Birthday Haul

Shock horror, mere days after the last blog post, I'm writing another one. When you get such a wonderful haul of knitterly things for your birthday you have to share, even if it means dragging yourself back to the keyboard when staying up half the night reading has left you exhausted. Since I foist my knitting obsession upon just about everyone I meet, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to get so many wonderful knitting things for the big day, but it did. All of my friend Anne's gifts to me had a knitting theme, really no surprise since I'm the one who got her hooked on sock knitting, then again, she had already got me hooked on the Harry Potter books and films, so mixing the two must've seemed the perfect idea for her. She made me socks! Harry Potter socks! And she got me a little Knitting Personal Handbook (the perfect thing since I've got so many sock ideas I wanted to work out and this has the perfect graph paper section in it), and the little tin I begged for to put my stitch markers in.



Couldn't have asked for a better set of gifts from her. Of course I had to wear the socks when we went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again the day after my birthday, it seemed too good an opportunity not to flash them off during the film. My ex-boss Neil also did pretty well with the perfect gift for a knitter idea, he got me a beautiful book on natural knitting, The Natural Knitter. There's even a sock pattern in it, one that's built up of various pieces that are knitted first, then connected together into a very sweet pair of socks. Lots of sweater patterns in it too that are pretty tempting.

When your wonderful mother gives you cash every birthday rather than having a nightmare trying to find you gifts, you can't help but considering fibre and yarn if you're a knitter. Although I forced myself to spend most of my money on non-knitting things - a new watch strap from Fossil, some fantastic lingerie, some new DVDs and CDs, I had to spend just a little on fibre. Crown Mountain Farms had so many tempting things last time I'd bought from them that I decided to head back there for more spinning supplies, some of which was going towards another pair of my Brockmann socks (Brown Eyed Girl for Gina this time, and the Thelonius pattern by Cookie A. to knit the finished yarn up into), and some towards a pair of Gibbs (NCIS's wonderful boss) socks, Silver Fox for him. This morning the post man rang the doorbell at an unearthly 7am and delivered a little cardboard box that I had to tear open as soon as I fell out of bed at nearly 10am (I wasn't the poor schmuck who hauled themselves out of bed at 7am for the parcel, I merely buried my head under the pillow). And inside ... the gorgeous Crown Mountain rovings.

Gina's Brown Eyed Girl
Gibbs' Silver Fox

Seems that every day this week the postman has bought a little treat for me (he should do considering how much post should've arrived during the strikes last week), today the roving, yesterday the wonderful Regia yarn I'd ordered to knit Cookie A.'s Clessida Socks, for Joan DaCosta's pair of socks in my Brockmann Sock Project. It's a beautiful fiery red, sports car red I'm calling it despite the fact that it's real colour name is Hot Red, and its perfect for a fiery, sophisticated Italian Woman. The actual knitting of the yarn is going to have to wait until I've got a few more of the Brockmann pairs done though. At least last night the wonderfully bright Gilligan socks were finished.



Pomatomus Socks for Dan 'Gilligan' Gillman, in White Oak Studio's TV Yarn Gilligan's Island Colourway.

Now it's just a matter of casting on for the Cosmo socks when I get home. Natural Dye Studio's Titanium BFL and the Eagle's Flight pattern. At least it gives me something to look forward to throughout four very boring hours at the library.

Restless Saturday

Despite the fact that I finally found myself the time to take photos of the socks that I cast on yesterday and the first pair I ever tried making, that I certainly intend to frog, I feel totally restless tonight. I have a feeling that little joy will disappear as soon as I get to settle down in front of tonight's NCIS double bill with the knitting, but for now it's being a real pain not being able to concentrate on anything for more than five minutes. I'm hoping it's just a reaction to having to try and fill a four hour break between shifts at work yesterday.

The four hour break did at least give me the time to get going on the next sock project - a knee high pair based on a pattern from Simply Knitting magazine. Picked two shades from Opal's 2005-2006 Uni Collection and adapted things a little to fit the size needles I prefer working with. I'm naming them Colonel's Stripes since the colours really remind me of the US Air Force uniform - a dark smoky blue and a pale blue and with Stargate always in mind, the name seemed kinda fitting. At the rate I'm knitting them they'll probably take a month to complete but I'm hoping they'll be worth it.



The sock to frog was dug out from under other half-finished projects in my knitting bag today in the quest for the other bits of my sock wool stash. It was a trainer sock started well over a year ago with some hand-dyed Opal I picked up on Ebay. Compared to the pairs I've made since the half finished-bedraggled thing sitting on the needles was a little disappointment. Figure at this point it's easier just to rip it out and turn the wool that I still really like into something a little more appealing, that is one I get the skein unknotted, it's a real mess at this point.



Disappointment certainly feels rife today. Took a look in my local Borders just hoping to see Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich. The Stephanie Plum novella had definitely been published in the US and since they usually come out at the same time here I was praying I'd see it sitting there as soon as I walked into the store. No luck though and Borders Man (the sweet guy I've spoken to dozens of times in there about getting my grubby hands on things) couldn't find any sort of UK publishing date for it. I nearly threw a hissy fit over that one, there's a new Stephanie story out there, one that probably has more than a few references to Joe Morelli and it's out of reach for me. Drat!