Blossoming

Well, it certainly took long enough, but here is a picture of my first ever batik! It's going to be a cushion, but I can't really stuff it until I get back to the US, just for the portability of flying.

This particular project had to be centered around Florence/Tuscany/Italy. What does this have to do with Florence, you may ask? Well, the Fleur de Lis at the center comes from the Loraines, a French family who married into the Medici, who where the rulers of Florence in the middle ages and Renaissance. The word Florence actually means something like "city of flowers" or "field of flowers;" I don't remember the exact translation. It felt like everyone in my class was doing some image of the Duomo, the huge church at the city center, and I wanted to be a bit different. I also just really like the Fleur de Lis; it's the Francophile in me.

Last night I made a huge leap--I cast on for my first ever sock! The yarn came from the dollar store, and it was finner than what I usually see there. It reminded me of the sock yarns back home, even though it wasn't quite the right weight. Well, I had a pair of size 2 DPNs in the apartment, and decided it was about time I started using them.

Even more shocking than the fact that I'm making a sock, I'm actually using a pattern! This will be a first for me. Well, there were the hideous fingerless gloves I made last spring, but I only finished one, and I hated every minute of it.

The pattern is the plain Widdershins, from the Knitty Summer '06 issue. I'm doing them in plain old stockinette right now, just to learn the construction, but I think I'm going to do the leg part in a k2p2 rib, and turn them into knee socks. I've been wanting a pair of socks that are a little heavier duty, because I keep wearing holes in all of the store bought ones I brought with me. I'm beginning to wonder if it's even worth my time to go back and sew them up again.

More news!

Alice and I have started recording our very first podcast! I should have it up on Itunes within the next week or so, with a link to appear here in the sidebar. I can't tell you the title yet; we were thinking about MisKnits, but that's a blog here on blogger. Then we decided on Pomcast (long story), but there's already a PomCast on Itunes.