthday:

Pinkerton Shawl

This is the Pinkerton Shawl that was on the cover of the Spring Interweave Knits. I knit it in Dream in Color Smooshy in Chinatown Apple, stretched with a little bit of DiC Baby in the same colorway. (This shawl eats yarn for breakfast. Plan accordingly.) And then I took pictures of it at my parents’ cabin in upstate New York, where my whole clan had gathered for Easter.

Pinkerton Shawl

The cabin is tiny and up on top of a hill. It has electricity and really good 3G service, but no television. There’s a wonderful porch that catches the breeze and I have visions of summer weekends knitting and looking out over the hills.

Balmoral Streamlet

We’ve dubbed the cabin “Balmoral,” in honor of the royal vacation estate. I think it’s entirely fitting.