Allow me to introduce you to today’s knitting:

It’s another sock, and one that I was making pretty good progress on. It was born as my desk knitting this morning, and it also doesn’t exist anymore, because I ripped it out and just started again because it had gauge as nice as the general condition of my closets, which is to say it was a hot mess.

The significant thing is that we all note that I have been knitting for 41 years, and that I totally knew that sock was knit way too tight and had all the flexibility of a toddler, and I still kept knitting for a couple of hours while knowing that, thus wasting a chunk of knitting time, and reassuring me that the rule of experienced knitters still applies.  We don’t make fewer mistakes. We make bigger ones faster. 

Steph out.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 4:45 am, and started my day swearing for 15 minutes about the outrageous lack of intelligence I’d shown the day before.  Friday was Joe’s 45th birthday, and inspired by what I can only assume was my remarkable love for him, I’d thrown him a dinner with his family, without really stopping to think that a) that’s sixteen people b) I had an early morning flight to Maine.  The whole thing was lovely, and worth it, as long as you don’t care even one little bit about sleep. 

I got up at 5, put the stuff I needed into my suitcase, realized that I hadn’t planned my knitting very well.  I’d finished the cowl, I hadn’t decided how to fix Joe’s socks, and at the last minute I panicked, grabbed a sock out of some self striping stuff I’d cast on the day before, and I was off. (I am still totally in love with all self patterning yarn.  All of it. I don’t care who knows it.)

I knit all weekend long.  I knit on the plane, I knit on my layover in Newark

I knit while Mim, the lovely owner of Over the Rainbow Yarns drove me from Portland to Rockland, Maine, although I admit that the scenery was distracting.  Darn but Maine is a pretty State.

I knit while I waited to speak to a room full of lovely knitters –

and my sock was by my side when I saw Colleen’s amazing knitted Canada Quilt (Details at that Rav link.  Pretty impressive original work of art.)

(She’s a genius. I think we can all agree.) I had a little knit the next morning before I taught at the shop (bright and lovely students, all of them)

and I had a little knit after.  Yesterday, I knit all the way home, and halfway here:

I had socks. 

Pattern, my basic socks from Knitting Rules . Yarn: Opal Sweet and Spicy 6756 (plum)

That’s a few days for a pair of socks, that are too big for me, and I was delighted.  It means I’m picking up speed for Christmas. (Lets not talk about how many pairs remain to be knit. I’m feeling good.)

 1. Thanks for the patience you guys have shown over the last few days as the blog went up and down and up and down and commenting was shut off and came on and shut off and came on.

2. We think it should be more stable now (by we, I mean the amazing Ken.)

3. Although you can’t tell, it’s been upgraded to the most current version of Moveable Type.

4. This might make it possible for me to figure out a way to block the fantastic amount of content spam the blog has been targeted by.  (By fantastic, I mean incredible. 90 000 comments in the last few weeks.) As fast as I ban the offenders IP, another springs up. We (and again, that we is the amazing Ken) are looking at options that would help a lot – like a captcha or something like it. We’re hoping there’s one that’s fun and easy for you guys. (I’m highly motivated here, because I can never read those things.)

5. I’ve been knitting Joe socks for a while.

Two skeins of Huntington doesn’t quite make a pair of socks for my big footed husband, so I’d stretched it by adding stripes.  Three at the cuff, three at the toe.

6. Now it’s time to do the three stripes at the toe and I have apparently lost the little ball of leftovers I was using for the stripes.

7. Joe is pretty much a super conservative dresser, and so this is a bit of a thing.
Would you:

a) Get more Huntington in grey, and have a plain sock.
b) Have a hunt around the house and see if I can find something that’s sort of like the stripey stuff.
c) Go nuts.  Screaming pink stripes, or yellow, or something contrasting, because if it can’t match, what the hell.
d) Something really smart that you have thought of that I didn’t yet.

8. I am going to give a good talk in Rockland, Maine at Over the Rainbow Yarn on Saturday night.  I’m pretty sure there are still spots.  I’d love to see you. It’s super interesting and pretty fun.

9.  In our house, Halloween is known as "Joe’s Birthday Eve."

10. I will be handing out candy anyway.

11. Lou is dressing like a racoon.

Just seeing if our upgrades are upgrades. (And by our upgrades, I mean that Ken has been working super hard on this while I mumble "I love you I love you I love you" over and over again.) 

Oh. Look.  I got home last night, and so happy to be here, despite the chaos and the way the cups are all the wrong way in the cupboard. (The mature part of me is just happy they put them all away clean. The immature part of me switched them all round this morning.)
The flight home yesterday was really nice, and I can’t say that about many flights, but the seat next to me was empty, and it changes everything.  I knit (and watched season three of Game of Thrones- don’t worry about spoilers, I’ve read the books) and finished the beautiful Spectral Cowl that I was working on.

