Socktacular Saturday (Sunday Edition): Summer Ambition Update

I can't believe I've left the whole month of June go by without a "Socktacular Saturday" post. It's not that I haven't thought about it - one thing or another has prevented me from writing them. So, here's hoping for a better July!

This month I've only made two pairs of socks. Well, almost two pairs - but I'll get to that.

First off, I made my first pair of Cookie A. socks. They were the BFF socks. I made them out of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock yarn in the colorway of Rainbow and call them my Rainbow Brite socks.



Don't you just LOVE 'EM!? I do!!! Oh, and check out the cables . . .




This sock was the first time I did any sort of real cable on a sock. Yeah, I've done left- and right- twist stitches on socks before, but in my humble opinion those are more for outlining than they are cables. This was a bit more difficult to knit while I was sitting in traffic because adding a cable needle into the mix while driving just scared me.

During the course of making this sock I had to learn to get creative with what I used for a cable needle at times. Making this sock also backed-up my sock knitting process a bit as well. At one point I left the project bag tehy were in, along with the socks, a local coffee shop a knit group I attend meets at. Due to scheduling conflicts I could not get my bag, and socks, back until the next meeting. That caused me to lose a week.

In theory, I was going to use my time to start on the second pair of socks - Twinkleberry by Beth LaPensee. My original inspiration for making this sock was this post by Peaches 'N Purls.

I originally found her project because she used the same yarn brand and type I was planning on using - Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine. Yes!!! I'm finally making Alpaca socks. I've been warned against it since Alpaca is VERY warm, but figured since it's a lace pattern. Or, as I describe it - socks with air conditioning. Thus far, I have one and 1/4 completed. I had to frog the first sock two a few times. I figure if I do nothing but work on these socks I can finish by Wednesday night. Which means they would officially be June socks.



Ok, this picture doesn't do the pattern justice, but for now it will have to do!


So, one month down and two pairs of socks completed. Maybe, hopefully, July will be a fruitful month for sock knitting.

Until later . . .

My Dealer Hooked Me Up

Last night I acquired more yarn for my SYB.

When I went over to my dealer's place it wasn't my intention to score yarn. Actually, my motives were just the opposite - I was going over there to giving them yarn. Yarn with bling to be exact. However, by the time I left I had scored a few things of mini-skeins myself. Given the disorganization of my sock blankie containment system (aka - my knitting bag) I'm not exactly sure how many mini-skeins I left with. I'm thinkin' it's something like two or three. Big or small it was a yarn hit and I wasn't complaining!

Until later . . .

WWKiP Day

This time it wasn't snow and cold that we made our way through. . . It was steady rain. For me personally, the fact that all of my umbrellas were staying nice and dry in my office didn't even prevent me from venturing out. I was/we were still determined to meet up at the lo-cal we had agreed upon for this year's World Wide Knit in Public (WWKiP) day.

Originally, our intention was to drive up to a fiber festival somewhere outside of Madison, WI. However, between the predicted rain and the 3+ hour drive we changed our minds. Regardless, we were still participating in WWKiP day.

Despite the crappy weather, we had a lot of fun. I arrived at our meeting point early so I found a comfortable place to sit and worked on my project until the others arrived. Then we made our way over for some much needed caffeine and then to our intended destination.

As you can see, we took over the place. . .



Overall, it was a fun day. However, when I think about what it's called I laugh. For me every day is knit in public day. I've knit in bars, restaurants, movie theaters, cars . . . Well, you get the point. I don't need a day to specifically knit in public. Then I read this history of the event off the WWKiP web site.

After reading the history it now this makes a bit more sense to me. What I found most entertaining about the whole day was when non-knitters would pass by the room full of knitters and take a picture of us. As if we were part of the attractions at our location. Hey, maybe we were.

Regardless, I had a blast and met a lot of really nice people. A few of which admired my Sock Yarn Blankets (Yes, I meant blankets as in two not one) and offered to send me yarn for it if I gave them my mailing address. Wow! How nice! I happily gave them my information.

