And the Gauntlet is Thrown...

My dear friend Chris has posed the challenge for a "Crank-a-thon" to see who can knit the most socks over the next two weeks. There's prizes involved and the spirit of friendly competition and camaraderie is in air. And honestly, all you have to do is make socks and post photos of them.

The task...to see who can make the most projects overall vs ribbed socks vs plain socks vs CSM projects other than socks and the list goes on. In theory, this is a fun idea. In reality, I'm lazy and a hopeless procrastinator. Perhaps if I had played more sports as a kid I'd be more competitive but it's just not in my nature. I posted the following diatribe to give them an idea that although I'd participate, it would be unlikely that I'd actually succeed.

Day 1: Look thoughtfully at the stash
Day 2: Wind yarn
Day 3: Decide I want to use different yarn
Day 4: Wind new yarn
Day 5: Start cranking with no success for some unknown reason.
Day 6: Decide a gin and tonic with friends is more fun and go out instead of cranking.
Day 7: Decide it’s the yarn so look at the stash some more.
Day 8: Choose new yarn and wind it up.
Day 9: Make a complete sock in about 1/2 hour.
Day 10: Think, "I got this, I made a sock last night in 1/2 hour, I’ll crank out 6 or 7 tomorrow." BBQ something nice.
Day 11: Ribber hates me, make a 5x1 mock rib pair instead but don’t close the toes.
Day 12: Force myself to work on the ribber.
Day 13: Finally finish the second ribbed sock but don’t close the toes.
Day 14: Come to the realization that I will come in last place and close the toes on the 5x1 mock-rib but since I don’t want to screw up the ribbed pair and it’s already dark, wait until tomorrow when I have/need natural light.
Day 14: In the evening Lie and say I left my camera at work and the phone is dead but I’ll post the ribbed pair tomorrow. It’s worked for Vickie but in the end she'll tell me I’m a liar and to "bite me" because I missed the deadline.
Day 15: Feel the shame and avoid the list entirely.

Tongue in cheek, maybe not? Tonight was Day 1. Here's what happened...

Day 1: Looked thoughtfully at the stash. Started cranking, phone rang, talked to Laura for 259 minutes and sit here now posting this nonsense at 1AM.

Definitely should have taken Little League more seriously.

The Ribber has been Conquered!!!

So to answer your question Joe... no, I do not plan on giving up on the ribber attachment! I do still love the 5x1 mock rib socks but the ribber had to be mastered!

It's a classic 1x1 rib cuff, followed by a 3x1 rib for the leg/foot. I was too high from tonight's success that I didn't even try to close the toe. We'll tackle that another day! If I do say so myself, Beauregard and I are definitely friends now!



If you can't tell, I'm thrilled with this milestone and I finished it before the end of the closing ceremonies. My own personal Olympic goal! Do you think if I send a pair to Olympic diver, Troy Dumais, he'll come to my house and thank me? It could happen, he's not always in the pool.

I had no idea I was so interested in diving!

Three Day Weekend

I had a 3-day weekend last weekend and it was great! I had Monday off for what my building claimed was an inspection of the fire alarm system. I thought they were going to come in, check the fire detectors and inspect the sprinkler system. This is what happened at 8:00 in the morning on my extra day off. I added the graphic so I could post it to youtube and embed it here. There was no actual fire.
;-)



This went on for 15 minutes, every 25 minutes and was blazingly loud (my crappy iPhone audio can't remotely compare to it live)! While it was going on, some guy knocked on my door. When I opened the door, he screamed at me over the audio from my unit combined now with the hallway audio.

Him: Can you hear it?
Me: Can I hear it? Of course I can hear it. They can hear it in Cuba.
Him: You're on a call with Cuba?
Me: No, I can hear it.
Him: Exactly, can you hear but in your unit?
Me: Yes, are we done.
Him: No, it's not done, it'll play until we check every unit.
Me. Thank you, do you need to come in? (I'm still thinking smoke detectors, etc)
Him: No, I don't. I'm sorry to interrupt your call.
Me: [Closes door]

Morale of the story...don't play games during a fire emergency test.

