Knitting, Penpals, and Weekend Plans

A while ago I showed you the Noro yarn I had purchased with my birthday/Christmas money. Well, about two weeks ago I finished the clapotis, and I love it!

I don’t think any of my readers are knitters, but it you are interested, the pattern is online at knitty.com. It’s a bit big to be a scarf (I used an extra skein of yarn), so I have been wearing it as a stole (or shawl). The variegation is great, and my clapotis works well with the is-it-Spring-or-isn't-it weather we've been having. One color duo that I have come to enjoy in knitting this is pink and brown. I know that is an “in” combination with the Gap/Old Navy generation, but I do believe I am going to make it my own.

Two days after I finished the clapotis, my fingers started feeling jittery: there was nothing for them to do! So I pulled out from under my desk a sock project I dropped about 18 months ago. Two years ago I decided I really should learn how to knit socks—because you never know. (Never know what? I don’t know, I never know it!) I made a pair of socks for Trixie, then Impera, then it was the Consort’s turn, and I finished up with a pair for me. Trixie pretty quickly had worn a hole in hers, so she asked me to make her another pair, with the same pattern as Impera. One third of the way through the pair of socks, I got sidetracked. And that’s what I picked up again in mid March. Now they both have a hand-knit pair of socks, made with the same pattern, but done up in different yarn combinations:

Last Sunday (again, two days after finishing the previous project), my fingers began to twitch again. I opened up my sock pattern booklet, read this:

1st round: (P2. K1) twice. K2tog. yfwd. K1. yfwd. K2togtbl. K1. P2 *(K1. P2) twice. K1. K2tog. yfwd. K1. yfwd. K2togtbl. K1. P2. rep from * 3 times more. K1…

took a deep breath, and began a pair of lace pattern socks for me (made in Trekking sock yarn, in a beautiful blue variegated):

This project is a first on several planes: first lace pattern, first time actually working with sock yarn, and first time working on size 1 needles. Knitting with size 1’s is like knitting with wooden shish-kebab skewers (i.e., one step up from knitting with toothpicks!). But I’m having fun, and it’s knitting up faster than I expected.

I’ve uploaded these photos and a few more shots of these projects on my flickr site. Go take a look!

I’m thinking of joining Secret Pal 8. It is a 3-month Secret Santa–type group started by an online group of knitters/crocheters (Secret Santa in the summer: not bad!). Sure, I could go out and splurge $60 on myself, but I think lots of adults would still enjoy the childhood joy of penpals (I know I would). Adults don't often get surprise packages in the mail, and now that so much of our correspondence is electronic, mail has become the harbinger of debt. Yuck.

So check it out. Even if you are a super beginner, wouldn’t it be fun? (And not everything you get is knitting-related, if you read the info blog).

And have a good weekend. We’ll be digging in the dirt, mostly, with trips to Home Depot (kitchen sprucing-up may be in store! More info to come...) and our favorite bookstore in the plans as well.