Sassy Does It

OK, so since we’re at about a month from blast-off, I’ll go ahead and unveil my Summer Baby Gift in the making.

Not that it’s some huge impressive project, or even that big of a surprise to at least one person reading this, but since it’s for a baby that’s not born yet, it seems worth putting a little drumroll to it, a nice sense of occasion.

Usually I wait until the kid makes an appearance, but ehhh.  Spill the beans.

So Sissy B is having another one; this’ll make three.  She’s already got plenty on her hands with my two little nieces, and this will spice up all 24 of her waking hours come June.  Not sure if this one’s a boy or girl as they’ve elected to wait to find out. 

At least that’s what they’ve told me.  It’s possible they are sneaking around giggling behind everyone’s backs, secretly knowing.

Maizy calls her little brother- or sister-to-be “Cellpho” (as in, yeah, get ready to dial), and she does this with some confidence, as if this common name has already won the contest for her sibling’s playground moniker.  Hence the blog name of this child is born, ahead of the physical debut.

Regardless of whether Cellpho is a girl or a boy, this kid is going to get a lot of girly influence, what with the two older sisters and all.  (It seems weird to call E-dot - pictured here: awwwwww - an older sister, since so far she’s been the little guy.  Girl.  You know.)

So is it weird that I always make blankets when it comes to baby gifts? 

I know it takes much longer than booties or a layette set, but I always think to myself:  if you’re going to knit something, then really knit something.  Something that the little bundle of joy won’t grow out of in five minutes. 

Sweaters for toddlers make more sense to me: you might get a good year out of that before it’s handed down.  But for a baby, a blanket seems like something they can really use (to the extent they can use anything, other than a breast).  They can lay around on it, drool on it, burp up on it (ah, the joy of machine-washable cotton), all for a good little while.  

Then, once they can walk, that blanket can be really used. 

Beat up.  Dragged around for a long time.  Colored on.

Loved.

But.  Am I boring?  Should I branch out?  Put a little more thought into it?  If you had a kid, what would you want to receive?

Too late now on this one - but your opinions would either pacify my concerns that I’m in a rut with baby creativity or spur me on to make interesting-er tiny things in the future.

On the color, as I believe I announced when I started this thing, we have Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed in Pear (yes, that’s another name for green, and I think this may have been the start of what Clumsy Knitter kindly called Greenmersion, rather than a Green Problem).  But this hue seemed a good bet for a maybeboymabyegirl baby.

Here’s a little preview.  The repeats bunch up a bit unless they’re nice and stretched: blocking will help this.  (Yes, that is my new red bedspread behind it.  Oh, glorious red.)

Now that I look at it (a lot, often), the lace pattern on my Summer Blanket (otherwise known as “24-25-48 Lace Baby Blanket“, which is the catchy name the Japanese designer gave it) does look a bit more feminine than not feminine.  I was shooting for neutral in the beginning.  But hey - even boy babies are all soft and pretty.  I think a daisy-like pattern will probably fly if indeed a penis makes an appearance.

And there is the aforementioned girly factor that will surround this child. 

Right, OK, stop worrying about the lace pattern.  Good thing, since I’m probably about 2/3 through on the length.

I think what sold me on this pattern is the cool crochet border.  Not everyone who made this (and reported back to Ravelry) followed through with the border, but for me the blanket is a bit lukewarm without it.  I’m not usually a crocheter, but I can hold my own, and this border is going to be spectacular.  I hope.

Feefers is chugging along in the few minutes I can find here and there to work on it.

More time lately on Summer Blanket, which tends to get done on planes, when for some reason the monotony doesn’t bother me as much.  And I don’t like hassling with patterns when other people’s elbows are already touching mine in a fight for the armrest.

So this is the state of affairs that leads me into the weekend.  At this point I’m craving quiet:  sweet, still, quiet laziness.

And some fries with that.

Well, well – somebody’s been absent from blogworld for a while.

And by absent I mean floating adrift in a real pisser of a month.  I feel like I’ve been dog-paddling along in the wake of life as it’s plunging forward, mightily, without so much as a glance back in my direction.  I’ve been struggling in spectacular fashion, but today is when I pull myself up by the bootstraps.

Help me up, girls - I’ll emerge from this yet.

Finished my Curlicue blanket for Kymber’s baby girl – what was it, two weeks ago?  Just needs blocking.  Little K is actually past due, so my shocking pink creation will need to hit the mail any day.  Somewhere in Holland that baby could be entering the world right now.

