We woke up to a change in the weather here, so this morning found me knitting down in the family room, with the gas fireplace turned up to the max and a cozy shawl around my shoulders.

I am STILL knitting on the never-ending socks. Actually I had one finished, but then took the top apart to add a little more ribbing and change the cast off to something a little more stretchy. I found some great tips for stretchy bind-offs on Tangled Up in Yarn. I’ve promised that the socks will be finished by the 21st of April so I’d better not suddenly develop ** second sock syndrome! **

click for bigger picBut I am not just knitting the second sock - I am also finally finishing up my Chicknits Ribby Shell (plain front version) that I started sometime last year. It’s going along so quickly that I don’t really understand what made me quit working on it but the good thing is that it should be finished soon now that I am re-inspired (for reasons unknown to me).

I still love the colour and the softness of the yarn. Of course, if it actually fits me like I want it to that will be a plus as well.

I started it on a 4mm Addi Turbo circ, but the yarn was just a little too slick and I’ve changed to my Clover Bamboo and now I’m a lot happier with how the knitting is going.

I’ve finished the knitting in the round bit and I’m almost done knitting the back piece up to the neck. I really like this pattern so far. Bonne Marie’s patterns are always well written and easy to follow - which is a big plus!

I need to go do some laundry and move a couple of pieces of furniture in the sewing/guestroom. My sister and niece are coming over tomorrow so that we can cut out her grad dress and I need to put up both of my cutting tables so that we have lots of space for laying things out.

** SECOND SOCK SYNDROME: A definite pattern of behaviour in which after finishing and loving a sock, the knitter is totally incapable of duplicating that sock, no matter how many times he or she tries. This syndrome can lead to the knitter wearing many unmatched first socks together, the first symptom of the insanity that reknitting and reknitting and reknitting the second sock can cause. (Source: Knitting the Blues: Second Sock Syndrome)

P.S. It always amazes me how quickly people pop by to read a new post - I guess bloglines, etc updates everyone quickly. My problem is I often continue editing posts after submitting them, and I always wonder if that makes people a little crazy while they are trying to read? Oh, and say hi - let me know you were here! (I’m done editing now)!

Click the pic for bigger version.Presenting one of the never ending thigh high socks for Miss K.

This is actually just 2 balls of yarn, so I’ll have one left over for something else since I originally bought 5 balls - “just in case”. I like the yarn - it’s DG Confetti. In fact I like it so much that I just keep buying more of it, but we won’t talk about that now.

I’m also working on a tank in bamboo yarn from last year. Not sure why I stopped working on it - the colour is like milk chocolate and it’s nice yarn to knit with.

The weekend was a good one, Sunday was family dinner night. I made an excellent vegetarian dish (one part dairy - the cheese). Lindsay and Nigel were over, as well as Kaiti and Tom. We opened a bottle of wine, and I think I probably drank more of it than the others as I was feeling pretty mellow by the end of the meal (and only 3 of us were drinking wine)! Next time I make this I’ll have to remember to take a photo so that I can post a photo with the recipe.

Have a great week!

I went back to the yarn shop today…. My friend Lori was with me (HI LORI) and afterwards we hit Starbucks, where I indulged in a soy caramel macchiato and some good chat.

Oh and as for the yarn shop purchases, everyone can relax! I spent under $20, buying the last lonely skein of black Elsbeth Lavold Silky wool so that it could join the other 9 I have at home.

Then I picked up 4 more balls of the very pretty sky blue Scheepjes Donna that I bought last summer and tried to turn into a tivoli tee (didn’t like it much on me). Now I have enough for a cardi for me! Hurray!

Now about those over-the-knee for Kaiti socks…

I started these socks several times from the top down. The first time I did ribbing for the sock body, and we both decided we didn’t like it.

So – frogged the sock and began again with a ribbed cuff and then a stocking stitch body. But it was a real pain to know how high the sock would actually go, since I wasn’t really using a pattern and I only have 4 balls of this yarn.

After several false starts with the toe up method, I happened upon Tiptoe Toes, a toe up sock tutorial on knitty.com and there I found a method that works for me. It’s called a Figure-Eight toe. I know it looks a little too pointy but it fits her well. I think next time I might start with more stitches so that the toe is a little rounded, just to see how that fits.

This is definitely the way to go for these socks because now that the foot and heel are knit I can just keep knitting up the leg until I run out of yarn or Kaiti decides they are high enough (obviously leaving enough to do the top rib, but this is easier than knitting top down, imo).

Oh, and I went to Lewiscraft last week, after hearing they are closing too! There wasn’t much to see, but I did buy this pretty little rhinestone pin. I thought it might look cute on a little felted bag.