I hope you've all gone into the database to get your sock pal's info and are excited about your match. I am totally psyched about my pal because I've been wanting to try knitting some fancy, lacy socks (the kind I'd never wear!) and from her preferences, I think my pal would really like some.

I've been stalking the Cookie A site and her Knitty patterns (like Baudelaire and my favorite, Monkey) and also thinking about maybe Embossed Leaves. Now I just have to decide which one to make! And get some fabulous yarn, of course.

So are you all as psyched as I am? Hey, if you can't post on the blogger blog right now, leave a comment here. Let us know what you're thinking about making. Let's talk socks!

Lookie, lookie, Otto the Owl has eyes now! (Okay, all of you who have knit this pattern before, I'll admit it, I forgot to give him his nose. I know. I totally missed it on the chart. Doh! I'll go back and add it later.) Otto owes all of his progress to wee one, who did this yesterday.

Yes, it's a nap. Our very first I'm-laying-you-down-awake-in-your-bed-because-it's-naptime nap. Hallelujah!

We broke Blogger. Well, not exactly but sockapalooza four is too big for them. They wrote "no limits" on their info page and, silly me, I took 'em at their word. I guess they figured no one would be crazy enough to try to make a blog with over 1,000 people! The official word from them is a simple "we can't handle a blog this size". Okey-dokey. So we need a plan b.

Enter hubby who had the coooolest idea! Have you ever heard of Digg? It's this genius site/system that allows users to post links to web stories and stuff online that they dig. Users can check out the list of all the things posted AND they can vote on the ones they dig the most. The links with more votes move up the list and those with fewer votes move down. Neat, huh? Since it's a system that is designed for tons of users to share info in a manageable way, it's just the sort of thing we need. Now the real Digg is for technology/media types of discussions. What we need is our own little knit-digg system.

Enter master webmaster who installed a program for us! If you're technology savvy, check it out and get started submitting links to your own updates and reading and voting on links posted by others.

Here's a quick how-to (I'll post a longer how-to this weekend for everyone else!):
Go to the pligg system. You'll need to register with a user name and password. Once you've created yourself as a user you'll see the option to "submit a new story". Enter the URL (be sure you link directly to the permalink of your individual post so folks can really find your update). The system will check the link and bring back a title. You can edit that and write a description (to get folks to visit your link!). Select sockapalooza as your category and submit it! I've added some other categories in there if you want to share any non-sockapalooza links with everyone too.

"Published News" is the list of links that have several votes already and are officially popular. They will be shown on the front page. You can see the most popular links listed in order of number of votes in "Top Today". The "Upcoming News" is links people have posted that need more votes. Check 'em out and send 'em to the front page if you think they're interesting.

(PS - Even if you're not in sockapalooza, you can still check out the pligg system, post links and vote on interesting stories. This way you can have all the fun too without having to do any of the knitting!)

Let's play around with it a little and see if it'll be a fun system for us to use to share our updates and keep track of who's knitting cool stuff!

the knit pligg FAQ

- How do I browse the stories?
- Do I have to register?
- How do I register?
- What about keeping my identity secret from my pal?
- How do I post?
- What if I don't have a blog to post links from?
- How do I vote?
- Why should I vote?
- How is this voting thing not just a popularity contest?
- What if my story doesn't get many votes?
- What does "bury" mean?
- What does "karma" mean?
- Why is this a better system for sockapalooza?
- Is this only for sockapalooza participants?

- How do I browse the stories?

- Do I have to register?

- How do I register?

- What about keeping my identity secret from my pal?

- How do I post?

- What if I don't have a blog to post links from?

You can use the Sockapalooza Four blogger blog. If only sockapalooza participants who don't have blogs use it, then it should be a small enough group that the blog should function perfectly well. You can also link to an image in Flikr or other online photo hosting sites, just as long as there is a unique URL to that image.

- How do I vote?

- Why should I vote?

- How is this voting thing not just a popularity contest?

- What if my story doesn't get many votes?

And even if you don't get a lot of votes, I bet you'll get increased traffic to your site and some comments! Think about how hard it would be for someone to find your blog through a post on that giant blogger blog, where all the posts look the same and your post is pushed way down the page in minutes! Think about how hard it would be for someone to find your blog if they have to find you from the giant list of sockapalooza participants! This way, you can take people directly to a specific post on your blog and other people can join in and say, hey that link is interesting. I have already visited dozens of sites that I've never seen before!

