Wireless has been spotty at my hotel, but, then again, so has my down time to craft lengthy posts detailing the goings on my first South By. Yeah, that’s what the locals call it. I’m so down. Let’s talk knitting…

I went to Hill Country Weavers Knit ‘n Nosh, local knitting bloggers edition. My travel companions (and the kind people I’ve hung out with most while here): Harold and Jenny (of Stash&Burn). I met a whole lotta fun women from Austin, Houston and beyond… and now I have more blogs and podcasts to follow!

• Amy (also of Fat Caddy Records)
• Split Yarn (of the fabulous Scrabble stitch markers)
• Yarn Maven (aka Julia)
• Yarn and Order
• Yarn Bar (who’s adorably pregnant and due soon!)
• verypink (who brought an insane baby wardrobe)
• Meg (who invited me)
• Christine (of b.p.c. and Pointy Sticks)
• Rhonda (of the Knitting News Cast podcast)
• Michelle (a fellow swimmer who I don’t know if she’s got a blog)
• and others I didn’t meet…

Sadly, I didn’t get to talk to everyone (next time, Rhonda and Staci?). I was kind of overwhelmed and uncharacteristically shy. I’m really much more fun, loud and spazzy. Trying to keep track of who was who and ripping out 6 stitch/8 row panels to fix, kept me pretty quiet. Trust me, I can be more of a party… just ask Jenny. I did my best to charm and woo her (in French, even) at Hotel San Jose the previous night (with our friend Alan Cummings—who was pretending he didn’t know us.)

So much more to report… music this morning, a gay bloggerati’s karaoke triumph, more Alan Cummings sightings, and a crazy coincidence of friends of friends of friends that prove that the Checks are meant to be my new BFF’s.

edited to crorrect an error: Yarn and Order is not adorably pregnant to my knowledge. She is adorable—I confused her with Yarn Bar.

Here are the socks mentioned in the previous post…

So, you’d think finding out one knitter-rati at SXSW would be enough, right? After the Vickie’s panel, I stood chatting with her man Dave. A woman came up and asked if I was going to the SXSW knit-in at HCW. I hadn’t heard of such a thing, Dave mentioned that they were going, so why not?

I asked this lovely lady and her gentleman escort where they were from and if they were knitters. I assume they knew I was because I sat there working on the mysterious blue sock that I’m not showing in pictures just yet (buried in the photo over there). It turns out they are from San Francisco. Small world! Her voice sounded slightly familiar, then she mentioned she and a friend have a podcast.

“You’re Stash and Burn!” It’s only my latest podcast obsession, found via Lisa Souza’s blog. I got to spend the night chatting with Jenny and her beau Harold. Hooray for new knitting friends!

We’re all off to the Knit and Nosh at Hill Country Weavers. Thanks, Meg for letting me know about that!

I’m here in Austin, wandering from panel to panel at SXSW, right now typing this in a session about Web Hacks and current usage trends. Some of this stuff is way over my head, but it’s fun to see what’s out there and where things may go in the future. Pretty much a dorkfest (in a positive way)… I feel at home, though somewhat under-geeky. I only wish I was as smart as many of the men and women here.

So, there I was, lying naked (I forgot my ‘jammies) in my bed last night, reading about today’s panels, so I could plan what to see. There, among the Internet-erati that I read about was a name I recognized, someone I knew. She’s a knit-erati (or is it knit-erata?)—Ms. Vickie Howell! Her panel is the one I’m off to next. Courtesy of MySpace, I let her know I was in town and I’ve already run into her (and her dreamy man). However, I couldn’t chat much because I was running late. I didn’t get a chance to congratulate her or see the ring!

I didn’t know how much time I’d have on my hands while here, so I brought a bunch of socks in progress to keep me busy. And I have three on the needles right now. On the flight here, I finished the toe of the Gentleman’s Fancy Sock from Nancy Bush. Last week, I realized that I was closing in on the halfway point of my yarn, but still inches away from the toe decreases. Thank you, postal scale at work!

