Clean Sweap

Today was a housework day. I hardly did anything on the book. I bought a new piece of furniture last week and one must do some rearranging to make full use of the new item. I got rid of some books, moved books, looked at books. books books books. And after 90 minutes my living room looks 62% more liveable. There's something therapeutic about this process for afterwards a calm came over me that I usually associate with a yoga session. And this good feeling (cue Violent Femmes) lasted the whole day. A stillness of mind, a realigned spirit. It remains even now, after grocery shopping, meal cooking and bill paying. I suppose this means I'm going to have to clean more. Strange how I also usually associate this frame of mind with knitting... hmmmm.

Since I was organizing, I figured I might as well go to the Container Store to get some magazine boxes. Which meant I also had an excuse to swing by the bookstore and pick up the new Vogue Knitting. It's beautiful and all, but it's expletively annoying that the patterns I want to knit are the downloadable ones off the Vogue Knitting website. You know what I'm talking about -all those beautiful patterns at the front of the magazine? Gorgeous, simple use of intriguing stitch patterns and silhouettes. Quelle suprise. Still, I'm glad I got it.

I've developed something of a coffee habit. In that I stopped by Peet's Coffee to read my Vogue Knitting. It was lovely. I was wearing a sleeveless cotton top and it was warm enough that I did not require a cardigan. Apparently there is such a thing as summer in Marin County. For about 40 minutes I felt like I was on vacation, the whir of the freeway substituting the crashing sway of the ocean. My arms even got a little tan, well at least my cluster-freckle version there of.

I took a moment from the cleaning to take a few photos of the few knitting projects I'm able to show you. Socks are my escape from book knitting. I'm not a fancy sock knitter. People send me sock patterns and sock books, but I'm usually happy with a simple rib, or endless stockinette. Socks for me are the thoughtless project. I get frustrated when socks carry on too long because I want to move off onto the next sock project, the new superduper magical hand dyed sundae of a sock yarn. There's no time for cabling in my sock project. That's what scarves and sweaters are for.

So voila:

These are the finished Phoenix socks, which I started to cheer myself up after I got laid off:


They certainly did the trick. It was hand-dyed Schaeffer Anne. It's beautiful to knit with, but it's fine fingering weight and it took dog's years to finish. I'm happy how similar the two socks look. And indeed I have resurrected myself since losing the FYC job. I was reading through my book submission materials and I'm pretty far along.

Ironically, I just have to get the silly thing organized.

Just the thought of that freaks me out. I'm at a point where I could actually submit the book proposal. Ack. The only thing stopping me is myself. Weird. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I didn't think I'd be here this soon. I should be celebrating.

Back to socks:

Here is sock one of the Page Mill Farm hand dyed yarn. Sock two has been cast on, but has been neglected in the name of book knitting for a while



Never have I been more satisfied with a sock yarn. It knits up quickly and have a beautiful loft. The colors are varied and vibrant. Dreamy.


GG