Monkey and a Half

As the wind howled last evening, I got as far as the heel on the Monkey Mate. I do love this pattern, but I'm ready to knit something else when these socks are finished. Pattern mods: short row heel, and star toe.

The Great Snow Rearranger blew all night, but by morning the wind had died,and we could again see further than 20'. I am so glad that my husband talked me into buying a Carhartt jacket in the fall (back when it seemed like it would never get this cold)- it does a fantastic job of keeping the wind out. And my 20 year old Sorell boots still work their magic. And I know this because we had to go into town during the worst of the storm. Not that this dry powder is any good for snowmen, but I think I need some snow pants too. Just in case we get a fat, wet snowfall.

It's -15 (F) at the moment, but with no wind, and a bright (very bright) sun, it feels a great deal warmer than yesterday's -5. I'd say we got about 6" of new snow, though it's hard to tell out in the country, what with it being piled up here and scraped bare there. This is going to be an interesting winter, not as interesting as the Winter of '97 (when we had a full out blizzard every week from November through April), but more interesting than the shirtsleeve winters we've been used to lately. Good thing I have a lot of yarn on hand to keep me busy. Oh wait, maybe I don't have enough, and should buy more. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Christmas Party and Valkyrie (not the Tom Cruise Movie)

My knitting group's Christmas party yesterday was wonderful, as always. In addition to our regular show-and-tell, we all bring a wrapped gift, and then draw numbers to select one for ourselves. I didn't wrap my gift because I brought a bottle of home made Apple Wine (bottled in 05), and I didn't want anyone who'd rather not have alcohol, getting it by accident. I drew the last gift, a lone package in a plain red bag that everyone overlooked in favor of the more brightly wrapped gifts, and I hit the jackpot- I got a fantastic wooden engraved and painted heart from Susie Ewinger. It's an Art Heart, and I love it unreservedly. I know it's sort of a Holiday decoration, but my kitchen happens to be red and green, so it's going to stay up all year. Susie is an artist and teacher- her pieces are always highly prized (luckily, none of the gifts had tags, or hers would have been snatched up early). I have another S.E. art piece- a wonderful felted and embellished Dove that she gave me in exchange for knitting her a pair of socks (I got the better end of that deal).

Susie does not have an Etsy shop to sell her one-of-a-kind pieces, but she should.

I always take a sock to work on at our knitting group, but the Monkey pattern is too complex for me to knit there (due to that whole chew gum and knit complex socks at the same time syndrome), so I cast on... wait for it... more Twisted yarn. This is Valkyrie (no eye patches needed)- it's the Playful base (heavy fingering weight, superwash merino), dyed in a mutating variegated pattern of black/purple/gold, with mottled gold for the ribbing and heels. Isn't it glorious? Makes me want to kill da wabbit (that's myValkyrie connection).

I started by working my usual plain-sock-variation of *YO, K 2 tog* every 6th rnd, but it didn't show well enough with this yarn. In the meantime, Laura Kessler passed around a scarf she made, using a pattern from her Aunt Helen. I looked at that pattern, and promptly tore out the sock and adapted Aunt Helen's pattern to these socks, and I love it.

Herewith The Aunt Helen Variation: K 4 rnds, next rnd: *YO, K 2, Pass the YO over the K 2*, rep around. (and do not K the 2 together, knit two stitches). It works with any even number of stitches, and it's perfect for making the colors pop on this yarn.

Wine updates: the Riesling SG was 1.08 this morning, very close to being finished with fermentation. The Hard Lemonade is bubbling merrily finally, and has dropped to SG 1.050. I think that perhaps there was a little preservative in the lemonade concentrate even though it wasn't listed on the label. That would account for the slow start to the fermentation.

Monkeys and Podcasts and Fermentation

Now, there's a combo.

It's rare that I knit the same pattern twice in the same month, but something about the Monkey pattern (search Knitty- it's there, free) calls to me. I'm tired of plain vanilla socks, and this pattern is so striking. It's faster than cables, but not as complex as really *open* lace. I still don't have the pattern memorized (in that I can't work it unless I have the chart with me), but it's pretty easy and it goes very quickly. This yummy yarn is from Beyond Basic Knits (link in Stash Enhancers), and it's the superwash. The colorway is called Fleshy, and it's a bit more peachy than the scan shows. It's lovely yarn, and it is knitting up beautifully. I'm almost to the heel on the first sock.

