So… Is Mercury retrograde or something? I tell you, gentle reader, I have not had a happy couple of weeks in the techie arena.

fun-house hallway

The hotel that most of the Floating Knitting Retreat participants stayed at promised free internet access with computers available and everything. The picture shows the hallway at the hotel. Looks like a fun house or house of mirrors, doesn’t it? One could actually walk down the hallway in a straight line, but it took a bit of mental effort because turning left and right and left and right just seemed natural. I didn’t dare have a couple of drinks and then brave the hallway. I can’t imagine what that would be like.

But I digress.

Computers were available. The interweb, alas, rarely was. Twice during my 5-day/4-night stay I was actually able to see that I had email, and who the email was from. I was never allowed to actually read my email, or respond to it. The rest of the time, IE refused to respond, leaving the hotel guests frustrated. Rebooting didn’t help. Talking to the computer didn’t help. Yelling at the computer didn’t help. I had a serious email jones going by the time I arrived home on Thursday afternoon. I nearly ran to my (lovely, new, working) computer and booted up. All was fine until I tried to read my email. No internet connection.

This can’t be happening, I thought. I tried everything I could think of. No internet. But wait! I have another working computer! Swiftly I booted up #1 Son’s computer. No internet. 😥

I decided that I just might, maybe, require a tiny bit of geeky assistance. So I called my DSL provider and talked to a very nice woman in India who, fortunately, spoke excellent English and was able, over the span of a 30 minutes or so, to test my line, verifying that the modem that has served me well for many years was, actually, as dead as Marley’s doornail. These things happen. They would be able to send me a new one in a week or so, she told me. ACK! 😯 There followed a philosophical discussion in which we covered the meaning of the terms will not support and will not work when applied to modems, and how those terms really don’t mean the same thing. Because I was not going to wait for another week for internet access. You don’t understand, I told her. I can’t read my email. Nice people think I’m ignoring them. I can’t write about anything. My readership will be down to people who come here via mistaken searches for strange terms unrelated to knitting. A week is not acceptable. She replied, in perfect British-accented English, words to the effect of You’re on your own. Have a nice day.

I threw my coat on. I was sure that the local computers-r-us-type store was still open. They were. And, lo and behold, there was a big display of modem/router combo boxes with my DSL provider’s branding. I snatched one up and ran home and plugged everything in and set up the security. When I tried to browse to any site, I was redirected to a page that told me to reactivate my account. Although I could actually (miracles never cease) remember my password, it would not reactivate. I got #1 Son’s computer connecting wirelessly to the router. It would not activate either.

Cat & Lucy on the inter-island ferry.
How cool is that?

Figuring that it was their brand and so they couldn’t just leave me hanging, I called tech support again. This time I spoke to a very nice young man in India who spoke perfect, British accented English, who told me his name was Harry, which I am sure it was not. Never fear, Ms Becker, Harry said. I can help you with that. And he did! It was click here and check this box and a little reboot. And I have email! And I have the internet! And I can write and read and browse and catch up! And my connection is fast! Fast and stable! And, no, I don’t think these are too many exclamation marks! ❗ ❗ ❗ I will mark your problem solved now, Ms Becker. Sorry you had to call us twice.

Ahh……. [vast relief]

But you did not come here to read about my techie woes. (Is Mercury going the right direction again?)

The last few days were full of Cat Bordhi and her amazing sockitecture, Lucy Neatby and double knitting coolness, beautiful scenery, wonderful knitters, and the neatest little ferry you’ve ever seen.

Look! In the picture! That is Cat introducing Lucy, who taught us wonderful things about double knitting, like how to double-knit a completely invisible pocket. And a cool new way of doing a standard bind-off in one motion. Lucy is nutty and wonderful and I’m sure has forgotten more about knitting than I will ever know. I plan to eventually order every single one of her DVD’s. In Lucy’s hands, even simple things like, well, binding off, become new territory to explore. And double knitting is magical and exciting. And all of Lucy’s stitches are happy ones.

we got used to this kind of scenery

I’m already planning a pair of socks with little double-knit pockets. I don’t know what I will do with them, but won’t they be cool?

