two knits of ivory

I finished a second pair of socks this weekend! (Well, technically Monday, but it was a 3 day weekend for me.) I was able to start the yarn on the second sock at near the same spot as the first so the striping matches quite well. Unfortunately this Schachenmayr Nomotta Regia Silk self striping sock yarn has major, major flaws. The second ball was crap and crap in a big way. Not only was the intensity of the color on the second sock washed out, there are numerous spots where the dark colors leach into the lighter colorways, and on top of that more times than not the yarn had undyed sections where one color transitioned into the next. There's no way I can gift these now and I'm not happy about it. I was, however, very glad to get these done. Having three socks on needles at the same time was an exercise in stress for me. I hope to never do it again. I think one of each type of project, sweater, scarf, and sock, is well and good for me, but not more than one similar projec...

It was a tough week at Chez Yarn and I'm glad it's over. Earlier in the week I was all revved up about testing pattern ideas on the first knitted arm of Blueberry Moon . I'll leave these details for another day. While my ideas germinated I decided to put some effort into my longstanding sock WIPs. I took the Regia Striped Sock to work one day and wound up unable to stop myself and turned the heel violating my #1 rule of sock knitting (sorry to be a broken record) "do not knit turn a sock heel until you can knit the second heel shortly thereafter." Unfortunately, the knitting was so addicting and well, I was in a bad spot. I needed the fix. What's a knitter to do? I just love this striping colorway. I may be fooling myself, but I really hope to start the second sock at the same point and have the stripes match. This is my first self-striping sock, so I should be allowed some hubris? Right? In other sock knitting I've gotta come clean on something....

I am always loath to give out my info to salesclerks. I think they have some nerve asking me my phone number, though I am polite when I say "no thank you" in response. They are just doing the job their corporate employers pay them to do. But still. Companies have some nerve. If they want my info then they should buy it on the market like they buy everything else about us. Yet, this acrimony aside, I did give my email to a LYS a few weeks ago and I am so happy I did because they sent me an email saying they had gotten the following in stock: I've been dying to try these so I drove right down and picked up a pair. They only had about five or six sets in varying sizes so I'm glad I didn't wait. They were so overpriced it's a shame. But a little luxury in a woman's life is nothing to shake a stick at. I'm so misshapen I am loathe to purchase clothes and today's styles in shoes leave me buying these in bulk so I'm only left with handbags ...

I'm feeling just a tad bit corny this afternoon. Can you tell? I've been mulling over changing the feel of the blog since day one and so it's done. Let's see how long I like it. I couldn't help but make cakes of the Lorna's Shepherd Sock this weekend, but I did stop short of casting on. I think this colorway will work well with a textured sock, probably another mini cable rib like Jen's xmas socks. Yet I couldn't resist the pull of starting another pair of socks so I thought the best thing to do was to use the self-striping Regia Silk I picked up at Webs a month and a half ago. A pure stockinette sock is a perfect foil to what I have on the needles right now.