I promise hereby that I (aka knitterati) will start my Christmas knitting in July.  I swear it.

Wow!  Spent the better part of Sunday in a Felfs class with Cat Bordhi.  If she is teaching a class anywhere on the continent where  you live, you should attend.  Well worth however long the trip is to get to the class.   I am going to my 3rd Island retreat at the end of March and I am so looking forward to it.  For now, it is late and I still have to unpack my bags.  Too much driving and not enough knitting today (actuallyI mean on Sunday).  Later!

I know it has been a long time, but check this out—–

allthingsknitterly.com

I just finished this pair of Aquitanes today.  They are the first items dedicated as Christmas 2012.  I cast on last week an blew through them in less than a week.  I love this pattern by Sivia Harding.  I joined her Mezzaluna Shawl club last week too.   Every other month she will send a kit with one of her beaded shawl patterns complete with beads and yarn from Indie dyers.  It starts in August, I can’t wait!  If you’ve never knitted one of her patterns, you simply must.  They are well written–a joy to knit.  I made a list of all the projects I have on the needles in order to figure out what order I should finish-there also is a list of things I am itching to cast on.  I wound yarn for an Anemone hat.  I have these socks underway to0—

I am knitting these for a friend in Iowa.  The
one on the left, with the brown stripes was knitted first, up to this point.  Then I mailed it to her so she could check the circumference,
length and fit of the heel.  She mailed it back to me, and I knitted the blue one with the
changes.  I mailed it to her to double check the fit.  In the interim I started the mates for these two, as shown below.

Yup, as you might observe, I am knitting them two at once on one circ.  Once I get them up through the heels they will be caught up with their mates.   Should be good fora few comments when I knit on them out in the real world.

What do you have on your needles?

This was hard to decide–I need to set aside some knitting to work on over the next few weeks.  I have to be strict with myself.  The whole purpose of this exercise is to pull out the WIPs that I really want to finish, preferably before I cast on anything new.  Sounds easy.  If you are a knitter, you know it is never, never easy.  So here are the WIPs (the only ones that I will admit to.  The hidden message here is that there are more of them lurking around in the dark corners of my Yarn Sanctuary, aka extra bedroom, but we won’t talk about admit to them).

Starting at the top, 12:00, there are two socks, one in the browns and one in the blues; under the blue sock is my Osprey scarf in Elsebeth Lavold silk that is a KAL with Shirley and Helen; under that is the raspberry-and-chocolate-beaded-shawl-that I-was-going-to-wear-to-Weston’s-wedding-in-November-but-didn’t-get -done(whew!); at the 7:00 position is a vest-drapey thing out of Rowan recycled yarn that I got at Churchmouse in April 2011; under that is a scarf out of Alcemy’s Haiku fro Twist in Manhattan Beach (have!); at about 10:00 is my Stephen West KAL shawl in green, eggplant and multicolored sock yarn from Hazel Knits (Wildfibers in WA, April 2011) and in the very middle is the oldest of these WIPs, an Urban Bubble Scarf out of Blue Moon’s SilkKidMo for my daughter-in-knitting (but don’t tell her!)–it was so long ago that I started it that I am embarrassed to admit it. (??Christmas 2010?)

Also-not in the picture because I am working on it now–my Sweet Georgia travel socks (April 2012) in Tundra.

It would be nice to have all 8 9 of them done, but I will be happy if I finish 5 of them.  But don’t ask me to designate which 5.

And here is the box of new things that I will work on.  Starting top R, 2 sets of Hiya Hiya interchangeables and my new KA Switch bamboo interchangeables,; 12 to 2 is Brooklyn Tweed’s Loft for my Cambridge Shawl (Churchmouse April 2012); just below is Louet Linen Sportwt for a beaded shawl and Araucania linen blend for a Dragon Spines beaded shawl (there are two skeins here, for 2 shawls); below is 2 skeins of Pashmina in Betty Draper’s Blues; bottom R Swish Worsted in Truffles for several Deer Hats; at 7:00 STR in My Blue Heaven for Karen’s  socks; above that are 2 skeins of STR for a beaded Belle Nuit in the color way Rosemary Rocks(future bridal shower gift perhaps?); above that is more sock yarn for Karen.  Somehow, my unfinished Kusha Kusha scarf sneaked over from the other box.  Also poked in around the corners of this box are a liberal sprinkling of beads, some ChiaoGoo steel lace circa and a set of Addi Turbo Lace Clicks with the 5″ tips (fav!).  One of the Dragon Spine scarves will get the first nod-it needs to be delivered early July.  I know I am itching to dive into the Loft Cambridge shawl.  It is fiddly to start but I hear that after a few inches it is an easily remembered repeat.

