After reading a post about a Clapotis Dishcloth on the Monthly Dishcloths KAL, I had to set aside Heath's Parade socks just long enough to cast one on. This yarn has been sitting around forever, waiting for just the right pattern.



I love projects that jump onto the needles out of nowhere and are done almost before you know it.

The socks are done too --



Do you see how perfectly those stripes match? I'm glad it happened on its own because there's no way I could have done that on purpose! The heels are some grey Kroy sock yarn that I think I bought to make a baby hat with. The color should work with all four colors of Parade I ordered, which is a relief since the big two suddenly seem to have awfully huge feet and I'm not going to buy a second skein of sock yarn just to make the legs of their socks a couple of inches longer.

It's always Knitpicks stuff....

"Is it Knitpicks stuff? It's always Knitpicks stuff...."

That's what my nine year old asked when I called her to the computer to look at something. It was Knitpicks stuff, because the Knitpicks site makes it so easy to find such neat stuff. I was flipping through their catalog a few days ago and found New Knits on the Block by Vickie Howell, then had to go see if the "view inside pages" link had a picture of the mermaid costume. Now I'm dying to get my hands on the book and see how it's done and what kind of yarn it calls for.

And, like I needed any more reasons to love Knitpicks, the same catalog shows the Lace Up Scarf/Wrap/Afghan that I fell in love with in Alterknits. I can make it for $46.06 -- as opposed to the $300+ that the recommended yarn would cost. That's if I used the Andean Silk. Now that I know it can be done with worsted weight (the pattern calls for multiple strands of stuff) I could use WOTA....or Super Saver! Is it just me, or does it seem a bit weird that the pictures in the Knitpicks catalog show the project much more clearly than the ones in the actual book?

My knitting has not being going well. Quinn got his hands on the Pretty Comfy Socks again, and...all four needles came out and...well...they're not a WIP anymore. I love the way Esprit knits up, but picking up stitches is beyond me.



I don't want to admit how many times I've cast on for the lace wristers. After a lot of counting and fussing, the first one is done except for the seam. I like the way it came out, but I'm not really looking forward to knitting its mate. I'm not sure if the best part of this little project was finally finding a good use for one of the first skeins of "yarn store yarn" I ever splurged on or figuring out how to do a knitted edging.

Frozen Lake started out well. My yarn and needles were playing nicely. I wasn't making stupid mistakes. Then I got to the part about adding full repeats and half repeats and my poor head started spinning. I don't understand what I'm supposed to do, but I want this shawl. Guess I'll have to put in a lifeline and see what I can figure out...

I used to worry about my sock yarn. I loved it, but I was scared that I'd never learn to knit on dpns, would never figure out how to turn a heel, would never figure out my gauge well enough to make a sock that fit my own foot, wouldn't be able to join my stitches into a circle without twisting them.... What if I could never figure it out? What if that yarn just sat there in my stash forever and got eaten by moths? I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more sock yarn until I could knit socks, but it was so pretty I bought more anyway. I tried to think of other things I could make with my sock yarn -- just in case socks really were too hard. And I bought more sock yarn.

I still haven't conquered the gauge problem and still worry about twisting my stitches, but I can knit toe up socks that fit. I even did one of the patterns from Socks Socks Socks the way it's written and it fits!

So I spent my Christmas money on 32 skeins of sock yarn from Knitpicks.



I don't feel the slightest twinge of fear or guilt, even though there's now enough sock yarn in my stash to make myself thirty pairs of socks. Not counting the single skeins of yarn I bought to make socks for the kids. Or the odds and ends from garage sales. I don't know when I'll have time to make all of those socks, and it doesn't matter. I've got plenty of yarn, two great new sock books, a huge stack of sock patterns I've printed off the internet. And a whole bunch of yarn that isn't sock yarn. It may not even matter if this stupid yarn diet/famine goes on for another year.

Oh, and Leif's hat fits!