Here’s Thelma, who likes ice cream, surfers, and music videos. She lives up in Washington with the cool band Stuporhero.

Here’s Roscoe, who likes blocks, bulldozers, and peas. He flew all by himself to Pennsylvania to live with two-year-old Evan.

Here’s Edmund, who likes olive oil, philosophy, and pom poms. He lives in New York City with Sara.

Here’s Wilfred, who likes cars, tomatoes, and flying kites. He lives not too far away with five-year-old Alex.

Here’s Bessie, who likes mah jong, cooking, and garlic. She lives with my grandma up in the Bay Area, and occasionally plays mah jong with Florence.

Here’s Wendell, who likes signs, harmonica, and asparagus. He lives in St. Louis with Mayor Bill of Shantytowne.

Here’s Polly, who likes guitars, grapes, and motorcycles. She lives in Northampton with an amazing almost three-year-old.

In October, I knit my dad a pair of socks (Trekking with a simple ribbing) for his birthday:

In November I worked feverishly on my Sidewinder Skirt (which is almost done, just needing finishing work), and I quickly knit myself a Good Luck Cowl with a lovely skein of Koigu:

I also knit my grandpa a pair of modified Peekaboo Mittens. I finished the first one in time for him to try on for size on Thanksgiving (perfect fit!), then finished the second one less than two days later. He loved them. I already posted the picture, but I can’t resist including it again.

Over the past two months, I’ve gifted a bunch of monkeys!

Here’s Beatrice, who likes sushi, sailing, and lip gloss. She currently lives in Camarillo with Kate.

Here’s Roberta, who likes tacos, pop-up books, and blowing bubbles. She flew to Portland all by herself to live with Gina.

Here’s Orville, who likes chocolate, paintings, and playing tennis. He lives here in Los Angeles with Jerry, but has been doing quite a bit of traveling the past two weeks.

Here’s Constance, who likes swimming, snickerdoodles, and pastels. She’s also been traveling a lot this holiday season, but will soon be settled back in Santa Monica with Vanessa.

Here’s Floyd, who likes sandwiches, word games, and bicycles. He will be living in Mountain View with David and Maria, where I’m sure he’ll be relieved that it isn’t as cold as the places he’s been visiting.

Here’s Florence, who likes Hello Kitty, Tabasco sauce, and mah jong. She now lives with my mom, who proudly carries her around in her purse.

Here’s Rupert, who likes circuit boards, peanuts, and ping pong. He lives with my dad, and is currently riding around in style inside a car cup holder.

Here’s Willard, who likes hockey, lobster, and blackjack. He lives with my brother, where I’m sure he’s watching a lot of hockey games on TV.

Aside from the five monkeys I can’t yet reveal, that should cover all the FOs in my backlog! Whew!

2009 holds a lot of hope and promise, and it’s already gotten off to a good start. I still have 3 full days before I go back to work, so I’m planning to catch up here and then forge ahead with new projects and plans.

Happy New Year!

• Knitting scarves, socks, a cowl, a skirt(!), and of course plenty of monkeys. (I feel guilty about the current monkey in progress though — he’s been waiting a week and a half for his arms and ears to be attached!)
• Working and feeling stressed out.
• Trying my best to help the economy by buying handmade gifts (for myself and others) at Felt Club today, along with plenty of non-handmade items over the past few weeks.
• Occasionally watching adorable puppies.

I’m terribly behind on photo taking and increasingly lazy about photo uploading, but I hope to have a big catch-up post before Thanksgiving before I get too far behind!

Seymour was amazed by all the jack-o-lanterns we saw in Boston earlier this month. The wall was only the beginning — there were many more groups all around the plaza.

I have a slight blog backlog of stash and WIPs and FOs, but for now I’ll leave you with a link to the Stuporhero Halloween Special. It’s creative and funny, and it features some great songs. Happy Halloween!

After reading so many of these over the years, I can’t believe I’m writing one! After an exhausting Saturday in Boston, my friend Brie and I hopped into my red rental Ford Focus early Sunday morning and headed to Rhinebeck, NY. Despite our late start, we arrived only half an hour after our target arrival time of 10 am (when the festival opened).

My top priority was The Fold to check out their Socks that Rock. Seymour and I were both pleasantly surprised to find sock monkey kits, along with a couple sample monkeys:

Despite the order I had just placed with Blue Moon the week before, I picked up two kits of the original batch of colorways (which are no longer available), along with two rare gem skeins.