Pattern: Spectral Cowl. Yarn: Fiber Optics Paintbox in Foot Notes Colourway: Tangerine to Turquoise. (bought at Rhinebeck.)

I blocked it last night, and this afternoon it was ready for its photoshoot.

Sam loved modeling this, begged to keep it, and when I refused, offered to BUY IT.

A teenager and  her money are not soon parted, so I know she must really, really love it.

I didn’t let her buy it, but you can bet it will be under the tree at Christmas, with her name on it. 

PS. I’m thinking about making another out of Kauni.

PPS. Clara Parkes is coming to town tonight, and I’ll be there.  Will you? Lets show her how Toronto feels about The Knitting. She’ll be at A Good Read tonight at 7pm. Let’s make her welcome. 

PPPS. There’s a good pub down the street.

 You know, when I travel all the time like this, it’s all based on work, and it’s hard to justify too much fun, beyond the fun that it is to actually have this job, which is so much better than working as a Diet Coke sample girl in the supermarket (and yeah, I had that job and you bet I had to wear a pinafore.) There’s not any time to sightsee, and if I wanted to have a little fun I’d have to stay an extra day, and spending money to earn money sort of negates the purpose of the latter, so… I go. I work (at my pretty fun job) and then I come back home, and then people really think I’ve been to these places, and I haven’t. Not really.

This trip was a little different.  I was in town for Knit City, and let me tell you, that was pretty amazing fun all by itself.  I love the Canadian events with an unholy passion, and it was clear from the attendance and enthusiasm that Fiona and Amanda have got their feet nicely under them, and Knit City is really going to be a thing.  Great classes – nice vibe – and an amazing, amazing marketplace full of amazing, amazing Canadian yarn and other stuff knitters like. The list of Vendors read like a Canadian dream team.

It was so awesome it smacked me into camnesia, and I only have about 4 pictures of the whole event – and one of them is a selfie of me, Amanda and Fiona that is so incredibly bad that I feel like publishing it here would terminally influence our relationship, and I would really like to come back to Knit City again. 

The event was great, and I had a wonderful time, especially since some of my favourite Ontarians were my fellow teachers (Hi Kate! Hi Fiona! Hi Kim!) We had time for some meals together and we had a grand time in general, and I really can’t say enough nice things about my clever and welcoming students, but here was the best part.

I had one afternoon off. I finished teaching at noon, and I didn’t have to speak until the evening,  and the sun was shining and (together with a friend) I rented a bike and went for  ride on the seawall all the way around Stanley Park.  It was amazing. 

I really got to enjoy the park.  On my way to the park my cab driver asked me what I was doing.  I said I was going to Stanley Park.

"This is a very good idea." he said.  Then I told him I was going to rent a bike, and ride the seawall. 

"This.." he said, "Is the ideal."

He was totally right.  Thanks Knit City, and thanks Vancouver. You’re all awesome.
I’m on my way home. 

PS I took the Skytrain to the airport and it was very cool.

PPS: Hey Toronto, Clara’s coming tomorrow night.  Anybody fancy a bit of a yarn party?

1. I am writing this post from 35 000 ft above the earth, as I fly from Toronto to Vancouver for Knit City.

2. I have taken hundreds and hundreds of planes and I still think it is amazing that I can cross such a huge chunk of Canada in only 5 hours. 

3. Some planes even have wi-fi on them, but this one doesn’t. I’ll post this when I get to the hotel. 

4. While I was at Rhinebeck, I fell down hard in the Fiber Optic booth. Worst of all, on my way to the ground I accidentally swiped my credit card, and a whole bunch of her gradient series things ended up in my bag. I got roving, and I got 3 (three) of her paintbox gradients that are already yarn.  If I had a bigger yarn budget, I would have got more because holy cow were they captivating.

5. I love this one:

Tangerine to Turquoise, in her sock yarn.

6. I think part of the problem with the gradient kits was that I knew about this pattern. Spectral.

7. I’m having a really, really fun time knitting this, and Kimber (she’s the Fiber Optic lady) told me about this way of knotting your knitting so there aren’t any ends to weave in,  even though there’s 15 mini skeins in a colourway. Check out this video.

8. She said it worked great, and I thought she was full of it, but I watched the video, I tried it, and she wasn’t lying.  It’s amazing. You can’t see the knot at all – you can feel it, so I’d never do this for socks, and I think that it might show up if you were doing smooth stockinette, but in anything with texture? AMAZING.

9. No. I don’t think it’s going to come apart – I really, really tested it, and why would I do it if I thought it was going to come apart?

10. I sort of had a little bit of a spasm and knit Myrie a little hat.  I had the leftovers from Windward still kicking around, and that yarn is so soft and she’s a baby born on the eve of the Canadian winter. She’s going to need hats.

Pattern: Bouncing Baby Set, from Homespun, Handknit. Yarn: Madeleinetosh Tosh Merino Light.

