A Good Knitting Day

Yesterday was a good knitting day for me.  After being in a knitting rut on several things, I was due for a day full of knitting happiness.

Rut 1:
My Peeta socks based on the character in The Hunger Games.  I knit the first sock to the toe, decided the heel flap was too long and the gussets were too wide, and tossed the sock into time-out for a couple of weeks.  I eventually ripped it back to the heel flap, shortened it, and decreased my size medium sock down to small for the foot.  I got through all of the gusset decreases and was working on the foot, until I realized that after putting the sock down overnight, when I picked it back up I kept decreasing on the sole and the sock was woefully narrow.  Back into time out it went until yesterday.

I pulled Peeta out of the shadows in the corner of my family room, tinked back all of the extra decreases, and actually made some forward progress.  I'm halfway down the foot and getting closer to the toes with each row!  Happy day!

Rut 2:
I've been working on a pair of Hiccup socks for Dominic for months.  They are my leave-in-the-car project where I knit a couple of rounds here and there at parent pick-up or when Chris and I go out to breakfast on Sunday.  The first sock has been done, but the second has been languishing on the leg for quite a while.  Now spring is coming and it won't be wool sock weather in another month or two.

I finished the leg of his second sock, knit the heel flap, turned the heel, picked up the gussets, and worked through the gusset decreases.  I have 37 rows left on the foot and then the toe, so they are also nearing the home stretch!  Happy day!

Rut 3:
This one wasn't a huge rut - more like a little divot.  The Janel Laidman sock club mystery pattern for March had clue 2 released on Friday.  I had knit half of it and then put it aside.  Yesterday, I finished clue 2!  Happy day!

Rut 4:
I gave up buying yarn for Lent.  Seems easy enough, right?  Yeah.  I wish.  So much yummy yarny goodness has been calling to me, and I know it's because I can't buy it!  It's like when you paint your nail and the polish is still wet and you get itchy everywhere just because your body knows you can't scratch it.  There are yarn sales and free shipping flying around everywhere recently!  But yesterday, a wonderful, all-knowing random number generator chose my project to win a skein of yarn in the Springtree Road Spring KAL.  I had entered my Stalagmite socks knit with Springtree Road's Julep (merino/cashmere/nylon) sock yarn.  I loved the socks, loved the yarn, loved the pattern, and love them even more now that I won!  And what better thing to win but more yarn???  It's like the universe knew I needed some sock yarn stash addition to get me through until after Easter.  Happy day!

Here are the winning socks:

I just hope it doesn't mean that today I'm destined a day of knitting doom.  Maybe I should stay away from my needles for the next 24 hours....

Are You Hungry?

Over a year ago (maybe two?), I read the Hunger Games trilogy just as the third book was being released as really enjoyed them.  The first book was actually reminiscent of a Stephen King short story called "The Long Walk" in that teens are competing against each other to better their or their family's situations at the risk of death.

Since I first read the books, my son has also read them - also with great enjoyment.  We were both excited to hear that a movie was in the works, and it's release date is almost here - March 23.  I plan on dragging my husband to see it opening night.

So you might be thinking, "What does this have to do with knitting?"  I'm getting there.

A pattern author on Ravelry.com is designing socks based on Hunger Games characters.  Her first sock is called Peeta, after the boy-next-door baker's son who accompanies Katniss as the male tribute in the Games from their district.  The pattern has striping and a contrasting toe which gives the socks a bit of an athletic sock feel but in a more elegant and aesthetically pleasing way.  But the best part is the pattern on the legs which looks like stalks of wheat, especially knit in a golden yarn.

I was drooling over the Peeta socks.

Unfortunately they were being designed as I discovered them and only recently (in the past week) moved into the test knit phase, with the pattern release scheduled for the end of March. 

Fortunately, I commented on one of the test knitter's posts on Ravelry asking how she got lucky enough to be a test knitter and the pattern author contacted me to test knit it, too!  So basically I've said "screw the Cookie A. pattern for the beginning of the month" and cast on my Peeta.

I had ordered a skein of merino/nylon from Grant Creek Yarns in a new colorway called Winter Wheat which I had earmarked for Peeta before I even owned the yarn.  However, when I got it, it was quite a bit darker and more brown than the golden wheat color I had hoped it would be.  (Turns out the dyer opened new bottles of dye for the latest batch of Winter Wheat, hence the darker colors.)  Don't get me wrong, the yarn is beautiful, but wasn't right for Peeta.  Luckily I had some Knit Picks Stroll in Mustard in my stash which was earmarked for a Gryffindor project at some point down the road, but desperate times call for stash diving and it has become Peeta.  A little of the same yarn in the Fedora colorway for the stripes, and here are my Peeta's so far:

The same designer has started socks for the other main male character, Katniss' best friend, Gale.  I can't wait to see them!