Contrary to popular belief and the proof offered by my facebook and twitter stati (status, plural. Statuses? Whatever), I have not been utterly consumed by my research and projects. My hands may be the only part of me not inside this monster but hey, that means I can still type!
Weird metaphor, I know, but go with it.
I have, unfortunately, lost my knitting mojo. I don't know why. I still love my yarn and think my needles are so nice and smooth, but I can't seem to actually pick them up and use them. This might be thanks to the fact that I moved (I know, again) at the end of January. Or it might be thanks to all the Christmas knitting. Or it might actually be the fact that I spend 15 + hours a day working on school work.
Part of me thinks that it is because I pushed myself to finish my first pair of socks before the start of 2009. Yes, I knitted a pair of socks. No, I never got around to blogging about them because I wanted to wait for my sock blockers to come in the mail (knit-picks! Woo!) and I wanted complete pictures. And then the move happened, go figure. But finally, here it is. The story of my first socks.
I was really scared to make any because I tend to wear out my socks on account of always wearing them (well, until I moved here where beach weather + random rain storms necessitate outdoor sports sandals). Finally I decided to make them because I'd been an all-out knitter for a year and I felt like a real knitter would knit socks. So I bought some destashed Trekking on Ravelry and picked out my pattern, Sell Your Sole Socks.
A little side note: I grew up in Western NC, so when I went home for Christmas break this year we got slammed by snow storms. We were actually snowed in at my parents' house for a day or two before we could get down our driveway. Ok, back to my socks.
Over Christmas break, my family decided to visit our relatives on the East Coast. We left NC at 6 am and drove to Pennsylvania. From there we drove to New York state and Fulton, NY where they have had all that snow this winter. Then we went to New York City for 2 nights with my aunt and uncle and then drove all the way home on New Years' Eve. We were in the car all but 2 days for a week. It was pretty intense and probably won't be repeated for a very long time (when I have kids and force them to do the same thing).
(The mini Statue of Liberty in the Susquehanna River)
In the first two days I knitted the first sock. I turned the heel at the Pennsylvania line. Mom was pretty proud because she was driving for all of this. It was my first dutch heel (or any heel for that matter) and the explanation in the pattern was excellent. It has pictures and little thought bubbles and everything.
Did I mention I was drugged on drammamine which makes you drowsy? Oh yes. It's crazy.
I barely finished the second sock in time, but I did. New Year's Eve. It's a little smaller than it's supposed to be, but I blame the fact that we weren't consistently in the car for several days. But now that it's blocked out I'm the only one who notices the mistakes.
Overall, I love the pattern. Loved the experience of knitting socks (actually got Cookie A's first book and Wendy Knit's Knitting Socks from the Toe Up for Christmas but haven't actually used them. The pictures are very pretty and inspiring). But I HATE the yarn. I don't know if my feet have just gotten really sensitive or if the yarn has too much nylon, but they are actually somewhat painful to wear. They're softening up a bit, but the yarn, especially on the smaller sock, is sharp. They're pretty but I would not recommend this yarn. The pattern, however, is just stunning in its simplicity.
Posts
