There’s been another couple of days of work. First, thanks to those of you who have checked out the shop offerings for the month and/or left kind complements. Much appreciated!

There was another fibery gathering at my place this Saturday. It went *so* fast I feel like I hardly had a second to talk to anyone! Of course, part of that might have been my slow pace as my back has decided that dyeing about 15 lbs. of fiber in only a few days might not be a great idea. *sigh* Anne was kind enough to work on me and that sure helped, but it’s definitely been a wake up call that there need to be some changes in my physical fitness. Oye.

Anyway, the best picture I got was of everyone fearing the cutting of the deserts (and let me tell you, there was some seriously amazing stuff brought this time around)!

Too funny. There was drum carding and spinning (and first spinning lessons!) and knitting and food and laughter and… well… you get the idea. If you want to see more, you *must* check out Chris and Deb’s blogs. They have some great pics!

I also went to a NJ Fiber Fanatics spin in on Sunday. No pics from that one either, but it was at the Howell Living History Farm and was quite a nice day. HWJF came along and we were quite happy to be out of Bergen County and out in the fresh air for a few hours.

In the meantime, I realized that I have not yet shown you my next SOS sock and the first one is nearly done!

The pattern is Berlin Muster. The yarn is koigu that’s been marinating in the stash for a while, waiting for just the right thing. I started these right around the same time as the Bad Ass Nanners, but the call of the nanner was too great to resist.

This is definitely, as the pattern warns, *not* a mindless knit. It’s a 16 row repeat that doesn’t seem to follow much of a logical progression, at least not that I can figure out. Despite that, I love them and I’m happy to be back at knitting them. If you decide to try it, I highly recommend ignoring the written directions and just following the chart. The English translation leaves a little bit to be desired and I found I struggled a lot less with the chart.

I should also mention, as I forgot to with the nanners, that I finally purchased a couple of the knitpicks options fixed circulars and I’m using one set for this sock. I like them for the most part, although I feel like this particular size could have a slightly better point. I didn’t have that problem with the pair I used on the nanners though. Ideally, if I could take the points on my addi lace, the needle finish and the cable from the knitpicks and put them together, I would have my perfect needle.

Ya gotta have dreams I guess.

I was lucky enough to have a very fibery and somewhat relaxing weekend (which is still going on as I’m off today and have to work this coming Saturday) which has delayed the blog post again to today. Sorry about that! Anyway, at one point this weekend I had a spinning wheel, a CSM *and* a drum carder in the car! There wasn’t much room for more fiber equipment so I decided to go home. But seriously, the spin-in Friday night was quite fun (thanks again Marilyn!) and the CSM crank-in on Saturday, while small, was also quite fun and quite helpful. I may get the hang of the sock machine yet!

The highlight of the weekend though was finally being able to give my Mom her Mother’s Day socks in person on Sunday. They were the secret project I’ve been talking about and now I can finally share them with you!

Mother’s Day Socks 2008

Pattern: Socks of Kindness
Yarn: Panda Cotton
Needles: size 1 addi lace
Knit: 4/30-5/6/2008
Mods: I inserted the stitch pattern into my usual toe up pattern with a heel flap instead of a short row heel.

I really enjoyed this pattern. It’s fairly easy to memorize despite being 12 rows long and it works well with a variegated yarn like this one. It’s really quite simple and gives a great result. The original pattern includes a short row heel, but I prefer a heel flap. It also is written to be top down, but without even reversing the pattern stitches it works great toe up too.

Going toe up was also necessary because of the short yardage in the Panda Cotton. This time I didn’t have a problem with the two skeins being wildly different lengths as I have in the past, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I didn’t tuck in the end on the first sock until the second was done and a matching length.

And there’s the “proof is in the pudding” shot. We’ve had problems with this yarn stretching pretty badly as well so I made these a bit on the tighter side. I was quite happy to see that they still fit despite the adjustment.

More fibery fun next time!

First, I have been very remiss in not pointing out to you a new online knitting magazine! Have you checked out Knotions yet? It’s Jody’s latest brainchild! If you have a pattern you might like to have published or an article stewing in your brain that should be out in the world, make sure you have a peek over there. Maybe this will finally get me to write up the pattern for my Northern Star socks… Or maybe come up with something new…

And now a short account of Wednesday’s Yarn Harlot tour stop in NYC. As usual, a wonderful time was certainly had by all. I got up to the Border’s around 4:20pm and had a look at the space. My first thought? “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?!” Let’s just say it was small and underwhelming and *obvious* these people didn’t know who they were dealing with!

I commiserated with a fellow knitter and then headed on down to Wholefoods where I met up with Chris. Hilarity was already ensuing because we had a Hollywood moment of talking to each other on the cell phones only to discover we were about 20 feet apart! After a quick bite we headed back up to claim our seats a solid two hours before the event was due to start. It didn’t take long before there were people standing without chairs.

*sigh*

Will the muggles *ever* get it?!?

Books were purchased, pins were obtained, bookmarks dispatched and chatting and knitting made the two hours totally fly by. Before we knew it, the guest of honor was introduced and blogging us.

The speech was delightful as always full of moments of absolute side splitting laughter with a singular wit and delivery that would make the most polished stand-up comic proud, balanced by also stimulating the brain waves in ways that you wouldn’t think you would find in a talk about knitting, even as a knitter. Mr. Borders dude even looked amused on occasion.

The signing followed and Mr. Borders dude was kind enough to snap this sadly very blurry picture of the three of us.

Stephanie said we weren’t blurry in her usual blog pics, so I guess she had to be in ours. The world seeks balance! (Incidentally it looks like Chris’ turned out better so go over there to look if you so desire.)

It was a great time and I highly recommend making a Yarn Harlot tour stop part of your week if you can swing it. You won’t be sorry!

And for those that asked, my “emergency knitting” (if you hear the talk the quotes will make much more sense) ended up being a new sock for the boy.

STR Mediumweight in the Monsoon colorway from last year’s club. I hated it in the hank, but in the ball it’s growing on me. The pattern is just something I’m doodling up on my own.

No blog on Monday. There are big doings which I hope to reveal on Tuesday if I can keep from being totally distracted. Have a terrific weekend!