Show Me Your Knits

Don't Swerve For Small Mammals In The Road

Apparently, my tender-hearted approach of swerving wildly while driving to avoid death wish small mammals, has touched a sensitive chord with my family.  I've already gotten severe lectures from my husband and sister, Liz, about the dangers of this practice.  Luckily, my mom hasn't read my blog and no one has ratted me out, because she probably would give me a tongue-lashing about unsafe driving practices.  I know, logically, it probably is safer to mow down the nasty possum or cute fat skunk than swerve wildly, but emotionally, I'm thinking Bambi and his little friends in the Enchanted Forest.  On one of my first dates with my husband, twenty-plus years ago, (child-bride, remember?) a squirrel ran in front of his car and I shrieked out, "Run, baby, run!"  No doubt my sensitive nature-loving personality (and still-perky at that time body parts) are why he kept asking me out.  Anyway, according to my sister, unless it's a moose crossing the road, I shouldn't swerve wildly.  I've yet to see any moose out here in the wilds of Kansas City, but you never know.  Hey, not to be all Bizarre Foods, but I have eaten moose before.  It was a moose stew and quite tasty.  (Look, once again, I digress.)

I'm rapidly finishing up this lace scarf/small stole knit out of Malabrigo sock yarn.  It looks remarkably unimpressive right now in a big lump, but I'm hoping to finish it up tonight and block it tomorrow.  Blocking is always like the Extreme Makeover move for lace.  I did just notice that I made an error in the pattern, naturally during the first few inches of knitting and I'm just noticing it now.  It looks like I must have lost track of where I was in the chart and repeated about six or so rows.  Argh.  As this is a gift and I'm in a bit of a time crunch, the error stands as is.  Hopefully the recipient will never notice, or better yet, just figure it's a design aspect.

Skunks and Socks

Last night, I drove home late from work along this curvy, sort of country-in-the-city road, narrowly missing hitting a large skunk waddling across my path.  This length of road has kamikaze type squirrels, oppossums, and the occasional fat groundhog that like to throw themselves at my car.  Small mammals with a death wish.  Anyway, my adrenaline was flowing after I did the car acrobatics to avoid hitting the skunk.

Totally unrelated, except for my blog title, I've finished two pairs of socks so far this month.  The first pair were out of the Artist's Choice Sundara sock yarn I got in December.   This is her Mint Over Chamomile colorway in a sort of broken rib type stitch.  They fit perfectly and I've worn them quite a bit and probably need to wash them before my feet start smelling like the skunk I nearly hit.  The Sundara yarn has almost a sheen to it and was a real pleasure to knit with.  I will say that I was very happy about her business practice.  When I was knitting the second sock, I was irritated to find two knots, fairly close together, knotting three separate lengths of yarn.  This is a pricey yarn and I was surprised.  I emailed her to let her know, not because I expected any restitution, but because if I was a business owner, I would want this kind of feedback about my quality control.   She was extremely apologetic and said that these sort of things are normally caught in the dyeing process.  Then she sent me a skein of sock yarn in a gorgeous leafy brown called Cornucopia by way of apology.  I wasn't expecting that at all, but you can imagine that I was impressed.

The second pair of socks that I finished were knit out of Duet Skinny sock yarn in the Afton Manor colorway.     The Duet yarns come with a smaller contrasting skein of yarn so that you can be fancy for the cuffs, heels, and toes.  The blue is actually more of a French blue than it appears on my computer screen.  The colors are great.  I did a stitch pattern called the Little Chevron Rib, that I got out of one of Charlene Schurch's sock books.  I thought it might break up the pooling, which probably wouldn't have happened anyway, but the stitchwork would probably show up better in a solid or near solid yarn.  Still, I like how these turned out.

And now I'm going to stop jabbering.  The kid is getting ready to go camping and rock climbing.  Yes, it is below freezing here, which is no big deal for him.  I'm going out for a date with my husband while the kid becomes one with nature.  A glass or two of wine will possibly be involved in our date.  No skunks.

Cute Babies Wearing My Knitting

My friend emailed me this photo of her second son, with the words, "Seriously, could your sweater be any cuter?"  Um, forget about the sweater.  Look at that cute baby.  My sweater is nothing in comparison to that cuteness.  Look at those eyes and that smile.