A traveling salesman stays overnight with a farm family. When the family gathers to eat there’s a pig seated at the table. And the pig has three medals hanging around his neck and a peg leg. The salesman says, “Um, I see you have a pig having dinner with you.”

“Yes,” says the farmer. “That’s because he’s a very special pig. You see those medals around his neck? Well, the first medal is from when our youngest son fell in the pond, and he was drowning, and that pig swam out and saved his life. The second medal, that’s from when the barn caught fire and our little daughter was trapped in there and the pig ran inside, carried her out and saved her life. And the third medal, that’s from when our oldest boy was cornered in the stock yard by a mean bull, and that pig ran under the fence and bit the bull on the tail and saved the boy’s life.”

“Yes,” says the salesman, “I can see why you let that pig sit right at the table and have dinner with you. And I can see why you awarded him the medals. But how did he get the peg leg?”

“Well,” says, the farmer, “a pig like that–you don’t eat him all at once.”

Ahem. I told an abbreviated version of that joke when I was in Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago. It was at the end of the day and we were being silly. Keri decided it would be a good idea to cast on for a three-legged pig (using as a base the nose-up catnip mouse pattern I provided in the handouts for my Leftovers class).

Okay, maybe you had to have been there.

Anyway, here is that pig. Keri sent it to me and I got it yesterday.

I love its three little legs.

And curly tail.

Keri included in the package some treats for Lucy from her kitty, Slick, and this:

A limited edition Petite KIP Bag in my favorite Dala Horse fabric.

And check out the handle!

Thanks, Keri!

(Psst! As I write this, there are a couple of Dala Horse Petite KIP Bags in Keri’s etsy shop.)

Tomorrow I’m off for a fun weekend in the mountains with friends. I’ll return home Sunday, but it’ll be late enough so that I’ll not feel like blogging, so I’ll talk to y’all Monday.

Meanwhile, Lucy is in a post-treat state of bliss.

Sidra Vitale asked in the comments:

Because her paws are so furry, does Lucy ever ‘hydroplane’ on linoleum surfaces?

I live in a high-rise condo, and the only parts that are not carpeted are the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the entry foyer. And each of these areas are rather small, so Lucy really doesn’t have room to work up a good hydroplane.

Though no doubt she would given the space to do so!

Last night, overcome with fatigue and ennui, I did little knitting on my sock, so not a lot of progress since yesterday.

I really really love this yarn — Alchemy Juniper. I first heard of it when Clara Parkes did a review of it on Knitter’s Review. Here’s the review. If you are interested in this sock yarn (and if you aren’t, why the heck not?0 go read the review. Clara does her usual thorough in-depth review and explains how such a lovely soft squooshy yarn can be a good sock yarn.

Lucy sez:

“I’m soft and squooshy and it is all good.”

For KnitNation!

Back in July, Socktopus Alice asked me if I’d be interested in going to London in July 2010 to teach at a knitting expo she and Cookie A were putting together.

Would I? You bet your Addi Turbos I would!

So yes, I am on the teacher list, and in very illustrious company. The event is July 29 – 31, 2010 at the Imperial College in London. There will be three days of classes, two days of shopping, and a Ravelry party.

The class schedule will be up in a couple weeks’ time, and class sign ups will be open on the 1st December.

You can go to the KnitNation Website to sign up for their email list to receive notifications. There is a Ravelry group: Knit Nation Summer Expo 2010 Group and a Twitter feed: KnitNation.

The end of July seems a very long time to wait, but I’m guessing it’ll be here before I know it.

Meanwhile, I’ve made some very nice progress on my Cloister sock.

Amazing what one can accomplish when it is the only thing one is knitting. But that will soon change — I’ve got a number of projects lined up and I will likely start at least one of them this week.

Lucy has taken to sleeping on her sheepskin, even though it seems way too warm in my condo. It’s averaging about 74 degrees in here and that is at least 5 degrees warmer than I like. The outside temps during the day have been in the 60s  and I just can’t get the temperature any lower inside. But it’s supposed to be a bit cooler over the next few days. I live in hope.

I zoomed in on that peaceful scene to catch this:

Paw Floof!

She’s stylin’.

