knitbloggier than usual

Rarely do I have so many knitbloggy items in my reporting notebook.
First, there's the gift knitting.

Here we have socks underway for a sister. It is another Artyarns Supermerino with Razor Shell cuff, and is, if you knew her, so very her. I ordered the main color , #239, thinking it was indigo-denimish, go ahead and look at the bottom of that link and see. I hoped to knit Dave much deserved socks but the skeins arrived with a truly purple bearing, so sis's it is. I've also completed a hat, I'll need to show it later this week. There are two other giftees I want to knit for definitely. Funny, as the number of days before the holiday decrease, the simplicity of the projects and the choice of yarn weight increase. Likely I'll be knitting two super chunky bulky somethings in the car as we drive down to DC next Monday.

I squandered serious amounts of knitting time finding and attempting to re-find a pattern for vertically striped mitts with checked thumbs to fulfill a funky mittens request from a nephew. You know how you get that set in your jaw, glint in your eye and you just can't move forward till you re-locate the pattern you have in mind? I was sure it was online. Or... maybe in a magazine. Nope, nope, nada. Just as I declared it too late to be thinking about any kind of handknit that required a pair, while calculating how many bars of chocolate would make an equally appreciated gift, I tripped over a little spiral bound book of patterns , Knitters I Know, from Blue Sky Alpacas not two feet from my desk, and there it was , the pattern . Can I have a D-U-H? (and can I have a W-T-F? Does that link really say that it is available for $65.50? Maybe I shouldn't keep it on the floor?)

Moving on. Did you see flying pigs? Hell freezing over? (well sort of around here but anyway) - stop the presses, sister Lulu and I are back on task with the mitered square blanket. Last seen in progress August 2006. We did some end weaving, steaming and seaming Sunday morning and soon had half of the squares secured into bigger squares. I snuck over for an hour attack this morning, assembling our first strip, before we lose our mojo again. It makes a lovely tube dress, yes? Do you think Kay has some kind of mutated DNA helix that enables her to put these together in apparent effortlessness? This is what I'm thinking as I'm seaming, even as I realize she is all " pfft those big squares tant pis!" sewing fifty gajillion much smaller mismatched squares for the Oliver Fund American blanket (which you must click over to and buy a raffle ticket now, btw).

FYI you can tell I'm working at Lulu's because she accessorizes beautifully. Just look at the pincushion she brought out for us to work with, it is mighty miterly.

Finally, I close with a moment only a knitblogger could love. NYC Saturday,for the first time ever I popped in at Purl. Filled with wonderful yarn and nice salespeople to be sure, but very crowded. I was retreating when I noticed a hat I'd downloaded from a blog only hours earlier. I mean not a version of the hat but I was certain it was the very same hat , a distinctive hat, on the head of the same daughter who wore it online., and here they were, yarn shopping, in 3D. I surprised all of us , blurting out " Hey, I saw that hat , you designed it. And you're the daughter, right ? I downloaded it ! It looks awesome !!". I used exclamation points in my voice, too. They looked startled or possibly stricken. It is kind of weird to have strangers know details about your clothing, and the designer, Kirsten, said she'd never had anyone out her before. Plus she'd only just posted the pattern to blog 24 hours before, and I'd never visited her blog before that. Most randomly, none of us live in NY. I sent an email saying I hoped I didn't freak them out . She assured me they'd both gotten a kick out of being recognized. fyi the hat? Even better in person.