I know what you all are thinking.  “I wish Gail would post some pictures of her Drunken Bees socks.  I hope they are fuzzy, and almost show her underwear!”

Well, you are in LUCK!

(In the above picture (which Barb took for me - thanks Barb!), you can see my car, part of the moose sweatshirt I’m wearing, the fact that I badly  need a pedicure, and far more pudgy leg than most folks would like to see.  Oh, and the sock.  Sort of.   My cell phone picture taking capability is low, and god forbid I carry around a camera.)

In any case, you can see that I’m on the foot.  I’ve decided that I lack the brain power to keep up the partial cable chart down the sides of the foot, so I’m doing 1×1 rib, with the main cable panel down the center.

(In this picture, you can see Barb’s shawl, my pudgy toes, and some brickwork.)

If I reknit this this pattern, I think I would use size 1s, as the pattern calls for.  The 0s are making a pretty dense fabric, and are a smidge tight on the legs.  I like how the foot is fitting though.

Yes, its time for the WOW! Selection for September (and August cause we’re slow).

First up, August. I selected some lovely Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Crazy Color 6-ply / 6-fädig that I had bought at Little Knits when they put it on sale for like 10 cents a ball or something cruel like that. I was worried that with the low yardage and the sport weight yarn I’d be making anklets for everyone, so I used Kim Salazar’s Pine Tree Sock pattern, because it was toe up. As you can see, I had more than enough yardage to make a very nice pair of size six hobbit feet socks.

Hunter is not impressed with the regia. He didn’t try to eat it once! I was lazy and did an Estonian Cast off on the cuff, which is why they are so wavy. But they are good and stretchy, unlike my first “normal” cast off. (Yes, Barb, you were right. :)) I’m not sure its actually called Estonian Cast Off, but I learned it in a Nancy Bush class about Estonian Lace.

Now on to September! In August, a group of friends bought me this skein of totally awesome Socks that Rock Lightweight in the very very very very wanted Oregon Red Clover Honey colorway. Why?  Because I rock.  *preen*  Hee.

I cast on for Drunken Bees in September, which meant it was stashed for a few days, so it TOTALLY COUNTS as a WOW! selection.

Henri Emile Rat says it ought to be called Rat Colorway, cause it matches him. Here’s a close up of the sock.

I so love Socks that Rock.

Guess what?  Hunter Cat is Super Famous Again!   He made it on to icanhascheezburger.com!

I didn’t write that caption - mine was not nearly as funny.  But when you upload an image to the lolcat builder, other folks can use them to make their own.   Laurel actually took that picture, and I know I’ve posted it to this blog before.

Knitting wise, I’ve been working on the “Flower Shawl” from Couture Knit Elegance 11 Knit that Monica lured me into buying.  It’s a Japanese knitting book.  I cropped out this picture based on the preview.

This super nice blogger posted a better picture of the book and pattern.  Japanese patterns are actually standardized by the Japanese government, so once you know the chart symbols, it ought to be fairly straight forward.    However, I was having a heck of a time figuring out the yardage required.   Luckily, the above link translated the critical bit, and I was able to figure out that it uses a little under a 1000 yards of a DK weight yarn.   I had some dark green Rowan Felted Tweed in my stash that is working perfectly for it.  Mine is more rustic, but I love how its looking.

However, apparently I’m too lazy to take a picture, so you all will have to wait.

Speaking of Japanese Knitting books, YesAsia.com has a ton of them, and they do free international shipping if you order over 25 dollars.   Best yet, their site is largely in english.  What I’ve been doing is finding a knitting book, and then clicking my way through the suggestions.  Many of them have pictures of the inside of the book you can preview as well, which helps.

I know, you all are dying.  Just dying.   Many fabulous knitting things have happened, but have I blogged about them?  Of course not.

First, I went on the Threadbear Road Trip that Dee organized.   I bought no yarn, because a couple of days before I went I found an incredible pair of shoes for a very marked down price that ate up my yarn budget.  I did still manage to spend 40 dollars on patterns.   Dee organizes AWESOME trips, so go on the next one she does.

Oh, I also didn’t take any pictures.   Well, except this one.

It’s Monica’s “One Size Fits All” shirt!   As you can tell, it fits me!   I only wore it long enough to take the picture on the bus, and then threw it to Lynette.  It’s her job to wear it next.

The next yarn related event involved going to Loopy Yarn for their Spring Yarn Tasting.  I ended up  falling in love with Berroco Bonsai, which is mosty soy, with a polymide rapper.   It’s uncomfortably close to a novelty yarn, but it knits up great, and I fell in love with this sweater.

Yes, I will stand like that when I finish the sweater.  I went with brown though.  I’ve done a fair bit of the front, but if you all wait for me to go take a picture of it, this blog entry will never ever finish.  Instead, look at the baby baby ducks that are hanging out in my apartment’s pond.

Speaking of Loopy, my review of them on Yelp was May 23rd’s Review of the Day.  Yes, I squealed.

In other exciting knitting news, Monica is now a fabulous sock designer!  I got to test knit her sock patterns - here are two of them.

On the left is “Sweet Dreams”.  On the right is “Sleepwalkers”.   I used Socks that Rock lightweight Lemongrass, since I didn’t have any Dream in Color yarn.

There, that’s a blog entry that should hold you all for awhile.

I’m such a bad cat mommy.

I raised a yarn snob.  As we’ve seen on this very blog, Hunter loves Rowan yarn.  He goes after Kidsilk Haze and Tapestry like no one’s business.  He’ll find it even if you bury it in a bag, under a blanket, up on a high shelf - mainly, if you have to put in a drawer and close it.

Well, I decided to conduct an experiment.  I found out that Patons SWS has the exact same yarn content (70% Wool, 30% Soy) as Rowan Tapestry, but is worsted weight, not DK.   I bought three skeins at Joann’s, and left one skein out next to the “yarn safe” - otherwise known as a hat box.   Here’s what the skein looked like in the morning.

That’s right - he didn’t touch it.  He’s a total yarn snob.

Speaking of Rowan Tapestry, I’m almost, almost, almost done with Parker from Rowan 40.  The back is done.  The front is done. The sleeves are done.  See, I have proof:

Why isn’t it done?  Because finishing the sleeves is a false summit.  After you knit the sleeves, you have to knit the scarf pieces.  It’s like you finish a sweater, and then someone taps you on the shoulder saying “By the Way, you need to knit a scarf too”.  I do really like Tapestry, despite its cat attracting properties.  It fuzzes up like a mohair blend, but isn’t scratchy at all.  It can be a little pilly, but that’s mainly because Hunter keeps trying to eat it.  But, its easy enough to pick the pills out.  The colorway I’m using is called Rustic.  I really like it - this picture isn’t really true to life - its less pink, and more muted browns and greens.