FO: Lateral

So, on Vampire Diaries last night . . . I kid, I kid.  Though there was one part during which my jaw dropped and I sat with my mouth open for like two whole minutes before I realized what was going on.  If you watched, you know what I am talking about.  If you are behind, catch up please, I want to discuss!

This week's FO has been keeping my feet warm all week because, surprise, the temperature dropped back into the thirties again.  I had thought March would be our salvation from cold, but it looks like not even the prospect of April will be able to save us.  Luckily I finished these socks over the weekend and was all set to wear cozy cashmere blends on my feet.

Lateral is my third project from Cookie A's latest book Shapes + Form.  It is a simple pattern, but it looks lovely and it was nice to knit a Cookie A sock without being married to the chart.  Despite its simplicity it does have that Cookie A feel that I have found runs so consistently throughout all her patterns.  I did sub in the heel from Hermoine's Everyday Sock as that is my current favorite.  I find that it fits the shape of my heel well while still having durability that seems to cope well with how hard I am on my socks.  I also just love how the garter stitch looks when it is picked up for the gusset.  Something about it is just so charming.

This was my first skein of Tempted and I love it.  It is her Lil' Luxe Grrl, which is a MCN blend with just under 400 yards, in the Oasis colorway.  I found this skein on destash on Ravelry for a very good price and have hoarded it for months.  I have worn these socks twice this week and they have been super cozy -- totally decadent for socks.

For more lovely FOs, head on over to the links on Tami's Amis!

Watching Cast On Dates Pass Me By

Yesterday was the cast-on day for Sock the Vote, but I have not cast on yet.  Instead I have been furiously knitting away on my Holla Back Tank in an effort to get it done before my self-imposed, unannounced deadline of my birthday.  Don't you just love self-imposed deadlines?  No one but me cares if I have the tank done by then, and realistically I should not be wearing a tank top in October, but I am still suffering under the stress and fury of finishing it in time.  

I think I can make it.  Whether or not I get it done in time to have help getting pictures this weekend is another story.  I could have finished it yesterday but then I went to the laundromat, took a nap, and swatched for another sweater.

I did at least take my supplies photo for Sock the Vote, thus officially declaring myself part of yet another knitalong (what was that I said about not jumping in on any more KALs?).

I have had this pattern (Lindsay by Liz Abinante) for a year, but never knew what I wanted to knit it with.  You may recognize the yarn as my Yarn Pirate from the Ravellenics.  I decided that I would never wear a shawl that reminded me of camouflage. and so I frogged that puppy.  I know the color choice may seem a little unorthodox for Lindsay Funke, but one of my favorite Lindsay moments is when she goes to protest the war and ends up dancing in a cage wearing a rather wet and revealing camouflage outfit.  Plus I am hoping that in socks the yarn pools up a bit and brings more of the neon to the foreground. 

I know that this is a 100% superwash merino and I am totally breaking my no nylon no socks rule, but Lindsay is a decadent, fickle creature and she won't take no for an answer. 

FO: Socks on a Plane

I had high hopes for this post.

The pattern is Socks on a Plane, which I love and the yarn is Gnome Acres, which you all know I am addicted to.  I had planned to explain how this pattern restored my faith in the toe-up sock and how I think I figured out an aspect of my knitting I can change to help prevent the kinds of holes I have gotten lately.

Sadly I have overslept and must now dash off to work, but hey look -- more socks!

For more eloquent FOs, check out the group over at Tamis Amis!

Serial Sockucide

My Fellow Knitters,

It grieves me greatly to inform you of crimes inflicted on our own, but I feel it is my duty to tell you of the menace living in our midst.  For indeed, one of your fellows has committed a grave crime and aided in the destruction of one Time of My Life Sock.  Today around 12:45 EST this poor innocent sock became the third victim in a string of serial attacks.  The perpetrator is currently mourning her crimes and promises never to knit socks again, but we doubt she will be able to resist her neon cables for long when she becomes lost in swaths of stockinette.  Though she is still feeling the bite from where the sock reacted to her neglect the physical reminders will not last long.

In anticipation of her relapse into sock knitting, particularly with the start of Sock the Vote and the arrival of a Stockinette Zombies sock kit just around the corner, we propose that the knitter learn how to darn socks. The ideal solution would be for the knitter to buy a different pair of work shoes, but she finds the expense daunting and so has tentatively promised to investigate learning a new skill.

