...and a partridge in a pear tree

So I don't just keep unfinished knitting projects around for far too long -



I also keep things like this festive brown fire hazard turned nesting bird habitat on my door.

It's nice when the week's science lesson just comes to you without any pesky lesson planning...

I Went Out By Myself

And met THE HARLOT!
You know how this whole knitting subculture has its own celebrities and I felt like such a lame-o fangirl - I have never been like this about anything before knitting - the yarn has completely entangled me and I was giddy like a 12 year old girl meeting... wow, I was going to insert the name of some teeny bopper rockstar then realized that I am so out of it that I don't know any of them - in any case, you get the idea.
She was great. Her talk was a mixture of her signature dry humor and enlightenment about the knitting culture. She was personable even after her week of sock camp and the prospect of having to talk to this whole line of knitting whack-o's bowing down before her.
And she was tolerant even of this one

who showed her the sock on the Addi Turbos where one of the needles was bent at a 90 degree angle and asked if she prayed over needles and made them well ( what a nut job).
Mainly it was fun to just get out by myself. And from the utter exhilaration I felt afterwards, I obviously need to get out more often.

Cute Thing 1

I'm plugging along on mom's linen sweater - i'm definitely not a fast large project finisher - I know a plain stockinette short sleeve tee doesn't seem that large of a project, but I am one very easily distracted person. Especially when I see teeny tiny cute things like this Baby Moc-A-Soc pattern. I just could not stop myself from immediately clicking the order button to get my download RIGHT AWAY. Though I am fairly impulsive, I have shown great restraint when it comes to all the immediate download patterns that are at my fingertips every time I get on the computer, but there was no way to resist this one.
I cast on with some Knitpicks Risata sock yarn even though the only colors I had made a kind of funky combo - and here is #1.


It was quick and #2 is on the needles - these are the cutest things ever.

A Thousand Words

You're Worth It Mom

I swatched.

Maybe if the knitting police saw this they would haul me in for trying to pass off this puny little swatch impersonator as the real thing, but this totally counts as swatching for me.
I was told swatching and washing were absolutely essential in order to believe that the linen would really soften into something wonderful and drapey - and I really needed a reason to believe after giving up on some hemp yarn which I hadn't swatched and felt in its after softening treatment. And the LYS lady (and yarn reviews) were so right - I just love how this Euroflax Linen looks and feels - I kept waving it around at my husband and saying "see how it shines - and feel this - now feel it in the hank - see how it changes? - and look how it just drapes so gracefully". So much love for my little 3 x 1 1/2" swatch.
I've once again determined to make a top for my mom - her birthday was...um...yesterday.

But I'm halfway done and its just plain stockinette and I'm going to do a couple of inches of some sort of lace at the bottom. And I really want to see a whole garment in this yarn after its been bathed and softened up. I'm sure it will then be a very difficult parting, but I've already kept one sweater intended for mom(size issues and I liked that yarn too) so this time, as difficult as it may be to part with it, I will actually give it to her. And I'll have my little swatch as a consolation prize.