All of it, all of it

I decided that since there is no way anybody is reading this blog at all anymore, that I should start posting more regularly. I also found the battery to my trusty pocket camera. Things have fallen into place. For the recuscitation of this thing I decided I should start with the blog's impetus, which is to say, Blue Moon Fiber Arts and its Rockin' Sock Club.

The first installment came and I said nothing. I was busy hanging my emergency sock yarn in various places and wondering just where I should put my sticker. Sorry. I'm sure none of you were looking anyway.


After starting up the Inside Out sock, which was the pattern for February, I was really excited to run into Theo, who I've met before. He's one of three boys of a coworker of mine and he greeted me quietly and said the following, "Will you show me how to knit? I want to make a sweater for my whole body." I was a little taken aback, but it turns out his gramma had been breaking him in a little and convincing the child that he wanted to make a full body sweater that may or may not have included some sort of head covering.

In any case, Theo plopped himself down next to me while I was on lunch and swiftly figured out how to knit and purl for the desired ribbing effect. Mind you, this was on size 0 needles with medium weight socks that rock. Nice and tight and awkward. He, of course, did wonderfully.


So, imagine my chagrin when on this very same sock, later that very same day I managed to turn the heel on the wrong side. I have, needless to say, had quite a fight with it and thrown it aside. I have since cast on no less than three socks and they have all been doomed. They are all cooling off for a bit, while I consider further action. To the left you can see the offending sock. Looks nice, but it's trying to eat my brains. I'm sure of it.





Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Blue Moon was having a contest for the members of their Rockin' Sock Club.

We were to suggest names for new colorways yet to be released, the theme being tides. I'm sure you've all read about this somewhere else. If not, though, please ooooh and ahhhh at how it is that I managed to think of a name that was so wonderful only about a billion (or seven) other folks sent in the same name. This mattered less to me when I came home one day and found that despite being among so many geniuses like myself, I had received prize yarn for having a winning name entered. And it wasn't just any yarn, it was the yarn that we had all named, and it was my very own Undertoe. And here it is, with a nice flash glare and everything.


You can get a better sense of what the whole skein looks like below. It has some green, mauve and purple. It sort of reminds me of varying degrees of fuzzy mold. I know this sounds gross, but I love mold. It's fascinating and usually beautiful when it's not invading your lungs or eating your flesh or anything like that.

On the left there you can see the April installment of the Rockin' Sock Club yarn. It's beautious.

It's so beautious, in fact, that it has 108% fiber in it. 89% superwash merino and 19% silk. Having participated in exciting labeling mishaps in my life, I delight in this one and I'm fully amused at the notion of 108% fiber possibility in a skein.

And, last, but absolutely not least, I have some photos of some photos. The whole taking photos of photos thing makes my head hurt a little, like when you purchase a bag at a store and they put it in a bag for you to walk out with. I always feel like having a bit of a rest when things like this happen. But on to the fun.

These photos were taken by Rusty. As you can, maybe, tell from the photo on the left I asked what Rusty's given name was. It was given to me by his lady friend, whose name I've forgotten entirely. I only remember Rusty's given name because she wrote it on the back of the photo. This is one of the many reasons why you should try to not meet fabulous folks while getting a bit drunk on free beer. They take scandalous photos of you. I only escaped with these two.

I like to imagine that they gave me these two because they were the two with the least impressive captions.



I was hoping to visit with them some more and take my own photos of them, but they didn't show up this weekend. I hope they come back. It may be that, unlike me, they think that showing up two weekends in a row for free beer at the Avery tasting room is tacky. I've been informed by Peter, who is the wonderful guy that runs the tasting room on the weekend, that there are some folks that have been showing up on the two weekdays that they're open and on the weekends. I try to tip him okay, even though he never puts out a tip jar or pint glass. It's great fun there, stop buy if you're in Boulder, CO. There's always something interesting on tap in addition to a wide range and representation of their beers. For instance, their Reverend aged for about a year in Opus One cabernet barrels. Tasty doesn't even begin to describe this beer. The body alone was amazing, and I never would have tasted it had it not been for a Saturday visit to the tasting room.

Oh, I've also learned how to spin with a drop spindle. More on that later ...

Art, I love it.

So, we've been going to the Denver Art Museum quite a bit. We are now members, so I suppose it makes sense. When we were there last I took some terrible photographs of this pot. It is by far the most wonderful pot I've ever seen in my life. I think I'll go back and try for some better photos before it goes away. In any case, it is a pot with various incarnations of Corn Woman on it. In each depiction Corn Woman's body is made of corn. It is beautiful. It nearly made me cry.

To the left you can see a very blurry photo of my favorite incarnation of Corn Woman. She has husks surrounding her and she's just beautiful. You can also really see the corn.

To the right you can see a photo that is actually in focus. Corn Woman is much smaller, but you may be able to get the sense of how beautiful this pot is. In my defense, they had this pot hidden behind many other pots. The photo to the right was taken through three glass cases. They really had this thing hidden.

Looking at these pots reminded me of the weaving that Mike brought back for me from Costa Rica. It was then that I realized I had proof that I have a liking for more colors than grey. This is no surprise to me, but nobody ever believes me. To the left here, you can see what Mike got me in Costa Rica. It's just a little over a foot wide and about six feet long. I'm not sure what to do with it, so I just keep petting it. It's nice and soft. Someday I'll have an enormous dining table with a candelabra in the center and under it will be this. Maybe that's a bit tacky. We'll see. I'll test it out before committing to it. All I need to test it is a giant house with a dining table.

The best part of our most recent trip to the museum was my photo next to a Nara painting while wearing a Nara shirt. We were quickly told by the nearest guard that photos were not allowed in that particular gallery. They should really label every entry with the no camera signs if they want me to know. If I walk in through the pot gallery and there's no sign, I'm not going to know. In any case, I was sad because I really wanted a photo next to the stacked heads in the coffee cup. I suppose this will do, though.

Finally, I'll get to some knitting. I'm sure all knitters have given up looking at this blog (except for Aidan, who I love more than he could know), because I never seem to mention knitting. Here is a pair of socks that I made for Chris. She loves them and this makes me infinitely happy. I used the Dublin Bay Sock pattern, which is rather relaxing. I can see how some folks might get bored with it. It is, after all, a boat load of stockinette, but I enjoy it. It's a great pair of socks for somebody that likes simple, but still enjoys a bit of flair. I used some Regia that I found laying about under all the other yarn. I rather like the colors.

I even wrapped it up in a little wrafia I inherited when I first started working at Intelligentsia. It came with my desk. I inherited some odd things while I was there.