The Harlot is coming! The Harlot is coming!!

She'll be here tonight at the Borders in Oak Brook on 16th Street, starting at 7:30! I'm going to go and try to be inconspicuous about holding seats for my peeps. We'll see what happens....


Also on the knitting front, I finished my first pair of toe up Duet Socks last night with the after thought heel. I went a little screwy on the shaping in the ankle area, increased too soon, but you can't tell when they're on. I also need to rip out the top two rows of the ankle and do a Picot Cast-off cause they're a little too tight even with my Super Loose Cast Off.

Magnus Kitty the Sugar-Lump-Sock-Lover (he has this thing for feet in socks and needs to make out with them) definitely approves of the new socks. That is kitty happy if I ever saw it.

Quick details: Duet Sock Yarn from www.aswellyarnshop.com
Color: Merlot
Needle: US size 1 (2.5mmm)
Pattern: The one that came with the yarn
Cast on: Knitty Magic Toe up Cast-on
Time to complete: 6 days! Roughly 7 hours of knitting for two socks in DK weight

So now, on to new projects!! I have a pair of socks OTN that I like, but I don't LOVE. I'm thinking if I pull them off the needles but I know that if I do that, I'll never finish them. Then again, I'm not so sure this is the right pattern for this yarn either. Thoughts? It's (there's a pic in this link) Meida's socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks.

Here's my dilemma.... last week I finished the Chocolate Cake socks for Hubbo and I finished them in the presence of my Dad for whom I have yet to finish any hand knitted object of love.
This does not mean I don't love him. Au contraire, he's the best Daddio a Girl could ask for. The truth is, I'm a slacker.
I promised him some socks like a year ago for Christmas and then I. Never. Delivered. BAD BAD Daughter.

So what's the Score?:
Mom 2 pair of socks.
Brother Bear: 1 labor of love sweater
Husband 2 pair of socks.
Dad: Zip. Zilch. Nil. Nada.

Better yet, when I proudly handed the completed socks to my husband he turned to my Dad and said, with a wicked little smile: "Jealous?"

So now, not ONLY do I have "Non-delivery Guilt", I now have "Dumb-dumb Husband Guilt" compounded by the "Silently Really Really Jealous Dad Guilt!!"

The problem? I've picked the pattern and the yarn for the Daddio socks but darn it, I don't WANT to do more cables right now! (Suck it up Jen) I only have one set of size 0 Addi Turbos in 24" (my needles of choice for socks in Lorna's) and I'm sick and tired of cables! BUT I have to make the socks for Dad as nice as the socks for husband. There's no dashing off a slacker stockinette pair after I clearly labored with blood, sweat and tears over my Bone Headed Darling Husband who doesn't realize how sensitive my Dad is.


And what I REALLY want to do... the socks that have been calling to me are these. They're called Oriel in the SKS book but if I do them in Lorna's Pewter then I'll have to call them Gothic Arches. Their Siren Song is calling me like no other pair of socks ever has before. Maybe my reward for finishing the Dad socks should be the Gothic Arches.....

Whaddya think? I should start the Dad socks, right? Suck it up and do the cables, Chickie? Swallow the bitter pill of Bad Daughter-dom and get on with the Repentance?

Yeah, that's what I thought. Guess what I'll be doing while I wait for the Harlot from 5:00 until 7:30 tonight?

Finally! & The Harlot Letter

And the Heavens opened up and the Angels sang a chorus of Alleluja! for Husband's Chocolate Cake Socks were finished!

I made it all the way to the toe of the second sock and realized that I'd missed an increase round immediately after the cuff.... [sigh] I didn't even blink [I'm quite proud of myself, you know], I walked over to the swift and just started reskeining the whole bloody thing right then and there.

That was two weeks ago. In the meantime, I've learned how to use the sewing machine my husband gave me for christmas 2 years ago, made a HUGE 6x8 foot banner for an idjit sketch that we had to do at work, run two Lunch& Learn Sessions with very little planning and a semi-hostile audience (it's wonderful inheriting and cleaning up someone else's mess), fertilized my garden, anti-rabbit and deered my garden and managed to start working out again. So, frankly, I think I've done quite well.

Husband loves his socks, I didn't have to rip back anything else once I got rolling for the third time. Any errors in the teeny tiny moss stitch between the cables is going to be our little secret cause I can guarantee that Husband ain't ever gonna know about it. If the sock was too small, (like 11 sts in circumference smaller than the 1st one to small), he'd know it. But little tiny moss stitch? Nope. Or that one of the cable rows is two rows longer than the 17 other cable rows.... nuh-unh.

And. We're. Not. Going. To. Tell. Him.... Are We??. I didn't think so.

Whew. So glad that's over. But they really are beautfiful and I'm embarassed to say that I can't wait to start more socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, even though it's so tiny, the fabric just comes out beautifully!

