Hello Knitty

Someone in this house is spoiled.

It might be me.

Thanks for the needle set Mom! You’re the best!

It arrived this afternoon while Andy and I were knitting and watching the first Harry Potter movie. I’m on vacation this week so a lot of that sort of behavior will be going on.

I’ve been very admiring of browns lately, so I started in on these:

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in Terra Firma, the Charade sock pattern, and size 1 1/2 needles.

I need to go. Someone seems to think the only reason I’m not working this week is so I can rub his ears.

The family and I went camping again this past weekend. We were joined by an extra special guest on Friday:

It’s a little hard to see, but that’s a moose.

She was just hanging out in the water, eating vegetation. I saw another moose on Saturday, but I was in a canoe so no camera. The husband and I went for a walk after dinner on Saturday, and saw two spotted owls! If you live in the Northwest you probably know about the controversy with these birds, where they’ve became endangered due to their habitat being destroyed by logging. So seeing two in the wild was pretty exciting stuff.

The best thing, by far, about camping is the amount of knitting that gets done. I finished my Vinnland socks, which are now my brother’s Vinnland socks.

I made him a deal – he could have the socks as long as he modeled them for me.

For the most part I’m happy with them. The design is gorgeous, but the yarn pooled. I might make them again sometime for myself in a different color.

I tried a modified version of the Russian bind off, which is stretchy to the max. Maybe even a little too stretchy, but way better than the bind off I was using.

Another great part of camping is the food. Here’s Sunday’s breakfast:

Bacon, hashbrowns, and pancakes with wild strawberries, all prepared over the campfire. No picture, but we also picked about 1 1/2 quarts of huckleberries.

Even my parent’s dogs had a good time.

Why yes, they are spoiled. Why do you ask?

The first of the Vinnland socks are finished!

I modified the pattern quite heavily. The toe, heel and cuff are all things I made up along the way, and I chose to not continue the design onto the back of the socks.

These are the first socks I’ve made with a design on them, and I’m not won over. They look nice, but I prefer color over pattern. But a change is nice every once and a while, and these are beautiful.

I’m not 100% sure I’m going to work on the second sock right away. Below is a picture of one needle I used for this sock (a size 2, on top), and one I’ve used for my last couple pairs (a size 1.5, on bottom):

The Brittany needles are just short enough that they make my hands cramp, and the ends poke into the bottom of my palm. And since I seem to have turned into a sock knitter I think I need to invest in a set of double pointed needles, like these from Knit Picks.

I’m not going to order them anytime soon since I have many more skeins of yarn that call for the 1.5′s, but since I’m a good little knitter I have a feeling I’ll probably start on the other Vinnland sock this week. Heaven forbid I have an unfinished object hanging around.

You might notice some changes to the site. It’s all purty and stuff now. Or at least it would be purty if WordPress wasn’t broken and my new header was working.

This week has been a good week. My Vinnland socks are coming along quite well:

I’ve gotten to see my dear friends Zach and Miranda twice, and I’ve eaten sushi three times!

Mmmm. All three times I had the same thing: a Spider Roll and a Tempura Shrimp Roll. A Spider Roll is soft shell crab.

Hopefully now you can see the design. Do you think a boy would like these socks?

The nerve of some kitties.

There I was, knitting my sock on the couch, when a certain k-i-t-t-y decides my hands would be better used for cuddles. And to further prove his point, crunch.

Jokes on you, cat. I had five other size 2 double pointed needles waiting in the wings.

I’m just starting on the Vinnland sock pattern from The Anti-Craft, using BMFA Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Lucky (the March offering for the Rockin’ Socks Club). No, I’m not a member, I bought it off someone on Ravelry.

Since the sock isn’t much to look at I thought I’d do this Flickr mem that’s been floating around:

The rules:
A. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
B. Using only the first page, pick an image.
C. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:
1. What is your first name? Emily, but I go by Kate, a shortened version of my middle name, Katherine
2. What is your favorite food? Sushi
3. What high school did you go to? Sandpoint
4. What is your favorite color? Purple
5. Who is your celebrity crush? David Tennant
6. Favorite drink? Green Apple Iced Tea
7. Dream vacation? Scottish Highlands
8. Favorite dessert? Cinnamon Rolls
9. What you wanted to be when you grow up? Read all the books in the world – I wanted to do a lot of things growing up, but reading all the books in the world was the first thing I remember wanting to do
10. What do you love most in life? Family
11. One Word to describe you? Content
12. Your flickr name? hello-knitty