WWKIPD

Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day and the nearest one to home was at Citrus Park mall. When I arrived it was nice to see a mix of both old and new faces. The organizers had a little raffle and among other prizes there was a skein of Noro sock yarn that I would have loved to get a better look at. I hope Susan brings it to the UnMeetUp on Wednesday!

A little guide to navigating the faces at our knit out:

Thanh, Sharon (better known as Madame DeFarge), Kathy, Kim, Susan, TobeyL, Linda (thanks for those two names Kathleen), Sandy, Kelly, Lori, Me, and Kathleen.

Kathy was crocheting a mystery shawl with some Paton's Lacette that was just so pretty I'm feeling inspired to use it to make this for my mum for Christmas. In addition to the creative stimulation floating around there was, of course, fibre. Kathleen brought me a bag of black Shetland (I think) roving to play with. Surprisingly enough I even tried! Today I took the wheel down from its perch between the television and fish tank (fish tank is currently empty and dry) and took a legitimate crack at making yarn. No pictures because there is no yarn but I did manage to conclude that my drive band was a little messed up. A length or two of tobacco string and some Ravelry surfing later I had my double driven wheel spinning in the right directions but it's still not quite right. We'll mess with it tomorrow and hopefully get it going nicely.

I think we have a Wiener . . .

Or an established yarn identity anyways.

Meet SeaWool:

and Basic Merino Sock:

Thanks Christine and Ravelry !

There's doings afoot! (With apologies to Kristy for my worse than usual grammar).
First, these came:













So, naturally, I promptly dove in and devoured my new books. (fyi, it's not a good idea to read a book like the Harlot's while there's a cranky muggle in the house. Giggle-snorting tends to poke the beast) "Casts Off" was reassuring because it reminded me that I'm not alone as a knitter, and I have been feeling a little lonely lately. Of course, it was also deeply deeply funny.

"Sensational Knitted Socks" is kind of an Idiots Guide to Knitting Socks and it led directly to this:



Yes, that's Mathboy modeling a pair of . . . well, deeply feminine socks. They're for my sister and frankly, chickie has feet like a duck. 9 1/2" around and 8 1/2" long. The yarn is Modea Dea's "Sassy Stripes" in the "Crush" colourway and I'm knitting the socks on size 2 needles. At this time, I'd like to mention that I love love LOVE the magic that is short rows. It started out straight, but now it's a smiley face! Gnomes!

Other goings on have included making another step toward having a proper office in place of our screen room/porch/lanai. To that end, Mathboy and his dad spent yesterday sheathing the frame that they installed a few months ago. Everything went well and we learned something new. Evidently our puppy thinks that tar paper is worthwhile entertainment and snack food.

Evidently, eating tar paper is thirsty work.

Eureka!

Well, in all fairness, I don't know that I made any great discovery that will improve the world of knitting but it makes me happy.

Did you know that, when knitting in the round, if you turn your work for the first row (after joining your cast on stitches) you'll end up with a really pretty purl row at the start of your work, and no jog! Well. Ok. There might be a jog if you don't cast on an extra stitch at the end and knit it together with the first stitch but I usually still get a jog even when I do that so I'm pleased with myself.

Also, when knitting something like Knucks (look! I linked! Sorry, big moment in my little world) Make sure that you try on all of the fingers to be certain that they're the right length and that you don't end up with, oh, say, an index finger that's two rows longer than the middle finger. 'Cause it just looks dumb. And it's kind of hard to tink down from a cast on edge. *Grin* Just sayin'