Finale

This is the last vacation post, in case some of you were getting worried about that. It's mostly pictures, because I love pictures and some of these really amuse me.

Rock City is cool. If you ever get a chance to visit I highly recommend it:








Right about where Caitie is standing up in the distance of that picture above is where she dropped her phone.





Right after here is about where we found it. Turned out that people below us yelled up after a few minutes and said her phone fell all the way through, but it was (mostly) unharmed. Rock City is a maze that criss crosses over itself at different levels (mostly naturally occurring). So it's a good long walk from 1 level to another but we got it back.



My favorite quote of the day from Caitie "Hall of the Mountain King. That sounds like something from the Hobbit!"

It's not a place for people who have a fear of heights.


This is my favorite part of camping. In the morning the kids snuggle one by one into our sleeping bag.



Sean got Last Airbender tattoos from McDonald's and was positive that Daddy needed one since he doesn't have hair.



I agreed with Sean. All day long at the pool kids kept asking him to bend air.







There was plying.


I finished this batch in the car on the way home, so yes, it's yarn yet. I'll post pictures later, I love it!



Caitie and I went riding. Sean wanted to go but I asked him if he wanted to ride a horse or have ice cream and he chose ice cream.



It was pretty cool and a great way to spend our last day.

Next up: Actual Knitting Content.

Part Deux

I kinda think showing people my vacation pictures is boring, but they've actually been *requested*, so I feel like I can do it with a clear conscience.

We practically lived at the pool.




(Rob is a terribly good sport and a great knitter's husband)





(Thank God for Gortex! - Sean's cast was waterproof)

Also, the family complained that I didn't post pictures of myself on the jumping pillow, so here:



And this one is too good not to share too, even if it is blurry:


Heading in to town one morning. Molly wasn't tired, as you can see:

We took a ride on the Southern Belle riverboat (which I totally forgot to take a picture of when we weren't on it).




There was spinning...


Later we met up with Dana from Unwind Yarn

We had a great time hanging out, she laughed at my kids being silly and kineared a woman who was playing in the fountain wearing white linen pants and red underwear. ahem.

Later we went out to dinner at a brewpub (I don't remember the name, but it was yummy). I was having such a good time I was a really bad mom and totally forgot how late it was.



oops

Here's a rare moment of all 3 kids playing nicely together.



We spent a day at Chickamauga battlefield. Rob and Sean loved it, Caitie and Molly tolerated it nicely even though they thought it was insanely dull.

Caitie found a weird bug, anyone know what it is?

Here's another example of my son's inability to eat properly. Clearly I've fallen down on my duties.

That was a jawbreaker.

Chattanooga

A couple weeks ago we went camping near Chattanooga, TN. We were actually camping just over the state line in Georgia.

I think the best part of the camp grounds was the jumping pillow.





It's serious fun. Like a trampoline but on the ground and surrounded by sand.


We had a great site and stayed 8 nights.



They had lots of junk food




Apparently I haven't taught my son how to eat. This was a recurring theme.





The incline railway was fun. It's a mile long and I forget how steep, but STEEP. At the top we visited a civil war memorial/park. I don't have very many pictures because the kids took turns being little shits that afternoon, but there's a few winners:




I'm so proud.



Caitie having a tantrum at the top of lookout mountain

More tomorrow!

Summit

So now the cat is out of the box.



I'm in Knitty!

Sock Summit was so amazing, just walking around. Every other minute I saw some sweater or shawl that made me say ooooo! I have a bunch of slips of paper with names of yarn or patterns that I brought back, things I thought were awesome.

And then I saw Sue at the Ravelry party. She had this white sweater on that was mind boggling. I mean WTF. How the heck? Wha? People were talking and pointing, How do you DO that? Is it increasing and decreasing? what? I've seen a lot of knitting, and I'd never seen *anything* like that.

I went up and asked her and she told me her story. She was a perfectly lovely woman. I can't remember all of the details of her story anymore, but it involved buying this sweater on vacation somewhere, and that it had been machine made. And also that apparently someone (a vendor?) told her you can't knit that by hand.

