They really like me!

My copy of Harry Potter did not arrive today, contrary to UPS and Amazon's tracking systems. And so I'm blogging.

So yesterday, a lovely surprise showed up in my inbox: my Ravelry invite! (You can find me at WildThingsRun. Fast wouldn't fit.) I feel loved. I've spent the better part of the last 24-hours playing around, and I have to agree with the general buzz -- it's wonderful. No more Googling and Technorati-ing to find details about projects I'd like to attempt, or to see how a certain yarn works up. (Image edited from Ravelry.com.)

I also enjoyed Ravelry's feature to let you check on your invite status (of course, I only noticed this after I'd been invited). I requested an invite on May 31st, and was 6062nd in line. As of yesterday, 12,693 people behind me! I can't wait until Ravelry gets up and running at full speed, I really think it's going to be a great resource.

Of course, this means that I haven't gotten to finish my mini-review of my NYC-area yarn binging; but I have just started two new projects. Since finishing the monkeys, I've been searching for another sock pattern. I had a few in mind -- the Spiral Boot Socks; Clessidra; Pomatomus; Sweetpea -- but the sock yarn I had wasn't really speaking to any of them. I'd had some gauge problems with the Jaywalkers that I didn't want to revisit. I'll reveal my inner geekiness here and admit to creating a spreadsheet to track my sock stash and patterns. While doing some research I came across the Knitting Philistine's review of Clementine's Baltic Socks [PDF] won me over, and worked well with the Fearless Fibers superwash merino sock yarn I had in my stash and have been antsy to use. There's so much of it (550 yards per skein!) that I had knee socks in mind, and the Baltic Socks' stocking stitch allowed for a simple modification for this first-time-knee-sock-knitter. Here's a picture of the beginning:


And a larger project: Norah Gaughan's Bella Blouse [PDF] from Interweave. I was looking for a good summer knit, and this one caught my eye back when it was called Pomegranate-something-or-other. I think maybe Orangina would have been a better pick, but I can put that in the queue. Although I really liked the colors shown in the Bella pattern, I don't think they would flatter me. So I went with a very saturated navy blue in the Berroco Cotton Twist and Tahki Cotton Classic to stand in for the Touche. Here's the bottom band:

Whew. Hope y'all are enjoying your weekends, and thanks for reading until the end!