I've Been Kniting

Last Tuesday (sorry for keeping this from you guys for so long), I got a wonderful package from KnitPicks filled with some Swish Superwash yarn in Red Pepper, Light Coral, Truffle, and Capri. Here's some yarn porn:



The Red Pepper and Light Coral will be baby sweaters for my coworker's daughters. He is paying me for this venture (yes!) and the Truffle and Capri will be gifts for my twin nephews. Here is a pick of what I accomplished with the Red Pepper and Light Coral this past weekend:



I love the result of how the stripes came out. Not too babyish but still very girly in my opinion. BTW, this yarn is soft, durable, and great for projects for children or something for yourself. Maybe in the future I'll purchase some more Swish for myself, after I get through the rest of my stash that is (I still have yarn from my trip to Argentina this past June that I have projects for that I haven't started yet).


Reality Check

So I did say that I wanted to make my mother a shawl a couple weeks ago but as we get closer and closer to Christmas, I'm realizing that a shawl won't be possible. In fact, I don't think I'll be done with the shawl by time January when my parents will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. So I was searching thru my stash and realized that I could make my mother something just as meaningful as a shawl and hopefully a bit more useful. This past August I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival and picked up some of this stuff for myself:



It's Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in an eggplant purple. I loved the color and felt that they could be some luxurious socks for me. But now I'm thinking my mother would love them even more (she's a luxurious kind of woman). So I'm making socks for my mother this year. The benefits are obvious: less time to knit them, less stress, and most importantly, I feel that my mother would appreciate a pair of handknit socks than a handknit shawl.

This does not mean that I won't be knitting this shawl. I've never knitted lace before and the shawl is very pretty. Maybe next summer when I have more time.

More Stripes

I think have an obsession with stripes. Here is some progress on these very tall socks I'm working on:




I love how simple the pattern is but I would prefer to call them "Hooker Socks" than "Very Tall Socks." The length of them remind me too much of hooker boots.

I don't have a clever way to finish this post today so I'll just say, "That's it for now!"