Take Cover

My first Sock Wars kill is confirmed!

Places I worked on that pair of socks:

• My desk at work (cast on over lunch on Friday)
  
• Home - also frogged back an inch, grr
  
• LAX terminal
  
• 30,000 feet above the American Southwest
  
• The monorail (monorail, monorail, jazz hands) at the Dallas Airport
  
• Dallas Airport terminal
  
• 28,000 feet above middle America
  
• Rental car
  
• Our hotel room
  
• Rock Bottom Brewery in downtown Indianapolis
  
• UA theater in Indy
  
• Backseat of tour guides car as we tooled around Indy area - also frogged back an inch here because I was paying attention to the tour and not my sock
  
• Backseat of real estate agent's car
  
• Greek restaurant somewhere in Indy
  
• Office of our real estate agent - finished the toe as we were drafting an offer on a house. He let me have a 2-day FedEx envelope and I sent it out from there on Monday afternoon!
  

On like a prawn that yawns at dawn

Let the Sock Wars begin!

Ready... Aim....Fiber!

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by ShelbyD

The pattern for Sock Wars IV will be released in about 12 hours. I just tested my gauge in my chosen yarn and it's spot on using my favorite 1.5 size needles. I'm excited but don't expect to last too long with everything else going on. My assassin manages a LYS so is probably able to knit at work, whereas I am not. Maybe the vagaries of the postal system will help me out.

The sock pictured is one of a pair of Groovy Socks I made as a warmup to the Sock Wars battle. As of dinnertime tonight they are all done. The leg is a teensy bit loose on me but I plan to give these to my Mom as one of her Mother's Day/thanks for babysitting gift. Greg is picking her up in the morning and she'll be staying here with the girls while we are in Indianapolis.

Sold Out

First of all, Happy Mothers Day!

Yesterday morning we had a garage sale to get rid of some things we don't want, don't need, don't fit, or can't move. We cleared over $400 - yay! We sold lots of outgrown kid clothes, some housewares, books, a bunch of computer equipment, potted plants (movers won't move them), toys, furniture....general stuff. We also gave away the firewood in the side yard, the remnants of the ash tree from the backyard that fell over a year ago. Thanks for the new roof, ash tree, it's a selling point in our favor. It was fun but exhausting.

I met a knitter from the neighborhood during the sale and we had a nice sock chat. She even showed me her socks in progress, made from the same type of yarn I'm planning to use for my Sock Wars pair. Speaking of Sock Wars, I received the dossier of my target this evening. My target has size 10 feet - ack! I wound my yarn into center pull balls so it's all ready to go on Friday. I'm almost to the heel of the second sock of my warmup pair but can put an unfinished sock on scrap yarn if I don't finish it by the end of the week and need to free up my 1.5s. Fear my pointy needles, Bond Jane Bond!

Target Practice

In preparation for Sock Wars IV, I'm working on a pair of Groovy Socks in Trekking XXL. This is my first assassin-style knitting competition, and it should be fun. We've planned our home search visit to Indiana for the weekend of May 16th, which just happens to be the day after the Sock Wars pattern is released. So, I should be able to make good use of several hours of airplane time to work on my socks. I'm expecting to receive the dossier of my target in a day or two.

I'm giving my arms a rest tonight and catching up on some recorded TV while my husband and his sister are at the Star Wars movie. She came into town today to spend a few days with us before we move, help us with Saturday's garage sale, and to go to a Shins concert with Greg on Sunday night. The girls were a giggly mess playing with her after dinner - they really enjoyed spending time with Sarah when we were in Hawaii in January and are quite excited to be with her again.

There has been a steady stream of agents, inspectors and appraisers through the house over the last few days, but Greg's been orchestrating all of it during the day while I'm at work. I think tomorrow someone from the moving company is coming in to assess how much crap we have - sorry about all the books, moving people!

Whither thou goest...

Gee, it's been a while since I had a non-pattern post.

My husband has recently accepted a job offer in Indiana, so our family is getting ready to relocate next month. One of the first things I did was arrange and consolidate my yarn stash, which really has shrunk quite a bit over the last year. It fits comfortably into four Sterilite drawers.

I was born in Iowa and lived there until I was 12, and spent most summers there through high school, but it's been twenty years since I've been through a Midwestern winter. I've become quite accustomed to the mild California climate. We'll have a lot more use for handknits when there's actual cold weather.

There's so much to do it's better not to think about it all at once. We've been clearing out closets and getting ready to have a monster garage sale next weekend. We're talking with the relocation company tomorrow to discuss the timing of getting an appraisal on the house, making a trip to Indianapolis to find somewhere to live, and moving. I gave notice at my job late last week - my last day will be in early June. Once we get there, I need to find a job, and I haven't interviewed outside my current company for 11 years. Then there's day care for the kids, getting E enrolled in school, and learning everything we need to know about a new city.

All in all, it's an exciting change for us. I've always told people that the Midwest is a nice place to be from.