Just a few booths away was the only other booth on my must visit list, Brooks Farm Yarns. I fell in love with a few colorways of their Solo Silk, but decided to think about it before making a purchase. We enjoyed the fall colors:

We visited some animals:

We watched the fleeting beauty of the pumpkin catapulting contest:

And Seymour found another monkey:

We spent more time than expected watching the fiddle contest, and after a quick stop back to Brooks Farm for three skeins of Solo Silk (for scarves for my grandpa, my mom, and me) we had to rush back to Northampton for a concert.

I was only able to see a small fraction of what Rhinebeck had to offer, but that’s ok. I had a fabulous time, I bought some lovely new yarn, and there’s always next year.

Yep, Seymour and I are headed to Rhinebeck! I’ve had a fall New England trip in mind since my last trip out there in July, and when a SAMFund benefit concert was announced for October 18, I knew it was the perfect time — good music and great friends, all while supporting a wonderful cause. When I realized a couple weeks ago it was the same weekend as Rhinebeck, that was icing on an already sweet cake. I will be there only one day (Sunday) and will need to practice much financial restraint, but I know it’ll be a blast.

And to leave you with a little more Seymour, here are a few shots from a good-bye card we made for my friend Rob and his monkey Vernon:

Two weekends ago, Teresa and I went down to Carlsbad for a Partch concert. Before the show, we had a fabulous breakfast at Honey’s in Encinitas, avoided going into the two nearby yarn stores, and went to the beach to kill some extra time. I would like to try surfing someday, but for now I’m content to watch and write haikus.

This past weekend, we flew up to San Francisco to attend the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. I got to see and/or hear Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Hot Rize, Odetta, Zakir Hussain, Ben Kweller, Elvis Costello, Gogol Bordello, Loudon Wainwright III, and Iris Dement! Here I am during Ben Kweller’s set at the Star Stage:

At the festival, Teresa worked on knitting a sock that is far too big for me. When I wasn’t listening to the music, I napped a little and got to know a couple of her friends who recently moved away from Los Angeles. I also struck some poses… with three humans and one small monkey finishing two bottles of wine, many silly pictures were taken. Does anyone know any wine companies who need a monkey model?

I wrote a haiku to commemorate the occasion. It was inspired by Odetta, who sang about her little heart. Unfortunately, I wasn’t close enough to see if hers is orange and plastic too.

In knitting news, holiday gift knitting is in full swing! I finished a pair of handwarmers (modified Natalyas using Rowan Scottish Tweed DK):

and an adorable baby sweater (Helena using Artyarns Supermerino):

I’m half done with a gift Clapotis, and also in the gift queue are two pairs of socks, two hats, a baby vest, possibly an adult vest, and several monkeys. it’s a good thing I have two gifts down and over two months left!

Tomorrow I’ll be casting on for one of those socks, which I expect to work on throughout the weekend at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Odetta, Zakir Hussain, Hazel Dickens, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Elvis Costello, Gogol Bordello, Iris Dement, and many more! Plus time with my family and a few Bay Area friends… it’ll be a fabulous time and a nice break.

First I finished up the last couple inches of my Lace Ribbon Scarf, using Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn that I bought at WEBS in April. Then I finished up the last inch of my most recent pair of socks, plain stockinette using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Bittersweet. Both projects are bittersweet, especially the socks which were started just before the writing retreat, worked on throughout that wonderful weekend, and then continued at the hospitals before coming home and finishing them very slowly.

Today I took advantage of A Mano’s secret Ravelry sale and got 25% off my single-ball purchase of Rowan Scottish Tweed DK. It’s now on its way to becoming a pair of handwarmers for a friend who didn’t have to request them (but I’m glad she did so I know what color to choose). And after trying on my newly completed socks, I remembered how wonderful handknit socks are (it’s been months since I’ve experienced weather appropriate for wool socks) so I had to start another pair. I’m going to finally try the ShibuiKnits yarn that’s been in my stash for a while.

Oh, and a little over a week ago I finished my Ravelympics Shetland Triangle Shawl!

I love it! I used bigger needles than for my first Shetland Triangle (also with Smooshy), so it’s slightly (perfectly) bigger and the drape is lovely.