First of all:

Happy Independence Day! Even with all the back-and-forth political sniping (which I really HATE and which distresses me no end), even with the problems that we (like all countries have), I am happy and thankful to be an American, to have the freedoms I enjoy every day. And the comfort of living in a first-world nation. And the relative safety. (My brother has a friend who was basically a refugee from Ethiopia/Eritrea; considering what that young man went through, living in a country not torn apart by clan-wars is a great blessing indeed).

Second:



(Please to be ignoring fishbelly-white legs with healing bug bite. I don't DO "tan.")

I finished the "That 70s socks" last night. I like them better than I thought I would, considering the color combo. (I suppose one might also call them "tequila sunrise" socks, based on the colors).

And you know, I LIKE the self-patterning yarns. I know, in some circles of sock knitting, it's fashionable to run them down, to call them "garbage in-garbage out" or similar terms. But there's something fun about them, and lighthearted. It makes me happy to live in a world where we have technology that can make yarn that comes off the ball forming strips or checks or zig-zags. I suppose part of it is that so much of technology is devoted to Big Scary Things - military technology, and the various medical technologies (even though they save lives there's still something ominous about an MRI machine), and things like cars and trucks and turbines. But there's something human, and charming, and delightful to me to think that somewhere in Germany or Italy there's a mill where they have some kind of big machine that prints yarn with designs.

I guess it makes me think of those segments they used to have on Mr. Rogers, where he would visit a crayon factory or a plant that made plastic toys, and show how the everyday items of our lives are made. (I'd love to see a video of how the Opal yarn-printing machines work).

I've said this many times before, but it also makes me think of the old gag, often used in cartoons, where a character goes out and buys a gallon of plaid paint, and paints it on the wall, and it comes out of the can as a plaid.

And it's also nice to have something that I can knit on while I read, or while I watch Law and Order reruns on the telly, that I can look at just periodically to see how it's going, and marvel that simple stockinette can work out so colorfully.

So, I'm geared up to start another pair of these. I like to always have a set on the needles; it's a good pick-up-and-take-with project, or a good knitting-while-tired project, when things with cables or yarn overs or made of slippery yarn don't work so well. I'm not sure whether to pull out the bright-pink Opal Magic I have in stash, or the multicolored Crocodile, or whether to do one of the cotton combos I have. Or maybe the brand-new, just-arrived-from Carodan Farm Regia Nation stripe (I got the red and yellow; I'm guessing these represent flags of different nations. There's a red-white-and-blue, a blue-and-white, a red-and-white, and several others. I picked the red and gold because I liked it, and I suppose when the socks are done and I wear them out, some child is bound to point to them and say "Gryffindor socks!". The one country I can think of at the moment that has a red and gold flag is Wales. [of course, they have a black Dragon Rampant on it too, but it is red and gold in the background]. I'm not Welsh, but I like the colors together. And I'm reading "Over Sea, Under Stone" right now, which is set in Wales.)

By the way, I really LOVE Carodan Farm. I ordered the stuff on Monday or Tuesday, and it was in my hands on Saturday. Lately, they have been my go-to place when I want something specific (as opposed to my other go-to place, Elann, which is more of a jumble sale and you never know what you will find.