Cat carried around a little iPod Nano with chapters from Lucy’s DVDs loaded, and she let me play with it a little bit. Now that is a use for an iPod that I can really understand! I think I’m going to have to get one. A green one. And I can watch knitting videos on it.

But I’m telling you things all sort of out of order, aren’t I? And already this is a long post.

Tomorrow I will post a blow-by-blow of the whole retreat sans techie side trips. For now, I do have some of my pictures sorted and in a gallery. The people-pictures (as Mama used to call them) are in the front, and the scenery pictures are towards the back.

I had a wonderful time and met many wonderful people and enjoyed myself enormously. And I’m glad to be home. And have everything working.

as yet unnamed socks

Alas, the yarn fumes have dissipated, the stash enhancement has been… stashed… and it’s back to what passes for the real world around here.

This is the latest pair of socks. See… I have been knitting! I actually got quite a bit done on Saturday at OFFF, in between bouts of shopping and wandering and petting. The little magnetic acrobat dudes are happy to see how far I’ve progressed — almost to the heels.

I have no name for these, yet, and I am open to suggestions. They are based on the Coriolis pattern from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. I’ve widened the Coriolis band so that it can contain a bit of lace and cable pattern from a Japanese stitch book. There may be beads involved later on the leg. We shall see. The yarn is Fleece Artist Sea Wool. I have no idea what the colorway is. It isn’t noted on the ball band. It might be Stone.

They look a bit wonky on the needles. But on my feet, they smooth out and look like regular socks. As always, Cat’s pattern both charms and mystifies. I’m planning on working my own heel on this pair, as I did on the Cable & Corrugations socks. I’m not sure yet if the math is going to work out right so that my heel can be worked over the stitch count I will have when I get there.

Stay tuned. Film, as they say, at 11 — or whenever I get around to taking some. We’re not quite so scheduled here at chez PI.

And speaking of schedules…

Have you ever noticed that when you get behind someone who is wearing a hat while driving, that they drive really, really slowly and sort of incredibly cautiously — so cautiously that they become a hazard? Check it out! There may be exceptions, but in my experience this holds true more often than not.

Not that I have anything against cautious driving, you understand. I try to drive fairly defensively, although my nearest and dearest may have differing opinions as to how well I succeed. And certainly I have absolutely nothing against hats. There’s something just incredibly hot about a man in a hat — and I’m not talking a baseball cap, here, OK? I will forgive much when there’s a trilby involved, or an homburg, or even a panama. And wear a fedora and I’m yours, no questions asked. Fedoras are definitely best. Caps… meh.

But I digress.

People wearing hats just seem to drive slowly and cautiously enough to be a menace. Even one can block traffic. Now… pretend for a second that you are late for work, and traffic seems to be just incredibly slow – much slower than is the wont of morning rush-hour traffic – with no explanation for the turtle-ish and slug-like pace. There just aren’t that many cars around (because, as we have established, you are running a little late). And then you realize that up ahead are not one, not two, but four hats driving slowly down the street, two in one lane and two in the adjoining lane, effectively acting as a cork in the traffic bottle. And they pace each other for miles and miles at a steady 10 MPH below the speed limit while the drivers behind them wail and gnash their collective teeth. You would be forced to give up any hope of actually being to work on time. And because you were driving, you couldn’t even knit.

Sometimes, gentle reader, the fates conspire against me.

PDX Knit Bloggers in their natural habitat
(slideshow)
Barbara spinning
fiberly goings-on inside
traveling on the Canby Ferry

This is a picture-heavy post. I’ve put two groups into slideshows — a few pictures from the fair are in this one, and all of the animal shots are in one at the bottom. Click on the pictures to pop them up. The slideshow controls well be available in the biggy-size. Sorry to those of you who read me in a feedreader, but this probably only works in person on the PI site.

