I’ve figured out which socks to make for my secret exchange person, and I bought this gorgeous yarn for it, but before I start, I want to knock out one other pair of socks using 1) the continental method and 2) the magic loop. I’m making nopurl monkeys. I’ve made the regular pattern before and found it a breeze, so if I have trouble with this easier version, I’ll know that it was my methods, not the pattern that defeated me. It took me a week to do two socks separately, so I think I should be able to finish the two in a similar time frame. The socks that I want to knit for the exchange are more complicated, but I feel like I should have a better idea of my skill level after finishing these socks (or not, as the case may be).

I finished my two-a-time-socks, and while I’m happy that they’re finished, things aren’t perfect. The two black and grey socks are pretty much the same size (there’s about an eight of an inch difference in length between the two socks), or at least close enough that I can live with it. The red and pink pair, though, are nowhere near close in size. I don’t understand how they ended up being so different. I finished them last night before i went to bed, hoping that the second red sock would grow overnight, but no dice. I’m not necessarily a perfectionist, but I need things to look a little better than this, so I’m going to rip out the decreases for the toe, add more rows, and then finish again. The whole thing shouldn’t take more than an hour to fix , but it’s still demoralizing.

Never let it be said that I am not talented. My specific talent would be to get completely turned around whilst doing things that should by this point be totally routine for me. I’m finishing up the two at a time socks, and simultaneously practicing my Continental-style knitting. I’m really proud of myself, because I’ve made great strides and now I’m faster this way than I was the other way. I still need to pay a lot of attention, but I am really getting this. So this pride may be the cause of today’s mistake, although I do not discount your garden variety knitting retardedness. While doing the heels of the second pair of socks, I somehow got all tangled up on sock A and then I was stuck on the needles, unable to get cleanly to either sock. Did I pick up stitches incorrectly? Did I just confuse myself? I was simultaneously knitting and helping a coworker cut the cord between herself and her 19 yo daughter, so I will condede that I was not paying as much attention to my socks as I could have been.

I signed up two weeks ago for the Sit ‘n Knit sock exchange, and now that the signup is closed, Anne-Marie sent us all the names of our recipients. I have some ideas for what I will be doing, and will probably be good about documenting it and all that good stuff, but I won’t post anything specific until the final exchange happens in April.

I will say, though, in case whoever got me decides to visit, that I am really grateful and excited and will love whatever you choose to make!

I haven’t decided which pattern I will use, but I have a WIP on one of the needles that I’m considering using, so I will have to haul booty and finish up, hopefully before the weekend arrives (I always give myself some wiggle room, so that means Sunday)!

So I found my tapestry needle. It was not, as I feared, in the bag with some project that I barely started before abandoning it. No, it was actually in my handbag! It had fallen out of the little stitch marker pouch that I keep it in, so while none of the stitch markers fell out, the two thin tapestry needles I had in it did. No worries. It occurred to me when I got home from work yesterday that I should look in my purse before getting all crazy and tearing through my knitting projects, and sure enough, I saw two shiny little needles amongst the piles of stuff that fell out of my bag. I was busy last night (what kind of freak goes to the 10:45 movie showing after working until 9? That would be me…), so I finished up this afternoon during my break. Here is the finished product.

I am almost finished with my two-at-a-time socks. I did the last 4 inches of stockinette using the continental knitting method, and I’m really proud of myself. The socks are really cute, and I would have finished them completely, except I somehow left my tapestry needle somewhere. And I don’t even know where! I’m going to check the bag I used to carry the baby socks I made last month, because that’s the last time I remember doing kitchener stitch, but I somehow feel like I’ve had that needle more recently than that. So we’ll see when I get home. I’ll upload a picture once the socks are finished and the ends are woven in.

So it turns out that the socks I was making for Satanski are too small for him, so I’m going to finish them, but then I’ll still have to make him a different pair.

Also, the my long size 1 circular needles are 2.50 mm, instead of 2.25, which is throwing off my gauge in the swatch I’m doing, so I need to get another needle, or figure out how to make the same socks with the needle I have now. That’s definitely too much math for tonight. I think it’s stupid that North American needle sizes are so limited that two different sized needles are given the same classification. Morons.

I tried not to give up on my sodera/hedera/touch my monkey socks, but I think I kind of just did. The problem was that the yarn did not feel good to my fingers whilst knitting, which I think we can all agree is quite a problem to have. Also, I have kind of an insane number of socks that I need to be making soon, and I was starting to resent this particular pair for monopolizing my size 1 circular needle.

Just now, I pulled out the size 1 dpns and painstakingly transferred that sock to those needles. Now, at least, I can get a jump on all of the socks that I really want to make (in pairs!), without having to worry that my size 1 circ is out of commission.

I am supposed to be making socks for Sue, Marie, and my cousin Steph, although I think that poor Steph has been waiting for over a year and should probably get hers first.

Then, and this is so awesome I can hardly stand it, my Opal Harry Potter “hedwig” sock yarn came in the mail today and it’s just as lovely as I remember. I don’t know yet what pattern I’m going to use, but those socks are for ME!

Here are my socks right now. I’m really jazzed because I realized that being 60% of the way through a sock means that I am also 60% of the way through this project. I think that I will definitely use this technique in the future!

My two-at-a-time socks are still going swimmingly. I’m making them according to the pattern provided in the book, and I have to say that this heel seems needlessly tedious. First I had to do a turn heel for an inch, then a modified version of short rows where I went down to 10 stitches (from 16) and then picked up a total of 18 stitches for the gusset. THEN, from 28 I must now decrease my way down to 16 again. Good grief! I could have turned two heels in the same amount of time.

Good to know that I have absolutely no interest in this woman’s way of doing heels, although I like everything else about this method so far (that could also be due in large part to the fact that I’m making a stockinette sock).

I also practiced my continental knitting today, and I’m definitely picking up speed! I’ve only really worked on the knit stitch so far, but I’m satisfied with my results.

I finally opened the ball winder and yarn swift that I bought in December, and wound a hank of pretty blue cotton that I got in the yarn swap. That went well, and I now have a lovely center-pull ball to show for it.

I then tried to wind one of my many skeins of ArtYarns Supermerino, and that did not go so well. The bottom of the ball kept falling off, so I tried to rewind the skein, and now it’s hopelessly tangled. While suffering, though, I did have the presence of mind to separate the skein into two sections, so that if I use it to make booties, I can do them in the two-at-a-time method, which I am now officially rocking at.

Nevermind. Figured it out. I had to knit back along one of my needles to get the yarn positioned where it was supposed to be. Stupid, engrossing, retarded Fringe!

I decided to try a new project tonight, so I thought I’d work on making two socks at once. I’m not trying to be too ambitious, but I thought I’d get a jump on the skill, since I just signed up for Sit n’ Knit’s sock swap. So I’m cranking along, right? I’m starting with toddler socks, as recommended by the book, because, hey, Satanski and Sidekick would love to have socks to dirty and tear. I’m making the same sock, but using two different yarns, just to make sure I don’t lose my plaee. I’m feeling no pain, knitting while watching Chuck, then Gossip Girl, and finally Fringe.

I paused a bit at the beginning of Fringe just to catch up, because I’d started watching this particular episode last week, and was trying to remember what had already happened. So then I get a little into it, but not too much, because Fringe is deeply stupid, but then I realize: I have completely forgotten how to knit. Like, I looked down at my knitting, and had no idea how I’d done that, or where I should go from there. So this is what I’ve been doing for the last 20 minutes. Thinking: Fringe is retarded, and so am I.

Gracious.