I'm Twisted

Holy crap, where did the summer go?  Talk about getting back to reality - in the past two weeks, my kids have returned to school and my husband went back to work.  After 9 weeks of all four of us being home together, it's been a bit of an adjustment starting with getting up about 2 hours earlier than Chris & I were used to.  (The kids get up around 7:00 regardless.)  Silly me thought that I'd have so many wonderful, alone hours in which to knit my heart out.  Everyone gone and it would be just me and my yarn.

Ha.  As if.

How could being alone in the house cause there to be more work and fewer hours in the day?  There must be some breach in the time continuum that somehow only affects stay-at-home moms.  (Continuum?  Is that a real word?  Spell check thinks it is.)  Of course, having gymnastics immediately after school four days a week for three hours at a time requiring major pre-planning with pre-pared dinners and pre-packed leotards & water bottles also puts a damper on fun time.

However, I am happy to report that I did finish the August socks for the Knit Sock Love KAL - Twisted Flower.  My goal was to have them done by the end of August, but I actually finished on September 3rd.  So sue me.

This pattern is a one size pattern.  How I love the one-size-fits-most sizing.  It's kind of a big "screw you" to anyone who is smaller or larger than the majority.  There should be a note with them that reads, "Sorry, this pattern is for the average person.  Those of you on the outskirts of the bell curve can bite me."  Like with hats.  I have a tiny head.  Like a little orange on a long toothpick of a neck.  Hats invariably come down over my ears.  And eyes.  Grrr....  This could be the reason I'm not a hat person.  Either that or because they look ridiculous on me.  It's one or the other.

But I digress.

The pattern for Twisted Flower was one size, but heck, I'm game for almost anything, so I crossed my fingers and cast on.  At first it was seeming pretty big on my calf/ankle, but I kept reading people's posts on Ravelry saying they were worried it was going to be too small.  Hmmm... I guess along with a giraffe neck, I also have chicken legs.  But I persevered and kept knitting and luckily they tightened up as I went.  The final product is a smidge looser than I'd like, but not loose enough for me to give them away as a gift.  Plus they were a lot of work and I know I'll appreciate them.

These socks were a lace/cable combo.  First some lacy, fan-looking stuff, then a bunch of teeny cables crossing happily, then more lace, then more cables, and so on.  I realized that I hate cables.  Teeny tiny little cables - just two stitches crossing a specific way, over and over across a row, maybe 5 times, maybe 10...  I'm gritting my teeth just thinking about it.  Not that it's hard, just tedious.  Tee.  Dee.  Us.

But here they are, in all of their lacy, cabley glory!  I give you....  Twisted Flower Socks.

Twisted Flower

Yarn:  Plymouth Yarn Co. Happy Feet

And since it was September when I finished, that left me free to cast on the next pair of socks in the KSL book - In and Out.  The photos of this sock in the book don't do much for me, to be honest.  They are a dark blue which is pretty but doesn't showcase the pattern very well.  I'm using RED yarn.  (All caps because this yarn is really, gorgeously RED.)  It's from Grant Creek Yarn and the colorway is "Frankly My Dear..."   I think the name is completely clever and the color is beautiful.  And since red is the color of the month for the Solid Socks group, I can double dip in their challenge.  

Here's my first In and Out in progress:

I'm working these one at a time instead of two at a time because there are different charts for the left and right feet and I didn't want to fiddle with following the correct chart and tracking which sock was which.  I felt it would leave me too open to messing up somewhere along the line.  However, I'm past the heel turn and gusset decreases on sock 1 (the left) and am working down the foot and can already feel SSS (second sock syndrome) creeping up.  I have the urge to cast on another pair of something different rather than think about the second RED sock.  

Must...  Resist....  Urge!!!

Luckily I do have another pair of socks OTN (on the needles) that I can alternate with if necessary.  They are a pair of Monkey socks in the Tree Fort colorway from Knit Picks.  I don't have a photo yet, but I promise to put on in an upcoming blog post.  Plus I'm just past the cuff so there isn't much to see yet.

Hold on...

Did I totally forget about my second pair of BFF socks?  In a "firey" colorway?  Short version: Since we were driving to western NY at the beginning of August, I needed a car project that I could do without reading a pattern so I cast on a second pair of BFF socks in an unknown colorway from Holiday Yarns that I got from their bargain bin.  It looks like fire to me, so I call the socks my Firey BFFs.  Finished August 25th - here they are...

How about that artsy-fartsy photo?  What can I say, I was feeling artsy at the time.  Or was it fartsy?  I can't remember.  Either way, the piano seemed like a cool idea.

I also bought more yarn.  A few times.  My sock yarn stash is growing faster than I can knit it down.  I may be approaching S.A.B.L.E by the end of the year.  (Stash accumulation beyond life expectancy.)  Unless I live to be 147, then I'm good.  If you're a Ravelry member, you can see all of my pretty yarn on my stash page.  I still have a couple of hanks to post, but most of it is there.

So there you have it - you and the rest of the world are now up to speed on my knitting exploits.  Next week I'm going to dye yarn for the first time with a friend I made on Ravelry who lives about a half hour away.  I'm taking some bare yarn and she's setting us up with dye and the know-how.  I'll try to take pics during the process, but if it's too hard or messy then I'll at least be able to share the results!

Toodle-loo!