Saturday, June 9, 2007

Monkeys, and other socks


Not a lot going on at the Becher haus today, what with taking our newest two-year-old-in- residence 'birthday shopping'. That is a new invention at our house, due to mom being burnt out on wrapping gifties for the kiddies, only to be met with a soft "gee, mom, thank you... I really like the, um... color." This way we all get the thrill of the hunt, which I'm sure you can appreciate is the only reason to step foot out of the house for shopping. Eli, to his credit, knew exactly what he wanted. A Dyson vacuum cleaner. As I was the designated driver, and as such, unmedicated and completely sober, I did not fall for his tactics, though he was very sweet and supremely cute as he clawed and pawed the air in the vacuum aisle of Target. We made it out unharmed, and he has a very spiff Dirt Devil cordless handvac for his effort.



The photo above is just tiny bits of sock monkey quilt that I am assembling for a certain new nephew. He had the audacity to show up nearly two weeks early, and as such, this old auntie has fallen behind schedule. I am getting caught up, since I've begun listing the chores to be done, and rewarding myself with 'crafty time' between completing tasks. Why, just this morning I got to work on these, the 'Carolyn socks', after wiping up the kitchen and washing the baby, er, two-year-old, in the sink. You will note the mug of half-caff in the background... it keeps the headaches away, without increasing the heart rate too much. Anyhow, I do have one piece of kinda cool news to report... today I got 'Crystal Palace', so the shop will have the good dpns for those knitters who persist in top-down sock construction. Ach. It seems so old fashioned not to do it this way:



So, knit on if you're knitting. I'll be here tomorrow, where I will show you a pic of the 'Gryffindor' bookmark Maddie just made from "Charmed Knits" aka the Harry Potter knitting book. She did not too shabby, if I say so myself... stay tuned, fiber enthusiasts. Cami

4 comments:

Annalea said...

Check it out, Camilla:

How I Knit Socks

I knit toe up with dpn's. (I positively h-a-t-e fiddling with circulars for socks. Takes too long. ;o)

camillaknits said...

Magic loop, lady, magic loop. one 40" circular and it's so portable, and none of the snapping of little 5 or 6" dpns, though I do revert to my 6" crystal palace dpns for baby socks. I just like the two at a time feature, especially with 'precious' yarns like STR or (as in the case of the Carolyns) Koigu (my all-time fav...we keeps it in a 3 gallon jar, so we can looksies all the time... so precious). I'll check out the link. Thanks! BTW have you seen the quilt on be*mused? I'm so doing that!

Dragonfly7673 (Vicki) said...

love sock monkey quilt!

if I ever figure out top-down (following sock recipe from Y.H. and so far still on ribbing) then I may have to figure out toe-up. I'm intrigued by the theory of doing two at a time and using your precious yarn as much as possible.

stinkyma said...

cami -
thanks for the sneek peak of the monkey quilt! no wonder you were curious if i'd checked out your blog! it only took a holiday w the husband home and 5 +inquisitions to get me to seek your blog. as my blogger name suggests...i use most of my freetime these days sneeking showers in instead of surfing the net :), checking blogs out. anywho, the quilt is awesome! you have so many projects on your plate. where do you get the energy??? this question comes from someone who has a newborn in the house. you understand.
must feed elzo.