A Knittable Weekend

Well, I've been having so much fun this weekend that I'm purely exhausted today. Whoa!

There's a college hockey game on NESN tonight that's being announced by the regular Bruins team. It was so nice to hear the voices of Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley from the other room, the way it's supposed to be, even if I don't know the names they're saying and don't, frankly, care whether BC or BU wins. I've got laundry going downstairs, and the kitchen is a disaster that needs to be addressed.

So! Want to hear what I've been up to? Of course you do!

Friday after work, I met up with a friend and we went into Cambridge to hear a speaker for the Common Cod Fiber Guild talk about fiber and photography. Since the event was at MIT, that meant Kendall Square, which meant we had dinner at Cosi. Mmm! They have locations in the city (by which I mean Boston and Cambridge), but they need to come to the suburbs. It may not be city-busy where I work, but there are enough companies around to provide a lot of business. There's room for one more restaurant, and I really like Cosi's bread. Anyway! We ate and knitted until it was time to find the right location at MIT, which we did without much trouble. Interesting to walk the halls and look at the signs.

The speaker was a woman named Gale Zucker, and while I wouldn't have said that I'd heard of her, it turns out that in addition to her own books, she's done photography for other people's knitting books, and one of those?

Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines, which I just bought in September, at the Tractor Supply store, when I was visiting my friend in Central Mass. Oh, her?

(By the way, the irony of my posting about this today, about this book I bought recently, given that earlier today I was telling my mother that I really don't buy a lot of knitting pattern books, does not escape me. But first, the sweater pattern called Margaret is fantabulous and I dream of making it someday. Second, see that sticker in the upper right corner?

Thank you, Tractor Supply. Where I also picked up this sticker, by the way.

True story, and end tangent.)

As I was saying, Gail Zucker, Tips and Tricks for Fabulous Photography.

The tips were useful, and she had a lot of good stories about photo shoots as well. I took some photos of her presentation, in lieu of taking notes, but they're not very high quality, and I think I will spare you. I did stop on our way out to try and capture the top of a local tower that was interestingly lit, but the camera did not know what to do with the night-and-light. I got these two shots:

Camera does not know what to do! And then I got this one, nice and clear and you'd never know what it was of.

Lighted room floating in the air. Oh well.

I got a lot of knitting done, after dinner and during the talk, enough that I stopped knitting because I thought it might be time to start the toe decreases. I tried it on when I got home.

Yup! Toe time! I got my things ready, for the toe and for starting sock two, to bring with me for Saturday. Be prepared!

I started Saturday's prolonged outing at the dermatologist, getting treatment for the recurrent plantar wart that damnit has been bugging me again for awhile. The treatment is long overdue, so I didn't want to put the appointment off, but it did make for a gimpy day with frequent grimacing from the stabs of pain. Lovely, right? (It's not quite as bad today, but still not good at all. Ow.) Once that was done, I hobbled out to the car and headed west! Webs-ward ho! One stop for lunch, and I was there by 1 for a 2 o'clock talk, perfect: a little shopping time before sitting.

I didn't know it would happen back when I signed up for the talk, but it turned out that Webs had a big sale on Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarns just at this perfect time. I wasn't sure what to expect, since they don't always have a wide supply of STR, and since even if they got more for the sale, I was arriving in the afternoon, and who knew what the locusts knitters would do in the morning? But I was very pleasantly surprised at how much they had, and picked up several skeins to ponder before deciding.

I did not get the Pixie Puke colorway, but I did admire the "colorful" name!

I ended up with three skeins, though only two of them will be mine. Mary Ellen asked me to pick a skein for her, so she'll be choosing one of these and the other two will be mine. (I kind of wish I'd bought even more--the price was certainly right--but still, I love these, and I have lots now. Enough.)

 

I also picked up some black and some white sock yarn (as opposed to black-and-white sock yarn, of course), to make the Tardis socks that are mostly blue (naturally) but have the "Police Box" part in black and white. Here is the highly exciting photo:

Riveting, I know. On to the excitement!

As Franklin explained, we all know that knitting is a hobby generally regarded by others as, simply, insane, and that to care deeply about historical knitting patterns is a "niche insanity". He certainly made it interesting! Though we were hardly a skeptical audience. He's a very funny guy, and I learned a lot about knitting's history, or specifically the history of written patterns*, without it being at all a chore. My favorite line came when he was discussing how some old patterns were very practical, but some were frivolous, and "The frivolity is delicious."
*Since knitting was happening for hundreds of years before patterns were first printed.

And if you're wondering how B could be for purl, by the way, well, consider this code list for one early knit-pattern writer:

Obviously.

Franklin also brought along some samples to show, and really it's hard to believe that the Victorians thought the pineapple bag was chic. I did like seeing the Mrs. Roosevelt Mittens, which have such a simple yet interesting construction, and I may take a stab at those some day. (On the Knitty page about them, I liked what the ranger said about Mrs. Roosevelt as a knitter: "She knit because she could not sit still." Amen!) When Franklin was talking about them, a knitter in the audience piped up that she had made a pair for a friend--a friend who had Mrs. Roosevelt as godmother. Small world!

Of course I, like most of the audience, was knitting while he spoke, and I got to the end of my sock (but did not feel up to doing the toe in a darkened room while listening to a speaker). But after he was done, I went out to one of the armchairs in the front of the store, and finished it before I left. I had to tuck in the ends at home, but it's done (in a month, hardly a record), and number two is begun.

After that? I stopped for dinner, then ran a few errands*. You know, nothing exciting, just this and that, and Wegmans. Yes, it's a grocery store, just a grocery store, as I agreed recently with someone telling me about how his family in Rochester rave about it. But it's a really good grocery store.
*By the way, GPS=lifesaver on this trip. So Much Easier!

By the time I got home, it was almost 9 last night, and I had groceries to haul in. It was a really good day, but a long one, and I've been so tired today. I have one more load of laundry to finish tonight, and I would pay someone $5 to bring my towels up when they're dry. The stairs are hard with the gimpy foot; down isn't bad, but up is really taxing, what with not wanting to (or being able to, really) put weight on the ball of my left foot. By now, the left ankle and knee are getting very cross at me about their unusual positioning as I compensate. I think I will give myself a pass on doing dishes tonight, and go sit down until it's time for that last trip to the basement. Grandma's Christmas present isn't going to knit itself, you know. And someone wants me to get to bed as soon as I can.

He's been there most of the day, so he has some authority to say that it's the place to be.