OK… you caught me. It’s not really a lane. It’s really just the way-too-narrow space between my house and the neighbor’s house. But it does have wisteria!

This is the view out my bedroom window right now. I love waking up in the morning and peeking out the curtain to see these lovely blooms hanging down.

During most of the summer, I have a constant battle to keep the wisteria from growing on to the roof and tearing it off, clinging to the gutters and tearing them down, and generally being a nuisance and taking over. But in the spring while the wisteria is blooming, the challenges become definitely worth while.

sereknitty72 asks:

Sockapalooza sounds fun! How does one join and can you tell me more about it?

Sockapaloooza is a giant sock exchange organized by Alison from the blue blog. I think this is the 3rd sock exchange that Alison has hosted. Sign-ups are only open for a short while. After sign-ups close, everyone is sent info on the person they will be knitting socks for, and then has three months to get the socks completed. On the appointed day, everyone mails their socks off to their sock recipient. This time 606 people from all over the world participated — check out the map.

It is a lot of fun. I’m not sure when the next one will be, but keep watching on Alison’s blog for news and updates.

Well, not really stewing. It’s too warm for stew. Scattered might be a better term. Too many things going on all at once.

My Sockapaloooza recipient, Lynne, received her socks yesterday. And they fit! Yea!

Well… OK, I know that means I will never get them back. But that’s OK. I know they’ve gone to a good home where they will be loved and worn.

Sock Pal tells me that my socks will be on their way to me as soon as they dry from their bath. And Sock Pal give no hints on who she is or which socks. NO. Hints. That means I would have to go through all of the entire huge list of participants to see which ones haven’t been mailed yet… Nah… I think I’ll be good and wait.

This is so fun! I can’t wait until the socks get here. I know I’m going to love them. (Don’t worry, Sock Pal. I’m really very easily pleased and usually sometimes patient.)

Julie asks

I love the Tipsy Knitter socks – where does that pattern come from?

The stitch pattern is called Tipsy Knitter in the Socks Socks Socks book and Tilting Ladders in Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I’m not really following the pattern in Socks Socks Socks, although I admit to being inspired by it. I’m using the stitch pattern with my standard no-pattern toe-up sock. It’s a stitch pattern that can pretty much be knit either top down or toe up and look the same.

#1 Son called last night from Anchorage. They will be in Anchorage today and tonight, and then travel to Soldotna tomorrow.

The title word means stew or hodgepodge, which is what today’s post will probably be!

Some knitting done yesterday: Another repeat added to the Tipsy Knitter socks. Two rows knit on the green sweater before I fell asleep.

sereknitty72 asks:

Love the yarn you’re using for your Tipsy Knitter socks! It is beautiful! Pray tell, what kind?

Thanks! That would be Socks That Rock in the colorway called Red Rock Canyon.

I love STR, too. It’s my favorite sock yarn. I have three skeins still in my stash: Beryl, Carbon and Lapis. It makes it hard to use any of the other sock yarn in the stash. My hand just seems to naturally grab out one of those lovely STR colorways every time I start a new pair.

But the other yarn in my stash is also lovely and deserves to be knit.

Must. Be. Strong.

sereknitty72 adds:

Aren’t you loving this weather? I think I must hit the coast again….

The weather is wonderful! Today I saw mama and papa goose with their little goslings out for a stroll by the pond. I need to get down to the coast, too.

Maybe when #1 Son gets back. Or maybe when he leaves again?

And speaking of which… For those of you who are keeping track, last night #1 Son called me from Tok, Alaska — a happening little place of 1400 or so residents. #1 Son said that it was really cold but the roads were clear and they were going to camp out because it didn’t look like there were any places open where they could stay. They should be in Anchorage tonight, if all goes as planned.

They play Anchorage on Thursday, Soldotna on Friday and Fairbanks on Saturday. (I’m not sure they realize how far it is from Soldotna to Fairbanks.)

But the really amazing (to me) thing about the call last night was that he made it from his cell phone.

That’s right. At a crossroads in the middle of nowhere (sorry, Tok, but you know what I mean) with a population of 1400. My son gets cell phone service. And here’s the real kicker: He wasn’t roaming!

The world is becoming a very, very small place.

I did manage to get a little knitting accomplished this weekend.

