another pair of secret socks can come out of hiding since yesterday was mother’s day. they fit her since we share genes and our feet are almost exactly the same. she even took a self portrait with the socks on her feet!

Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina

Yarn: H.L. Miller hand dyed superwash in colorway Lily Petal — great yarn, very soft, i even grabbed more after knitting these

Needles: Addi Turbo 2.5mm circular (approx. US size 1)

Mods: Magic loop and ended the toe at 9 stitches per needle instead of 7, and made a mistake in the stitch pattern’s reduction stitches but i kept it consistent for the second sock.

the knitting mojo seems to have flown out the window alongside the knack for sewing i used to have. hopefully it’s just this week and not a general downward spiral, but it’s frustrating to spend hours with a seam ripper and reballing frogged knitting too. luckily switching to a new color besides blue seems to have helped get me through a crafting spree today (along with some cranberry and orange juice mixed), and hopefully all will be well with my crafting luck after a nice zip through la droguerie tomorrow. trains, planes and automobiles, and then i shall be back before you can say: why-don’t-you-write-that-driver-yourself-you-crazy-gadget-freak-with-a-penchant-for-knitting?

this past weekend i did a fair amount of [secret] knitting and the clincher is that my hands are damaged not from the clinking of needles, but from bouldering in the park on saturday. the sun was out, the smell of deep spring was in the air and it was too warm for hand-knit wool socks. after visiting two local yarn shops i had never perused, i had to sprint home and grab my rock climbing shoes and chalk bag and go plaster myself onto a rock face. i was a bit ambitious for not having clumb in, oh, three and a half years, and managed to leave a large chunk of skin from my left middle finger on the rock.

then monday came around and after work i got itchy to take advantage of the warm air again. the significant other was back in town after a hiatus and we went to kick a soccer ball around in the small park closest to our place. soon a group of teenagers came and asked if they could play a pick up game with us, and we old-sters agreed (i made a stipulation that we would play only if the girls in their group joined in). i had forgotten that teenage energy is one of those volatile, pent-up, steam engine sorts of energy. we played a mean game (the s.o. and i were on separate teams) and in the process i blocked a shot with my hand while it was my turn to be goalie and the index finger on my left hand now has a nasty blood blister hanging out under the surface. luckily when rock climbing i completely cut off all my finger nails or the injury would have been much worse. all that to say that it’s not just knitting injuries (yes that needle that stabbed into my hand last week drew blood) giving me the appearance of a tough girl.

[the photo above is of my hand in October of 2003 in the forest of Fontainebleau south of Paris, home of incredible natural bouldering, and that was probably the last time i really went rock climbing]

1) How old were you when you learned to knit?

i started knitting around age 8, then i had a scarf phase in 2003/2004, and since january i’ve been in a sock mode. in between those manic periods there was zero knitting.

2) Who taught you?

my mom taught me to knit around age eight with a crazy purple and yellow scarf (that she found again a few weeks ago while cleaning). i was sort of a perfectionist and over achiever then and i moved on to multi color intarsia (see an example from that period here) which i learned from a library book. a couple of decades later the incredibly soft mohair from La Droguerie in paris called to me and i made a series of huge needled scarves for people (pictured above is me in 2003 with one of those but with vintage pink italian mohair which i have since ripped and it is back in my stash) and then i put down the needles for another few years. lately i have been blog-taught in the ways of sock knitting addiction. next up: fiber optics and interactive controllers in knitting.

…and hi Bobbi, *smile*, thanks for taking the time to take care of our rather large and widespread sp10 group.

oh secret pal, you totally made my week. when weeks get crunchy (you know what i mean, that chewy bad sort of crunchy when the universe seems a bit like it is imploding directly in your direction and you also have a nasty cold? yeah that crunchy), getting a fabulous unexpected thing or two in the mail is just the pick-me-up. my secret pal sent me this wonderfully spring-ily wrapped package of happiness and BAM didn’t the sun just pop back into the sky.

i unwrapped each piece (while on the phone much to the amusement of the person on the other end of the line who chuckled at the funky robotic noise artifacts the crinkling paper made when my voip provider‘s codec processed it) and lo and behold the contents were awesome. first check out the very cute mini knit sock keychain:

and the rest of the amazing package:

…the contents being:

– a lovely blue-striped journal i will be sticking all of my knitting notes in

– wild berry zinger tea which has already inspired some socks

– a beautiful mug, much needed around here the only two in the cupboard have been so loved they are a bit sad

– some prym bamboo double points, which will come in handy for some upcoming plane flights with those nasty metal detectors

– two skeins of yummy soft blue jawoll! yes this will become a pair of socks with a crazy complex stitch pattern, i am sure of it.

– a very cute card and the aforementioned mini sock

So, Ms. Secret Pal, THANK YOU. you rock. yes. *ahem* You ROCK.

when all else fails, bust out some wollmeise yarn and everything will be right with the universe. i finished an uber-secret knitting project a week or so ago and since then my knitting mojo has been sort of waning. when i felt down, my wollmeise yarn cheered me right up! even though the crazy purple and fuschia one pictured below looks simple, it actually is in its third iteration after two froggings. oh, and i am calling it the wild berry zinger sock thanks to the awesome tea my secret pal sent me! more soon on her awesome package of gifts. wollmeise yarn is color therapy, the extreme edition.