Sock porn

I promised a while back to share some of the images of the socks I've collected. FYI I try to find interesting 19th or early 20th century ones.

These are two of my favorites. I only have five, they aren't easy to find.
The entrelac ones are done out of a cotton thread with what looks like a crochet lace finish. The stripes look like a mercerized cotton, the leg was knitted on 2 needles and the heel and foot were done in the round. They have a knit lace trim.

So that is today's distraction. I haven't had time to get any work done. Between the mobs of people and the dripping from the upstairs bar this weekend has been driving me mad.

It should begin to calm down today. Everyone will be traveling home after the memorial day weekend.

My day started out with me breaking the coffee pot.

My own fault I am in a crazy mood. Anxiety or something.

While reading blogs this morning at Sistahcraft, a place where I lurk, I came across this link. It made me laugh. I don't know who the artist is.

Now I am at the shop/studio. It's a town wide yard sale so I thought that I should be here early to claim the space in front of the store. I will try to get some knitting in before the shopping day begins. I expect loads of people wandering through and maybe someone will buy something.

Ugh... holiday weekends.

Not all bad.
I picked up the second installment of the farm share. Tons of stuff for so early in the season. I guess the weather has been cooperating. Spinach and kale and lots of lettuce and baby turnips with the greens that look spectacular. It'll be fun cooking tonight.

vanity sock

The kinks with the material are worked out. I can see some socks coming out of this. The wool has a great hand. I am really liking the material. A great break from the synthetics I've been using.

Now the time thing has got to work out. Holiday weekends aren't usually too good for the studio. If I get here early enough I should get some knitting done.

I really wanted to post some photos of the stuff I have on the machine. But today has been a day of breaks. I'm trying to knit the alpaca and some very fine Italian merino. They don't like being on the machine.. I'll get a bit knitted and then a break.

Hey, does anyone have any tips for casting on the fine wool. Most of the breaking is happening right at the start with the cast on.

The rest of my time today and this weekend will be tied up with the rhinebeck show. Load in is tomorrow am. The show opens Saturday. I will be at the shop. Fran will be at the show. We need to make some money.

So to work...

Navel gazing

Some days there isn't any knitting or any story just a lot of stuff to do around the house and yard.
We're getting ready for Rhinebeck, not this Rhinebeck, this Rhinebeck.

Boring I know but just how it is sometimes.

Rain makes me think too much

Documenting the process for me is hard sometimes. I've got all kinds of things going on and I'm trying to bring them all together into a coherent visual.

To put it another way. I am still working on the thinking part of the work. Today I'm looking at the embellishment of the surface again. A pretty obvious and direct way. Machine embroidered hand on the knitting.

Yesterday I was talking in my studio to a former gallery owner. I was showing the stuff on the wall and then the hand knitted socks and those ideas. He said that it must really help in freeing up the thought process working on the hand knitting. Uhm... yep, that's what I'm trying to do. and all of this post has been a long way of saying nothing is on the machine today.

This has been a busy week with tons of non knitting stuff going on.

I have been working on the sock. I did the heel and hate it so I am ripping it out and starting it again.

Meanwhile I have taken Corbett's suggestion and knitted the leg of a sock on the machine. I dug out some of the alpaca from my stash and revived the bug pattern from the scarves.

Now I'll pick up stitches and start the heel and foot.
And then faces on legs.

I'm using the socks right now as a rest from the machine work. The art. It's a good break and gives me some time to think about the machine knitting and the final form for the work. 2 people looking at the things have asked if they are going to be mounted and framed. I guess that's a good thing, they are looking at them as art and not asking if I'm making pillows or a sweater (not that I have anything against pillows or sweater or any other functional knitted objects It's just not what these are).
So I'll continue work on the socks. Fran laughs and can't imagine that I will actually make a pair. He has seen the boxes of single mitten, gloves, and partially knitted patterned hats that I thought were well hidden.

I am working in the studio. The things there though aren't all that exciting or interesting.

When I haven't been in the studio I have been working on the sock. I'm using the supersocke 100 self striping wool that I received from Jim and Corbett for my birthday. I'm just starting on the heel. Hopefully it will go ok.

I'm off now to try to figure out the printer problem. I'll show some of the new images for the machine knitting when I get them printed out.

I've also been straightening up the studio and thought of posting some photos of the vintage socks from my collection. I can't get to that now. Too many other things going on at the moment. Not the least of which, well, I do have a store to run.

I'm taking today off for my birthday, I'm going to lunch at Cafe with Love. I'm already thinking about what I'll order. Who knows what else I'll do today. I'm hoping for nice quiet uneventful.

