Thanks for the comment love, friends. You kids really made me smile through the frustration of having to deal with the window. Which has been replaced. My car feels whole again. Not longer hole(d).

Janie will be happy to go to work today. It was the first day in a while that she had to stay home, as evidenced by her energy and playfulness last night. She’s sleeping on the couch right now saving her strength for her adoring fans. Here’s a little present for all of you who haven’t heard a Frenchie sleep:

Last year at Walzwerk‘s anniversary party, my car was totaled by a hit-and-run. Last night was their 8th anniversary party.

I was against driving to the evening. Superstitious, I guess. I even fought about it with C. As he pointed out, we’ve driven to the restaurant many times since then. But I finally decided to drive, as we picked up a friend. We didn’t park on the same street, and, this time, we were in the middle of a block.

This year, the rear passenger-side winder was smashed. What makes it more ironic, is that where we parked, C said, “It might get broken into here,” but we still left it there. Once in the restaurant, the owner Christiane asked if we rode our bikes. C told her we drove because lightening doesn’t strike the same place twice.

It did.

Only thing stolen: a bag of blue plastic New York Times newspaper bags, aka poopy bags for Janie Sparkles. I only wish they were full of poo.

Dear friend (and knitter and swim coach and dog pal and Bibby‘s mom) Suzanne, hunter/gatherer extraordinaire, served us flour/egg-dipped/breadcrumb fried abalone last night.

The three that provided this meal were caught last weekend, with her bare hands, while free-diving north of San Francisco. And still, there were leftovers after six of us attacked this deliciousness.

Flour tortillas, lemon, fresh spinach, heirloom tomatoes and guacamole (my contribution). I passed on the horseradish tartar sauce.

We barely had room for her cardamom and ginger truffles afterwards.

As you may or may not remember, I was in Austin, TX back in March. It was nerd-SXSW, not the hip music one. The darling of the conference was Twitter, a simple web-tool for communicating the answer to one question: What are you doing?

I haven’t been in the habit of using it, but I’m trying it out a bit. (See RCNTLY: in the sidebar.) It should help with keeping y’all and my mom informed as to my going-on’s. Think if it as micro-mundane-blogging, in 140 characters or less.

Any of y’all Twitter knitters?

Look what came the other week! Five fabulous skeins of blue yarn. From Munich with love, courtesy of Taste of Germany by Ms. B of Knitters Uncensored. Thanks, Ms. B! Sogar besser als Weisswurst mit Senf (which I don’t eat, but Mr. Man thought I should say.)

It’s all I can do to keep myself from winding them all and starting socks galore, but I’m trying to be a good boy. Trying to finish the three other socks in progress right now (and the hat that needs finishing and the sweater that didn’t need to be started).

I was productive this past weekend and photographed all of my new yarn and put it into Flickr and Ravelry. Hopefully, you and me both will be seeing some of this yarn on it’s way to being something.

As I wrestle with my conflicted consumerism feelings, I ponder, “What if this is the last yarn I buy? How long would my stash last?” On sock yarn alone, I think I have a couple of years. There’s five sweater-worth’s of yarn, plus a (couple of) trunk-fuls of Crystal Palace goodies. Goodness knows, I have plenty of patterns in books, not to mention those living on the Interwebs.

It’s just an idea I’m toying with. No big declaration just yet. Ravelry is forcing me to see how much I really have, and at the same time, Flickr is showing me more yarn that I want. I blame you, HelloYarn!

Now will someone go buy this Rowan 4-ply from my favorite eBay source/dealer, so I don’t end up with it?

It’s been a few weeks since I received my copy of New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One, but allow me to add to the chorus of people gushing about Cat Bordhi’snew book. If you already knit socks, this book will shake up your world, in the best way possible. If you don’t yet knit socks, what are you waiting for? Grab her Socks Soar on Two Needles (my first sock book), and get going!

Just reading the first chapters of this new book made me eager to dive in. That first weekend, I obsessively knit up my two sample socks (the foundations for the 8 new sockitectures) in some scrap yarn. Great teaching device and how fabulous to have so many fun-to-knit baby booties! On the other hand, it’s a slippery slope that left me jonesing to cast-on for a sock for myself.

