The latest Rockin’ Sock Club shipment.  The colorway is “Garden Daze”, and I really like it – I see green and yellow peppers, eggplant, tomatoes… The pattern is very cute – simple, but attractive.

I’ll admit, though, that I’m confused by the sticker.  Anyone want to clue me in?  I’m assuming if I kept up with the STR group on Rav I’d probably know, but I don’t, so I’m baffled.

OK, you ready? Really, go pee. I’m not kidding.

So, one of my goals on the cruise was to finally finish what I have been referring to as the Neverending Socks of Guilt. I started these for Kris last March. No, LAST March. As in 2007.

That’s right, these incredibly basic, toe-up socks took me over a year to finish. Why? No clue. I think I was just bored with them. I was to the gussets when Steph and I boarded the plane, and i had turned one heel by the time we got to Atlanta. I was officially on the cuffs when we got to Seattle, and from there it was just a case of getting them to a good length. That’s Knit Picks Memories in “Cape Cod”, the socks are based on Diamante from knitty.com, just without the patterning.

And if you are wondering, the guilt over these socks languishing was such that since I started them and until they were done, I’ve completed exactly two pair of socks, both Red Dwarf socks – one pair for me, and one for my SP 42MainSt.

Since then, however…

Meet the first-ever completed pair of socks in Emma‘s brand new Ramen Sock Yarn!

I started these on the cruise, since she was so lovely as to give me the yarn to test for her before we left, and EVERYONE was asking about them. I got lots of “Is that Noro Sock?” and the unanimous response when I told them it was Dragonfibers was “Is it available and if not when will it be?” Guess that answered her question as to whether people would like it, eh? (And she told me the other day that there should be some available soon. Like possibly today.) ETA: and to answer Zanti’s question, yes, it is noticeably softer than the Noro Sock.

The pattern is RPM from knitty, modified to be done toe-up (of course). I worked from both ends at the same time, so they striped totally differently. I love it! They also have my new favorite heel – the hybrid heel that Chrissy Gardiner taught in our toe-up heel class. It’s a toe-up heel flap with NO pickups! Perfect!

You can see from the end of the leftovers why I dubbed them Ramen Socks. Unfortunately for Emma, it sort of stuck, so I think she’s going to use it. Sorry about that, hon!

And now, I’ve started yet ANOTHER pair of socks – toe-up somethings (haven’t decided for sure yet, although I have an idea I may play with). This time, it’s in the C*Eye*Ber Fiber that we got in our goody bags – mine is “Aurora Borealis”. And yes, just like all the cool kids, I pounced on Illiane’s Emergency Knitting bags and got mine in the first wave. And she promises there will be more, even though she’s sold out at the moment. If you waited, you even get color options, because she’s adding blue and green to the line.

And now, the first yarn pr0n for this week (Thought I’d never get to that, didn’t you?)

What is that? Well, there was a minor miracle on the ship. Courtesy of a lesson from Sobeknofret, I can now use a drop spindle!!!

Malabrigo Lace, eat your heart out! Ok, maybe not quite, but I’m loving it anyway. That’s some Gale’s Art roving I picked up at MDS&W in “Sapphire”. Beautiful stuff, spins like a dream, as does the purpleheart Turkish drop spindle I also got at MDS&W. I’m kind of in love with it. I’ve even been spinning in public with it!

In celebration of my new-found capability with a drop spindle, I ordered myself a Bunny Spindle Bag from Julip Bags on Etsy. Isn’t it awesome? There is a vertical pocket inside that holds the spindle (whorl-up), and there is a TON of space for fiber, plus a nice long carrying strap.

Since I was doing so well with the spindle, Emma let me take a ride on Daniel when we got back to Seattle. Daniel is a double-treadle Louet Lendrum (Sorry Daniel!), and I’ve been considering getting a kit to convert Elphaba (my Ashford Traditional now has a name, by the way. Only took me two-plus years…), but didn’t want to do it without trying a DT first. About three seconds after I started, I looked at Emma and said, “I am so ordering the kit as soon as I get home.”

And I did!

(It’s installed and working, just not finished yet.) How well is it working?

Pretty well, I’d say! That’s some BFL I got from Emma a while back. Looooooove it.

It’s even, well, even! (OK, mostly…) I’m almost halfway through the first 4 oz. braid. Once I finish it, I’ll do the other 4 oz. on a separate bobbin and then ply them. I’m not sure what weight I’ll end up with, but I’m very happy with how it is working out so far.

When I ordered the spindle bag, I also got myself one of Amby‘s Everything-But-the-Knitting sock bag kits. (Amby = Julip Bags. I didn’t realize that until she commented in a blog post this week about adding totes to her Etsy shop, and I clicked to see what they were.)

