I have a confession to make . . .

I've been holding out on you. I recently discovered, to my horror, that the woman responsible for Brookside Yarns is no longer dyeing yarn. I have coveted her yarn for years, and now the stash of sale yarn at Knitch is the only yarn available in the world. (I did put up an ISO post on Ravelry, though, just in case.) I immediately snapped up all Kim had of the brown, and some of the pink and the red.

And it is well on its way to becoming a sweater.

Look at those colors. Isn't that spectacular?

As you can tell from the top picture, the three balls of brown are VERY different dye lots, so I'm having to alternate two rows of each, but it's worth it. If only I could find some of the blue . . .

Hedera is coming right along. I think this is the first real picture I've taken of it, because it's my work knitting (small, portable, with a chart that looks complex enough that I can pretend I can't talk while knitting, but really memorizable enough that I can if I want to.)


Must go to sleep; it's waaaay past my bedtime.

the return from the land of blah

Greetings, my blogging friends; how I've missed you. I've just returned from a long and tedious journey through the Land of Blah. For over a week, I felt like this:

or this:

which was even more fun for those who have to put up with me. I was cranky and grouchy and felt crummy all the time, and I didn't like any of my knitting and I didn't want to cast on anything new because I didn't like any of the yarn I had at home and I didn't want to go yarn shopping. You know it's bad when you don't want to go yarn shopping.

But thankfully my will to knit has returned, and I feel another "Heel, yeah!" coming on!

Not one but two lovely sock heels completed, and all that's left to do is the cuffs. The only drizzle on my parade is that, do you see the teeny-tiny itsy-bitsy little ball of yarn between my feet? That's all that left of this yarn. In the entire world. So I'm thinking these are either going to have very short cuffs, or when I run out of yarn, I'll finish in purple. They are just about the softest, squooshiest socks in the world, so I will be happy no matter what.

I have a three-day weekend coming up, so lots more knitting and pictures to come!

oh, my blog, how I've neglected you

OK, is anyone else finding ALL of their free time sucked up by voting for the Bobbys on Ravelry? I don't even want to know how long it's been since I've blogged. Stuff coming tomorrow, I promise! (Or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday. I have a three-day weekend, so if I don't blog, you may all feel free to hunt me down and beat me with sticks.)

Call off the PETA goons!

Lest you were concerned for Jaymie's welfare, this is how he spent the day recovering from his grueling adventure in the snow.


It's a tough job, but somebody has to keep the laundry from escaping.

walking in a winter wonderland

"Hey, what are you doing to me? Get this thing off me! Hate you. Hate the leash. Hate you!"

"Feet are cold and wet! Bad! Delicate kitten is freezing and dying!"

"What was that?!"

"Ok, that's enough. Let's go inside!"

"Cold and wet on my poor little feet!"

"Now how do I open this thing?"

"Crap! I don't have thumbs!"

"Mom, open this door right now!"

"I wanna go back out! What do you mean, I hated it last time? C'mon Auntie Kim!"

After we let the poor frozen kitties back inside, they spent 20 minutes licking their poor delicate little paws, and the last two days meowing at the door for us to let them back outside. Monsters.

old friends

Please forgive me for my recent absence from BlogLand. I had to have (very minor!) surgery (really! Very minor! No need to panic!), and it really took it out of me. My schedule for the last three days has been: get up, eat breakfast, brush teeth, take a nap. I go back to work tomorrow, so fingers crossed that I'll have more energy. I should have gone back today, but I needed one more day to recuperate. And also I was really comfy and had two kitties sleeping on me. Details, details.

Hey, if this was the first thing you saw in the morning, you wouldn't want to get up either.

I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely snow the other day. I didn't get any pictures because I was way too busy running to the window every twelve seconds and squealing, "Snow! Snow!!!" The people who love me are very patient people, that's all I have to say. According to the weather people, we are supposed to get an inch of snow tomorrow. I'm baffled. This is GEORGIA, people. We don't get snow. And unfortunately, in my line of work, we don't get snow days. Should be exciting.

Unfortunately, I have no new knitting progress to show you. Isn't it funny that I always think I'll get so much knitting done on sick days, when what usually happens is I feel so sleepy I'm barely able to sit upright? But, fortunately, I realized a while back that I have several knitted objects that I've never shown the blog, mostly because they are in constant rotation so I never get the chance to photograph them. In honor of not having actual knitting content, here they are.

1) The very first socks I ever made (well, not counting Fuzzy Feet) in the wilds of a local coffee shop.


(narrated by David Attenborough) Look how bold they are! Just brazenly sitting right out in the open, in plain view, mocking all the store-bought socks. It's a perfect example of hand-knit sock behavior in their natural habitat.
Thanks, Dave, for your help. These socks were knit with Colinette Jitterbug in the Mardi Gras colorway. The pattern was a generic toe-up sock pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch.

In addition to flaunting my socks dangerously close to other people's beverages (dangerous for them, not me. Socks can be washed, but no one wants to drink something that smells like my feet. Or if you do, please don't tell me about it.), here we have another of my favorite handknits to flaunt:

2) A generic raglan sweater made from Blue Sky Alpaca organic cotton, using a pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, of which everyone should own at least one copy.

It fits beautifully, and it had better. I had to rip out and redo this puppy FOUR TIMES. It spent a year sitting in the bottom of my yarn trunk (the only truly cat-proof place in the entire house), thinking about what it had done. But, as they say, fifth time's the charm. I made about five different people verify my gauge before I started the last time. Alex likes it too.


