All DPNs, All The Time

It could be due to last week's prolonged exposure to all things sock, but I just noticed that I have three projects going at the same time, and they are all on DPNs:

Here's a sock (knee high) that I somehow managed not to finish at Sock Summit.  No idea what I must have been doing with my time.  Call me unsophisticated, but I really love a stockinette sock.  There is no better way to really see what yarn is like than to make a nice smooth tube out of it:

And here's my mom's 78th birthday sock.  It's my first-ever cable-and-lace sock attempt.  The pattern is called Clover, and it's really fun to make!  Among Clover's many charms is the fact that I didn't design it.  Sometimes following a pattern that somebody else has already perfected can be like going on vacation.  This is a particularly guilty pleasure because other people's sock patterns are definitely NOT on my book writing production schedule.  But how often is your mom going to turn 78?  We are not savages here, after all:

And finally, I'm pleased to tell you that I get to teach a class about mittens at Seattle's Nordic Heritage Museum, the first weekend of November.  I'm making something special for them that I really love.  Sneak Peek:

But this is the best part.  I sat next to Teri Shea at the Sock Summit opening ceremonies.  In between snacks and speakers, she graciously showed me how to properly gusset a Selbu mitten thumb.  I've been working slot-style thumbs on all my Selbuvotter, partly because I thought the technique would be too hard to teach (totally not true) and partly because I thought it would be too hard to learn (also a complete delusion):

Hard to get knitting sexier than that.  And it's completely anatomically correct, unlike a thumb slot.  Sorry thumb slots: Working you has been a really useful hack, but now that I know how the pros do it, I'm afraid you're dead to me.  You'll always have a place in my knitting.  It's just at the bottom of the basket now. 

And Ms. Shea, if you're listening, I'm converted:  Your work here is done.  I'm one step closer to becoming you when I grow up.

So all my knitting is pointy today.  The coffee table, and the arms of my knitting chair, and my lap, are hedgehoggy with DPNs.  Nice work, if you can get it.
 

Peachy

One of July's design (over) commitments is a piece for the new 60 More Quick Baby Knits , coming out next year.  True to form when working with Vogue, the design changed radically from what I initially envisioned.  Most notably, in the color.  I pitched stripes, they came back with solid.  Cantaloupe solid, no less.  I begged to add just one more color.  They said okay, but it has to be more of the same: Coral.  Done, said I, feeling like I had reclaimed a bit of lost intellectual ground.

And you know what?  It's not bad:

This is all I can show you, but I think you'll like it when the book comes out. 

And let's face it:  You can put just about anything on a baby (they have trouble getting away) and it will look adorable: "Aaawwwww...look at the widdle crumpled lettuce wrapper dress! Soooo cuuuute!"

The book goes (mercifully) to a different burner this week, while I cover myself in socks.  That's right:  We're at T-3 days to Sock Summit, which here in Portland, translates to the stoppage of all other meaningful activity, if you play with string.  And that's pretty much everybody (everybody interesting, anyway).  All the knitters ask each other the same questions: What are you taking?  What are you teaching?  Are you READY?  Here are my answers:  Estonian socks with Nancy Bush, Knitted Tessellations with Franklin Habit, Kilt Hose, Stranded Colorwork for Socks, Yes, and No. 

I am beginning to feel that this is the July that went on until February.  I have so many things to do that time has begun to stand still; like when they shoot the bullets in slow motion at Keanu Reeves in the Matrix.  They're not really hitting him, but they're sure coming close.

I can't complain though.  How many people get to say that their job this week is to celebrate the handknit sock with a few thousand like-minded geniuses?

Love. My. Job.

Soldiering On

Here are the skeins for my sweater du jour, which was due last week.  Aren't they beautiful?  I love how full of promise they seem, reporting for duty like that.  I took this picture before starting the sweater, but I think I'll actually be finishing it today.  Then I'll write its pattern, and finish up the last of the work that was due on the first of this month.  It's my first missed deadline, and I feel pretty disappointed about it.  On the positive side, I'm really only about a week behind, so it could have been worse.

July always hits me like a ton of bricks - I have no idea where the first part of summer went.  It's weird at this latitude:  we don't have any summer weather until vacation is half over, so it kind of sneaks up on us.  But the weather is finally beautiful, and we are free to go outside, and stretch our leaves to the sun.  I'm thinking of knitting outside for a while, though what I really feel like doing is spinning.  Maybe I'll offer that to myself as a reward for finishing the missed deadline stuff.

Enjoy your weekend, Gentle Readers.  See you on the other side.