Thanks for all your lovely comments about this shawl. It was great fun to knit, and not particularly difficult. The only arduous bit was that by the time I bound off there were 605 stitches on my needles. I confess to having a few hateful thoughts at that point.

But off the needles it is, and I am very happy with it. I love the way it stays on the shoulders!

And I’m down to one bloggable project (though that will change in the near future). This:

Wheeeeee! A sock! It’s a sock knit from one of the yummiest sock yarns around: Alchemy Juniper. The colorway is called “Tea Party” and I think it is just lovely.

I’m calling this pattern “Cloisters Socks.” If you do a google image search for cloisters, you may agree that it is a good name. Well, you’ll be able to tell better when you see a more up-to-date photo. That pic is from yesterday.

Lucy seems to have taken sleep to an art form:

It measures 24″ down the center back and has a 60″ wingspan.

After:

After a bath in warm water and woolwash, pinned out for blocking, it measures 30″ down the center back and has a wingspan of 70″.

To recap, this is the Two-Thirds Shawl (my own design) knit from Handmaiden Mini Maiden in the “Periwinkle” colorway, on 4mm needles. I used approximately 900 yards.

I did indeed finish the Bamboo Socks on Friday.

And Lucy is off for a nap with a friend after the excitement of helping me to block the shawl.

Have a great Sunday, and welcome to November and Standard Time. Wheeeeeeee!

See, on the first sock, I knit 99 rounds for the leg after turning the heel. I am currently on Round 80. I am averaging 26 rounds per day on my commute (to and from work), and I have 19 rounds  rounds left for tomorrow. Piece of cake. (Mmmmmmmm, cake!)

Did you see what I did there? Math. Please hold your applause.

I almost always count my rounds when making socks. I facilitate this by attaching a row counter (via an 0ld stitch holder) to my sock in progress.

When I knit socks for myself, I know that to get the foot the proper length I need to work 56 rounds after completing the toe before I start the gusset increases. Then, after the heel turn I keep track of how many rounds I knit for the leg, so that my second sock will match exactly.

Now, if I am making a sock with easy-to-count pattern repeats, I don’t bother with the stitch counter.

Speaking of socks, there is a fabulous, comprehensive entry on short rows over on the TECHknitting blog, here.

Speaking of socks, I have jumped the gun and written up the pattern for the Bamboo Socks. It is a pdf download, here. It is also linked to from my Free Patterns page.

And now for something completely different. A photo of part of my desk at work.

The following important items are present in this photo (and easier to see if you click on the photo to enlarge it, if you really care):

• a plastic hair clip
• a rearview mirror
• birth announcement for my brother’s grandson
• photos of Lucy
• headphones
• my Stitch-a-Day calendar
• the label from a skein of Alchemy Juniper
• the list of Wollmeise colorways that I own
• a post-it note with my Mega Millions lottery numbers on it
• a letter from the Professional Hockey Players’ Association that I just responded to but am too lazy to file away
• headphones
• a postcard with a giant Dala horse on it
• my coffee cozee
• water bottle w/ filter
• phone charger
• ipod charger
• coke bottle caps

among other things.

This tells me I need to clean my desk.

Lucy is happy — her Momma will be home this weekend!

I have a mitered square piece that I started before class, and I added to during class. Here is what it looks like now:

I thought it would be fun to post a pic of it periodically. I don’t plan on doing much knitting on it outside of class, but thought it would be fun to keep track of my progress on it.

I’ve done my last teaching gig of the year, so don’t expect to see this again anytime soon.

About that class . . .

Included with the class was a handout with 7 other fun little projects you can create from leftover sock yarn. I posted a photo of them last week:

Since then, I’ve gotten a whole lot of emails asking if I’d make the patterns available for people can’t get to one of my classes. I wasn’t going to just yet, but have changed my mind since I’ve had so many requests. I’ve made the 7 patterns available as booklet and you can purchase it for $7.00 (that’s $7.00 for 7 patterns) from my Ravelry store. Here is the Ravelry link for the pattern booklet. These are all very speedy little knits that would be great for quickie holiday gifts and adornments. All details are on the Ravelry page.

I realize that there are some of you that might want just one of the seven patterns and paying seven bucks to get it seems a tad steep. Sorry about that! I did give a fair amount of thought to pattern delivery, and decided to go this route.