Ah….. Oregon Flock And Fiber Festival. I love this gathering. It’s not as big as Black Sheep or some of the other fiber festivals. But it’s big enough to keep a fiber addict happy for a long time. There are tons of stuff to see and animals to pet and fiber to stroke and yarn to drool over. And did I mention soap? Or hand-blown glass knitting needles? Or books? And if you are of the carnivorous persuasion, lamb sandwiches and shish kabobs and stew. There are two large building just crammed full of booths, with the overflow in the large open area between the main buildings and the barn. Fiber judging and a finished-objects gallery are upstairs. I didn’t even get that far. I was overwhelmed by yarn fumes.

It is the overwhelmingness of the fiber fumes that I blame for falling OFFF my strict intentions for buying. I had brought only a very carefully chosen amount of cash with me, and I was on a mission. I was searching for laceweight handspun in a silk blend. And I wanted to check out a couple of the new STR colorways. And I needed to see and probably acquire Butternut Woolens Supersock in Shelly’s new colorways. And of course I wanted to see all of my blogging and fiber friends.

yarn pr0n

That was the plan. I did pretty well. Sort of. OK… I only had to whip out my credit card once because I only went a little (ahem) over budget. And maybe I had to buy a basket to take my booty home in. But, really, I think I showed admirable restraint. So here, gentle reader, is the yarn pr0n portion of our tale:

on table: natural white cashmere/silk blend from Hokulani Farms in Bend

basket, front row, l-r: 2 skeins of Butternut Woolens Supersock in Shelly’s new colorways, one skein of Monarch Fly Dyed sport weight, two skeins of Abundant Yarns & Dyeworks plant dyed Trekking – Dirty Oxblood (actually a gorgeous berry/gray mix) and Dark Seafoam

basket, back row, l-r: all from Blue Moon — Seduction in Pirates Booty, Silkie STR in Count Cluckula, STR lightweight in Gingerbread Dude, a Rare Gems and Pirates Booty (yes, liked it so much I got two)

Yesterday I bought a new bin to keep it all in. I know, I know… but really, I’m saving for retirement!

Mr. Pink visits OFFF

I had a wonderful, wonderful time. Monica rode down with me and was nice enough to agree to my little Canby Ferry jaunt that is sort of traditional with me when I go to OFFF. We arrived at about 8:30, to find the PDX Knitbloggers had already staked out a table. Bobbie brought our sign and placed it in a prominent location. All day people kept trying to figure out who we were and what we were doing, and were we a booth or something? Several people ventured over to ask about blogging. Many MOO cards were handed out and much fun was had.

I loved having a place to go back to and stash my stuff where I knew it would be safe and watched. And then take a turn watching while I resting my feet and chatted. Barbara spun on her really cute little wheel, and Duffy demoed a tiny little drop spindle that spun forever and ever. And there was much other spinning going on. Which made it tough to resist that particular lure. But if I started spinning I know what would happen — next thing you know I’d have a farm with sheep and goats and bunnies.

Duffy was also there to meet up with Mr. Pink, the Kidnapped Canopener, who is going to visit her for awhile. 😉

I was wonderful to meet everyone. I tried to get around to see all of the people I know, but I’m sure I missed a few. I got a wonderful hug from Shelly, who I’ve been hoping to meet for a couple of years. You must go to her website and see her lovely new colorways in subtle grays. Gorgeous.

rasta sheep
(slideshow)
making fiber is hard work for yaks
take me home!
yummy fiber
don’t they look cuddly?
yum-fiber.jpg

Although the weatherman had threatened us with rain, the day was perfect: warm in the sun, cool in the shade, no rain. I’ve been to OFFF in the rain, and this was much, much nicer.

And the animals… Camels and yaks and llamas and alpacas and sheep and goats and bunnies. And probably some other that I forgot. If it makes fiber on the hoof, it was mostly likely represented somewhere in the barn.

I especially liked this little sheep wearing dreds. And several of the babies who really wanted to go home with me. But, really, the cats would have been quite surprised, I think. And my yard is so small.

I will resist the spinning virus. I will.

Monica and Bobbie rode home with me. We took the ferry again.

I arrived home yarn-dazed and fiber-high and happy.

pontoon toe start

With the Bo Diddley Socks off my needles, it’s time for a new beginning.

