I have officially joined Socktoberfest.

That is all I can say for now, since I am working on two of my own pairs, as well as a commissioned pair. Details and pics later, along with a Socktoberfest button (once I figure out the game of "Blogger Why Do You Make My Life So Difficult?).

What is a knitter to do when her husband's style is so limited (I prefer picky, but you know how men are...). I still don't know what he to knit that he will actually wear. He would like a gansey but that is waaaay more than I have time for with all of the other knitwear gifts for the holidays. I am thinking more along the lines of a fisherman's or reversible scarf in a gorgeous aran yarn.

The problem is that his birthday is January 6th. Directly after the holidays. What is a knitter to do in such little time?

I joined the lovely Toronto band, Enter the Haggis, last night for their first Los Angeles show. It was a shoddy turnout, which is unusual for their concerts in Florida where hordes of fans gather hours in advance to drink, eat and be merry in honor of the show to come. That's Los Angeles for you. I think that the few of us who showed, including The Young Dubliners, gave them a right and proper crowd of hooting and hollering.

The truly cool thing of the night even with a shoddy turn out? The hubby and I were able to have a pint or two with the band members before they went on. I guess they decided that mingling with their only fan proudly attired in an ETH shirt, signed by all of them two years ago, was a good idea. We talked about prior concerts, kilts, drinking, touring, Canada, hockey, then moved on to Toronto specifically and the cool people in that lovely city.

After all the talk of Toronto, I decided it was cool to mention Stephanie and her blog. They were all on board when I discussed the new tradition of the traveling sock and its pictures. We talked about the Knitting Olympics and Knitters Without Borders and all of the other lovely things that have stemmed from this lone Toronto Knitter and the lovely friends that support her blog. The drummer said he'd check it out, women in his family knit after all and if it's funny... you get the gist. We are slowly taking over the world, damnit!

Anyone have a good kilt hose pattern? I'd like to subtly taunt them into wooly submission.

There is good news, and there is bad news. Bad news first?

On Friday, my Namaste purse was stolen from work. From directly behind my desk. The yarn and all. I had two skeins of Artfibers' Slyph yarn for my cardigan project, as well as a skein of their Takhi for my mother-in-law's Christmas scarf. I also had my first two pairs of socks and their Knit Pick's Simple Stripes yarns in there with a whole slew of notions. The bag was also holding my signed copy of Knit Happens!, right next to my wallet and blah blah blah. The entire office of post production supervisors, machine room operators, sound mixers/editors, and the president of the company, joined together to search the entire building and grounds of Oracle Post's property in Burbank. No dice. My purse was gone, along with my projects and all of my money, checkbooks, debit cards.

I called my husband to pick me up, since my car keys were also in the stolen purse and I had no other way home. I called the cell phone in my purse in hopes that the perpetrator would pick up and I could curse at him. I called the bank to cancel my debit cards and checkbooks. I started to call my phone company to disconnect my cell when I got a returned call from the lovely hubby with news on my purse. A local woman spotted my bag, contents spilled over the ground, shoddily shoved behind a dumpster in an alley a half block away. Since it is a hot pink (ahem, raspberry) purse, it was a pretty obvious find on her way home from work. She saw my phone and car keys falling out and knew it must be a robbery, then dialed the last two numbers on my cell phone until somehow the message got back to Sean and then me. The yarn and signed book, along with out of print patterns and a spa certificate that I'd treated myself to recently, were safely in the possesion of the woman and I could pick them up at my leisure.

I nearly cried with joy and sadness when I saw the bag. It is a little worse for wear, but I love it even for the scratches and random exterior stickiness left over from it's battle. Sadly, my wallet is nowhere to be found. I was forced to take my Monday off from work (yay, more money lost!) to replace my driver license and social security cards that disappeared with my debit cards.

But enough of that. On to the good news (aside from recovering the yarn)! I have finished my first sock... well, first sock that truly fits me... It is a basic sock pattern in Simple Stripes. The heel is a short row heel flap and the whole thing fits like a glove, err, sock. Quite lovely.

P.S. If you haven't already, go over to Stephanie's blog and wish her the best on her official wedding to lovely Joe this past weekend. Those two crazy kids will make the rest of our marriages look shameful. The very best, you two!