Moving to Mad-hattan

Who knew the excess yarn in my stash, the skeins that don't fit into the bursting underbed storage box, they have a purpose in this life aside from looking pretty. Packing materials. Afraid your pyrex is going to knock together and smash in transit? An extra skein of Paton's wool will sort that out! Want to pack the inside of a vase? Well what did you think you bought all that sock yarn for exactly?!

I'm going crazy.

I keep thinking this move will be easy, but then I think back over all the things I've accumulated in the past year (yarn, sewing machine, desk, chair etc etc) I have no idea how I'm going to get it all packed by Monday! And I've finally decided to say goodbye to my lovely futon, the one that's provided a great backdrop for photographic highlights (snort) such as the socks below. I'm going to miss it, which is entirely a silly idea, but that futon has been with me through a lot. It's seen a lot of action (ahem) for want of a better expression. But my futon, ever faithful to the last, is granting me one last favour. It's going to pay for the removal man.

Things will probably be a bit quiet around here while I pack, move and acclimatise to being an Island dweller. Oh and there's that whole starting Grad School thing.... Who am I kidding? I'm bound to procrastiknit my way through it all!

Goldilocks and the three socks

I have returned! I'm back here in NYC, the plane didn't explode and all is well with the world. Well, maybe not quite everything since I did come home to discover a fine layer of sand covering my bedspread prompting the realisation that someone had slept in my room while I was away, evoking memories of a time I discovered that someone else had slept in my bed (with my boyfriend) while I was away in England. But anyway, that's enough of that.

Look what I did while sitting on my bum doing nothing on vacation! Yes I know I've already shown the two blue pairs, but this is my trio! All finished off, cast on or conceived in Manchester. The purple heather socks are the Hedera pattern from the Knitty archives. So cute! We shan't talk about the yarn because it is cheap and nasty and quite possibly 80% acrylic, but what can a girl do when she wants to support her one and only LYS and it only sells granny yarn?? The socks on the other hand are quite lovely. See?

The only alterations I did were to add five rows of plain stockinette before decreasing at the toe, and doing more decreases than called for because I'm chicken shit and scared of the kitchener stitch. I may well be tempted to knit these again with a little more quality because they just flew off the needles in all of about two days! Yes, I was just slightly bored at home and also was the person who had to sit and wait for the roofer/linoleum fitter/washing machine delivery guy after a string of disasters in my parents' house.

And finally, just to show you that I'm completely daft and shouldn't be allowed, this is my rather disastrous attempt at designing my own lace socks.

If only I'd just learnt from the first time that 64 stitches is just not enough to pass over my ginormously huge heel. I'd got all big for my boots, picked out a simple lace pattern from my newly acquired thrift store knitting books and went to town. Unfortunately this fishtail lace will soon be headed for the frog pond. Ha, fish.... ponds.... I'm so gosh darn funny after no sleep and a transatlantic flight... Next time I'll cast on with 68 stitches a resign myself to my cankles.

Slightly fuzzy model

My poor dog. Not only do I disappear for months on end breaking his poor little doggy heart, but when I eventually return, I force him into slave labour. He has no interest what so ever in handknit socks and hates being in front of the camera. Mention the word biscuit, though, and Connor is all yours.

Here he is looking plaintive and unimpressed by my Gentleman's Fancy Socks, wishing that I'd never come home and that I'd just leave him the hell alone. Ha, no such luck, he's far too cute for that. These were knit in Regia 4 fadig on 2mm needles, and have traveled to three countries, one capital city and two continents. Not bad.

Here Connor is wondering what he did to deserve this torture.

Here is where I mentioned biscuits.

By the end of the photshoot, I think he was beginning to enjoy himself (such an attention whore, my little puppy). Then I took out the vacuum cleaner and he went bonkers. Oh well. In the picture above he's modeling the madder ribbed socks from Knitting Vintage Socks, made from Lana Grossa Mega Boots Stretch purchased in Ottawa and knitted up in record speed in both New York and Manchester, UK. My socks are nothing if not international. I like the toe on these socks, no need for the befuddling kitchener, just spiral your way down to four stitches and way-hey! Pull the tread through and your done. Much easier :) Of course these socks are fraternal, I couldn't get them to match without throwing a bunch of yarn away before casting on for the second, although now I've finished I do have a whole bunch left that I'm not sure what to do with. Little booties for the Connor-boy perhaps? Oh and there was a knot in the yarn. Boo, hiss, gah. Apart from that though, the yarn itself is really nice and for someone like me with, ahem, slightly larger calves/cankles, the stretch can only be a good thing.