Stress Reaction

Boredom gets me in trouble a lot. My ADD, hypomanic personality requires that I be doing something all the time. I want to climb walls and pick imaginary bugs off my skin if my hands aren’t occupied. So, as you can imagine, this forced hiatus from knitting or anything fiber related (spinning being out of the question as well) has been pretty hard to take.

My best friend has kicked me to the curb in favor of married life (and I can't honestly say I blame her, because what is there more intoxicating than new love?), so what’s a girl to do?

I’ve taken to bug photography.

These little suckers have decimated the leaves of my cannas. With my luck they will be calling their little buddies and gunning for my wool stash next.

I adopted a couple of puppies. The one on the left is Bébé. She came home with me from the shelter about a month after my mother died. She was in a cage in the cat room, starving, shivering and crying. They said she tested positive for Parvo and the previous owners didn’t want to mess with her. The timing being what it was, I couldn’t just leave her there to die, since all they had the ability to do was offer her food and water. The antibiotics and IV fluids required to keep her alive cost more than any pure bred, but as you can see, she is healthy and much loved.

The one on the right has no name. He came home with me because his previous owner just had a baby and didn’t have time for both. We haven’t named him yet because his personality is still developing, but I am leaning towards Darcy. He has green eyes (seriously; I’ve never seen a dog with green eyes before), and I've always imagined Mr. Darcy with green eyes.

So my dog total now stands at four, which puts me at serious risk of a husband total of zero. Serious trouble.

Socktoberfest!

They talked me into it, those bad monkeys, and now they are too lazy for a proper photo shoot. They must have enjoyed a little too much beer and bratwurst.

Lazy though they may be, in my opinion, they still hold on to their sense of style.

So while they kick back on the hammock, I will fill you in on the particulars:

Monkey Sock Pattern by Cookie A. (free at Knitty).
I probably can’t say much about this pattern that hasn’t been said before. Its fun, very fast and I really enjoyed watching the pattern develop.* The only modification I made was a slipped stitch heel. The pattern called for stockinette on the heel, but I think the slip stitch heel holds its shape better and is more durable.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in the Deep Sea Flower colorway (purchased at Sonny and Shear). This color is super saturated, vibrant and beautiful. It did stain my fingers and needles lightly while knitting but this was easily removed with a wet cloth. There was also some moderate bleeding of color during the Eucalan bath prior to blocking. The yarn is very, very soft. Very Smooshy. My only reservation is with the durability. Time will tell.

*It has been my, thus far adhered to, practice to knit a sock pattern only once. There are just too many patterns out there that I want to knit. I have to say, however, that this pattern might just be an exception. It goes so fast and the pattern is so quickly memorized that I can easily seeing it becoming my “quick sock fix” pattern. Just lovely! If you haven’t knit a pair of Monkeys yet, what on earth are you waiting for?