Cat’s moved beyond knitting and writing and is also making movies illustrating some of the techniques in the book. Check out her YouTube videos. If you have time, watch the Short Row tutorial (there are two parts) showing W&T and how to conceal them. Here are my other favorites:

Left- and Right-leaning increases

Judy’s Magic cast-on, for all you toe-up sock fans:

Having met her at BMFA sock camp, I fell in love with her. She’s incredibly intelligent, savagely creative, and playfully silly. The videos give you a little glimpse of her charming personality.

Here’s Janie on Saturday, sleeping her way through what was two glorious days away from work. It’s the little things, and some fabulous people, that made this a memorable one:

• dinner every night and coffee every morning with Mr. Man;
• a fabulous afternoon with Michael (who needs to post more);
• delicious bread baked for Sunday breakfast with Lisa and Phillip;
• knitting progress on the sweater (in the foreground of the photo) and Brancusi 2.0;
• getting my yarn up-to-date in Ravelry (all sock yarn present and accounted for, Sir!)

Hope you had a good one, too!

I’ve always looked up to Lisa’s work. Last night was no different. She had an opening for her show “Tenderhearted” at Candystore. Paintings, shadow boxes and drawings abound, all in a great lil’ boutique. Which got me thinking…

I feel lucky to have this kind of inspiration in my life. Although I’ve been quiet lately, I’ve been sporadically knitting, toiling away at the grindstone of work, and even writing with pen and paper here and there. More to come…

I’m so sorry I’ve been neglecting you.

It’s not you. It’s me.

You’re so kind and giving. I know you only want to help me, to simplify my stash organization. You don’t judge, you accept me for what yarn I have. But I’ve got baggage. And yardage. Lots more yardage than you know.

To be honest, I’ve been holding back. Even since the beginning of our relationship, I’ve had more yarn than I’ve told you. I tried to explain up front that I’d just start with sharing my sock yarn, but I haven’t been able to keep up my end of that bargain. There have been many skeins that have come into my life recently and not been documented and uploaded. Projects started and completed—from my queue, even! Weekends come and go, but I haven’t wanted to put the time into photographing, uploading and tagging.

They say the first step is to admit you have a problem. It’s just hard for me to be that honest with myself and that open with you. I don’t want to do this half-assed anymore. There’s sweater yarn, stuff for baby toys, sweaters purchased for unravelling. And your friends, whether they be in groups or my message box. I need to do a better job of hanging out with them, getting to know them, starting conversations.

I don’t want to break-up. I’m just asking for more time.

Last century, when I was a young and care-free chap, I dated a gentleman named Roy. I met him through my dearest sporty gay friend Doug (he hated when I referred to him as such). They worked together at a large denim jeans manufacturer based in San Francisco. Roy worked with a fellow named Michael, or as he said in his fabulously Northern English accent, “Yu-ung MY-Kul.” Our paths would cross on social occasions and he was someone I knew, but never more deeply than a dinner, or a party, or a concert or a movie out together. Eventually, Roy and I had run our course (and Doug disowned me), and everyone scattered onto their own personal paths in the City by the Bay (or NYC in Roy’s case).

Fast-forward seven or eight years, and a missive from Flickr came to me inquiring whether I was Stephen of Roy by way of Doug. The screenname clearly belonged to Michael, who, wouldn’t you know, just happened to be a knitting fanatic, fiber fiend and sock devotee! Mind you, I didn’t knit way back when, nor was his actively knitting, but the Fates would have it that our lives would converge in a tangle of merino, bamboo and needles.

After failed plans to meet at Stitches (which I never went to and he attended 489 classes), long delayed (my bad) responses to emails about meeting up at my work (where former coworkers of his now work), and the best of intentions, we finally pulled it together on Saturday to go down to Purlescense Yarns to see Cat Bordhi sign her new book (which is earth-shatteringly inventive, by the way). Sadly, I don’t have a picture of him and me to prove we were there! I forgot my camera, and he was kind enough to take a photo of me and Leslie from BMFA sock camp.

No longer shall our banter remain in the comments of other people’s blogs or photostreams! I hope it was the first of many hanging-outs to come. Combining our knitting prowess from both sides of the Bay, we could, nay, shall make our mark on the world… or at least have a good laugh and knit a few rows.