Seven Things

Hope tagged me (don't miss her blogiversary contest!), so here are seven things about me:

1. I was allergic to eggplant when I was little but outgrew it. It gave me a rash. I think I got off easy when it came to allergies. It could have been a lot worse, like maybe a chocolate allergy or a wool allergy or a chocolate-colored wool allergy. How sad would that be?

2. I like arranging M&Ms by color before I eat them. It's more habitual than compulsive though. I just think they look pretty when they're sorted. I usually arrange them in rainbow-fashion and eat them in pairs - they shouldn't die alone, LOL!

3. My first name comes from my great-aunt, Leonora. She was widowed in WWII when Japan occupied the Philippines and she survived by fleeing into the jungle with her children. After the war, she helped raise my mother and became her favorite aunt. "Mia" means "of mine" in Spanish, so I'm my mom's Leonora.

4. My last name means "capers" (like the pickled berries you put in salads) in Catalan, a Romance language spoken mainly in eastern Spain. It sounds a bit like a mix of Spanish and French. I used to use WordPerfect to write my papers and the spell checker kept trying to change my name to "capers." Clever spell checker!

5. I am pigeon-toed. My brother is flat footed. I think weird feet run in the family.

6. I've always wished I had a tail. *sigh*

7. I skipped first and fifth grades but still graduated from high school at eighteen. It's some quirk of coming from a foreign school system.

There you have it: too much info about me, myself and I. Now I'm tagging Jinann! How do you say "You're it!" in Norwegian??

Scarf Accomplished

My ISE4 scarf is finally done. Phew! I've never had a scarf seem so very long. I've made 6-foot-long circular tube scarfs with sock yarn on size 4 needles and they seemed faster. I'm guessing it was a combination of factors that made this project a little more time-consuming than I had expected. Kid Silk Haze can be a pain to work with, especially with clunky too-large needles. It was felt like trying to handle a porceline tea cup while wearing Orca mitts (something I do frequently - not!). Changing yarns slowed me down too, along with the transitions from thin yarn to thick yarn and then back again. I thought I was all thumbs! But overall, I'm really happy with the result. It's soft and fluffy and feminine. I really hope my scarf spoilee will like it too. Here are the specs:
Pattern: Loopy and Luscious, modified (knit in the round, with no contrast yarn rows in the center section)
Yarns: Rowan Kidsilk Haze (Shade 583), 1.5 balls
slubby handspun Lorna's Laces Wool Top (color Sherbet), 2.5 oz.
Size: 7" x 78"

Mahalo!

Well lookie here what I got:
A taste of the tropics from Peacock! This ginormous prize package is from her Hawaiian themed blog contest. There's chocolate covered macadamia nuts and mangoes and peanuts to munch on and of course every conceivable turtle souvenir I could hope for. She truly outdid yourself with the turtle hunting! I'm totally smitten by the turtle magnetic bookmark (yes, I know I'm easily amused). The turquoise blue and green fabric in the background is an incredibly beautiful wrap with a batik print of seahorses and cute little fishies. What a fantastic package! Thank you so much, Peacock! I'm so happy being a turtle fan makes be easy to shop for :)

Jersey Boy's blue socks are done. They don't quite match, but they're still nice:
I'd call them "pretty" but then he might not want to wear them! I was a careless knitter and didn't take good notes of the pattern alterations I made for the first sock. I was also a lazy knitter who wouldn't lift a finger to redo the non-matchy part (i.e. the gusset). Oh well. They fit me fine as is so I'll bet they'll fit Jersey boy too.

I'm having some trouble deciding what to do for my Sockapalooza pal. She gave me a free hand, which of course means I'm completely paralyzed with indecision! I've already scrapped my first attempt:
This is the Seduction Sock pattern (Interweave Knits Spring 2007) in Blue Moon Seduction (Colorway: Fluorite). Unfortunately the combination of highly textured pattern and variegation made for a muddled looking fabric. I was a little bummed out because I really wanted to use this lovely yarn with this pattern. Argh. Back to the pattern books.

