Last Night, This Morning, Tomorrow, Late Next Tuesday?

Whenever it was that the US Men pulled off that astounding win in the 4x100 relay (at least whenever it was broadcast here in the SW) -- M and I were watching from bed, and jumped and shrieked so loudly that the cat ran for the hills. Poor thing -- perhaps rabid sports fans should not be allowed to have pets who startle easily.

Time has become weird here of late. What with the time difference between here and China AND the fact that the "live" broadcasts are actually still delayed 2 hours out here in the Wild West, I am left with this feeling of not really knowing when things are happening. But whenever it was, that relay has to have been the most spectacular thing I've ever witnessed (sports-wise); and it almost makes up for the long faces of 8 years ago (one of which was Jason Lezak's) as the Aussies celebrated their victory in "our race."

Smash the Americans, indeed. BTW, perhaps lost in all the excitement is the fact that Alain Bernard's world record in the 100 meter free also fell during the first leg of the relay.

But, there has been knitting here at the casa.

Pattern: Sort of my own concoction, loosely based on the Cookie A.'s Monkey and Los Monos Locos. Toe-up 60-stitch stockinette foot with seven repeats of the Monkey stitch pattern on the leg.
Yarn: Regia Ringel Color #5048
Needle: Knit Picks 32" Harmony circ 2.5mm

I've already told most of this sock's story: I needed a project to work on, so I just knit a sock foot; when I got to the leg, I asked for suggestions and got the Monkey. I love it. I love the way the stitch pattern makes the stripes of the yarn undulate. And then I did a knitted bind off. I do believe this will become my standard toe-up bind off from now on. Yeah, it's a bit slow and fiddly, but I love the result.

It's been a whole weekend, you didn't think I'd have just one pair of socks finished to show for it, did you?

Pattern: Wendy Johnson's Southwestern Socks (pdf link) (Rav link)
Yarn: Brunswick La Laine "Mt Everest" (guess how long that's been marinating in the stash -- I don't even remember when Brunswick ceased to be)
Needle: Inox nickel plated 32" 2.75mm (US2)

Why did I ever knit socks with sock yarn?! It's been in the back of my mind to knit a pair of socks with this ball of yarn for a while, and Saturday -- after finishing the Crazy Monkeys -- I picked it up along with Wendy's pattern (which I've had since it was published). By bedtime Saturday night, I had a pair of socks. How cool is that? Okay, I admit to spending most of the day Saturday watching Olympic action, so there was a lot of knitting time, but still. Gotta love the break provided by a sport weight sock.

My new socks, however, are being knit from sock weight yarn. No pics yet, but I've started a pair of Waving Lace Socks (Rav link) from Favorite Socks. I'm knitting them toe-up, however, and will figger out that gusset and heel flap math thing if it kills me -- stay tuned.

In other knitting news, I've started a Secret Sample:

It is going fairly quickly, but reveal will have to wait a while.

And now, I leave you with the cats, doing what they do best:

He's not dead, really, just very hot and very, very trusting


I don't know how this can be comfortable, but since he spends an awful lot of time like this, I guess it is.


The Queen would like you to know that there needs to be more of her in the world (and less of the boys, if that's possible).


K-man with just a small portion of his latest string art creation which stretches through the living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen (don't worry, it was leftover from the Southwestern Socks, and I let him have it) -- oh, and don't let her tell you otherwise, the Queen helped with this arts and crafts project.