Drive-by blogging

I do most sincerely apologize for the dearth of blog entries of late. I'm the "ring-master" and I don't even follow my own rules. How can I expect the other ring members to follow them?

Having admitted to my own laziness, I herewith bring you the following post:

Do any of you know what this means?

An empty knitting bag and sets of empty needles. A totally empty knitting bag and it has been turned inside out, the better to get the crumblies from the bottom.

Why, oh why does a knitter go to such extremes with her knitting bag?

Because she has finished a project. A project which has been in progress for weeks and weeks. In fact, enough weeks that the bottom of the knitting bag contained the crumbs from the lunches she carried to and from the shop. Crumbs from the snacks carried to and from the ski trips in January and February. Crumbs from the car trips hither and yon in the weeks since January 1.

So what long-lasting project was finished? Which of the many projects have finally achieved "finished" status? Well, you have waited patiently for long enough. I bring you:


January socks, finished at long last. These are the "Winter Wren" stockings from the Holiday issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern specified these to be knee socks; however, I don't wear knee socks as a rule so I opted to make these shorter. I used one ball each of six colours of Naturally Loyal Superwash DK (colours 923, 922, 929, 925, 901 and 919 in no particular order.)

They are going to be fabulous next winter when I need something extra warm on my feet. The fair isle means that the sock is, in effect, double knit. And make no mistake -- these are true fair isle. None of that woosy self-patterning stuff for these babies. (I probably won't make the same mistake twice ... altho ... there were some really nice fair isle socks in the traveling sock trunk show ...)

My biggest complaint with these socks was the direction that you must end with one of two specific rows for the foot length. If your foot length didn't quite work out that way, well, too bad. If I had known, I'd have made the toe portion a bit longer and then I wouldn't have that complaint. As it is, I will save these socks for a time when my shoe/boot isn't a real close fit. (Unfortunately, this rules out the ice skates, when these socks would be awesome!)

All in all, however, I am pleased with the result. A lot of work, yes, and more than a few bad words were muttered in the knitting.