Through the magic of Perfect Celestial Alignment (The Col. is home with a new logic board, I found portrait mode on the new camera so my pictures are no longer blurry, and the luck) I bring you the following quick installment in the Yarn Miracle Saga:

Sock Hop sock yarn in Brown-Eyed Girl.

I was lucky enough to get some of this during the last wave. I sat around and hit reload on the Crown Mountain page for about a half an hour the day it was supposed to go up for sale. Totally worth it – I really love fleece dyed yarns, they are so interesting and unpredictable. The fact that it’s handspun by real people with names (and some with blogs) is really fun (I pretend that Teyani made mine). Did I mention it was superwash? Awwww yeah. This yarn is for socks for ME.

I think I am happy with the new camera (just like the old camera but a newer generation). The pictures don’t come out pink, so what more could a girl wish for?

Abigail in the sun.

I really really really missed the computer. William Henry missed it, too. He is making my neck very warm and possibly giving me chronic back pain in the future. The only thing that seems to be wrong is that the feedreader won’t update. I will deal with that when we get back from Altanta tomorrow. Nobody do anything Time Sensitive ’til I get back!

For the record, my recent abscence is not because of some sort of deep psychological wound over Wake Forest’s* win the other day.

Jacksonville Stadium! There is a knitting in the rain picture but it is in M’s phone.**

My not-been-blogging-problem is much more serious: Colonel North (my iMac, long story) is sick. The other morning, The Col. just wouldn’t wake up. He is off at The Computer Store (for real, that’s the name of the place) getting a new logic board. I miss him so much.

The Yarn Tourism on Saturday was as dissappointing as the rain and the football. We arrived at KnitWitz at 3 minutes ’til ten (when they were supposed to open) and stood around making their window smeary for ten mintes waiting for someone to open the shop.

Let me IN!

I finally called it quits because there was just enough time to run to the other yarn store: A Stitch in Time. They were open, but since they also sell cross stitch and needlepoint, they carried the usual small store yarn selection (felting, novelty, Debbie Bliss, the only sock yarn I saw was On-Line) along with a good-sized selection of patterns. I didn’t buy anything and I didn’t take any pictures. No one spoke to me when I came through the door, no one asked what I was looking for when I frantically searched the needle rack***, no one offered to help when I was aimlessly scanning the yarn. They didn’t even say “thank you for coming” as I was on my way out. This made me feel unloved (a feeling I don’t usually get when surrounded by yarn). So I didn’t take pictures.

On the upside, the new camera is here! We also got a Wii which means that I have been playing Zelda. Saving Hyrule really takes the edge off.

*Congratulations! It couldn’t have happened to a more polite bunch of football fans! Game Day was a pleasure in spite of the steady, cold drizzle, the pat-down at the gate and the fact that the game itself was not that exciting (final score: 6-9, all points made with field goals). Your coach seems like a really nice guy and I hope you have fun in Miami.

**M is not awake. So I am using the laptop. This is also my excuse for any unnoticed gramatical errors (I am fond of sentance fragments) and unnoticed mispelled words. My spelling is lousy. My email capabilities are also dependent upon how long he sleeps.

***Another set of size 1 bamboo dpns. I live in fear that I will break one and be unable to knit. One of the reasons I only use bamboo needles when I think I will have to go through security and they might take my sock.

Yesterday, before we had even gotten out of town, the Jeep hit its thousand mile mark. Did I mention that we got a new car? It’s a green Jeep Liberty and we love it. Here is what I was doing at this historic moment:

We are in the drive-through at Taco Bell.

I got finished with the cuff and three rows of pattern before I decided I didn’t especially like the pattern. It just wasn’t looking like anything but mess in the sock-gauge. I read Bill Bryson’s new memoir out loud in the car until it got dark and then I came up with a way to fix it (with out having to re-do my cuff which I had made in 3×3 ribbing specifically to look nice with this pattern. I’ll show you later – the sun isn’t really up yet (neither is Michael) and I am blogging from the hotel room.

Last night there was a “party” down by the river (at a mall-type-thing) with a “band” (three guys with electric keyboards that looked like little grand pianos) and fireworks! I love fireworks. They were launched off of a barge out on the water. The barge that kept drifting closer during the show, so by the end everyone was all covered in a gentle dusting of soot and charred paper.

This is right before the fireworks.

