What Rhymes With Purple? Who Cares - They're DONE!

It's been at least six days since my last post, but I have a good excuse.  My parents, brother, and mother-in-law came to visit for Easter, so as of last Thursday our house was overrun with family.  They left this morning, causing me to wish yet again that we lived closer to our families.  Chris went to work, the kids were off to school, my family headed to PA, and Chris's mom drove back to NY, leaving me alone in the house.  A full house to an empty one - BAM!  Just like that.  Typically when this happens, I would sit on the floor with Rogue, petting and talking to him so I didn't feel too lonely.  But he wasn't here of course.   Just the empty house.  It was a rough morning. 

If that wasn't bad enough, I had to go for a blood draw for my annual physical and anyone who knows me knows that I'm not good with needles.  Especially with needles being stuck in my body.  I was a bit of a wreck this morning due to anxiety, lack of sleep from the weekend, everyone leaving, and the impending needle sticking.  My Mom convinced me before she left that I should ask a friend to go with me, so I texted my knitting buddy, Michele, who proved that she's not only a knitting buddy, but an all-around good friend in general.  She picked me up, took me to give blood, and brought me home.  I'm happy to report that there was no fainting, even after my arm sprung a leak and dripped blood all down my arm.  Good times.

What?  This is a knitting blog and so far all I've done is pour our my sad, pitiful story?  Oh, all right.  Back to the topic... 

Check it out!  I did manage to get a good amount of knitting done while everyone was here!  First off, I finished my purple Mona socks by the first morning we all woke up in the same house.  Woohoo!  I was so glad to finish them and move on to something else.  My Mom modeled them for me so I didn't have to try to take pictures of my own feet.  (Go ahead, try it - it's not as easy as you'd think.)

 Completed Mona socks!

Once they were finished, I was ready and willing to teach my Mom some new sock knitting techniques that she was excited to try.  First we practiced the long-tail cast on, which she picked up very quickly.  Growing up, she taught me the knitted cast on and until recently, I never knew there were so many other options!  Once she got the long-tail, I showed her how to use it to cast on a cuff-down sock using magic loop with the needles I got her for her birthday.  We cast on, ripped out, cast on, and then knit a few rounds.  From there, I showed her how to cast on again - but this time for two-at-a-time (2AAT) cuff-down socks.  (Ooooooh, two-at-a-time!  Nice.)

Next it was toe-up time!  Say hello to Judy's Magic Cast On!  Again, she picked it up quickly, and after practicing a few times, we cast on for 2AAT toe-up socks.  Using a Ravelry pattern called "Straight-Up Socks," we started knitting - she making socks for herself, me making ones for Francesca.  I wish I had taken a picture of her socks while she was here since they are so cute and she was doing so well!  Plus, while I've become a little bit of a yarn snob, she was using this really soft and pretty yarn that she got from Big Lots.  For $1 per 50g skein.  A dollar.  That's a $2 pair of socks.  Well, $2 plus 15-20 hours of labor.

I knit the toes and about half an inch of ribbing on the foot for Francesca's socks before discovering that I somehow had made them too wide.  So after knitting that far on Friday, I frogged them Saturday morning and started over.  I worked on them quite a bit on Saturday, a little bit on Easter Sunday, and a couple of hours today.  They're coming so cute!

 Straight-Up Socks for Francesca

I'm actually past the heel now and am working on the leg.  The plan is to keep knitting until I run out of yarn.  Since the legs are ribbed the whole way around from the heel up, I don't have to worry about leaving enough yarn to do a band of ribbing at the top.  They're all ribbing!  So all I need to leave is enough to bind off.  I'm hoping to finish them in the next two days so I can enter them in the KAL for this pattern.

After lunch today, I reached a point on Francesca's socks where I couldn't continue until I tried them on her feet.  (The Straight-Up Socks pattern is knit to fit - there's no specified number of rows, stitches, etc.)  I was forced to take a break, so I did what any knitter would do.

I cast on another pair of socks.

When my Mom was here, I had her help me wind a skein of Grant Creek Yarn in the Leaves colorway.  I've been wanting to knit a pair of Cookie A's Monkey socks, so I figured there's no time like the present!

Monkey cast-on

I've got about a half-inch of ribbing done, so not much yet, but stay tuned.  I'm sure more will be coming soon!