two knits of ivory

is much preferable to the sound of me whining about my failure to mitigate my stress. Blah blah blah. It goes on and on in my head. Blech. I have my health, food on my table, a wonderful husbeast, a tidy roof over my head. I need to get over the rest.

I am a narcissist. A real one, like textbook real. My narcissism doesn't conform to the textbook definition, as well it shouldn't; personality disorders aren't one size fits all. So, with an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality, I do spend considerable time performing mental gymnastics to make said narcissism less, well, narcissistic. It does make sense. It does. So Friday and Saturday I had a ferocious need to finish up my first Clothilde . It came out beautiful in the last of my Sundara Sport. I told myself that as soon as this was done I'd finish up the last bit of my Christmas knitting. Midnight Moon Clothilde This is what happened after I finished washing and blocking the Clothilde: Strange Fruit Clothilde And I did it with a chuckle, instead of disapprobation. A woman's gotta knit what a woman's gotta knit. I think part of my problem is that there is too much blue in my knitting basket. The original Clothilde and the C...

It's been a roller coaster week. The good news is that it seems to be ending on a sweeter note than it began. I'm working on gift knitting, mostly. I expect to knit at least three pair of socks and one dishcloth for Christmas gifts. I would prefer if I could up the sock ante by two and the dishcloth ante by three, but I refuse to set myself up to fail. As long as I get the former amount done, any part of the latter finished will be gray-vay. So far I have one pair done: And a second pair on the needles (progress is from the weekend): Both are knit in heavyweight STR and knit up faster than one could say supercalifragilisticispyalidocious. Seriously, in the time it took you to read that word, I nearly completed one sock. The past two weeks have been spent working on a hat and mitt set for the deserving husbeast. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary a little over a month ago and I thought I'd knit him a hat and mitt set in heavenly Sundara ASM to show my appreciation ...

Most normal people spend their weekends with their people. Me, not so much. I prefer being alone and somehow I managed to find a hubby (or maybe he was lucky to find me!!!) who likes being alone near me. We are an odd pair. But as the romance movie goes, "together we make sense." (Anyone remember that 1993 gem ?) On Saturday I was in definite need of alone time, as well as in full avoidance mode of both La Digitessa AND Yellow Toot . I barely knew what to do with myself. I picked up my two new books, Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitting and Clara Parke's Knitter's Book of Yarn and got comfy on my loveseat. I whipped through New Pathways, as it's a pattern based book and I'm not ready to take on a new sock project. I took my time with the Knitter's Book of Yarn, reading about 85% of the yarn section and then a quick perusal of all the patterns. I hate to say it but I was a teensy weensy bit disappointed. It's definitely a fabulous resource...

I finished my Seal Rock Socks last Thursday and they are gorgeous. I haven't really worn them other than to model them in the frozen sun Saturday morning, but I'm looking forward to it. Atreyu, my Australian Shepherd, was kind enough to inspect the bridge before I crossed it to stage my socks. Isn't he handsome? Ripley gets all the photos here b/c he's the one who needs my woolen expertise, but Atreyu is the beauty of our canine family. Between our two remaining felines it's a toss up. Grissom is the king of the castle and Hunter is our scaredy cat. My socks? Not so cute, but there is something about them... I finished the first sock using a tubular cast off. I went back to Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook and using her advice I put the stitches on two needles and kitchenered them together. It worked like a charm. A week later, and about 10 stitches in on the second sock, the technique lost it's appeal. I decided to frog back on both socks and jus...

I have the best sister ever and I know so because this is what I got to open on Christmas morning: Yessireebob, that thar is four (FOUR!) skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that friggin' Rock . Like the ingrate that I can be, I was a bit disappointed in the Downpour colorway. I even blamed BMFA for sending her the wrong colorway. But we have email proof that I myself picked out that dull, rainy day skein. I don't know what I was thinking. When you see the little circle, with all the color strands represented, I kinda, maybe, sorta can see what intrigued me, but with that colorway looking just like the dreary woods outside my dining room window, I'm thinking it may take the red hot heat of summer to kindle any desire to knit with it. I apologized up and down for the poop I was about it. It's in my nature to say exactly how I feel. Though I totally know how awfully rude that is to the gift giver, I just wasn't in control of that all important facility known...

So I did wind up taking Project Stole and La Digitessa to Arizona. But after I had packed Saturday night, I rethought my knitting plan and decided I needed a more portable knitting project for all those stop and go moments that travel throws at you. La Digitessa couldn't fill those boots and neither could all 60 inches of Project Stole. As I sat on the couch that night one skein of the Rhinebeck STR beckoned me, the effervescent Seal Rock . I had been staving off the urge to knit this yarn for a long, long time so it seemed the perfect gift to myself to help face the horror that is contemporary, holiday, economy airline travel. It worked out perfectly. Whenever I needed it, my Seal Rock Socks kept my hands busy and my blood pressure down. It even brought me close to celebrity. As I knit away at Logan Airport Sunday morning, I must have seemed innocuous because the inimitable Terry Francona and family sat right behind me, as it turns out they were taking the same flight. I could...