The latest sock victim is still clinging to life, albeit by a quite literal thread.  In lieu of flowers we ask that those who wish to donate send advice on how to repair current injuries and guard against those coming in the future.  For those interests in the gory details, the fatal blow occurred in the same location as its predecessors, at the center of the achilles tendon.

Tragically Finished

If you are of a weak constitution or prone to nausea, fainting, or horrendous flashbacks at the sight of another's knitting catastrophes, please do not read on.  Instead go find a happier FO post over at Tami's Amis.

Tragedy, dear knitters, has struck our happy home.  On Wednesday an event so distressing occurred that it even made me late for work (yes, you read that right).  For the first time in the three years that I have been knitting socks I suffered a heel blow out.

As you can see, it wasn't just that the heel blew out, it was the back of the heel.  You may recognize these as my Nutkins that I knit not even a year ago out of Madelinetosh sock.  I should have listened to my inner knitter when I bought this yarn.  She's the rational one.  She's the one who knows that I wear socks at least five days a week even in the summer.  She's the one who knows that I love my handknit socks and would prefer to wear them over commercial socks.  And she's the one who knows that a yarn without nylon content, even if it is superwash, does not belong on my feet.

I didn't listen to her.  I ignored her warning with such arguments as "everyone else knits superwash merino socks and is fine" or my personal favorite "there's something very environmental about knitting socks without the synthetic.  I'm being a good person by buying this expensive yarn and putting it on my feet"  Clearly my inner knitter is way smarter than I, for not one year later I pulled on these socks, which I had carefully hand washed for months, only to find a gaping hole right where my shoe meets the back of my foot.

I could use this as a learning opportunity.  I could pull out my leftovers and find a way to darn the one sock and reinforce the heel of the other.  I could, but I won't.  I have a renewed commitment to knitting socks only out of yarns with nylon content, and I don't have the heart to repair these only to have them fall apart on me again. So for now I will put them aside and wait for the pain to lapse.  Then I will pick out the ends, frog them, and use the yarn for something else.  Maybe a new pair of mitts.  Surely my hands can handle 100% merino yarn.

FO: V Junkie Socks

I have two new addictions -- Alice Yu, Socktopus, patterns and Cakewalk Yarns.  And they go so well together.  Alice's patterns are just this side of complicated with their pretty and functional design.  Plus a lot of them have an inspiration that makes my little geeky heart sing.  Cakewalk colorways are full of fun and vibrant colors that jump all over the knitted canvas.  Together I have found that they create socks that instantly catch the eye but do not lose the patterning or muddle the colors when put together (I have a second pair on the go that will further prove this point).

V Junkie, from Socktopus, in Cakewalk Yarns Footsie, Chalkboard

These are my favorite socks.  I cannot pinpoint the exact date that I finished them because I immediately wore them and have had them on my feet at least two days a week since then.  I did not even get these pictures taken before I road tested them with long hours on my feet at work.  Footsie, Cakewalk's sock yarn base, is a dream to work with.  It's very tight and does not feel overly soft in the skein, but once it has been washed it makes for super cozy sock.  The stitch definition is gorgeous and I have not had the pilling problem that I have come to accept will happen on the heel of all of my socks.  Before I had these off my needles I ordered another skein.  It really is like cake -- I can't stop at just one bite.

The pattern itself is a thing of genius.  I have never used a garter stitch heel before, but I love how it worked up.  I'm a short-row heel fan because I love the way they hug my feet.  I did modify the foot patterning a bit because I had heard that the socks themselves came out too big.  I knit the medium size and only did two repeats of the cell pattern before I started the pattern decrease.  Instead of knitting to one cell before I started the toe I started that at the one cell and knit a short-row toe that started on the top of the foot and grafted under the toes.  I am really proud of that little stroke of genius. I have never felt comfortable with my sock knitting to do more than change from one style toe to another, never mind just change things up so that it fits my foot better.

These have fast become my favorite socks ever.  I really need to finish up this next pair so that I can justify another purchase.  You know how some people get every color of Socks that Rock?  I may just start collecting every color of Cakewalk.  Cause if it's a "collection" then it really isn't stash -- right?

