Weekend

Sockapalooza 4 socks are finished! These are Poseiden socks knit with J. Knits in Newburyport. I hope she likes these. I'm slightly self-conscious about my – ummm – less than perfect short row heels. When I ordered the yarn I didn't expect the color to be so bright. She said she likes pink and purple and she's gettin' it! I haven't seen too many bloggers talk about J. Knits. I lurve. The colors are gorgeous. The two pairs of socks I've made with it are so soft and comfortable. I'm definitely ordering more.


While the socks dry from their bath (I assume she doesn't want dog hair on her new socks so I gave them a thorough washing) I compiled a little package to send with them. I made a little sock band to wrap around the socks which I'm quite proud of if I do say so myself.

I knew I'd be even later than I already am with Sockapalooza if I let myself start reading THE BOOK. Yesterday I finally let myself take THE BOOK out of the Amazon box. Yep, I didn't even trust myself to open the box. So two weeks later I'm ready to join the party (it's cool to be late to parties):


You know I'm kidding about sitting on my front porch in August wearing wool socks, right? This is just for show. I finished these socks a few weeks ago. It's hot enough outside to make grown men weep. I sat inside with the A/C and with as little light as possible. It is stinkin' hot here. This is what my Sunday looked like:


Sasha on my right, admiring the beginnings of some Horcrux socks.


Betty on my left, cooling her belly (there is a fan above her).

Jackson doesn't "cuddle" in the summer. He spent the day under an A/C vent in another part of the house.

Not fog. Smoke.

I have actual knitting photos to show you - as soon as I can take them. Right now my little corner of the world is a little smoky and not conducive to photo taking. The smoke from the wildfires (over 100 miles away, mind you) came in very suddenly about an hour ago. I had all the windows open, plus the back door was open for the dogs. It is now hazy inside my house, too. I hope my finished but damp from blocking socks, mom's Mother's Day present, don't smell like a campfire.

Here's a view near me. I was going to walk to a more picturesque area of my neighborhood, but after 30 seconds of being outside my eyes were screaming, "It burns! It burns!!!"



Sasha, cooped up inside until the smoke clears, is bored after being in the house for 10 minutes. This is what I call her "summer pose": cooling her belly and in general not looking lady-like at all. I can tell from her expression that she is planning and plotting some sort of sabotage to be revealed later in the day.


Coming tomorrow (if the smoke clears): knitting! I have finished socks to show you! Plus, new WIPs and the most awesome-ist stitch markers - ever!

Hi there!

Betty here! You may not have heard about me. Apparently "middle child syndrome" applies to dog families, too. My older brother, Jackson, is considered the perfect angel around here so he gets mentioned a lot. My little sister, Sasha, is so obnoxious that it's difficult not to pay attention to her. I'm the quiet one in the middle. Good thing I'm quiet, the rare times I do bark mom tells me my bark could shatter glass. Anyway, I'm a pretty good girl, unless there are children or air-conditioning repair men around. Or cats. Or vacuum cleaners. Or those little plastic lambs people put in their yards at Christmas. I hate those - they could come to life and attack at any moment. Oh, and I can be mean and growly to Sasha but I promise you she brings it on herself. She is not a good girl like me. Sasha spends her days filling her tummy with mulch, twigs, lizards, bugs, and...

What? Mom says wrap it up nobody wants to hear how I feel about Sasha and her eating habits. She says this is a knit blog for crying out loud.

I'm really here to tell you that mom has been too lazy busy to post. And that really there's been nothing to post about (except: shout out to my sock pal!). She's lost her knitting mojo. She's spent the last two weeks...what's the term...tinking, and... something about frogs. Playing with frogs? Playing Frogger? Frogging? Ripping? Something like that. Anyway, she's not posting anything until her mojo comes back and she "adjusts her attitude".

I hope she gets her mojo back soon. She spends her free time cradling yarn when she should be petting me. Okay, anyway, that's it! Have a great weekend everybody!

XOXO,
Betty

PS: I learned how to blog from Max!

Thinking of spring

Ahhh, spring in Florida. From February through April I can breathe! Kind of. Because this is the time of year in which open windows are better than air conditioning, this morning I dusted away a handful of pollen dust in my living room. Yes, yellow dust inside the house. I brush off the pollen from my car door handle every time I drive somewhere. No matter. My eyes may be itchy but the rest of me loves this time of year in St. Petersburg. My neighborhood's jasmine is starting to bloom so when I walk the dogs the air is fragrant. My plumeria (frangipani) is starting to grow leaves. The bouganvilla is flourishing.

For spring:

Cherry Tree Hill: Life's A Beach. For Jaywalkers.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock: Daffodil. For ?? (suggestions welcome)

In progress: Hederas. In Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock: Carol Green.

Yummy soap from Megan's Goodworks of Athens, Springtime Lure (Lavendar and Lime).

Jackson loves spring but finds "springing foward" a bit difficult. He is not a morning dog.

He looks like this after 10AM.

Log Cabin Fever

Woo hoo!! I am finished making Log Cabin socks (at least until next Christmas)! I made four of these as gifts this Christmas. Although I am so, so happy to be able to move on to other patterns, I will probably make more next Christmas, as these are phenomenal house socks. Of the three I made earlier, two were made with Berroco Ultra Alpaca, and one was made with Classic Elite Wings. I used the yarn the pattern called for, Cascade Pastaza, for this final pair, a gift for my brother. He knows he's getting them; Christmas morning he unwrapped half a sock still on the dpns. Pastaza is a pain to knit with. Split yarn everywhere. But boy they are beautiful, warm, soft socks. I wish I had used it for all four socks. I will use it for more house socks in the future.

Pattern: Log Cabin socks from Handknit Holidays
Yarn: Cascade Pastaza, color 027
Needles: Clover dpns US5
Modifications: Used US5 dpns instead of US6, because although the gauge was correct on US6 the socks were huge.

I've been experimenting with different backgrounds in my knitting photos. The first one is taken on my front porch with my cuban tiles as the background. You can see the problem in this photo; turns out dogs, particularly Jackson, love Log Cabin socks.


The detail in these photos isn't very good. I wanted to get a close up of the heel. I love the cabled heel. It looks great on the foot, but since my brother wears size 12's, my feet look like they have elfin magic when I wear these. He's promised to send me a photo of him wearing the socks.

Sasha's favorite spot

My youngest dog, Sasha, has discovered how pleasant it is to sit on my front porch. The other two dogs use the front porch as a lookout station; always ready to bark and whine at whomever walks by.


But Sasha can sit on the ottoman for hours, just staring at the street. Long after I've dragged the other two dogs back inside the house, tired of their barking, she'll sit there quietly.


I'd like to think she's contemplating deep thoughts, but I suspect she's looking for squirrels. PS: black glob under her eye is a wad of dirt, acquired from her morning backyard dig. In my backyard she looks like a wild boar rooting for truffles. But on the front porch she's a sweet little girl.