I finished my Calla Lily socks last night. (I know, it was a really productive knitting weekend.) Aren’t they pretty?

Except for the obvious adjustments to gauge (yes, you’ve all heard it before, I knit loosely, yadda yadda), the only change I made to the pattern was to knit short-row heels rather than the heel-flap stated in the pattern. Not because I can’t knit a heel flap and gusset–I can and I have–but they never seem to fit me as well as I want them to, which makes them discouraging. These are just fine.

The only bad part? It’s July. It’s going to be months before I can wear these! I still have a good amount of yarn left, too. (Yes, it’s another advantage to the loose-gauge thing. Fewer stitches means less yardage.)

On the plus side, sock knitting marches on, and here’s the wee, tiny beginning of another pair. This is in the yarn that Lu, my Knitter’s Tea Swap pal sent me in May, hand-dyed just for me, she said. It’s a lovely mixture of blues and greens, with creams and browns thrown in . . . a very ocean-y set of colors. And it’s knitting up at such a fine gauge (9.5 stitches to an inch) that I actually need 56 stitches instead of my usual 44. I know. Practically unheard of. I’ll start the second sock’s toe tomorrow, and off we’ll go from there.

I also knitted a swatch in the Karabella Aurora 8 I picked up last February in exchange for my leftover Olympic yarn. I don’t have a pattern for it, but I’m picturing a vest of some kind, or maybe a short-sleeved sweater . . . I washed the swatch which is drying now. Tomorrow I’ll measure and start making calculations, and figure out what it wants to be….

Oh, and before you ask. No, I haven’t worked on my Peacock Stole in a few days. I got caught up in finishing these other things, you know how it is. Frankly, she’s a little discouraged that we haven’t made it to the Amazing Lace Finals in either of the last two challenges and hasn’t really wanted to come out of the bag. I explained to her, pointed out how great the finalists’ entries were, but still . . . how can you reason with diva-ish lace? Maybe it’s just because she’s naturally blue….

I laughed when I saw Alison‘s entry for today, telling about the wedding they just attended in Trier, Germany. She’s got some lovely pictures, and tells some nice little stories about the town . . . but all I could do was remember when I visited there. Back in college, I spent a semester in London, and took advantage of that to visit a German penpal I’d had since high school, who was studying in Trier. So, one weekend in November, I went to meet him. Except through a long, complicated set of circumstances, the wires got crossed and he never showed up. I ended up wandering around the town, in the rain, all by myself. My camera died (right after I got these pictures). The batteries in my walkman died. I finished the only book I’d brought and couldn’t find anything else in English (and, naturally, had left my course books back in London). The highlight of the weekend was seeing the house Karl Marx was born in, which might have been more interesting if fewer of the exhibits had been in German. Oh, and did I mention that this was the weekend of my 21st birthday? Which I spent, again, all alone. I had dinner at McDonald’s because I couldn’t read the menus in the real restaurants. All in all, it was quite a memorable birthday, and different than the way most Americans celebrate their 21st birthdays . . . I certainly didn’t have a drink, although that might not have been a bad idea …. I probably would have really enjoyed the town more if, you know, I hadn’t been so angry, lonely and bored…. (grin)

Oh, and you want to see a very nifty Wish List? Every year, Martha’s Vineyard holds a “Possible Dreams” auction to raise money, and they get quite a list of luminaries offering their time, services, and entertainment for the cause. People like Walter Cronkite. Tony Shaloub. Ted Danson and Mary Steenbergen. Jim Belushi. Patricia Neal. And, oh yes. Carly Simon. Mom’s absolute favorite. Her offer this year is to come to your own house and serenade you. Oh, how I wish I could get this for my Mom, but since it will probably go for thousands of dollars . . .

Tags: Family, Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning, Martha's Vineyard // 8 Comments »