I’ve been waiting on the blocking because I haven’t wanted to give it my usual (still-frosh) effort: a quick, 30-second soak in the sink followed by a roll-up in a towel to suck out the excess water, and then a layout flat to shape.

My soak in the sink has always included a few drops of Downy (standard April Fresh, thank you) in the water.  No soap - just Downy.

I know – not really a lot of thought about the possibility of my beloved Downy leaving any waxy fabric-softener residue on my little treaure of fine fibers, freshly knitted.

You’d think I’d put more time into thinking it through, given the time spent on the knitting part.

I’ve never put much thought into cleaning my clothes beyond the following:

1. Toss it all in the washing machine.
2. Toss it all in the dryer - unless it’s “delicate” (meaning “might shrink” and make it look like I’ve put on weight).  If delicate, [sigh] air-dry.
3. God forbid it doesn’t fall into one of these categories, which is rare, it goes to the dry cleaners.

It makes sense that I don’t have a good feel for the care of fine fibers, since I’ve not had the luxury of being a person who lines my closet with cashmere sweaters (awww, poor Amy).  Even if I did, they’d probably fall into category 3 above.

Pictured here with its
new-fangled labeling

I have a vague recollection of Woolite being on Mom’s laundry shelf.  I don’t recall seeing it used, but I think I may have inquired once what it was (”but why do we need extra soap when we’ve got the magic of Tide?”).

This curiosity arrived around about the time I reached that plateau of womanhood at which first-ever pairs of pantyhose and the dowdiest of rubber-heeled pumps are bestowed upon thrilled-beyond-words pre-pubescent girls.

For me, I’m pretty sure this occasion coincided with some type of after-school event in sixth grade that involved – oh, dear heavens – square-dancing. 

Emphasis on the square.

I grew up in the Midwest, what can I say?  This is what we did in gym class when we weren’t pelting each other (in my case, being pelted) with surprisingly painful rubber balls.

As I recall, I made it through one wearing of the stockings, miraculously, without any (super-obvious) runs or ladders that required retiring them to the bin.  Hence the onetime use of Woolite to wash my delicate, delicate, $1.99 Leggs pantyhose before they were trotted out for the next later-embarrassing grade school social event.

After that I promptly forgot about Woolite or anything resembling it.

So you get the picture – I’m not well-versed in the blocking or washing or even rinsing of delicates.

But now that I’m a knitter and all, I probably should be.

It’s been on my list to order up some wool wash of some kind.  I remember reading about Kookaburra first on somone’s blog - darned if I can remember whose - and then on another and another.  Something about making your wool super-soft and super-supple.  Super-supple!  Gotta get me some of that.

Then, recently, when the plan to order some Kookaburra was near the top of my mind, SouleMama made a loving reference to Eucalan, of which I had also heard rumblings.  It seemed compelling enough to give me pause about my choice (probably her fantastic photography added to the delicious appeal of her choice), and this put me all in a jumble.

It dawned on me, as if it were a surprise this would happen, that a decision between more than one option would be required, which would necessitate (possibly months and months of) analysis.

You know, since I’m me, and I can’t just pick one without going through the analysis.  Or just buy freaking both of them in small quantities to try - because doing that would be wasteful.

Oy.

Suffice it to say that after a bit of Googling, I forced myself to stop with this review, which was scientific enough to whet my OCD appetite as well as lead me to a conclusion.  In a nutshell: both leading brands are great.  No perceivable differences in method of use or in the look and feel of finished garment.  Both environmentally friendly, both contain lanolin, both excellent washes for any natural fiber.

By this account, only variations in scent seem to separate the choices (and perhaps a slightly different potential for repelling moths, which wasn’t at the top of my concerns list).  Although I’m as picky as the next girl with smell, I couldn’t tell over the internet which I preferred (I’d already contacted my LYS about whether they carried wool wash – ah, no).

Ultimately it was personal preference, and by all accounts I’d read, each of the multiple scents available was very nice.  Subtle, in every case, which helps.

Could have gone with unscented – but what’s the fun in that, pray you?  This recovering Downy Girl needs some kind of scent to remind her that this garment has been pampered in some special way, just like Mom would have done.

So I flipped a virtual coin – something that is very hard for me to do, even virtually.

I went with Eucalan.  Original eucalyptus scent.

I ordered it from Webs, along with some new blocking equipment, since I don’t have any.  I’d purchased some T-pins a few months ago whilst whisking through Jo-Ann’s for something, but alas, T-pins don’t do much good without something like the soft surface of a blocking board in which to stick them.

