Knitting and the great outdoors

I live in heaven, really, I do. Earlier this summer we bought (on sale!) a couple of Adirondack chairs for our back deck. Now my favorite morning activity is to take my breakfast, coffee and/or knitting out there to enjoy the great outdoors (another great thing about this altitude is no bugs to speak of). So, just for Heather, here is a photo looking south west from my back deck.

The sports car of knitting needles

In high school my first car was a 1965 Mustang. It was an early model manufactured in mid 1964, it never ran right and I spent an inordinate amount of time under the hood. I have always been happy to just have transportation, happy to get from point A to point B in one piece. Happier if that trip included comfort like a heater when it was cold and until we bought the car I drive now windows that rolled up and down to cool off the car. (I will admit I do love that air conditioning!). I've always felt the same about my knitting needles. Whatever I have on hand is fine the finished product will be the same if I knit them on $2 needles or $15 needles, right? Now, I do own a set of the Needle master needles simply because I wanted to have a collection of most of the sizes I use in one place. And I do like knitting on metal needles with sharp pointy tips. Plastic doesn't do much for me. I've looked at the Addi Turbo's and said "I'll never spend that much money on one needle". Then. I saw them. Size 8 12 inch circulars. I knit hats for the hospital, I knit them in the round and I get very tired of stretching them around a 16 inch needle or using 2 circulars. So tonight I fixed crow for dinner because this afternoon I forked out $11 and some change and bought my first pair of addi turbos. Do I like them? You betcha. The ultra short needle is a trip and not a natural lenth to work with, but boy I could see where with a longer needle you could just fly knitting on those babies. I'm hooked. But you see my friends, this is where my yankee nature comes in. As much as I love those needles I refuse to part with the money to buy them....I'd rather have yarn. So. Here's what I think. I think that I'll buy a set every now and again and just slowly replace the needles I use the most with addi's. Or maybe I'll just stick with my Needlemaster set with the really really sharp tips that I like.

And maybe just for yucks I'll see if I can once again post pictures here because it looks like the hubby has replaced the drive where the pictures go on this computer.....but not tonight, I'm tired......

Another pair of socks

I have heard of the "second sock syndrome" and how there are all of these socks where only the first sock has been knit with the second one never even casted on the needles. I have fought against this syndrome ever since I started knitting socks. I do not allow myself multiple projects until that blasted second sock is done. Today I finished the second sock (but I did NOT finish cleaning the bathrooms). Can't post a picture because the hub took the drive out that the camera hooks up to on the puter, so just suffice it to say that sock number 2 pretty much looks exactly like sock number one!!

Knitting for fun and/or profit

I am often asked "do you sell your knitting", or more specifically "do you sell your hand knit socks". Yea right, there's a whole line of people who are willing to fork out a small fortune for a pair of hand knit socks. I always want to smile and say "You know if I charged $35 a sock, it would be a bargain for the amount of hours I have invested", but I don't. I smile sweetly and offer to teach the question asker to knit. No, I don't sell my knitted goods. Every week I knit a hat for the hospital nursery, otherwise on my needles are things for my family or gifts for friends/family. If I am paid to do this it becomes a poorly paying job and takes the fun out of knitting. I don't know how others feel about this, maybe they knit faster than me, or have more time. But me? I think I'll stick to what I enjoy.

One lonely sock.......

Sock #1 came off my needles this morning. Jeanie Townsend's Cascading leaves pattern, Skacel Trampoline Stretch yarn. Now, one good sock deserves another and here is where I always have my knitting block. Depending upon how much knitting time I have and other outside factors, I've been staring at a sock for days/week(s)/months and that's just one sock. By the time I've finished sock #1 other projects are calling my name, not other sock patterns mind you, no. Lace patterns, sweater patterns all seductively calling to me from their glossy perfect pictures, saying "knit me next, knit me next". But unless I plan on losing a leg I must finish that socks buddy. Maybe this is why I always find the second sock so much quicker to knit, because there is another project calling to me. I'd love to say that it's willpower that gets me to finish up that sock. But if I had willpower I'd be a happy size 6-8 instead of a pudgy sized 12, no, it's not willpower.....it's cold feet. And now to cast on that second sock......Anyone want to bet that I can have it finished before my mother comes to visit in 7 days?