FO: Dark Chocolate Froot Loops

Normally my disappearing for a time without notice would elicit some sort of apology from me.  But I'm not really sorry.  I reached a point after the last post where I could not seem to get excited about my knitting.  I had too many things on the needles and not enough time to finish them in and of course a firm mental block about accepting that fact.  I'm sure no one minds that I decided to not spread those bad vibes around our community.  But I'm back now with something finished! (Actually I have two FOs, but I only have pictures of the one)

(For some reason Blogger won't let me link that to here)

One of the knitting deadlines I was rapidly approaching was my mom's birthday.  My mom is a great sport.  She has always been on the receiving end of rather unusual undertakings that always work out splendidly when someone else makes them (Eva made her jewelry out of caps from her nursing floor) and disastrously when I try.  No matter how odd or ill-fitting, she always takes the gift in stride and accepts it as only a mother can -- with grace and an enthusiastic smile.  This year I decided to give her something I know she's been angling for and that I finally feel confident in making.

Froot Loop by Kristi Geraci in Malabrigo Sock

When I decided to make socks for Mom I had plenty of time.  So I threw the idea to that part of my brain where things live until they resurface with a plan.  Usually that happens spontaneously on a run (like the current plan to somehow have my wedding programs modeled on knitting patterns, though I've thrown that one back until it comes back with an actual image) or while I'm dealing with a crowd of people at work.  But that did not happen this time.  Instead my brain left it there until I was only a month out from her birthday.  Fortunately I had found a skein of Malabrigo Sock in the colorway Archangel that reminded me of the dark chocolate mini Cadberry eggs and just screamed Mom (I'm not the only one who thinks so).  Unfortunately it took several rejected patterns to find the right look.

After I finally cast these on they went very fast.  The pattern becomes pretty intuitive and though it seems tight on the needles, the ribbing really opens up when blocked.  I made my standard modifications, doing a short-row heel with no gusset and a short-row toe, because I have found these to fit my feet better.  Mom and I have worn the same size shoes for years and so I felt pretty confident giving her a pair of socks that fit me.

Overall?  Thumbs up on both the pattern and yarn.  I'm a little worried that these will wear out fast, but I have a lot leftover.  The risk of damage is far outweighed by both the softness and the grin on my mom's face when I threw them across the living room after weaving in the ends.

We Three Socks

One of the downfalls of blogging about my works in progress is that I have to own up to some of my bad habits.  I could have sworn that when it came to my knitting I didn't really have any bad habits.  Particularly any as common as second sock syndrome.  Me, an average knitter with normal proclivities?  Never.

But it's time to pull my deep dark secret out of the project bags.  I can't seem to finish a pair of socks.  Well, I can, but it's not all that often.  I average about every second or third pair unfinished.  I didn't think the problem was so bad.  There was a Cookie A sock -- Kristi -- which got me through our struggles over the summer, but the heavy chart reading made it very difficult to convince myself to start the next sock.

Then there are my Weasley Is Our King, using the Weasley Rib pattern and a lovely skein of Miss Babs that my brother gave me for my birthday.  But I got bored and decided that I needed to try something different.

Most recently there are my V Junkie socks (seriously, is everyone knitting this?  I know it's awesome but the hipster in me almost did not let me knit them).  I love them and am so proud of how I modified the toe construction to keep the pattern but make them fit my foot.  However, I have other things to knit with my sock needles and so these too are back on the shelf.

So here it is.  I have another small gauge project I have to do, but then I have decided that I will finish at least two pairs of these socks before I start another.  I must.  I'm out of project bags.  And needles.

Of course I could just buy new bags and needles and continue the insanity.  That's a viable solution.

FO: Attraction on the Moors

Did you know that mismatched socks is a thing now?  I had no idea when I put this yarn on my wishlist that it was the latest trend.  My sister is working her pediatrics rotation this semester and just laughed at me when she saw me working on these socks.  Evidently all the kids on campus as well as the little ones she sees at the health department are sporting mismatched socks this season.  Even our little boutique gift shop at the museum has succumbed to the madness, selling socks in packs of three coordinating but unmatched individual socks.  But I always argue that the knitters are ahead of the trends (cowls and shawls are huge this season, and who among us hasn't seen a million patterns in our books and magazines in the past several years).

I love the concept of these socks.  The yarn and pattern (OppAtt Socks) are both from Barking Dog Yarn, who dyes the skeins in two coordinating colorways and sells them in sets, enough yarn for one sock of each color.  The set I picked is Catherine and Heathcliff, one of my favorite tragic couples.  I've been very outspoken in the past about how much I do not enjoy Jane Austen.  I've given her books a try, read parts of several, and of course have seen the movies (the one exception is Sense and Sensibility.  Colonel Brandon covers a multitude of sins).  But my heart remains with the gothics, particularly the Bronte sisters, whose books I devoured in my more melancholy high school days.