Anyway, after that, I had the whole day free. It was rainy, I ordered Chinese food, broke out the ice cream, turned on the Olympics (there was men's gymnastics, men's synchronized diving and men's swimming ... figure it out) and of course, Beau was home! I've been playing with tons of tension options to get the very best/tightest gauge possible on the machine. I'm still completely enamoured with the 5x1 mock rib. It's really a good looking combination. I think I like it even better than the 1x1 rib but I haven't tried a 5x1 actual rib. It's coming!

In the meantime, its pair was not part of the plan last weekend but today, with my new yarn carrier (the slotted kind) worked like a champ so no more knots under foot! But in the same breath, there were several mishaps in the process of pushing the gauge as hard as I did. I few destroyed needles, a dropped stitch on the toe that I didn't even see until I grafted it and a bobble on the grafting itself. We'll call them house socks! I love this machine!

Socktastic!

I've been plugging along on my CSM, Beau and I have had our moments and I was definitely ready to move up to the next level but halted by kitchenering from waste yarn.

Well, enough mucking around, a trip to Colorado for the 2012 Circular Sock Machine conference was simply required. It was a blast! I enjoyed it last year and I enjoyed it equally, if not more this year. I had the privilege of meeting and spending the majority of my time with Chris, Vickie and Jill, you know who you are and I can't thank you enough for all the insight and expertise!

They got me kitchenering and even helped me understand how the dreaded (insert impending doom, horror movie, don't go in the basement style music here) ribber works.

You may have seen some these socks before but never with toes! Kitchener was a success!

And I love this little montage frame app. Expect to see a lot of these!

Next steps are all about the ribber. It's an attachment that goes on top of the cylinder of the CSM to create a true rib effect. It's frighteningly temperamental and it totally covers everything that's happening in the cylinder so it's kind of like driving blind. At the conference, I got it timed...thanks to Chris, Mary and Jacquie. We struggled for hours and Jacquie came over and gave it a whack and exclaimed, "It's just too high." We all just looked at each other but it worked. Here's the proof but we'll see if we can incorporate this skill into actual socks! Keep you posted!

Well, I've come and gone and another Men's Spring Knitting Retreat is complete. I love this event. I love seeing the guys at these events and the amazing creations that have been knit over the year. One of the things I love most about this retreat is the locale. A quiet spot in the country filled with trees and hills!

This spot was lovely until the geese attacked the rental car. The horn didn't even slow them down. Protecting the young is serious business

They were everywhere and all over the grounds.
Although I love the locale, the venue itself has lost some of its appeal for me. Granted, the meeting space is spectacular! It has amazing light and an openness to the outside world that can't be beat but the sleeping quarters are well, I don't know how to dress it up, they're, well, not my speed.

I didn't join in the fray nearly as much as I have in the past. I very purposely did not take any classes and when I ripped my shawl to the lifeline for the second time on day two, I never picked it up again. Instead, my fantastic roomie, MDV, taught me to properly crochet and I even made a very rough version of the granny square that my intended crochet blanket is based on. Here's the blanket and here's the square!

granny blanket photo copyright the designer Lucy at www.attic24.typpad.com

I had wheels this year and if I return, I will always have them. I escaped to town and had breakfast at this really quaint, little eatery, found real coffee (I never thought I'd be so happy to see a Dunkin' Donuts), took a few long drives through the country and snapped some photos along the way.

the lake at Easton

A Drive in the Country

Breakfast is served
A great trip overall and a great getaway; just what the doctor ordered! Not that doctor silly. ;-)

Edit: Kystal, I swear I'm going to send you the Tosh yarn....soon!

In the infamous words of Doctor Who....

It's a bit "wibbly wobbly timey wimey". Yes, the wine glass has come home from the kiln. I can't get a good photo of it, just my luck, the day I get it back from the studio, "Florida, the Sunshine State" decides to go cloudy on me. The stem is clearly a little bit off-center and the middle of the stem ended up a bit over-twisted and it's not exactly straight up and down ... but I love it! It twisted so much that I'm afraid to wash it fearing the stem will just crack in two but there's wine in my future and yes, it's going from this glass to my lips! Since I can't get a good photo of it today, here are a few birthday present photos...



Yes, I'm obsessed with Doctor Who, can't get enough of it so a Doctor Who inspired phone case was just the ticket! My very own Tardis! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, get over to Netflix and queue the series. If you like science fiction that's a tad ridiculous, you'll adore Doctor Who.



