Cycles and Socks

This is one of the craziest things I've seen. When thumbing through a knitting magazine at the bookstore recently, I saw this and just had to snap a picture of it. Some genius knitted a pink motorcycle cozy. She (I can only assume it was a she) covered every inch of the bike, including the tires, with knitted wonderment!

Things like this always make me think I'm doing absolutely nothing with my life. I should be out there pushing the envelope, marking new territory like this gal!

Instead, I'm at the park knitting socks for the the Yarn Harlot's visit and the Sock Summit trip of a lifetime.

This is a silk/linen yarn I recycled from a sweater that I'm going to use for the leg and instep. My mom is sending me a wool/nylon yarn to use for the heel and foot for better wear. At first, I used the yarn as it came from the sweater (two-ply) to make the first (rather larger) sock. It still fit fine, but was very heavy and thick - a great boot sock, if we ever had boot-wearing weather here in Texas. So then I balled up the plies separately and knit up the other sock. This turned out much softer, much lacier, and much smaller, as you can see. It still fits perfectly because of the built-in stretch in the lacework.

I'm loving this!

After three years here, I think I've finally reversed the thirty-year habit of playing inside in winter and outside in summer. Here in Texas, you play outside in winter (all three weeks of it) and then hibernate inside the house the other 49 weeks of the year. And since I gave myself the gift of air conditioning this Mother's Day (sorry, Mother Gaia), I'm thinking this is a pretty cool arrangement!