And now for some Assorted Random Bits.

Random Bit #1:

When I got home from work today, I found that Lucy had been arranging some of her toys.

She does this quite a lot. I always wonder what her purpose is.

Clearly she is worn out from that endeavor.

Random Bit #2:

A couple of weeks ago I got some free samples of a bunch of natural/homeopathic stuff — and this was one of the samples:

Notice anything funny about it?

Random Bit #3:

I’m a-working along on my second Bamboo Sock. My goal is to have this pair a done deal by the end of the week.

Random Bit #4:

It was pouring rain when I went to work this morning. At noon it was sunny with blue sky. Driving home from the train station it looked like this:

Crazy weather.

A Serious Note:

KnitNana Sallee sent me information on a member of her community, a young woman who has been missing since October 17: Morgan Harrington. There is a website with information about her here. You can probably imagine the horror her family is going through right now. I’m just helping to spread the word in my little corner of the world. Take a look at the site, keep your eyes open, and spread the word if you can, please.

And back to my regularly scheduled knitting projects. I don’t believe that I ever showed you that I completed my first Bamboo sock:

And a close-up:

I finished that last week before I left for Oklahoma. And I’ve made some decent progress on the second sock:

I’m also knitting on my Two-Thirds shawl, though you probably can’t really tell that I’ve made any progress, given its blob-like nature.

Last night I gave Miss Lucy a special gift:

This is a mousie knit by Keri. The pattern is from my “what to do with leftover sock yarn” class, and Keri whipped out two mice at blazing speed. She says her favorite part of the pattern was the direction “decrease for the butt.”

The mouse is a gift for Lucy from Keri’s boy kitty Slick, a demonstration of his undying love for her.

Isn’t that romantic?

MY plane landed in OKC late Friday afternoon and I was met at the airport by three of my very favorite people in the world: Stacy, Keri, and Muriel. We checked me into my hotel, then headed over to Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, where Mary, Courtney, and Laura were waiting for us and we had a very yummy leisurely dinner. The place was packed and we were lucky to be put into a private room.The food was fantastic! I’ll be sure to watch Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives this weekend, because Cattlemen’s Steakhouse is one of the featured eateries on this episode.

On Friday morning we headed out to the National Cowboy Museum — here we are:

Here’s just Muriel and me with a full view of the statue:

The rest of the weekend was spent at SWAK in the City: classes, a party, and just all-round yarny fun!

Here is the one photo I took:

Oklahoma sunrise!

On Saturday night a bunch of us headed over to Muriel’s house for good food, margaritas, knitting, and a whole lot of laughing.

Here’s Muriel and me under a tree outside her house. I love seeing the leaves change!

I had such a wonderful time, but was happy to return home to my sweet Lucy. Today she’s been staring out the window:

This is what she looked like when I left the house on Thursday:

While I was away, it turned into autumn here. The view out my window:

And another view:

Book Giveaway!

The Random Number Generator chose Susie B to win my copy of The Polymer Clay Cookbook. Susie, I’ve emailed you, but my email has been wonky today, so if I don’t hear from you soon, I’ll try again!

Speaking of The Polymer Clay Cookbook, the authors have posted a tutorial for making stitchmarkers on their blog, here.

There was a little bit of yarn in one of them:

The green is Madeline Tosh Lace — (colorway called “Grove”) .It’s 100% merino (superwash) with 950 yards per skein.

The variegated is their Pure Silk Lace, which is 100% tussah silk and has 1000 yards/skein. The colorway is “Wren.”

I have purchased these yarns purely for research, honest.

Flippin’ Burgers!

I found out that there is a bonus video from the creators of the Polymer Clay Cookbook — how to make burger charms! Watch and learn:

Still plenty of time to enter the book giveaway — see yesterday’s post.

Oklahoma, OK!

I’m off to Oklahoma City tomorrow for a weekend of fun at SWAK in the City. I’ll be teaching toe-up sock toe and heel techniques, but will also be debuting my new class on things to do with leftover sock yarn. Here are a few of the things you can do:

No blog post tomorrow or Sunday, but I’ll be back Monday. See you then!

Lucy sez:

“How can you go away and leave this?”