Let’s say you have a good friend from Estonia, and you want to knit something quick and lovely for her birthday. You see this on another friend’s blog, and you know your birthday girl likes Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, and she looks great in all shades of green…

But as you’re approaching the bind off (and running out of yarn two rows short of the goal… luckily there was still more of the Bronzed Green at The Knitting Bee), you realize something is missing. Ishbel is gorgeous as written. But you can’t knit a shawl for an Estonian girl without nupps, can you? And wouldn’t that bind off edge look fetching with little yarn pearls accentuating the points?

Ah, that’s it. If you’d like to nuppify the edge of your own Ishbel (and who isn’t knitting one of these? They’re like the potato chips of shawl knitting!), here’s how to do it: On the last RS row, k1; k into next stitch (but don’t slip it off the left needle)-yo-k1-yo-k1 all very loosely into that same stitch; work to the stitch between yarnovers and repeat the k1-yo-k1-yo-k1 into that stitch; repeat in every following stitch between yarnovers and in second to last stitch. During the purl-side bind off, purl the 5 nupp stitches together whenever you meet them, being careful not to involve the natural yo on the far side of the group. Since this is a p2tog-replace resulting st on left needle-p2tog again bind off, you’ll actually be purling six stitches together, but this is not difficult if you’ve made the nupp nice and loose. I accomplished it with an Addi Turbo, the world’s bluntest and slipperiest needle. I blocked Ishbel without any pins and found the Silky Wool was happy to show off her lace pattern with just a gentle smoothing. I pinched the nupps and tugged on them gently to make them stand proud to the RS and to highlight the scalloped edge.

There’s only one problem: now I want nupps on the edges of practically everything. Expect to see this treatment appearing in future Blue Garter designs…

I’ve been tagged by the good lady of the Fresh Tea blog from 7,125 miles away (that’s 11,466 kilometers for you sensible metric types), a sort of virtual Go-Go-Gadget-Arm situation that amuses me. (And yes, I realize I’m dating myself with the vintage ’80s kiddie culture reference there.) And I haven’t done a meme in a little while, and the most blogable knitting is drying on the floor for another day or two, so why not? Tag yourself if you wanna.

The rules:
1. Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add one more question of your own.
2. Tag eight other people (if you feel so inclined).

So here goes:

What is your current obsession?
La casquette. Probably without the cabbage leaf, but I seriously want a small collection of these.

What is your weirdest obsession?
Um, weirder than that?

What are you wearing today?
A T-shirt and short trousers, the left leg rolled just above the knee so it won’t scuff against my admirable scab.

What’s for dinner?
Surely it isn’t time to think about that yet? Here’s what’s not for dinner: 32 oz. of beer. Last Wednesday I went to Knit Night all proud of myself for having remembered a jar so I could nip across the street to the Mash Tun for some Concordia Cream Ale. However, the only jars I could find were a very small jam jar and the aforementioned 32 oz. I figured the nice beer lady would just fill ‘er up part way, turned to talk with another knitter about her handsome February Lady Sweater, and looked back to find the whole jar FULL of the suds. (I drank it over the next three days, at which point it was pretty flat, but still tasty.)

What did you eat for your last meal?
A brie and caramelized onion scone from Bakery Bar, thoughtfully provided by Jen when we carpooled this morning. Yum.

What’s the last thing you bought?
A book for my mother’s birthday present. It’s in the mail. Happy belated birthday, Mom.

What are you listening to right now?
Neko Case’s new album, Middle Cyclone. My favorite track is “Don’t Forget Me,” featuring the best line by a songwriter I’ve encountered in recent times: “Keep your memories, but keep your powder dry, too.”

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Only an hour? That’s not enough time to explore a new place, so I’d just transport myself home to visit my parents and friends. Maybe I could snuggle Brooke’s new baby.

Which language do you want to learn?
Better than I speak it now: French and Italian. From scratch: Welsh. I’m practical like that.

What do you love most about where you currently live?
Our neighbors.

What is your favorite colour?
I don’t have one, and tend to go through phases where I’m drawn to a few different families, but sea colors are perennial winners.

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
My Amanda cardigan, and a green dress Mr. G picked out for me when we were dating.

What were you doing ten years ago?
Hmmm, June 1999… I had finished sophomore year of college. I think that was the summer I worked construction, so I was probably up a scaffold snapping chalk lines for the siding of a house we were building on the west side of the island. It would have been just about time for the orcas to make their afternoon pass. Yeah, that job was idyllic.

Describe your personal style?
Definitely Northwest Casual, but I try to bring a little city style now and then. The grandmothers had some good clothes that I like to throw into the mix.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?
That’s $163.89 in US dollars today. It would go toward my bicycle and yarn, the only luxuries I seem to be spending money on these days.

What are you going to do after this?
Look for a more reasonable size of canning jar. There’s got to be one somewhere in the cabinets, or maybe lurking in the back of the ice box.

