Knitting and spinning. The fun never stops.

Here is my progress on the second Nanner sock.

I’m getting there, but finishing this sock will be spilling over into the start of the Summer of Socks. Ah well, it can’t be helped!

I’ve decided for my first Summer of Socks project to do a sportweight sock — nothing like some immediate gratification to boost your spirits. Well, knitting socks in sportweight yarn is not exactly immediate, but it goes faster than fingering weight. Duh.

I’ve written up a pattern and now I just have to choose a yarn.

Fortunately I just got a package from The Loopy Ewe. Conveniently, I purchased two skeins of sportweight sock yarn, both from Yarntini.

Now I just have to decide which one to use first. Which one would you pick?

Speaking of the Summer of Socks

Are you looking for a fun sock pattern for the Summer of Socks? Check out Kristi’s new design “Guided By Love” available here. Read about it from the link — all profits are being donated to charity and the pattern is adorable. I’ve got my copy!

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Lucy is checking my sock in progress. Sometimes I think I work her too hard.

For some reason I have been thinking in LOLSpeak lately.

I have completed the first Nanner sock.

I have made a start on the second one, but will wait until tomorrow to show a progress photo.

I originally had a little fantasy that I would finish this pair moments before the stroke of midnight Friday night, thus enabling me to start a new sock project at the beginning of the Summer of Socks. Yes, well, that’s not going to happen, unless I call in “busy with sock knitting” to work, which I am not planning on doing.

Not that it matters . . . I’ve set no goals for myself nor entered any contests for the Summer of Socks, so it’ll be just freestyle knitting for me!

In other news, boy oh boy, are you gonna be jealous when you see my new Ravelry shot glasses:

Lucy is surprisingly unmoved.

I will attempt to be more coherent tomorrow, but I make no promises.

Saturday marks the Summer Solstice (in the northern hemisphere, anyhow), right?

We all know what that means: Summer of Socks. And I haven’t even thought abut what I’ll start with to kick off the Summer of Socks!

I ought to be finishing up my Nanner socks right around the start of SOS. I have the first one almost done:

(It would be completely done if I didn’t spend so much time goofing off over the past few days.)

So I checked my “pending” folder on my ‘puter for sock designs I’m working up and note that I have 76 files in there. I guess I ought to pick one out, polish it up, and designate it the kick-off sock for the Summer of Socks.

A while back someone asked me if I ever knit any other people’s sock designs. The answer is: not any more. In early 2007 I did knit 2 or 3 of the patterns that came with sock club offerings, but since the start of summer last year I’ve been doing my own thing.

Someone else asked me if I ever knit my own designs twice. And the answer to that is pretty much no. I’ve got 76 pending sock designs so I’d better get to knitting those.

Note that I don’t expect all 76 of them to evolve into socks. But more than half of them probably will.

Golden Boy

Thank you to all of you who left such thoughtful and caring comments on the impending demise of Golden Boy. Many of you offered to send me prospective Golden Boy replacements and I took a couple of you up on this offer. I thank all of you who offered.

Many of you shared your row counting techniques. In true Wendy fashion, I have found something wrong with each and every one of them.

While the paper and pen method works well for many of you, it does not work for me while commuting, nor at home, as I have a pen-stealing kitty.

The katcha-katcha on a cord around the neck works well for many of you, but does not work for me on my commute, as I already have a frigging badge around my neck and do not wish to wear any more non-jewelry related stuff.

The mini katcha-katcha pinned to the knitting works well for many of you, but I have tried it on a sock-in-progress and it’s a bit too heavy for comfort.

I am clearly difficult.

On reader recommendation, I purchased a Clover row counter.

It’s not bad . . . it’s not bad at all. Not quite as good as Golden Boy in his prime, but definitely usable.

By the way, I do not need a row counter for my Nanner socks — the pattern repeat is only 12 rows. I only use Golden Boy on very long pattern repeats. By counting rows, I can keep better track of the pattern and therefore memorize it more easily. This means I don’t need the chart, so I knit faster. It’s all a chain reaction.

Lucy sez:

“I do not steal pens. Nail files? Yes. But not pens.”

The formerly unnamed socks pictured above are now called Walk the Plank Socks. The pattern is now available for sale from the Sanguine Gryphon’s etsy shop.

Oh, and the Swan Song Socks pattern is now available as a freebie download from The Loopy Ewe’s free pattern page.

In current knitting, here is an artsy photo of my Nanner Sock in progress.

It poses gracefully on my desk to show off its heel in progress.

Show-off.

For those who asked, this sock pattern will not be made available to the public. It’s a freebie I doodled up for my Plurk buddies. Sorry!

Here’s what it looked like outside my window as I arrived home from work:

And here’s what Lucy looked like moments ago:

I am pleased to welcome a new week because last week was not a stellar one. After what I suspect was a case of salmonella, intense heat and humidity, work and computer issues, power outages and fires in DC, and a cable outage for me at home, I’m hoping for a calmer week ahead!

What I did this weekend:

I Plurked:

I started a new sock:

This is the first Nanner sock, a pattern I designed for my Plurk-buds and me. You kinda sorta have to be on Plurk to understand the significance of nanners (bananas), so I won’t bore you with the story here. But it is an easy lace pattern that I’m knitting in Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in the Butter Peeps colorway on 2mm needles.

Because it is easy lace, I do not need Golden Boy to keep track of my rows, so he is resting quietly.

I was startled by a Freddy Krueger-like character last night:

And that pretty much sums things up!

Lucy sez:

“Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!”