The Sock Summit Report - Part 1

The muggles out there probably won't ever get the Sock Summit thing, but that's okay.

I wasn't able to stay for the whole event, because The Husb needed me to join him at a convention in his industry in The G. I really regret that I was not able to go to the Ravelry party on Saturday night or the Luminary Panel discussion on Sunday afternoon. I did, however, manage to have one of my Barbara Walker Treasury of Knitting Patterns books signed by Barbara Walker herself.

I left for Portland on the morning before the conference started. It was an uneventful flight, thankfully. Portland was sunny and cooler than home I took the MAX - their lightrail system - from the airport to close to the hotel and walked the rest of the way to the hotel. The room wasn't ready; so, I ventured to the waterfront and had lunch to kill a little time. After settling in, I took the MAX to the convention center to volunteer for a couple of hours.

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, unfortunately, but I don't think I could have accurately captured the excitement in the air that radiated from the convention center and outward.

I had so much fun meeting Tina, seeing Stephanie again, helping out Steve and Kathy a little and noticing which vendors would be participating for the weekend of fun. I think I had a grin pasted on my face for the whole time I was in Portland. It was incredible.

Later that night, some of the exhibitors were taken to the Kennedy School for a really nice dinner sponsored by Lantern Moon. It was nice to be amongst my peeps.

MK out.

Say Whaaaa?!?

We stayed in a hotel recently...There was a bathroom with the usual toilet, sink area, a bathtub and a shower...Then, there was also a jacuzzi outside the bathroom, sticking out in the room.

I don't get it.

Maybe it's just me.






MK out.

Got Shrimp?

I prepared a shrimp boil for supper tonight. There's plenty left; so, come on over...

MK out.

The One About Movies

I've been there and back...I went to Columbus, Ohio in June for TNNA. It was fun, and I only took one picture, but I will not share it in this post. I also went to Colorado last week and it was nice...then came back to the heat. I need a nap! All the time! The heat just wears me out.

Oh - if on June 27th, y'all happened to have seen the sunbeams coming through the clouds and heard the collective voices of angels singing, "Ahhhhhhhh," it was because I finished the June 2008 socks. They are cute, and pictures in the knitting post. This one is about movies.

It's not really movie season for me...I tend to gear up after that back-to-school time of year starts, but there are quite a few DVDs on my Blockbuster list, and I have been trying to work through it.

I did see one movie at the theater last week, with some of the mothers of the boys who received those hats that I made: In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock plays a hard-driving boss who happens to be a Canadian citizen with an expired visa. Ryan Reynolds plays her executive assistant, who happens to be the unlucky guy she picks in which to enter into a marriage of convenience in order to avoid deportation – mostly because he just happened to be standing there. Betty White, Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson also star. It is definitely a chick flick and the funniest one I’ve seen in a while. Definitely a must see.

The DVDs:
In Mama’s Boy, Jon Heder plays a guy whose father died when he was a young teen. He is now in his late twenties, and is still living at home looking out for his mama (Diane Keeton). Mama is more than ready to move on with her life, and starts dating a nice man (Jeff Daniels). Baby boy is not too pleased…Cute movie.

In The Walker, Woody Harrelson plays Carter Page, an overly gay son of a former senator who earns his way by escorting Washington’s grand dames around town when they need a date. One of his ladies (Kristen Scott Thomas) finds her lover murdered in his home, and Carter does what he can to protect her and her husband from any media investigation. If the plot sounds a little like American Gigolo, it’s because both movies were written by the same person.

In The Other Boleyn Girl, Scarlett Johanssen and Natalie Portman play the Boleyn sisters, who compete for the attentions of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) to ensure their family’s place in the royal hierarchy. It was pretty good. I liked the costumes, too.

In The Hunting Party, Richard Gere plays a reporter and Terrence Howard plays a photographer who covered the war in Bosnia. Years later, Gere hatches a plan to capture Bosnia’s most wanted war criminal. It was a good movie.