These socks were just as tempermental as the pair from whom they take their name.  The first sock was a real exercise in how to efficiently rip back.  The first time through I started the heel on the wrong side of the sock and it was only obvious once I started the foot patterning. rip  Then I got halfway through the heel only to realize I had twisted some stitches in an obviously wrong direction.  riiip And then after I had reknit I realized that the sock felt so long because it really was and I had started on the foot patterning while actually knitting the leg! RRRIIIPP!


But after all of that, I think the result was worth it.  I subbed in a short row toe and heel a la Nutkin because I really enjoy how the short row heel fits my foot and take a lot of satisfaction from the short row toe. I've already worn these socks several times to work.  Hand knit socks seem to have become a standard part of my wardrobe and I finally have enough pairs to get me through a standard work week provided I do my hand washing once a week (yes, I still hand wash my socks).  The fabric in these is a little on the warm side, but my feet are naturally cold so I'm sure this will be a boon once we get actual cold weather around here.

In the end, I think these socks have really found each other.  They gave me fits and went into time out several times, but the final product exhibits just the amount of quirk I demand from my wardrobe.

FO: Riff*Con Socks

A major part of my Dragon*Con experience this year was working on these socks.

Pattern: Riff by Lise Brackbill from Knitty, Deep Fall, 2010

I worked on these in line, in panels, in the car, and while charging my phone in the most unlikely places, such as under an escalator or in a commandeered storage closet.  Obviously a girl in a short skirt and high heeled boots, cosplaying as Indiana Jones, hunkered under an escalator, and who happens to be knitting a bright pink sock, draws a bit of curiosity (though not nearly as much as all those men in kilts and fairy wings).

It was all friendly interest.  Most people were just curious as to what I was working on and left it at that.  A lot of the curiosity was directed to my choice to magic loop.  Several were new knitters who had yet to progress to socks because they were confused as to how to join in the round.  It was fun to show them what I was doing and introduce them to the joys of Ravelry while waiting to see the ever amazing Wil Wheaton.

Now if you look closely you might notice a problem that typically arises from having too much fun while knitting.  One sock is noticeably larger than the other.  Remember all those careful notes I took?  Yeah, forget those.  I somehow managed to have to reknit the one sock about three times and still made it one diamond shorter on the foot.  This should in no way reflect on the pattern.  It is very well written with fascinating construction.

And yet, somehow the shorter sock fits better than the one I meticulously measured and calculated.  So much for note-taking.

I Think I Must Buy Clogs Now

Last night I did something I've never done before.  Something that I've seen in photos but have been too intimidated to try.  Something I was sure would be insanely difficult and at which I was destined to fail miserably.  I knit a patterned heel.

Heel number one of Riff socks in ONline Supersocke Silk.

Understand that this heel was not achieved painlessly.  I was almost late for work because I picked them up to fix a mistake I made at dinner the night before and ended up in a screaming match with the stitches because they would not accommodate the stitch count properly.  Evidently it really is possible to fit a thirty stitch chart on twenty-eight stitches.  We came to terms with our differences, however, and enjoyed an evening of blissful twisty-ness and VMA mockage (All I wanted was to watch Adele and see the Hunger Games teaser.  The rest was miserable).

Luckily I had a stroke of genius in anticipation of my disagreement with the sock and printed out part of the pattern on which to take notes.  Normally I try to keep them on my phone or kindle, but I decided that if I was going to be able to make this sock a mate I needed something more permanent.

I also did not want to risk losing my pattern while at D*Con later this week.  Priorities, man.  Those lines will be miserable without my sock.

WIP Wednesday: So Fast It's Love

I have not worked on the second sleeve for the Salem Hooded Jacket at all this week.  It's a combination of second sleeve syndrom and that crazy mad dash trip involving 20+ hours in the car this weekend.  So instead I knit an entire sock in four days (Very fast for me. I'm not really a sock knitter).

I made my mom take a picture of me and the sock in the snow on the way home.   I'm weird like that.

