Tabi or Not Tabi?

Gentle readers, behold what happens when one attempts to finish a pair of socks during a week of legislative drama but several months have intervened between sock the first and sock the second, one has a roaring headache, and one has forgotten what one was doing. The pair in question: a shortie, beaded-cuff version of Send in the Clowns by Adrienne Fong. I CO on Inauguration Day and finally BO last night. As it happens, it was not for the first time, for the socks or for another failed attempt to repeal Obamacare.



Oops. Happily, fixing a toe is no big deal. I just picked up stitches, unpicked the graft...



... frogged back, and reconditioned the yarn. (That mushroom-cloud-like tangle seems like a fitting image for this crazy week.) The yarn, Scout's Swag 100% Superwash Merino, colorway Ballooney, was my very first club yarn, from way back in November 2007. It's lovely to knit with and comfortable to wear, but sadly is not durable.



My formula of 36% sts for the big toe and 64% sts for the rest worked out to 24 sts for the big toe and 40 sts for the rest when I re-knit a tabi toe.



That's better.

July Catch Up

After much to-ing and fro-ing and repeated trips up laundry mountain and email mountain, I've finally made some progress, begun to catch up, and am even getting my summer projects in order. I started my TdF project, spinning lovely Cobblestone Roving in colorway Sandtown-Winchester. I don't have a specific goal beyond simply enjoying spinning along. Let me just say this stuff is easy to enjoy – a good choice for the over-busy. I recommend it highly.



Then there's my woefully neglected Camp Loopy projects. This year Camp has gone chthonic – it's all about things forgotten or undiscovered in the earth, dinosaurs and caverns and the like, researching which led me to the delightful but apparently defunct blog Dinosaurs! WTF?, source of all dino links in this post. Ah, the irony, and its converse, the wrinkly.

Anyway. The yarn for the June project was ordered with such high hopes in May. It's Cascade Ultra Pima, colorway 3777 African Violet, and came with an assignment to the extremely chatty Camp Stegosaurus and a Velociraptor totem. I cast on a CeCe by Bonne Marie Burns, DNF on time. I'll get back to it... eventually.



The yarn for the July project was ordered in June. It's Rohrspatz & Wollmeise Lacegarn, colorway Kornblume, and came with an assignment to Carlsbad Caverns Campers and the Nearly Headless Nick of dinosaurs, Parasaurolophus [almost crested lizard], as a totem. My plan was to knit Spelunking Cardigan by Anna Dalvi, but I have yet to cast on. I may never do so. I blame the busyness.



And the yarn for the August project just arrived. It's Hedgehog Fibres Merino Lace, colorway Harajuku, and came with an assignment to Camp Loopasaurus and a Styracosaurus totem and an Ankylosaurus sticker (<-- do click the link).

The yarn is really, really bright. I swatched a bit and discovered when knit single it's too spindly for what I have in mind and when knit double it's too robust. Before I saw it IRL I had thought about swapping it for my July project... but now? Mark that with a resounding, Er....

As long as I'm contemplating antiquities, let me offer a series of three serious and one daft links on Hobby Lobby Robby Hamurabi. I'm not in the market for antiquities and hadn't really thought about this pro tip – when no provenance is given for an item, it almost certainly is stolen – but I'll pay closer attention in museums going forward. Not to mention I've never shopped at Hobby Lobby, and have no intention to start.

Baltimore Convention Consolations

All the to-ing and fro-ing has wreaked havoc on my knitting, spinning, canning, blogging, etc but one consolation is when in Baltimore for a convention I was able to visit Neighborhood Fiber Co. It's in a converted firehouse – there are still lunettes in the ceiling where the poles for the firefighters to slide down used to be. They really, truly used to do that.



For conventioneers, the shop is easy to get to (from the Baltimore Convention Center it's a short ride on the light rail) and well-worth a visit. I splurged on a braid of absolutely lovely Cobblestone Roving (75/25 BFL/Silk) in colorway Sandtown-Winchester for my Tour de Fleece project and some other goodies. I dunno when I'll have time to start it – the Grand Départ was July 1 – but that's another matter. At least I'm ready to start.



There was a lot of sitting in large groups during this convention, ideal for working discreetly on a small project like a Lionberry crescent shawlette. Mine is knit in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Capitol Luxury Lace (80/10/10 MCN), colorway Del Rey.



When I bought the Sugar 'n Cream at the big box store I had the foresight to also buy a circular needle. While I've had decent experiences with some big box store knitting needle brands, such as Susan Bates, Clover, or Boye, alas, this no-name one turned out to be very poorly made. The suffering inflicted by the poor quality needle almost canceled out the pleasure of the lovely yarn. Note to self: don't do that again.

Some of my fellow conventioneers had good views from their hotel rooms into Camden Yards, which indeed is a most beautiful baseball stadium. I just had a view of the convention center complex. Interestingly, one of the buildings has a green roof. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the plants are very closely spaced and some appear to be three or four feet (0.9-1.2 m) tall. I don't know if this green roof has much impact on pollution or the urban heat island effect, but it was more pleasant to look at than an ordinary roof.



During free time while some people took in a baseball game and others went to the Inner Harbor, I visited Lexington Market to try crab cakes and soft-shell crab at Faidley's, which were pricey and very good. Many crab cakes are too highly seasoned to my taste, but these were just right. As for the soft-shell, I was told that the proper way to eat a soft-shell crab is fried, in a sandwich with the legs dangling out. I was veddy proper. (Faidley's also has all kinds of other seafood.)



Thanks to the conference I spent the Fourth of July traveling, then at home blissfully making up my sleep deficit. Sigh. Every year I vow: Never travel on a holiday. Then I end up doing it anyway. Ah well, at least this time there were consolations.