There is yarn on the way to the stadium! I think I have time to visit one store before attending more festivities (there is a pep rally that my aunt is Very Excited about). My priorities are in Perfect Order.

Go, Jackets!
Go, yarn!

As many of you know, Lynne is collecting 300 pairs of mittens for children in her community whose hands are cold. Any kind of mittens will do (she needs them by December 10th – so if anyone wants to contribute but doesn’t have time to make some – purchased mittens are also gladly accepted). I thought this would be a great opportunity for another Family Knit-A-Long. Since we were supposed to be making kid-sized mittens, I figured that we could get them finished while Mom was here for Thanksgiving. So I ordered the yarn and waited. And waited. And waited. It got here yesterday.

Great Gran is casting on with the pink yarn I got for Mom. She likes pink.

My Mom is long gone, but I have committed to three pairs of mittens so Great Gran and I didn’t waste any time getting started (as you can see). The yarn is Swish Superwash (KnitPicks) and I am fond of it. It comes in a variety of great, even colors, is soft to the touch, springy and pleasant to knit with. I’ve got one pair of mittens finished and Great Gran is halfway through pair number two.

The Handy Book of Patterns really is very handy.

If Great Gran decides that she doesn’t want to make the third pair this weekend, I will do them on Monday and can still have them in the mail by Wednesday which should get them to Lynne before the 10th. I could do them this weekend in the car on the way to Jacksonville (ACC Championship), but I have decided to make a pair of socks in Georgia Tech colors instead. When I take my knitting into the stadium (for commercials, time outs, halftime etc.), I want to appear Spirited and not Bored. My aunt is also more inclined to forgive knitting during football if it is in white and gold. Also: it turns out that there are yarn stores in Jacksonville!

The yarn is STR (sock weight) in Olivenite, my pattern is on the index card.

This breaks my “one sock, one large project on the needles at a time” rule. But so do the mittens. What can you do? Now I just need to find a bag/purse that a huge ball of Socks That Rock will fit in. I would like something in a wide-wale corduroy.

Please note, all images are brought to you today care of Mr. Pink: colors may be prettier than they appear.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving (to those of you in the US)!

I mentioned in my sidebar that my trusty camera is suffering from some sort of Occular Trouble. To illustrate how dire the situation is, I present the following images:

On the left, Michael’s new sweater vest as seen by the ailing camera. On the right, Michael’s new sweater vest as seen by the camera in my phone. Neither one is an accurate representation of the color of the yarn (Elegance in Burnt Orange), but the one on the right is much closer. I am using a pattern from Harrisville Designs (the potholder people) called “Cashmere Cabled Vest.” Not a creative title, but it seems to be a nice pattern. I can’t say for sure yet because after two and a half days of work, that is as far as I’ve gotten. I started making the size M would wear, and it came out in the size I would wear. Luckily, I noticed this pretty quickly and (after checking my gauge obsessively), pulled out what I had and went up both a pattern and needle size. This seems to have worked. KnitPicks was very nice about finding a couple more balls of yarn in the right dyelot (bless you, KnitPicks). Perhaps the Harrisville folks neglected to take into account that cables really pull a thing together. Or maybe it’s just MY cables that really pull a thing together. I am perfectly willing to admit to User Error. I usually make a swatch in the pattern stitch before starting. Why didn’t I do that this time? Laziness probably. The sweater vest also suffered another small set-back when I noticed a cable mistake. I attempted to pick out multiple rows of just that cable for repair. That did not go well.

Continuing in my Warm Colors Series, the above is a Socks That Rock sportweight sock in Fred Flintstone. Again, neither picture accurately represents the color, but the one on the right is closer (orange is closer to red than to purple). The pattern is one we all know and love (and I adapted to my gauge). Incidentally, if you are looking for an interesting sock that doesn’t mess up the great patterning of your variegated yarn, the Brainy Lady’s Basic Cabled Socks is a wonderful choice.

Let the record show that I need a new camera.

The CounterPain Square Count is at 19/140. Too late I have realized that I should have numbered each square as if it was part of an edition of fine art prints. I keep telling myself that I should start seaming squares so that there is less work at the end. I also keep telling myself that I should be darning socks. Apparently, myself doesn’t like to be told what to do.

PS I have just corrected all of the times I mispelled “cabel” in this entry. Which was every time I typed it.