Sleeves. I have lopapeysa sleeves. Heading into the fun part… the yoke.

Speaking of the “Occupy” movement, the following video reminds me that that all police are not bad.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Just a little something to enjoy.

I was up at 5am to catch a flight that eventually brought me to Portland. Well, two flights. I’m flying here and back in 4 segments in order to get premier status on United.

Not much to share. Slogging through preparation for this weekend’s Knot Hysteria color retreat. Spent the night reliving Iceland by watching Heima and polishing off a second ball of blue-grey for my first lopapeysa. Made me forget my horrible fast food dinner.

All’s good now. No complaints here. Another early start tomorrow.

A fun-filled day of sharing the flavor of my life in San Francisco with Clara. As we considered where to eat dinner, we found a blog post review of Walzwerk that included this little video.

Who’s that at 2:06?

Another month, and just a few disappointing drops into this word urn. Sure, I owe you a travelogue. Heck, I owe it to my camera to get the pretty pictures off it. In the meantime, I just live in the present of phone pictures and twitter posts.

November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), something I’ve attempted four or five times, but never really made it even halfway. And that begat NaKniSweMo (National Sweater Knitting Month, yes, they don’t follow the naming convention), something I’ve never been foolish enough to try. More examples of embers-to-be, like New Year’s resolutions, marathon training, 750 Words and Health Month, in the bonfire of un(der)achieved goals

But here I am, brimming with the optimism of a month’s beginning. I am not officially declaring anything, but I wouldn’t mind getting the above sweater finished. (Irreverently started on October 31st.) I would love to perhaps read a book (read: listen to an audiobook… maybe by Murakami whilst I knit). I’m not going to write anything, except for a post or two or thirty here. It’s been pretty nice weather in SF, so I have no excuse not to run. If it does rain, I could always start a one hundred pushups program…

I’ll be happy just doing one special thing a day. But, heck, I may even try to finish a second sweater.

Sigur Rós – Glósóli from Sigur Rós on.

Until I get around to corral my myriad thoughts on the recent magical trip to Iceland, enjoy this Sigur Ros video. Rod and Gummi took us to the cliff where the final scene was shot. No, I did not buy a fox cape/hat combo.

(I recommend watching it full-screen. The landscape is really this achingly beautiful.)

Ah, Paris. It’s been a wonderful week so far. This is the view from our apartment.

We are here until le 21 août. More soon.

(photo by Star Athena)

On Sunday afternoon, about an hour before everything closed, I was able sneak away from the Sock Summit Registration desk and grab a not-so delicious Convention Center lunch.

Star (yes, that Star!) was kind enough to sit with me, then walk around the Marketplace. She caught me savoring the memories of french fries past before we sauntered.

Star is a person to whom I wished I lived closer. Ever since we met at the first Sock Summit, I wanted to be her friend. Heck, even before that, simply seeing her designs made me want to know her. I’m glad we had almost an hour together.

Our conversation has stuck with me. Our time together further underlined the topic we discussed. I’d love to sit and knit with her and not be in an artificial situation like teaching across the hall from her, or seeing her at Twisted when I’m in Portland, or randomly catching her in a veggie burger line. In my fantasy world, we’d cook together and talk about our projects and brush each other’s hair. (Not so much on that last one.)

I still haven’t pulled together my thoughts for a big, big recap, so I hope you don’t mind these random thoughts. Until then, my congested head and ravaged throat will offer you these limited typings. (Scotch is helping.)

Of all of the hard work that led up to Sock Summit, I am most proud of the flash mob. Tina, Steph and Debbi love flash mobs, and they trusted me to come up with the moves to show we have the time of our life with yarn.

I had always said that if we had 20 knitters who learned the dance and showed up, I’d be happy. Actually, I told Steph I’d buy her a beer. As you can see, I owe her many, many beers, as we had over 600 people show up and participate.

Here’s Clara’s video (the best quality IMHO… another has almost 10,000 views!):

And if you’re really interested in learning it yourself and putting on your own knitting flash mob, here you go. Just remember to drop me a line and take pictures!

Thank you, everyone, whether you danced, cheered or just watched it online. In the spirit of the Summit, it was truly taking sock knitting almost too far.

Sock Summit 2011 is over. Much to recap at a later time. I welcome the after-glow and afterlife. Until then…