Thanks to all of you who asked for the pattern. I’ll see what I can do. Being the wonderfully organized designer that I am, ahem, I have absolutely no notes. I did chart the stitch pattern the way I knit it, so at least I have that. But the rest… I’ll have to reverse-engineer it. So don’t hold your breath, ‘K?

But I digress.

Here you see the very beginnings of a pair of Cable And Corrugations socks — that’s the light colored, cabled socks on the right side of the cover of Cat’s new book. Cat calls this the pontoon toe. It starts with the Magic Cast-On, but then you knit back and forth for a few rows on just one needle, so you end up with a little square. Then you pick up stitches on each side of the square. The increases are worked at the edges of the picked-up stitches, so the original square becomes a band that wraps sideways around the toe, and the picked up stitches fan out to become the top and bottom of the foot. It’s rather cool, and I like it a lot. But… it’s not the easiest toe to work in my preferred mode of two-at-a-time on two circs.

So the picture shows how I’ve used a set of DPNs to pick up the stitches along the sides of the little square. Since the toes end up sort of sideways on the needles, I also used the DPNs to help me shift the toes so that all of the instep stitches were on one needle and all of the sole stitches were on the other needles. I really like the way this toe works, but it’s definitely not one to work away from home when I just want to cast on and go, go, go.

Cables And Corrugations instep

But it does make a pretty, pretty toe! And here is the results.

These socks are really a fast knit. They would have been even faster if I’d actually trusted the pattern and knit it as it was written. But nooooooo. I knew better. I was sure that the socks would not be wide enough, even though my feet are skinny and the measurements looked right. Because I was sure that the cables would pull the fabric in too tightly to fit. If I’d bothered to actually read the pattern, I would have seen that Cat thought of that, because Cat thinks of everything. So, after knitting 4″ of toe, I ripped back to the correct place in the toe increases so I had the actual designed number of stitches, and reknit the toe.

Yes, gentle reader, I’m a slow learner. But I can be taught.

I’ve knit up through the first repeat of the cable pattern. I’m really liking these! And… yeah… they fit. 🙄

The yarn is from Pagewood Farm, a small wholesale dyer and spinner. The yarn is a yummy mix of wool, bamboo and nylon, and the colorway is called Really Red. It’s a nice, smooshy yarn to knit with, and the bamboo gives it a pretty sheen. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to knit it into this pattern.

Cables And Corrugations sole

And this is the sole side. The gusset (if you want to call it that) is increased between the markers. I got the cute little lettered markers at Cat’s Magical Moebius Festival in Newport last spring. I believe that a major fiber arts company will be offering some really cool ones for sale soon. I hope. Because I’d really like to get another set. You can see that the first sock increases are between A and B, as instructed by the pattern. But the second sock increases are between… cute-little-sock-marker-with-heart and E. Yeah. It will be nice to have two sets.

Tomorrow a group of local and not-so-local knitters are meeting for a Sock Yarn Crawl — sort of like a pub crawl, except with yarn. The crawl starts at Abundant Yarn And Dyeworks, and Rodger has the itinerary listed on his blog. If you are going to be anywhere in the area. Come and join us! Saturday is also my birthday, and there might be some pastry, or even adult beverages (I hope) involved. But not too much of the last, because driving will also be involved.

Today I got a nice surprise in my mailbox. Or, actually, two surprises. But one I’m holding out on. You will see it later.

The other you might not want to look at, unless you want a spoiler. It’s the Rockin Sock Club August offering, down there below the little clicky link. Me likey!

Friday night Blue Moon Fiber Arts held a reception at the World Forestry Center to launch Cat Bordhi’s new book New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One I took off from work a wee bit early, it being Friday and all, and drove to a west-side park-n-ride lot to catch Max back to the Zoo. I was afraid that traffic and parking would both be frightful, because there was also a concert at the Zoo, and it was Friday so everybody would be trying to get out of town. Or into town. Depending on their inclination. But at any rate everyone would be trying to get somewhere and a goodly portion of them would be trying to get to the Zoo. So I rode MAX, which at that time, going towards town, was almost empty.

