What it is

is a knitting blog, and it's not a knitting blog if you don't show knitting every now and then.

Gosh, I love this digital camera. You can see all of the subtleties of the yarn, and it's pretty true to color... might have something to do with the lighting in my office, which is where I now take my knit pix. That's my Generic Hat, 90 stitches around on a 12 inch #8 Susan Bates Quicksilver circular needle, k2p2 rib for the first three inches or so, knit until it fits, then k2tog k1 around every other row until there are twelve (or so) stitches on the needle, draw yarn through remainng stitches and voy-lah. The yarn is Lion Brand Wool Ease, in a heathered piney green. It won't be blocked because of the high percentage of acrylic in the yarn, but if you put it on your head it smooths out nicely. I'm sending this hat to BISS later this week.

Meanwhile, I've made progress on the Rainbow Sock. Look at how long it is now!

The heel's been turned and I've done a couple of rounds of ankle stitches. I really do think that the wooden needles make the work go faster. Here's a close-up of the heel:

Pretty wild colors, huh? That's a Grumperina gusset pick-up... isn't it neat? What a clever woman. I mean Grumperina, not me. I'm clever enough, but she's something.

It's also St. Joseph's Day, the day the swallows go back to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California. The birds don't only go to the mission; when I lived in San Diego, they swooped back into town on about St. Patrick's day every year and built nests on the underhang of the Malcolm A. Love Library at San Diego State University. You can also see them wheeling and diving near freeway overpasses all over the West.

I'm a sucker for little birds. Other people can admire big majestic raptors like eagles and hawks and welcome to them, but give me a fat little chickadee to watch any day. Little birds seem so busy and so social, especially when they're in groups. I tried to photograph them at the bird feeders in the garden, but they're constantly in motion and even my new no-shaky-hands camera can't capture them. You'll just have to go look outside in your own garden.