Not Quite Random But Amost

Whew, here’s a week moving at breakneck pace, although I had a wonderful reprieve this morning.  I woke up thinking it was Thursday, and just about wept considering  how great it would be to have another day, just to make things tidy and beautiful.  When I sat at my desk with my coffee and checked my calendar it was like receiving the most amazing gift to realize it was only Wednesday.  It being Wednesday does also explain why there isn’t a little more done on my current socks.

I’m enchanted by this combination. Sam and I have been watching Angel – I think maybe I saw part of it years ago, but it all seems new to me now.  Sam asked for a pair of socks , ones I could knit whil we were watching and so it seemed only natural to keep with the theme. (Sam can have all the socks she wants, because she actually wears them. Handknit socks are her go-to, far more keen than her sisters, so she can reap the rewards of her enthusiasm.  I still dream of the day she might knit her own, but so far the odds of that seem to be about the same as the chances she’ll announce a longing to clean the house for fun.)

I was sure there was an Angel themed pair of socks out there, and it looks like I was wrong, but there was a pair called Staked, named for the parent series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Sam thought this was perfect. (I am less clear on the connection, but I’m faking it. I can admit that Angel seems to be a very nice Vampire, and he does whine marginally less that I remember Buffy doing.) I’m using Bertha, and I like it a lot, though really, what’s not to like about any combo of Merino, cashmere and nylon for socks. Soft, strong and pretty. 
I haven’t decided yet if they’re my plane knitting for this weekend when I hit the road again – the combination of charts and twisted stitches and keeping track of things doesn’t make them the best travel knitting, but I might give it a shot.

Saturday sees me at Yarnover for a class and a talk, and the thrill of going there is almost enough to take the sting out of missing the Knitter’s Frolic here in Toronto. (I’m mostly sad I’m missing the Marketplace. Shop for me, will ya?)
Sunday and Monday I’ll be back at Stephen Be for their big FiberFest 2013. (I think there’s still room in some classes. You could call if you’re in the neighbourhood.)
A special mention of Sunday night, I’m doing a talk for FiberFest, and it’s a new one – I think it’s going to be great, but right now the thought of it is giving me cramps.
I’m going to pour that anxiety into practicing.

Also, it’s totally possible I had a little falling down in the yarn department – and it’s totally possible that it’s arriving this afternoon, and it’s totally possible that it will be hard to resist.  It’s really possible that I might not even try to resist, because deciding to give in is so much easier than accepting failure.  I wonder how long I’ll be a knitter when I truly develop yarn resistance?
It all happened so fast.

56 thoughts on “Not Quite Random But Amost

  1. I cannot wait to see you on Sunday! I am taking your 10am class and can hardly stand the excitement! I’ve only been trying to take one of your classes FOREVER! Yeah!

  2. So looking forward to hearing your talk at Yarnover. We have a nice market so you just may not miss the Knitter’s Frolic Marketplace as much as you imagine. and then there is StevenBe’s shop. I suggest no resistance yet…

  3. I so want to knit socks but feel I am tooo much of a beginner to try soon I hope soon though………Love the colour & the pattern in the current socks & the previous pair “DROOL”

  4. Develop resistance? You’re joshing us, right? Avoiding any LYS is the only way, and really, how long can one keep that up when you have an addiction…. I look at it as keeping the yarn economy strong!

  5. Enjoy Minnesota. I hear it’s still snowing.
    It is not snowing in Indiana. When are you coming here again? I’d be stalking your “Harlot on Tour” page but it thinks it’s still February.

  6. Those socks are gorgeous!
    Stephanie you rock as much as Joss Whedon and coming from me that’s a HUGE compliment.

  7. That’s a nice colour for Angel – it’s a colour but still lurks-in-shadows appropriate!
    FYI currently rifling my stash for yarn to make myself a 4th pair of these. (Because 3 isn’t enough?)

  8. You are a busy little bee! (And as I once told my LYS owner, the only yarn I ever regret is the one I didn’t buy!) Non! Je ne regret rien! and the socks, they are tres jolie…

  9. My 3 1/2 yr old daughter has decided she doesn’t like the seam that goes across the top of her toes from store-bought socks. Do you think that if I knit her socks instead that this problem could be solved ;0) Not sure I want to spend all of my time knitting socks though…….

