SAM3 - February - done!

Not much knitting got done this past month, but I did manage to turn this --


-- into these:



The yarn is Lorna's Laces in the signature Quadra Island colourway from the Fun Knits Yarn Shop. It's a great mix of blue, sage, purple and charcoal, and the yarn feels wonderful, just as you'd expect from Lorna's.

It's a standard 72-stitch sock, with 2x2 ribbing at the cuff, 6x2 for the leg, and I carried a few of the ribs down the instep, just because I wanted to. I like how the 6x2 ribbbing helps to break up the slight stripey-ness that happened on the foot.





Fun Knits also carries the Smoke line of Opal, which I hadn't seen before. It has some great "guy" colours -- I might have succumbed to a skein or seven.

Even though I haven't been doing much actual knitting, I have been doing a bit of reading about knitting. I haven't yet seen the new IK sock book , but Canada did finally get Balls.

I've been waiting for this one for a while, and I was quite happy to finally find it. There's some very nifty stuff in there, including some socks! Some of it is a bit too fashion-forward for my staid little self, but the vest and the Aran immediately caught my eye as being very nice. There's also quite a bit of good technical stuff in it as well, so it's a welcome addition to my library.

I also picked up this:

I was fully prepared to *not* like this book based simply on the title, but it actuallly has some nice stuff in it. No, I'm not getting a dog, so I can't use half of the patterns, but most of the sweaters are quite wearable. I was particularly impressed with the range of sizes -- some of the patterns go from a 32 inch chest all way up to 60 inches. For those of us who aren't built like linebackers, this is Good News.

In the Other News Department, the International Scarf Exchange 4 is now taking sign-ups -- woo-hoo!!

I am now going to turn on the television and try to ignore the fact that many of you will be revelling at Stitches West.

Les Victoires

Thank you all for your warm wishes on my blogiversary, and thank you, also, for playing along in my little give-a-way. The original intent behind starting this blog was to help keep me on track on my various projects. I'm not so sure it's been successful on that front, but it's certainly been a lot of fun. Now if you'd all stop posting your wonderful projects and patterns and beautiful new yarns in am effort to lead me astray, I'd appreciate it. (Kidding!)

Many of you were able to guess the correct landmark number of comments, but one of you was actually home sick in bed and rather than knit actually took the time to count them. That's dedication! I was glad to see that Mr. Random Number Generator thought that dedication should be rewarded. Earthchick, you won by guessing the correct number -- 1500. And Meg, you won by actually posting the 1500th comment. Congratulations to you both! Earthchick seems to be veering a little bit into the sewing side, so I'm hoping to tempt her back into knitting by sending her some yummy yarn. And Meg ... well, you see, Meg seems to have this awful fascination with, um, well, what can you say ... novelty yarn scarves. I'm sorely tempted to send her the most novelty-ish yarn I can find so she can make one for herself rather than just stalking other peoples'.

This week in knitting: I wasn't going to join this round, but one look at my sock yarn stash said I better keep going, so I clicked away and am now a member of Sock-a-Month 3. That meant, of course, that I had to get started on some socks. I managed to get two done past the heel turn. I didn't like the fit of one, so I ripped it. I decided on a different pattern for the other, so I ripped it too. Hence, no new knitting to show you. I think every post should have at least one picture, so I guess that means that I have to recycle some previous FOs. :-)

CarrieK asked to see the inside of my Fake Isle Hat. Her wish is my command:

Complete with darned in end up at the top.

I will admit that the colours are starting to grow on me .... a bit. I do wear it, and it helps that I can't actually see myself when I'm wearing it.

And I've been obsessing about that cat's eyes -- you know, like I really have nothing better to do. I found something else that I like a little better.

They're still kind of spooky, but hey, I'm calling him done. Does anyone else find it strange that I can obsess over what constitutes the eyes, but then can blithely just glue them on over top of the old eyes with nary a care?

Oh, and that's snow you see in the background, not lint. ;-)