What are your favourite films?
I can never decide. For comfort viewing, I always come back to the good Austen adaptations (I don’t have to tell you which those are). And Hayao Miyazaki… My Neighbor Totoro is definitely a favorite.

What inspires you?
Other people’s crafts; arresting colors or textures in the environment–the rusty metal roof of a shed, a tanker stacked with painted metal containers destined for a train, layers of seaweed clinging to the rocks; good quality materials close to hand.

Your favourite books?
More impossible to answer than the one about the movies. A smattering: Lolita, I Capture the Castle, Persuasion, Mrs. Dalloway, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Little Women, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, Charlotte’s Web, All Creatures Great and Small, The Odyssey, a particular jacketless first edition of Huntsman, What Quarry?.

Do you collect anything?
Yarn.

What makes you follow a blog?
Great writing, great photos, craftiness or knitting, irresistible babies, evocation of place.

What was the most enjoyable thing you did today?
I got up at 7:30 instead of 6:30. Let’s hear it for summer hours.

What new skill would you like to learn?
How to balance on my road bike with no hands. I want to be casually pedaling down the road at 30kph, zipping up my jersey or munching a snack or, you know, raising my arms in victory across the finish line without falling over. Being able to pick the right line to bomb down a mountain road with minimal braking would also be splendid.

Oh, and spinning with a wheel instead of just a drop spindle.

Still tickled by this Sock in a Sock concept, I’m forging ahead with the Makarovnas. I turned the heel last night while watching Wallander on Masterpiece Mystery. I’m quite taken with Wallander; I’ve never read the books and I don’t know how this adaptation is being received by those who have, but I like this pale, paunchy, wounded character for Kenneth Branagh and the beautiful, spare cinematography and attention to color.

One drawback to this sock knitting technique is that I’ll never be able to get my foot in there to check the fit. This will have to be a pair of test socks, and I’ll be able to adjust the stitch count to better suit my thin ankles if I want to have another go. Luckily there are feet of all sizes among my friends; these will fit somebody.

I won’t be putting my feet in a pair of wool socks for a little while anyway, as it happens. Yesterday I bottomed out on the top of the clipless pedals learning curve and gracelessly tipped over in a neighbor’s driveway, having imagined that I could slow down enough to gently take the concrete lip and then turn abruptly to ride back into the street… without clipping out. I was spectacularly wrong, and over I went, skinning a knee and gouging an ankle on the chain ring. I’ll spare you the grisly details; suffice it to say that I probably should have gotten a stitch or two and I’ll certainly have a scar and a bit of a grease tattoo. My husband assures me that he will suspend his usual feelings against tattoos and continue to find me attractive, and most importantly, I didn’t ding my bicycle too badly. Cycling is one of the Pound of Flesh sports—no matter how careful or skilled you are, sometimes you’re going to fall, and you’re not going to win a cage match with asphalt very often.

Speaking of cycling, July will be here in a few short weeks, and you know what that means chez Garter: it’s time to choose a project to knit during the Tour de France coverage! Of course I’ve gotten involved in planning the worldwide knit-along; this year it’s happening over at Ravelry within the Tour de France KAL group, rather than on its own blog. Sign-up thread is here—come join the fun!

I’ve got several ideas for my own participation. This time I’ve suggested that the polka dot jersey contestants for King (or Queen, ahem) of the Mountains use the race to tackle unfinished projects; it’s proving a popular idea in the sign-ups. Goodness knows we’re up to our ears in likely WIPs around here, but I love making the big reach to create an entire sweater during the Tour. I’m pretty good at ignoring deadlines for finishing projects: ask any of my family members who’ve been promised a garment for Christmas or a birthday. (Douglas Adams said it best: “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”) But the rules of my personal Tour challenge are ironclad, and I get to indulge in the full measure of fiendish knitting for three whole weeks without censure, as my loved ones have already accepted that sense and moderation are not to be expected of me when the Tour is on. I find they are suitably impressed if I have fabricated an entire sweater out of a few balls of string when the three weeks are up. So I think it’ll be the yellow jersey challenge for me again this year. Now I just need to decide which of my many percolating sweater ideas to choose!

Mr. Pom’s love has come along. His lonely years are over. His life is like a song (in the sock drawer… so muffled, but still musical).

And a fine-looking sock she is, if I say so myself. Love the Claudia Handpainted “Plumlicious” merino sock yarn. Love the look of the Pomatomus pattern, although I’m less ardent about its execution. I don’t know that I’ll be making more of these, but I’m sure going to love the stuffing out of the pair I’ve got.

It actually got cool enough to wear wool socks again for a few days; a freak storm blew through just before the weekend, bringing rain and wind (and an incredible wallop to the allergy-sufferers of the Portland area). There hasn’t been much sock knitting on this here blog of late, and with Sock Summit coming up in August, it’s time to get back on that horse! So next we’ll feature what I’m calling my Anna Makarovna socks: one inside the other. I’m doing a fair bit of secret present knitting for the many Occasions coming up mid-month, but I’m hoping to squeeze in some synchronized heel action in the next few days.