I hope all the knitters out there reading this had a fantastic WWKiP as well!
Until later. . .

Twelve Hours Later and I'm Just Taking A Shower

Apparently the sound of my phone vibrating has a greater effect on my ability to wake up in the wee hours of the morning versus the piercing noise of my alarm.

The plan was to get up around 3:15/3:30AM and get to my first stop by 4:45AM at the latest. This allowed me ample time to sneak in a few extra minutes of post alarm sleep, get showered and all put together. However, in reality what woke me up was a phone call from my friend at 4:30AM asking where I was. OH SHIT!!! That's when I decided that no one at our intended destination would mind that I wasn't even showered. And if they did - well, that was their problem.

So what got me up at that crazy-ass hour? A sale that was taking place from 6 - 7AM. I insisted that we get there early because I wanted to get a good space in line. My friend thought I was silly to think there would be a line. Guess what . . . there was a line by the time we got there after 5AM. It wasn't a long one, but it started to grow not too long after we had acquired our respective caffeine beverages. Of course I had to take a picture of those that had come before us . . .



As the 6AM hour drew near, more came to join the fun. About 10 minutes to 6AM the owner of the shop came out and gave us shopping bags and a pink post-it note. The coveted pink post-it was our ticket to the greatest discount possible should we checkout past the 7AM hour. I was so loopy from my minimal sleep that I had one of my friends that joined us take this picture:



We were trying to decide how much said post-it would be worth if we tried selling on the second-hand market to those just joining the fun after 7AM, but finally agreed it wouldn't be a profitable venture.

As for the sale - It was MADNESS. It was the second time in my lifetime I've ever felt so claustrophobic I was ready to pass out. (The first time being the NYC subway on a Saturday evening.) Unfortunately, I had specific items to be purchased and I was sure the store owner would not be too keen on me leaving without paying for my items.

The rest of the day was spent taking care of some necessary business and having fun (you can't forget to do that).

So, here it is . . . twelve hours later and I am finally ready to face the world. Or, at least those other than my friends who accept me openly - shower or no shower.

Until later . . .

I'm All Fraggled . . . And LOVING it!

Overall this past week was good. It did however provide two days that had their craptastic moments. Luckily, they were short-lived and as fate would have it the knitting G-ds provided a dose of yarn happiness at just the right time.

It all started Wednesday when I received an e-mail letting me know that my May sock club shipment had been sent and the tracking information was in the body of the message. Yay! Perfect timing, the first craptastic event of the week had just taken place and I was not digging what was going on. However, receiving the e-mail put me in better spirits.

Then, fast forward to Friday morning. More craptaism and I was once again not digging things. Seeing that I had received the e-mail on Wednesday about the May shipment and knowing they send the package priority mail I checked the USPS site to see if I could expect delivery this weekend. Much to my surprise (and delight), the package had been delivered. WOOHOO! I wasn't planning on going back to my place right after work, but knowing that I had a package waiting for me I made a quick trip home to pick it up. (You never leave yarn waiting, especially when part of your day was craptastic.)

No sooner did I have the package in my hand did I rip it open. What I found was beyond what I thought I would find. Not only did the knitting G-ds provide me yarn on a day that would have otherwise been remembered for its crappiness, they provided me with yarn that had me thinking, "You had me at hello." It was as if the dyer made this colorway JUST for me.

This is what I found when I opened my package:

Pepe La Plume

That was just the start of the goodness. . .

After gushing over the colorway I opened the pattern information:






SQUEAL!!!!!!

It was Fraggle-freaking-Rock themed! I HEART Fraggle Rock so much. Oh, and did you notice the Disney font used? (Another favorite of mine.) This was PERFECTION! Any money I had spent on this club just paid for itself 1000 times over.

All the craptastic events of the past week had been brushed away. The week had officially ended on a fantastic note. It was time to go out and have fun! (And that's just what I did.)

Until later . . .