Scofflaw Socks

One of my aunts is an avid royals watcher; me, not so much. Alas, neither of us received an invitation to this Friday's wedding of the century (a phrase that makes her sigh and me gag). I briefly thought about knitting her some corgi slippers to mark the day, but no. At least I have newly finished handspun socks in colorway Royal Platypus, modeled on my pasty spring legs with some pale spring flowers – the New Jersey state flower, wild violets.



I'm inordinately pleased with these socks, which are mine from spun fiber to FO (as much of the process I want to own, at least for now) and with the way the pix capture the richly saturated figgy colors of the Into the Whirled BFL.



The excellent sock pattern, Supporter's Socks by Linda Pankhurst, was the qualifying round in this year's Sock Madness. I was eliminated, but in some respects, losing was liberating. Sock Madness patterns tend to be a bit short in the leg, a bit long in the foot for my taste, and for competition one must knit the pattern as written or larger. My socks are taller than pattern in the leg, shorter than pattern in the foot. Then there's mystery variation between the legs – the stitch gauge is more or less the same, but the row gauge is 'way off. Can you see it?



Part of the leg variation is due to the vagaries of handspun, but most is because I finished one sock, contracted a pox, and tried to knit on while medicated. I thought about frogging the second sock and re-knitting, but decided a pox on that! The socks differ from pattern and from each other – if that bugs the knitting police, all I have to say to them is Pbbt.

Also today, I got the long-awaited Nook Color software update to Android 2.2, or Froyo. There be Flash and apps! I'm enjoying the toys, although demanding creature that I am, I liked the speed of the old non-Flash-y browser and I'm not sure why there needs to be a paid app for functions (such as a calculator) that seem like they oughta be native to a computing machine. But not to criticize – the app store is only a day old and I'm still exploring the update.

Cherryblossomland 2011

Last week was a trying one roundabout Exit 151, which made cherry blossom viewing in Branch Brook Park all the more consoling. Even though sometimes it rained like crazy so my viewing was done from inside the car. (The blurry spots in the photo are rain on the windshield.)



Sometimes the trees were tempest-tossed. Like most spring-flowering plants, cherryblossom trees are tougher than they look. If it weren't for the rain, wind, and flooding, this year was one of the more spectacular.



I was hoping to go on the Brick City Bike Collective Cherry Blossom Bike Tour to honor fallen sakura cyclists. Branch Brook Park in bloom season is my favorite spring bike ride. But there were three funerals at Church of the Improv this weekend, all beloved members of the community who left it when released from their ravaged bodies, although too soon for the rest of us. So instead of going on a memorial ride, I attended the memorial services and pondered impermanence and mortality.

And I finished my languishing Tokena singleton, a Sock Madness pattern from two years ago. I quit working on it when I was eliminated from competition, but I always return to my UFOs eventually.



Given the hiatus, I was concerned there might be gauge issues upon resuming knitting. But as this inside out view shows, there weren't, which is something to smile about.

Pink Watch

After the March weather reverted to roaring like a lion (that'll learn me to complain about an early thaw!), after floods, after divers other spring surprises, it's finally time for the pink watch. A few months ago I bought a fancy heart rate monitor from pknit. She suggested I put it to use immediately, but the notion of shoveling snow in the zone was so depressing I put it away instead. Here it is, ready to go.



Branch Brook Park is also ready to show off – this year Newark Restaurant Week coincides with the Cherry Blossom Festival. There's even a Bloom Season Barometer in front of the visitors center that indicates that at the moment the majority of the trees in Cherryblossomland are: Budding.



I suppose the barometer is a useful thing, although perhaps it would be better placed on the website or even at the entrances to the park... because if one is at the visitor center in the middle of the park, one can determine the condition of the trees for oneself by direct observation.



Which is not meant as a complaint, merely a constructive suggestion. While buds may lack the charm of blossoms, forward-looking optimists are happy to see them. And I never tire of scouting the park for the early bloomers, which have a delicate grace all their own.



