New Socks, New Bike

Kevin and I went to visit my parents in Ithaca this past weekend--although it was a lot of driving for Kevin (and a lot of knitting for me, because I set a new record for remaining conscious in a moving vehicle and only took 1 small nap each way!), it was really good to see them.

I convinced my mom to take photograph some socks:



The red ones (there are two of them, really!) are a pattern I made up in Schaefer Yarns' Heather. They've posted it on their site, but I'm not sure how long it takes for the pattern to reach the stores... and I still need to format the version I'll sell here. The one in the middle is the new design I'm working on for Brooklyn Handspun (I'm almost done with the second one, but I probably won't be able to write up the pattern or take photos with both socks till next week). And the turquoise ones (there are two of them too, honest!) are the Veil of Leaves Socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

And we also bought a new bike!



(I know this looks like a gigantic impulse purchase, but we've been thinking about a tandem for about 2 years, and finally found a store semi-near somewhere we were going to be already that had a bunch to try.)

The good news is that I'm the stoker (that's the one in the back--usually the less strong cyclist), and that the stroker is not responsible for keeping the bike upright during stops and starts. Hurray! The bad news is that Kevin's developed some weird starting habits (perhaps from having to wait while I try to get my feet locked in without tipping over?), which make starting a little bit wobbly. But we haven't actually tipped over yet and we did get much better over the course of just a short ride, so things are looking promising. We're going to try again this afternoon (anyone driving in New Haven, please be nice!).

Hey, funny thing: I needed oil for my wheel and someone on the Lendrum forum on Ravelry suggested a precision oiler from Radio Shack, so Kevin picked one up for me on the way back from swimming yesterday. The salesperson said it was the third precision oiler he'd sold that day, and asked if Kevin knew why they're suddenly popular. Duh--people (all of them living in New Haven, apparently) bought new wheels in Maryland, and now they need to oil them!