I really have to travel to blog.

I have been to several locations looking for somewhere with functional internet. I am looking forward to have a connection in my home again. grrr.

Today, red-violet is my favorite color, in as much as I have a favorite color.
Leg warmer in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock colorway Prove It All Night (and yes the name of that colorway did influence my decision to buy this yarn.)
I have two skeins, so these legwarmers will be long and take a long to knit.
The bag is a patchwork bag that I made recently. I have been sewing with intent to sell. Once the internet is back I will give etsy a spin once more, with Mark as my “business partner.”

Yesterday I sat down and taught myself to graft shut holes in knit fabric.

I have done kitchner of course but grafting has never felt intuitive. I am going to graft and graft and graft until I can do it with my eyes shut. I always make promises like that but sometimes I really do keep them.

For example, two nights ago I found myself standing on a street corner in a storm, drunk on cheap red wine, with water blowing sideways into every pocket and pore (wearing cotton no less), heading to Safeway for cigarettes. I did not complete that mission. I turned around and headed back up the hill to my house. Sometimes I do what I say I am going to do!

a memory leads to a sweater

On my recent trip to Santa Barbara I unearthed this photo from my dad’s collection. My mother, with my childhood gypsy fortune teller, circa 1969-ish.
Given that I was in my childhood home and therefore imbued with a certain visceral sense of recollection, I was deeply moved by this. It embodies a bit of the atmosphere that I grew up in. So much magic, so much possibility!

I started mulling over what kind of alchemy do I want to do in my life; it used to seem clear, and yet these days, as my level of contentment grows, I don’t feel much need to manipulate the world to suit my ends. Hmmm. What came to mind, strangely enough perhaps, was the idea (not for the first time, but with a new urgency) of making striped sweaters, seamless, rugged, country, hippie even. Is this a manifestation of some “earth magic?” I think so.
So I started this:

But today, I am working on the endless sideways knitted border of the pi shawl.

Almost done.

camera’s back!

Opal’s camera arrived today. It’s pretty messed up; I can’t change settings and it doesn’t work half the time, but hey, I can show some of my life now anyway. And start saving for a new camera, I guess.

So, projects old and new:

This is a pattern I would make again and again, the embossed leaves socks from an older IK. Obviously I didn’t make these to be socks, but rather cuffs, and it turns out they fit the ankles better than the wrists. Na ja. The yarn is dreamy, Elsbeth Lavold’s Silky Wool. Needle size 0 or 00, can’t remember (I made these a full season ago…) I want more of this yarn! At first the color didn’t sing to me, but oh! now I want knee socks with clocks in this.

This here sock has a bit of a story behind it. I made a pair of these and sent them to Norway, after losing my needles to the airlines, and then the socks themselves got lost in the post! First ever lost package, I think…
So, that put me needing to knit up a second pair smack dab in the middle of my move, which of course I didn’t do. Here I am finishing up my old commitments, however belated. I am halfway through the second sock of this pair, and should finish soon if I don’t wander off, which I have no right to do.
The pattern is my own, really made up based on a sock I saw in an IK, I think. I needed to accomodate a thicker yarn, and it really is a snap to figure these out. Chevrons in front and back, little cables up either side. Auracania yarn that I swapped BPAL for. Don’t like the shade much, but it is pleasant in this context. Poor swap partner. :( I think I will take a long break from swapping after this debacle. Not that I will have a reputation left…

And one last thing for this fine day. I purchased this rug last week from a representative of the Vida Nueva cooperative in Chiapas Mexico. All the work from spinning to dying to weaving is done by the women of this coop. They even raise their own cochineal! All natural dyes on this. I had to stretch a bit to buy this, but I will not regret it! There is an amazing anomaly in the pattern that made this my first choice of all the rugs I saw.

that is all for today. Damn it’s good to be back.

socks a plenty

hmmm. For about a week I couldn’t even bear the thought of going onto the computer. I haven’t been blogging, or reading blogs. I have barely been able to check email. Funny how that happens.
I even spent a few hours being very very quiet. My mouth may have been open, I suspect it was. All I can figure is that I have been going through an “incubation period.” I am over my splendid stupor, though, and I don’t feel awash in the next step of… whatever I should be stepping into.
Anyhow, I will make a half-hearted attempt to play catch-up.
Tonight’s post is going to be about the sock swap that consumed all my time for an unmentionable amount of hours. Last week. Sheesh.
I made these:

and well pleased I was with them, too.
They are a pomatomus variant. I didn’t carry the pattern down the foot, for purposes of speed, and I like them like this. I was thinking that this would make a wonderful hat.
I received these from my partner Rahime at Prayer For Rain:

They are a wool/bamboo blend from Trekking XXL, and a beautiful yarn. I don’t have many handknit socks, and these would be a humungous addition to my collection, but they are a tad too small. Quite upsetting it is to Rahime, and I can totally relate, so instead of giving them Alice like I thought I would, I think I will take the toes off and knit them a bit longer.
she also sent me some merino sock yarn, which thrills me ’cause I never buy that kind of yarn, so the gift is meaningful to me, for sure! I am going to try some toe-up socks with it.
I have been all about knitting patterns lately. Kind of a departure from my patternless life, but I think it is the structure I need at this time.

Okay, tomorrow (maybe) I will regale you with a bit of alchemical musing.
Til then you can check out the Helvetica Hegemony. Who knew.