Yarn... Yarn... Sock!

I've been pretty disciplined about not buying new yarn since May. Since my knitting is still going rather slowly, I was planning to continue being disciplined... but then a skein of skein of Tosh Sock in the Void color way showed up at my LYS and, well... I fell. I had been on the lookout of a skein in the Onyx color way since February, but hadn't been able to locate one. Void is close enough for what I want to do with it. The problem was that there was a lone skein in the Neon Peach color way next to Void that I've eyed for the last few months. It had been a hard week so I figured if one skein of yarn was going to make me feel good, two skeins would probably make me feel better. Plus I had saved up enough "fun money" to go ahead and splurge.

Loud sock yarn, just the way I like it

Meanwhile, I've been knitting away on vanilla socks for a few months now and I'm ready for a slightly more complicated sock. I'm currently debating whether to knit Hieroglyphic Socks, Roll The Bones, or Diamondback Socks. I've got the yarn selected. The Hieroglyphic Socks would be knit with Lisa Souza's Hardtwist Petite in St. Louis Blues and Coachella; Roll the Bones would be knit with Tosh Sock in Filtered Light and Baah! La Jolla in California Poppy; Diamondback Socks would be know with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Zombie BBQ. What would each of you choose to knit first?

Left to right: St. Louis Blues, Coachella, Filtered Light, California Poppy, and Zombie BBQ 

Of course you would think that I would want to cast on with the new yarn in the stash. Sometimes I do, but often I like the new yarn to marinate a bit in the stash before I'm ready to knit with it. Does anyone else like to gaze at their new acquisitions before casting on?

Mr. Bear Ears Has Warm Hands

I'm so proud of Connor. Just last week he finished his third knitting project: a pair of fingerless mitts.

When he knit his first project, a scarf, he learned all about knit and purl. With his second project, a cowl, he got comfortable knitting in the round. With this project, Connor really stretched himself; he learned how to use the magic loop method of knitting in the round. He had to start over several times, which I didn't even know about because he was able to restart the magic loop all by himself. Connor conquered the m1L and m1R increases. He also wove in all the ends himself this time around. (I helped him out with his first two projects.) Connor used the Lambing Mitts pattern, but ultimately decided not to add the garter stitch band at the top of the hand. He felt that it would be too bulky when typing.

Although we are still experiencing summer, the mornings are cool, so Connor is already using his mitts when he drives to work in the morning. He mentioned that he felt a bit like Link from the Legend of Zelda games while wearing them.

It was a happy accident that he was wearing his Link shirt when we took the pictures of his mitts

There has been some discussion over what might occupy Connor's needles next. He likes a challenge, so it came down between socks or a sweater. Socks have won out... this time.

Putty In Your Paws

I'm sorry to disturb you, Scooter, but did you know that you have traveled 8.176 billion miles? Today marks your 14th birthday.

You have had some changes in your life. You sleep more and your hearing isn't what it used to be. Luckily your sense of smell remains the same. You still know when the chicken is out.

Dad had chicken inside and Scooter was just waiting for me to open the door so he could rush in and beg

Your poor old bones require more coddling. Luckily we are like putty in your paws, so there will always be a pillow brought out for you when we sit outside.

Happy Birthday little buddy. I'm glad that we get to be your people and you are our dog. Every year is a good year with you.

Grand Canyon Adventure

A few weeks ago I joined Connor on his business trip to Las Vegas. After last year's experience, we knew that Vegas isn't really our thing... that and the 108°F/ 42°C heat that Vegas was experiencing. This year we decide to go a few days earlier and visit the Grand Canyon. Although, the night we landed, we chose to see another Cirque de Soleil show: Ka. It was very good. We also learned that if you plan on walking to a show, it is best to get a hotel close to it. Last year we walked nearly an hour from the Luxor to the Bellagio. This year we walked 15 mins from the Excalibur to the MGM Grand.

 

 Being in the Excalibur feels like walking into a Super Nintento game... like Knights Of The Round.

The next day we rented a car and drove four hours to the Grand Canyon. Four hours is a long time, so we did have a stop in Williams Arizona and popped into a few shops before finishing our drive. It's a cute town that is along the historical Route 66.

Despite a bit of a late start from Vegas and spending some time checking in our hotel in Tusayan, we were still able to see the canyon at sunset.

 

It was a glorious 84°F/ 29°C

They say that each angle of light changes the colors of the canyon. I don't know who "they" are, but they are right.

 

If you look closely, you can see clouds from a wild fire in the top center of the image

The next day we drove out to Desert View Watchtower. Don't let the photo fool you. It was high season and there were zillions of people around. But it rained a little and everyone ran inside.

The views from the tower were phenomenal. I wish we had more time to enjoy the Grand Canyon, unfortunately we had to drive back to Las Vegas so Connor could get signed in for the conference.

We did manage to get a few patches and magnets to add to our collection. We also found a Sheriff's badge for my brother. It was a bit of a joke gift, but he had just introduced us to the game, Bang. For those not in the know, when you play, one person is the sheriff and gets to wear a sheriff's badge. All we had to do was insist that he be sheriff when we played again so that we could pin him. He likes his new badge.