Phoebe in Wonderland is about mental illness. Felicity Huffman and her husband are writers who have two imaginative daughters. The oldest one (Elle Fanning – Dakota’s little sister) exhibits bizarre behavior that concerns her mother, as well as her drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson). It is a really good movie that captures the struggle of dealing with a mentally ill family member. That Elle Fanning is a good little actress, and Patricia Clarkson was wonderful as always.

In Smart People, Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker play a widowed professor who starts dating his former student. They meet again after he is involved in an accident and she is his emergency department physician. His adopted brother, a rather ne’er-do-well (played by Thomas Haden Church) enters the picture when Quaid’s daughter calls him in to help with the carpooling. The daughter (Ellen Page) is quite academically bright, but rather lacking in the friends and fun department. It was pretty good.

Helen Hunt wrote, directed and stars in Then She Found Me, about a woman in her late thirties who wants to have a baby desperately. She was adopted and has a brother who is the biological child of her parents and doesn’t want to adopt. After a series of life changing events, her birth mother (Bette Midler) comes looking for her. It was pretty good.

Stay cool.

MK out.

I Really Have Been Knitting More Than Hats

Here's The Kid's sweater that I finished back in March. It took a whole year to complete, because other things came up along the way.











Here's a beret I designed for MadelineTosh. It's a free pattern.













I also designed these for MadelineTosh, but made this pair in my favorite colors for me. It can be purchased on the website.











I finished the Gathered Pullover! I used Brooks Farm Yarn Mac Acero. My sewing dress form is modeling it, and you cannot tell by looking at it, but it fits me well.
















I made the Mara Shawl (another free pattern) by MadelineTosh using a skein of MadelineTosh Tosh Worsted in each of the Carmen and the Oak colorways. It is currently blocking. I hope to wear it soon.

MK out.

Time Flew

The Kid graduated from high school last night.
















All that hat knitting business was for him and his friends. I made each a hat in his college colors.

Yep, time flew.

MK out.

How to Knit a Hat in One Day

There are two methods:

1. Accompany a friend or a family member to a big city university hospital while he or she undergoes a special test that takes about 5 hours from start to finish.

You may not necessarily spend the whole five hours knitting, but you end up with this:







2. Knit a hat on a day that is full of errands and tasks.

It is not as effective as the first method, and the probability of ending with a finished hat by the end of the day is lower, but...

I gathered the materials.

Then I made a little breakfast, ate it and tidied up the kitchen. On the agenda today is to steam clean the grout in the kitchen only - That shouldn't take too long.

For those of you who have known me for a long time, this grout cleaning thing - been going on for y.e.a.r.s. Kind of like the decrapification thing. I'm all into it for about the first day, and then realize how monumental the task is, and the enthusiasm fizzles. It's just not fun!

I tidied up the den.

I cast on and started the first row.

I went for a three-mile power walk in the neighborhood.

I came home and it was about time for lunch; so, I made a little something, ate it and tidied up the kitchen.

The Kid needed a ride to drop his truck off to get some speakers added to his stereo system and then he needed to be dropped off to school for a mandatory graduation practice.

I got home and pulled ot the steam machine.

I started in on the grout. I'm ashamed to show you how gross it was.

I steamed and scrubbed for about an hour, and cleaned a 4-feet by 6-feet section of the kitchen floor. I was tired and put away my cleaning supplies.

I knitted some more on the hat, and realized that I was inadvertently knitting a mobius.

I tinked back, untwisted the stitches and started in on the hat again.

It was about 3:30 by then, and I still had errands to run. I took a shower and got dressed.

Before I got home, I picked up supper at Pei Wei. Yum!

After supper, I went to get my knitting, and discovered that my mom had found it and had knitted to the second red stripe while I was gone before supper.*

The hat was finished by me at a leisurely pace by 10:30ish.

The end.

MK out.

*There was still a chance that the hat would have been finished by me before midnight had she not done that, but less likely. Thanks Mom!