Opal Rainforest II Snake Socks for MANFEET; Gifts from Mom J; Happy Blog-anniversary to Me

Opal Rainforest II Snake Socks for MANFEET


I'm back in Brooklyn, just in time for the cold that's heading our way. The airplane ride back was full of bumps, flying over all that weather-radar-green of storms and ice that coveted the mid-west. It's all heading my way.

I finished these socks while I was in Texas, just in time for the cold and my boyfriend's Ph.D. oral examination. (He takes it on Thursday; I've been trying to keep him calm, having gone through it myself back in May.) These are my second pair of MANFEET socks. Everyone seems to have a little nickname for their boyfriends/husbands/partners (the A.D.D. Knitter has her Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon and Lazuli has her Coffeeboy), so I'll start calling my boyfriend MANFEET. And, just to make it cute, every once in a while, I'll refer to him as Manly.

Leslie always does a good job of posting the specs of her finished objects. Here is my attempt:

MANFEET #2 Socks:
Yarn: Opal Rainforest II Snake (MANFEET picked this yarn out himself! How cute!)
Pattern: 68 stitches over size 1 Addis using the magicloop
Timeline: Begun on January 4 and finished on January 10


This yarn was delightful to work with. The yarn has so many subtle gradations and variations, and the socks really do look like milk snakes. Milk snakes mimic coral snakes, which are venomous. In Texas we have both milk snakes and coral snakes, so we have a saying that helps us to remember which snake will kill us: Red touch black friend of Jack, red touch yellow kill a fellow.

Gifts from Mom J

Mom J was so overwhelmingly thoughtful. (If you haven't seen her blogs yet, go visit!) For Christmas, she gave me so many gifts. I'll focus on the ones that I know you knitters will love.

Here is the beginning:


This knitting bag was full, I mean full of knitting things: stitch markers, row markers, point-protectors, a tape measure and other thoughtful things of which a knitter can never have too many.


There were also this book on knitting tams, a kaleidoscope, and Knit Picks Palette yarn for a tam project. I'm so excited to learn new techniques, and this tam project is perfect for overcoming my fears of using more than one strand of yarn at a time, combining color, and charts. The kaleidoscope is for viewing color combinations or balls of yarn to see how they'll mesh together. It's a really cool technique that's discussed in the book.

I also got these goodies:


I got sock blockers! Sock blockers! Now my socks can look extra-nice in photos and I can throw out my budget cardboard ones. The sock blockers, in case you're taken, are from this eBay vendor.


I also got two sock yarns that I've been eyeing for a long time now: Lorna's Laces in the Daffodil colorway and Claudia's Handpainted in the Red Wagon colorway.


I think the Red Wagon colorway ought to be renamed to something like Apple Picking, because when I look at the yarn, I don't see a red wagon; instead, I see so many varieties of apples--there's golden delicious, red delicious, Granny Smith, McIntosh, and the whites and cremes of the insides.

The Red Wagon is on top of a new table that Manly got me for Christmas. For a long time, we had a hideous formica-particle-wood-affair that we detested and never used. We were very glad to oust it from our apartment and kick it to the curb where some other Brooklynite gladly picked it up and took it home.

Happy Blog-anniversary to Me

I began this blog on January 13, 2006. I remember reading everyone else's knitting blogs and wanting one of my own, and here I am one year later with real readers. Thank you so much everyone who reads me--it makes me feel so less lonely of a knitter.

Opal Hundertwasser 650 Socks; Stash Enhancement; First Contest Prize; Other Things

Opal Hundertwasser 650 Socks

Here are my miracle socks, knitted in just five days! Perhaps I just loved the Opal Hundertwasser 650 so much. Perhaps I'm knitting faster. Or, perhaps, as my boyfriend says, "Maybe it's because you're not doing anything else but knitting."

These socks were made over 60 stitches on size 1 Addis, with a traditional heelflap and decreased, kitchenered toe. The cuff is my favorite 2x2 2" rib. I think self-striping yarns look best with a heelflap, and I think they also look best when they don't match. Apparently, Hundertwasser never matched his socks, so I really didn't want these socks to match.

Stash Enhancement

I had to go back to NYC for a few days, while there, the mailman left me a little package. Inside, there were six balls of sock yarn. What you're seeing are Trekking Pro Natura 1602, Opal Rainforest II Tiger, Snake, and Caterpillar, Regia in black, and Opal Hundertwasser 894. (These yarns were purchased before my yarn diet.)

First Contest Prize

Mom J and her sister Aunt P are assembling prizes for the blanket drive contest. In the meantime, I'd like to offer the first prize for the contest.

If you submit for the contest during the month of January, you'll be entered in a drawing to win Knitting for Peace: Making the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time.

Submissions must be postmarked by January 31.

For contest details, click here.

Other Things

I'm back in Texas, but I can't wait to get back to New York. Mom J got me lots of Christmas knitting goodies, and I'm anxious to get back to them. I have pictures to post soon of all the wonderful things that she got me. She really spoiled me: I got Lorna's Laces and Claudia's Handpainted and many, many other things.

I also finished a pair of socks using the Regia Bamboo that my Hot Socks swap pal Lee gave me. I'll also post pictures of those soon.

I'm enjoying Texas and its red sunsets, mesquite trees, rolling purple-green hills, and cacti. It makes me think there ought to be a sock yarn called Texas. Perhaps I'll dye one.