So here are the details:
Pattern: Sensational Knitted Socks - 3x3 Cable with Moss Stitch
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock - Chocolate Two balls and a stupid arse little bit of a Third for 1 pair of size 12 men's EE feet, but they go half way up his claves.
Needles: US 0, 2 mm
Time to Complete: 6 weeks for three socks with other stuff in between.

On another note, I took the following letter over to the Border's in Oak Brook along with some turnout pics from the Harlot's previous book tours just so's they'd know what they were up against.

Dear Mr. or Ms. Event Coordinator,

I just wanted to drop a friendly note to give you a heads-up about an impending book signing.

Ms. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, author of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting will be coming to your location on April 3rd, 2007.

Fondly known as the Yarn Harlot by her fans, Ms. Pearl-McPhee is a regular blogger (www.yarnharlot.ca) with over 7,000 subscribers as recorded by Bloglines.com. Often, when this author arrives for a signing, the hosting location is unfamiliar with her work and the popularity of same.

I would hate to find you caught in a bind with not enough books to sign or space set aside for Ms. Pearl-McPhee’s fans to attend and hear her speak. Last night, March 22, 2007, the Yarn Harlot spoke in New York City at The Fashion Institute of Technology in an auditorium that holds 750 people. I imagine pictures of the turn out will be up on her blog tomorrow or Saturday.

As an interested supporter and fan, I have included a few pictures of her book signings from last year’s book release in an effort to help you understand the sheer numbers of people that come to her signings.

Please feel free to contact me directly at the number listed below if you have any further questions as I would like to see this be a successful event for both Borders and the Yarn Harlot.

Sincerely,
Jen in Chicago insert real contact info here if you feel like it

The Never-Ending Socks & An Inventory Story

The Chocolate Cake Socks aren't finished yet. And I'm bored. Oh my GOD I'm SOOO BORED!

Now, don't get me wrong....they're exquisitely beautiful and I love them, but Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock for TWO, count 'em TWO, Size 12 Double-Wide men's feet is killing me. For those of you who are wondering, that's 385 little teeny-tiny cable crosses in deep. dark. brown. microscopic. yarn. at. night. I'm past the second heel turn and into the gusset and I've meticulously written down every little change I made to the pattern so that they would fit my exceptionally fussy handsome husband's feet perfectly. That means I've only got 35 more rows to go once I finish the gusset and then another 20 to finish the toe. The END IS NEAR!! But damn; I'm bored.

So, last night, to break up the boredom I opened my Personal Sock Yarn Index. PSYI for short(it's got some other stuff in it, too, but it's mostly sock yarn). I played around matching patterns to yarn and added all my new Socks That Rock acquisitions. While I was sitting there, laptop in my lap, going through my spreadsheet with it's tiny print and it's many many lines, Husband happened to look over my shoulder.

Holy Crap! What the hell is that??!! Is that your Yarn Inventory??!
No. (Cause technically it isn't)
(Puzzled pause, scanning the screen) Is it your manufaturer inventory?
No.
(with infinite patience) OK, Dear. What. Is. It?
(in my smallest voice possible) It's my sock yarn inventory. [insert manic grin & hold for 10 counts]
Sigh...
Look, I've been a lot better this year than I was at this time last year. I've spent like 8 times less.
It's March!
I KNOW!
Scroll down. (scroll, scroll... It's about 50 some lines) Oh, it's not too bad.
Yeah, most of these are just single skeins. (This was my fatal mistake)
Wait a minute. Where's the sum line?
(Shit. I tabbed over to the # of skeins column and hit the Sum button and up came the fatal number: 94)
94?! think you've got enough? don't you think you'd be better to make something with the yarn you've got than buying more?
Dude, don't even start with me. What the hell do you think I'm doing here night after night? Have you seen how many things I've finished since Christmas?? Just don't even start with me. (He can get exceptionally a tad preachy sometimes if I don't nip it in the bud )

Apparently he decided this wasn't a battle worth fighting cause he turned his head back to the TV and didn't even sigh or make a face. Let's not tell him that I still had another 8 hanks of STR in the bedroom closet that needed to be inventoried shall we....

I present my new-ish love: It's Koigu KPPPM in a lovely lemon lime color with a little peach thrown in for good measure. I want to make the Embossed Leaves Socks from the IK Winter 2005 issue. Won't they be loverly?

Also, yeah, I got my STR kit. It's OK. I'm choosing to call the colorway Rainforest rather than Monsoon, since we've already got enough dreary here in Chicago in March (as Franklin so eloquently attests to here).

Finally, I won't be in GROUP tomorrow since I've got one of my last two Operas Cosi fan Tutte so please bring your STR skeins next week, for show and tell, too!