If at First You Don't Succeed...

Pomatomus may have kicked my butt once...

...but not this time!

I have since grafted the first sock shown, and started the cuff for the second one twice. For the record, it was not my own incompetence that caused the need for a do-over. There was a funnel cloud (good chance for a tornado) spotted touching ground near my village in Upstate New York (well, there is a first time for everything), and I attempted to work on the cuff while taking refuge in the basement. In the dark. Without a chart. Genius.

Regardless, I knit the foot a bit too long and thus shortened the toe, ending with 28 stitches to graft rather than 12. The stitch pattern is comfortably stretchy without falling down, interesting to work, and of course, resembles fish scales. How cool is that? This is the first project in a long time I haven't minded ripping back at all, it's so entertaining to whip up. I can't wait til I can wear the pair...

Warped Tour '09

No knitting, (shame), but still plenty of fun. But not as fun as knitting. No. Never.


My dad played chaperon to me and my friend (NOT boyfriend) Brad, on a day full of firsts!

• First Warped Tour (duh).
  
• First time hearing Less Than Jake, who turned out to have their fair share of charisma. Must hop on itunes, thanks for the suggestion Bradley!


• First time hearing or seeing Attack Attack, Underoath, and The Devil Wears Prada, who according to Brad are all Christian heavy metal bands. He showed me the lyrics beforehand, which were spiritual and deep, but when you can't comprehend what they're screaming into their mics, they're main selling point kind of loses its effect. Underoath was the most entertaining out of the three, if I had to choose.


• First time playing guitar on Rock Band. (Xbox had a relatively large promo tent set up). Turned out to be no harder than Guitar Hero. Fancy that.


• First time hearing (of) Chiodos, whose femininely-dressed lead singer (capri-esque shorts and I think it was a slight v-neck tee), actually was entertaining. His list of "crowd participation" songs gave everyone something to do, be it as simple as "jump up and down" or "everybody move," to something more chaotic. "Make these four mosh pits into one big one!" "Let's see if we can get 74 people crowd surfing at once!" "Wall of Death! Split down the middle!"


• My first viewing of a Wall of Death. The mosh splits, points out who they're gonna hit on the other side, and on cue charge across the gap. As my Dad put it, it's "Braveheart without the weapons."


• First time on the Viper at Darien Lake, as well as my first time going upside-down on a roller coaster. Wow, it really was nothing. Much easier than the massive drop on the Superman.


• First time seeing 3OH!3, who weren't that impressive. The only reason that sticks out in my mind is on the way out of the crowd I had my first experience pushing along crowd surfers.


• And my favorite "first," FIRST TIME SEEING FLOGGING MOLLY LIVE! They were the main reason I came to Warped Tour, and they didn't disappoint! They played my three favorite songs, made a not-so-favorite song interesting with different embellishments, and a few previously unheard titles will soon be added to my ipod. There wasn't much moshing to worry about, except for during "Drunken Lullabies," and by the time we left I had converted Brad from an Irish-rock skeptic into at least a tolerant. Thank goodness. My dad and I WILL be going next time they come into the area!

Overall? A cool collection of experiences, some better than others, and the best people watching I've seen in a long time! (I've never seen such creative variations on the typical mohawk)! Back to knitting next post...