Summer Nights

The early portion of the Summer of Socks midnight cast on party at Modern Yarn was spent knitting on non-SoS projects, chatting amiably, and investigating many snacks. There was judicious consideration of a few flavors and of the correct pronunciation of Pocky (rhymes with rocky, which is pronounced differently in Japan and the U.S. – that doesn't really help, does it).

Some people were camera shy and somehow I didn't take decent pix of others, but Kristen was brave enough to try orange dessert Pocky on camera while HWJF pondered men's Pocky. Notice Kristen's outstanding hand position; not shown: HWJF's socks.



Nancy enjoyed men's Pocky. A bottle of fizzy blueberry lemonade ranneth over – Nancy had nothing to do with it, but that's why there's a roll of toilet paper on the table. We rescued the knitting first, of course.



Kim seemed partial to tomato Pretz. Later, she and Xtina compared tats.



Meanwhile, I was amazed by all the yarn in Paige's knitting bag. That's only half of the total. You know a knitting party is heating up when stash is flashed.



Amusing preliminaries aside, at 12:01 am (EDT) the SoSers promptly engaged in intense casting on. A deep and abiding silence fell on all present. I did not take pix of the sudden solemnity out of respect. Also, I was dealing with disgorged yarn guts and trying to remember how to do the fussy cuff because I forgot my pattern at home.



Here's my first SoS project, Dalarna by Nancy Bush (in Knitting on the Road, also see errata), worked in Regia Silk, colorway 098 Coal. I'm loving the tvaandstickning cuff (I remembered!), just the thing to give some body to the very soft silk blend yarn. I thought coal = black, but the yarn is actually dark brown, perhaps a reference to the lignite found in Europe, rather than the anthracite prevalent in Pennsylvania.

When I got home from the party, it was to find the link to Wendy's pattern in my inbox, which downloaded easily. A bit later the link to the SoS CafePress store appeared. Woo-hoo! My thanks go to Wendy and to Jessica and her magical elves, particularly Risa. It's only the first day and already it's a wonderful summer.