This is the Lace and Cable Socks pattern by Wendy Johnson.  I don't know if it's the cable pattern or just the stress of the past few days, but it went really fast.  I'm pretty sure some of the credit is due to my new Addi Turbo Lace needles.  I'm a huge fan of double point needles.  I absolutely love them.  I actually knit my Runaways Sweater on dpns because I did not have any others in that size.  But lately I have been feeling the harsh realities of the problems of using dpns for travel knitting -- several of my dpns have run away.  So when the yarn shop sent their weekly email letting us know that they had restocked their Addis, I decided to give them a try.  And I have to admit, I am a convert to the magic loop.  At least for socks.

My one concern is that since I'm using leftover yarn I might not have quite enough yarn for the second sock.

While you are reading this post you might as well go check out all the other WIP Wednesday posts over on Tami's blog.  You'll be glad you did.

The Problem with Potato Chips

I am supposed to be getting ready to leave at a moments notice to go to a funeral.  It's a mad dash sprint from here to the heart of Pennsylvania and back again in the course of a weekend.  I'm almost ready to go, I just have to get dressed and throw a few more things in my suitcase.  But instead . . .

I'm working on these socks that I cast on for the drive.  At this rate I may be finished with them before we get out of North Carolina.  Boy would that land me in a pickle.  I'm just hopelessly addicted.  Not just to the lace panel, but to the tiny cables running up the sides of the foot.  It's been so long since I knit cables that I forgot how much fun they are.  They really are potato chip knitting.*

*For hints on this reference check out the Knit More Girls Podcast

"I could have been at a barbecue!"

Happy day after the 4th of July! I hope everyone had a very safe and entertaining holiday. I didn't make it to see any fireworks this year. I did not want to deal with downtown Pittsburgh traffic and trying to catch buses in the dark in a big crowd. I was hoping to be able to see some from the apartment but I took a pretty nasty fall on my run and so spent the night with my ankle iced and elevated.

I did get some significant knitting done, however. I blocked the Traveling Taryn Shawl that I finished last weekend, so it is all set and ready to go in the mail tomorrow. I also finished . . . drum roll please . . . the Wendy Socks!

These are my first fully patterned socks from Wendy Johnson's first book, Socks from the Toe-Up, and are knit in Wendy Happy, a sock yarn that incorporates bamboo. The colorways from this line are named after constellations and this particular blue is called Pises. And so the entire time I was knitting them all I could think about was Wendy from Peter Pan, thus the name Wendy Socks (actual pattern is called On-Hold Socks).

My only complaint with the pattern is that she tells you to knit as many "repeats" of the chart as are needed to get three inches before the heel but then you continue knitting the top of the foot as you knit the gusset before the heel increase. Maybe a more experienced knitter would have known that they would continue knitting in pattern as they moved up the sock, but I didn't, so the socks are a tiny bit too big. But other than this I highly recommend the pattern. I knit it with my customary two inch leg. I know most people knit their socks longer, but I can't have a sock go that far up my leg and not roll it down anyway. Maybe that just comes from my years wearing uniforms in school. Like my aversion to any and all polo shirts.

I have a feeling I'll be getting a lot of wear out of these over the next few weeks as I'm confined to sneakers for better ankle support. Guess this means I should start on another pair.

The Case of the Ribby Stockinette

For the past two weeks my class has been eating lunch as a group, which means that they get to see my knitting as this is the only regular time I have to work on anything. This also means that they have discovered how often I jump projects. I'm not all that bad. I only have three projects going at the moment that can be thrown into my backpack on the way out the door (the poor Runaways Sweater is still sitting on the shelf begging to be finished). I was working regularly on the Wendy Socks, but I actually bound off one and haven't had time to do the very intricate cast on to start the toe of sock number two. Today I had Taryn's Traveling Woman Shawl with me and one of the girls asked if I ever actually finish any of the stuff I knit. I explained the term "knitting monogamy" much to the amusement of the table. Now if I could just explain it in Russian.

One of my three projects is a beautiful pair of socks that I am test knitting (YES! TEST KNITTER! ME!) for the lovely Liz Abinante of Traveling Woman Shawl fame. It is perfect for the yarn my mom picked out because she does not want, as she puts it, any "holes" in her socks (read pretty lace detailing that I crave like chocolate). I can't go into great detail, but this pattern is written as a tutorial for a stitch technique that I've never used before. I have nothing but good things to say about it, and I think everyone should immediately go on Ravelry and add it to their queue (it's the Socks for Euni pattern).

So Wednesday I'm knitting along, after turning the heel, completing all of the gusset decreases, coming down the home stretch, and then I see it.

Do you see it?

