Gone Fishing

My annual "fishing" trips begins today with my brothers. The five of us have been getting together for 14 years (or is this year 15?). The boys and Dad would get together and fish.

I've packed my fishing tackle knitting so I'm ready to head out. I will take my laptop and will try to post a bit while gone.

I've got some fun stuff to share. Cool stuff and great knitting progress.

I'll leave you with something funny. I remember singing this song when I was in elementary school. I heard it on the radio, made a tape of it and sang it a lot. You remember how to make a radio recording, don't you. You hold the recorder up close to the speaker? Yes, it was annoying. No, I was not an annoying child.

(now, if any of my siblings are reading this, feel free to dispute that statement!)

a few moments to reflect

on the importance of life and love.

Jason's mother passed away on June 18, 2007. She was fortunate to share her life with Jason.

Hot-lanta

I'm going to be away until Friday for an out-of-town training in Atlanta for work.

I am taking some knitting but expect to have a lot of "homework" for the training session. I don't expect to get too much knitting done, but I've got the chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts on the needles for the plane ride. I am test knitting a pattern for the evil sock knitting genuis. I'm actually enjoying testing the pattern. It's fun.

BTW, knitSB didn't know that the original movie of Hairspray
actually starred a man in the role of Edna. *sigh* (I think he was kidding me because he's going to miss me)

Exciting Artwork on view

knitSB and I went to the Oberlin College area on Saturday and saw the Allen Memorial Museum. Open to the public for free, this little gem of a museum has some amazing pieces of artwork available to be see.
knitSB was amazed to see "Landscape at Cagnes" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.


I was amazed to see Alberto Giacometti's "Figure" from 1951 and took a reality style photo of the event.

Grace Jones - I'm Not Perfect (1986)

This will answer a few questions from Monday knit knitting. songferret, here's the video.

Knittingbrow and knitSB celebrate one year

KB &knitSB anniversary 1
Originally uploaded by knittingbrow

It was one year ago on 7/7 that knittingbrow met knitSB.

I'm very happy. :)

jj reality style

jj reality style
Originally uploaded by knittingbrow

This is my reality style photo of me helping one of the kids at the library's "get your knit on" class for teens. jj had already got to learn some of the basics of knitting earlier. He was thrilled to see my sock. He just wanted to knit on them. So I let him. He enjoyed the knitting on the socks.

Cat arranged this to happen at her library. KnitMary also was there to help. She got j started (see other photo on flickr). A good time was had by all!

ROY G BIV quilt

ROY G BIV quilt
Originally uploaded by knittingbrow

I got this quilt back in 2005 for my birthday from my friend N-cubed. The title is "The Universe of ROY G BIV." I have recently hung this quilt in my new office. It is in the perfect place and makes me very happy.

Thanks N-cubed for the wonderful piece of work.

Surprise!

I've been burning through my yarn stash lately. I've made five pairs of short socks with a twisted cable out of Lamb's Pride Bulky. Using bulky yarn and size 10.5 dpns really make a fast house slipper/sock. KnitSB is happy because two of the socks are his. I'm working on my sixth and need a recipient.

KnitSB and I are doing a knit-along for the baby surplice sweater from the Vogue Knitting from Meg Swansen. She found the pattern among Elizabeth Zimmermann's notebooks and published it. It's a nice pattern. Garter stitch throughout with decreases placed at the beginning and end of every other row and strategically placed increases to create arms. I finished one in April for a new baby for someone I worked with. I didn't take a picture.

The most recent completed object is knit out of cotton yarn (from statch) using the Knit Picks options needles. The perfect point for the yarn.

I was scanning my bloglines and saw a post from Needles & Hooks about an EZ Baby Surprise Sweater. Isn't this one cute? Another nice surprise from b r o o k l y n t w e e d.

Of course, if you're really interested in all things Zimmermann, there is a blog dedicated to projects from her books. Check it out.

Simply Shetland 4 book

While I was at TNNA, I got to see some information about upcoming books.
I'm looking forward to Simply Shetland 4 because there are some wonderful men's sweaters. It is out in "fall 2007" so it could be before Christmas?

