First Sock Part Deux Enjoys the Sunrise

First sock part deux just wanted to have her picture taken with this morning's sunrise...she thought it was a very nice one.

As you can see (barely), she's coming along and, surprisingly enough, there is still some yarn left...I still think I'll have to take Katrin's advice and knit up the toe in something else...but I think I'll at least make it to the toe...I had some serious doubts about that for a while.

Yesterday I went to visit a yarn shop in Chantilly, VA...my first time there, even though it's very near where I work. It's called Capital Yarns and is staffed by some VERY fun people. I bought two balls of Berroco Zen (55% cotton, 45% Nylon)

and three hanks of Berroco Bonsai (97% Bamboo, 3% Nylon)

(I've discovered I get far better pictures of the yarn by just taking them off the internet!)
and Modular Knits by Iris Schreier. I intend to make this scarf from the yarn and the book:

Pretty gorgeous huh? I was really amped about it at the time, so I went home and promptly put the Bonsai on the swift. MISTAKE! Here is my dire warning to you! This yarn is gorgeous, but if you buy it, make sure they wind it for you at the shop! If they already know you have your own swift at home, lie, cheat or steal, whatever it takes, to NOT wind this stuff for yourself! It loves to slip and slide all over the place, so it won't stay on a nice neat little ball. Instead, it slides down, up, and all over the place so what you have at the end of extensive time and effort is a center-pull mess! It took me about an hour to get three little hanks wound up! But I'm sure it will be well worth the effort in the end! I'm sure I'll look just like the model when I'm done!

Disturbing Results from the Book Quiz

You're Lolita!

by Vladimir Nabokov

Considered by most to be depraved and immoral, you are obsessed with
sex. What really tantalizes you is that which deviates from societal standards in every
way, though you admit that this probably isn't the best and you're not sure what causes
this desire. Nonetheless, you've done some pretty nefarious things in your life, and
probably gotten caught for them. The names have been changed, but the problems are real.
Please stay away from children.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I got this from Lee's blog...I don't think this is a completely accurate description of me. I much prefer who it said Lee was, since Siddhartha is my all time favorite book. I do agree with the part about staying away from children though...but only because they intimidate the crap out of me.

Spring Cleaning for the Fall

I'm having my basement refinished to be a media/sewing room, which means I had to clear out all the stuff down there this weekend, and that includes my storage space. Who needs a stairmaster when you can lug trunks full of holiday decorations, kite-surfing gear, bikes, hiking gear, camping gear, etc, etc, etc up 13 steps (you better believe I counted) over and over and over again!

And then, typical me, when I finished earlier than expected, I totally had the cleaning/organizing bug, so I completely emptied out the pantry and scrubbed it down, then reorganized everything so I could fit in all the huge boxes we buy from Costco now without having to stack them on the floor. Then I cleaned out the fridge. Then I did some gardening. In fact, the only knitting I got done was to actually frog back the SigO's sock to a point before I lost track of the ribbing.

I did get my September Block of the Month for Carol Doak's challenge done Sat night though, so it the weekend wasn't completely creative-free

First Sock Has Known Greatness

The Yarn Harlot HELD First Sock.I'm pretty sure I've never smiled this big before in my life. I told her it was first sock, but third iteration, so she labeled it First Sock 3.0, and so it shall be, forevermore. I tried to abscond with the Harlot's traveling sock and stick her with First Sock 3.0, but she was having nothing of it! The funny thing is, First Sock 3.0 looks pretty good with her holding it, don't you think? It's almost as though it threw its little shoulders back, stuck out its little chest and said "I am sock, hear me roar!"

I got a lot of knitting done on First Sock Part Deux (I can't call it second sock because I squeezed in another pair, plus started a pair for the SigO between First Sock 3.0 and it's successor.) and am now on the foot portion of that sock.

Two hours before she arrived, I took this picture. I got a pretty decent seat, right in the middle, only about five rows back from the Harlot, but I didn't even know I was supposed to get a "Line Ticket" to get my book signed. By the time I had figured that out, I was #121. I didn't get up to meet her until 11PM. I'd feel sorry for myself, but when she saw more of us trooping in to get their books signed, she laid her head down on her desk and just stayed there for a while trying to recoup. She was totally cool in person as well as when she was speaking. When I showed her how much yarn I have left for First Sock Part Deux (I'm in complete denial...there's no way there's enough yarn there to finish the sock), she didn't give me some cheery encouragement, she just looked at it and said "Yeah, you're screwed!"

I sat next to four great women from Winchester, VA (about 2 hrs away)

They completely welcomed me into their group and we had a good time chatting about, well, what else, knitting; while we waited for Stephanie. Amanda's blog link is now in my list of blogs I like to read. She refers to herself as Mander, so that's what I'm using too. I also met Lee after Stephanie was done talking. She, like me, hadn't gotten her line ticket quickly enough, so she was #123. She's on my list of blogs now too. It was great meeting other knitters who are also bloggers.

The creme de la creme: The Yarn Harlot taking pictures of us from the vantage point of the traveling sock!

First Sock is DONE!!

I've mostly just been knitting on this sock whenever I was stuck in traffic, so I was a little surprised when, the last time I picked it up, it looked like I should start decreasing for the toe. So, the sock is done, but I don't have a picture yet.

For that matter, first top is done too...no pic for that yet either. Both to be posted tomorrow.

I'm currently working on a pair of socks for the SigO. Using the Seeded Ribbing pattern from Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd. Pic for that to be provided when it's a lot closer to being done. I've already had to frog it back twice, so that may be a while.