Yes, I know I could get creative and use a pile of towels, a spare bedspread, even part of an ironing board.  Yeah, that hasn’t happened.

I sprung for a blocking board, the big one, deciding that I’ve waited long enough - and if I’m going to get a blocking board, get a blocking board, you know?

Of course then Webs e-mailed me to tell me it was out of stock and would have to be shipped later.

Oh well.

Good thing I had one other goodie in the shopping basket, besides the aforementioned Eucalan wash, which is en route to me now:  Fiber Fantasy Sweater Blockers.

Sounds exotic, and I’m expecting to be impressed. 

While researching all things blocking that I had been missing out on, I discovered the existence of these little guys.  It’s a set of blocking needles that can be used for more than just your mama’s sweaters.

“Great for scalloped edges”, I read – hey, my Curlicue blanket has scalloped edges! – so I read on.

Twelve of the fourteen needle thingies are used for standard straight-edge blocking (8 are 36″, 4 are 18″); the other two are flexible (but not permanently bendable into a new shape).  Thus, these later two are touted as a nice solution for blocking the curve of the top of a sleeve or, better yet, stretching out and holding an edge pattern by winding wires through the ends of your knitting, locking the design in place during blocking.

There’s a great review of these here, which is where I also found this photo.  [Note to Angelika at yarn-store.com, from whom I also considered purchasing the blocking board: the extra $20+ in shipping for the board couldn't compete with the free holiday shipping offered by Webs, but now that I've found your store, you are on my list of vendors!]

Not rocket science, this bendy wire idea, but since the concept hadn’t occurred to me, it felt like it.

My previous attempts to get scalloped edges to lay flat (for Maizy’s and E-dot’s Little Girl’s Shrugs) involved the traditional approach of pinning the fabric down flat and then steam-ironing the heck out of it – and this did not result in what I’d call a success.  Stubborn, those scallops.

The memory of that challenge made me click on “buy” without much further delay – mercifully, I spared myself further research.

So - it took me all that to fill you in on where I stand with Curlicue.  Final pics once the blocking is done.

Sheer Poncho is moving sssslowwwwly in the midst of tumultuous life lately, but over the weekend I finally got my booty into the LYS to procure some US 5 Addi Turbos.  The cashmere stockinette is looking lovely, but with only a fat inch or so on the needles, my cheapo Michael’s circulars weren’t cutting the mustard.

In my frustration to just Turbo it already, earlier last week I’d swung into another yarn shop (off the beaten path from my usual LYS; I might add that stepping into Someone Else’s LYS and passing it off as my own with the sales lady was seductively naughty, especially since it was such a cute shop) for this purpose.

I was tacking on the quest for these needles to a list of already annoying errands and trying to cram it all in to not enough time (shocker).

I arrived at SELYS four minutes before closing, breathless yet triumphant that I’d actually located this place before it closed.

No standard US 5 Turbos on the shelf – curses! – only the Lace Turbos.  I’d thought about whether to Lace or not to Lace my Turbos before walking into the store.  I’d pretty much decided not to Lace.  Worried that they’d be too slow for simple stockinette; that the previously appreciated fine drag wouldn’t be appropriate for this project or this fiber.

But with only the Lace variety available, and time ticking away – oh, I couldn’t wait – I just went for it.

Shifted the stitches from the cheapos to the Lace Turbos that night, gagging for a few quick rounds of Sheer Poncho before beddy-byes.

Oh, poopy pants - too slow.  Not an improvement, even in all their pretty gold shininess.  Drag not appreciated, cashmere too clingy.  Darn.

But.  Now I’m all set with the right ones - straight up, slick as all get-out, standard Addi circulars.  I’ll be non-Lace Turboing it up for the rest of the week.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and with my writing-lots-of-words-makes-me-happy ways.  I’ve missed you.  

Curlicue Glamour Shots coming soon.

I’m still a relative newbie to knitting things that are tiny, so it’s not surprising to make new discoveries at this point.  But I gotta tell ya:  these #2 Addi Turbo Lace needles are rocking my world.

In order to get started on my practicing for 2-at-a-time socks, I needed a 40-inch set of circular US 2 needles.  I moseyed down to my LYS to pick some up.

I love browsing, of course, so even though I had only a few minutes to get this errand done, I got stuck in the first set of shelves I passed that contained yarn.  I lingered there, mindlessly petting the yarn, sniffing the fiber-scented air around it (freaky, I know). 

