Travel, a Gadget, and a Little Bit of Knitting

I went to Seattle and I only took one photo.













Then I went to Massachusetts and didn't take any photos at all. I spent time with my grandmother, who was in the mood to get rid of old kitchen stuff. We made a pile to keep, a pile to have a yard sale with, and a little pile of things she was done with but which I wanted to keep.

















This little guy is one such item. He's the only thing I carried home with me on the plane, since he's small and relatively unbreakable, and because I want to use him soon. He's a pie bird, which (as my grandmother explained) is a device placed in the center of a two-crust pie to vent the steam from inside to keep pies from boiling over. Genius! I've always had trouble with apple pies leaking all over the inside of the oven - and then smoking the next time I preheat - but now I think I'll be all set. I'll post again once I've put him to the test.

I've been doing a ton of knitting, but at present I have almost nothing to show for it. Some of it is secret, and some of it is just really dull unfinished sweater, and a little bit of it is nearly finished adorableness which I'll be posting next. But for now, a sock in progress:













This is the cuff of the Through the Loops Socktoberfest Mystery Sock 2009. The yarn is Araucania Ranco Multy, which I picked up at My Sister's Knits last week or the week before. (It was in the 50% off sale bin and I can't resist sale bins.) I went to Kirsten's blog last night (after midnight) to see what the gauge was and the first clue was up, so I cast on and stayed up past two to finish the clue. I think I'd get more knitting done if more patterns were this modular and more people were willing to spoon-feed them to me a little bit at a time.