Other than finishing up first sock, I really didn't have a lot of time for knitting, or much of anything else this weekend. We went biking down in the necks of Virginia. Very scenic, largely undiscovered area of northern VA. We came across an historic church, built in 1735 called ChristChurch.

The SigO took a moment to read the 10 Commandments.

A few miles from here, we stopped for lunch at the Tides Inn, where we enjoyed this view from our table. The meal was as good as the view too, with both of us eating a light lunch of Blue Crab Quesadilla's.

The remaining ride was pretty close to 30 miles, for an overall trip of 35 miles. Mostly flat, but in a strong headwind, it didn't feel it.

We camped out at Westmoreland State Park and ate an even better meal, as is always the case when you cook steaks over a camp fire.

So, with Saturday full of fun and Sunday full of responsibility (homework, yardwork, blech!), not much time was available for knitting, but it was a pretty grand weekend anyway.

The sock yarn did get to visit the campsite, it just didn't get to get out much since I was a little too wiped out by the time we got back to do any knitting.

Almost as exciting as finishing first sock was coming home from the camp trip and finding this on my doorstep. I saw these on Emicat's blog and HAD to have them...they came pretty quickly (from Knit Picks). They're even more gorgeous in person!

And the last tidbit of exciting news....3 more days til the Yarn Harlot is here!! Woo Hoo!!!!

Fun Time Temporarily Suspended

Well, it's the first day back from vacation. Acadia was everything I hoped it would be. The cottage had a hammock on the back porch overlooking the ocean. I spent a lot of time knitting to the sound of waves lapping on the shore. The side of the island we were on is called quiet side. I'm guessing this is because the waves don't crash too much over there...at least they didn't while we were there.

After we were rested up and settled in, we went for an easy hike around Sand Beach. Most of this hike was spent hopping from rock to rock to stay as close to the ocean as possible.

We ended this hike in Thunder Hole where nature has carved out a hole in the rock face that creates the sound of thunder whenever the waves come crashing in. One of the highlights of this trip was the young guy we met in the shop at the end of the hike. We had packed 2L of water...should be enough, unless you don't figure in the two water guzzling teenagers, which we hadn't. By the end of the hike, we were out of water and parched. Unfortunately, none of us had thought to carry any cash. I was seriously thinking of using the water from the melted ice in the coolers behind the shop when the guy working the counter threw us two bottles only asking us to "Pay it forward". I haven't really found an opportunity to match that generosity yet. I mean, we were really thirsty and that was a life saver. I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for a chance to rescue someone else in distress.

The next day was a bit of a killer. We packed up our bikes with the intention of a relatively easy ride around a pond. Unfortunately, the supposed paved path wasn't and we ended up riding up out of the valley to get to the park loop. It was only 16 miles, but we're not used to climbing that much and according to my bike computer, we climbed 700' at one point. The funny thing is, I felt pretty great about that ride when it was over. I wasn't sure I could climb that well on my new bike, since it doesn't have a granny gear (It's a Fuji Team Issue. I think the idea is if you can afford to buy a bike that nice, you must be in relatively good shape and don't need a granny gear!)

Day Three: Easy day hiking up the bubbles. Very short hike with a rewarding view at the top. The SigO once again did his part to keep nature intact

despite the best efforts of his daughter and her friend

Day Four: A pretty strenuous 4.5 mile hike up a gorge path to reach the summit of Cadillac Mountain--the highest peak on the eastern seaboard all the way down to Buenes Aires. We picked wild blueberries as we climbed this behemoth. Great views from the top of this too, obviously. This particular view shows the cranberry islands. No idea why they're called that.

We had to rush down the other side of the mountain in order to reach our car in time since we were scheduled for the 4:30 Whale Watch boat trip. I'll bet I took about 30 pictures trying to catch a good shot of some of the whales, dolphins and seals. This is all I got. You'll just have to take my word for it that there were many Finback whale sightings (I think we actually only saw 7 different whales, but they surfaced dozens of times), hundreds (literally) of white sided dolphins and a handful of seals. It was my first ever whale watch trip and was very exhilirating.

The next day we slummed it up, goofing around Bar Harbor.

Our last day there was another short hike up to the top of the beehive. It's less than 2 miles round trip, but it's an exciting hike since in several places you're hanging over the side of the mountain clinging to some iron rungs nailed into the rock face. If you enlarge this picture, you can actually see some of the hikers on the mountain. It looks like they're very precariously perched on a dangerous trail, but it's really pretty tame...unless you're afraid of heights, which the SigO's daughter was. And yet, she persevered and conquered her fears. It was very inspiring.

Of course, this blog makes it sound like we were superheroes, hiking and biking all day everyday. Ha! Of course I managed to find a yarn shop (or two) and scored some good sales

I found this sock yarn in Southwest Harbor at The Lilac Lily

along with this Wool in the Woods yarn which was 40% off. By now, you've no doubt realized I'm very fond of Wool in the Woods yarn, so I'm very disappointed to discover they've sold all their yarn, dyed and undyed, and will no longer be producing any stock. *Heavy sigh*.
Why is it always this way? You find something you love, be it yarn, handbags or makeup and they go and discontinue it.

At Bee's Inc in Bar Harbor, I found some Malabrigo. This pic is awful. The colorway is Autumn and it really is a gorgeous batch of merino

And last, but definitely not least, my first pair of socks is complete. I only have this picture of the one, but I promise, both are done.

I also got some pretty good progress done on my top, but all this needs to be put on hold now for some homework for the knitting retreat in Mass this November! Woo Hoo!! I got in!! The only question now is To drive or not To drive. After driving to Acadia, I'm not sure I can do that again!