Sock Show Thursday: All Ewetopia, All the Time

I know I've spoken about my love for Ewetopian Fiber Arts and Kathryn's color sense and wonderfully luscious sport weight merino base. It's the only socks I have going at the moment so everyone around me has gotten to see and feel the yarn and to a knitter (and yes, there were both male and female knitters feeling it up), they've all thought it was incredibly wonderful.  Mostly I just get the shaded solids in the merino but she has interesting color mixes and a base with bamboo in it as well.

I did finally finish the purple socks that are for me.  They turned out quite nicely and should we have cold weather next year in Chicago, I'll be breaking them out.  Or an April blizzard, I'm not quite convinced I can put up all my sweaters just yet--though I did take stuff to the dry cleaner before leaving for conference.





I had some trouble getting my camera to cooperate on the color. This third picture, taken with flash mostly to try and get the right color, is the closest. It's a warmer red purple than the other pictures are showing.



Also, you can see my assistant's tail.

And I thought I was done with the first green sock for the Philosopher, but I had him try them on before he got on his return plane and discovered that I had started the toe too soon. So I ripped back, I've knit more rows, and then I decided rather than trying again--I'll wait til I get his foot available again before starting the toe.



I've cast on the second sock and am working down the leg of that during conference presentations. I'm totally going to run out of socks before Easter.  Start the hyperventilating now.  

Au Revoir Knitter's Niche

The first yarn store that I went to after moving to Chicago was the Knitter's Niche. It was walking distance from AudioGirl and I's apartment, how could I not be thrilled! And the owner, MaryAnn, was the first person to introduce me to Malabrigo. Unfortunately, due to moving away and getting more into sport and finger weight yarn, and then living in a very different neighborhood, I haven't made it back often, but when I heard that she was retiring and the shop would be closing, I wanted to make one more trek.

I hauled the Philosopher over with me.  It was good to chat with MA about what she'll do now (shows, a cruise, grandchildren) and she had things very reasonably discounted. She doesn't like knitting socks--so there wasn't a whole lot there that leaped off the shelf at me since I was looking for neither lace nor sweaters, but I found a couple of things that "had" to follow me home.

First up was some Berroco Sox. And they are blue. I know, I know, going out on such a limb for my color palette.  More blue sock yarn. In addition to the bin of blue sock yarn I already own.  Also, it will self pattern/stripe/some such a little bit--if you will recall the last Sox that I made that I lovingly referred to as the Ugly Socks



I've still never worn those, they're over at AudioGirl's still waiting to be overdyed. At least this yarn is closer to my colors.





And hopefully one of my friends will pop up and say "Oh...those socks for me!" and I'll have a good home to send them off to.  If not, there is always black dye. The Incredibly Patient Mother needs more black socks. :)

I also grabbed a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy. I have knitted with this before, a yellow hat that AudioGirl still wears as her main winter beret.  I haven't done anything of late though and this color was pretty appealing.





It's called Cinnamon Girl and it's a smidge more orange than the camera was willing to show. I'm not sure I'll make it into socks, perhaps this is destined for a scarf or some such.

That is, of course, assuming that I can keep it away from Gypsy.



The Philosopher got more needles. He's going to need a circular needle case in the near future.

1 skein, two skein, brown skein, green skein

I'm finally back to the green yarn on the Not-Very-Instant Grafitication afghan. *kermitflail*

Pyewacket for scale, sorta...



As you can see, I'm not too much farther along but I have made a dent.  Four more green skeins and I'll be on the home stretch of brown.  And then I just will need an epic end weaving day. That might call for the entire first season of Downton Abbey or some similar marathon.

One Pound Lighter

I lost a pound yesterday in under 30 minutes! Did you know you can too?  It's very easy, all you need to do is contact your local blood bank.

This was prompted by the friend I mentioned earlier--the Trombone Player. His mom has been a regular donor for decades and is now on the receiving end of blood transfusions. He thought it would be nice if he could get people she's met to donate.  So that's what I did today. The hospital across the street from my building has a walk in donation center and, as I didn't have any really important 4 p.m. meetings, I went over. One of the advantages to adding a couple extra pounds over the last year is that when I went in they believed me when I said I'm over the required 110 lbs.  I should, however, always have some spinach and red meat shortly before donating, as I'm on the low end for hemoglobin.

I had a number of tests done for various reasons in my past so getting blood drawn holds no particular fears for me, though I'll admit finding it a little creepy to watch that much blood go into the bag.  My phlebotomist and I discussed Hunger Games.  And then I headed back to my cube.

Now I'm drinking buckets of tea, trying to correct the hypovolemia.







I picked up machine washable Cascade 128 for a City Shawl for Trombone's Mom. She'll be in the hospital another month, so I went with the Chianti colorway. She actually prefers whiskey but I couldn't find any yarn that seemed to be in that colorway, so I went for wine instead. I'm over 2 skeins into the project. I say I'm using the City Shawl because that's the general idea I'm working with, but I changed how many you cast on, changed when do x number of rows and when y, messed around with the lace so it hangs a little better. It's close though, really. :-p

The shawl is going nicely. A small project on large needles does work up pretty quickly.  I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend so I can get back to the other projects that are gathering dust around the livingroom.