Swimming in Yarn

Ah...nothing like new yarn to make you want to jump ship on any currents projects.

As mentioned before, I had two boxes from KnitPicks waiting for me when I got back from LA:


The Luxury Knitting book, by Linda Morse, is one I got out of the library about a month ago and just loved. Even though I can't really afford to knit a throw out of cashmere, I think the author did a good job explaining about where these luxury fibers come from and what makes them so special (and worth the money).

And Favorite Socks...well, I'm one of those people who wonders about the knitting socks thing. Sure, the socks you knit by hand are fancier and fit you perfectly, but I still never understood the appeal of knitting them when you can knit things like sweaters that might take a bit longer but are more impressive, in my book.

I even tried the whole sock thing just to see. A few months ago, while in Pittsburgh for grad school, I wandered down to the LYS and picked up two skeins of Brown Sheep Wildfoote and a set of dpns. I had never knit with dpns before, and never made anything on needles smaller than size 8.

And of course, being the overachiever I strive to be, I chose a lacy pattern that I probably wouldn't recommend to someone who has a) never used dpns, b) never used such small needles, and c) never made a sock before. But, feeling confident, I went home and cast on for some Monkey socks.

Let me tell you, those socks took a lot out of me! I don't know what people are talking about when they say that they knit socks for something "quick and easy" between harder projects. These socks took me forever to finish, and once I was done I realized that I had made one toe half an inch longer than the other. No matter, I gave them to my sister and told her she shouldn't expect handmade socks to be perfect. But I ordered more sock yarn anyway (heck, it was on sale) and figured I might be happier if I tried some simpler socks first since I'm always reading all over the place about people knitting up socks in no time and joining those clubs and basically having more fun than you can shake a stick at. We'll see...

The blue and gray yarn is for the new blanket I'm knitting for my sister's baby. Since she still hasn't popped the thing out yet, I still have some time. I already started it, and it's a pretty easy knit so I should be done in no time.