And she’s not kidding – do you see all that stuff? It comes WITH the bag! There is a little pocket on the inside to hold the oh-crap-I-dropped-a-stitch crochet hook, plus the tin with the measuring tape, darning needle, scissors, stitch markers, and folding scissors, plus there is a detatchable wrist strap. The bag is gorgeous, and beautifully made, and the extras just make it that much more fabulous. Go see her – she’s also got some awesome knitting totes that I would probably have snagged if they had been available when I ordered.

So, since the Aurora Borealis socks are my “Emergency Knitting”, what’s going in the new bag? (Warning, look away now if you are a member of the Rockin’ Sock Club and haven’t seen the latest shipment yet.)

This:

I think this is the first time that I’ve been so enamored of the yarn AND pattern in a RSC kit that I wanted to wind it and cast on immediately. Can you blame me?

Look at all those purples! So rich and fabulous…

And the pattern is gorgeous too – it’s called “Cleopatra’s Stockings’ by Yarnissima. I think you’ll be seeing more of this very soon.

See, I told you it was going to be a long one! So, I think I’m caught up, other than the trip recap, which IS coming, I promise. I’ll see you Monday, maybe with some more handspun!

Yup – I finished the SP project, and I started Charlotte’s Web V2.0. You know what this means? ACTUAL WIP Wednesday posts! Aren’t you excited? I did tweak the pattern slightly – the original calls for 2 repeats of the pattern in each color, with 2 repeats alternating the colors in between. (So, 16 rows of color A, then 16 of 2 rows A, 2 rows B, then 16 rows of color B… etc.) I decided that I want this to be a nice big shawl, so I’m doing 4 repeats of each single-color section, and 2 repeats of the crossover sections. This will add 5 repeats to the shawl – it should be about half-ish again as big as if I had followed the pattern. I’m also going to do something fun with the edging, although I’m going to think more about that later.I was playing after I wound my yarn, and I took a picture of all five colors lined up in order. Front to back, that’s Peaseblossom, Titania, Fire on the Mountain, Firebird, and Knitty Rocks.

This is my favorite shot, though. I think Cristi will approve of its pr0nnyness.

ETA: Oh, yeah. And I don’t know what the hell happened to my blogroll. It used to be over there <— nice and neat, right below the Knitty and Ravelry buttons, and all of a sudden, it went poof. I’ve tried everything i can think of, including re-tagging all of my blogs and re-building the code for it. If anyone has a brilliant suggestion (I use Google Reader), I’m listening. Oh, and if you click on the “Save as OPML” link over there? Yeah. You get the whole list. So I KNOW they are there.Gah.

In other news, I promised pictures of the RAK that Ali sent me, and I finally have one for you.
As you can see, the woman went crazy sending goodies to me! There is a pair of candles in “Asian Musk”, which smells absolutely lovely, a box of Hazelnut Praline Godiva biscuit, a Godiva chocolate bar (72% EXTRA Dark with Almonds – woman knows me well!), a pair of Swarovski sheep magnets, which are too cute to be believed, a bar of Coconut soap (yummy!), a magnet that says “Ever notice how ‘What the hell’ is always the right decision?”, and two hanks of Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton, in pale blue and a raspberry pink.

Thank you, Ali!!! You are too sweet, and I meant what I said about hoping to meet you one of these days! I owe you a huge hug for this!!

In other mail news, Mary, Mary had a little destashing goodie bag giveaway a couple of weeks ago. I joked with her that I thought about throwing my hat in the ring, but thought that I had plenty already. She told me to go for it, and tempted me with sari silk. Being the strong-willed type that I am, I completely caved. *blush* This arrived the other day:
The aforementioned sari silk (10 hanks!) and a cloud of undyed mohair, which she thought would make a nifty throw dyed to coordinate with the sari silk and alternating the two. I am seriously considering that idea. Thank you Mary!!!

Finally, yesterday’s mail brought me the last package from the BMFA Rockin’ Sock Club 2006.
On the left, the December yarn – STR Lightweight in “Mustang Sally” – and on the right, my bonus skein for doing the full-year club – a hank of mediumweight “Rare Gems”, what they call mistakes that they overdye to come up with something unique. I got a perfect skein for me – lots of greens with some blues and golds mixed in. I’ve really enjoyed the club, and I’m looking forward to next year!

And I realized something today. Tomorrow is my two-year blogiversary. I started out over on LiveJournal on Dec. 18 2004, and moved to Blogger on October 10, 2005 so that I could play with the layout and stuff a bit more. (And no, I didn’t move the first couple of posts over from LJ. They were completely lame.). It seems weird that I’ve been doing this for 2 years already!

I was happy, they were going well, and I had made some significant progress. I decided to try them on to see how they looked. And that would be when I discovered a small problem. As in, they were too small. I could get them over my heel, but just barely. I let them sit all day while I consternated – to frog, or not to frog. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was never going to be happy with them not fitting, so I should really frog them and restart.

