Friday, April 27, 2007

Knitting Frogs say...

What does a knitting frog say?

Rip-it... Rip-it

I was working on the light-blue socks.
And I was making really good progress on the first sock, too, if I do say so myself. And then, while sitting and waiting in my car for Kelly to be done with school yesterday, I took a good hard look at it. Oh, I should've done THIS, and I should've done THAT, and if I'd been thinking, I would've done thus and so...

Yeah, only a true knitting knit-picker would be saying that stuff.


Oh, sure, it looks great, but the more I looked at it, while sitting in my car in the pick-up line, the more the errors just jumped out at me. And before I could change my mind, I turned into the knitting frog.


Rip it.

Rip it.
Rip it.

I took it all the way down to the ribbing:


Those loose stitches actually look kind of pretty, don't they?

So I took it all down, and then I started again. And I made all the modifications that I had wanted to from the get-go.

And now I'm happier about it.


(can you believe that's the same yarn? That's the difference lighting makes. Hoo boy)

Last night, while waiting for Skip to be done with youth group, I managed to finish the leg, and go about half way through the heel flap.

But I'm fickle. I'm a fickle, fickle girl.

My eye's on the Trekking XXL yarn, now. Maybe I want to have another pair of socks on the needles at the same time...

Ken's off on a fishing trip this weekend. Nate and Kelly have gymnastics, Kelly's got soccer. I promised to take Skip to a brass quintet jazz concert on Saturday. And Skip's got a track meet... there's just oodles of opportunities to put mileage on a new pair of socks. If all the carpooling driving doesn't kill me first.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Decisions, decisions

I'm getting ready to knit my first pair of "Gift Socks". My friend has told me that she's partial to 'periwinkle blue', so on the weekend I went out looking for periwinkle blue sock yarn.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right?

Wrong.


Good Golly, Miss Molly, they've got every shade of clown-stripe sock yarn, and a zillion types of darkish heathery shades, and earth tones galore, but Periwinkle? That's like the holy grail of sock yarn, apparently. After perusing FOUR knitting shops, I came away with the following candidates:


Option #1. Regia Cotton in a shade I'd call more baby-blue than periwinkle. Shade #152, for those of you who like all the information. It'd be great 3-season socks, as the wool content is pretty low.



Option #2. Mountain Colors Bearfoot. This stuff feels pretty much like petting a teddy bear hamster. Lovely and soft, but it's still got the 15% nylon for durability. The 60% superwash wool and 25% mohair aren't hurting anything, either.




Option #3. Socketta, in a lovely non-periwinkle shade that's pale blue, a smidge of pale green and a bit of tan and white. High cotton content again, which I'm loving on. If I don't give these to my friend in this gift-sock incident, I might have to gift myself with them.



Option #4. Trekking XXL. 75% wool, 25% nylon. This, too, has a lovely feel, but not even the pretense of being 'periwinkle'. But I'm really liking the colourway. I think it's a little darker in person than this photo makes it out to be.


Now I just have to decide....

I'd like to cast these puppies on tonight while watching another Danger Man episode.