I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

I’m done.

The Book was finished last Sunday, the Sitcom Chic cardi on Thursday, and the second Sockapalooza sock this Sunday. I have a few mods to share on the Cardi but first things first . . . i.e., The Book. If you haven’t finished it yet, there are spoilers in this post so don’t scroll past the photos of the yarns I picked up at Isabel’s while I was in Sun Valley.

Silk yarn and adorable buttons for another pair of these booties.

Two skeins of Koigu. I had my pick of tens of colors since Isabel’s had just received a new shipment the day I visited. Lucky.

Now my ramblings on The Book. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. In fact, the epilogue came close to ruining the preceding 750 pages for me. It was just a bit too tidy and unbelievable. I was crushed when Fred died but I felt JKR glossed over it and the passage was less than sentimental. And Neville pulling the sword out of the Sorting Hat was way too “been there, done that.”

I wracked my brain trying to figure out who was the non-magical character who performed magic late in life under dire circumstances but came up with nothing. The friend of a friend solved the mystery. It was Ted Tonks (a Muggle), who healed Harry’s ribs and arm on page 64.  ETA: I think I’m wrong on this.  See Gena’s comment in the comment section.  ETA #2:  I just read JKR’s post-book interview with the Leaky Caudron.  She was asked, “You promised that someone will do magic late in life in book 7. I’ve now read it three times but cant work out who it might have been!”  She answered, “I’m sorry about this, but I changed my mind!  My very earliest plan for the story involved somebody managing to get to Hogwarts when they had never done magic before, but I had changed my mind by the time I’d written the third book.”

I like that Snape turned out to be non-evil but not really good either. Kinda just pathetic. The best scene . . . no doubts . . . Molly killing Bellatrix. You go grrl. And Harry was a Horcrux. I came pretty damn close to guessing that with these, wouldn’t you say? Frankly, I think it would have made more sense if the scar was the Horcrux instead of Harry. Then he could have been freed from the “brand” of the scar, allowing him to have what he always wanted, which was just a normal life.

And how crazy is this. If you Google “Horcrux,” look what turns up as the sixth entry on the first page.

I’ve stopped home just long enough to unpack, do some laundry, and get ready to leave again. I’m headed to Denver where, if all goes as planned, I’ll be meeting up with Michaele and Erin at tomorrow night’s Rockies game.

I just finished packing and there’s one thing I’m not taking with me because it’s finished!

Is it the Sitcom Chic sweater?

or The Book?

Since I won’t be around to police the blog, no spoilers in the comments please!

All the facets of my sock world seem to have converged this past week.

Although I love to knit lace, socks remain my favorite knitting projects. Which is why you’re probably surprised to learn that I’ve never joined the Sockapalooza swaps. Well, until this round.

Yup, I gave in to a moment of weakness and signed up for Sockapalooza Round 4. The  person who is knitting for me left a comment on the blog yesterday. How fun!

I’ve been in touch with the person for whom I’m knitting and I think I’ve got a great idea for her socks. I plan to base them on this design I recently did for Knit Picks.

I think I’ll change the colorwork pattern to suit my pal’s special interests, but I’ll otherwise keep the design the same.

Knit Picks just offered another of my designs for sale; the slip stitch socks I briefly mentioned on the blog last January:

Instructions on how to knit both versions are in the same pattern. One uses two colors and the other three colors but both use the exact same stitch pattern. Crazy different, huh.

And if all this sock fun wasn’t enough . . . there’s more.

I noticed Amazon is now accepting preorders for this book that contains two of my designs. Well, I assume the book contains the designs since I received yarn, knit socks which I returned to Vogue/SoHo Publishing, and received a check in return. But I guess I’m not 100% sure.
I’m actually pretty excited about this book. I think it will be a great sock-knitting resource.