A Socking Experience

I have something embarrassing to admit.


Until this week, I have never worn a single sock that I have made.

I had this revelation when I noticed an unwoven end sticking out of my sock drawer; it was from my Fair Isle socks, which I finished, like, forever ago. I wanted to show off by wearing them in front of a new friend, so I wove in the ends and started wearing them. That was about five days ago. I'm still wearing them. Man, guys, hand-knitted socks are AWESOME! Totally comfortable, totally fit, they don't stink, and they're oh-so-warm. I wish I didn't hate knitting socks so much, because they freakin' rock.


See? Here they are. A little funny, but totally wearable. I was a little embarrassed, maybe, that I turned the heel upside-down, but whatever!

So, that experience led me to take stock a bit, and it turns out there are other products I've made that don't see a lot of use. Cotton beanies, for example, get short shrift simply based on their fiber composition. Blaze has been worn once or twice, and is always well-received, but I avoid in in general because of the un-lovely color and gappy neckline. And then there is the bag of UFOs that could definitely be worn, could I work up the energy to finish them.

But there are exceptions to this "rule." The green sweater - finished long ago but never actually posted here, egads! - gets a crap-ton of use. I LOVE it. It is handsome, cozy, comfy, and in all ways excellent. Except for one. The yarn, Valley's Northampton, is pilling a lot on the sleeves. Possibly because the sleeves are knit slightly looser than the body? Whatever, it doesn't look so hot.

It's made me think. It's really important to me that the things I produce be not only useful but used. However, it also seems to me that it may be partly a learning-curve issue. I'm a lot better now than I used to be: better at pairing materials and patterns, better at picking materials, and more likely to execute something to a wearable standard. So I guess that's ok. I'll sure be wearing the socks from now on. Enough of the rambling, on to the news.

I have a new cat. And a new home!

She is beautiful, funny, talky, and obsessed with animal fibers. We get along. My roommate is awesome, too.

I have joined the HAT ATTACK! For those unfamiliar with "attack" games, it is an international, knit-to-the-death, secret gift buddy competition. You target and are targeted, and "kill" by mailing your random victim an item (hat) knitted at breakneck speed from a formerly-unseen pattern. Last one still grasping needles wins... Who cares? What I love about it is that you end up with a hat, knitted just for you by someone you don't know. They say that gauge for the pattern (something geeky, since it all came about through the Ravelry Geek forum) is 5 st/in, and I think I'm going to fudge a little and use that beautiful ball of orange Manos left over from those stupid Matrix mittens. You remember the ones.

Been playing with double knitting again - using some of those $1 cones to make a blue/blue Fair Isle cap, double-sided. No pictures as I left it at a friend's. Maybe I'll pick it up when we go SKIING tomorrow!

And... according to my tracking info, my Webs order arrives on Monday!!! Oh! My! So much good stuff coming! Let's see... three or four skeins of Cascade Eco Wool, 900g of Araucania Nature Wool Bulky (meant for Greengables, but poo to that), two cones (lbs) of the Highland Tweed that I've been eying more than a year, enough Northampton (I still like it, it's cheap) to make the Greenwood cabled vest.. I'll be all set.

The Eco Wool was meant for a gentlemanly sweater, but I've decided my energies would be better spent elsewhere, so I'm considering jumping on yet another bandwagon and joining the Hemlock Ring Throw Knitalong, as narrated on the Webs podcast, just because I've never done a knitalong before. And it is a pretty pattern! In any case.. I'm set for 2008, yarn-wise :)