  10. Have a fun trip. The last 2 sock patterns are great! Ditto on the “lucky Sam” and hope the elbow is healing well.

  11. It’s just like a “snow day” – an unexpected day off with the day in front of me and nothing scheduled. I was a teacher for 30 years and loved every one we ever had! I still get up early on bad weather days and wait for the announcement, even though every day is a snow day for me now that I’m retired!

  12. Love the socks. I really must cast on a pair… Thought of your written wisdoms yesterday while knitting in the line of the drive-thru waiting to get my daughter’s dinner. Honestly – it was a really long line and was moving very slowly… After all, every row counts – gotta take your knitting with you everywhere (even if the kid in the drive thru window looks at you like you’re crazy as you set you knitting on your lap to take the food and pay while your own kid is looking out the window and hoping no one notices the wierd knitting mom…) LOVE your blog! Have a great weekend!

  13. I’ll make up for you missing the Marketplace at the Frolic. I’m on the hunt for wool for three Icelandic sweaters, a HBC inspired jacket and socks. Lots of socks – especially Dye Versions Galapagos colourway. Delicious.

  14. I find it much easier to avoid unexpected yarn purchases since my LYS just closed (sigh). However, that doesn’t stop me from supporting a variety of online yarn shops. So really I’m just distributing the yarn money to a larger number of businesses. Hmm… it’s not really helping my budget. There are just too many lovely balls of yarn out there!

  15. Don’t forget this older pattern, Angel’s Wings, http://www.joyknits.com/Patterns.html
    I usually play with the plain cuff and insert some of the minor designs into the cuff.
    Have a fun but busy weekend and know we all cheer you on as you travel. You reach out to us with travel as well as words, those are such great gifts for you give all of us.
    Angel

  16. Dang! That is some seriously good yarny fun you’ve got planned. Wish I had all those events around me. You’ve GOT to come to California!
    Love the socks. Very pretty color!

  17. I love the line at the bottom: “I wonder how long I’ll be a knitter when I truly develop yarn resistance?”
    How’s the stash? I’m sure you have a few years in there yet. 😉 Same as me!
    Katie =^..^=

  18. Michelle: at about the same age my son developed an aversion to sport socks. When I switched to a finer dress-type socks, he was fine. He also refused to wear blue jeans until he became an adolescent; too constricting on the waist. That might be a solution for your daughter.

  19. Yarnover has a great market too. You can succumb there instead! We are pretty excited for you to join us in what is unfortunately still a snowy Minnesota. It was snowing 10 minute ago AGAIN. But the weather guys tell us (do I trust them??) that it is going to be 70 F on Saturday. So here’s hoping!!! Safe travels. See you in Minneapolis.

  20. Both the orange socks and the green socks are lovely patterns. I want them in spring colors. I’m hungry for purple like crocus, lavender like creeping phlox, bright pink like tulips, or daffodil yellow, bright spring green and even fancy white like the spring bulbs, Lilies of the Valley – only in lacy socks. Of course, then you couldn’t store them up as surprises ahead of time because NOW is the time to wear spring colors.

  21. I’ll tell you what’s not to like about that combination — no throwing it in the washer, then dryer, then wearing. I grant that you do not regard this as the problem I do, and I double grant that, in the face of those socks, I would break out the handwashing.
    Still. You did ask.

  22. You’ll be dead if you really develop yarn resistance–that’s the only way I can see it happening for me, at least. With a first grandchild arriving this summer, there are regular lovely packages arriving on my doorstep (hooray for Jimmy Beans Wool!) and my queue is quite unmanageable until the end of the year I’m sure…

  23. I found a pattern on Ravelry called Weeping Angel that I am currently knitting. Easy knit but interesting also.

  24. First of all, you’ve lucked out with the weather. Forecast for here, at least (about 2 hours south) has it nearing 80 this weekend.
    Second, reading that you are going to be at Steven Be did not improve my mood one little bit. I wanna go! *Pout*

  25. You mentioned fundraising in yesterday’s post. Are you still keeping track of DWB/MSF donations? I’m two years out of date for informing you.

  26. If you can’t find an “Angel” pattern, you can always knit your favourite pattern in one of Indigo Dragonfly’s Buffy- and Angel-inspired colourways. The names crack me up. I’m so lucky that both my daughters love, love, love hand-knit socks. They each just got a new pair of Monkeys (Cookie A.) and they’re loving their Mama!

