Steamboat

I apologize for the radio silence. There's been lots of knitting, cooking, and other regular Seedless Grape-y pursuits lately, but not much time to blog about it. That's partly because work is ramping up for a biiiig deadline coming up at the end of March. It's also partly because . . . .

I went skiing!


Yup, that's me at Steamboat Springs, CO. GPG and I went up for a weekend of skiing last week. Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative for photography, so that's pretty much the only picture I have to document our trip. The weather was actually beautiful on Saturday, but we took a ski lesson and left the camera at the lodge. The other two days it was fairly overcast; on Saturday, we had total white-out from mid-mountain on up due to very low-hanging clouds. At some point, visibility was probably less than 30 yards. Very discombobulating for skiing!

But there is a teeny-tiny bit of knitting content to this post! If you look closely, you'll see that I'm wearing an orange neck gaiter. You'll have to take my word that my jacket hood is covering up a matching hat. I knit like a madwoman on the plane to Steamboat to make both of them just in the nick of time for skiing.

The hat matches the one I knit for GPG' Valentine's Day present last year. We both wore the hats while skiing and they made finding each other on the slopes a lot easier! The gaiter was simply a long tube of K2, P2 ribbing that I could slip over my head and wear around my neck. Both the hat and gaiter came in very handy--I never felt cold whenever we were out on the slopes.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Child's First Socks

One of my 2008 resolutions is to finish some lingering WiPs. A lot of my WiPs have been collecting dust for a while, so I'm trying to get a move on and get them off the needles. One of these WiPs that is now finally an FO is the Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Knits.


I started these last summer, just before studying started to heat up for the bar exam. I managed to turn the heel of the first sock before setting the project aside. That single sock languished on my dresser for the rest of the year until I picked it up late in December. I've knit on it off and on since then.

Because there was such a long period of time between when I started the first sock and when I started its pair, I was a victim of my own cleverness (or lack thereof). For some reason, when I knit the first sock, I must have decided that the cuff was plenty long enough at 16 rounds and started on the leg. But when I started the second sock, I followed the pattern directions to the letter and knit a cuff of 20 rounds. *sigh* I haven't decided if I'll try to correct the longer cuff by unraveling or cutting the cast-on edge or not. People at my knitting night said the difference is really negligible, but since I'm giving the socks away and I'm a perfectionist, I might try to fix it.

Aside from the cuff problem, I love everything about these socks. The pattern knits up very nicely and is easy to memorize. The yarn, Fleece Artist Merino Sock, pooled just a little bit, but generally worked really well with the pattern. And of course the yarn is nice and sproingy. I love it!

Pattern: Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks
Needles: US2 Clover DPNs
Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino Sock, "Raspberry"
Recipient: The Anesthesiologist ("Aspiring Anesthesiologist" no more--she's the real deal now!)
Mods: Fewer pattern repeats in the leg. I think I only did 3 or 4 repeats.

I used to think that the pink of this yarn was eye-searingly bright. But having worked with it for a while, I guess I've gotten used to it and I actually like it quite a lot. These will be going to the Anesthesiologist, who owns pink sneakers. I figure that someone who owns pink sneakers can definitely use pink socks!

Eye Candy Friday: Noro Edition

January is more than half over and already I'm behind on my blogging. That's partially because the weather in Houston has been less than friendly for photos, and partially because work is heating up again--we have a big deadline for a lot of work at the end of March. I also spent last weekend doing various supportive-girlfriend things for GPG, who ran the Houston Marathon! He ran his fastest time ever--a 4:23:01--and has gotten the marathon bug in a serious way. He's already looking for another one to run in February or March!

In lieu of actual blogging, I thought I'd bring back Eye Candy Friday, if only for a week, to show (one of) my latest stash acquisition(s): 7 balls of Noro Kureyon, which I bought at my LYS's end-of-year sale:

This is just the first wave of Noro purchases, so there should be more Noro-related Eye Candy Fridays in the future. Can you guess what I'm making??? It's not Lizard Ridge! I'll try to post a clue next week that will totally give it away if I can take some good photos this weekend.

In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Elegant Cable Rib Socks

This was my last FO of 2007, but I've only now gotten around to cleaning up the pictures and posting them. I had promised my grandma a pair of socks a long time ago last year, and by God I was going to give her a pair of socks. I knit madly on these all throughout the Christmas holiday weekend and managed to mail them off so she'd get them before New Year's.


Sport weight yarn + size 5 needles + small feet + easy pattern = fast socks, which was exactly what I needed. I would have preferred to have given her some intricate socks made with regular fingering weight yarn, but I just didn't have time for that at the end of the year. I can make her some nicer socks this year.


Pattern: Elegant Cable Rib Socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks
Yarn: Fleece Artist sport weight ("Merino 3/6") in the "Beet" colorway
Needles: Brittany Birch US5 DPNS
Recipient: My Grandma
Mods: You can't tell from the photos, but I didn't make knee-high stockings, as the pattern calls for. I made regular length socks because a) my grandma is not a knee-high socks kinda gal, and b) I didn't have time to make knee-high socks. Since the leg was relatively short, I continued the cable rib pattern onto the instep instead of reverting to a regular 2x2 rib, like the pattern suggests, just to keep the sock visually interesting (for both recipient and knitter).

The pattern was easy to memorize, but I think it looks great. I will definitely knit it again, maybe with smaller yarn and needles. I also love the yarn--Fleece Artist has a special place in my heart.

Hope 2008 is treating everyone well so far! Have a great week!