Contest #1 for the Super Sox Box Swap: the challenge is to write about favorite drinks and snacks while knitting. Hmm...it is so hard to choose! On the one hand, whenever there are cups of something around I live in fear of either spilling something or having someone spill it! Years ago I was knitting a sweater outdoors at my job (lifeguarding at a municipal pool) and a bunch of kids conspired to dump a whole bucket of something wet and disgusting all over me. That is when I learned you can wash a pull skein of yarn in the skein if you are really careful!

I go to a knitting group once a week that meets in a local coffeehouse (yes, it is that place that has millions of shops all over the US, or so it seems) and I admit to carefully enjoying a mocha-type drink (espresso, milk, and a wee bit of chocolate syrup - not too sweet!) with my knitting most evenings. Sometimes by the time I get there I am all "coffee-ed out" for the day and I will have iced tea or iced tea with lemonade. Sometimes if there is something really yummy looking in the bakery case I will have a little sweet, but eating takes away from valuable knitting time - not to mention the possibility of crumbs and sticky fingers!

OTN just now is a version of Knitspot's "Obstacles" shawl (scroll down a bit until you see it):

http://www.knitspot.com/wp-content/uploads/siteGraphics/knitspot_porfolio.pdf

in an easy care yarn called Marble. Yes, it is synthetic but it is very soft, not at all "squeaky" and has lovely long color repeats in one strand, with the other being solid. This is a prayer shawl for an ongoing project at my church - several of us knit them and then they are given away as needed (hence most of them are done in easy care yarns). I thought it would be "poetic justice" to use a pattern called "Obstacles" - maybe the person who eventually uses this shawl will be encouraged and strengthened to overcome some obstacles of their own. Besides, the pattern is fun to knit and IMHO looks great in this yarn. Perhaps I will have a photo soon - it is so gray and rainy here that I don't think a photo would look like much today!