I was jolted back to my needle mission by the voice of a happy-to-help store person.  Nervously, I looked around, found a few needles hanging nearby and said, “Uh, I’m just looking at these needles here.”  Unfortunately those needles weren’t the needles I needed (it was the bamboo-only section, who knew?) and I was led (sulking slightly) over to the Addi section.  Just before I said, “Thanks, I’ve got it from here,” the nice lady whipped a set of Turbos off the shelf.  “Here you go.”

They were gold.

I’ve used Addi Turbos in the big-ass sizes, and they were always silver.  I had been envisioning silver - what’s up with the gold?  Thinking she was steering me toward a more expensive gold-edition type or something, I waited until she walked away and then spun the circular display around to find the silver ones.  I found them, 40″ number twos, and clutched them triumphantly.

However.  I still had the gold ones in my hand.  Curiosity took over and I read the labels on both.

Regular Addi Turbo, in a nutshell:

• fast needles: yarn slides easily on nickel-plated brass
• soft cord: smooth transfers, yarn won’t snag

Addi Turbo Lace:

• sharp tips enhance lace and sock knitting
• soft, pliable cords with smooth joins
• hollow, coated brass tips

Although they sounded similar, I had to admit the sales lady might have been on to something.  Skeptical as I’d been, and as much as I wanted to be loyal to the silver - I mean nickel-plated - ones for which I’d already developed such a fondness, I thought I’d better investigate the gold - em, brass - ones.  Sharp tips sounded a little scary, but since I was new to tiny things, sharp might be good and I just didn’t know it.  And the bright red, allegedly supple cords looked and sounded sexy.

Then - alas, my reverie was broken.  Bidie-in and Squeezer walked in from their perch on the sidewalk, meaning my time was up.  I bought the gold lace ones and hoped for the best.

Well.  I tell you, these things are like butter.  I mean like buttah, Babs.  They feel all smooth and creamy on each other as stitches slide from left to right needle.  It sounds dirty to say it like that, and maybe it is.  But it’s true.

I know Addi Turbos are meant to allow faster knitting, as I had experienced before, and these needles didn’t disappoint.  However, it wasn’t just about yarn moving quickly on a slick surface.  Now that I’ve done a little research, I know that the aforementioned coating on the brass tips is “a fine resin for added control”; in other words, a coating that provides an ever-so-slight bit of drag to keep the tiny stitches from flying right off.  I think that’s the origin of my smooth-like-buttah feeling.

Then how does the knitting feel so fast, if the coating creates drag?  It’s because of the pointier points (I saw these termed “aggressively tapered” somewhere).  It feels like magic as the tip end comes up clean every time after every stitch, even after speeding up, without any splitting.  None. 

It makes me feel very professional to see my fingers flying and little stitches bulking up in the wake of my right needle.  Splitty yarn doesn’t get splitty.  Thank you, Addi Turbo-people, for making me feel so special.  I’m sorry I was wary of your gold-looking brass needles at first.  I really really like them.

It is worth mentioning the sexy red cord between the needles, too, because it’s as sexy as I’d hoped in the store.  Well, done, Addi - the cord looks like a thin string of luscious red licorice, except you can see through it, you can fold it over on itself and pinch it and it won’t break, and you can’t eat it.  It’s softer and more malleable than the regular Turbo cord. 

The super-bendy but not breaky part is especially nice for my 2-at-a-time sock effort, since this is kind of a required feature for the needle, to bend sharply in a loop.

So I’m off and running with my practice socks, which are being in made in two colors so that I don’t confuse the socks in following the directions in the tutorial. 

I’m not going to lie to you (in fact, I’ll post a pic to show you) - they’re a little rough around the edges as I get my head around this method.  But I’m getting better as I go, and even the cuff ribbing that’s fraught with loose ladders at the turns will probably block out and stretch to look OK on a baby’s foot.

Yes, this pair will probably go to E-dot, since she’s about the right size for them.  Of course she might not get them until she’s too big for them since I’ll have to make these and then another set of two (one green, one tan) to match.  Wait a second - didn’t I embark on learning this method so I didn’t get second-sock syndrome?  Hmmmm.

In other knitting news, Bidie’s clamoring for his Fisherman’s Sweater - yes, my little creation will become his - which is coming along.  He refers to this project as either “The Big Project” or “Project #1″ and gives me the stink eye whenever he sees me working on something else.  Last night he pointed out that E-dot-sized socks did not look like Project #1, which is a true statement.  In any case, I’m knitting it up on US 11s, so there’s no excuse for not forging ahead to polish this puppy off.  Maybe this weekend. 

