Let's go Red Sox!

Catherine is blaming me for last night's Red Sox loss, since I finished knitting a related project yesterday afternoon and thus my sending them good luck has ended.

See this? It's part of the Red Sox logo.



Now compare it to my latest project:



Pattern: Boston Red Sox Red Socks (a basic red sock with white toes and heels)
Yarn: SandesGarn Sisu in Red (less than two balls) and Patons Kroy in Whitecap (less than one ball)
Needles: 2.5 mm Inox 29" circulars for the body of the sock, US1 Inox for the ribbing.
Notes: My first short row heels, and they actually fit! These are also my first finished two color socks, which required a lot more end weaving in, which is not a great pleasure. But I like how they turned out.

And now a picture of the Red Sox Red Socks being worn:



Go Sox!

Personal ads from the 1860s

Some of you have already seen these posted by me in another of my online personae but for the benefit of others, I am putting them up again.

I was inventorying a piece of sheet music at work this week, and it was a page that had been torn from a magazine. On the back were puzzles, jokes, and ads from people seeking people to write to them. And they were too good not to share. So, here you go, personal ads from the 1860s:

I like this guy:
"A gay cavalier desires correspondence with an indefinite number of young ladies. Object amusement, or a fight."

"Ladies, as I have not heard from you for some time, it is evident you don't know where I am; so I will tell you; and when you write please address [name]...."

"Wanted: The undersigned wishes to exchange photographs with one hundred young ladies."

"Official Order: All ladies, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, readers of the Waverley, are respectfully requested to write to the undersigned immediately. Coquetts exempt. Good discipline and an inspiring mind preferred."

"A young lady, desirous of opening a correspondence with a young soldier, will meet with a ready response by addressing [name].... Object: fun, improvement and perhaps matrimony. No objections to receiving epistles from good looking persons."

And this guy's from my hometown:
"A young man, not a soldier, but would be, were he constitutionally strong enough, would be happy to correspond with a number of fair damsels with a view to matrimony. Has plenty of money, and no poor relations."

And the winner of the best song title seen this week (from the Civil War era)? "We are the gay & happy suckers of the state of Illinois."

necessity is the mother of invention

I started a new job recently and the temperature where I work, while being great for preserving old books, isn't as hospitable to humans. And, since it's starting to be summer here, I prefer to dress for summer and usually wear skirts and sandals. I keep my Clapotis at the office to wrap around my shoulders when I get cold, but my legs haven't been so lucky. So I knit up a quick solution.



Pattern: Legwarmers, made up as I went along
Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in Baby Blue, two balls
Needles: 10.5 Susan Bates 16" circulars

I cast on the legwarmers Friday morning and finished them about an hour ago (and it's Saturday at 9 pm). A quick and mindless knitting project, which was perfect, as I've spent most of the weekend thus far having a Paul Gross (a current obsession of mine) marathon, between watching Tales of the City and season one of Due South. Too bad season three of Slings and Arrows doesn't come out on dvd for a few weeks!

Now back to my mountie watching.

since you've been gone

My blog has been sadly neglected in recent days, for two good reasons.

1. I started a new job. While working is good, I'm still getting used to this whole getting up early and being out of my apartment all day thing. I've also been really tired, so for a while I wasn't getting much knitting done. I seem to have gotten past that and am knitting up a storm, but:

2. Several of my current projects fall into the "Shh! It's a secret!" category, meaning I can't write about them here or post pictures. You'll see them much, much later.

So, what can I show you, my knitting friends?

Cassandra had a birthday a week ago and at her celebratory dinner, we presented her with a Sock Virgin kit. She's the only one of our little group who doesn't knit socks and we are determined to remedy that.



Included in the kit was a coupon book, redeemable for help on various parts of the sock knitting process, and here are a few of them.







We had a little too much fun coming up those. And here's the birthday girl, enjoying her gift.



Now, as for my knitting, here are a couple of things to tide you over.

My first square on the Lizard Ridge afghan:



And my first short row heel!



So I am knitting away and hopefully will have more to show for it sometime soon.

Mail call!

Today was a very good mail day.

First, I got a package of yarn from Ram Wools, who win my love for actually having both red sock yarn AND white sock yarn. Everyone else I looked at had one or the other. But now I can start another project!



Can you guess what I'm going to make? I'll give you one hint:



My other piece of mail today was from one of the loveliest people in the world, a friend of mine who wanted to celebrate my new job. So he sent me this beautiful painting, done by another friend:



It's called The Evening Star and was painted by my friend Erin. You can see and buy her gorgeous artwork here.

I'm a lucky girl.

And Sockapalooza begins...

So I've gotten my Sockapalooza pal and I've chosen my yarn for their socks!



Lorna's Laces in Sockknitters Summer Sunset. She said she liked pink and blue. :) Besides, with a name like that, it's kind of perfect for a sock knitting swap. Now to choose a pattern!

no more monkeys falling off the bed

Pattern: Monkey socks, from Knitty
Yarn: Sugar Bunny Boulevard in Evening Sun
Needles: Size 2 Inox for the cuff, size 3 for remainder of sock
Notes: I loved this yarn and this colorway. The colors weren't boring but also weren't so busy as to overwhelm the pattern.

And a side shot: