It Is Supposed to Be the Summer of Socks

Well, I started out strong. My first pair of socks done in just under two weeks. A second pair started right away and going strong. Then I got side tracked.

My cousin is expecting her first baby in October. In June, her husband was offered a position in one of his company's foreign offices. Offered is a polite term. There really isn't a choice if he wants his career to keep moving. So this moved up the baby shower time line to mid-August (Dad-to-Be is moving this weekend, New Mama is staying here to have the baby).


Two little hats for the new little one. The blue is the Pea Pod hat from IK. What a great pattern. And I even made it from the recommended yarn. When one of my local shops closed, she had a going out of business sale and I bought up all she had of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere in this color.

The bumble bee hat is based on my favorite baby hat, made with Plymouth Wildflower. There's not real pattern. Just random striping. My cousin really liked it because it turns out black and yellow are her college colors. I just picked them because she's not finding out if she's having a boy or a girl.

Speaking of which, here's my new entry for Summer of Socks.


(Pardon the kinda crappy picture...these are someone else's design, and I was trying to get the color of the yarn, without giving away the pattern, which is a really great pattern...look for it in the SoS Design Contest.) A pair of socks, one pink, one blue, for the New Mama to wear at the hospital. These (obviously) were not ready for the shower. But I'll be seeing her this weekend, right after Dad-to-Be leaves for foreign shores. So, even if she doesn't want to wear mismatched socks, hopefully they will make her smile.

The yarn is the Knit Picks Color Your Own that I dyed while reading Harry Potter. I'm really excited about how it came out. If I didn't already have so much sock yarn, I'd get some more and stock up on Kool-Aid. And I have enough left to make a pair of baby Jaywalkers in each color.

After these are done, I'm going to try and go gangbusters on some socks for me again. After the cool weather last week, I'm really feeling the need to have at least 5 pairs of handknit socks for the approaching cooler seasons.

Knitting, Winding, Splitting and Dyeing

Progress is moving along on the cable rib socks. I think I have about one more cable repeat to go before starting the toe.



I apologize for blinding you with the whiteness of my leg. Yes, I am that pale (my personal theme song is Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale). I like this pattern. It's easy to work, interesting, and the rib makes it very stretchy.

Lesson learned...if you need to hobble around the house to find your camera while wearing a sock with 4 dpns sticking out of it, and all of your floors are hard wood, walk on your tip toes, not on your heel. There's no graceful way to explain the head injury when you slip and fall in that state.

My knitting was on a bit of hiatus this weekend in order to plow through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was so worried about having the ending spoiled that I did almost nothing but read. I didn't watch TV, go on line or listen to the radio (except for Car Talk, which was a rerun). I did take time out for the Harry Potter party at the library. And for my friend's party celebrating the 6th anniversary of her 29th birthday.

On Sunday I did take a reading break to wind up some yarn (using the Tinkertoy swift that Geek boy hunted down for me back around Valentine's Day...some women get jewelry, some get Tinkertoys),



split it into two balls,


and make my first attempt at dyeing my own yarn.


The yarn is Knit Picks Color Your Own, half dyed with pink lemonade and half with ice blue raspberry lemonade Kool-Aid. This will become a pair of footies for my cousin who is expecting her first baby in October. She and her husband have decided not to find out whether the baby is a boy or a girl, so, for the hospital, a pink sock and a blue sock.

I bought this yarn a few years ago, but never got around to doing anything with it. And when I thought about making the socks for my cousin, I was torn, because I didn't want to go buy new yarn. Then I remembered, I had dyeable yarn in my stash. I used the tutorial on Knitty. What fun! Although it did disturb Geek Boy a bit when he came down for dinner, which was salmon coated with creole mustard, and found pink and blue bowls of yarn in front of the microwave. It was almost as disconcerting to him as when he found mohair chilling in the freezer.

As for Harry Potter (no spoilers here, I promise), I finished Monday morning. On the whole, I was impressed with how Rowling pulled everything together. I'm sad that it's over, but glad I went along for the ride.

Next...how I fail to think like a Blogger until after the fact.