As of the 10th of March, I am deadline free for the foreseeable future (well, except Blogtacular). There may be a few book edits remaining, a couple of workshops to teach and issues of The Yarn Project that need work, but by and large I will be a free woman.
I have known this was on the horizon since November of last year. Yes, that is how long it has taken for me to work through existing commitments as soon as I recognised I was burning out. It was also about that long ago that I began planning my next "just for me" knitting project.
While I toyed for a long while with the idea of making a cardigan, when I looked around my wardrobe was full of them. However, what I really needed was warm socks. Our house is very cold and cold feet make me miserable. Elly made me a pair of gorgeous cable knit socks in exchange for some photos I'd taken and I have worn them so much, they are sporting multiple holes.
And so socks it was. Yarn was chosen (semi-precious sock in cortez gold by Babylonglegs), and a pattern I'd seen someone making on instagram. The only thing left to decide was needles...
I have a bit of a *thing* about needles. Picky is probably an understatement. I have previously knit socks on DPNs, which was fine, but not perfect and not very portable with 4 little curious beasts around. Joeli had mentioned (maybe in a podcast or at the Rockin' Kitchen retreat) that Hiya Hiya did both short circulars and longer ones for magic loops designed specifically for socks. I decided to try 1 short circular to see how I got on.
Unable to wait until the 10th of March, of course I cast on and started knitting immediately. I have to say that I wish I'd gone for the magic loop. The circumference of my medium size socks is a bit of a pull against the diameter of the circ and I wish I had a bit more to hold on to. Also, I am constantly dropping stitches when cabling without a cable needle as there just isn't enough needle to work with when moving stitches around. That said, they will be brilliant for a simple stockinette sock, perfect in the cinema knitting (not that I ever go to the cinema, but theoretically).
We have an anniversary next week and I am tempted to ask for a set of the magic loop sock needles (steel I think, or do I want bamboo?) and some sock yarn as a gift (he could even pick out his own sock yarn and I would make him a pair of socks as his gift --genius, no?), but as I have never finished a pair of socks before, it may be a bit ambitious. I have, however, now written a blog post all about them with lots of links dropped in as a (not very) subtle hint *cough*
Oh and speaking of Deramores - have you seen their new blog awards for the best undiscovered knitting and crochet blog? The prizes look ace! More on that coming soon!!