A Pair of Socks...

...for every day of the week!

Yessir, Sunday Swing is my offical seventh pair for ME to wear all winter long!

I think they came out alright, although they're a tad too large on me, so the pattern doesn't show as well as it could, and tends to bunch on the leg. Should have made the size small instead of the medium.

Later last night I had to babysit my cousins, and by the time the evening was over I had another quick project finished as well.

A helmet liner! One of the women at my church saw me knitting my socks, and handed me the free pattern along with some Paton Classic Wool in Deep Olive, supplied by Micheals. They get sent to troops serving overseas, which is why they need to be knit in 100% wool (acrylic is flammable) and in an appropriate color to match their uniforms. (Deep Olive was specified by the instructions). I think it came out alright, and I may look into whipping up a few more. I don't like war, but that's no reason not to support the troops.

Now off to an early Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side...

You Know You're a Knitter When...

Your class starts reading To Kill A Mockingbord, and you see two books that have a ball of yarn hidden in a tree on the cover. You decide that you want one of THOSE copies.

You get the one with a picture of a ten-year-old.

You feel really, really dissappointed.

Study Hall

...has become knit time! My supervisor is one of the home ec teachers, and she also happens to be an avid knitter! Not in study hall, but still. We make good conversation.

She had brought a huge bin of novelty yarns into class the other day, and after wrapping up my notes on the French Revolution I skipped over to see what she was up to. (I was a little sore from craning my neck to sneak glances for an entire hour, not gonna lie). Turns out, she went to a fiber fest in Georgia, and one of the classes was all about taking scrap yarn and tying it all up into one huge skein to use as a scarf or whatever. Very cool! My little freshman buddy Alex had entered the room at that point, and decided that SHE wanted to learn to knit too! So guess who taught her?

Yes! The following Monday, our supervisor brought in needles and wool from her classroom, and I showed her the basics of garter stitch. Tuesday, she learned purl. And all the while, the tech teacher whose room we're assigned to chuckled at the visual of the three of us, all within six inches of her needles, holding our breath as we watched Alex agonize over each, painstaking stitch. I even brought my sock knitting, doing a pretty good job of ignoring all of the stares from everyone else in the room. I must say, it'll be nice to have one more friend who is as addicted as I am! She's HOOKED.

Literally. She's a crocheter, too.

Yarn Crawl '09!

Yes yes yes, a Yarn Crawl! Four of the main yarn stores in the area came together for a day of yarn sales, demos, door prizes, and (if you visited all four venues in the set time frame), huge gift basket drawings! My birthday is coming up next month, so instead of waiting for my present, my mom suggested that she give me a budget, and take me around from store to store.

Well, what would you have chosen? :) Ben Franklin doesn't have the most sophisticated, well-known-name selection, so I had such a blast digging through the mountains of wooly, sheepy hanks. At the first shop, I petted some Rowan Felted Tweed, and dug around in some Lamb's Pride before finally settling on some ultra light alpaca.

Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, 100% alpaca, 109 yards per 50 gram skein. Two skeins of each color, for a faire isle chullo! The Cross-Country Chullo from Knitty! I've had a total ear-flap-hat obsession lately, but I'll get into that another time...

At the next shop I grabbed some Malabrigo Chunky, kettle dyed, Intenso colorway? Or at least I'm assuming? Either way, it'll make something gorgeous and warm. Maybe a skullcap or mittens.

And then while waiting in line to pay, I snagged some sock yarn...

The Perwinkle Sheep, Watercolors Sock Yarn, 80% superwash merino and 20% nylon. There's 420 yards to a skein, all of it hand dyes Caramel. Either it was renamed or mismarked originally though, because right under that is a crossed-out butter cream. Either way, I think it's gorgeous, and just subtle enough for a cable maybe.

I shall continue this another time, or I fear I'll never finish another post...

It's Hailing Again!

But thankfully I'm inside. So. Moving on...
So last night I decided to skip karate in favor of the local knitting circle, which I had yet to attend. I had shoved my scarf in the nearest purse, quickly cast on my second mitten and completed the hem, and was foolishly considering trying to cast on something flashy that I have yet to attempt (like socks knit one inside the other) for shock value. However when i showed up, eagerly brandishing a pattern one of the women had been curious about and carrying a tote full of projects, I was told that there had been a cancellation. Awww. So, I skulked home and knit another large strip into my Harry Potter scarf, and later (after my right arm was numb from my position on the couch), I cast on another pair of socks!

I truly so apologize for how horrendous the picture is. My camera has been taking more pixle-y pictures every day, and any picture sized larger than the one at left is nearly unrecognizeable.

The pattern is Sunday Swing from Knitty, knit in Heart and Sole by Red Heart, colorway Faded Jeans. The design is a super predictable combination of yarnovers and knit two togethers, with at least one plain knit row between each patterned one. So it's beyond cinchy and mindless, with lots of visual "bang" for you knitting-technique-"buck", yet not so mindless as to bore you. Once I finish these, I'll officially have a pair of handknit socks for every day of the week :) Sweeeet!

NHM #14

One mitten is done!

I like the effect that the white on black has with the speckled stitches, and it fits near perfectly. The lace looks more stripey than chevron, but hopefully if I actually bother to block these (a rare occurrence) that will sort itself out. With any luck that will help the hemmed edge lay flatter too. I love hoe finished it looks though, so I won't complain much.
I also have picked up the ol' House Scarf again. (I finally read Beedle the Bard, and am now re-reading the entire series)! It's coming along...

ETA: Just checked the page on Ravelry for NHM #14, and apparently Terri Shea had the same color idea as me. Aww...I was feeling so rebellious too :(