the cankles continue

This second pair of "cankles" jumped off my needles a few days ago. I'll pop them in the mail to go to my nephew's house in Virginia. Fortissima Cotton blend sock yarn, #2(2.75mm) needles with the ribbing done on #3 (3.25mm) and just a few hours of knitting.

With the first excitement of the book's publication past, I now need to concentrate on getting ready for all the book events and presentations this spring. The first event will be local, at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. Then, I'll travel 750 miles east and give a talk (with power point images) in Northern Virginia, right before Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, where I'll also do a book signing. I'll also be giving another talk, along with a workshop and booksigning, at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, the next weekend. After that, I'll give the after dinner talk at the Tennessee Fiber Festival, as well as teaching two workshops there.

OH, and that's just the teaching,presentation and travelling schedule for 5 weeks--from mid April 'til Memorial Day weekend. I'll also have to squeeze in final edits of book #2 in there, too, since it is coming out in September. Just talking about it all makes me agitated and anxious, so I'm going to stop now. However, when Willow asked, in the comments to:

Please remind us each time another interview is going to happen.

I got panicked. My mouth went all dry. My heart beat too fast. I promise, I'll update the blog as best as I can over the next few months...but my weekly average is roughly 2-3 posts. It would be a miracle if I could do more, especially with all the added fun of the blog tour and real life travelling! I'll do my best...but there really aren't more hours in my day, despite day light saving's time!

Meanwhile, the knitting creativity bug has come back. I'm hard at work at a fabulous pair of mittens (if I do say so, myself) with a Turkish stitch pattern called "Ram's Horn" embedded inside. I'm dreaming of swing coat designs, too. In a fit of retail enthusiasm, I splurged on lots of Jo Sharp's Silkroad Aran yarn on closeout and somehow bought even more Jo Sharp DK wool. (what can I say, I've always been seduced by occasional Australian temptations.)

The urge may have come from a discussion with Terri Shea, a friend and designer for the book. She is currently running a contest on her blog. Tell her a joke, and enter a contest to win a WHOLE BAG (10 skeins!) of Jo Sharp DK wool. That's enough for knitting this whole amazing vest! (Sounds good to me...but I'm not eligible:)

That's the knitting news for now, dear readers! I look forward to hearing from you soon, but first, go tell Terri a joke, please.

Cankles

The other day I heard all about my younger nephew's cankles. This is apparently the area we would call...ankles and calves. On a baby, this would be "cankles." As in, this baby doesn't have any socks that fit properly because of his outsized, fleshy, delicious to kiss-- cankles.

The next line of the email mentioned something about Auntie Joanne, knitter, and whether she'd do something about it right now?

I immediately dropped all my dithering about a knitting impasse. On the way to the Ozarks, I drove 200 miles and then the professor took over and I whipped up the first pair of cankles. The yarn is called Merino Bambino. It is great stuff, machine washable fingering weight Merino, but it seems to only be sold in Australia. (bought in on vacation a few years ago.) The socks hopefully fit someone in the 15th percentile for his age (we're not quite thriving yet, this is the nephew that spent 10 weeks in neo-natal intensive care and it's hard to get enough nutrients through the naso-gastric tube) and that foot length is 4.5". Toe up socks, figure 8 cast-on, round toe, short row heel, and ribbing on a larger needle and a large bind off to accomodate those dear cankles.

It occurred to me while knitting pair number two (in green cotton sock yarn for spring) that I haven't knit much for my nephews...clearly a case of the cobbler's children having no shoes. Or the knitter's nephews having no handknit socks. Or something. They don't even have their own set of bug finger puppets! Their grandmother (my mother) is an avid knitter too, so maybe we should get on that. They are very good for creative play...and use up all your sock yarn odds and ends.

This came up because over on Ravelry, the fabulous database for knitters that is already over 300,000 knitters strong, is having a contest. It's called the Bobby Awards, and there is a category for coolest toy. If you don't have a horse in this race, (as we say here in Kentucky) would you mind voting for my Bug Finger Puppets? Thank you, if you're so inclined. The professor studies bugs, so we'd have to say we're a fan of them over here. Too bad I don't still have the original samples. We'd be playing all the time! :)

In other news, several kind friends have posted fun things about Fiber Gathering. On foodperson.com, Janet tried out the one recipe in the book, apple crisp,...and she liked it! (I wish there had been room for more recipes. I would have gone wild!) My friend Alison posted another kind, wonderful note celebrating all our connections over here at her blog, Spindyeknit. We also dropped by our local book store to pick up a magazine and saw an actual copy of the book there! Yes, we are truly neophytes. This blew my mind. The professor also talked about it for two days, so apparently it blew his prodigious brain as well! We are pretty easy to bowl over these days. It's all a bit overwhelming!

If you voted for Bug Finger Puppets, would you let me know in a comment? Or tell me what you think about those lovely little cankles that babies have? Or whatever? I love hearing from you!