…Was my interpretation of “hippopotamus” as a child (maybe because my mother’s side of the family passed down a freakish tendency to say “tomahto”), and now it’s what comes to mind when I’m trying to remember the name of that groovy sock pattern everyone’s knitting. The first time I saw them, I knew I had to make myself a pair. I finally finished the Conwy socks, and I was too impatient to even set up a photo shoot before I cast on Pomatomus yesterday. So here’s my beginning:

Reclining in the slug-eaten calibrachoa. Poor sock deserves better, I decided. So I went around to my mother-in-law’s side of the house to pose it among the dianthus.

Much nicer. I’m using Claudia Handpainted fingering weight in “Plumlicious” – oh, how plummy! I love the way it’s working up with nary a flash nor a pool – this happy result has persisted through the first two repetitions of Chart A since I took these pictures. And I haven’t found the pattern to be too toothy yet, although I did have to tear out half a chart repetition this morning when I got a little too glued to the Germany-Sweden match. World Cup soccer is prime for knitting, by the way. Nothing is as ideal as the Tour de France*, but soccer is a close second. Unfortunately, the Viennese Shrug requires a little too much attention to the pattern to be good TV knitting, but I’d say it’s five eighths finished. Of course, I’m not going to want to model it for you while it’s 95 degrees, which is the weather we’re having this week. We’ll have to take some pictures at dawn while it’s still cool (and this is the beauty of Portland – unlike NYC, it really does cool off most comfortably after the sun goes down). Fingers crossed, but I think I’m going to be very pleased with my modifications. I’ve also finished the Scarf-for-Money, which I’ll block tomorrow and then mail back to New York. No pictures, of course, but I’ll say that should you get the chance to knit with Rio de la Plata wool, you should absolutely snap it up.

What’s next? I need to pull up my socks and just finish Rosalind’s crochet edging. I’ve totally lost steam with that project because I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to fit me very well when it’s all done, and I’ll have to find someone to whom I can give it away. I also have some design projects in the works, and an entire blanket that’s supposed to be done by October. Sigh. Don’t you just wish you could knit faster? It’s not that I don’t take pleasure in the process. I actually mind frogging much less than most people I know, because it’s so enjoyable to keep working on the piece (present issues with Rosalind notwithstanding). But there are so many ideas in my head that I just can’t keep up! I made it a goal to work on my own designs this year, and I just need to start realizing my sketches in yarn. Luckily, between the World Cup and the fast-approaching Tour, there’s lots of good knitting time blocked out.

*Coming soon: a post about what I’ll be doing during the Tour, besides cheering on Ivan Basso!

Neglected Rosalind, whom I began last summer and then jilted in favor of other projects, is back on the needles. In fact, I’ve knit both her fronts and one of her sleeves (twice, because I bodged it the first time). I thought I was so clever, placing my decreases two stitches in so I’d have clean edges for seaming. But that sleeve has been causing a mighty array of problems. First it was obviously too long for its armhole. I lopped off the top of it and tried again to seam it into place. Nothing doing. It’s just a really whacky shape. Observe (and forgive the lack of light in this photograph):

See how the armpit wanks out at the back, to use Harlot terminology? It does that in the front, too, except that the presence of my lady parts lessens the effect somewhat:

I was rather cast down. I’d originally intended to omit the sleeves and just let this top be a vest, but I had plenty of interesting French yarn (courtesy of Becky), and they were such little sleeves that I up and knat one anyway. Now I’m going to rip it right back out again because the side without the sleeve looks so much better. Besides, I’ve already done the most engaging part of the pattern, the nifty interlocking front, and I’m pretty much out of patience with Rosalind at this point. I need to seam her up, slap some crochet edging on her (I know, more crochet!), and call it good. Let’s take one last look at the whack sleeve before I do away with it forever:

Goodbye, Whack Sleeve, and good riddance. I don’t know what the editors at Vogue Knitting were thinking, letting anything so oddly shaped into their otherwise estimable publication. For the love of Pete, is a little geometric accuracy in our patterns too much to ask? When I lived in the Bahamas, one of my favorite local phrases was “with sense”, as in, when ordering conch fritters and wishing them properly prepared, “Fry it with sense, boy!” Knit it with sense will be my new maxim, I think. I shall trust my instincts.

Ah, the beautiful summer weekends in New York City. The thrill of the triathlon. The cheering onlookers. The smell of the Hudson. And then, the monotony of waiting in line for free Shakespeare in the Park tickets. It was an eventful Sunday indeed.

The thrill of the triathlon belongs to my husband, who found out he’d gotten off the waiting list at the last moment on Saturday. Dauntless, he merrily prepared his gear, despite not having trained as he would have liked. And of course I had to turn up to support him. I was down at the river by 6:45.

This was the scene – you can see the dock where the athletes climbed out of the water after the 1.5k swim. That’s not Adam. He was actually so much faster in the water than I expected that he appeared before I could get the camera ready. I watched him head out on the bike around 7:20 and then booked it over to the park to get in line for Shakespeare tickets. The theatre distributes the tickets at 1:00, but you need to be in line before 8:30 to be assured of getting any. We’ve done this every year since we’ve lived in New York. So while I waited, I knit. I worked my apricot jacket sleeve up to the shoulder cap before I ran out of yarn (I’d foolishly left the remaining two balls at the office – yes, I have stash overflow there.), and then I spent some time with the sock. I took a break to watch Adam run by:

He joined me after he finished in the excellent time of 2:39:38. Yay, Husband!

And there was more than one sock on a bike this weekend:

And when I tired of the sock stranding (I’m working the foot), I cast on for a new project. It’s design number five from the Vogue spring/summer issue, but I’m making some modifications, including removing the arms. I’m also knitting it in some nifty French yarn, courtesy of Becky. It’s Bouton d’Or Organdi in color “tilleul”, which means “linden”, my favorite tree. The Organdi is quite intriguing in its content and construction. There’s a viscose/polyamide core of chain links, rather like Southwest Trading Company’s Bamboo yarn, only more pliable when knit, and it’s woven together with strands of linen. The result is a fairly soft but textural yarn with a lot of shine, and the color is a beautiful greeny gold, like a field of wheat.

Since Vogue is so pathetic about naming their designs (this one is called…wait for it…”Short Sleeve Top”!), I’ve taken it upon myself to give this one a name. In honor of As You Like It, which is the play we saw, I shall call her Rosalind.