WAT?

Yes you can. There's nothing a knitting machine can do that a person can't do. I was sure of it (and so was she, though she didn't know how). She really wanted someone to figure it out.

I'd started a sock and didn't like it anyway so I was going to frog it. I whipped the yarn out and started playing around. I swear I could feel my fingers tingling. I had to go back to her sweater and look at it a few times, but I thought I had it figured out.


This is my friend Carol who is an awesome knitter and who was a fantastic sport and willing to pose for pictures in a tank top in late November. I was wearing gloves and a hat when she posed for that picture. I sent it to Knitty in December and got back a Yes! Amy wanted me to take more spring like pictures. We had a foot of snow when she said that, but I told her I'd give it a shot. Carol was again a sport and we trucked all over town looking for a greenhouse or something as a background. The problem with greenhouses is they're all glass. It may be warmer in there but it's still obviously winter.

I finally took these:

I kind of love this one with the motion.





The only one that made it in was this last one, which I took in my kitchen!

Thank you to everyone who sent congratulations! I must admit I'm terribly proud of it and very relieved to be able to talk about it. It made me feel incredibly clever.

Some people have asked me about substituting yarn, and how much was used. You should be able to substitute yarns pretty easy. This yarn was sport weight. It felt only slightly heavier than fingering which I think would work fine, maybe on 1 size smaller needles.

The shawl itself weighs 6.8 oz, which calculates out to 765 yards used. If you use a smaller gauge you would need to do more columns and rows to get the same size shawl, so you might need a bit more, but I think 200g of sock yarn would be plenty to make that size.

Part of what makes the shawl hang the way it does is the weight of that particular yarn though. I think it will feel quite different if made with 100% wool. I would look for something with at least some silk, bamboo, linen etc content if you want the same drape.

Edited because I forgot to mention, DO NOT be afraid of the crochet hook called for in the instructions. You only need it to do some chain stitches in the bind off (and you can even do it with needles if you prefer). I'm going to post a video of how to do that in the next week, hopefully.

Jabberwocky

Wow were these ever on a long journey here

Last summer I registered for Sock Summit, and one of the classes I was lucky enough to get in to was Making the next Monkey, with Amy Singer (editor of Knitty).

I'd been designing sock patterns for a while, and I'd submitted one to Knitty before that was turned down, so of course I felt like I had to come up with something great to show Amy at the class, but nothing I could come up with was innovative enough. This idea came to me just a couple days before I left for Portland and I churned them out in record time. I knit almost all of the first sock on the planes.

Amy liked my pattern and thought it had a good chance of getting in (sweet!). She gave us all some tips and I went home and took them all in and submitted it for winter issue, and waited. A lot.

They didn't make it in that issue (and I'd seen Skew in person and kinda knew why!), but Amy was interested enough to ask if she could hold them for the next issue. So I waited some more.


Well they finally did get turned down, and now that I've edited it together into a PDF for all of you I've added it to my store.



The pattern comes in 4 sizes, from tiny women's (the first pair was too small for me and went to my friend with wee feet) to Men's. Knit top down, and a really fast knit, with just a little something to keep you interested. The gusset wraps around the front of the foot and lets the swirly twisty thing go straight down to the floor.

The name is inspired by Through the Looking Glass, because of the way the socks are mirrors of each other (with maybe a small nod to the Lost Sideways reality). Hope you like them!

Resolutions

Hey, remember when I used to blog?

So, it's a little late for new year's, but I'm making a resolution to start blogging again regularly. I had been searching back in the blog archives for something recently and I've decided that it was Ravelry that killed my blog. It was shortly after I discovered Ravelry that the blogging went down the tubes. But I liked looking back on it so, I'm bringing it back.

I have so much to tell you! There is a lot of new designing to share, and lots of knitting. Are you getting tired of seeing those Orion socks over there in the WIPs? I know I am.

In the mean time, I'm going to tease you with pictures of new patterns.