Hey, Y'all!

I'm leading with a positive for a change! I finished the Nutkin socks last weekend and have 3......yes three pictures of them to show you. As previously stated, I wasn't happy with how the colorway actually turned out as I was expecting deeper, more vivid colors but was happy with the yarn (as usual) and really loved the pattern! I used Knit Picks Essential Sock yarn in the Tuscany colorway and because I only did 6 pattern repeats before starting the heel, and needed only 5 pattern repeats for the foot I ended up only using just over one skein.

I can not state enough how much I loved this pattern! I was suprised how easily I memorized the pattern and how easily these socks knit up. The patterning on the socks themselves looks more difficult than the pattern really is, which is the genious of the pattern writing. They are wonderful looking and wonderful fitting. They feel so good on the feet. I immediately put them on as they came off the needles and yes, I wore them for two days straight. (In my defense, I was sick and at home, so I wasn't walking around stinking them up. Two days in a row was ok. Really. Honest.)

And why did no one tell me the joys of short row heels?!!! And the construction of the toe is sheer genious! I've never been so pleased with knitting, and so happy with a pattern in my life. My very short knitting life. WOW! My next step is to look up other patterns from this wonderful knitting designer....Beth LaPensee.....there must be more gems from this one out there!

The husband woke up with a head cold a couple of weeks ago and generously shared it with me. I spent a couple of days on the couch (finishing socks, playing with sticks and string, generally laying low....OH! How Abbie loved that!..etc.) and then spent what turned out to be the worst of it back at work. That's usually how it is with me, I totally misjudge when I should stay home, but in the end it worked out. I did spend a bit of time that I was home sick logging my yarn stash on Ravelry. I rarely use Ravelry as it's intended and I really plan on doing so in the future. Now that I have the majority of my stash on there, I think I'll be able to match up yarn with projects. It will also allow me to be able to "see" the stash at a glance when I'm "shopping" for yarn. I was really happy to see that most of the stash is my own handspun, although some of the quality of that handspun is a bit embarrasing and for others my photography skills don't do them justice. lol I am getting better though, and that's not just me trying to make myself feel better. Honest!

I'm still working on spinning up the "Mostly Gray Jacob" using the long draw. I took about a week off from spinning as with the head/chest cold it either hurt to draw out, or I was just too tired and uninspired to try. Today I spun a bit and it's moving nicely. I'm already looking forward to starting on the "Mostly White Jacob" that's already carded. The bulk of the fleece was "Mostly Brown Jacob" if I remember correctly. I've earmarked all of this fleece to become an afghan and will determine what pattern I use after spinning it up. The plan is to long draw spin the whole thing though so I end up with a nice fluffy soft yarn.

After finishing Nutkin, I pulled out the yarn from the frogged Jaywalker socks and cast on. I don't know what I was thinking. These socks have been rattling around in my brain and I keep thinking I need to get them done. The fact that I started them probably a million times, finished them once, wore them a few times, hated the fit and frogged them in a fit of knitting superiority should speak wonders at my mental abilities. It really bugged me that they sat in the sock drawer, never getting worn, because they just didn't fit. For the last few weeks it was really bothering me that the yarn was sitting on spools in the closet because I still hadn't reknit them. (It's a sickness, I tell ya.) So, being truely sick, with nothing on the needles and a pattern memorized from knitting it a million times, I cast on again. This time I cast on a needle size smaller than last time and all is going well. Umm....well.....I'm still not sure they're going to fit. I've gotten a few inches of the leg done and I'm not sure they'll stay up, but I won't be able to tell if they're acceptable until after the heel is done. I think I'm learning a lesson about the type of yarn used in a knitted article and the size of said yarn. Meaning not all sock yarns are the same. Oh.

Yeah.

And.

Cotton sock yarn behaves differently from wool sock yarn. You can laugh, but it took a head cold for me to realize that.

So right now I'm fighting off the impulse to cast on the Pomotomus socks using Brown Sheep Company's Wildfoote sock yarn in Forget Me Not. I'm fighing it because the yarn is smaller than the pattern calls for and I'm not up to the mental part of figuring out how that's going to affect the fit of the sock and what adjustments I'll have to make to make the socks fit me right. Also...this one's written in chart format and I......

Well......

I......ahem.

OK. I don't read charts. I know! What kind of knitter doesn't read charts?!! I prefer written out patterns. The chart is confusing me. And I've already tried it a couple of times. It's bad enough that I'm thinking of writing out the pattern myself. That's pretty desperate. lol Right now I knit away on Jaywalker and out of the corner of my eyes, contemplate the Pomotomus socks. The yarn is already in my knitting basket with the pattern.

Another thing I've been doing is reading up the Yarn Harlots books. I'm loving them! That's me, late to the party but happy to drink fast to catch up!

Well it's time for me to wrap this up and go comment (finally) on a few blogs I read and then knit for a bit. Talk to you soon!