I’ve been waiting patiently for Ravelry to either go live or send me a beta invite, but it’s getting tough, what with all the shout outs from other Sockapalooza knitters. The idea is this: you enter all sorts of information about your knitting — finished objects, stash contents, needle collection, works in progress, to-do items, etc. — and then it cross-references everything with everybody else in the community. You can see what somebody else did with that yarn you’ve been sitting on and waiting to use until you come up with the right pattern. You can look up a pattern and see what yarn substitutions other folks have made. You can link in your photos from Flickr (of which I don’t have many yet, but this is a strong enticement to enhance that collection) and make a repository of your knitting life. Link in with your blog, and you’re good to go. It’s so darn attractive to the fiber lover in me, as well as to the computer nerd and librarian. I know it’ll be a huge time vacuum once I’m in, but it seems so darn useful, it’s a trade I’m willing to make.

In the meantime, I’m still using my big ol’ finished object notebook.

I have to update it a bit, but just about everything I’ve knit in the last two and a half years is in here, along with the ball band from the yarn, a little snip of a yarn sample, the start and completion dates, and varying other information.

Ravelry won’t replace the physical collection of patterns and yarn samples, but it will make it a lot easier to be consistent about the kind of information I keep about my knitting projects. I can’t wait to get in.

Mike and I went to the Salamon Farm Fiber Arts Celebration last Saturday (silly us, not bringing the camera — no pictures, unfortunately), ostensibly to look at stuff, but really to buy Mike a spindle. He’s not at all interested in knitting, no matter how I try to get him interested, but he’s fascinated by spinning. So we bought him a spindle and some roving and got a very rudimentary lesson in using a drop spindle.

When we got it home, the first efforts were kind of, well… crappy. It wasn’t until I took a look at this really useful page that I realized that the twist is just supposed to sit there until you’ve thinned the fiber out enough to make the right size yarn. The concept makes sense now, but the product is still a little iffy.

Here’s the thing: now that I’ve done all the reading and figuring out and everything, I want to spin. We have this pretty fleece that will make nice, warm yarn that I really want to knit with, and it’s going to be forever before it’s spun and plied and set. And because Mike hasn’t done all the reading and figuring out, it’s going to take time — and wool — for him to get to a point where he’s consistent and happy with what he’s spinning. I want to do it.

We’ve both determined that spinning on a wheel has to be easier than with a spindle, since your hands don’t have to do both jobs, drafting and spinning. But wheels are expensive. I mean, I’m sure I have more than a wheel’s worth of yarn in my stash at the moment, and Mike has way more than a wheel’s worth of Magic the Gathering cards, but is it wise for me to start up a new hobby? On the other hand, I could totally solve the “soft, warm, washable sock yarn for Sarah” problem if I were to blend and spin the fiber myself — some superwash, a little alpaca, a touch of nylon and I’m all set.

Oh dear.

Hello, my friendly sock pal! Thanks for leaving me a comment — I knew you were out there, but having some proof thereof is helpful. I know I left some kind-of persnickety instructions in my profile about color (What can I say? I’m not a fan of pooling…), but I’m sure you’ll be able to find something you’ll like knitting with, and I’m sure I will love the finished product.

I had an anonymous email exchange with the pal for whom I’m knitting about her preferences, and she didn’t tell me anything specific about style or color (except to exclude her least favorite). She’s set herself the goal of knitting socks with 12 different sock yarns over the next year, a mighty admirable one at that. With Lorna’s Laces and Koigu already spoken for, I’m thinking I should try to find something completely out of the way so as not to duplicate any of her on-deck yarns.

And speaking of something out of the way, my sister, Sarah, reminded me that I haven’t made her a pair of socks yet. While I was visiting at her house in Wisconsin last weekend, we went through a bunch of questions to try and get down to what she wants in a pair of handknit socks, and the requirements are thus:

• super warm
• soft and snuggly
• the kind of socks her husband will make her take off in bed
• not worn out and about with shoes
• easy care

It’s that last one that’s the killer. I had all kinds of ideas for yarn until we got to the “hand wash vs. machine wash” question. So, do you know of a extra soft and warm yarn that’s machine washable? Maybe a blend of superwash wool and alpaca? Anyone?

Here’s a taste of the aforementioned Swallowtail Shawl from the Fall ‘06 Interweave. There will be much more to show when I blog about my handy new blocking frame, but you get a sense of the Bird of Paradise colorway from Sundara.

It’s a turtle. I made it for Mike for his birthday. It isn’t necessarily that he likes turtles or anything. For some reason I started calling him turtle, as in, “Hi, Turtle, I’m home,” or, “You’re such a turtle.” And, clearly, I had to make him a turtle.

I just retrieved my sock pal’s information, and by some wonderful stroke of luck, our feet/ankles/calves are almost exactly the same size. How very convenient.

I’ve had these on the needles for about a month now:

They’re lovely — the gorgeous yarn is from Sundara’s petals collection, and the pattern is Nancy Bush (who is awesome). I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get them finished and decide whether or not I want to part with them, and then figure out something else to make, instead.

Ooh! Also, yesterday my knitting friend, Katie, took me with her to Warsaw, IN to visit The Shuttle Shop, a sweet little yarn store. She had a gift certificate to spend, so she was doing some serious shopping, and since I’m still on a yarn diet, I just bought another one of those ridiculously cute Dale of Norway baby pattern books. There’s no baby niece or nephew to knit for yet, but I couldn’t resist. I mean, look at this:

Ridiculously cute, right?