Sock yarn and August 2009

I am fairly busy these days because of the project that has nothing to do with knitting. It takes a good deal of my free time preventing me not only from blogging but from knitting as well. As soon as more of it is ready I will share all the details with you.
Today I do not have any exciting FO's or even WIP's to show you, here are some pictures of my yarn. These are 2 skeins of Regia sock yarn I got a while ago.

First is Regia Nordic sock yarn #5517. It is light and monochrome - I am thinking of making a fairly complex lacy socks with it.


And this one is Regia Nordic #5517. It has very nice green-purple modulations but it is not too bright. Given the unusual colour I would prefer to knit it with a more simple stitch. Maybe a bit of texture would create an interesting but not overwhelming sock.


Speaking of socks, what are your plans for August 2009? Do not know yet? Let me help you: Sock Summit 2009 - a great project organized by a team of well-known knitters ( Tina Newton, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Cat Bordhi, Leslie Cumming, JCBriar, Debbi Stone, and Claire Scott) will take place on August 6-9, 2009 at the Oregon Convention Center (Portland, Oregon). You can read more about it in the latest Yarn Harlot's blog post.

Why do I like the new Debbie Bliss magazine?

First of all, because it features a gorgeous collection of knits in grey:

Secondly, because of this jacket:

And finally, because of an adorable section of child knits, specifically blankets:

In reality, the first issue of Debbie Bliss has more than these three highlights; it has a beautiful collection of “romantic” cardigans, a selection of knitted men wear, as well as knitted objects for home and for children. It also features 2 illustrated lessons of lace-knitting, clean and clear design, and great photography. More previews are available on their website. Overall, it is a very nice first issue – I am looking forward to the next one.

Award

I got my first award - the Brilliant Blog one. I was so excited last night that I even had a hard time falling asleep! Thank you so much, Susan, for nominating me. By the way, you should check out her blog (Knitting Alone).

Now it is my turn to nominate 7 bloggers to pass the award on. It is not an easy task considering the number of knitting (and not knitting) blogs I like. I will let you guess the number, it is a 3-digit one.

So my nominees are:

Knitting on Impulse
a Whistler-based knitter who dyes the most beautiful fiber, makes jewellery, and takes picture of the magnificent West Coast.

SweetP Knits
I have mentioned Gabes in my previous post. Her posts always put a smile on my face, maybe it is because of her beautiful knitting, or maybe it is her cute children, or maybe it is the pink background of the page? Whatever it is, reading her posts makes me smile.

Sel and Poivre
Can not quite remember how I found this blog but it is yet another blog with beautiful photography, knitting, and interesting posts.

Ysolda
This young lady is quite famous in the knitting community. If you do not know her - rush over to her blog. She got nice patterns, tutorials, and you might be able to attend one of her lessons.

We heart yarn
What can I say? I am a sucker for beautiful, clean designs and a nice mix of knitting and nature. Yet another visual candy (with reading substance!)

Anna's flying needles
Although I have never commented on Anna's posts I have been lurking around for a while. I really like things she knits.

And the last but not least ..... well it was hard to decide, so it's a tie between these 3:

Two little bunshees
Heart felt
The akamai knitter

I know I was suppose to nominate only 7 but there are just too many talented bloggers and it never hurts to spread the joy and brilliance, right?

Discovering

I really like finding out new things and the past several days were filled with happy discoveries.

Here is the first one:



Hemingway's "Super Stitches Knitting"- a gift from my non-knitting coworker. I have been looking at stitchionaries available at the bookstores and on Amazon for a while. I am not ready to design my own sweaters yet, but I would like to try my creativity and knit a scarf or a headband using different stitches. "Super stitches knitting" seems to be perfect for that. The book is divided into sections including: "knit and purl", "lace", "fair isle", and so on. It also has a section with tips and instructions on casting on, binding off, colour-work, and fixing errors (that one will be useful). I can not wait to create my own project using some of the stitches from the book and I think I know what it might be.

The second discovery was a long awaited first issue of Debbie Bliss magazine.


There are several interesting items in this magazine and overall presentation and design are very beautiful. I think Debbie Bliss magazine will be one of my favorites.

The last 2 discoveries were online magazines. The Inside Loop - UK based knitting magazine and Knotions. Both look very interesting and I will be spending some time reading the articles and choosing patterns I like.

There was actually another discovery or should I say an acquisition (yet another gift) but I will dedicate a separate post to it once I take proper pictures.

Slooooooow

I have told you before that I am not the fastest one at times. Couple of hours ago I got yet another prove: after blogging for less than 6 months I FINALLY figured out how to reply to the comments via email. All Blogger users can laugh at me while I will be doing my 3 needle bind-off (Knitting Help has a great collection of all the different bind off techniques over here).

P.S. I tend to blame the heat for me being slow once in a while.
P.P.S. Have a great knitting weekend!

Yes, I am scared.

Another long pause between posts. Seems like "back-to-school" rush affects even those who are not going back to school and do not have small children.
Truth is I am working on a secret gift project that is due in less than 2 weeks. I can not display any pictures of my progress but I can say that the technique used in the second part of the project is called

INTARSIA

Although it sounds like a name of an exotic flower I somehow feel that there is a poisonous center hiding behind the beautiful petals. Let me say it out load again: "intaaaaarsia".
And while I was reviewing the pattern I saw another scary animal: 3 needle bind off. I will have to attack this one tonight before getting to intarsia.

Image from A Good Yarn website