I don't know why it took me so long to discover Podcasts. I did one with Kelly Petkun of Knit Picks, after all. And I've had my MP3 player for 2 years. But I finally joined Royal Order of Podcast Listeners- they make the treadmill workout a lot easier to get through. I've subscribed to the Never Not Knitting podcast (blog with info here: http://nevernotknitting.blogspot.com/ ), and am working my way through their backlog. I subbed to The Best Week Ever podcasts too, but they're video and a little harder to watch as I jog. And then I found Librivox (http://librivox.org/ ), which has nearly 2,000 public domain books recorded and downloadable for free! I am currently listening to Pride and Prejudice (which is my favorite book in the entire world). The fact that I can quote huge portions of the book along with the reader makes my 30-45 minutes fly by (the volunteer reader definitely did a good enough job, though I am never entirely pleased with anything but my own mental voice on that book, Colin Firth notwithstanding). I also subbed to Old Time Mystery Radio through Zune. I don't have a link for their home page, but if you have a Zune or I-Pod, I'm sure you can find it. I've listened to part of one broadcast and it's a hoot (a dated, thoroughly sexist hoot, but a hoot nonetheless).

The Riesling has slowed its bubbling in the carboy, but has at least another week to go before we add clarifiers and rack it to another carboy for settling and clearing. The 3-gallon hard lemonade batch is fermenting slowly in the bucket (it has only dropped from SG 1.090 to 1.070 in 2 days. Good thing wine is not a race). I found enough frozen blackberries (tough to do here) to start a 6 gallon batch of Blackberry Melomel (a fruit mead- our favorite homemade wine), but then discovered that I don't have the right yeast, so I have to wait for that to arrive before I can begin. Mead is a honey based wine, and much slower at fermenting and clarifying- it can take 6-8 months (as opposed to 6 weeks with the Riesling). The Merlot and Muscat base concentrte did arrive (and why didn't I check to see if I had the proper mead yeast when I placed that order?). Amazing how much fun wine making is even though I maybe drink 2 glasses a month (except in December...)

And today is my knitting group's Christmas party. Yarn! Goodies! Friends! Presents! Laughter! Yay!

Monkey and Movie

Our company went home on Saturday, and other expected visitors found themselves with very busy schedules and couldn't make it, so I knitted most of yesterday. I finished the first Monkey sock, and cast on the mate. It's coming along very quickly. This yarn (from J L Yarnworks) is lovely, btw- a good hand, great stitch definition and the dye job is lovely, with just a teeny bit of mottling in the neon green, for interest. I have some work to do today (real work), so I won't get to the mate until tonight. Don't expect a finished pair tomorrow.

In between the afternoon football games and the evening TV (which is pretty boring on Sundays), we watched Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Nick Nolte, and Tom Cruise in the best disguise ever). I'm not quite sure what to think- it was much better than it had to be, it was shot beautifully, the story arc was carefully and cleverly crafted, and some of it was totally hilarious. But the whole ineffectual, not terribly intelligent, Star finding himself and his true leadership qualities by bonding with his co-workers and forming a team to beat the bad guys against terrible odds, resulting in career success, while poking fun at industry standards and practices, was done much better in Galaxy Quest.

Hats and Hats and Hats and Socks

We had a perfect Thanksgiving, though one granddaughter wasn't feeling up to snuff. We laughed and ate and forgot to get a group picture. I made the mistake of weighing myself this morning, so I have to hit the treadmill today, even though I usually skip Sundays. Sigh.

Here are some more ribbed handspun Christmas hats for the pile. I was told, this weekend, by young people who know stylin' that roll-brim hats are Not Cool. Luckily, the roll-brim hats are going to people who are far too old to style. But I did knit a few shorter hats, with no cuff, for some younger recipients (shorter hats = faster completion). All of these hats use California Red wool (some with a few other accents- mainly Romney). These hats are the perfect use for this heavy yarn- and it's good that I haven't run out, because every time I think I have reached the end of the list, I remember 5 more people to add to it.

I have 3 pairs of holiday socks (and possibly 3 more, but those don't have to be done until New Year's Eve, if I decide to make them) to knit, so I started one. These are Monkey (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTmonkey.html from the Winter 2006 Knitty), and everyone in the sock knitting world has made them. This is my second time with the Monkey Pattern, and I am enjoying the rhythm (though not memorizing it). The first time I knit Monkey, I couldn't read a lace chart. This time I can, and wow- the difference is amazing. I tweaked the pattern to use short-row heels, and I'll do a Star Toe. I am, as they say, bookin'. This yarn is superwash wool and nylon from J L Yarnworks (http://www.jlyarnworks.com/) , in South Dakota. I bought this yarn, and a much more subdued skein at NCFF in September, and I love love love the neon green (and so will the recipient).