Swap

I love the Sockmaniacs sock swap group I belong to on Yahoo. It's fun and a nice way to meet new people. I've been corresponding with my latest swap partner for weeks; she really leads quite an action filled and interesting life! This summer's swap had an international theme. My partner hasn't received her package yet so I won't spill the beans as she admits she lurks on my site from time to time. Hello Joyce!

She sent me an amazing array of yarn and treats. I'm thrilled with the contents of her very thoughtful package. It's a Japanese theme with a stunning and absolutely gorgeous new line of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn. THREE skeins. The colors are so vibrant but the one that is teal and blue and charcoal and lime green is my absolute favorite. I've already cast on a pair of socks for myself in that gorgeous teal (color #S252.)

I should brew a pot of tea from the selection she sent me and drink it in the fortune cup. The lottery jackpot is 95 million tonight and if this package is any indication of impending luck, I'm all over that. If I win, I'll be sure that this new friend will be retiring. I will tell you, confidentially, Joyce lives in an area of California where she assures me, "everyday is like a vacation here." According to her, she doesn't need to go away on vacation to feel she has gotten away from things (see the top picture for proof.) But Joyce, wouldn't it be nice to have time to knit all day, everyday?

There are so many treats in this package including teas, candies, incense, a candle, knitting needles, chopsticks, patterns and bookmarks. Look for yourself. I photographed them on my new bed. The bedspread is new too and ironically, the pattern is called Tea Garden. How fitting.

Thanks Joyce. I feel like a true winner today! Your package is scheduled to be delivered Saturday. I hope you like it as much as I like mine. Additionally, you are going to need an apron to fully enjoy the contents.

Surprise Swap

I am admitting that once again, I am a sockmaniac. More precisely, I am a member of a Yahoo group called Sockmaniacs. The most fun I have on this site is participating in swaps. This last one was a book or yarn swap and I thought that was fun. Participants entered a wish list for either a knitting book or yarn then added a few things about general likes and dislikes.

I shipped off a package stuffed with yarn, fun things and some coffee beans to Jean in the Pacific Northwest. Debbie from California sent me this lovely assortment of knitting related gifts:

Ann Budd's Book of Sweater Patterns
Nicky Epstein's Knitting Beyond the Edge
Burt's Bees Tips and Toes Hands and Feet Kit
A pound of Starbuck's Sulawesi coffee
And the little poodles?

Well, the poodles are salt and pepper shakers that are kissing. They're held together by magnets. I collect salt and pepper shakers and I have to say, this set is pretty cute.

Thank you Debbie, I feel completely spoiled. It's obvious to me that you put a lot of thought and effort into this package. After the week I've had so far, my only plans for tonight are to make a pot of coffee, put my feet up and check out those new books. But first, I'm going to go fill those adorable shakers.

For you sock knitters out there, follow the link above to sockmaniacs and join us. You won't be disappointed and it's a great way to meet others who like to do what we do. International knitters can also join. The next swap theme is international and I'm already thinking. Italian, Norwegian or Australian. There are some pretty fabulous yarns and patterns out there in this great big world of ours.

Kerfuffle

Who knew?  I always thought this favorite word of mine was Yiddish.  I'm not Jewish so I didn't really know.  I like it way better than clusterf$*k and even SNAFU.  They all mean the same sort of thing though.  I pronounce it kafuffle.  No r. No e for that matter either.  I use this word routinely at work.  

KERFUFFLE noun, mid-19th century, colloquial, Originally Scottish, also ‘kafuffle,’ ‘kafuffle’ [Perhaps from ‘kafuffle’ verb, but cf. Irish ‘coir thuathail,’ confusion, disorder.] Fuss, commotion, disorder, agitation.

The start of Sock Wars was a HUGE kafuffle and sort of a let down after all these weeks of talking it up.  There was some sort of mess with the mail merge and MANY did not get emailed the dossiers of their victims, including moi.  I am not letting it get me down though.  After about five hours, the pattern was posted on the website and I began to knit.

