The Answer is Socks... And Rain

Today was cool and rainy. A perfect day for knitting and a movie. I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Thing One and worked on her socks.

I'm having to adjust the pattern - apparently I counted wrong on my gauge swatch (you know, the one I didn't do - I just started knitting the socks and stopped after a while and counted stitches and rows). There's no way that sock isn't going to be too long if I do 30 rounds of increases like I'm supposed to... but even so, I'm having ton of fun.

I've decided to make socks for everyone! Thing Two and DH and me. DH says he doesn't care about the pattern - I had been thinking of doing something with cables for him - but since he doesn't care, I'll stick with the plain old socks like I'm making for the Things. DH's feet tend to get hot, but these will be winter socks, so they need to be a little warm. I chose the Naiad in Espresso Roast. I figure the 70% Superwash merino will make them warm, the 10% nylon will keep them tough, and the 20% Bamboo will help wick moisture away. I hope. I bet he loves it, but i do hope it looks a little more brown than the gray that's in the picture.


Thing Two has a serious passion for red and black. I had originally thought the Ruby, Ruby Dragon sock would be best for the color, but I wasn't sure the yarn, 100% Merino, would be as durable as in the Djinni Sock, which has nylon mixed in for durability, so that's what we landed on. Thing Two put some serious holes in the last pair of socks I knitted him.

For myself, I chose the Crack In The Wall in Djinni. I know it'll be just like Thing One's socks, and I like the way it feels. Also, I love the colors. And, there's the thing about it being Djinni sock yarn for Djinn. And I'm pretty darn sure the color name is a reference to Dr. Who, which I also completely dig. I'm thinking some kind of lace. Just a little bit. Probably, I'll pick a pattern from one of the books a friend recently gave me, or from my favorite lace stitchionary. I'm so completely psyched. ... but I have got to get back into my spinning, too, because I have got some awesome roving and new bobbins, and the beginning of an excellent support net.

Fiber-Slump, With Hope

Ever since moving up here (I'm in Maryland, near Baltimore), I've found it hard to get motivated.

First, my stash was un-findable in some box labeled "Office Stuff" - the box labeled "Yarn" had not a single thread in it. There's still a bunch of stash that is MIA, four months later. I'm pretty sure that there's a box that didn't make it from Georgia.

Then, I was incredibly fortunate to be gifted a spinning wheel - something I always wanted to get into. I got books, and I got into spinning. A little. But it's hard. It's not singing to me yet. And I'm getting frustrated.

Then, there was this God-awful heat wave. There's no central air in this house, though we have window units in the bedrooms, but there's no chair in my bedroom. It is awfully hard to get excited about putting your hands in yarn or roving when it's 87 degrees inside.

Apparently, I'm not the only one facing a yarn-slump. Looking for inspiration, looking for a song, I picked up a copy of Knit ' Style, only to find, in nice big letters on page 18, "A Knitting Slump," an article by Jack Lewis, who seems to be facing the same problem.

Attending the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was a temporary fix, like a addict, having one hell of a binge weekend.

While there, I picked up a skein of Djinni Sock Yarn from Dragonfly Fibers. I had to, you see, as I often go by Djinn on the interwebs. There aren't many of us that spell it that way. It's a gorgeous mix of greens (Thing One's favorite color) with tiny spots of rust here and there. I'm using the basic pattern from the book Two-At-A-Time Toe-Up Socks and really like it, so far. It's the least-painful sock method I've found yet, but it's still going slowly. I'll post gleeful pictures about the whole process of these socks later, in a much happier post. Hopefully seeing those socks on Thing One's feet will perk me right up. Also, my spidey-senses are tingling; I have a feeling I'll be knitting for a special occasion very soon.