My little sister is 18!

While I've not been blogging, my little sister went and turned 18 in October. I can hardly believe it. She's the first person I've known from baby to adult, and it's making me feel really old.

I'm not really sure what the kids are into these days, but I'm pretty sure my sister likes crazy socks. Us? Related? Apparently she never matches them, which is where the resemblance ends. Well, she'll probably have to wear these as a pair, since knitted socks are so much thicker. Oh but then maybe she'd wear different thickness socks as well as different patterns and lengths...shudder....I need to stop thinking about that. I would probably gnaw my own ankle off if I tried that.

Anyway, socks.



This is yarn I got in Switzerland, at the department store. One of the many wonderful things about Europe is that you can buy yarn at the department store. And the really amazing thing is that it is good quality yarn. Most of it is wool, there is superwash or not, it is available in solid colors, and most of the sock yarn comes with reinforcing. Amazing. This is some Opal sock yarn from Co-op City (apparently the "City" makes a difference - regular Co-op sadly does not have yarn.)

In Summary:

Yarn: Opal Sock Yarn, I lost the ball band, but typical wool/nylon sock blend with bonus! reinforcing
Needles: Size US 1 dpn
Pattern: K2 p2 ribbed cuff, k6 p2 ribbed leg, typical heel flap, typical toe
Time: A few weeks, lazily, in Europe
Cost: Not telling as it's a gift, but less than one would expect

Europe.

Yes, while I was away, I went to Europe. Sorry about not telling you that. A certain gentleman I like I lot has the misfortune to live in Switzerland, and I went to visit him. It was in part a working trip, I had thesis writing to do, but I also did all the things one has to do in Europe.

I climbed to the top of a cathedral. This was more exercise I'd had since ...the last time I climbed to the top of a cathedral. The staircases are narrow and winding, and the tops of them tend to be really high up.


This is Geneva, Switzerland.


We also visited Manchester, England, where I bought all the knitting magazines. There are a lot of knitting magazines in the UK, did you know that? I will not be telling you how much I spent or how much the resulting stack weighed.


I saw a cathedral there too, but you weren't allowed to climb it.


Since I apparently can't go anywhere without poking at my dislike of heights, we also went up on the Manchester Eye, a slightly smaller version of the London one. I was totally fine with it. Really.



I drank lots of coffee.


And my wool-dar led me to barge that was also a knitting shop.



The nice lady let me in, even though it was closed. She was a knitter, and she and her husband, a photographer, live on the barge and travel up and down the river selling knitted goods and photographs. I bought a hat.



And I saw my friend Mika, who I had promised a "wooly hat" a long time ago.



This is the Quantoid Hat from the Fall 2010 Knitscene. I think I bought the issue solely for how cool this hat was. It did not disappoint.

In summary:

Yarn: Some superwash wool I got from Stitches, 1 skein medium blue, 1 skein light blue
Pattern: Quantoid Hat from Fall 2010 Knitscene
Needles: Size 5 (3.75 mm) 16" circ, Size 6 (4 mm) 16" circ, Size 6 (4 mm) dpn
Time: A little more than a flight to Switzerland via a long layover in Canada
Cost: About $16, you count yarn used and not purchased. I have enough left over to easily make a contrasting one, if not the same hat again.

Oh, and we took cutesy pictures of ourselves. We're kind of disgusting.

O Hai, Blog

It's been a while. I keep meaning to dig into this thing and fix the slightly screwed up template, but since that's not going to happen just yet, I'm going to start posting anyway.

While I have not been blogging, I have been knitting. And sewing. And traveling. And all sorts of other things. Like, um, writing my thesis. But that will be done very soon! And I will go back to showing you the things I make.

Duncan is looking in my computer for pictures for you.