Endurance
26 rows left.
We’re headed down to the shore today for my dad’s birthday (happy birthday dad!) so I think I can finish this, easy.
Burning Questions
1. Can I overcome second sock syndrome (again)?
2. Can I knit, wash, and block a shawl in time to wear it on Saturday?
3. Can I set aside this pretty, pretty merino/seacell roving long enough to do either of the above?
Wandering
I’m all over the place this week. Today I took a trip to a bead show, where I scored these pretty whorls:
Which will be turned into spindles today and tomorrow. Keep an eye on the shop!
Thursday and Friday we’re going down to the shore for a family trip, which should be… interesting. I have, of course, made note of all yarn shops on our route.
And Saturday is MDSW. Come find me for peanut butter cookies! I will not be vending but if you see something you like in the shop between now and then I’ll be happy to bring it to you—no shipping costs and I give a 10% off in-person discount.
The foster kitties are also learning to wander, but unfortunately you will have to click to see.
Just Kidding!
When I said I’d be turning this pattern into fingerless mitts instead. Why? Because I was too lazy to chart out a thumb gusset. I’ll probably put one together eventually, because I do think this cabled pattern would look awesome on mitts, but I wanted some semi-mindless knitting and that wasn’t it.
And the pattern does do fairly well as a sock, if I do say so myself.
Spring Leaves
Pattern: Interlocking Leaves by Kelly Porpiglia
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Spring Tickle
Needles: US1.5/2.5mm Addi Turbos
On Ravelry here.
Notes: I have absolutely nothing to say about these socks. So have a kitten!
Ricky is one of two four week old foster kittens that came to live with us over the weekend. I’ve promised not to grow attached and want to keep either of them.
Evolution
You know how sometimes you start a project and you’re knitting and knitting and all of a sudden you find out that the project you thought you were knitting isn’t actually what the project wants to be?
Like when you take your sock leg and put it on your arm for some inexplicable reason and discover that this little sock leg really, really wants to be a pair of fingerless mitts?
Oolong says it’s just me, but I swear this must happen to other people sometimes. Now I gotta go find some graph paper and chart a thumb gusset.
Startitis: 1, Jesh: 0.
Went out to knit night last night and could not resist the call of the wild new project, even though my spring socks aren’t finished and I have a million other things to get to.
But come on, handspun + Cookie A socks? Who could restrain themselves?
A word of warning if you have a copy of Sock Innovation—the row numbers do not quite line up on some (not all!) of the charts.
I emailed Cookie about it (and she Interweave), and while she was helpful, they were not. Essentially they said, it’s just the font, it works if you hold a ruler up to it, we ain’t fixin’ it. Which is a disappointing answer, to say the least—but I’ve penciled in the numbers at the correct positions so I won’t have to worry about it from here on in.
And on a happier note, the wonderfully shiny thing that my sock in progress is sitting on is my new/old macbook pro. New to me but I bought it used from a dear friend, who saved my butt by offering to sell it to me when my previous laptop kicked it. It’s got it’s quirks, but I do too, and so far we get along just fine. Hopefully we’ll have many happy years together!
Spinning Sunday
Putting off working on the heel flap of my spring socks to start something new.
This is an awesome mohair/silk blend that I got in a swap, very shiny but it was quite compressed and hard to draft in its original form, so I handcarded it into a pile of soft, squishy rolags. Aiming for laceweight singles, tightly spun to control the halo from the mohair. I’ll probably two-ply it once I’m done.
Oolong spent all of passover hiding from the big scary crowd of people. Poor kid.
Spun
Someone (rather insultingly, I think) asked me a while back if I even know how to spin. Since I never seem to have any yarn. Or any yarn in progress. Or anything to show for myself at all. At first I took offense, but then I thought about it and realized I had only spun six skeins of yarn in the ten months that I’ve been spinning. And, let’s face it, that’s kind of pathetic.
But now I can raise my total to seven skeins! Heh.
So I totally do spin—just not frequently. I’d estimate that (excluding this project) I spin for maybe an hour or two a week at most. And since I tend to spin fine yarns, that adds up to not a lot of finished skeins. But I think I will spin more now that I know I can turn out yarn I like. I just have to put my knitting down long enough to actually get to it!
3-ply merino sock yarn, 18wpi, 3.8oz and 440yds.
Jeshknits 