Pity the same cannot be said of my knitting. I started this SKA January Mystery Sock and, alas, am bored. The beads, the STR Raven Clan colorway, the goth girl vibe – they bore me.



Sigh. It's time to think pink.

Earth Hour 2011

This evening when I turn off the lights at 8:30 local time for Earth Hour, I'll be thinking of the people of the northeast [tohoku] of Japan enduring the triple catastrophes of major earthquake, major tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear crisis. My blackout will be voluntary and temporary; in the Tohoku region, which includes Tokyo, rolling blackouts are mandatory, likely to continue for a long time, and could well presage far worse to come.

It's sobering to consider one of the great cities of the world reduced to third-world privations and nuclear age terrors in less than an hour, sobering too to note that New Jersey derives over a third of its electricity from four nuclear generating stations of similar vintage to those at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi complex. They were "hardened" after 9/11, which not only suggests they were "soft" before, but also ignores questions of scope and degree. It would seem that it's only after – after levees fail, after the financial sector crashes, after the carefully calculated assumptions and omissions of the five-year or the 50-year or the 500-year risk analysis crumble – that we forego for a time the belief that it can't happen here, oh no, not in a thousand years.

Which is not to suggest I plan to waste spend my Earth Hour sitting in the dark, flagellating my conscience and bewailing the fate of humankind. Nor does a heedless Totentanz of denial make any sense to me. I have socks to knit and a crank lantern to knit them by, and that's what I plan to do for a quiet spring hour, come flood, computer bluescreens, or medieval pox.

Photos to come. Of socks, not pox, of course!

Added March 28: It occurs to me I neglected to mention that roundabout Exit 151 there indeed has been flooding, computer blues, pox, and divers and sundry other events in the weeks (!) between the last post and this one. Also not nearly as much knitting as one might hope – I missed the first round cut for Sock Madness, but continue to knit on, even during Earth Hour.



I'm knitting the first-round pattern, Supporter's Socks by Linda Pankhurst, in my own fingering spindled from Into the Whirled Superwash Blue Face Leister. The pattern and socks are worth a longer discourse, to follow ::cough:: soon. Right now I'm playing catch up... and missing Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Ah well.

Early Thaw

Roundabout Exit 151 the big thaw is on in earnest. Welcome as that may be after all the snow, it feels early... too early. I'd be quite happy if the BMSBs (brown marmorated stink bugs) invading casa Jersey Knitter slept a little longer. Jersey gardeners will recall that spring sprang a good two weeks ahead of normal last year – 2010 is officially tied with 2005 for the hottest year on record. A hotter year = more BMSBs, more of the time.

For the record, here's the current view out my front window. The new leaves belong to Spring Thaw Shawl by Cheri McEwan, showing off before jumping in the mail to my downstream secret pal in the Knit Girllls shawl swap. I enjoyed knitting it – I hope my pal enjoys wearing it.



This was my first time knitting with the yarn, New England Shetland. It's lovely stuff with great stitch definition, more "sticky" than traditional Shetland yarn, with less of a halo after blocking – perfect for Shetland lace or colorwork with steeks. I'd gladly use it again.



My upstream swap pal, Jessica, sent me this beautiful Hamamelis Shawl and a taste from her hometown, genuine Kansas City barbecue sauce. Thank you, Jessica! The excellent swap package remedies two regrets of mine: I have never made a Kirsten Kapur shawl (and thus have none to flaunt on those occasions that call for shawl-flaunting) and, although I visited KC once, I never got to sample their famous barbecue (long story involving the obnoxious, but Constitutionally protected, Westboro Baptist Church).



Next Wednesday is the start of Lent, a seven-week period preceding the Christian holiday Easter. Some people party hard the day before Lent starts, then give up booze or bread or chocolate for the duration. Neither extreme self-indulgence nor extreme self-abnegation has much appeal for me, so I'm planning to explore a carbon fast. As the chart borrowed from 350.org indicates, it's past time to stop the madness. What that means on the fiber front is there will be knitting and contemplation of my carbon footprint and the good hope that the only madness will be Sock Madness.