To Darn or not

I used to say that I would darn a bunch of my old socks and never have. However, I grabbed a pair yesterday and realized I had a choice. Either I suck it up and get the matching yarn from my stash to darn the toe, or I'd lose this pair of socks. They aren't my favorite ones, but I've had them since 1999. One more day of wear vs. 5 minutes of pidley mattress stitching. I'm glad I tried it and saved the pair for one more wear. Realistically, this will be the last season of wear for these lovely October Blackberry Ridge wool/silk socks. The bottoms are nearly thread bare. The side of the toe seams to be my "Achilles heel" as I seem to ruin that part first. Reinforcing the toes doesn't seem so dumb after all.

In other socky news, I finished one pair of the purple Trekking XXL socks. I tried to hunt down the next repeat for the second sock and realized that I didn't have it. So , I'll have fraternal instead of identical socks. I'm new to this type of color shifting sock yarn and don't know if there will be a matching point. The first one is just terrific, so I'm motivated to finish the pair.

Slow week

Sadly there has been minimal knitting this week and no pictures today. We have been dealing with a teething baby, a preschooler who is waking up 2-7 x per night, sleep deprivation, colds, family visitors, etc. I have made it 70% thru the first Trekking XXL purple sock. Unfortunately, naps and decent amounts of car knitting have been hard to come by. I hope to make some more progress on something which will be interesting to photograph.

On the upside, we have had nice weather and the kindergartener has not brought home any nasty sicknesses yet.

Christine's baby booties

I picked up this pattern when I purchased my Trekking XXL at a yarn shop. Now, I've been knitting for nearly 10 years, and I couldn't wrap my brain around this simple pattern. It is sort of vague, but give me a break! It must be the sleep-deprived haze I've been living in since my baby decided to sleep in 45 minute stretches all night long. It is a miracle I can still find the computer, let alone type. Anyway. I seriously was going to bury this pattern in the backyard and then I just figured out my own way of doing the instep. I basically just did it like a heel on a standard sock. They redeemed themselves by being incredibly cute and the stripes matched up nicely.

Once the booties were conquered I cast on the Trekking XXL purple. I also got a shipment in from Knitpicks with a host of Wool for my boys and some sock yarn to make Jaywalkers. It's Essentials Multi "Meadow". It surprised me because it is very brown. The picture made it look dark green in the catalog. Oh well.

Fall?

I both love and dread fall. I love the cooler weather, beautiful colors, and autumn activities. However, I groan at the thought of frost, snow, and another season stuck indoors for most of the day. That being said, we have been loving our hot weather this past week. Trying on my new wool socks and having it be too warm to wear them has been a lovely surprise. This morning we went to a botanical garden and ate ice cream outside while sitting next to a lake. Now that is my idea of living.

I started the baby booties using my Trekking scrapes. So far, so good.

Here's a pick of the computer knitting. It is a dishcloth using linen. I must say, I prefer the Knitpicks cotton/linen blend much better. We'll see how the 100% washes up.

Ravely

I got in over the weekend. Very exciting! There are a lot of cool features and I'm trying to get myself settled in. Hopefully I'll be able to get my stash uploaded. I have an old data base but my previous computer died. Good reason to try something new.

I finished the Trekking socks and am going to make some baby booties with the scraps. Next pair needs to be a bit tighter. I loosened up on my gauge a bit with the first pair. Great yarn but I'm not sure if I'm sold on the 8.5-9st/1" it requires. We'll see. Picture of the socks and booties are on their way, but not today.

Pink

I finished two pink baby hats out of one ball of Louise Harding Kashmir DK for the upcoming baby (niece). I adjusted a pattern from Homespun Handknit (Ed. Linda Ligon) and made two sizes. We'll have to see how big the baby is at arrival. They turned out very well and went very quickly. Nice nap time knitting in the sunshine.

I also finished my special project for baby. I'm trying to figure it out in sizes so that I can offer it for sale in some form. It is better than I expected so I'm glad all my math figuring worked out in the end.

Socks in progress in their new home: a cute sock bag from the Etsy shop: Tipsy Knitter. The pattern was "Jane, his wife" in a Jetson's theme. I loved that show in high school. The bag is brown on the inside and is reversible. I've used it at the park already this week.

On the horizon: upcoming birthday yarn money spent on finding some Cascade 220 superwash to go with the three ball of Dream in Color. Still thinking of what it will become.
A picture of the lovely Trekking XXL sock yarn which will be started after the Chocolate Pink pair are done. I've rekindled my love for sock knitting and am looking forward tomore size 1 needle goodness.