Exactly what is that suppose to be?
If I may ask?

You may.
It's my newest diversion.
I call it my new
Op session

Why?
What does it look like to you?

Pumpkin Face here, thinks it looks like a funky hat.

After some discussion, the knitters in our SnB decided we would become ladies of the evening. That is to say, we added a Wednesday evening meeting to our current SnB schedule. Seeing it was a such a beautiful evening, I ditched the family and headed out to Eden Prairie to knit with the ladies. There I was, enjoying the cool evening air sitting in the courtyard of the Dunn Bros. where we've been meeting, with my newly finished "Go with the flow" stockinged feet propped up on the next chair, knitting away on a bright yellow scarf for my daughter Kati and sipping my Chai Latte Ice Creama... all by myself. Where were the ladies? At about 20 minutes after 7:00, the thought occurred to me that I may be at the wrong Dunn Bros. Amy had sent an e-mail saying that she would be at the other Dunn Bros on Wednesday evenings because she had karate lessons for her son close to there, but that didn't start until August. But I'll bet that Beth already moved the meeting to that one and I didn't get the message. (See, I was going to check my e-mail before going but someone was hogging the computer) So I packed up my bag, grabbed my latte and headed for the car. As I was nearly to my car, a young buck who's path was converging with mine said "Hey, I like your socks" as he passed. I replied an automatic thank you and plunged into my car, where I sat stunned a bit before I laughed and laughed and laughed.
I mean the socks are fantubular and all, but being a woman in her forties I am realistically aware that I am mostly invisible to most men of his age. But hey, who needs sex appeal when you have sox appeal? That this guy was able to see that I was wearing fantacular hand knit socks floored me. I rushed to the other Dunn Bros. to find the other ladies of the evening and share my "shocking" stocking story. It was good for a few giggles and some speculation. Do you think he's a knitter? Do you think he recognized that they were hand knit? Of course, we all thought the same thing - This you have to blog.
So there you go. Go with the Flow Socks designed by Evelyn Clark. Summer Interweave Knits 2005
Knit in Lana Grossa Merino 2000 Superfine wool color 482 - I call the color -Raspberry.
I knit them in tandem using the magic loop method. I used a circular needle size US 1.
These were the first pair of socks that I knit for myself to wear. I had a few problems that dammed up the flow, I had to redo the gusset twice , not because there was a problem with the pattern but rather a problem with my ability to read and follow the pattern correctly. I ran out of yarn and had to buy another ball, fortunately the yarn shop had another ball of the same lot color and the circular needle that I was using broke and I had to buy another needle. Still all in all I am quite pleased with the socks and as I was soon to discover quite remarkable, making all the trouble totally worth it.

Yesterday was a bust. I spent the whole day at the computer attempting to work out the problems we are having with the printer. I'm trying to figure out why it won't print from all the users on the computer. It will only print from mine and Kurt's because we are administrators. This is a big problem when the kids need to print school papers, etc. It should be working for all accounts. I set the printer up in shared programs, it's still giving me trouble. The second problem and main reason I took on the computer yesterday is because it is printing the pdf files in some form of computer gibberish. I can't print any of my knitting patterns that I've downloaded from acrobat. Now I know what your going to say the problem is not with the printer but with my reader and your probably right but I figured as long as I was fixing one printing problem I would try to fix the other as well. So I checked for downloads for the printer from the manufacturers sight and found two. That took forever to download and I don't think it did me any good. I tried this and I tried that, I uninstalled the printer and reinstalled it. After spending most of day fussing with the computer and printer, guess what? Now it won't print any file. It says that it is printing but nuh- ah. So when the day was done I was no better than when I started in fact I was worse. I have such a love/hate relationship with this computer. Right now I'm on the hate side.
Despite the heat of this summer I have been knitting. What else is there to do? Reading, sure but if you can get someone to read to you, then you can knit too. Which is what we've been doing, Ani is reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and I am knitting. If Anne's not available I have books on tape or CD to listen to, as well. I just got the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. The story is written from the point of view of a teen with Asperger's Syndrome, this interested me, because I have a teen with Asperger's syndrome. I have heard mixed reviews on the book, but I think I'll "read" it anyway.
My "Go with the Flow" socks didn't exactly flow as I would have liked. I ran out of yarn. Had I knit the socks toe up, this wouldn't have been a problem, as the knitters from the SnB so helpfully pointed out. Fortunately I was able to pick up another ball of yarn from the yarn shop in the same lot number. Then, as I started knitting the toes the cord to my knitting needle broke. It was a thin cable and I guess it couldn't take the abuse it was receiving using the magic loop method that I was using. SO, back to the yarn shop to buy a new needle because I didn't have double points in this size to finish the socks. Addi Turbo's this time, stronger cable and smoother join. So the socks are flowing once again. In fact they are finished and fantubular if I do say so myself. The pictures are forthcoming.
I've dragged out the Monk's Travel Satchel. I'm currently knitting the front and back of the bag. I picked up stitches from the bottom of the bag and am knitting up, attaching it to the sides as I go. On the back of the bag I'm double (triple knitting, really) the pockets on
as I go.
It's a bit complicated to explain, but there you have it.
And then there is the sleeves of Caren's sweater. Here I'll admit that I haven't been too inclined to work with Shetland wool in this weather. But there it is, if you are curious about how it's progressing.
And one more pic. This is a baby blanket that I started back in June at Gretchen's place. Gretchen is currently in a stash reduction phase and in an effort to get rid of odds and ends of yarn we got together to knit for projects to be donated to charity. So when I'm not in the mood to work on any of my current projects I work to complete this blanket.
So, since the socks are finished I need a new take along project. My little girl's birthday is next month and she wants a new pair of socks and a scarf like I made for Ani ( BTW ask Ani what her friends have dubbed her scarf. Here's a hint F. V.) So I think my next project will be Kati's yellow Chocobo scarf. I'm not too happy about that because the yarn is Splash, it is fringe yarn and I have some trouble working with these types of yarn. If you drop a stitch it is so hard to find it to pick it up back onto the needles.
One more thing, I have a project from my calendar that I'm working on. It's a gift for SuzeQ, a friend of Ani, so I won't say much until it's finished.
And then it was time to go in.

... to post that is. With the current record breaking hot streak- nine consecutive days with the temps in the 90's - and no a/c we decided not to have the computer on for most of the day. I was reading mail and checking favorite sights but I didn't take the time to blog. So now that we've been given a slight reprieve from the heat, I have a bit to catch up you up on.

Harlot said it was too hot in Toronto to knit. Pish
I give you Exihbit A., knitting in public. The first annual TCSnB picnic was held in Minnehaha park on Sunday July 10th. There we are knitting in 90+ temps.
And here... although I have it from Corgimom seen here in the green tank that she was actually frogging the purple tank that she is working on.

And here... Checking out the booty at the stash swap.



More booty, some of the door prizes generously donated by local yarn shops and TCSnBers. I myself recieved a knitting accessory kit donated from Zandy's , a handy little thing to have really.





I brought the clothesline as promised and hung out the linen washcloths, These are the cloths from Deepa, Harriet-Lime Dragon and myself. Aren't they just,( to quote my dd), fantabulous? I think so. The picnic was good food, good company and great fun. I'm sure to be repeated.