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.

I finished the booties! Well, actually, they’re socks. I used short rows for the heels and toes, and liked the final product. I wasn’t sure how they’d come out, and I definitely fixed some fatigue-related errors whilst weaving in my ends, but I’m really happy with how they came out. And my coworker really liked them, so that makes me feel good. Everybody else was impressed, but it was his opinion that matters, since it’s his kid I made them for. Also, he was happy to hear that the blanket is still in the works, and that I may actually finish before his child makes his debut into the world.

I’m exhausted, but it’s totally worth it!

I like these socks, and I’m going to make them again, but next time I will not add the third stripe of the contrast color, just to make them look more like the Old Skool socks I was picturing in my head. 

Also, and it’s worth noting, this is the best my short row anythings have ever looked!

I just moved this blog from Blogger to Dreamhost/Wordpress, so I guess that the cheesy title can stay. There’s nothing wrong with Blogger or Google, but I have really grown to like WordPress and find it unnecessary to maintain blogs on two different platforms. I’ve been knitting a fair amount lately, and I never even uploaded the pictures from my Touch My Monkeys, so I will definitely do that very soon!