Why do I do this to myself?

Yup, I'm at it again. I started another pair of socks. Meet the Harlot Hose:


This is the yarn that I had with me when I met the Yarn Harlot. I've frogged them three times since then, attempting to find a pattern that I enjoyed. I'm not loving them, I gotta tell you. The yarn is a cotton/nylon/acrylic blend, and it's just not that easy to work with. It tends to grip my birch dpns quite well, which means that I have to work to get the stitches to move across the needles. Not loving the colorway, either. Looked a lot better in the skein. Fortunately, the pattern row is occuring at the color changes, making the stripes much more distinctive. If it wasn't for this, I would have ripped back again and tossed the yarn. Once again, I am in the middle of the first sock black hole. Well, not quite the middle, I have turned the heel...*sigh* Maybe I can get it done tonight.


On a happier note, I have advanced to Round 3 of Yarn Smackdown!! Can you even believe it? I couldn't when my opponent posted her death yesterday. I received her hat today (thank you, Tangwystel. It's beautiful). Must find out what yarn she used...and now I've got to select the yarn for my next weapon...I'm thinking purple and blues.



Oh, and in non-knitting news, I finally picked up my vase from Glassworks. I went there way back in February with a friend and did one of their walk-in workshops. The staff is really friendly and helpful, and it's so much fun. I made the small fused glass vase. All I actually did, though, was start with a square of clear glass, and glued on the black dichroic and clear iridescent glass in certain shapes. It's then left with the lovely people there, and they fuse the glass together, then lay it over a mold and "melt" the glass into a vase. It's much prettier in person, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Can't wait to take another class there.

Harlot in the big Lex-vegas

Last night, the wonderful Yarn Harlot made her appearance at Joseph Beth. The crowd was quite nice. I met a lovely knitter named Kendra from Ohio, and sat with her and the lovely ladies of ReBelle. Worked on a sock during the wait (I got there early in order to get a good seat), which had to be frogged and quickly put back on the needles as I was standing in line to get my books signed. Serves me right for trying to create my own pattern in 15 minutes and then attempt to knit it while listening, laughing, and even occassionally snorting while laughing during the Harlot's speech.

She was wonderful. Charming, witty, slightly self deprecating, but with no self-pity, and just a touch of sarcasm thrown on the side. Wonderful. The best part, though, was the looks from people walking by (which, of course, I didn't get pictures of). Inexplicable knitting activity indeed.

So, in one of those funny twists that the world is so fond of dishing up sometimes, I was reading the Harlot's blog about her NYC stop. Lo and behold, there's a picture of Holly, whom I went to college with. Proceeded to leave a comment (Holly, you knit?!), and decided to mention it to Stephanie. Turns out that she read my comment, thought it was great, and took my picture. So Cindy-Lou-Who (aka Mom) took my pic with her:


Yes, I look like poop. But I'm standing next to the great Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and I'm holding her sock and she's holding mine. I'm hoping my size 2 dpns are now blessed.


In other knitting news, I finished the first Monkey sock late Thursday night. Kitchenered the toe Saturday morning (worked nearly 15 hours on Friday, no knitting was to be done), and then started the second sock. Which I finished in time to wear the pair to the speech/signing. Told you, I have a complex about that first sock. Second one absolutely flies by...but that first one just doesn't want to get made. I need a name for this rare knitting disease. Second Sock Syndrome has such a nice ring to it...First Sock Complex just doesn't ring.

Slugging along

Second Sock Syndrome seems rampant in the knitting world. I, however, do not suffer from this syndrome. I suffer from a little known disease known as First Sock Syndrome. I keep knitting and knitting and the first sock takes forever. The second sock usually takes me less than a day to make. The first? Usually a week. For example:


This is my lovely start of the Monkey socks. I love this pattern. It's simple, yet intricate, and it highlights the yarn nicely. I love the yarn even more. It's Araucania's Ranco multy. It's wonderful. The colors are so beautiful, and it's truly a joy to knit with. I can't wait to go and buy more of this yarn in different colorways. But it's the never-ending first sock. I've worked on these things for what feels like FOREVER. And they're just not growing quickly (granted, they would get longer if I didn't stop and take the time to post about them taking forever). Grr. Perhaps I have discovered the first instance of sock-gravity inducing a knitting black hole. Perhaps time is simply warping and, in reality, it's really not been that long since I started these (which is likely the case, since I started them March 29th and it's only April 2nd. But that's 4 days!!!). Perhaps I just don't like knitting the first sock, but get excited once I have it, and then fly through the second in order to have a pair.

*sigh* Anyone else have this issue?