You know how hard it is to find good men's sweater patterns that are interesting to knit? It's hard people! I'm going to need to write my own patterns. *wouldn't it be cool to actually get something published on knitty? It has to be better than most of the items from this issue.

Speaking of patterns, Kent left a comment and asked if I have a favorite sock pattern.
No, I don't have a favorite pattern. I haven't been able to get a sock that doesn't bunch on the top of my foot around the ankle. I do like toe-up sock patterns because I can be certain not to run out of yarn if I have two skeins. Yarmando has a nice pattern that he's working on frequently. (check out the sidebar). Do you have any suggestions?

Since you're reading this, did you answer my sock questionnaire? Please do! Spread the news, I'm looking for information.

Really Good Service

I am always on the look out for places that provide really good customer service.
Always. I have spent the last 17 years of my career training and developing service skills of people.

Common courtesy goes a long way. You know those three "magic words" when used with sincerity are really magic! We can all tell when someone really means it when they say "Thank you."

I've also found it helpful to be nice to people and expect to be given really great service. Not only does it result in good service but it also startles most people. (an added bonus! *grin*)

Go to Red Bird Knits if you want to get good service. Polite, speedy service and fast delivery have been consistently experienced.

Psst! She's opened up the sock of the month club again. Go there now and sign up!

streaming music

I'm not sure how I got this website address but I have listened to the streaming audio a few times and rather enjoy it. DigitalGunfire.com Recommended if you like Industrial type of music.

If not, simply click here to be taken to a safer place where you can decide what you want to listen to (Pandora)

ArtYarns Sock Fiber? Did you know?

I was visiting a LYS last Wednesday as one does when one has the afternoon free. I like to visit shops during the day because they tend to be quiter than on the weekend.

I didn't know that ArtYarns has yarn specifically for socks? Nice colors and it feels good.

I actually went to the Yarn Shop because I wanted to search for a spindle. They had only three left (none are worth mentioning). Yarn Zombie's picture of her spindle made me want to go and find one for me. *sigh* I have two top whorl spindles and would like a bottom whorl to try it.

Hmmm, I kinda want to spin but don't want to make the time to try it. *oh my* Any suggestions on where to go and get some motivation?

HFeet Jo Handoff

HFeet Jo Handoff
Originally uploaded by knittingbrow

A week ago, I got a call from Trix asking me "why aren't you here?" She was visiting my sister and her husband and was spending the night. Well, Trix was there, my sister and her husband were there, my other sister and her two kids and another two nieces. That's a long winded way of saying that an impromptu family gathering was happening without me and knitSB.

So, a slight change of plans for the weekend and we were able to drive the two hours to spend the night at Jo's. A fun time was had by all and lots of laughter happened. I mean lots. We were up until 3:00 a.m.!

I cast on some quick knits socks Friday as songferret, knitSB and I went to comfest to fulfill my obligation to go for the first time. I can knit and walk around hippies while there is still light, right? Yes.

I had the cuff done when I showed up at Jo's on Saturday afternoon about 2. I continued to knit these while chatting. We got on the topic of christmas and that paula wants me to knit her socks for christmas. I have no details of who I will have for christmas. (there are a lot of kids in my family so we pick names). I thought it would be fun to knit socks for Jo who was going to see Paula the following weekend and taunt her with the socks.

Well, I completed the first one just after dinner and cast on the second. I got them done and handed them off to Jo. Can you tell how thrilled she is? I like that smile!

Anyhow, these are knit using size 10 dpns and lambs pride bulky in a variety of colors. It is a simple, basic pattern from a former LYS used during my "learn to knit socks" class. I've altered the pattern using a twisted rib ribbing stitch throughout. I did the star toe to finish.

You can go to my flickr to see some additional photos of the sock and the sock hand-off.

This pair of socks is my fifth pair of these in about a month. I like these because of the quick nature and my comfort with the pattern. I almost don't need to pattern. I'll add a few pictures of the other colorful socks later this week.