Best Quote I Heard All Day
The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched--Henry David Thoreau

I'm a sucker for colors. Big bags of colored fiber.

But First, Socks
I don't count socks as "projects," per se. Every summer, this one excepted, I knit about 6-8 pairs of socks for myself and as adjunctive Christmas presents for family.

Socks are the Kleenex of knitting. You use 'em, abuse 'em, throw 'em away. And then restock.

So far this summer, I've only completed two pairs. One pair in Sockotta for John (which he has shoved in his dresser drawer) and this pair below.

The yarn is probably Opal. I always end up losing the band and then I forget what the fuck I'm using. As soon as one pair is done, I cast on for the next. I always have socks going. The ones below are also probably Opal. Lost the band again. Jesus.

I always use the same 60-stitch, 7 spi sock pattern, I always knit them from the top down, I always use four needles. I never get bored making them, for some odd reason. They fit me well. Since my sister has the same huge feet as I do, I can knit the same for her. My mother has somewhat smaller feet.

Wait. I knit socks for my mother, that doyenne of knitting? The octogenarian knitting fool? Yep. After knitting my father a pair of argyles back around 1955, she swore she would never knit another pair of socks again. Now we all know that argyles are knitted flat, so I think it's really her dislike of small dps. She'll use dps when she has to on sweaters but won't knit socks.

My sock yarn collection is frightening. But then, what else is worth buying at Stitches these days? Books and sock yarn. That's about it for me.

And Your Little Dog, Too
I'm just about ready to start spinning the big bag o' fiber that I bought on vacation. So I spread it out on the floor to see what's what. Nineteen colors.

Then I separated all but the black and the dark brown into viable colorways for spinning.

I've labeled them. Pick your favorite and let me know via the Comments which one you like the best. I know which group is my favorite.

A

B

C

D

Obviously, there are many more colorways I could come up with. This took about 2 minutes of fucking around. And since my guesstimate of the weight of each ball is about one ounce, I would need to spin 4 colors in order to get enough for a pair of adult-sized socks.

So vote early and vote often. A would make enough for a pair of socks for Liz and those happen to be her favorite colors lately. I could add either the dark brown or black to C to make enough. Whatever.

Prerequiste Cute Kittypoo Woodums Picture

This is Buddy. Buddy has just moved in. Buddy doesn't give a fuck about anyone or anything that gets in Buddy's way, including Cleo. Buddy is a big motherfucker who eats like a hog and makes himself to home immediately.

We like Buddy. He's our kind of cat. Woodums. Whether he's rare and handy remains to be seen.