The MAX stop at the Zoo is the deepest transit station in North America, and the second deepest in the world (no, I don’t know which is deepest). There are high-speed elevators that whisk you up to the surface in nothing flat. Every now and then people get stuck in them, and local news has a heyday. But that didn’t happen tonight. I would have been OK because I had knitting with me. But I’m glad I had the usual 20-second ride to the top.

patient knitters

When I exited the elevator, the first person I saw was Bobbie. Apparently she had the same get there early and knit idea that I did. So we sat, and knit, and chatted, and were soon joined by Duffy and Chrispy and several other knitters. And we all sat and knitted and looked at each others WIPs and FOs, and everybody petted my swatches. (The verdict: Malabrigo is really soft and nobody could believe it was 100% Merino. Most people preferred swatch #1, except Duffy. She liked swatch #3 the best. I’m still undecided.)

After knitting and chatting for awhile, we decided to wander over to the World Forestry Center and find the building (Miller Hall) where the reception was. It was not terribly well marked. We ended up briefly crashing a wedding reception, but eventually found Miller Hall. Blue Moon wasn’t quite ready for us, but it wasn’t too long before the doors opened and we were allowed in.

Tables were set up in the foyer with stacks of Cat’s books for sale. There was no yarn. Blue Moon wanted the night to be about Cat’s books, and yarn would have been a distraction. A yummy distraction. But distraction nonetheless.

So we trooped into the hall, where the PDX Knit Bloggers, being the shy types that we are, pretty much took over the left-side front of the seating. Kathy was there, and Cindy and a ton of other people that I’m forgetting. All of the socks that are pictured in the book were spread out on the table where Cat signed her books. We got to look at all of them, and touch them, and admire them. And Cat very graciously answered all of our questions.

my winnings

The plan was that Cat would speak, then sign books, and there would be dessert and coffee served. But traffic tie-ups meant a lot of people could not get there by 7:00 pm. People sort of raided the dessert tables, and Cat began signing books. So Tina Newton of Blue Moon, ever the resourceful hostess, played a little game with the audience. Did I say there was no yarn? I may have slightly misstated that…

Yarn was won for having “unusual” items in knitting bags. Almost everyone there had a knitting bag, so we all began digging. Kathy won the first skein for having a plastic fork used as a lucet to make cording (link borrowed from Cindy) — deemed the most unusual tool made from an ordinary object. I have never used a lucet, but it looks cool and I need to learn. I must have a plastic fork around here somewhere…

I won two skeins, one for having dental floss (what, you don’t carry dental floss in your knitting bag?), and another for having, well… certain feminine articles, let’s say, this being a family-friendly blog and all. You can see them here in my bag, along with the dragon-scale, snake-whatever socks: One skein of light STR in Blue Brick Wall, a gorgeous mix of ecru, periwinkle, cerulean and turquoise that will be on my needles soon I think; and a skein of medium STR in Metamorphic, a steel-blue, rust, gold, lime blend. Duffy won a skein of Oregon Red Clover Honey STR. I had been dying to see this colorway, as a possible contender for the Bee Fields shawl. On the Blue Moon site, the color looks reddish. But the skein I saw was a beautiful golden honey color. And it’s available in a silk lace-weight. That might be the one!

Cat knitting a treehouse

Cat, as always, was witty and charming and told wonderful stories — I think mostly off the cuff. In the picture, she is showing how to knit a treehouse. If nothing else does, that should give you a clue what a strange and wondrous place the mind of Cat Bordhi is. Who else would have thought of knitting a treehouse? Who else would have thought of eight completely new sock architectures? The new sockitectures in her book arose after she realized that the gusset triangles that we sock knitters have, for hundreds of year, been carefully placing to either side of our foot, could in fact be placed anywhere around the foot without changing the fit of the sock. It’s completely brilliant. So there is a sockitecture with the arch shaping underneath, and one with it on the top, and one that has a big gusset only on one side, and one with the increases running in a spiral around the foot and up the leg — eight sockitectures in all with little baby socks to practice on. Book two will reveal sockitectures that don’t start at either the toe or the heel. That should be very interesting! I can’t wait for book two.