- What does "bury" mean?

- What does "karma" mean?

- Why is this a better system for sockapalooza?

- Is this only for sockapalooza participants?

I hope you'll come join us on the knit pligg!

Who has time to knit when there's the knit pligg to watch?! (Info here and a faq here.)

And I couldn't even knit when I was away from the computer at knitting group. I brought the baby, of course, and for the first time ever, she slept through knitting group.

Unfortunately, my knitting was stuck underneath her in the stroller! Note to self: take knitting out first before walking baby around to lure her to sleep. After letting her sleep for a half hour, I risked it and jiggled and jostled her around finally succeeding in slipping my knitting out of the basket underneath her. And what do I find? Well, I always keep the knitting bag packed with one easy project (my latest hugs and kisses sweater) that I can pick up at anytime. The last time I worked on it though, I finished up the ball of yarn that was in there. Did I remember to put a new ball in the bag. Oh no, I didn't! So no yarn in the bag. And no knitting. Grrrr.

But when knitting stuck under the baby gets you down, the knitting stuck on the baby can always cheer you up again.

Her marshmallow bonnet and mary jane booties!

After finding myself this weekend with some time to knit and a knitting bag without yarn, I've learned my lesson and have repacked said knitting bag with not one, but two, balls of red yarn. Work on the hugs and kisses sweater can now continue.

Since this is my knit-when-I-can project, who knows when the thing will actually be finished. With a new baby and book signings and the end of school coming up, I'm just shooting for getting it done for sweater weather. No more deadline knitting for me for a while - last year was nuts!

It turns out I am not skilled enough to do the single crochet that the hello yarns anime hat pattern calls for for the eyes. But I do know how to cut out pieces of felt and sew them onto a hat. So there you have it, felt eyes. I'd be ashamed of myself if it hadn't come out so adorably cute!

Now for the gushing. I loved this pattern! I loved that it was top-down (cool way to do a hat). I loved the ears (they're so cleverly made and are the perfect addition). I love the little face (so funny and quirky - just like the big Totoro). And then there's this...

A school field trip kept me from getting online yesterday. The boys' classes went to a production of Winnie-the-Pooh at a local family theater. The boys got to see Pooh and Piglet and their favorite, Tigger, and I got to carry baby L in the baby bjorn for about four hours. Needless to say, I was a little tired when we got back. But so were all the kiddos and after they all went to sleep, I got to work on Owl.

His little body is all knitted and sewn together and he's just waiting on his stuffing. I'm really feeling like this is a great project for these newborn/infant weeks. The knitting is small, so I can do my 15 minutes or half hour of knitting and still feel like I've accomplished something. And even though there's lots of seaming, it too can be broken up into small sections for small sessions. Will I ever knit a life-sized sweater again?!

Isn't the knit pligg awesome?! I'm loving it! It's so great when I just have a few minutes. In a couple of clicks, I can see a dozen sock updates. And then when I have more time, I can read all the stories and see all the things people are considering and recommending. And I'm loving all the socks you all are knitting! Looks like we're going to have a lot of monkeys this go round. I'm planning on making some for the second pal I'm knitting for, one of those forgotten in the last round. Which leads me to...

sockapalooza news & reminders

- Master webmaster has worked out an automated sock savior system that you can use to find someone who needs a sock savior. Just go to the database as usual and click on "volunteer to be a sock savior". The system will send you a link by email as usual and when you click it you'll get the list of the pals who need socks, including their country and preferences. Just choose one, click on it and the system will update your info to record that you are a sock savior for that person. The next time you check out your "sock pal information" page, all their info will be listed along with your original pal! Feel free to contact your sock savior pal to reassure them that someone is finally on the job making socks for them. And get the socks out to them by August 2nd (they've been waiting a long time, so it's okay to send these socks early, but remember your "real" pal's socks for this round should not be sent out before August!).

(Update: Looks like all the pals in need have been taken for now - hooray!! I'm sure there will be more who will need saving as sockapalooza continues, so be sure to check back again in the next couple of months. Thanks to everyone who is willing to be a sock savior!)

- In order to make the blogger blog more functional, we need to reduce the member count on the sockapalooza four blog. I'd like to make it just a blog for those sockapaloozers who do not have blogs of their own. So if you are a member and don't need to use the blog for your updates, please go to your blogger dashboard and remove yourself from the blog (click on settings under "sockapalooza four"). Thanks!

(Update: Looks like even removing ourselves is giving Blogger problems. Give it a try and if it turns out that we can't really do it this way, I'll have to have Blogger delete everyone and then send out invites to just those who don't have blogs.)

- A quick reminder for those of you who are worried about not having heard from your pal. There isn't any requirement for your pal to contact you. Many do and that's great, but many are just working away on socks. Some people are nervous that they'll somehow reveal who they are or they just like stalking you on your blog and want to keep everything a big surprise. Really, there's someone out there knitting for each of you. Don't worry! That being said, if you haven't contacted your pal, consider doing it (anonymously, of course) just in case they are a worrier! ;0)

- I've gotten some questions about posting on the knit pligg. You must always use a unique URL when you post a link on the knit pligg. If you just link to your general blog address, the next time you try to link to it, the pligg will think you are trying to post the same story again. So be sure to use the permalink of the specific post you are linking to. Got it?

- And remember to vote on the knit pligg! It's sooooo helpful when browsing to know that others have already read this story and recommend it. If you have questions about how the system works, read the knit pligg faq.

I look forward to reading all your updates on the knit pligg. So I encourage all of you who haven't tried it out yet to please join us! It's the best way to direct people to your site for updates. I would really love to see all 1,000 sockapaloozers active on the pligg, along with all you other knitters out there sock watching. Join us and keep on knittin'!

I've got sock pal socks on the needles - woo hoo!

This is "embossed leaves" from Interweave Knits Winter 2005 (also in Favorite Socks). I am so excited to be making these socks finally. I've always wanted to make them because every finished pair I've ever seen was simply stunning. In fact I picked out this green yarn (Lang Fantomas) about a year ago just to make these socks. But it turns out I don't really wear much green and I don't wear lace socks. But my pal does! And after knitting this pattern myself, I may have to change my mind about lace socks.

Besides the lace itself being mesmerizingly lovely, I find the pattern to be surprisingly lovely as well. I don't know how you "memorize" lace patterns, but I've found myself focusing on the mathematical sequence at work here: the one left/two right, down one/up two sort of back and forth movement that builds as the leaves develop. Honestly, it appeals to me as much as the leaves do!

I'm hooked! I'm putting Lace Style on my wish list and going out today to search for the perfect yarn for my own pair of embossed leaves.

Wee one, all ready for her first yarn crawl! Johanna and I took the kiddos on a North Shore yarn crawl - a trip up the coast, a few stores, babies... good times.

Our first stop was A Yarn Over Marblehead in Marblehead (of course). Cute store, very friendly, and a nice mix of yarns. Some of my faves in the store were Southwest Trading Company's Karaoke yarn (they had the cutest little sample knit up), Mission Falls wool (it's great to see this back in the stores again), and the locally hand-dyed Marblehead merino. The owner is working on a big Charmed Knits window display, so you know I'll be back up there soon to check it out and sign a few books.

Next we headed down to Salem (a whole like four miles away) to Seed Stitch. We'd heard raves about this store and it was lovely. It reminded me of purl in NYC with a table full of luscious swatches to greet you at the front door and all kinds of samples labeled with beautiful little tags. There wasn't nearly as much yarn there as at purl (even though purl is only about a quarter of the size), but like purl, they have only chosen the best yarns so every single yarn in the store is a gem.

We made a longer stop in Salem at Crunchy Granola Baby (love that name!) for some baby time. You know you can do a little nursing and diaper changing at an organic baby store! And what a fabulous baby store this is - so friendly and welcoming, and stocked with cloth diapers, natural baby products and cutie patootie organic baby clothes. There was lots of space for a feeding and some tummy time. We all loved it!

Last on our mini-yarn crawl (I had to be home by early afternoon to pick up the boys from school) was Cranberry Quilters in Hamilton. One of our most fabulous knitsmith knitters, Terri, recommended this store and since she always knits beautiful things, we knew that the store wouldn't disappoint. And it sure didn't. You'd never know that this unassuming house on the roadside would be filled with such wonderful yarns! It's not fancy, but they've got a large selection of yarns with lots of Debbie Bliss and Rowan and a huge space for sitting and knitting. I love it when yarn stores are in houses and the yarn is divided up in different rooms. It's so cool to wander into the next room and discover even more yarn. I wish I had a few extra rooms in my house...

