Month: July 2008

Look!  A pair of socks!

Ok, so they don’t match.  At this point I’m not getting picky but am declaring that my knitting mojo has returned.  On the left is a simple top down sock using a stitch pattern from Sensational Socks.  Yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in the Chinatown Apple colorway.  On the right is a Coriolis sock from Cat Bhordi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters.  It bears closer inspection:

Is that not a lovely short row heel? 

And the cuff, showing the spiral and a picot hem with sewn bind off.  This was actually my second attempt at this.  The first time I got as far as the heel and just could not wrap my brain around the instructions.  The second time I concentrated a little better and it was far simpler than I thought.  Cat’s books are not for the faint hearted, but I really did enjoy this and will make more.  This was toe-up using a Turkish cast on with Deb’s excellent tutorial.  Yarn is Zen Yarn Garden Squooshy in the Anna Grace colorway.  You can get your own at Sonny and Shear.

I mentioned that last weekend was spent with my sister ferrying her to and from some medical tests and celebrating her birthday.  I’m happy to report that she received a clean bill of health – especially comforting since she is a cancer survivor.  For her birthday we decided to act like children and went to Build-A-Bear and made ourselves some teddy bears.  She even got a sticker proclaiming her the birthday girl:

I also made her a little video with pictures of us as we were growing up.  Here are two of my favorites:

Oh yeah – did I mention she’s OLDER than me??  Happy Birthday Sis.  I love you!! 

I’m off to Seattle again.  This time I will be doing a lot of sitting around.  I’m taking my sister for some medical tests – nothing serious, but she needs someone to drive her back and forth and wait, so that’s what I’ll be doing – waiting and knitting.  I’ll also help her celebrate her 60th birthday!  Happy Birthday Sis!!

Caution:  Actual knitting content follows:

I know, pretty pathetic after three weeks!  I don’t know what’s happened to my knitting mojo, but it really seems to have flown the coop.  For the record, Dream in Color Smooshy holds up well to multiple frogging.  This must be the 4th or 5th attempt at socks with this yarn.  Nothing just seemed to work.  I tried top down, toe-up and everything but sideways (well, Cat Bhordi’s socks could fall in that category and I tried those too!), but nothing just felt right.  This particular attempt is my classic top down sock with a stitch pattern from Sensational Socks.  This may just be the ticket for a simple success story that will get me over the hump.  Even this was not without its perils.  I was about an inch past the ribbing when I realized that I hadn’t allowed for how much the cables would pull in and had to start over with a larger needle.

Last Friday my best friend Jan and I were the guests of my sister for a guided tour of the Starbuck’s headquarters in Seattle.  Of course, I forgot my camera, but managed to get a rather fuzzy shot with my camera phone:

It was a  grande latte full of fun and we were treated like royalty.  We got to see new ad campaigns that won’t come out for a year and even new products that haven’t been released.  I’d tell you, but then I’d have to shoot you.  At the end of the tour we had a coffee tasting (where we learned it’s ok to slurp) and we learned how to make our own espresso drinks.  I don’t think I’ll quit my day job!  And we received a pretty cool gift bag full of goodies, including my very own Starbuck’s apron:

Other than that, not much to tell.  I’m hoping by next week to have more knitting content, maybe even an FO!  In the meantime, the doggies are telling me it’s time for dinner.  Gotta run!