Through her whole talk, Cat wove the theme of three things that knitting is made of: Knits, purls, and that unnameable something that makes knitting a magical thing that captivates us and nourishes us and keeps us buying yarn.

Cat announced that her book has sold out (Blue Moon still has a few available via their web site), and the second printing will not be available until October! And then she completely and totally embarrassed me by thanking me again for getting the flu one day and making up the Magic Cast-On.

If you have a chance, check out Cat’s new You Tube videos showing many of the techniques she uses in the book.

And I, who was feeling a little bit slightly famous and cool was reminded that the universe does like to keep me humble. I was asked, for the very first time by a stranger, to autograph a book. She said to me, I have no idea who you are but you’re somebody famous, so sign my book. I truly think it was one of the funniest things anyone has ever said to me. And the other PDX Knit Bloggers got a pretty good laugh about it, too.

Rockin Girl Blogger

Yesterday I learned that Maia of Maia Spins has tagged me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger.

I’m really flattered, because I love Maia’s blog. She spins and knits and knits to spin and we get to see it all – plus lovelies and goodies from the garden and maybe a furry friend and a bit of real life tossed in for good measure. Her sock design tutorials make me wish I had a design process even remotely as well thought out and put-together. I always want to just sit down with Maia over a cuppa java and pick her brain.

And I know that I’m now supposed to pick five other rockin’ girl bloggers. And I’m going to totally wimp out on that. Because how can I possibly pick only 5 (or 7 or 10 or 50) out of all of the wonderful blogs that I read every day? I’m terrible at making that kind of decision. I often can’t even choose between yarns (thus my stash size)!

So… my head is bloody, but unbowed. Since Maia’s reward to me came at the end of such a sucky week (my previous post only scratched the surface), I think I will reserve my 5 picks and bestow them at times when a rockin’ girl is having a not-very-fun time of it and maybe needs a bit of a boost. So stay tuned.

Not much knitting this week, due to previously mentioned suck-ness. I finished one repeat on the dragon skin, snake scale, whatever-they-want-to-be-named socks. And I’m ready to start knitting away on the fish part of the Great Green Glob. Progress is being made in tiny increments.

There’s an interesting discussion on Ravelry (get in line for an invitation if you haven’t already!) right now about use of the term Muggles to refer to non-knitters. There are those who don’t see any harm in it, and others who find it offensive and demeaning.

I’ve use the term a time or two, in what I hope came across as a rather fond way. There are people to understand the love of fiber and there are people who just don’t. I don’t think that makes me better or them less, it’s just a different point of view. There are many people who think whacking away at tiny little balls with big sticks while strolling around on a very big lawn is just the best thing since sliced bread. I, however, do not see the attraction. Before I get a lot of nasty emails from golfers, I say if that’s your passion, go for it. Just don’t ask me to whack along with you. Would I be offended if a group of golfers referred to non-golfers as muggles. I don’t think so. I’m pretty secure in my non-golf-ness. I’m also pretty certain that if I picked up golf equipment and asked for a little help (not going to really happen, OK?), my former non-golfing status would be quickly forgotten and I’d be right in with the golfing crowd (except maybe the exclusive clubs, but I digress).

As humans, we have a tendency to split the world up into me and not-me, like-me and not-like-me. So… knitter and… what? Non-knitter? Person-who-doesn’t-get-knitting? Person-who-doesn’t-like-fiber? Non-fiber-enthusiast? Non-pointy-stick-wielder? Muggle? We will always find some term refer to other. That’s not to say that knitters as a whole are not an inclusive group. If a person-who-doesn’t-knit picked up pointy sticks and some string, most knitters would be happy to help them learn. I see this happen all the time in the LYS.

Some people also object to the label muggle simply because it originated in the Harry Potter books as a term for people who don’t do magic and don’t even realize magic exists.

What do you think, gentle reader? How do you refer to not-like-me?