Things are working

My plan today was to get to the studio early and re-organized things. I've let it fall into a pretty messy state. First I had to get something knitted. I've been wanting to try some of the images with a cotton.
The machine cooperated ( I oiled and cleaned it yesterday) and I managed to get this done.
The strange thing is the color. I think that the cotton is absorbing a lot of light so I apologize for the photo.

Soon to come.... images of the tube that may one day become a sock. Corbett and Jim are enabling me and I now have sock yarn and a pattern.

When good machines go Bad

The culprit.

My machine is angry at me, I think.
I promise that I will do regular cleanings of you from now on so that the wall doesn't have too much of
This ...

There it is. An attempt at knitting some cotton this morning.

It might not totally be the machine's fault, you see, last night...

Even though my birthday isn't until Tuesday, we had a little get together. Good food and wine and friends and wine. Let me take a moment to say thank-you to this man. With his help and plenty of water I am feeling just about human.

I don't want to say that I am freaking out about this birthday, 49. I should hold off until next year and the mid-century mark. Every birthday freaks me out though.
So those are the factors that have contributed to the mess on the studio wall this morning. Just thinking about that makes me feel like going back to bed.

Muddle

I am excited today. The farmer's market in town is open for the season. I had forgotten to send in my payment for the farm share and when I saw my friends setting up I ran over to the shop to grab my checkbook. Ha, it's in the other bag that I carry around. The one I left at home today. Anyway that will get taken care of next weekend.

I thought I'd do some knitting. Where are my glasses? I have a sneaking suspicion that they are in the same bag as the checkbook. There goes that idea, well, I can still do a little knitting, I just will miss small skips on the machine.

My printer is not working either. yikes, There goes trying to print out the new images I've been making on knitPro.

Time to take a deep breathe, relax and not be too worried that the firemen's inspection parade is today and the street is closed off.

I'm going to knit now, without glasses.

Sun burned, wind burned

and it was raining.

I was only at the market for 2 days but it sure felt like an eternity.

I can't begin to describe what fun it is to wake up at 4 am and go to the fields searching (with thousands of others) for antiques. By about 1 pm everyone is a bit punchy and I usually am ready to shoot someone. And that's just the start of it. Because we set up on a field that opens at one. Yes I am an especially good salesperson with an aching back and feet outside in the wind and rain watching my stuff get ruined. Well enough of that. It almost ( almost) made me look forward to being in the shop.
I do have to thank Fran though for taking over on Tuesday afternoon so that I could drive home a little bit earlier.

So how much knitted stuff got done during all of this? 0, That's a big fat zero.

This morning was spent putting things back into the shop, drying them off and wiping the dirt off of them. I'm getting too old for this.

Tomorrow, I promise, some knitting. Right now I've got to find my lip balm.

I did a little bit of machine knitting today. I decided to do some experiments with cotton for an upcoming project. I tried to find one of the more complicated 2 color images.

Now I've got to get myself organized for the Mass. trip.

I'll be back on Thursday.

A Look Back

I haven't done any knitting lately. Not since before I left for Chicago. This morning I spent my time in the studio rummaging around, looking for inspiration. I found this piece. And have been thinking about it.

I also dug out some double pointed needles. I'm going to take them and a sock pattern along with me this week when we go to Massachusetts. Maybe I'll figure out the sock thing.


I'm working on a few new images to upload into the machine. That is a slow process since I program them in bit by bit. I'll have them ready to go soon. Then there will be more knitting.

until then... Carry on.

Some weeks just suck.

We had a lot of sadness around the house this week. My cousin, Lisa, passed away on Saturday she had been struggling for years with breast cancer. I had planned on writing a little bit of a tribute or some words, then we got caught up in Butch's decline.

So now both Fran and I sit around, thinking we hear Butch getting up. We didn't realize how tuned in we were to every little movement of his... He was old for so long.

There was a funny moment.
Driving in Kingston, New York we saw a sign that said,
"Cinco de Mayo, Saturday May 6th"

You do have to laugh sometimes.

End of an Era

Butch 198? - 2006

A step in the process

Some times when I'm trying to push through an idea I think it's good to play with a few ideas.
What if the knitting comes off of the wall and takes on some form?

I thought I would put these images out there. Really for me. Just to see If this idea might even have a possibility. It needs work. More specific I would say. Images made to then take on a third dimension.

In case you couldn't tell from this post I am floundering, or I feel like I'm floundering.

Even trying to come up with the words to describe what I'm thinking is difficult right now. So there it is. A step.

[an aside] Corbett I am looking forward to a knit day when you get back from N.C. I will dig out the dp's. Thanks for the sock help.