DC Blue Sox

On our visit last week, Jersey Boy tried on the red Mock Croc socks and found that they fit him just right. Wow, these kids grow wicked fast. Those were a women's adult medium (size 7-9 shoe probably). He requested socks in his favorite color, blue. Of course there was lots of blue to choose from at MD Sheep and Wool. Here's sock 1, which I finished Sunday:This is a mostly-blue-with-just-a-bit-of-green hank of Tess's Designer Yarns Supersock and Baby. The pattern is a modified Thuja with a 56 st CO and a 7 1/2 inch leg.Here's sock 2 at the ballpark for Stitch 'n Pitch last night:
I went with Mom and Nancy from work. I had never been to RFK before to see any of the sports that have been played there over the years. I'm more of a armchair fan, and even then, not a very dedicated one. As advertised, there was stitchin, as demonstrated by Nancy (sorry for the bad photo Nancy!):
...and there was pitchin:
and a surprisingly good view of a 2-1 victory over Atlanta. Boy do those Nats fans *hate* John Smoltz (a bit of googling revealed one possible reason). Oh oh oh! There was swag too:
A totebag, patterns, needles, yarn and a copy of the ultimate yarny travel guide. Totally worth the price of admission if you ask me.

Knit = Death?

I got an email from Amazon recommending some knitting books based on my "interest in books by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee." This is what they came up with:
A Killer Stitch
Knit Fast, Die Young
Back on Blossom Street
A Deadly Yarn
What's with the knitting mysteries? Do knitters have murder on their minds while they clink-clink-clink away on their needles? How very Miss Marple :)

My old Kodak has gone camping with my brother and his sweetie. I've resigned myself to thinking it'll meet its end somewhere in the southwest. Maybe forgotten in the desert somewhere, or perhaps roasted in the trunk of the car....so many possibilities. For a little pre-grief retail therapy, I got a new camera. It's a Samsung S630. I'm camera-stupid, so even this simple low-end point-and-click is kind of overwhelming. Seriously now, I don't think I need all this
to take a picture of a quasi-sock in progress:
This is a toeless ankle sock made with the Regia Crazy Color I got from Veronica. The pattern is from the booklet Journal Fashion Socks. The best link I found was in German, but the pattern is in English. It's my first short row heel. The heel instructions were kinda odd (translation problem, maybe) and I ended up ditching that pattern in favor of a combination of online tutorial info and what I knew about short rows from knitting the Scarf Style Ruffle scarf. At any rate, I'm ambivalent about short row heels, but at least now I know a bit about them.

Whirlwind

Yesterday we were in New Jersey for a little ritual indoctrination in spiffy threads:
and some bon voyaging in fancy socks:

And today, ummmm, what did happen today? Well we're back in Maryland, on the first full weekend in May, which must mean, oh yes, Sheep and Wool! I went with my mom and Nancy and Erica from work. Erica did her first wheel spinning at the hitchhiker booth:
Yay, Erica! I had a go at it too. You're supposed to rock your whole foot back and forth (heel, toe, heel, toe), which took a bit of getting used to, since my Louet is pretty much just toe toe toe! We browsed the stalls a bit, ran into Jinann and her posse several times (yes, Jinann, I'm totally stalking you!) and watched the white Lincoln sheep judging over a plate of cheesy ribbon chips. Apparently, you can't get a blue ribbon without long locks, an even coat, and springy hind legs. The stash enhancement was minimal, just some sock yarn, a bit of merino roving and a few things for my SP10 spoilee's last package.

Oh, btw, in case you didn't think the Catholic Church can pick a good ad firm, have a look at what was on the Events board at St. P's:
It's a spoof of the Matrix poster, with a priest posing like Keanu (dude!). The bottom gives an "R" rating, for "restricted to those radically in love with Jesus Christ." Not to mention male and celibate. They might want to include that in the fine print to avoid (more) legal problems. Wake up, Father Neo. The Matrix has you...

Thank You SP10!

I received a package from my SP10 yesterday! Hooray! Guess what's inside this pretty wrapper?
Give up?
It's a cute little green print bag with a skein of yummy Sundara sock yarn. It's very soft superwash merino in slightly varying shades of green. Plus, there's also a set of adorable bunny stitch markers - really too cute! Thank you so much, Secret Pal!