Check back for updates!

Have you ever tried to explain the origin of the Yuma High Criminal?

Curt did last night, to Coach Rodriguez.

Here’s how it went—-

Curt: I am a Football Coach at one of the high schools here.

RichRod:  Which one?
Curt: Yuma High, you know, the Criminals.

RR:  You’ve got be kidding, that’s what they’re called? How do you get away with that?

Curt:  The original school downtown burned and the students were sent to the Administration Office at the Prison for classes for a couple of years.  They played one of the Phoenix schools sometime in the 1920’s and won when they weren’t expected to.  It was said by the fans of this school that the game had been stolen, and  Yuma High played like a bunch of Criminals.   With that and the fact that they had attended classes in the Prison for a time, the nickname stuck and became the mascot (can you tell he’s a History Teacher too?).

RR:  Nobody made them change it?

Curt:  Yuma High is 103 years old and we are still the Criminals.

RR:  That’s got to be one of a kind!
*************************************
Yes, and we are proud to me one of kind!  I think we should send him a Criminal Football t-shirt, how about you?  Please vote!  Leave a comment if you like!

     OK, now I know that this doesn’t hold much importance for the jocks in the world, but I just took some superb pics of some of the University of Arizona coaches holding my sock.  I know that it doesn’t seem like much of a big thing, unless you are a sockSock Knitter.  And then of course, it is a big deal.
     There was a gathering tonight at Lute’s Casino hosted by the U of A Alumni to meet and greet the new Head Football Coach, the Men’s Basketball Coach, and the Women’s Basketball Coach and her Assistant..  We got there at 5:30 and the place was absoLutely (get it?) packed.  I spotted an older couple quietly eating their burgers across the room, on the side by the Endurance Flight photo and they looked like they didn’t know what was going on, why the place was suddenly packed.  I went over by their table and hovered  at an adjacent table with some fellow Cibola people so I could snag the older couple’s table when they left.  After a while, I put my knitting bag on one of the empty stools to stake out the table, with their permission of course.  Of course I had my knitting.  Why do you even ask?

     When the couple gave me the nod that they were leaving, I slithered off of my stool and onto the new one.  Curt was socializing with some other people.  One of the Women’s coaches sat down by me and said “I am mesmerized by your sock-that is a sock, right?”  Which opened up the door for conversation.  They had driven down today, some of the other coaches flew.  She was glad that they had driven since it was windy outside.  Then the emcee asked for everyone’s attention.  He did a little intro for Niya Butts who is the Head Women’s Basketball Coach.  She was really nice.  Lisa Salgado is her Director of Operations and was the one I had been talking to.    Here they are- Coach Butts on the left and Lisa on the right.  They liked my sock.  They have great smiles too.

After Coach Butts talked, the new Head Football Coach, Rich Rodriguez, was introduced.  He talked for a while then sat down at our table to eat.  He is new, from Michigan most recently.  He had been talking to Curt.  There was a place that was reserved for them to all sit, but they sat and stood at my table.  I asked him for a favor.  I told him that at football games I always sit in the stands and hear people trash talking the Coaches, including my husband.  Because of this, I started bringing my knitting and sitting a bit away from everyone else.  He said “Oh, you’re a football widow.”  I asked if he would mind me taking a picture of him holding my sock.  Here  is the first one—-

Then he said he wanted to look like he was really paying attention and getting into it— here is that photo.

Next they introduced the Head Men’s Basketball Coach.  His name is Sean Miller.  He sat down last.  Here he is holding my sock.  He wasn’t as into it as the other Coaches.  Maybe I should have waited until he was done eating?

And no U of A gathering would be complete without Wilbur the Wildcat holding the sock.  He looks pretty wicked up close.

This is the first time I have ever asked anyone to hold my sock for a picture, I think.  Definitely the first time I asked anyone of any notoriety to hold it.  Not exactly like someone who is possibly going to be the most powerful man in the world.  But nonetheless, plenty cool for this Knitter!  They will probably forget 99% of the people they talked to tonight, including me, but I bet they don’t forget the sock.

BTW, I think I am going to use Blogspot from now on.  They have revamped it and it seems to have more options.  Back to my sock!

I am getting more and more organized for my Yarn in the Yard, the 1st!.  I haven’t been posting on blogspot as I am trying to wean myself off of it and onto my own site.  You can find me at
AllThingsKnitterly.com  !

My blog after 8/2011 can be seen at

allthingsknitterly.com

See you there!

My mystery shawl Color choices in the Steven West knit along on Ravelry