I seem to have latched on to the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern, from Nancy's Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. This is my third pair! I know it won't be my last, either. I just love this stitch pattern, and think the finished socks are always so pretty.

I'm knitting up the amazing Malabrigo Sock Yarn. My word - it is soft. It shows the stitch pattern so perfectly; this minty aqua colorway has the most subtle variegation. An easy, memorized, pretty little knit. It's far too hot to think about wearing wool socks, but these will be snuggly once the weather changes.

Today I am taking it easy; Jess busted me working earlier and reminded me to take the day off (which cracked me up). It's Hitchcock day on Turner Classic Movies (I love that they play them without commercials), so I just watched Vertigo for the millionth time. I love that movie - the soundtrack, the amazing shots all around San Francisco and the peninsula (makes me homesick!), the creepy mystery plot. On last year's Labor Day trip, we took long, beautiful walks through lots of the neighborhoods pictured in Vertigo - that was such a golden weekend.

Right now, I have to buckle down and make the incredibly pressing decision of what time I need to start marinating the BBQ beer chicken and when to bake the brownies. Happy July 4th!

Oh man, it's hot. I'm trying to embrace it, but heat is really hard for me. It makes me pouty and annoyed. Plus, this is not supposed to be a hot month! June is normally sort of misty and cool in Los Angeles - June Gloom. Where is it? I liked it. Please come back, June Gloom! Good thing that cold beers and ice cream exist on Earth. I remembered how much I love ice cream in Ohio, which may or may not be a good thing. The Jeni's right across the convention center + it was a bazillion degrees = we ate so much ice cream!

The lovely Kristine from A Verb For Keeping Warm (if you haven't seen her fiber yet, and you are interested in yummy naturally dyed goodness made by a very nice person... please just click on that link right now and I'm sorry about your PayPal balance) tagged me with a meme, which is great, because I have been wanting to blog but feel like I have so much to say I don't even know where to begin, and now I can just begin with the questions! Excellent.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had just finished my third year at CalArts and was waiting tables at Spago Palo Alto for the summer. I got to take wine glasses, which was fun. Edit: Classes! I took wine classes! I have never taken a wine glass from a restaurant in my entire life!

What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

Blog entry (mine and also work), groceries, cook yummy dinner (salmon & veggies), watch a movie... um. That is it. It's Saturday and I am kicking it. Sunday will be busier.

Snacks I enjoy:

Kettle corn, chips and salsa and/or guacamole, almonds, peanuts, salt & vinegar potato chips, kumquats, Haribo gummi bears.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Buy a lot of wheelchairs (and do so many other Good Things), buy a house, travel. Life is pretty sweet... I guess I do this stuff anyway. Except the buying a house (yet).

Places I have lived:

• Pittsburgh, PA
• Fairfax, VA
• Palo Alto, CA
• Valencia, CA
• Val Verde, CA
• Van Nuys, CA
• Los Angeles, CA

Jobs I have had:

Babysitter, waitress, nanny, teacher at after-school arts center, LYS manager/teacher, knitting/crochet designer, Director of Operations, Ravelry Person (woo hoo)!

I finished a project! A pair of socks. I have only blogged three finished items this year (two pairs of socks and a hat) and that had me a little bummed, thinking that was all I had actually knit. (That's just not like me.) Then I remembered the finished silk garden sweater, much loved but not yet photographed, and the unbloggable things large and small, and felt better. Makes me wonder what pre-blog projects I have just completely forgotten about. Sad. But! More pictures later, which is good!

I am six days into it - hope I can keep it up!   

Yesterday Jacob and I spent all morning playing with images and fonts, adjusting, getting them just right... went out for the afternoon, and came home with these:

Jacob; left forearm; coordinates of his father's hometown (Monrovia, Liberia). We were really specific with the font - and it looks just right.

Me; right wrist; a portrait of my handspun, sketched from one of my favorite photos. I love the details so much, the shading, the uneven bits plied together, the tiny shadow.

Both tattoos were done by Craig Jackman at American Electric Tattoo (a local shop - it's been in the neighborhood even longer than we have). They are both small and detailed - I wanted a good portrait, and we were really specific about the font for Jacob's, and Craig nailed it with each. They were done with a single needle - such pretty serifs and shading and just great work. I'm happy.

Swatching the finished yarn; it knits up at 30 stitches/4" on a size 1 needle.  I am getting, I think, about 19 WPI with the yarn.  (Not exactly convinced that I'm measuring WPI right... I feel like I get a different result each time, which is why I was eager to swatch - I'm more confident getting information from needles and swatches, I guess.)  The fabric is nice - elastic, soft, and with a slight pretty halo.  While plying, I was a little sad that similar colors were meeting up so often (I thought I wanted a more barberpole look), but I really love the way that it stripes in the sample swatch.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to get all 4 oz. of fiber to turn out like that when plied, but if I happen to luck out, I might jump for joy!  Now to start the spinning in earnest.  I have a little more yarn from my sample skein in case I get a vibe about a stitch pattern and want to try it.

I do want to say a huge hello, and a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has welcomed me so warmly on Ravelry, commented here, sent me emails or Ravelry messages - it's just so nice I don't have the words... and that's rare for me.  I'm smiling a lot, I'm learning a lot, and I'm having a wonderful time diving in to work, and loving Ravelry more every day.  Thank you!!

Snaps from STITCHES West, 2008:

Working at the Ravelry booth, I got to meet so many new people. The weekend is an amazing blur... I'm so happy to have met... so many people!  The Ravelry users who came by the booth were so friendly, and the crowds of people who had not yet heard of Ravelry were so kind and interested in the site - it was a blast to sign people up; I kept telling new users, "I hope you don't like to spend a lot of time outdoors."  I think they thought I was joking, too. 

I looked up midway through... one of the days - Saturday?  And the name badge in front of me read: Catherine Lowe.  I sort of gaped for a second, just long enough that I'm sure she thought I was choking perhaps, or something else was wrong with me, and then I managed to gush some praise in her general direction - it was an interview with Catherine Lowe, in a back issue of Interweave Knits that I picked up at Yarn Expressions on my cotillion trip to Huntsville, Alabama back in  2005, that made me think much more critically about the finishing work and specific details I put into my design work.  It was an inspiring interview in many ways, and she was very kind about my incoherent fan-ish ramblings when I attempted to tell her as much.  I got to see - and try on - and inspect the flawlessly bound seams of - her knitting at her booth later at the event - and I was amazed.  It is impeccable work, in a way that I want to work toward.  A lovely experience, meeting her.

 I came home with just a few new fibery items - I hadn't planned on buying anything, really (no, really! I was there to work!) but the beautiful yarns above fell into my hands. First, there was a limited number of malabrigo sock yarn (the minty hank in the top right) for "beta testing" straight from the malabrigo booth, for Ravelers from the malabrigo junkies group.  It is stunning and so incredibly soft - and I happen to have empty sock needles right now.  The chocolate fiber, and the steely brown, gleaming yarn in the middle picture - buffalo gold!  The fiber is 1 oz of pure buffalo. I am itching to spin it - I need to ply some yarn off my spindle, first.  The yarn is 75% bamboo and 25% bison down, and it has the most elegant sheen - I have a million ideas running through my mind to swatch. I'm really grateful for all these fiber gifts!  They do make great souvenirs* - I know that when I knit and work with the fiber, I will remember the whirlwind of a weekend fondly.

*Adding in laughter, as an afterthought before publishing: spell-check just shocked the heck out of me with the correct spelling of this word.  I'm generally a good speller - but I was way off.  Honestly I'm looking at the word right now and it looks completely wrong to me!  But evidently... I'm nuts.