An extra hour or three would be just fine.

There just aren't enough hours in the day. I sleep more than I used to (building a baby is tiring), and I'm slower at things that used to go quickly - cooking, cleaning, general self-maintenance. All of this slowing down has made a big impact on my crafting, and I'm having trouble finding any time to craft. I'm not really interested in knitting and watching TV at the same time anymore - TV all of a sudden takes all of my attention. So maybe that's why these socks were not finished in a timely manner?

Last summer, I was invited to be a test knitting for Cookie A's new book, Knit. Sock. Love. I was assigned the left sock of the In and Out pattern. So I knit that one in eight days and then for some reason waited months and months to finish the right sock.

It was cold as all get-out this weekend, despite the fact that my mom trekked six hours to help us whip our garden into shape. She was a madwoman, a force to be reckoned with, and I soothed my aching body with these wonderful socks. I love them. They were complicated and sometimes the directions confused me, but the great thing about test knitting is that you get to ask the designer questions! It turns out that I interpreted the directions differently than she meant them to be interpreted, so hopefully I was able to help.

I do enjoy a sock that is foot-specific. I knit these out of Louet Gems Pearl on, well, hmm. I'm not sure what size needles. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say US 1, but it could be 2. I'm going with 1. I have size 11 feet, so I just kept knitting until I reached the appropriate toe length. The ribbing and cables accommodate most sizes very nicely. This is definitely a pattern you have to pay attention to, which might be why it took me weeks to knit the last few inches.

We have our second childbirth class tonight. Frankly, I'd rather stay home and knit; last week's class was essentially, "You have a baby inside of you! He's going to come out!" I hope tonight's class if a little more helpful. If nothing else, I can get some sock knitting done.

Sock Stash Knitdown 2011

I'm in two stash-busting groups on Ravelry - Stashdown and Stash and Burn. This year, I'm going to focus on burning up all of this sock yarn. It's small in weight but mighty in yardage, and when it comes to yarn shopping, it's my biggest temptation.

I did, however, make a tiny dent in the sock yarn stash with my last socks of 2010.

They're delightful socks for my dad. The pattern is Conwy by Nancy Bush, and the yarn is some of my very old handdyed. I named this colorway Taper, since I knew it would be perfect for my dad and he used to be fond of tapered jeans. (I'm pleased to say that's no longer the case, but one must always be on high alert when it comes to tapered jeans.)

I would definitely use this pattern again, but with similar modifications. You start with 72 stitches and then decrease down to something like 60, but I decreased to just 66. I like my ribbed socks to maintain the ribbed look and not get all stretched out. Also, I'd probably try a different toe - the star toe is a little pointy.

He's becoming quite the foot model, isn't he?

Nice socks, bad photos

I wish I could capture a good image of these socks for you, but I just can't. You'll have to believe me when I say they're awesome.

Cables spiral up and down, connect to one another, and remind me of building blocks. I named them Tumbling Towers, but they're really the May 2010 Mystery Socks by Cookie A. I used Feet First sock yarn (locally produced, although I don't know if it's made anymore), which was really, really nice to work with.

I enjoy a good cabled sock. I made the large size, and I was worried at first that they'd be too big, but I always forget (or doubt) the drawing-in power of cables. They make me wish for snowy days, as does this 95 degree heat. I am not cut out for summer.

FO: Dark Horse socks

I have no idea why I called these Dark Horse socks - the pattern is called Dark Isle. But horse it is.

Are these not awesome? I started them around Thanksgiving and they went super, super fast. These are knit toe-up with an afterthought heel (my first - loved it). I ended up cutting off the toe on the first sock and reknitting it to be shorter, but I did manage to remember that modification for the second sock, which I did just two weeks ago. (Christmas knitting gets in the way of, well, everything.)

The afterthought heel was fun, and I FINALLY perfected my kitchener stitch. That only took about 9 years. I will definitely make these again.

No apologies. Just lots of swears.

So! I seem to have lost an entire month. And no offense, February, but you're a month I think I could afford to lose.

Actually, I was pretty much in the trenches with February, doing some hand-to-needle-to-fabric combat with all manner of secret things. The secrets! I love them! They make blogging awfully hard.

These were not secret, but as I am also very lazy about taking pictures (and, apparently, mailing things to my parents), these socks are kind of late.

Socks for Chuck B. I started them on Christmas Eve, realized they were too big and started again. I think they're still a little long in the foot for him, but he likes them. Likes them so much he picked up the phone to call me himself. They're made of deep-stash Twisted Sisters' Jazz, and I have quite a bit of yarn left over. If he ever grows a third leg, we're in business.

I'm not sure how much longer he will need me to knit socks for him, as my mom has turned into a one-woman sock machine. Seriously, she's knit five pairs in three months. She is an animal and I'm a little afraid of her sock knitting prowess. I actually only have three pairs of socks on the needles at the moment, and I feel those three pairs will be on the needles for some time to come. My sock mojo is flagging, perhaps because I'm really working hard to using up my sock yarn stash, and I'm getting to stuff I absolutely adore and don't want to knit.

Tomorrow, I will show you something I swore at for thirty days straight. Thirty days! For something six-inches tall! But Gracie likes it, so it can't be all that bad.