  27. I think the point of being a knitter is that you don’t have to have yarn resistance. You’re totally fine.

  28. Beautiful socks. Safe travels and I’m sure your new talk will go swimmingly.
    Enjoy opening your new yarn purchase. There’s something so thrilling about yarn coming in the mail – a lovely present to
    open, and seeing it in the real, not just the monitor, is thrilling. 🙂

  29. Can’t wait to see you speak at the Yarnover dinner Friday night, and to take your class on efficient knitting Saturday. The weather promises to be very nice this weekend (in the 70s!), after a soul-crushing snow dump yesterday.

  30. I wish I wasn’t busy this weekend doing kid things, and could come hear you talk at Stephen Be! Gah.

  31. Yarn resistance? You?!?!? Why would you even think such a thing? You would knit baling wire or computer cables if there was nothing else available.
    The yarn and the sock pattern are beautiful together. I think Sam’s mom may need an identical pair — or Sam might not get to wear these very often.
    PS to Sam: Wait a while, then stun your mom senseless by smiling, dancing and laughing while you mop or vacuum without being asked. Or while knitting yourself thigh-high lace stockings. You might stupify her enough to get her to send you to Europe or co-sign a car loan for you. . .;-)!

  32. Dear Jane Goerge, I read that poem this morning too and sent it on to two knitter friends…it is lovely. Great socks Steph! Come to South Carolina soon, it was been warm here for weeks!
    I have a shipment of Mad Tosh Flashdance coming soon…it is gorgeous. Resistance WAS futile.

  33. First visit to Knitters’ Frolic this weekend…. You can live vicariously through my friend and I! Enjoy your trip (and travel knitting!)…. Oh, and deserving and lucky Sam!!

  34. Ah. Actually, I think being a knitter makes one less resistant to yarn, assuming one can still resist at all. Think about it. How many non-knitters have yarn stashes? Okay, there are other fiber crafts that use yarn, but I think acquiring the craft is kind of an enabling step.

  35. Those are lovely socks. I have that pattern from when I was part of the Smart Ass Knitters Guide to World Domination yarn club. I think the yarn that went with the pattern was “And then Buffy Staked Edward, the End.”
    I’m kind of afraid to use up the yarn, because it is too full of awesome. I’m not worried that I won’t be able to do something terrific with it, but that I won’t have the skein and label to pet anymore.

  36. Green with envy about going to FiberFest. I’ve missed going to those events, but with the farm it’s hard to get away. I will get to Black Sheep Gathering this year, showing our sheeple. 🙂 Love your socks! I’m knitting plain vanilla ones for summer now. What’s your favorite summer sock yarn?

  37. @Deborah at 1:07pm: Knit socks. Beginner or not, you won’t regret it. Steph’s Plain Vanilla Sock in “Knitting Rules!” takes some beating and I LOVE her exposition on the turning of a proper heel; but I actually cut my sock-knitting teeth on Elizabeth Zimmermann’s sock pattern, “Woodsman’s Thick Socks” in “Knitting Around”. Once you have made a few pairs of those you will realize that it is EASY and can then progress to finer yarn and figuring out your own gauge and inventing your own “Sock Recipe”. After that you will begin to thirst for more and more sock patterns – I should warn you, it’s pretty addictive stuff, especially when you wander into the realm of the truly gorgeous and amazing range of sock yarn out there…
    Steph – I love your taste in socks and am reminded what a great pity it is that I seldom have time to knit socks for myself!

  38. Good news – the snow has stopped here in MN and the temps are supposed to be in the mid 70’s (F) this weekend. (What am I saying F for, it would be pretty unusual if that were C, or for that matter, K or R…)
    I predict greatness in the new lecture. And any nerves will just enhance it.

  39. Sort of a drift: If you like David Boreanez, the actor who plays Angel, you’d probably love his character on “Bones.” He has to wear plain, dark suits for work so he compensates/rebels by wearing the most colorful crazy socks he can find.

  40. Love the socks! What does Sam wear for shoes with hand knit socks? I can’t figure out what looks good, so I don’t knit socks. I googled, but all I got were people wearing heels/pumps with the socks or just socks and no shoes. I love Sam’s style, so I’m guessing I’d like her choice in shoes, too. Any chance of shoes in a future sock photo shoot? Pretty please?

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