Quick Hits

1. September has turned into quite the busy month. Two weekends ago, we went on a day trip to Milwaukee to pick up some Sprecher and Usingers. Click the links, I'll wait.... Delicious no? I recommend the Puma Kola and the Ravin' Red from Sprecher and the Hot Hickory Sticks from Usingers. Yummmmm.

Last weekend we had a wedding on Saturday and Sunday drove to Lansing to visit friends and their new baby. I did get to knit in the car on the way back, so it wasn't a total bust. This weekend, we're going camping. Yes, you read that right, it's the last weekend in September in Michigan and we're going camping. At press time, the estimated number of people is closely rivaled with the estimated number of dogs (8:6) so it should be an interesting weekend. It's not supposed to be too cold though, which leads me to...

2. I swear I must be the only knitter in the world that is not looking forward to fall. Everywhere I look, knitters are rejoicing in the nearness of cold weather, turning of the leaves and sweater or afghan knitting. Not I. I'll stick with my socks and other accessories for now. I hate being cold. Granted, being a larger guy it doesn't happen all that often, but still. I was so happy when, last weekend, I actually uttered the phrase, "I'm not cutting the grass. It's too hot out."

It might also have to do with the fact that I am not a speed knitter and I can't churn out a sweater in 2-3 weeks. It takes me that long just to finish a pair of socks. If I started a sweater now, I probably wouldn't get to wear it until next fall/winter.

3. The Twisted Tweed socks are done. I was waiting for the perfect convergence of lighting, weather, a clean place to stand and proper photo taking skills to post, but I'm going to have to scrap that to post them in time for the SAMKAL4 Sept. deadline. They've been done for a week but I haven't posted them because...

4. I was out of the office Mon-Wed with Flash 8 training. Hopefully I can find some time to put together a nice piece for the blog to spice things up a bit. Probably just flashy header though. Stay tuned.

5. I've been reading a LOT of the Yarn Harlot. Because I was in class for three days and I picked it up really quickly, during breaks (and sometimes during lecture, shhhhh) I worked on getting caught up on her blog archives. She's really hilarious, there were several times during class that I had to cover my face and bite my tongue to not laugh out loud. It also makes me feel better to know that a knitting celebrity like her still makes a lot of the mistakes that us commoners do.

6. I've started the sweater socks. Remember the sweater I de-constructed? I'm using the sleeves to make socks. Pictures of those next week, assuming they survive drunken-fire-smoky-camping-knitting.

7. I have another new project to show you, but we're not speaking right now. It decided not to follow the chart, so I decided that I didn't need to knit on it for awhile. We're in counseling. The outlook is hopeful.

8. In honor of this weekend's planned activities, I leave you with the following photo, a favorite of mine: