Friday, January 02, 2009

Mixing it up

Sometimes I like to play with colors by combining yarns. I decided to "get rid" of some sock yarn that had been sitting around for ages by using it up.
I have one yarn that is a black and white twist with occasional spots of green, and I'm knitting it together with, alternately, a solid white and a solid turquoise for tweedy looking stripes.



This results in something close to a sport weight, and will make nice warm winter socks.

I took the picture using this:



It is the cutest little tripod ever, a gift from my great sister A. It bends all over every which way, and I think may be the perfect solution to "how to take pictures of socks on my own feet". Also, it seems to have a cheerful personality, and looking at it makes me smile.

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On the destashing my life beyond yarn front, today's topic is (#5) mugs. We have way too many mugs. This is because Mr S keeps acquiring them. Some come as "teacher gifts". But mostly he picks them up himself. Some are souvenirs from trips. The majority come from thrift stores. The man can hardly pass a thrift store without stopping in and picking up a mug. He buys them because they say "Elvis" or come from a city we have visited once or just because they are nice and big. This has led to a large and aesthetically diverse assortment. The problem with trimming it down is that I really can't give away his stuff (I wouldn't want him giving away my stuff). But I have managed to weed out a few that came from my side of the family, as it were. This includes three truly beautiful (and actually matching) ones that my mother gave to me because she really never used them and didn't have room for them. I never really use them, either. If you live long enough, one way to get rid of stuff is to give it to your grown children. My grown child is still living in an apartment about 2 feet square, so that isn't an option here. The mugs are headed for the thrift store.

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I'm quite excited that I've just signed up for a class to be taught by Nancy Bush at the Sow's Ear in February. It's based on her Knitting Vintage Socks, which, oddly, is one of her books I don't have. But I would take it no matter what the subject. I love, love, love both Folk Socks and Folk Knitting is Estonia. I'll happily go learn anything she has to teach.

4 comments:

CatBookMom said...

Real excitement with the Nancy Bush class news! Should be way fun!

Thanks for reminding me about the mug overflow here, too. Like yours, most of ours is DH's and therefore not to be tossed by me. But we need some of the space for other glassware. Maybe I can convince him to box up some and put elsewhere.

Happy new year!!

YarnThrower said...

Great idea regarding your sock yarn. I have a bunch of it, too little for a pair of socks, yet too much to discard....

Anonymous said...

I am inordinately fond of knitting two strands of sock yarn together. Such warm socks that makes!

Our overflowing mug collection is all my doing, so there is no excuse not to weed it out. Especially since I practically always use an insulated travel tumbler for my morning latte.

smariek said...

Oooh, the sock class sounds exciting and fun!

We have a plethora of mugs here too. If I ever invite a gazillion people over to my house, they can each have their own unique cup so they can tell which one is theirs, lol.

That's a cute tripod. I know I've seen it somewhere, can't remember where, but I wanna say the LL Bean catalog.