After a false start or two and a wee bit of frogging (rip-it, rip-it) and some tinking (knitting backwards) I began.  I knit til midnight last night and couldn't make another stitch.  I used circs, I used dpns, I used patience.  I checked my emails and the Sock Wars Forum 800,00 times and began to despair that perhaps, I'd been cut.  It isn't so but I didn't find that out until 1 PM today.   Although I've been given a copy of the final list and I can find who is knitting for me and who I'm supposed to kill, I can't find my victim on the warrior list.  I'm awaiting the email I was supposed to get at 12 PM GMT yesterday.

So, I'm on the gusset of sock 1 and considering casting on the cuff for sock two.  There was almost a disaster with the DAMN DOG and my yarn but I intervened before the yarn I settled on was shredded.  Doesn't mean I saved it from the slobber though.  There is plenty of dog slobber on the yet to be wound skein.  

Not winding it is part of my plan.  I am not going to help the person who kills me before my time.  If I finish this sock tonight, I'll wind it.  I'm worried because I'm behind and have to work tomorrow and Monday.  Think my patients would mind if I knit instead of nursing them to their normal state of chronically critically ill?  They may get pissy about that.  Literally.

So, battle on.  I'm off to shower since I've been up battling since the butt crack of dawn and my kids are taking me out for dinner for Mother's Day.  I hope yarn is involved.  I'll post pics of my progress as soon as the camera battery charges.  

In the mean time, listen to this song; I can't get this song out of my mind so I may as well not be alone when humming this.   I love Canadians and I have a special spot in my musical heart for Neil.  I find his voice mesmerizing.  Maybe being mesmerized during battle isn't such a good thing.  I hope my assassin listens too.

Watch out Cindy AKA Pixiedust.  I'm all over your socks and I plan a brutal death for you.  If not me, then the person who kills me.  I am also relieved you are a girl since I settled on my beloved Lorna's Laces in the colors of Easter.  Hope you like pastels.  Just don't bleed on them when they arrive.

Ramping up...you may not see me

Just in case y'all were thinking I'm a bit crazy about knitting socks, this came along. It doesn't prove I'm not crazy-just that I'm not alone with this insane desire to knit warm foot coverings:

Reuters:

Die-hard knitters prepare for sock battle

By Claire Sibonney
Thu May 1, 12:10 PM ET

There may be nothing scary about socks, but a cut-throat competition involving hundreds of furiously fast knitters with pointy needles is enough to send even accomplished enthusiasts' pulse racing.

Sock Wars III, billed by its organizers as the "bloodiest death-by-knitting tournament," enlists players from around the world to take part in a game that shows knitting is no longer just a grandmothers' hobby.

It was started by Julie Gardner, a 31-year-old freelance TV and film production manager in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a couple years ago after she heard about StreetWars, a game that uses mock weapons and is popular on college campuses.

Gardner was excited about pitting knitters against each other with a sudden-death spin.

"I love the fact that we have had competitors ranging from teenagers knitting their first socks through to silver surfer great grannies in their 70s," she said.

Around 1,000 women -- and some men -- have already signed up for this year's tournament, which starts May 9. The deadline for applications on www.sock-wars.com is May 3.

Each contestant must knit a pair of socks from the same original pattern for another player in a specific size and mail it to another contestant, or target.

When the targets receive the finished socks from their assassins they are "killed," or out of the game, and must mail their assassins their unfinished socks. The assassins must then finish that pair of socks and mail them to their new targets. The last sock-knitter left wins.

Knitters from the United States, Canada, Britain, the Netherland and Australia took part in last year's contest.

"I think it's brilliant," said Amy Singer, the author of knitting books and editor of Knitty.com, an online knitting magazine based in Toronto.

Knitting's feisty new image has been boosted over the last decade by books such as "Stitch and Bitch," "Chicks with Sticks" and "The Friday Night Knitting Club" -- a bestselling novel that has been turned into a new film starring real-life knitter Julia Roberts -- as well as the Internet, knitting clubs and cafes.