And my new knitting bag! It came all the way from Kuala Lumpur and it's fantastic! I adore the hardware and its overall design. It's really cleverly made, you have to love Etsy! Half the fun was tracking it on DHL as it made its way across the planet. Believe it or not, it got to Cincinnati (via Hong Kong) in 2 days and then proceeded to take 5 days to get to Florida, go figure? Welcome to America!

And since it's my new knitting bag, that's knitting content! Golden!

Happy Mother's Day Ladies!

Bonus, I still have Eyebrows!

Had a blast today! My cousin and I had a little outing to a local glass blowing studio. We took an introductory class to make wine goblets. Well, we didn't actually make the goblets but instead, just the stems. I'm rather proud of my very, misshapen glass stem but alas, it's still in the kiln (so no photos yet). Instead, here's a video from another customer of the studio highlighting our amazing instructor Josh! This is something I definitely want to learn more about.

Thanks for the gift L!

Okay, Garret, he's like the son I never had, has nominated/given me a Kreative Blogger award. As soon as I find out what that is, I'll let you know. I am apparently supposed to blog 7 random things about myself. I usually don't take direction so loosely but I'm trying to be more flexible.

Let's see...

One: I'm allergic to apples but I love them and eat one every afternoon. I don't go into anaphylactic shock from them but my throat sometimes gets dang itchy.

Two: Once in Barbados, I was bit by an iguana. They took me to a witch doctor for first aid.

Three: I have a black thumb when it comes to plants. They rarely stay alive in my presence.

Four: I have rubbed people for money.

Five: In 1976, I painted the fire hydrant in front of our house red, white and blue with the boy down the block. What the hell was his name?

Six: I have two bathrooms and for some unknown reason, one is for one and one is for two. How's that for sharing?

Seven: Contrary to what you may think, one through six are true.

Oh, oh and apparently, I am also supposed to nominate a couple of bloggers to keep the "kreative blogger" thing going!

Let's see...

Kerry, he's a pal of mine from the Men's Fall & UK Knitting Retreats and an all around good guy! He's a bad blogger like me so we have to stick together. He travels a lot for his job and just recently returned from Jakarta and actually blogged about it. He's also a freakin' amazing knitter!

And Knitting Knoobie, I don't really know her but I really like her blog. I read her regularly. She lives in NYC (my hometown). She's a great knitter and has an amazing sense of humor about her family, her knitting and her life. And she just finished the project I posted yesterday! It was meant to be!

Edit: Click on their names and visit their blogs. There's some cool stuff going on out there in the knitting universe!

This one is on the fly but i came across this Madeline Tosh pattern that I really like. I'm apparently in a cowl mode! ;-) I've got this amazing alpaca in a sport weight that I bought at the spring retreat a few years ago that would be heavenly against the neck. I only know the weight not the yardage so how do you figure out if you have enough?

Also, do you think the halo of the alpaca will denigrate the stitch definition?

And don't tell me to swatch, I know that but importantly, know how lazy I am!

Any ideas are appreciated!

Edit: Am I the only one loving this blogger app! And now with photos!

Hey all! I finally got a photo of the cowl. It's unblocked and probably never will be so I figured I'd post it before 3 months elapse. I actually love the off-centered buttonband because when I wear it, the bottom edge flares out and it doesn't creep up - bonus! I tried to get a photo of it on my neck but we're au naturale at hookedontheneedle today -- off from work, pj's, sans shave and pool/hat hair. Not a good look for blog photos!

In the comments...

Garret, I am not easily offended, be yourself! And Krystal, everyone should knit with Madeline Tosh yarn. We are going to have to get you to a fiber festival so you can fondle some amazing yarns. In the meantime, I hope you like the green skein because it's my gift to you! Let's call it ... Random Acts of Generosity day at casa IamKnitGuy! PM me your snail mail (over on Rav) and I'll send it to you but you have to promise to make something grand and post plenty of pictures!

Next up...Koolhaus in the red Cascade posted earlier! I know how to cable but I've never done a project with them. Let's see how that goes.

Question: What's your favorite baby blanket pattern? I'm looking for recommendations.