11. So I made bootees too.

Cutest Bootees – no pom poms.

12. Did you hear about this? Meg Swanson over at Schoolhouse Press has co-ordinated an auction of Barbara Walkers knitting. Actual things actually knit by Barbara Walker. She’s selling them off, and you can own a piece of history if you want. There’s going to be three groupings, but flip through and have a look.  There’s some amazing things there.
 
13. I am in Vancouver now and holy cow with the fog. One of the craziest landings of my life. 

14. Also, I lied.  I said I would post this from the the hotel, and I’m posting it from the cab, because we live in the future, and everything is a miracle.

Yikes.  Here I am, late to the blog and missing several days and I’d be sorry about that, but I don’t have the energy.  I came back from Rhinebeck with a little yarn and a little wool and a lot of virus, and the cold that was just starting to make itself felt while I wandered the fairgrounds blossomed into a spectacularly hideous thing on Monday as I travelled home.

I was all about the tissues, handwashing and sanitizer as I went, but I still felt exactly like patient zero in a plague movie while I was on the flight. I’m sure the guy next to me felt the same way. I apologized profusely, and kept to myself, and when I got home I went to bed and stayed there until this morning, when I felt a ton better, and got up and started playing catchup with my desk.

Pretty much the only thing I managed to accomplish Tuesday and Wednesday was drinking a lake of tea and casting on incorrectly for a cowl. (More about that tomorrow. It’s a very nice cowl.)

Rhinebeck was, as always, all the best things about being a knitter, with beautiful weather

boatloads of yarn, sheep, goats, alpacas and llamas, and I loved it.

I didn’t shop as much as I have in the past, but I did see it all – and got a chance to do my favourite thing, which walk among my people. 

For two days the world was exactly as I would have it – sweaters, yarn

friends I only see once a year, and nobody who thinks that knitting is silly.

It was great.

Tomorrow I’m off to Vancouver for Knit City (all the classes are full, but I’m speaking on Saturday evening and there’s a few spots left if you’d like to join me.)

I’ll show you the cowl in the morning. 

I’m off to Webs to play with knitters for the morning (can I just say one thing about Webs? They’re terrific, and really, I know that the excellent experience I have there every time is because Steve and Kathy are great, and they treat their staff great and then the staff treat the customers great and… I just love it there. Everything about it. I’m so grateful to know them.) Then it’s into the car, and up the Rhinebeck for my favourite holiday of the year.  My sweater isn’t done but it’s almost done, and it’s even the kind of almost done that means I should take other knitting in the car for the trip. It’s like a Rhinebeck miracle.

I can’t take these – my lost and found socks.  I was going to link to the yarn, but it turns out that the business is finished (for the best of reasons, the owner’s having a baby) and this great  yarn is no more. If you want to hunt it in the wild, it’s DeKay Duet, from A Swell Yarn Shop. 

and maybe someday it will be back, but in the mean time, on this, the eve of a knitters holiday and a big yarn opportunity, let this be a lesson to you. 

This is why we have stash.

See you at Rhinebeck, and if you can’t be there, I’m sorry.  I’ll think of you, and pat a sheep in your name – and you can always watch Gale Zucker’s fabulous Rhinebeck Style video. It just about made me cry, and I have no idea why.

I’m sitting in a hotel in Northampton, so close to WEBS that it hurts (I’ll be there in just a few hours) and I am seaming  a sweater. 

I have long imagined that Afterlight would be my Rhinebeck Sweater.  I’ll be seeing Amy, and she was a big part of knitting this one. Well, I take that back. She didn’t knit any parts of it – but she still helped a lot.  Afterlight is exactly the sort of sweater that I love.  Seemingly plain and understated, but with a lot of classy details that make it exquisite. Tubular cast-ons, beautifully designed decreases, and because it is Amy Herzog, absolutely fabulous shaping.  I even splurged for some fabulous yarn. ( Ultra MCN from Indigodragonfly, in "Where’s the Regenerate Switch on This Convertible")

This sweater represents the first sincere effort I have made to knit a sweater that fits me the way that other people think clothes should fit me.  Personally, I have a real tendency to knit (and wear) things that are sort of oversized. I don’t like clingy clothes or tight clothes, and it means that sometimes (most of the time) my clothes aren’t as flattering as they could be. So, enter Amy.  She’s got this thing about knits that fit , and she knows how things should go, and so I’m trusting her. When I knit this, I totally put myself in her hands, and she told me what to do, and I did it without adding or changing anything.

I’ve been so anxious about it that I haven’t really tried it on.  I got gauge. Amy is smarter than me. I’m trusting her.  Simple sweaters need really beautiful finishing though, so I’m moving slowly, making my seams so pretty, and there’s only the neckband to go.

I’m almost afraid to say it, but I might not have to rush a Rhinebeck sweater – for once.