I'm walking on sunshine!

Oh, hello snow day, my old friend.  I used to dream of you as a child, but you seldom visited us in the City of Roses.  No matter, you're now making up for your formerly withholding nature.

My office was closed today due to inclement weather, so instant three-day weekend.  Brooklyn is so pretty in the snow.  It's almost as though the brownstones were made for this stuff.

After shoveling myself out from the 18+ inches that fell over night, I crocheted for a bit, working on some potholders I'm making for a swap, then headed into the city to meet  my friends Jim and Rolando for pancakes.

February is National Pancake month and Clinton Street Bakery, possibly my favorite food spot in Manhattan, features pancake specials all month long.  And I do love a good pancake.  I'm almost maniacle about them.  The problem with this place is that it gets mad crowded, and with today being a snowday, crowds were even more intense.  I'm kind of embarassed to admit that we waited about 75 minutes for a table, but our food was so incredibly delicious, that the payoff was worth it.

My plan was to come home after pancakes and keep crocheting.  What actually happened was that I took a three hour nap, 5 pm - 8 pm.  It's terribly disconcerting to wake from a nap and see that it's dark outside.  My first thought was that it was 6am, as it's still dark here at that time. That I was wearing street clothes is how I realized what had happened. I blame it on the Olympics; I've been staying up way too late every night watching the human drama unfold.  How can one not?

But pancakes and Olympics arent; the o nly things that have been happening around here this month.  No, there was also some sock knitting going on.  To wit:

Pattern:  Spring Cables, by Elinor Gray

Yarn: Okay Knits Muthoni

Needles: US 0/2.0mm

Started: February 1

Finished: February 11

I've been trying to knit a pair of socks for about a year and a half now, and have made several starts, but never completed one sock, let alone a pair of socks.  I was understandibly excited, then, when someone from my knitting group suggested a sock-a-long for February.  I started these on Feb. 1, using the US2s recommended by the pattern, but the resulting fabric was way too loose and ugly.  Switching to US1s didn't help much, so I made the leap down to US0s.  So, I learned the importance of swatching, and that I knit rather loosely in the round.  Once I got going, the socks sailed.  Cuff down, simple and straightforward with just a bit of cable and seed stitch.  Fun, yet easy enough to do while standing on the subway on the way to work.

The yarn I bought from the dyer, who is a friend of mine, back in December.  I had initially wanted to use it to knit a shawl, but was convinced to use it for the socks, and I'm so glad that I did.   It's Bluefaced Leicester, which has long fibers that are more resistent to friction holes than many other wools.  More importantly, it's really soft, making for super cozy socks.  And the color is like the sun, hence the hoakey title of this post.