The next sock is number two of a Lisa Souza. It’s a joy to knit, compared to the Opal stuff on the other guys. Instead of just black and orange, it’s a wide range of richer blacks, warm maroons and flickers of fire and gold. Straight up merino is one of the yummiest things for my digits. I could finish this over the next few days.

Last, and certainly not least, my favorite of the three is a blue toe-up baby of my own design… well, my design input on Rachael‘s sock-a-go-go. I guess I’m man enough to take on a lace-based sock and sub in some cables. I’m missing Rachael’s knit-one-one class (chez Sile’s) because I’m deep in the heart of Texas. The furtherest I can get on them is to the heel on the second sock, ’cause I don’t know what’s next!

Mr. Man told me that a package arrived today from Scout, so there’s more socks in my future. It’ll be waiting alongside the Rockin’ Sock Club shipment that came earlier in the week from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. So expect prettier colored socks in progress in the near future.

written this afternoon, posted after midnight, pictures to come

I’m headed to SXSW Interactive on Friday. It’s held the week before South by Southwest’s music festival. Work is sending me to check out how cool and geeky the Interwebs can be. I hope to post, as I’ll have a lot of knitting time with no doggie to walk. Maybe I’ll even post (when I’m not attending panels or running).

Got any advice for a week in Austin? Know any groovy people there, knitters or otherwise? Do you live there? Help a homo out… so far all I’ve heard is Hill Country Weavers. Coffee, grub and off-the-beaten-path destinations would be appreciated.

Sile mentioned me over in the knit-one-one blog. I had recommended she go read one of my favorite bloggers, Rachael (Yarn-a-go-go). I have yet to meet Rachael in person, despite living within 15 miles from one another and my (lack of) participation in Run-a-go-go.

Many months later, Rachael is teaching a Sock it to me, a four-week class on a pair of warm and lacey sock. If you’re in the Bay Area, go sign up for one of the remaining spots! It starts on Monday, March 5th.

I need to get my butt over to knit-one-one so I can meet Sile in person. I couldn’t do the doggie sweater class because of swim practice last week. Janie Sparkles will just have to wait for some couture of her own.

Everyone raves about how lovely the knit-one-one experience is, courtesy of Sile’s hospitality. Rachael’s socks are beautiful, but more open-work than I’m used to in my “manly” socks. (Scout, I find your colors so butch!) In reference to this post’s title, it sucks to be a selfish boy who only wants to knit for himself. I’m girly enough as is… no need to add lace!

… no yarn for me! I didn’t go to Stitches West this weekend.

Not that I “deserved” to go. I sign up for Runagogo, and then I never run. Or post. Or cheer. For most of this month! I have a lot of miles to get through in the next five or six weeks. I think I’ll have to bust out the bike for some big distance. My knees won’t be able to handle the sudden increase in mileage. The runs will have to be walk/runs to ease me back into activity. If I get to 100 miles, I’ll reward myself with some cashmere yarn from that sweater.

However, there was plenty of swimming this weekend. Too bad I’m not counting that yardage. I was at the pool on Saturday from 8:30 until 3:00; four of those hours in the water. Due to missing mid-week practices (thank you, work stress), I considered dropping my solo for the Paris competition, if not Nationals. I was feeling all kinds of behind and my free routine barely has an opening hybrid. Saturday’s afternoon swim boosted my confidence, as I locked down my tech routine. I practiced more today, during our five hours of land and water time.

Only other interesting highlights of this weekend were seeing The Lives of Others (which I just read wonthe Oscar for best foriegn film), more jeans shopping (that deserves a post or two) and completing the first Lisa Souza sock. Oh, there was another first… right after I turned the heel earlier this week, I decided to start up another sock—different yarn, needles and pattern—just so I don’t get bored. We’ll see if I can avoid second sock syndrome. So far, with all of the socks I’ve made, so good.

Pardon the poor camera phone resolution. Math4Knitters podcast is playing in the background.