Sock Life

I've been catching up on reading a bunch of blogs and I was impressed with all the socks that have been finished and blogged about recently. Angela at Pans & Needles has two pair: one pair for herself and one secret pair for her beloved's Christmas gift this year. Monica at Sweet Purls has just finished a fun purple pair of socks. And Tahnee over at Woollen Wilderness has finished not just one, but two pairs of socks in just the last month: Pixel Socks and Spring Fern Socks. And those are just the finished ones. Andi at My Sister's Knitter has a cute pair on the needles while Wei Siew at Kiwiyarns is knitting a party for her feet. (She also just finished her Southern Skies... so you should all go "ooo and ahh" it.)

I have not been as successful in the knitting arena. I had hoped to have a finished something to show off by now, but it just hasn't worked out.

What I do have is one almost finished first sock and a second sock that is almost ready for its heel to be put in. Why an "almost finished first sock" you ask. Well, I am a perfectionist, especially in the self-striping sock arena. They joke about it at knit night. Not only do I need my socks to match perfectly... apparently I have a thing about having a tiny bit of a new stripe showing up on the toe. This almost happened on my Geographer socks, but there was more than one row of the hot pink on the toe, so I let it go. But just one tiny row of orange on a sea of purple? No thank-you!

I got halfway through grafting the first sock before deciding that I was going to knit the second sock to see if the orange showed up in the exact same spot. "What if the orange shows up in the exact same spot and matches perfectly?" you wonder. Good question. I don't care if it matches perfectly. It is still the same orange problem and I'm going to remove it one way or another.

In other knitting news, I've completely abandoned Mum's cowl for now (sorry Mum) in favor of working on a wedding gift and baby shower gift. But in between that, it's all about these socks.

Camp Layman - Family Vacation Edition

Connor and I just got back from a week vacation with my family where we had no internet, phone service, or stress. I often go into great detail with my vacation posts, but so much happened, I think a highlight reel will be much better.

We stayed in one cabin together for the first part of the week, then split to two different cabins later on because Dad decided he didn't want "that much" family time. I think that was inspired by the fact that we were five people to one bathroom.

This was the cabin I stayed in during my childhood.

Much of the week was about sharing my childhood memories with Connor. Dad insisted that we go to the train museum and ride the train. No complaints from us. We got into the car that had an upper viewing area and rode around.

There is an annual boat race that takes place on the nearby river. I hadn't participated before since it had started after I had stopped coming. The idea is to house a raw egg and have it get past the rapids in one piece. Connor and I built the S.S. Shark Tank. The egg survived. We placed third.

Earlier in the week, Connor and Dad did a longer hike around the Lakes Basin area. Mum and I took a shorter route so I could paint. After we all met up and the painting was done, Connor, Mum, and I swam to the little rock you can see in the picture. Or rather, Mum and Connor swam, and I got pulled along while I floated on my back because I was still recovering from my strict diet. The water was quite cold... probably because is was a snow fed lake. Dad stayed on shore, but shouted to us that he was "getting cold" while we were swimming back.

By the end of the week, a hike to the Sierra Buttes Fire Lookout was planned. I was delighted to find that I had enough energy to join in and we made it to the top in good time. I enjoyed finding snow patches on the way up and throwing them at one of our friends. It made the hike go much faster for me. We had lunch at the top, but I chose to save a bag of M&Ms for the car. This was not to be. On the way down we passed some young parents with a child who was clearly out of energy and having a meltdown. I gave my bag away to help them out, but spent the rest of the hike mourning my lack of car M&Ms. 

Going up. The mountain we were summiting is just off picture on the left.

Before leaving town, Yeti insisted on getting an Orange Freeze from the Frostee. Who am I to deny Yeti?

You have to go to the Frosty 10 miles away to get an Orange Chocolate Chip Freeze as opposed to an Orange Freeze. Yeti wanted that during the week too.

Connor and I took a longer route back home so we could see Lake Tahoe. I hadn't seen it in (ahem) decades... and Connor had never seen it. He waded in and pronounced it "not too bad." I was impressed with how close the wildflowers were to shore. 

Per usual, we collected patches and a magnet from places we visited, which included: Donner Pass, the Feather River section of the Western Pacific Railroad, Plumas Eureka State Park which is where gold had been mined, and two patches from Lake Tahoe. One from North Lake Tahoe and one from South Lake Tahoe. I also quite liked the magnet that looked like a geological marker.

Far more things happened on our vacation. There was tubing, rounds of Ping Pong and Shuffle Board, walks to the bridge, star gazing... etc. But rather than record it all, I left my phone in the cabin and took it all in.

Kelp Forest

As a child, I remember going to the beach in winter after storms had gone through. In California, the kelp grows thick. After a storm, some of the plants would inevitably get uprooted and deposited on the beach. My Mum showed me how the little bladders of air that usually help the kelp aloft in the water could be popped just like bubble wrap. Needless to say, I'd be entertained all the way down the beach. Pop, pop, pop.

The Kelp Forest shawl is inspired by the thick forests kelp that can be found in the waters along the California Coast.The stockinette portion of the shawl is knit side to side with stitches being increased and decrease along one side to stop the "stockinette curl." Once the body of the shawl is knit, stitches along one edge are picked up for the edging. The beginning of the edging has a thin line of stockinette to form the "stem" of the kelp. Then the air bladders are knit in before reaching the thick cabled kelp leaves. The whole shawl ends with a picot bind off which accentuates the mesh background.

Two different, yet similar colors of Mithril from The Verdant Gryphon were used in order to capture the subtle look of light shimmering on the kelp below the water: Forest Clearing and Green Water Snake. Just one color can be used just as easily in this pattern.

Kelp Forest can be found on bear-ears.com, ravelry, and craftsy.