November 28, 2008

Zoom

I worry, when I am leaving the house, that I won't take enough knitting.
(Please understand that I am using the word "enough" here to mean "enough that I would be totally fine for yarn if I were kidnapped and held for 24 hours in a yarn free zone by someone with a fetish for watching people knit at gunpoint - and I then knit 5 times faster than I usually do." )

This has never happened, and indeed I've never heard of it happening, but one time when I decided to pack a little light I had a plane delayed and I came perilously close to running out. (Here I am defining "close to running out" as "I only had one more skein of sock yarn to get through 20 minutes".) It scared me. I can't imagine how I would fill time, trapped in an airport or stuck on a bus (or waiting in line at the bank) without my knitting. It fills me with dread - and if the world knew how much I'm using knitting in public to pretend to be a patient and kind person - the thought of me running out would scare them too.

The upshot of this means that Wednesday night when I was heading to my LYS for knit night, I tossed my current work in my bag (the 1x1 rib scarf) and headed for the door and was entirely seized by concern that I might "run out" or not have "enough". I panicked and ran back in, scouting quickly for another project. (Please overlook that I was going to a yarn store, where if it turned out I didn't have "enough" I could have gotten more. It makes me look unreasonable. Besides... what if something happened on the way there? Considering the risk to both me and those around me, it's negligent to not protect everyone by ensuring that there is not a moment without yarn and its mood altering abilities. Practically a safety concern.) Pulling together a project takes time, and I didn't have any, so I grabbed this month's sock club package (which I had barely just opened - by the way, I checked to make sure that everyone had received their package before posting these... so I'm reasonably sure it's not a spoiler... unless your postie is a terrific slacker.) wound the yarn on the swift, took needles off the table (there are advantages to never putting things away properly) and bolted. I never do this. The decision to knit a new thing is never undertaken lightly or quickly, so I can't say I had much hope that this leap would work out for me... but desperate times....
By the time I was switching from bus to streetcar, I was entirely besotted.

Hdzsockfoot281108

I loved the colour, I loved the pattern- I loved everything about this sock and may (just may) have driving a few friends insane with nattering on about it ad nauseam at knit night. The colour is "Muddy Autumn Rainbow" and because of how it's dyed, (Tina wrote in the dyer's notes) that there will be no two skeins entirely alike. I know she dyed hundreds of this colourway, but I feel confident that I got the best one.

The pattern (Holidazed) is by the incomparable Anne Hanson, so it shouldn't surprise me that I like it... our tastes are so similar that I often feel like she's designing just for me. The knit/purl pattern makes it unisex and breaks up the colours in the dye job in a way I adore, it's got a lot of give but clings nicely to the foot... I love it. Everything about it. In fact, I pity anyone who isn't in the sock club who's going to have to wait until the pattern is released to the general population. Pity I tell you... pity. I was so enthralled that by the time I got home I had a leg, and by last evening, less than 24 hours from winding the wool

Wholesockhds281108

I had a whole sock. Dudes. I have this Christmas thing SO licked.

Posted by Stephanie at November 28, 2008 3:16 PM