Speaking of weekends - oh joy, I have happy plans to spend time with someone special this weekend.  Hurrah, AJ is coming to visit from Arizona for a few days.  She’s my mom’s sister, which makes her my aunt, and also my friend.  We’re going to do relaxing girly things and other genetically-bred nerdy things like sitting around engrossed in our laptops and figuring out how to work some new software she has.  In between all that, I’ll sneak in some knitting and it will be fabulous.

Ciao, bellas.

Oh my heavens, I’ve been itching to get this blog out for the last two weeks. 

I’ve just returned from vacation with my extended family, which was truly wonderful - I spent a lot of time with actual people (instead of my laptop).  This is, I suppose, the point of taking a vacation with one’s family.   No matter how much one’s laptop is clearly jealous - sitting right there on the coffee table, whimpering in neglect and beckoning with the sweet, glowing ember of its power indicator - family (at least a fun one) beats computer.

Frankly, however, now that I’m again surgically attached to the internet, I’m giddy with delight.  I’ve been busting to share my Ravelympics progress. 

I’d heard about the Knitting Olympics before, and had seen shiny little medals adorning a few knitting blogs, but I was a bit in the dark as to what it all meant.  Obviously it wouldn’t take a brain surgeon to find out; but alas, laziness had won out over curiosity.  And, to be honest, I was a little frightened of the unknown:

• What kind of project was required for this?
• How would achievement be measured?  Would someone show up at my door to inspect my stitching?
• Would there be actual physical activity required? 

(pause to catch breath)

• Would there be a uniform involved?  Something without adequate coverage in the upper thigh area?
• Would I be flogged if I let the team down?
• Would sleep deprivation be involved?

On that last one, I did kind of hope I’d be pressured into knitting into the wee hours for days on end.  I’ll take all the help I can get when it comes to justifying knit-time.  If I took part in the Olympics, it wouldn’t be just me obsessing over my knitting, but, in fact, me and my country in our quest for the gold.

So I checked it out.  I found that the Knitting Olympics, as initiated years ago by The Yarn Harlot, is held only every 4 years in alignment with the Winter Olympics, and that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee wouldn’t be leading a Knitting Olympics for this summer.  Ah, stink.

But - shocker! - I didn’t have to look much further to find that Ravelry was all over it.  The first ever Ravelympics was kicking off very soon, apparently.  Maybe because the actual Olympics were going to kick off?  Still a bit suspicious, I landed on gloriana’s post and read about her taking the plunge, and I was jolted into action.  I marched over to Ravelry, figured out the rules (clicking on big obvious links called “Ravelympics” does tend to clear things up), and decided quickly on the following projects:

1. Niece gifts - I was inspired by gloriana’s niecie motivation, and conveniently, I’d recently found a pattern that would work well for both of my girls in their almost-3- and almost-1-year-old sizes.  The challenging part of these two projects would be not so much in technique, but in knocking them out quickly.  No dilly-dallying.  This is war, Peacock.
2. Socks! - This was the project coming to mind that most closely fit on the “challenge” element of the Ravelympics call to action.  I’ve lurked around blog posts with people cooing over socks for a while, but I’d never dipped my toe in that water.  I decided I’d try it.  Secretly I hoped that I’d get hooked and start cranking out socks with the same glee I’ve so enviously observed.

The patterns:

1. Little Girl’s Shrug
2. Braided Cable & Broken Seed sock
3. Raindrop Lace Socks

Little Girl’s Shrug

Casco Bay Worsted, 100% cotton

I picked up the Little Girl’s Shrug pattern at The Yarn Lounge in Richmond, Virginia, where I found myself a few weeks ago after passing through on business and visiting my dear friend Kimlee.  I loved The Yarn Lounge - I lingered for a loooong while and chatted with the lovely Melanie, not only about knitting but also about the indisputable merits of wine and cheese (oh, yummy).  I also picked up the perfect light summer cotton yarn for my two niece projects - on deep discount!  Purple for Maizy, pink for E-dot.

On my way back through D.C. a couple days after that, I stopped in at Knit Happens in Alexandria.  This LYS (Local Yarn Store) popped up on my radar after I found out about the Stefanie Japel design workshop they are sponsoring there the first weekend in November, just prior to her launch of Glam Knits.  I was gung-ho to splurge on a trip out to attend this workshop, but over the last couple weeks I’ve chickened out.  What if I can’t keep up?  Here comes that junior-high dodge-ball team-picking feeling again.