The Tipsy Knitter socks haven’t progressed much since Thursday. I’m working on the third set of ladders, which is the second pattern repeat. Isn’t it fun how the ladders and cables tilt first one way and then the other? I’m not wild about colors pooling. But I have to say that with this pattern the way that the colors are pooling is actually pretty cool.

I didn’t work on the socks that much this weekend because I decided that I really should actually finish one of my UFOs. We have sweater-weather at least through June, and I’d really better knit on a sweater before it got too hot to even contemplate.

This is a shirt-style sweater that I’m making up as I go along. It will be mostly stockinette stitch. But I decided I wanted my shirt to be ruffled. The twisted rib to the right in the picture represents the “ruffles.” This is the right front of the sweater.

I knit mostly on the sweater this weekend, and it has grown to be about 12″ long. I need about another 8″ before I start the armhole shaping.

I’m also getting ready for the next sock class, and knit a new color-coded sample sock.

On Sunday I drove up to Scapoose for coffee with K. I was very careful to look at my feet before leaving the house.

#1 Son called last night from Fort Nelson, BC. [Mom: Where’s that? #1 Son: In the middle of nowhere.]

(Sorry to any of you Canadians. I am not intimately acquainted with the geography of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. I have a feeling that will change over the next couple of weeks.)

I think they are hoping to reach Whitehorse by tomorrow, and Anchorage by Thursday. I am still thinking clear-road thoughts.

The Sockapaloooza socks will shortly be winging their way to their intended recipient. I gave them one last stroke and pat before packing them away with a few other little goodies. I need to mail them today because my chances of actually getting to a post office on Tuesday are non-existent. I hope my sockpal enjoys them. I hope they fit!

This is the African violet that sits on my desk at work. It blooms almost constantly since I moved to this location. It really loves the morning sun through the window.

I’m getting better at capturing the color with my camera. I did photoshop this a wee bit — but only to shift the color back towards red a tiny amount. The camera shifts towards blue. The little specks that almost look like digital camera noise are, in real life, the most amazing multicolored metallic sparkles. I defy any camera to capture them.

The socks are almost the deepest purple color around the edges of the violet petals.

Today I get my clock! Yea! I will finally know what time it is again. Yea!

#1 Son called last night. He and his cohorts have crossed the border into Canada. If all goes well they should arrive in Anchorage by next Thursday. He has promised to keep in touch. Think good thoughts.

I just wasn’t feeling the love with the embossed leaves sock toes. I couldn’t knit the same lace backwards, but I liked the star toe. Couldn’t get the lace knit frontwards to fit with the toe. Not wild about the colorway with this pattern. Blech. To the frog pond they went.

Last night I saw what Alice did with her socks — same pattern, same colorway, toe up. Her yarn looks quite a bit darker and richer than mine. Hand-painted dye lots can be so different! I think Alice’s looks great and I might try again with a different colorway. But not with this colorway. For some reason I’m still not feeling the love there. I have some Lorna’s Laces, though, that might be fun to play with in this pattern.

Anyway, I started a new pair of socks. Once again, this is Socks That Rock in Red Rock Canyon. Double circs. Inox Gray US#2. Magic cast-on. Two at a time. The usual. I started with a 6-part pinwheel toe.

The stitch pattern is called Tipsy Knitter in the Socks Socks Socks book and Tilting Ladders in Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. In the picture, I’ve finished 1/2 of the first repeat. In the last part of the repeat, the cable will become a ladder and the ladder will be a cable and they will tilt left. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the ladders and cables in the first 1/2 of the repeat tilt right.

The colors are pooling in strange and interesting ways. The blue, unfortunately, seems to be ending up mostly on the sole side of the socks. I think, though, that with this pattern the pooling is OK. It’s just another tipsy part of the sock. The blue is peeking out on the front side, now, so I have hope.

I’ve been working away on the silk/cashmere leaf scarf, also. It’s coming along nicely and is about a foot long. I worked a couple of repeats last night at Tangle knitting night. Alice had a great idea for how to end the last leaf, if I ever get there! I have a feeling this scarf is going to be one of those long-term projects. I can’t work too many repeats before I start to lose concentration and mess up the pattern.

I went back to sock knitting while sipping on a glass of wine. (Friends don’t let friends drink and knit lace!) The tipsy knitter socks seemed much more appropriate under those circumstances.