Actual Knitting Content!

Hello! All apologies for the excessive exclamation points! But really! Actual knitting content!

So I was going back over the blog for the last month or so, and I realized that there were too few yarny pictures for a knitting blog. And I love yarn. And I have been knitting, albeit slowly, so I figured I would provide some updates.

So this is the first of a pair (I hope!) of Garter Rib socks from the Sensational Knitted Socks. I love this stitch pattern. Charlene Schurch is a genius. I'm about to start a regular K2P2 ribbing at the top because I don't know how much the Garter Rib stays up by itself.

(OMG: I just saw a promo for the Animaniacs on DVD! I LOOOOOOVE that show. Must. Have. DVD. "What are we goin' to do tonight, Brain?" "Same thing we do every night, Pinky: Take Over the World!")

This is a flashy, close-up photo of the stitch pattern and the colors. It's a Schoeller + Stahl yarn, Limbo, in the kolibri (any German speakers out there?) colorway. I have really enjoyed watching the colors change as it goes. It is, I believe, a 3-ply yarn where one of the colors changes at any time, so the stripes fade into each other really well. The wider than usual yellow/orange band is where I joined the second ball.

I bought three balls of it at Yarns Unlimited in Bloomington when I was there in May. I'm using Brittany US Size 6s, so think boot socks when you imagine these. The wool is so soft and warn. It's going to be wonderful to wear. Since I knew I would be knitting boot socks for one of the men in my life, I figured I would need more than the recommended two balls. I don't think I'll use the three balls completely, but probably most of them. And these are... wait for it... wait for it...

Christmas presents. Wha? Are you still there? Did you hit your head when you fell over? I'm not saying who these are for, and they might be the only ones that get done, but whoo-hoo me!

And these?

Magic!

Loop!

I'm hoping to cure the SSSS (Severe Second Sock Syndrome) I'm in by knitting two socks on one circular with Magic! Loop! I *Heart* Magic! Loop! And the yarn...I want to eat it. Maybe it'll help settle my stomach. It's Claudia Handpainted in Caribbean Blue. I've used this yarn previously for the Chocolate Cherry socks, and it's gorgeous.

FYI, the Chocolate Cherry socks still await blocking, but now that Wendy says she doesn't, they may go to their new home without. Not that a certain someone needs any kind of wool socks in this kind of weather.

I'm trying to keep my spirits up on the Caribbean socks by reminding myself that I'm getting two done at once, becuase they are moving sooooooo slllllooooooooowwww. Again, I can't tell you who these are for, but again...Christmas presents. Yay me!

I knit on these for a little bit while on the Chinatown bus up to NYC while Slim slept. Slim was a good soldier the whole way there, even with an unexpected stop in the Chinatown in Philly. We ate, read books, played ball and he napped while I knit.

And I'm proud to say that I must be looking citified because when we reached New York, I'm getting the stroller set up to put Slim in, standing in the middle of the busy Chinatown market, and a college-age kid who got off the bus after me comes over and asks, "Do you know the way to the Metro?"

You bet I do, kid. You bet I do.

Slim and Momma on the Chinatown bus to NYC