Flint Knits

I woke up this morning to a stuffy nose, and this:

But was soon cheered by what might be the best mail day ever. (As always, click the pics for bigger versions on Flickr.)

It’s the most gorgeous, most perfect rusty tomato red. I’m thinking either Nancy Bush’s Child’s First Sock, or maybe I’ll take a leap and try designing my own sock pattern to do it justice. Toe-up, of course, to make the most of every inch of this stuff.

Second, there was my first letter for Domesticat’s Knitterly Letter Swap. Alison, who lives in the UK, sent me a HUGE package by airmail standards:

[Click for details]

Photos, postcards, a souvenir tea towel, and a lovely four page letter. Thanks so much Alison! Sitting down for a bit with your letter and a cup of tea was exactly what I needed this morning.

Well, that, and the new pair of spring shoes that also arrived on my doorstep today:

Steel grey, peep-toe, kitten-heel goodness — usually $110, but I got them for $20 HERE. I did just pledge to not buy new clothes for six months, but as I am not (and have no intention of becoming) a hobby cobbler, I figure shoes aren’t included in that vow.

THANKS everyone, for all your input on fabric! I’ll post photos as soon as the color I just ordered arrives in the mail…

Back from New York, and I am t.i.r.e.d. It was a great trip — the conference went well, and I spent time catching up with long-lost friends and walking around the chilly city by myself. And I got some excellent fabric goodies at Purl, along with a skein of 40% off Koigu (show and tell tomorrow, because I’m too pooped to take pictures right now).

But the highlight of the trip was definitely my meet-up with Minty.

She’s already said this, but it was just one of those happy ‘click’ moments with a new friend. It appears that I did not freak her out by holding every bolt of fabric at Purl in front of my torso and asking if she could imagine it as a dress (”What about This Print? Really? On my Whole Body?”).

And when we sat down to lunch, three hours flew by as we talked — about food, work, relationships, books, self-portraiture, TV, movies, babies (and no babies), knitting and blogging (of course), and life in general. We laughed so much that the SoHo hipsters next to us moved to a different table.

[a photo of Minty taking a photo of escargots]

Many crepes later, we took pictures in front of The Point (it was too packed to sit inside), and I took home the other highlight of my trip: one perfect Beard Papa vanilla cream puff. Heaven.

First, thanks everyone for all the encouragement, commiseration, & well wishes. I finished my chapter draft AND my Flicker sock!

It’s raining cats here.
Also dogs.
So I’ll have photo of the sock sometime after the sun reappears.

In the meantime, here’s all my stash that’s fit for Project Spectrum’s April/May colors (pink/yellow/green). Ummmmm, any guesses as to what my favorite color is?

[click photo for yarn specs]

I thought I hated Noro. I started working with it pretty recently, and was especially irritated by the knotted joins, which tend to include an abrupt color-change that makes a cruel mockery of whatever intensive math and wool-winding one has done to match up the stripes on two socks, mittens, or sleeves.

The Lover requested a pair of fingerless mitts last week and, with no guidance from me, picked out a ball of Noro Kureyon amidst the cotton and novelty of a south Florida yarn shop.

I unwound and re-wound the whole ball, finding two perfect matching lengths to begin each mitten with. I was thrilled by both the serendipity of it (finding a color repeat in a single skein of Kureyon) and by my own clearly magnificent skills as a master knitter. Of course such arrogance must be punished: one inch up the second cuff, I found a knot that I had missed before. It cut off the creamy beige, skipped three colors in the stripe pattern, and picked up again in the middle of a dark grey bit. I was livid pissed.

Then I put the mitts down, got out of the car and spent the afternoon at Letchworth Canyon State Park in central New York. The muddy, brown, rocky beauty of the waterfalls and surrounding cliffs, gulches, woods, etc. reminded me that the cool thing about Noro (in addition to its “knitting nature” aesthetics, which happened to match this natural environment to a creepy degree — see photos) is its unpredictability and wildness. Those irritating knots may simply be a money and time saver for the manufacturer, but for the knitter, they’re a sticky reminder that (in spite of our sexy and valient efforts) we can’t — and probably shouldn’t — always be in total control.

The finished mitts don’t match perfectly. The Lover adores them anyway, and together we decided on an asymmetrical black edging to make the most of their uniqueness. So besides being warm, attractive, and made with love, they’re a reminder for this control freak of the exciting and creative things that can happen when we give up control (willingly or no).