See that pretty patterned foot? Would you believe me if I told you that it is missing THREE STITCHES?! I know, I couldn't believe it either. I swore, I almost threw things (but I'm down to 4 needles in this set of dpns and can't risk losing another), and then sadly put it on the shelf to be dealt with later.

I lay in bed last night trying to turn off my brain and started thinking about this sock. It's so close to done it's killing me. But I decided that this was my perfect excuse to rip the whole thing out and start over to fix some small things that were bothering me. The biggest change I'm making is to go down a needle size from US2 to 1.5. I currently don't own 1.5, but I was not liking the fabric that the size 2 was making. For all the love I have for Wendy Happy, it does not do so well on a bigger gauge. The stockinette portion looks a little ribby because there is nothing in the yarn to "fluff out" between stitches. My Wendy Socks are knit in size 1 and I think the fabric is great.

The other change? I'm switching from dpns to circs. That's right. I'm going to teach myself the magic loop technique. Hopefully I can make this work. I'll be hitting Knit One tomorrow just in time for their giant summer sale (starts tomorrow and runs through the first week of July. It's going to be Legen . . . wait for it . . . DARY!) to pick up a set. And hopefully some new yummy, decadent, over the top yarn that I could never afford but am willing to starve in order to buy.

For the Love of Socks

One of my aunts is calling this year "The Year of the Sock." It's a pretty apt title, at least for the past month. One of my goals for last year was to knit a pair of socks, which I managed to do right at the last minute, racing against the clock in the car on the way home on December 31. (whew!)

For Christmas I bought myself two sock knitting books, Cookie A's Sock Innovation and Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up. I promptly lost all knitting mojo, particularly in relation to socks, and these gorgeous books were put on the bookshelf to gather dust.

Well we all know that didn't last. On Monday (in the car no less), I finished the Kai-Mei socks(Ravelry pattern link) from Cookie A. I had started them back in January but grew concerned that I didn't have enough yarn and put them aside. Fast forward to May and I started this new finishing kick. I had successfully finished one of my Evil Stepmother socks and so decided that though it was top down, these socks could too be ankle socks (it's honestly a nicer fit because I have thin ankles to go with my skinny wrists). I had decided in January that this pattern would be ok in variegated yarn because the only patterning was the open paired holes on the foot. So, bound and determined, I set these back up to be knit sparingly with other projects.

The further I got on these socks the more I couldn't decide how I felt about them. I love the yarn (also used for my Pixie Mitts, Knit Picks Imagination in the Pixie colorway), and found the pattern absolutely inspiring, but I could not decide how I felt about the two together. Though I still feel ambivalent to the socks themselves, what saved them was the fun I had knitting them around other people.

For the past two weeks I have been staying with my parents as a mini vacation (mini because I was supposed to be doing school work and will probably not see another "vacation" until after I graduate) before I head off to language school. My mom teaches PE at a small local private elementary and middle school, so I spent a lot of time visiting her and watching adorable little people run around playing crazy games (you have to remember, I don't ever see kids at home, just their college version selves). One of the highlights of last week was attending the talent show in which a fourth grader sang a Miley Cyrus song better than I had ever heard it sung (she was on pitch singing without music) and a third grader did an excellent Michael Jackson impersonation. Some of the other acts, well, lets just say it was the year of the Miley and I was grateful to have something to distract me.

Another night I went to the Kindergarten graduation (my mom has them for class, so we went in support). Aside from the enjoyment of hearing five and six year olds recite Japanese (their teacher lived there for thirty-eight years), I had an entertaining time with one of the students' younger brother who sat in front of me. Mom and I were there pretty early (gotta get a spot before everyones' grandma) and so out came the knitting. The little boy was fascinated. He asked all sorts of questions and was shocked at how smooth my needle was when I let him touch it. His parents were entertained as well and his grandfather actually stole my finished sock to show to his wife and the in-laws.

So despite the fact I wasn't too fond of the product, the compliments I received on the socks were enough to give me hope that the finished work would be worth something.

Boy was I ever right!

Unfortunately the socks are rather big on me and so bagged a bit when I hurriedly photographed them before yet another summer storm hit.

Fortunately for the socks, and for my self-esteem as a knitter, I found someone who I believe will love them the way they deserve.

I left this on my sister's pillow before Mom and I left for our two day road trip to my summer home.