Before I pulled the needles out, I took a quick measure of my socks. (Yeah, yeah, I know. If I had done a gauge swatch…) Anyway, they should have been 4″ across the stitches on one circ needle. Mine? 3.75″. WHAT? I was actually getting a SMALLER gauge? That never happens to me – I always have to size down! I think part of it may have been that the yarn is smaller, but I’m not totally sure.

So, I ribbitted my way through it last night while hubby and I watched Pirates of the Carribbean, and as of last night, I was here———————>
Slightly less thrilling, but oh well. I debated changing needle sizes, but I liked the fabric I was getting, so I stuck with the US1′s and opted to cast on 84 stitches instead of 76. Hopefully, I’ll get caught back up again soon. I also decided that I was going to skip that weird arrangement of stitches and just have needles 1 and 2 on the first circ, and 3 and 4 on the second. The heel isn’t going to be an issue if it is over needles 1 and 2 instead of 1 and 4.

In other news, we had a great weekend. Friday, my 7-months-pregnant cousin, her husband, and their 6-year-old son had come in to town, so we met with them and walked around DC and then had dinner. It was great – we don’t usually see them except at the holidays, so it was really awesome to just hang out for a while. Plus – really good dinner. We went to the Capitol Grille, and I had the most amazing steak – a filet mignon crusted with Kona coffee and topped with shallot butter. Yum.

Sunday afternoon, Jen and I decided to hop on the Metro and head up to Woolwinders, since we had not been there yet and they were having a St. Patrick’s Day sale (15% off any yarn or kit with any green or orange in it). It is a really great shop – very friendly owner and staff, and a great selection, including some stuff I had not seen before. Oh, and did I mention that they offered us some wine while we were shopping? =)

Thursday night, while Kris was introducing Jen to the joys of DDO, I had tried to use my Wool in the Woods Capri to start a Serena wrap, as planned. Unfortunately, the yarn and the pattern were just not working together. So, I was hoping to find something at Woolwinders that might word instead. That would be when I stumbled on the Schaefer Laurel. 100% Pima Cotton, in the most amazing colors. I am always drawn by interesting color names, so I took a look at the tag on one of the hanks.
These were part of Schaefer’s Color Concepts “Memorable Women” line. On the left in the picture is “Emily Dickinson”, a gorgeous combination of rose pink, sagey-olive-khaki green, and apricot orange. On the right is “Helen Hayes” – purple, blue, and sea green. Each of those are going to become Serena wraps. In fact, the Helen Hayes one was started last night. It’s a little hard to see the stitch pattern in that picture, but it is working up beautifully.

The center 3 hanks, I simply could not leave there. They are a vibrant combination of ruby red, bright orange, yellow, and emerald green (It reminds me a little of a parrot, actually). The name? “Judy Garland”. Seriously, do you remember the pictures of the cone of green Cascade? I’m a Wizard of Oz fan – no way could I not pick up yarn named for Dorothy herself! Plus, it is seriously gorgeous and is going to make an amazing summer top of some sort. As soon as I pick a pattern. =)

Some gratuitous yarn pr0n. Closeups of each of the colors of Laurel.
Judy Garland

Helen Hayes – first lady of the American Theatre. (Seriously, I can’t hear her name without immediately adding that in my mind)

Emily Dickinson

Sunday evening, we went into the DuPont Circle area so that I could deliver the Touch Me scarves to Hillary and Rick. We had dinner and then hung out with Hillary, Carl, Rick, Dave, and James at a bar called Halo. (Hillary wore her scarf the entire evening. Hee!) Halo makes the most amazing mojitos, including flavored ones like raspberry, blueberry, and pineapple (they also make a strawberry, but none of us tried that one). Rick made me a mix cd as a thank-you for the scarf, and it is fantastic. He and I only met a couple of weeks ago, but he either has musical-taste-ESP, or we have VERY similar tastes. Every song on there was either one I knew and liked, or a new one that I now love. And I have decided that I need to find the entire cd of a group called Pink Martini – they are amazing!

And my mail man brought me something special yesterday. Unfortunately, not the KnitPicks order I’ve been waiting on (grr… I’ll be calling on that if it isn’t here in another day or two), but my first Socks That Rock Rockin’ Sock Club package! That is the notebook for the patterns (with the Cedar Creek Socks pattern inside), a button, a hank of “Rainforest Jasper”, which is quite lovely, a mini hank of “emergency sock yarn” in the same color, and a bumper sticker. A very cute package, and I can’t wait to see this stuff worked up. It’s a gorgeous combination of colors. Plus, now that I have my grubby little hands on it, I can see why it is so loved. It has a wonderful “sproingyness” to it, sort of like Koigu, but it is still quite soft. And I am trying very very hard not to go order some of the “Ruby Slippers” color (see above re: “Wizard of Oz”). There is also an “Emerald City” color, but I haven’t been able to find it. That is probably a good thing, because I reeeeeally don’t need to order any more sock yarn anytime soon.