Finishing: the class and the hat

Yesterday was my day off (hooray!) and so I spent some of it at my LYS. I cast on for a cardigan, but really, I cast on the wrong amount of stitches, and so it was just practice, or a meditation in knitting.

One of the owners of my LYS conducts a choir, and last night they had a performance at Trinity Episcopal in Toledo. The music was beautiful, the church was stunningly gorgeous. And I sat in the last row and cast on for a hat. I had purchased 2 skeins of Noro Silver Thaw, color number 2 back in the early part of summer when I had been in Massachussets. I now have a hat, knit in the Ann Norling Spiral Rib Hat pattern. It's quite lovely and warm. I finished it today in the car on the way to Ann Arbor.

On the way home from Ann Arbor, Will dropped me off at the yarn store for my finishing techniques class. You heard it here first: Wayne Anthony is a knitting genius! He did all sorts of math and figured out ratios for proper Jade stitch sleeve sewing. It's beautiful. And everything lies flat in the end (as it should). I learned a ton, and now I'm really glad that I didn't start that sweater for real, because I'm going to alter my previous plans.

Will made sushi tonight. I love the fish we can get at Monahan's Fish Market. It's always lovely to get their chowder (whatever the daily special is) and sit and chat with Mike Monahan, who is delightful. And then we drive home and Will makes something special. The sushi was great today.

Ah, I am slain

Today marks my death in Sock Wars. It's been a good time. My socks were almost completely knit by Sock Wars assassin Yarmando.
I am wearing my socks right now.
This is the second pair of hand knit socks that I have ever owned.
I had a pair in college that my freshman year roommate's mom made for me for Christmas. They were in the colors from the Dr. Seuss book _Oh the Places You'll Go_, a classic for any college student. Sadly for me, the washing machines had a history of eating socks, which I did not realize. My most notable casualty, discovered during midterms of the Spring semester, was one of the pair. The remaining sock, still beloved, became a whiteboard eraser that lived on my bulletin board on my door for the rest of my college days. I think I still have it somewhere in a box from my college days.

Thanks, Don!

Sock wars and Socktoberfest

On sockwars:
I have now sent off the socks for Force of Nature, my second target. As soon as she receives her pretty pink socks, she will be dead. Rest in peace, and enjoy your socks!

On socktoberfest,
I have to say that I never signed up for Socktober, but I have been knitting socks. I completed the pair for sock wars, and have knit sock one of the Christmas socks for my MIL. I also cast on a sock for my little sister for Christmas. I'm to the foot on that one.

Also, even though I'm on a yarn diet, I bought 2 bags of yarn from another member of my knitting guild. She had owned a yarn store, but has closed it since. So I got some plain white cotton/nylon blend and some plain black cotton/nylon blend for two cardigans. I'm still trying to finish the swatch for the white, which will be the first one to be knit up, I think. I'm in desperate need of a new white cardigan because the one I have is wearing out.

So the knitting continues.

Yesterday I was at a workshop called "Orienting to Ministry" and I knit the whole way through. It was with a bunch of pastors, mostly from rural settings. I think I surprised them, because knitting seems so demure, yet I told them that I was knitting for sock wars. I suppose death by sock sounds a little more violent than most people's picture of grandma knitting. But I bet that grandmas can get mad, and one must always be careful around people who routinely have pointy sticks with them.