Guess it's time for an update

Not a whole lot of knitting news. Kneesocks being kneesocks, I am on what you might call the "long haul," where actual progress will not really be visible until one day when I decide to try on the sock and realize I've gone two inches past where I needed to. I am watching with great paranoia for signs of pooling, as I've just hit the second increase section and now have 16 more stitches than I started with. Or at least I will, once I frog back the three rows I knit while waiting for takeout pizza last night. I missed an increase round. As the priest in my Italian class told me this summer, "molto male, stupido!" (It was a skit.)

Friday night Dave came into town, but before he got in I finished the body of the sweater and got started on a sleeve. Dave was in town, so not much knitting happened, but I've done some today. I learned something today about the value of Sewing Things Together--when knitting a top-down raglan, it becomes a major PITA to spin your work every time you switch dpns on the sleeve. I mean, every 14 stitches (well, fewer now, yay for shaping) you have to pick up this big, worsted-weight cotton sweater and spin it. Sigh, tedious. The sleeves are long enough now that I only have to spin every other DPN if I want to, which is nice. Still a long way to go. I have long arms.

We went to the Renaissance Festival on Sunday with some friends of ours. TONS of fun. I tried enquiring about the sock market but at the one shop where I asked their manager wasn't in, and I felt pretty stupid without a sample or even a sketch, so I didn't go back. Plus it was about 95 degrees and I wasn't sure I was willing to inflict wool socks on anybody at the RenFest, even those with more money than sense. Must look into cotton sock yarn.

I have no knitting pics so how about a few Italy flashbacks? Remember when I got slightly inebriated in Siena and was worried all my pics would turn out blurry? Well they did, but luckily the stuff is pretty enough that it looks ok anyway.


This is the cathedral. In my defense, I probably couldn't have taken a no-flash, really-long-exposure pic in the low light and have it come out clear under any circumstances. Doesn't it just make you want to say "Beetlejuice" a few times?


This was my last night in Florence and my last gelato. The gelateria is La Carraia, on Ponte alla Carraia, and is the cheapest, best gelato I found in Florence. One euro for a cone! I got pink grapefruit and ACE, the best juice in the world is now a gelato flavor (orange, carrot, lemon)!