Caught Up

Seriously?  It's May 19th and I'm wearing a sweater.  A frickin' sweater!  Where is spring?  Where is early summer?  Where is the darn SUN???  It's been an entire week of rain and is supposed to continue until Sunday.  Three more days.  Hopefully I don't hang myself in a fit of damp depression before then.  But at least it's good knitting weather, right?

On that note, I am happy to report that my second Rhombus sock is now caught up to my first sock, thus allowing me to work them at the same time and avoid the dreaded second sock syndrome.  Dun dun duuuun!  Feet and toes left.  Head, shoulders, feet and toes, feet and toes.

Both Rhombus socks past the heel!

11 days left to finish these socks by the end of the month.  Officially they don't have to be finished until the end of June to qualify for the KAL prizes, but I give myself a 1-month self-imposed deadlines because I want to start new socks June 1st.  

I still have to take a picture of my artichoke MOCKs since I finished clue 3, but give me a couple of days.  Photos turn out so much better when there is some sun.  I.  Need.  Sun.

Yesterday was Wednesday which means it was my knitting day with Michele and Leigh.  We went on our second field trip to a LYS (local yarn store).  It's called "The Yarn Shop" and is in Uxbridge, MA.  It's a nice size for a LYS (bigger than the Sheep Shack in Holden, but not as cute).  They have a nice section of sock yarn in different brands - Cascade Heritage, Berroco, Plymouth Yarn Co (so squishy!), a new one that I can't remember, and a couple of non-wool options like bamboo or silk blend.  Michele and Leigh both got 100g skeins of a yarn that has shrimp and crab shells in it.  They are supposedly antibacterial.  I'm interested to see how the yarn is to knit with.  Leigh was disappointed that there were no cotton options in sock yarn, and I had been hoping for some new, bright colors for spring, specifically a sunny yellow.  There were many beautiful colors, but the majority of them were dark.  No yellow for me.  (Have I mentioned that I could really use some sun?)

I did get a nice olive green in the Plymouth Yarn Co. Happy Feet yarn.  It's so nice to squeeze!  It's also a good guy color.

And because I needed something relatively bright and cheerful - and since I didn't have any colors like it in my ever-growing sock yarn  stash already, I also picked up my first hank of Cascade Heritage sock yarn.  It's a pretty blue, just on this side of turquoise.  Not a good guy color for socks.  :)

I've also started thinking about next month's sock-knitting KALs.  In the Knit Sock Love group, the next pattern we are knitting from the book is called "Stricken."  If you remember my blog posts about Thelonious, you should note that Stricken is from the same section of the book and is the pattern after Thelonious.  The author, Cookie A, states in the book's intro that each of the three sections of the book start with the easiest pattern and they get successively harder.  Ha!  So June may be an interesting month for sock knitting. 

Stock pattern for Stricken

I'm thinking red or a light/medium blue, but I haven't decided yet.  Maybe my Grant Creek Yarn Ethereal Blue?

The color for the Solid Socks group for June is orange.  I do have a great hank of Grant Creek Yarn in Apricot.  If I use it, I can double-dip in both KALs.

I'm not sure it's right for Stricken, though.  What do you think?  Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.  You can also check out other people's Stricken projects to see what color(s) you think looks best.  Or check out my stash to choose from what I have available.  I need help choosing!

June will be here before we know it.  Hopefully the sun will be, too.