Trapped in the Shop

What am I doing on this fine spring day? Sitting here in the shop, by myself and going a little stir-crazy! Everyone and anyone is out enjoying the weather and, frankly, I can't blame them. This is one of those times that I've actually thought of closing the shop for the day and going for a bike ride myself. Unfortunately, that would be the day that the person who's been just dying to come here and spend an excessive amount of money would show up, find me closed and take their business elsewhere. The wonder of retail. Eh, what can you do. Just remember, if you've been hankering to come over and get something, you can be almost guaranteed to have me all to yourself. Heck, just come say hi. I'm bored to tears! Well, there's always the gray socks to knit...

Orange and Maroon

Here is the finished scarf modeled by the lovely and talented Katie. I am wearing it proudly today and sending my love everyone effected by the tragedy at VA Tech.

Gee, what's that glare?

OMG! It's the sun!!! My eyes didn't know what to do. It is so nice have some sunshine after a week of rain. Maybe spring will come after all!?

The VA Tech massacre has been on my mind this week and I've decided to participate in tomorrow's National Orange and Maroon Day. The only problem is that I have nothing orange or maroon to wear. So, I decided to knit something.

It is just a quickie little scarf. If you are interested, here's what I'm doing:

I'm going to end up using about 100g of maroon and 50g of orange in light bulky. You can use a bulky instead. On #10.5 needles, cast on 132 sts (165 sts if you want it a little longer) using the maroon. Knit 14 rows or 7 garter st ridges. Change orange and work 12 rows (6 ridges). Change back to the maroon, knit another 14 rows and bind off loosely. I'm still on the fence about fringe. The scarf should be just long enough to tie or pin around my neck. I'll post a picture as soon as I'm done.

I Love Cambridge

On the way to meet Patience and Himself for dinner, I saw a man with a full beard wearing a Pith Helmet. Wished I'd had my camera. You just never know what you're going to see on a stroll through the People's Republic of Cambridge.

Nothing much

Since I am soon approaching my first blog-iversary, I was looking back through my early posts. I used to post a lot more than I do now. I'm trying to figure out if it's because I'm busier now or if my life is just more boring. Since there's nothing much happening here at Chez Gray Socks, I'm thinking boring. I wind yarn, I sell yarn, I dye yarn, I knit gray socks. That about covers it just now. Boring is good, I guess. Isn't there a Chinese curse that goes 'May you have an interesting life'?

Another Monday,

Another dye day! Spring must actually be coming since I was able to hang yarn out on the fence for the first time since fall.

Maybe this way it will get dry without having be to hung all over the house! I end up putting out all the folding chairs, hanging yarn on them and hoping it is dry by Wednesday. It's not all that warm out there but it is breezy so I'm hoping to get the yarn completely dry by tomorrow.

Another reason I think spring must be here is that I'm on a real spring cleaning jag.

I finally, after a great deal of prodding by Doria. cleaned out and reorganized the corner by the computer. It used to be the place where I piled up all my shop samples as well as other stuff. There was also a basket that ended up being the repository for all kinds of stuff that I couldn't think of anywhere else to put. The general clutter in this room has been a real symptom of trying to run a business without an actual office.

The narrow set of shelves (all Doria's idea, I take no credit) got all the shop samples and my personal stash of sock yarn out of containers on the floor. The tub on the right is 2005's files that are being entered into the computer with the help of Kimberly. I also started another file tub with all the stuff I couldn't think of anywhere else to put. It actually works really well, so much better than the basket! With the help of the tub, I then cleaned off the coffee table (this is the coffee table that is usually a foot deep in papers, another symptom of the no office thing).

Now anything that I need is in the tub under the table and only things that need my active attention are on the table in this awesome metal mesh box that I got at Tags.

This was Doria's face when she saw it all for the first time. There's hope for me yet, folks!

Who Knew?

As someone who has spent years professing undying love for her double points, I was incredibly surprised by how much I like knitting two socks on one long circular.

I am on my second pair on the circulars (I finished the first pair on dpns) and I’m definitely a fan!

Who knew!? It is a little dodgy doing the flap heel but I’m getting used to it. What you say? Why am I not using a short row heel? Because I love my flap heel socks! Love, love, love them!

Note: This is me professing undying love for my flap heel method. Have I ever done a short row heel? No. Never even tried it. Why? Because I really, really love my flap heel. Wondering what will happen when I finally break down and try the short row heel? I’ll probably instantly drop my beloved flap heel the way I dropped my once loved double points. Like a hot potato. I feel like such a tramp.