Here we are, three tired puppies. That’s me on the left, Janie Sparkles next to me on the couch, and Tank, an English bulldog who’s spending the weekend with us. Three hours of synchro practice this morning, brunch with Mr. Man (who took the photo) and his two friends, a whole lot of dog ruff-housing and subsequent vacuuming (thank you, Mr. Dyson). I was tuckered out.

You can’t see it very well, but right next to me is a Know Knits Go Mobile pouch. Before yesterday, I had never heard of it. Before yesterday, I had never owned a skein of Socks that Rock (in a fabulous gay-ass rainbow colorway). Last, before yesterday, I never owned fancy, handcrafted sock blockers!

In Friday’s mail, a box arrived from Ms. Scout. It’s a very early birthday surprise from her Scout’s Swag shop. I cannot thank her enough. Her kindness and generousity have been evident since we started emailing back in November. She’s one quality lady, and someday she’s going to find a little surprise in her mailbox (no promises when). She’s got me as a customer, but more importantly, a friend for life.

As a follow-up to my last post, I haven’t run out and bought the cashmere sweater to rip. It’s been crazier and crazier at work and I’ve got more than enough yarn in my life, not to mention three sweaters and one zipper behind. Besides, I hate spending money. But, I may swing by tomorrow to see if there are any more left.

For more doggy photo goodness, there are more in my photos and Dead Slow’s photos on flickr.com.

I’m finally wearing this weekend’s cashmere purchase, and I’m in heaven. I never knew goats could feel so lovely! It’s warm. It’s light. It’s soft. It’s dreamy. And I only paid $62 (after discount and gift certificate) for it. Cheaper than 3.5 balls of sock yarn!

Do you want to see a picture? Go here. I’ve got the chocolate one, two pictures down, only I don’t look like the lonely, pouty, skinny boy sitting on the wooden walkway. He’s probably starving… since he spent all his lunch money on the sweater.

Now, here’s my conundrum. In looking over the construction, this machine-knit baby was made like we make sweaters. The pieces are seamed together and you can easily see the selvage. This means, one could easily rip it out and re-use the yarn. The 100% cashmere worsted-weight yarn. I could buy a large or extra-large for $150. A lot of money, yes, but cheaper than buying the yarn from Jilly Knitwear or any LYS. Then, I’d design my own sweater. Or make baby objects. Or knit who knows what.

Waste of money? Fashion sacrilege? Saavy shopper? Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow my stash with couture yarn chosen by a friend? What would you do?

I just lost a much wittier version of this post, detail my weekend’s cooking with a side of shopping. I’m too tired to rewrite it all, so you’re just going to have to deal with the abridged version.

In addition to the carmelized goodness you see pictured, I roasted some leeks. Never has something so vegan melted in my mouth in such a buttery way. It makes me want to put olive oil, salt and pepper on everything in my life. Inspired by Mel I made a loaf of the no-knead bread to take to brunch this morning. Why I’m not baking every weekend is a mystery to me.

While I don’t believe in retail therapy and I hate spending money, I played my role in the economic drama and took away a cashmere sweater and some Japanese dungarees. Could I sound any more pretentious and gay? If you only knew me.

Sure, I could have made myself a sweater, but I couldn’t even buy half the yarn required for the price I paid. It was half-off and I had a gift certificate left over from the holidays. It helped that it’s from a friend’s new-ish company Loden Dager. (His day job is technical director for Marc by Marc Jacobs.) I love his work, and although machine-knit, the diagonal cabling is made from a similar increase/decrease pairing as the Jaywalker socks.

Speaking of which, I washed them and a bunch of other socks. Not having my own fancy oak and birch sock blokers a la Scout, I made my own Christina Crawford-inspired ones from these instructions.

Very little fiber object making happened, but I’m OK with that. I’m in the homestretch of the too-popular scarf (no link until it’s done, I’m so ashamed). I wound a ball of Lisa Souza sock yarn to dive into before STR starts arriving. Heck, I’m one glove and bunch of embroidery short of my own pair of Knucks. I have tomorrow night to knit… if I’m not hanging around the office.