When I asked Mom if she thought my sister would know how to care for a hand-knitted gift she reminded me that all I can do is provide instructions but after that it is out of my hands and I have to be ok with that. And she's right. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee writes in her book Yarn Harlot: the Secret Life of a Knitter

"When it is all over, when the socks are done, a knitter will have invested an average of twenty thousand stitches in the name of love and warm feet, knowing full well that the socks will wear out."

That's the scary thing about socks. They don't last forever. But I hope my sister, who begins work in her university's nursing program next semester resulting in a lot of time spent on her feet, will truly enjoy them while she can. I hope she takes care of them and loves them. And I hope that she does not save them only for special occasions. Because after all, everyone, particularly a nurse, deserves comfy feet.

Yarn to Knit For

Yes, we went to another yarn shop. I needed more needles, ok? Anyway, we had another shop we wanted to check out before I leave for language school. This time we headed up the mountains for to Hendersonville, North Carolina.

(not our car, though we wanted to steal the dog)

Yarns to Dye For is a family run yarn shop just outside of town. When we got there some other customers were leaving, so we had the place to ourselves with the husband and wife who run the store. They are a really friendly couple, checking in frequently without hovering. Mom enjoyed talking with both of them while I walked around and touched everything.

The store itself is bigger than it looks, with both yarn and other equipment for sale and a large, open loft-like area for classes. Not only do they teach knitting, but they also have classes on silk painting (something my aunt does that looks cool but I doubt I could pull off). Oh, and the man who works there makes all sorts of food stuffs that we could not help but indulge in, chief among them a date shortbread thingamabob and some yummy smelling herbs.

So of course I picked up some needles. But I couldn't stop myself from acquiring some other "much [un]needed" as well. I've been reading a lot about wool-washes that knitters use because it does not have to be rinsed out of the yarn after it has soaked. But I didn't want to spend $20 on the internet just to try something different. Well, turns out I didn't have to. The shop carried a small $4 bottle of a eucalyptus formula that is supposed to also help deter moths. I blocked some socks in it tonight and so far so good. It even helped to mask the wet dog smell of soaked yarn.

And because I'm on a sock kick lately, I also picked up two skeins of Wendy Happy. I'm not sure, but I think this might be a yarn that is not regularly carried by US vendors (consequently, they are the only shop I've seen carry another yarn that I bought during a Webs sale that I believe is also a European or UK brand). This yarn is for the eccentric in me. It's self-striping but not too much and all the colorways are named for constellations! I picked out the blue (Pises) for myself and Mom picked out the red (Virgo) for herself (as in socks for me to knit for her). Evidentially she read about the advantages of bamboo as sock yarn so we're giving it a try.

Lastly, I picked up some stitch markers. One for me and one for my sister. She's just starting to knit beyond the one pattern she learned on and last night was asking me questions about what she needed to make Calorimetry. It calls for stitch markers, so I thought a nice beaded hand-made one would be a great luxurious start for her notions collection.

Because of this, today knitting needles are not only for knitting, but for displaying beautiful beaded works of art.

The Purple Blond

The knitting fever has taken hold. Full force and a little scary. I recently drove from my current residence on the coast of North Carolina to my parents' place in the mountains. It's a six hour drive, which means six hours of absolutely no knitting. That's a killer, 'cause I get really fidgity when I don't knit. So to stave off the urge to either red-light knit (yes, I have done that before during a seriously bad traffic jam) or rip my fingernails off, I listen to knitting podcasts. This trip did not include Stash and Burn or Doubleknit, but did have the new Never Not Knitting as well as several new podcasts I have recently discovered, including Electric Sheep, KIPing it Real, and The Savvy Girls Podcast. It seems kind of boring to think about just listening to people talk about knitting for several hours, but I love it. And when I got home the first thing I did was pull out my Evil Stepmother Toe-Up Socks and knit away.

These socks are the product of many hours of boredom and confusion. Not confusion because I didn't know what I was doing, but confusion because I can't understand why in the world I thought I needed to do plain stockinette. I mean, yes it is a variegated yarn. And yes, I was learning a new technique, but still. We all know how bored I get when it comes to knitting a continuous repeating pattern.

But I love (check it. LOVE) these socks. They're soft and so cute. And toe-up with short row heels? Wendy Johnson's book was the best knitting purchase I've ever made. The stockinette part is boring but the short rows are addictive. I was also able to read while I knit them, so that was pretty cool. This evidentially was exactly what I need in my wardrobe. The dumb blond of the knitting world. Seductive, addictive, and absolutely dull socks.

I think I need another pair.