Fans insist it's not just a fad.

"Knitting is not the new yoga, knitting is the new knitting," said Singer.

The prize for the past two tournaments has been a pair of socks. This year, every competitor is promised a pair of socks, while the grand prize winner will also receive a $500 supply of yarn.

You've Got Mail

This is what I like to see in my email:

Subject: Jimmy Beans Wool has shipped you a package!

Thank you for your order! Your backordered Tofutsies is being shipped today & should be in your mailbox shortly.

Thanks again and we hope to hear from you soon,
Jimmy

That is strategy at work for SOCK WARS. Swatching will start as soon as I am in receipt. Here is my swatching strategy (you do swatch, don't you?):

Я брошу на пряже на игле размера одного и свяжу 4 дюйма. После того как рядок purl на стороне вязать, я переключит к игле размера 2 и свяжет 4 дюйма. После другого рядка purl на правой стороне, я переключу к игле размера 3 и повтору 4 дюйма. Then I will wash and dry my swatch and measure my guage.

How do you plan to check your guage? If you'd like to know how I'd do it, better find a Russian friend.   I'd have used French but it's much too common.  You're far less likely to know someone who can read Russian.  I'll never utter my strategy in English.  Further dispatches shall be knitted into my work.  You'll have to read knitting to be able to understand.

M. Defarge

*****Update***** That is Tofutsies in 3 Feet Short (something a warrior doesn't want to be).The color didn't look like this online, it's better.  Pinks, yellows and orange.  They'll look muy bueno with my summer Keens.(orange)  It came in the mail today around 3 so I cast on, knit the cuff.  I've moved on to the leg.  What swatch?  Pffft.  Who needs to swatch?  I wasn't sure about this stuff.  It seemed to fray a bit on the cast on, but after 1 row, it's a dream to knit.  Go git yerself some.  So that ya don't start thinking Jimmy Beans is magical, it's the other skein they sent out today.  This was the first sent out Friday...

I've Enlisted

I realize I'm a little old, but I've gone and enlisted in the war. I will be joining hundreds of my sisters and brothers in an effort to kill, or be killed. What weapon will I choose? Knitting needles of course. I've gone and joined Sock Wars III. Fool. This is a wildly popular knitting gone mad sort of contest. I'll be making my favorite thing of all, and doing it as fast as I can in an effort not to be killed off too quickly. If I am, I'll only have a pair of socks to show for my war effort. If I win, there'll be a huge yarn payoff. Cha-ching. Note to self: start building that new wing for yarn storage solution.

On May 8th, I'll be emailed a dossier on who my enemy is and a sock pattern to complete. I'll knit those as fast as humanly possible for a girl who can't flush her double points and mail them to my enemy. If my socks get to the enemy first, he or she is DEAD (I'm praying for only she enemies who generally tend to have smaller feet). My enemy must then send me the socks they've been working on (hopefully quickly) to assasinate their enemy who has now become my enemy. Those socks in progress will become my secret weapon. Are you following me? It seems hopeless, but I'm willing to give it a shot and have begun to stockpile sick days from work just in case. I do have natural secret weapons like my size 10 freighter feet (pity the poor soul who gets my dossier) and an ability to knit in the dark-just so long as the pattern is simple.



I am planning my own going away party as I plan to totally ignore everyone I know during the war. I will try to stockpile blogposts too but this is more difficult. Perhaps I can teach myself to knit with my hands and manipulate the keyboard with my toes. In the meantime, I'm off to a Navy Seal training program where I'll study The Art of War and Socks Soar on Two Circulars.



If you'd like a chance at killing me, you can read all about it here. There is a $2.00 registration fee. And no honey, you can't start making plans for the life insurance. Oh, and if you think of remarrying once I'm killed off, I'll haunt you.



"The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on." Ulysses S. Grant