All in all, it was a great trip. It's amazing that there can be so many stores so close to each other (and because of our limited time, we only visited the stores we happened to hear good things about) and yet each of them was so different. Your friendly local store, your high-end luxury store, and the place you know you can go to find the yarn for your next project. As far as yarn stores go, we've got it pretty good up here.

Meet Otto (from Lucinda Guy's And So to Bed...)! I made it through all those knitted toy finishing touches that magically transform something like this...

into this...

I'm always amazed at how well toys turn out. After I finished the knitting for the totoro hat and dolly, I never would have thought that the addition of some eyes and tiny embroidered mouth would make such a huge difference. And I felt the same way this time too. But attaching those wings and that scarf really changed the whole thing. I'm beginning to think that getting a toy to look perfect is a much easier task than getting the fit on a sweater right.

Otto also pleased me by taking a good deal of stuffing. We all know that stuffing only comes in those crazy giant bags the size of your bedpillow. And knitted toys usually only take about a handful of stuffing. Which leaves all of us knitters trying to pawn off our extra poly fiberfill on each other! But dear old Otto really holds a lot. A few more Owls and my bag of stuffing may be small enough that I could actually stuff it somewhere!

So goodbye Otto (he'll soon be winging his way to a little friend) and goodbye stuffing!

Time for another Hogwarts house hat for the Charmed Knits knitalong! Fellow Knitsmith (and sock designer!) Gabriella just happened to have some Ultra Alpaca in navy blue that she didn't want, so I swiped it for a Ravenclaw hat. This time it'll be a PoA-style beret.

oops, I had to steal the needles for another fab little project!

So that makes Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and now Ravenclaw. Turns out the only color I don't have is some green for Slytherin. So, in the spirit of inter-house unity, I picked up some green Mission Falls wool at A Yarn Over Marblehead on our yarn crawl this week.

Slytherin, Draco, Snape, they're not all that bad, right? Discuss...

It's finally spring here in Boston. The leaves have filled out the trees at last. And they're growing on my needles as well.

I'm past the heel on my sock pal's first sock and am still loving this embossed leaves pattern. I'm looking forward to that spiral toe!

As I approach one sock done, I'm beginning to think that I'm going to need some sock blockers. I've never bothered to block any of my socks before, but this is lace - it'll look so much nicer blocked out, won't it?

Since I've almost finished my sock pal's first sock, I figure it's high time I start planning my next pair of socks! You see, once I feel like a pattern is going to work out, I pretty much spend all my remaining knitting time daydreaming about the next project. Now, for a sweater, I'll need to have several pieces finished before I feel confident about the project being a success. But for a sock, just past the heel of sock one is usually plenty. So even though I've still got a sock and a half left to knit on the embossed leaves, in my mind I've moved on to monkey.

I really want to make a pair of monkeys (who doesn't?!) and so went poking through the yarn stash for some appropriate yarn. After looking closely at my sock yarn stash, I find I have a ton of self-striping sock yarns but very few solids or variegateds, which I think would work best with this pattern. I did find this though. Think it'll make nice monkeys?

That still leaves me with the question of what to do with all that striping yarn, like this little fave, Lorna's Laces "Knit Happens" colorway.

I bought all this striping yarn for stockinette socks. Don't get me wrong, I still love stockinette socks, but aren't there some patterned socks out there that will work really well with striping yarn? The only thing that comes to my mind is Jaywalkers, which I fear may knit up too snug for my leg/ankle girth, although if you experts out there say otherwise, I can give 'em a try. But does anyone know of other patterns? What's a stripe-lover to do?

Fellow knitsmith, Dani (who is making a beautiful Lizard Ridge afghan right now), had her wedding shower this weekend! Since she is the queen of knitted gifts, I knew I had to make something for her.

I remembered that she'd made the drawstring pouch from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts a couple of times for others and thought that she deserved one for herself.

I found a beautiful little skein of Artyarns Beaded Silk to use. Ooooh was it nice to work with! Sleek, soft silk and smooth glass beads. What a joy. The pattern was quick to knit up (living up to the book's title this time!) and the one skein was just enough. I filled the finished bag with Dani's favorite chocolates and voila, pretty gifty for the gifty goddess!

I'm loving the leaves!

