bikes and socks

Yesterday was a nice sunny day. I did a shift of inventory at Karma Co-op, and then spent part of the afternoon in High Park, watching bike racing. It was great weather, and the perfect day for sitting in the park, knitting, and watching fancy bikes go speeding by…

my favorite combo: nice bikes and handknit socks

My newly-finished Jaywalker socks enjoyed the racing! These socks have been on the needles since Christmas, but I was soon distracted by the Socks That Rock I acquired over the holidays. I used Fortissima Colori from a crazy project I rarely speak of (it involves sock yarn and a short sleeve sweater – as if I have the patience for that!), 2.75dpns, and overall enjoyed the pattern.

happy feet

They are fraternal twins – the stripes are far from matching – and a little loose, making them quite different to wear from the Yarrow Rib socks of my last post. Again… wool socks in the summer? Not the most necessary knit accessory for this hot weather, but guess what I have on the needles as we speak!

did someone say socks?

(Gentleman's Fancy Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks, Louet Gems Pearl in Charcoal, 2.5mm needles, magic loop)

just in time for summer…

…new wool socks!

  yarrow rib socks. finally.

socks with spring flowers

These are Yarrow Rib Socks, from Knitting Vintage Socks. I did them toe-up, to make the most of my first ever skein of STR, and I am glad I did, though they still ended up being a bit short for my liking. They aren't ankle socks, but they aren't as tall as I would have made them if I had two separate skeins. And if I weren't so impatient – let's be honest, even if I had knit each sock from its own skein, the legs would have been a battle between me wanting them to be the perfect length, and me getting impatient and wanting to finish the damn things.

Two things I learned while making these socks:
1 – bind off technique is very important with toe-up socks. The only one I found that worked was a sewn tubular bind-off; everything else was too tight to get the sock on
2 – I need to either go up a needle size or increase the number of stitches for the leg. These socks are difficult to get on, they are so tight, but once they are on… heaven.

camping

I have been really wanting to plan a bike trip. Or maybe not so much plan one, as to just go on one. Luckily, a couple of opportunities are coming up soon.

First, Victoria Day long weekend! I am thinking of taking the bike and going camping. There are a few provincial parks within 100km of Toronto – I have a tent, I have a bike… really, what more do I need?!? A couple of friends have expressed some interest, but otherwise, I would consider going on my own. I mean, if I can deal with two weeks of solo bike riding in Ireland, surely I can handle a weekend on my own. Anybody fancy sleeping in the woods on the long weekend?

Another sure-to-be-fun thing is the Tour de L'ile, on June 2 and 4. It's actually a night ride on June 2, and last year it was so much fun. So I have registered for both rides this year. Details on how I'm actually going to get to Montreal…um, we'll sort that out later. Sadly, my photos from last year are crap (funny, for someone who has taken two photography courses, I still seem to take a lot of crap photos!), but it was fun. I promise.

dear spring!

Can I tell you how much I love spring? Spring and fall are my favorite two seasons (especially in Toronto, where I think summers are too hot and winters are too cold).

Dear, dear spring! Sunshine, green grass, cats wandering the neighbourhood… it's all great. And gloriously long, sunny days, which mean even if I am stuck at work until 7pm 8pm, it is still light out as I head home.

Last night was Critical Mass, and it was a very relaxed, fun ride.  I had originally intended to meet someone there to pick up the Collective's button machine. There was a large crowd at Bloor and Spadina, and it was great to see so many people I haven't seen in a while. I had planned to go straight home after picking up the machine, but decided to start the ride. And the ride was so fun, and there were so many people to catch up with, I just kept riding. It was great! By the time we reached the Viaduct, I knew there was no turning back…

And so rather than going home and having a relaxing evening, I went for a lovely bike ride (though it was kind of chilly), and went to the opening City Idol event, which were short speeches by all the candidates. I love City Idol, and will post more about it later. In the end, I made it home around 11:30. Not the night I planned, but it was nice to just get swept up in events around me, and to not worry too much about anything else.

free… time?

I honestly don't really know what free time is any more. Over the Easter break, I had 4 days off, and I went to work part day for one of them. Partially because I really did have to go, and partially because, wow, it just felt like a long time off, and I sort of needed something structured to do. You seriously must know that your life sucks when you willingly go to work on a holiday, and manage to feel bad about not working more.

 Oh, but I should have enjoyed those extra hours to myself on Easter Monday. Did going in curb any of the craziness that has been the past two weeks? Um, no. I guess project launches and event-planning is just like that. It's as if, regardless of how much preparation time you put in, you will still be losing sleep over it and working like mad up until the time the event starts. At least it went well!And now I get to relax a bit. Though I feel like I'm sitting in the eye of the storm. It's all nice and quiet now, but it'll be bad once June gets here.

How about some knitting content? Second Sock (That Rocks) is so close to being done. Two more inches on the leg, and it is time to bind off! I have some gift socks on my mind, and yes, even though Christmas is a long ways off, I am thinking of starting them next. I have also been dreaming in colour – it must be leftover from the class at Lettuce Knit, but I have been wanting to start a project involving stranded knitting ever since. Can't decide between socks, legwarmers, or maybe mitts. Who am I kidding… I really want to do all of them, but I realize that I don't have the time.

Sometimes I wish I were unemployed! Or still working 4 days a week!

Tree Sweater

This tree sweater is the cutest! Too bad I just went through my stash and got rid of all of my scraps and crap yarn… and also too bad I don’t have time to do fun stuff these days!

colour!

On Friday, I took a class at Lettuce Knit with Annie Modesitt! It was on colourwork, and it was really great. We covered stranded knitting and intarsia, and both were easier than I had expected. It was still really fun to take a class, especially since Annie Modesitt was lovely, funny and a great teacher.

I used some of my scrap yarn in the class, although Manos probably wasn’t the best to use because of the inconsistent thickness! Still, the bottom of my swatch was blocked, and it looks really good. I was stash-busting, so please ignore how badly these colours go together.

from bottom to top: stranded knitting, intarsia and plaid

check out these floats: straight and twisted stranded knitting

 

And on the sock front…

one down, one to go!

photo friday

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Palo Alto, 2002

now playing

I walked past the Bloor tonight as someone was switching the afternoon and early shows for tomorrow’s schedule. As I went by:

4:15 – A Clockwork Named Desire

7:00 – A Streetcar Orange

mmmmm

Cupcakes.