Do you knitters out there ever feel like you’re entering a knitting time warp? I’m talking about a space of time where suddenly you have accomplished a huge chunk of your project and you’re just not sure how it happened! Last night I sat down to work on the koigu sock. At the time I was still working my way down the leg. See this picture? I put the needle at yesterday’s starting point. By the time I put the sock down for the night I had finished the leg, knit the heel flap, turned the heel, picked up the gusset stitches, finished the gusset decreases and knit a few rounds of the foot. I’m not the world’s fastest knitter (nor am I a particularly slow knitter) but I think my accomplishment last night was pretty cool. Especially since it took a month to finish the first sock. I’m already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this one and I only started it last Wed.
So now the possibilities of new socks are running around in my head. There’s the purple self-striping yarn I bought ages ago to go with my purple fleece top, there’s the unidentified handpainted sock yarn I bought at Knit Wits last month, there’s several different colors of Sock It To Me that I bought from elann and there’s some Lang Jawoll Sock Yarn in a blue stipe and that has reinforcement thread which I’ve never used before. Then there are the patterns I’ve been wanting to try, like the mismatched striped socks from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush and the Best Foot Forward pattern from Knit Socks! by Betsy McCarthy. Oh my, such possibilities, I don’t know how I’ll choose!
I will definitely be inspired to knit on!

Last night I started the socks with the Koigu. I was hoping to knit on size 1 dpns but decided that the 2s would give me a better gauge. I had one false start because I cast on 60 stitches but then realized I couldn’t K1P1 around without having to P the first stitch on the needle and I don’t like having to do that on double points. So I started again with 56 stitches and they are progressing. I’m almost done with the ribbing, anyway.

While knitting we watched The Grudge. Pretty lame, let me tell ya! Dale was frustrated because they didn’t wrap everything up into a nice package at the end by explaining all the freaky occurences. I told him it would have been a waste of time since the whole thing was silly anyway. They used lots of cheap scare tactics to make you jump but it just didn’t work for me. Sigh. I’ll have to wait for a good scare – maybe when we watch The Ring 2!

Yippee! I finished Dale’s blue socks this morning! I had them almost completed last night but just ran out of speed and set them aside. Today I couldn’t fall back to sleep after Dale left for work so I grabbed the socks and finished the toe decreases, kitchenered the seams and voila, a completed pair of socks.

As I was trying to drift back to sleep I was counting the socks I have made in my head. I haven’t made very many since I can still track them without writing them down, but I believe this finished pair makes 10.

Now I can start on the Koigu PPPM socks for me. First, of course, I have to wind the hank into a ball, but then I’m ready to go.

In other knitting news, the clapotis (remember, rhymes with cup-o-tea) is coming along nicely. I have finished the increase section and I’m not ready to start dropping stitches. The idea of deliberately dropping stitches is a little daunting but I’m confident that if I follow the directions, I’ll be just fine.

So Wednesday night I skipped quilting because I was beat from this cold I’ve got. Stayed home and watched the movie Ray (it’s almost Oscar time, yay hooray) and worked on Dale’s sock.

I’ve actually made a bit more progress since I took that photo, I’m now doing the toe decreases and should have it finished today.
Hopefully I’ll be stopping at The Wool Patch in Middleboro on my way home from work today to pick up another skein of green and black to finish the Alien Illusion Scarf.

Tomorrow is a big day. Dale is attending a drill with our Civil War group and my friends and I are going to Sturbridge to visit Wrights Trim Shop and also Knit Witts. Woo hoo! Fabric and yarn shopping all in one day! I’ve got my list ready and hope to find yarn for the moebius scarf and the clapotis from knitty.com
I’ll post again when I’m shopped out!