3) Lastly, a scarf and hat set made from Gedifra Chandra, in colorway #7607.


Here we can see Jaymie sleeping on the scarf.


Do anybody else's cats do that? It's not enough that they're sleeping on top of a blanket on top of another blanket on top of a comforter on top of a mattress on top of a box spring. Oh, no. They need another layer, so they sleep on the scarf/sweater/pajamas/whatever as well. I wonder if I placed a single dried pea underneath the bed, if he'd feel it and wake up horribly bruised.

I'm extremely proud of this hat, because it marks important progress in my mental development: Finally Realizing How Big My Head Actually Is. Here we have a progression of three hats, my first, second, and third attempts to make a hat that actually fit. Notice how the final (successful) one is at least twice as wide as the first. Which is weird because I don't think I look strange or anything, walking around with a giant melon head. I guess I need a lot of space for all that useless trivia I have stuffed in there.


And now if you'll excuse me, I need to do some more recuperating by sitting in front of the TV, eating salty things and drinking carbonated beverages. All this healing is grueling, I tell you.

heel, yeah!

And toe, yeah!


The only good thing about interminable waits at the doctor's office is the impressive amount of knitting you can get done. I started and finished the heel in the waiting room, and did the second toe when I got home. The only thing that's making me nervous? I have this much yarn left.


Keep your needles crossed for me. (Or your hooks, if that's the way you roll.)

Words to live by . . . .

Please, whatever you do, do not attempt to cause explosive decapitation using hair care products at home.

- Mythbusters

the most wonderful time of the year . . .

My favorite time is approaching once more, and I am so excited. What time is that, you ask? Time to pick a new bar of soap! What's that you say? That that's boring and lame? Oh, how wrong you are, my friends. I speak not of ordinary soap, but of soap handmade by Kathy, saponifier extraordinaire. Here is part of my extensive soap collection.


Isn't that just irresistably yummy looking? This doesn't include all the odds and ends and little experiments she's given me over the years. Having a soap connection is a very good thing. Kathy also makes this:

The most glorious shea-butter that is the only thing that has completely quenched my dry skin. It's like going to a spa. I can't stop feeling how soft my skin is even hours later. ("Umm, Kim, why are you rubbing your own arm?")

Admit it. You envy my soap.

Plus, Kathy is one of the sweetest, most hard-working people I know, one of those really healthy-looking, outdoorsy, I'm-just-naturally-this-gorgeous sort of girls that I have always wanted to be. I am not outdoorsy, and I will never have Kathy's gorgeous hair, even if I were to sell my soul. I will also never have Bernadette Peters' hair, and it makes me sick with envy and keeps me awake at night, but that's just my own cross to bear. Enough about my girl-crush on Kathy. Go buy her soap, and let's all hope it can give us just a little of Kathy's gorgeousness.

the mob has spoken

Thank you everybody, for weighing in on my blog title. I really appreciate the input, and Light Wading is here to stay.
In other news, I learned the hard way last night that when one starts a project after swatching, one should be REALLY REALLY CAREFUL to make sure that the needle size one is using is the intended one, not the needle size one was most recently swatching with. No, I don't want to talk about it.

a poll

I've been having thoughts lately (yes, it's been painful.), thoughts centering around changing my blog title. "Light Wading for the Unadventurous", while I really like it, has several problems. 1) It's completely inscrutable. Even when I explain it, it doesn't make much sense. 2) It's impossible to remember. I tell people what my blog is, and the response I get is, "Huh for the what now?" 3) It's descriptive of me in every aspect except my knitting. I've had several people tell me, "Oh, I don't think you're unadventurous at all!" and I say, "Well, no, not in knitting, but in everything else . . . " Basically, it's not very accessible. I'm looking for something easier to remember, that describes me better, that won't require thirty minutes of explanation from me. In short, I'm considering a change to Lovably Quirky. That has always been my response when people tell me I'm weird. ("No, no, not weird. Lovably quirky. LOVABLY QUIRKY.") Thoughts?

In other news, the baby cable rib sock continues, with Malcolm helping model.



I love this yarn and this pattern SO MUCH. I adapted the pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks.
Please let me know what you think of the possible blog title change. I want opinions; you love giving opinions. This should work well.

Finished object!

The RPM socks, finished (at long last), reclining triumphantly in the Happiest Place on Earth. The yarn, in case I've forgotten to tell you, is Trekking XXL, colorway 100. Of course, now that I've finished nummy warm socks that I can't resist wearing, the weather is getting back up in the 60's. I don't try to control the weather like this. It's just a talent I have.

no coal for me!

Somehow, I managed to fool Santa into thinking I was a very good girl this year. Behold, the perfect presents for a sock-crazed knit-blogger.

Super-cute tape measures from Hobby Lobby, and two sock needle sets from KnitPicks.

Two new memory cards for my camera, rechargeable batteries, and a plug-in battery recharger.

And of course, the Knitty 2008 calendar.

What about the rest of you? Anyone get anything really cool? Show-and-tell time!

ringing in the new year

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's celebration. We celebrated with great fanfare here at Chez Light Wading. The Best Roommate Ever was feeling poorly, so she went to bed crazy-early. I watched Much Ado About Nothing (again), and finished seaming the Lizard Ridge!

Alex models the blanket, deigning to slit open one eye for the camera

I also began another pair of socks, modeled by my new friend Malcom.

Those of you who have seen Mirrormask will recognize Malcolm as a close cousin of the monkeybirds. OK, well, maybe not that close, but that's who he reminds me of.

Happy New Year!