Have you seen Kris's gorgeous leaves in Colinette Jitterbug? Mo'knits is doing them in a gradual striping yarn... purty. And my daydream is making a stunning pair in white with short-row heels. This pattern just comes out so great!

Still, after finishing the first sock, there are a few things I'd do differently. I'd probably skip that special cast on, but mostly I'd change the heel.

For me, that stockinette heel flap seems too blah for this amazing sock. The short row heel is nice - that beautiful diagonal! - but then you lose the line of the gusset which I kinda like too. On my next pair I might keep the flap, but work it in the twisted rib of the cuff. It's so lovely how a few of those ribs from the cuff become the center of some of the leaves and it would be nice if that were repeated into the heel. And then there's that garter ridge along the side of the heel flap. What's that about? It does sort of repeat the lines of the toe, but I really don't get it.

But oh, that toe! That toe! I adore that toe.

Overall, I absolutely love the sock. Those leaves are so perfect, especially in the green, which is a favorite color of my sock pal. I'm really excited to see it in something more my color, like some gorgeous solid red Cherry Tree Hill Supersock that I just bought from Simply Socks!

"Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind."

One more house hat (a PoA-style beret in Ultra Alpaca) done! Just Slytherin left to do.

"And at last there came a morning
when old Slytherin departed
and though the fighting then died out
he left us quite downhearted.
And never since the founders four
were whittled down to three
have the Houses been united
as they once were meant to be."

Can you tell that I'm getting psyched for the next book? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

It's Tuesday - time to do some sock watching!

Are you following everyone's progress on the pligg? If you're not, you're missing out! There are already some gorgeous finished socks, like these, these, these, these, these, and these! (Psssst... don't forget to update your info in the database once you're done knitting. Go to your info and check off "socks knitted". But don't send them until August, okay?)

Some fabulous knitters are starting to share Tuesday sock watching posts where they show off socks they've seen online in the last week (check out this post from last week and one from this week). This is a terrific idea! I really encourage you to check out other people's progress and post about it on the pligg. Remember, you aren't limited to only posting about your own stuff!

And to help you with your sock watching, hubby (inspired by CountryMouse) has come up with a link on the paloozers page to take you to a random sockapalooza participant's blog. Have fun sock surfing!

(UPDATE: I've been checking out "random" sockapalooza blogs all day and have posted some of my finds on the pligg. Check 'em out!)

I hope that by now everyone has their sock pal info and is at least starting to plan their pal's socks. If you haven't gotten it yet just go to the database and click on "get sock pal info". I know some of you are planning your packages already. Remember, don't send anything utnil August! But keep in mind that the sockapalooza tradition is to tell your pal who you are in the package and to include a postcard from your area so your pal can see where in the world the socks are coming from. You are allowed to spoil your pal with other treats, but it's not required. Everyone will be thrilled with great socks.

Now go look at some socks!

With all this monkey mania going on, I feel like I've been waiting forever to make some monkeys! After finishing the first embossed leaves sock for my pal and singling out a ball of yarn yearning to become monkey socks for me, I couldn't hold myself back any longer. Let me tell you, knitting those first few repeats was like a release. Ahhh, finally!

It's funny that Cookie A talked about writing this pattern as an addiction, because once she shared it with us the whole knitting world has gotten hooked. Monkeys are everywhere! They seem as infectious as the pink eye that my son B is stuck at home with and as inescapable as that dang Barenaked Ladies song that is stuck in my head like a soundtrack to this whole monkey phenomenon!

Well, as Cookie suggests, there's no other way to get the monkey off your back but to get it out there and infect someone else. So here goes...

But not a real green dress (that's cruel) ...

While I have been working on my pal's embossed leaves socks and starting my own monkeys, a sock knitting queue has formed. And up in front are my latest yarn acquisitions from Simply Socks.

There's some cherry red Cherry Tree Hill supersock for embossed leaves for me and a simply gorgeous skein of the new specially dyed Simply Socks colorway of Cherry Tree Hill supersock. It's fabulous! I also treated myself to a lovely set of rosewood dpns. Knitting with these is like heaven! I'm slowly collecting these in all the right sizes for sock knitting (slowly, because they are craaazy expensive!).

Coming next to the queue is an as of yet unchosen sock yarn for my second sock pal, one of those pals who didn't receive socks in the last round of sockapalooza. I want to make those really special, so it's hard to decide what yarn to use. And the more I browse sock yarn, the longer the queue gets!