Fiber Dreams

Our house is upside down. It’s because of the hill, and the way the streets are laid out here. We’re on the downhill side of the street, so you walk into the house on the top floor where the living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen are. The bedrooms are downstairs, and my office, a spare bedroom, is directly under the kitchen. So when Ricki and I were on the deck outside my office yesterday, and Dave was in the kitchen, he was above us. I don’t know what he did up there, but he made an interesting sound.

Then he stopped, and her attention was diverted to something down below.

Just then a sunbeam lit Ricki.

I had (had being the operative word) an outstanding credit at The Loopy Ewe that was burning a hole in my pocket. It wasn’t a big credit, only $5.00, but still. It was there. And had been for quite a while. So last week I did what any good knitter would do. I spent it.

I’ve been wanting to get my hands on at least one sock blocker for a long time now. Sheri sells them singly, so I was able to get one sock blocker without making a huge investment. I’ve been holding out for a wooden one. I know. The plastic ones are cheaper. But I don’t like the way they look. I’ve been holding out for wood. It’s that stupid expensive taste thing again. Smacks me between the eyes on a regular basis. But there you have it. I have expensive taste, and I would rather do without than have something that I know I’ll be dissatisfied with. My mother and I had numerous arguments over this when I was growing up. She doesn’t understand. She really doesn’t. She thinks that having something, even something that isn’t exactly what I want, is better than not having it at all. She thinks I’m spoiled because I’d honestly rather go without than have something I dislike every time I look at it. I never considered it being spoiled, if I don’t want something… Or, if I want something, but know that I can’t have it (like that lovely little diamond tennis bracelet in the shop window that time long ago, which was, naturally, both the only thing I liked in the shop window, and the most expensive thing there), and I’m okay with that. But I digress.

I couldn’t simply get one sock blocker, and nothing else. So I got some yarn. I got one hank of Baruffa Cashwool in Bordeaux. This is so Kristie’s color. She’s going to love it. But it’s not for her. As it turns out, this is also one of my favorite colors.

Anyway, I got the adorable sock blocker with the sheep on top that I’ll be able to use to model my socks from here on out, and a hank of yarn, and because of my credit ended up spending only $.95 on shipping. Woot! It all arrived on Saturday. I happily showed Dave the sock blocker, and he said, “Yes, Dear. You’ve showed those to me before,” while giving me a look that clearly said, “It has sheep on it.”

We had a friend over for dinner last night (we had a marvelous time, though I think I drank a tad too much—my brain feels a little sluggish still), so most of the weekend involved running errands and cleaning. I did manage to get some knitting in. Considerable progress was made on Mingus—only seven more rows before the heel flap.

More border experiments were completed for the vine stole—Dense, I’m leaning more and more toward naming it Bittersweet. The first corner, the one on the left, was a short-row experiment. The second one, the one on the right, a stitch pattern experiment. The vines in the middle are a representation of the vine pattern that will fill in the gaps between the corners. The round black blob is the 50g of black Malabrigo Lace that I’ll be using for the border. Yup. It’s all wound up and ready to go.

I have my test knitters all lined up for this project. Kristie started last week, Kathryn will start later this week when she gets home to the U.K. from France, and David (not mine) down in New Zealand will be starting the week after, or whenever his yarn order arrives from the U.K. Except for David, we’ll all be knitting the stole up in various shades of Malabrigo. David will be knitting his in Posh’s Eva, a two-ply lace weight yarn that’s 55% silk and 45% cashmere in a colorway called Camouflage. Doesn’t that sound like incredible yarn? It’ll be fun to see how it knits up. We’re such an international group this time. Don’t you just love the Internet? How else could this group have come together?

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