March 31, 2004
Dublin' Our Fun!
No Gratuitous Story of the Day today since I spent so much time farting around with the Dublin Bay sock pattern that I ran out of time to think up anything even mildly interesting. But, yes, the sock pattern is done and is posted in the left-hand column. Any and all feedback, good, bad, indifferent (but not just kneejerk mean because you're actually pissed at your boss or significant other but can't very well take it out on them), will be much appreciated since this is only the second sock pattern I've documented from beginning to end, although many others have died on the vine. My apologies for the lame-o pictures but when you have to illustrate a pattern before you’ve even finished the first frickin' sock...
The pattern is three pages long (due to lots of white space; I'm a technical writer, what can I say?) and is in Adobe Acrobat format. If you don’t have Acrobat, you can go here to download it for free.
I also made one more small change to the blog but I'll leave that up to you to find, wink, wink.
Knitting Knews
See "farting around" above.
Dye Garden Dyegest
Not all of the refugees from the Germination Station fared well in the greenhouse but some others did quite well. In fact, here is a photo of the "Bright Lights" cosmos looking quite green and perky, instead of, as before, badly in need of a fainting couch.
And here is a picture of the the second round of indigo. These are doing much better than the first round which climbed firmly onto the fainting couch, clutched defiantly to it, and refused to get off. I have much greater hopes for this set since, as of last night, they were looking petite but buff and were proudly showing off their first sets of complete, fully formed double leaves. However, it occurs to me that a little prayer never hurts. Please, God, please—just one fully grown indigo plant? Pleeeeze, pleeeeeze, pleeeeeeeeeeeeze? Prayer, abject begging—what's the diff.
Ryan!!! You brave woman. I love the photo and the cute smile. Thank you for the sock pattern which I printed out, but am confused. Did TMK forget to post her pic?
Posted by: Debra on March 31, 2004 12:10 PMAha! I believe that photo one I took at the Sixth Soiree! Cool! I'm off to print the pattern!
Posted by: Prudence on March 31, 2004 12:33 PMDear, dear Debra--TMK doesn't call herself The Mysterious K for nothing! Being a little on the shy side, and being suspicious of the creeps who haunt the net (and rightly so) the last thing she wants is to have her photo splattered all over the blog so you get just me, at least for now...
Prudence--yes, the photo is from the Soiree, you eagle eye, you! Have fun with the pattern!
Posted by: Ryan on March 31, 2004 01:02 PMNice picture, Ryan - you're a handsome woman :)
I'll keep my fingers crossed for the indigo plants!
And the socks are luverly :)
Posted by: Robbyn on March 31, 2004 01:34 PMThank you, Robbyn. Blush and pshaw, followed by a little simpering, and a little eyelash fluttering. Of course, it's only human nature to pick a GOOD picture to publish. I could have picked the one where my eyes were closed and I looked completely blotto or the one where my double chin was EXTRA large. :-)
Posted by: Ryan on March 31, 2004 01:45 PMum...just my two cents worth here...I think in my notebook of germination notes for Indigo it says "had better luck with the heating pad"....I assume that means a little heat under the tender babies helped...but it MIGHT mean I needed the heating pad for my back after looking and looking and LOOKING for any successfull germination.
Tricky, that.
I'll add my prayers to the choir.
You might also try playing the BLUES for them....
I'm going to be quiet now.
Oh, except to say the sock pattern is wonderful and the designer, absolutely adorable.
Wow! The pattern and the creator look equally handsome. Definitely on my Must Knit list!
Posted by: Vaire on March 31, 2004 02:31 PMAkcherly, Greta, we did start both sets of indigo seeds indoors on a heat pad, but with the second set, the minute their little heads poked up we took them off the heating pad and to the greenhouse for 360 degree light. Too much and too prolonged heat, and light coming in just one direction from a window, seems to be what made them long and stringbeany.
And thanks bunches for the "adorable" comment, of course!! You know, I was actually inspired by "our" Rachael to post my picture because she boldly posts her picture everywhere in her blog, and it's nice to know what she looks like. I may change my mind and yank the thing off as quickly as I put it up but I'll give it, oh, at least 24 hours.
Posted by: Ryan on March 31, 2004 02:31 PMHi, Vaire!! THERE you are! Nice to "see" you again!
I'm glad you want to knit the sock. I KNOW you have a digital camera now so no excuses for not sending me a picture, if you do knit it. (Same goes for anyone else who knits it, fer sher!)
Everyone, be sure to visit Vaire's blog at http://members.chello.se/citikas/index.html. She recently posted some great pictures of her Stockholm, her new home.
Posted by: Ryan on March 31, 2004 02:37 PMNice socks and sock pattern. I linked to it in my TIPS typelist. I love sock knitting.
Posted by: Chery on March 31, 2004 04:22 PMOh, THERE you are. Why, hello! How very nice to see you! Does my heart good, that picture. And how cute are you, I ask? SO cute, that's how. And *I* was the inspiration? *blush* It's odd, when we were all out at lunch during Stitches West, I looked around the table and decided that I was definitely the most prone of the bunch to slap my face up on the screen. Don't really know why. I'm not vain, really. It's more like if anyone's gonna take my pic, it might as well be me, 'cause then I get to weed out the bad ones.... You know? And I like to smile at my friends. Careful, though, it's addictive. TMK - watch out! You're next!
Posted by: Rachael on April 1, 2004 03:32 AMBecause then she would be TUMK? ;-))))
Posted by: Debra on April 1, 2004 08:09 AMChery, thanks for linking to the pattern! I'm flattered!
Rachael, yep, you were the inspiration behind my posting my picture. But that'll probably be it; no extra photos of me wearing my lumpy, bumpy questionably-knit items.
Debra, looooove "TUMK!" It immediately turned into a Native American name in my head, something like Tumak or Tumka.
Posted by: Ryan on April 1, 2004 11:00 AM