A Lady and Some Stupid Socks

Hi Knitters!

Happy 2007! Where is time going and how can I slow it down? Yikes. When I was young I would calculate how old I would be in the year 2000. When I looked ahead it seemed so far away and I would turn 36 years old in 2000. That sounded so old to me and now it seems so young looking back. New Year's has never been my favorite holiday, there is something kind of melancholy about the whole thing. I spent a quiet evening at home with my husband and kids. That's the best night to me anyway.

On to knitting, I have some projects going right now. I have a couple of original designs that I can't share yet, so I'll save those for a later date. I also have some projects that I can share. One of them is the beautiful entrelac shawl from Scarf Style by the talented Pam Allen. The shawl is called the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole by Kathleen Power Johnson. I am using up left over Noro Kureyon that I have gathered from various projects, and then I am filling in with some new skeins in 3 different colorways that will blend nicely together. I love the unblocked look of Kureyon, it is so alive. This is a great book and I have done many scarves from here already, and have been inspired be several others.

The entrelac is a fun way to knit if you don't mind turning back and forth across a row. It is mindless knitting once you have the pattern down. You can memorize it quickly. Did you see Eunny Jang's entrelac socks out of Trekking? These are at www.eunnyjang.com, click on October. Stunning! That I may try next. I need to start plowing through some of that sock yarn I am accumulating. The problem is that I really like fancy socks to knit, but I only wear the simple stockinette or rib socks. What to do...what to do... such a dilemma. I am kidding, it is silly. I may make a resolution to only knit stockinette stitch socks for 2007.

Do you make resolutions? I don't. I think having a goal is a good thing, but I do that anyway throughout the year. I have never given resolutions much thought at all. Maybe my lifelong resolution should just be to knit more in the new year than in the past year. Yeah, that should be achieveable. Ok, that's what it is every year from now on.

Have you seen Stupid Sock Creatures? My 15 year-old son got this book for Christmas and we spent new year's day making the larger creature together with my 13 year-old son. It was a joint effort from start to finish. What a fun way to pass the time while the football game was on tv. My younger son basically made the red creature on his own, I just helped with the mouth a bit. I love crafty boys. There is something so sweet about boys big and small making a craft project together.

This book is wonderful, I highly recommend it on many levels. The projects are great, but are meant as jumping off points which is my kind of instruction! The author, John Murphy, is super smart and talented. He puts his sketches and illustrations and doodles throughout the book. This is probably my favorite part of the book. I have wanted to do this kind of thing in my books, but it hasn't worked out yet. I still have hopes to publish my sketches, illustrations, watercolors and the like in a knitting book. I love that aspect of design and Stupid Sock Creatures is inspiring in this way. Socks off to John Murphy and Lark books!

The kids are still out of school this entire week and I love it.

I tried to do links in my text for this post, but obviously they didn't work. I'll get it next time or at least I will try again.

best, susie