Neighborhood Fiber Co., Studio Worsted

Anyway, I drooled all over their yarn at Knit Happens and ended up walking away with a locally made yarn in a pretty deep purple variegated hue.  It may have helped that the sample knit for this yarn on display was designed by already-on-the-brain Knitting Pure and Simple, the maker of my Little Girl’s Shrug pattern.  This was a baby cardigan (pattern, incidentally, available free for download here), which in the store was modified to have buttons instead of ties as pictured on the website as linked above.  It was so darn cute I shelled over 13 smackers for 98 yards of the yarn they made it with.

Socks.  Well.  I happened to come across another couple of patterns at So Much Yarn the following week in Seattle (yes, I do get around), which was a shop recommended to me by knitsurg (the creator of a va-va-voom version of Stefanie Japel’s Orangina) on Ravelry.  Words can’t say how much fun I had in So Much Yarn, but of course I’ll give it a shot.  Beautiful, beautiful yarns, in a huge space, with lovely displays and a nice big table and workspace in back to peruse possible purchases and crunch the numbers on yarn yardage.  After meandering around in my comfort zone for a while (my comfort zone being just about everything except the sock yarn category), I broke down and asked for assistance in picking a good starter pattern and fiber for my Ravelympics sock project.  Theresa was very sweet and pointed me in the right direction in picking up the Braided Cable & Broken Seed Sock pattern, which has a lot of nice detail on techniques like the Kitchener stitch, and was designed by Lauren Lindeman, the owner of the shop.  I also picked up the pattern for Raindrop Lace Socks, which I liked a lot and decided to go for as an additional Ravelympics goal, in spite of Theresa’s concerned looks and comment that these socks might be “a little too advanced”.  Hmmmm.  I still think I can do it.

So - the update!  Boy, it took me a while to get to this part.

Cozy cardi

Before the button

Pattern #1, the Little Girl’s Shrug, I’m happy to report has yielded 2 FOs!  As I was with Maizy over my vacation, I hand-delivered her light purple cropped cardi, and my heart melted at her delight.  She strutted around saying how much she liked it, telling me once more for the road before she headed out at the end of our vacation, “Actually, Amy, I still really like this.”

Didn’t quite plan ahead with the button, so the purple sparkly number I picked out is going in the mail to her mom, along with the second FO, the pink one, for E-dot.  My flying fingers couldn’t quite finish off the arms on hers in time to give it to her before we parted ways.

Anyhoo, I really do like the way they turned out. 

front

The yarn, Casco Bay Worsted, was light and springy like the sample that sold me in the store.  Melanie at The Yarn Lounge told me there was no reason these couldn’t go in the washing machine.  Probably OK to machine dry as well, although there may be some shrinkage. 

back

I knit both shrugs on US 5 circular needles, with the tiny bit of arm ribbing completed on US 2 double-pointed needles.  The final fabric was soft and slightly textured to the touch.  I blocked each of these, but the purple one wasn’t quite finished at the time I declared it dry enough to let Maizy wear, so it could use a little more blocking to help the lace border, which I opted to use instead of plain ribbing on the body, lay nice and flat.

First ever cast-on for a sock

Pattern #2, the Braided Cable & Broken Seed sock, is in progress.  I admit to initial palpitations, as I had anticipated, working with all five US 2 double-pointed needles in my newly-purchased set per the pattern’s instructions.  It took me a while to get started, but I forged ahead, Helen. 

The picture on the right shows how far I got after over 2 hours of earnest work…yeah, not too far.  But immediately after I took that photo I made the decision to lose two of the needles.  Three was enough to comfortably get around the circumference of the sock, and it was much less of a headache.

I knit a bit more on the flight back from the Midwest where we were visiting family, but not a lot more because I had a happy and unexpected distraction - Lish, my aforementioned BFF, was on the same flight as me back to California, as she too had been back home for the weekend.  I didn’t know this until I saw her at the airport, at which time I was very pleased (and also feeling quite fancy and cosmopolitan with the bumping-into-of fabulous people in airports).  Hooray for happy coincidences and for cross-country airplane chats.

Right - for Ravelympics, it’s clear I’ll need to get my booty in gear to get through both socks (and at least start on my Raindrop socks, for pete’s sake) before the closing ceremonies.  I’m up for it.  I’m juiced at my progress so far.  There may be a lot left to do, but there’s nothing like pushing yourself in the name of knitting.  Stay tuned.