A few days ago I was lamenting that my "learn to knit socks" book only had one heel shaping/turning style. A blog comment suggested that I consider Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. So I replied that I had put the book on my Amazon/Christmas wish list but hadn't received it. I have this book. I was looking for some baby patterns to loan to the new mom and found that I had Folk Socks and have had for at least two, maybe three years. I guess when I got it I wasn't all that interested in making socks so after giving it a casual once over I filed it away. I'm in the middle of reading it now. It's fascinating and full of good information as well as some patterns that I'm really looking forward to making.

I never thought I would become a sock knitter. It's embarassing to admit that I'm at risk of becoming addicted. (I'm still on my first pair, you understand.) I've been scrounging my pattern books and the 'net for patterns. I think I'm more interested in the various techniques and enjoy reading the instructions than the actual knitting. But the knitting is exciting too. And I still have all those Christmas stockings I wanted to make last year. Woo yay!

Yesterday afternoon I kept hearing all this yelling and shouting coming from down the street. Finally went out to see what it was. (Actually I just had to go to the post office.) Anyway, there was a small anti-war demonstration going on. Maybe 50 or so kids and a couple of older (surviving hippie liberals) folks carrying placards printed with lots of trite, over simplified slogans. The cop ratio was pretty high. I don't think the affair attracted much attention. Certainly nothing like the one in Westwood. And the traffic still flowed pretty well. At the bowling alley the big screens were taken up with the war coverage. Normally we can watch whatever sporting event is on that evening. People were complaining about the sameness and the repetitive comments. How quickly we get bored these days. Actually, I think sporting events are just about as boring. Did you think war was supposed to be entertaining?

Apropros of nothing in particular, does anyone have a good way of getting rid of ants? I'd rather not use commerical bug killers. I'm more interested in repelling them than in killing them.

I've added a new web ring to my page, over there just underneath the knitting bloggers. It's the Men Who Knit ring. It's small right now but I have hopes it will grow pretty quickly. The ring was set up by Jerry Gaiser of When Knitting Was a Manly Art fame. Check it out.

It's a beautiful, warm day here. I'm off to Skein to see what's going to happen next.