Bursting the Bubble
A big part of becoming a grown up seems to be learning to tell the difference between the make believe and the real world. According to all the pictures you find in magazines (or even worse, the shows on the house porn channels) some important things happen once you are a successful adult. You are always polished and poised and totally pulled together. You own stunning accessories and know what in the world to do with a scarf. Your hair is astonishingly smooth, and your teeth are blindingly white. Dust no longer exists in your world, and while you have [...]
Dippers Redux
As promised, the cleaned up version of Dippers is now available. Again, the old one wasn't exactly wrong -- lots of people made them with great success. It just wasn't quite as tidy as I wanted it to be. And, again, alas, no new pictures. Apparently socks get fuzzy and less photogenic after more than a year of heavy wear. Next week I'll be back with book news (the kind with pictures and dates and specific plans).
Blocking
I spent the weekend blocking the socks for the book. Well, not the whole weekend, it doesn't exactly involve a lot of active work, mostly five minutes of soaking and stretching followed by a few hours of waiting for things to dry. Sheri at The Loopy Ewe was kind enough to send me a pair of her lovely sock blockers in medium, as the ones I had were an extra large and so not quite right for this project. Almost all of the socks are here, and blocking takes a while when you've got this many socks, so it seemed [...]
Book Yarn, Part XIV
Last, but definitely not least, this is the lovely Nate Sock Yarn by Briar Rose Fibers in the color 110 (such a romantic name). It's a slightly rustic fiber with just a tiny bit of variation in thickness from one spot to the next. I've worked with Briar Rose before. I first heard about it on Brenda Dayne's marvelous Cast On podcast. I sought it out at last year's Great Lakes Fiber Festival. I bought three and immediately turned one into Propitiate for The Boy. I just cast on with the second a few days ago for an (as of [...]
Book Yarn, Part XIII
This lovely temptation is Classic Merino Superwash Sport by Knitting Notions in the color Dark Rose. My camera decided to lie the day I took this picture. The yarn is actually a bit darker and, well, rosier, in person - more pink and less red. Knitting Notions shows at several of the fiber events in my area, and I've been lucky enough to see all of Catherine's yarns in person. Her booth is unmistakable and irresistible. She does a really beautiful job of displaying all her yarn to its best advantage. If you're going to any of her upcoming events, [...]
Book Yarn, Part XII
These are wicked good fun. Let me explain. I believe I may have mentioned my feelings about colorwork. I just don't do it. I don't get it. I don't (generally) like it. I don't know how to do it well. It eludes me. But I do occasionally go 'ooooooh, pretty colors...I want pretty colors' (admit it, most knitters are swayed by pretty colors). So this seems like the perfect compromise. These are part of the gradiance collection by The Unique Sheep. The gradiance collection is sets of different yarns in colors that shade subtly (or not so subtly) into one [...]
Book Yarn, Part XI
This is the marvelous Dream in Color Smooshy in the color Chinatown Apple. I love this yarn. It is a perfect example of truth in advertising. It is absolutely totally 100% smooshy. That is exactly the right word for it. It feels marvelous and knits up beautifully. Now somehow, I've yet to make my own pair of socks out of any of the Dream in Color yarns. A quick perusal of my stash reveals at least half a dozen skeins (including one duplicate color that I apparently loved enough to buy twice). I will have to do something to remedy [...]
Book Yarn, Part X
This is Serenity 20 by Zen Yarn Garden in the color Cherry Garcia. And unlike last time, there are no lies here. Zen is exactly the right word to describe this yarn. It's a lovely merino, cashmere, nylon blend, and it's just about irresistible. Zen Yarn Garden is another new company for me. I noticed that an awful lot of the socks I was clicking on on other people's sites were made with their stuff, and I had to check them out. I'm glad I did. Their blends are lovely, they have a beautiful color sense (reds...lots and lots of [...]
Book Yarn, Part IX
This picture is a blatant lie. It shows the lovely Shibui Knits yarn in Sock in the color Honey. That part that's all well and good. The lie part is the color. In a fickle moment, I ended up switching from the Honey you see here to the equally lovely Sand. Alas, I shamefully neglected to take a picture of the yarn in Sand before sending it off to get knit. I'm really hoping that this is the biggest organizational snafu I encounter in doing this book. The chances are small, but a girl can dream. I first found Shibui [...]
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