Had a crank-tastic weekend! On Friday night, with Sandy making her way up the Atlantic, I decided to drive to Florida's east coast. Elaine and Dennis (two other, Florida crankers) and I had decided to get together for this weekend. We all drove up to Elaine, who lives farther than I thought...north of Daytona Beach and a good 3.5 hour drive! I left work early on Friday and tried to drive the majority of the trip in daylight. When it got dark and I still wasn't there and it started to rain and I realized the guy at the oil change place wasn't lying to me when he said "you really need new wipers", I was not a happy camper!

Arrived safe and sound and got up bright and early. Now when you go to one of these things, there's no such thing as packing light. The machine alone in its case is the max you can get on a plane. Then there's the accessories that weight about 20 pounds more (another case), then there's yarn (another bag), then there's the work table (giant, cumbersome, foldable thing) and in proper society ... then there's a change of clothes, deodorant and a hostess gift. Living in Florida, I threw a short sleeve shirt, shorts and a pair of sandals in the yarn bag and headed out the door. It was freezing when I got up for coffee at 8:30AM. The storm had really cooled things down. I was sure happy to see Target right next door to the Dunkin' Donuts because I knew a hoodie was in my future! It's so comphy, I put the air down a few degrees and wore it all day! I hear the judgment but when you live on the surface of the sun, you have to take what you can get, when you can get it, however you can get it!

Anyway, we had a great day! We shared ideas, talked about techniques, taught Dennis how to make heels, totally failed with Elaine trying to produce fair isle on the machine, had lunch and for me, simply enjoyed being with other people who enjoy working with these machines.

I learned that I needed a handle on my latch tool and a much bigger screwdriver for my yarn carrier. Some polymer clay and a trip to Lowe's today and both were accomplished. I fashioned the clay to the handle and had to bake it in the oven.



CRAFT STORE INTERACTION:

Me: How does this work?

Craft Store Employee: You shape the clay, stick your metal tool inside it and just bake it in the oven.

Me: But will the metal part melt in the oven?

Craft Store Employee: No, you have to bake it at 200 degrees.

Me: 200 degrees sound hot to me.

Craft Store Employee: Your tool is made out of steel.

Me: (Before I could stop myself) So steel doesn't melt.

Craft Store Employee: (with just the right amount of sarcasm) Not at 200 degrees.

Me: Fine, I'll take it.

Craft Store Employee: What color do you want?

Me: Ooh, really? colors?

Craft Store Employee: (dripping with sarcasm as he walked away) Have a nice day!

Me: (in my head) What? No can I assist you with anything else?


Both tools came in very handy today! The ribber worked great for the leg!



But after I finished the heel and worked down the leg, I had a perfect latch tool scenario waiting for me inside the cylinder.



This is usually the end of the line for me, a definite start over but with the new handle on my latch tool, I was able to fix the problem in no time plus the instruction from Elaine! Thanks Elaine!!



For those of you who may use a CSM and read my blog...I made this sock with Jenny Deters Wrap Heel. If you're using the "1 UP 2 DOWN" heel, try this wrapped heel. Look at that decrease line...no holes at all!

I love the fully ribbed leg but I'm still not sold on the 1x1 rib, there's definitely a 3x1 rib in my future.

That's a wrap! Get it? yeah, yeah, they ain't all golden. :-)

For those of you actually in the path of Sandy, stay safe!

Laura's Post

My cousin Laura got an iPhone and has miraculously found interest in my blog with the aid of this new technology. A tap on her phone's desktop vs putting my URL in her computer's favorites and visiting every now and then is apparently supremely easier! So after what, 6 years of blogging and increasing my readership by one, she's harassing me if she doesn't get a weekly update. "Do you know you haven't posted since 9/11?" Keen detection Ms. Marple, I'll get right on that. I love her to death, she's my best friend but I think it was easier to force her to visit periodically when I posted something significant.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I took a trip to Sarasota for a little R&R. Lovely trip ... beach, eat sleep...repeat. One of the highlights of the trip was a little jaunt to the local yarn shop...A Good Yarn. Nice location, great selection of yarn, amazing customer service and not once did anyone give me the "why is this guy in the store?" vibe. I've posted about them before but in their new location, I enjoyed it even more!

If you remember, when I lived in Bonita Springs, I would occasionally shop at one of the LYS in Naples if I needed a needle or something specific. There was an elderly woman whose daughter regularly dropped her off at the store like it was a senior center and every time I walked into the store she'd SCREAM, "there's a man in the store, there's a man in the store!" She'd clutch her purse and stare at me until I left. The owner shouted at her once, "We know him, stop screaming, he knits and better one than you do!" The other patrons would all look at me with that blank stare, "isn't that cute" and inquisitively wonder what was wrong with me or what happened to me that forced me to turn to knitting instead of meth like any other normal guy facing adversity in his life. I was self-conscious the first time and subsequently, always annoyed.

This trip was needless to say, refreshing! I was so genuinely welcomed as just another knitter and even invited to join them at the table! In knit-speak that means you're on the A list! With a skip in my step, a little stash enhancement was in order.


Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock - loved the boldness of this and can't wait to see the color repeat!

Mad Tosh Merino Light - this color is spectacular IRL, iPhone can't do it justice.

because I couldn't decide between the red/grey vs. this green/gold!

TriCoterie - not from the shop but Vicki's Destash. She's having dental work, I had to help, I'm a good friend. 
I also picked up a lovely, deep red sport weight, Scrumptious by Fyberspates. I know, you're thinking sport weight not sock weight? Yes, sport weight! Contrary to all appearances, I do still hand knit as well as CSM. That big holiday with the guy in the red suit is coming and apparently, I'm supposed to finish projects and give them to people I love on the guy in the red suit holiday.

Like that's gonna happen. Did we just meet? And that's knitting content!

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!