Starting a blog about ...

I've been inspired to start a blog of my very own. At least in part because I'm resigned to the fact that I have to move to Mississippi. I've been living in Blacksburg, VA since 2001 and absolutely love it here. My mom, a true New Yorker, is baffled at how anyone could live in a rural town in the south. If you live here, however, you know that Blacksburg really isn't that far south, geographically or in attitude. Yes, Blacksburg is rural-ish, but it's also a college town so there are decent restaurants and 2, yes 2 health food stores and plenty of diversity.

Blacksburg is also surrounded by mountains and caves so if you like to go hiking or caving (which I love), there is plenty to do. I'm not much of a bar/club person (actually, not at all). My idea of a great weekend is camping in a cow field with a bunch of my caver friends, drinking margaritas, and hanging out by a ridiculously large bonfire. Definitely not an urban activity, but if you've done it, you know how fun this can be.

Unfortunately, my time in Blacksburg (paradise) is about to end for the time being. Mark, my husband, and I both have received good job offers in Starkville, Mississippi. Yes, good job offers using our degrees are something to be proud of, but we really don't want to leave here. Even worse, we definitely don't want to move farther south. We're going to Mississippi this weekend to check out Starkville and the neighboring town, Columbus. Hopefully we will like it more than we think. There are no mountains or caves or hundreds of cavers to hang out with in the Starkville area so it's already at huge disadvantage. I'm hoping for the best ( and expecting the worst).

One of the things that keeps me sane through all of this is knitting. Blogging about my knitting and my ongoing adventures moving to and living in Mississippi MAY help keep me from losing my mind. I guess we'll see.

Now that I've started this, I can show off my latest, in progress, creation which is my first pair of socks made with real sock yarn. I've made socks before, but they were more like slippers made with with much thicker yarns. These are are genuine patterned socks knitted with fingering weight handpainted yarn and size 1 needles. I know veteran knitters won't be impressed by this, but my novice knitter friends are and I'm excited because they look so pretty:
Cool, huh? I've only just started the second one. The first progressed pretty slowly, but I think the second one will go much quicker, cuz I've learned so much from knitting the first. If you're interested, the pattern is called 'Handpaint Highlights Socks' and is from a book called One Skein Wonders, edited by Judith Durant, which is one of my favorite books. I'm definitely developing a sock fetish and just ordered a few more sock knitting needles and more yarn so that I have more options for more socks. By the way, I linked to Amazon so that you can check out the book for yourself, but I definitely prefer supporting local bookstores and yarn stores if possible.