Vacation Sock Madness and More News...

Hi Knitters,
I am going to quickly talk about a couple of the news items first. I am teaching one class on Saturday, April 14th, 2012, in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Knit Circus Retreat. There are still a couple of spots available if you'd like to join me. There are a few other classes with openings, too. Hope to see you there.

Click here for the Knit Circus Retreat Class information!  

One more quick thing I want to mention is that I noticed yesterday that my YouTube Channel has just gone over 1,000,000 viewings! That is so incredible and hard to believe. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love doing tutorials and whatnot so I will continue to post videos over there. You can subscribe if you want notices of updates. I don't mention my stuff on YouTube very often so the number of viewings is pretty surprising.

My channel has 42 videos which are mainly tutorials. I started filming at my kitchen table in 2007 with my 15 year old son (he's now 20!) behind the camera. I have had two new camera updates since I started so the picture is little clearer now.

Click here for SusanBAnderson's YouTube Channel!

There is one more news-type item but I'll save it until the end.

Now let's move onto the sock madness of last week. While on vacation, I posted a quick photo of a sock I was working on. I linked the Etsy shop, Cakewalk Yarns. A couple of days later I received a message on Ravelry from the owner of Cakewalk Yarns, Rose, and I asked her if I could share it with you. She said yes, so here it is:

Thank You!!

Sent at 10:29 AM April 7, 2012

Hi Susan!

Well, I’ve hardly had a second to sit down to the computer & thank you properly for mentioning my shop on your blog this week. Droves (and I mean droves!) of your readers have hopped on over to check out my shop - I can’t dye Cherry Blossom fast enough for them :) I am so grateful. I appreciate your kind words & taking the time to show off your socks!

Enjoy the rest of your vacation. --Rose

How fun is that? Yay, Rose! I am so glad to send business your way. For those of you who are keeping Rose busy with your orders, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. I finished the first sock in Cherry Blossom and started the second sock.

Click here for Rose's Cakewalk Yarns shop!

I am crazy over this splattered yarn. It knits up like a dream and the colors come in and out of play in the most pleasing way. Above is the Cherry Blossom colorway which is incredibly sweet and fun.

I used US size 1 Signature Needle Arts double-pointed needles (in the top photo). I used my regular old How I Make My Socks pattern, which I store right in my noggin. That way it is always available.

I have two more skeins waiting to be knit into sock-y madness, one is called, Hero Squad (click here to see it better), and the other is called, Sudden Valley (click here to see the color better). My girls are in love with this yarn so I think I will end up knitting a pair for each of us.

Isn't it the coolest ever? Cakewalk Yarns are so unusual and different. The base is lovely and really thin, kind of a light fingering weight. I love it! Rose has great customer service and she is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Remember the Vesper Candy Corn sock? I made great progress on the second sock on the way home. I finished the gusset decreases and now it will be easy and fast going to the toe. I'll show you when I finish the pair. I have loved this yarn for years and years. It is wonderful.

It is hard to get this yarn and there is some available in the shop right now so jump over if you are interested!

Click here for Vesper Self-Striping Sock yarn! 

Okay, one last sock and sock yarn for today! After I shared my love of self-striping watermelon yarn, I was sent over by a lovely friend of mine, Wendy on Facebook, to this fantastic Etsy shop called, Knitpurlgurl.

Unbelievably so, there is some yarn available in her shop for pre-order right now! Run! This is another difficult to get your hands on yarn.

Click here for the Knitpurlgurl shop on Etsy!

I am absolutely loving this squishy, hearty, rainbow sock yarn. You get a cute themed stitch marker with your order which is a fun touch. You will love this yarn, too. Abi Grasso is an insanely amazing dying talent, I can't understand how she dyes her yarn. It must be so intense. She puts stripes, hearts, gnomes, mushrooms or toadstools, stars and stripes, watermelon stripes, Christmas themes, bunnies..... and more into her patterning sock yarn. I have never seen anything like it.

I have a skein of her heart yarn I got around Valentine's Day (I haven't started those yet) and a skein of her watermelon striping yarn but I really want her snowman yarn.... wish me luck!

Don't miss this shop if you like fun striping and patterning sock yarn like I do!

I finished one sock in the Rainbows and Clouds colorway on vacation. I have had a love of rainbows since childhood so this one is right up my alley.

Click here to see the Rainbows and Clouds sock yarn in the shop!

TC wants these socks for herself in the worst way. We'll see. We may have to share.

If you order from Knitpurlgurl tell Abi I said hi!

Now I'll end with one book and one magazine.

Instead of buying new books for the trip, I went to my book shelf and pulled out a couple of books that I've had for a long time but haven't read. I ended up reading, The Secret Between Us, by Barbara Delinsky on my vacation.

Barbara is a knitter and she so sweetly came to a book signing I had in Boston a few years back in 2007. It was so strange because I had just finished her book, Family Tree, which involves knitting and Madison. I didn't know this before I started reading the book. Also, I had never read a Barbara Delinsky book before Family Tree (which I highly recommend). Then a couple of weeks later I met her. Isn't that strange coincidence?

Anyway, The Secret Between Us, is an intense read that keeps you wondering what will happen next right from the first page on. I could not put it down. It is a riveting story about a single mother trying to cover up a horrible mistake her daughter made. As a mother I immediately could relate to the main character's urge to protect her daughter from harm. It wasn't light reading, it was slightly angst-filled, but very entertaining. There is no swearing or racy-ness, just good character development and story-telling, which is Barbara's clear talent.

I enjoyed the book very much. I read that Barbara has over 25 million books in print. She is doing something right!

I was at Barnes & Noble with TC a couple of days ago. We had a Hunger Games book 3 emergency! I saw the spring issue of Your Knitting Life on the stands. I had heard I was featured in this issue so I picked up a copy.

I did the interview with them way last fall so I had kind of forgotten about it. The brief one-page article is really well-written and good. I had to just share the article title and sub-title with you. I don't know why but I think it is funny. I never imagined myself being known as a "Critter Knitter" but I am good with that.

You just never know where you're going to end up in life, right?

Click here for the Your Knitting Life website!

I know that was really a long post and if you can believe it, I actually took stuff out. I have too much to tell you I guess. Thanks for staying with me to the end.

I'll be back soon with the tropical yarn shop I visited in Key West.
best, susie