“Blizzard warning for City of Alexandria until 7 p.m. Stay home.”

That sums up our weather better than I can.

The view out my window:

The flag outside the front of my condo must be pretty tired by now:

It looks chilly, no?

So far today my power has stayed on. fingers crossed . . .

You know how I am always yapping about weighing my skein of yarn so that I can divide it into two balls for knitting socks? Well, I have a new digital scale.

It’s this one: the EatSmart Precision Pro.

You can switch the unit of measure between grams, kilograms, pounds. and ounces. And you can weigh up to 5Kg/11 Lbs on it. It runs on 2 AAA batteries.

It has a nice large display:

And it comes in 5 colors. Mine is a pretty red.

While I have been using it for weighing my yarn, it is also darn handy for weighing food. One of the cool features of this scale is a “Calorie Factor Booklet” that comes with the scale. You weigh your food in grams, then look up that food in the booklet and multiply the weight in grams by the “Calorie Factor” listed in the booklet — that’s the number of calories in your portion. Kind of a cool little feature.

Anyhow, if you are looking for a compact little scale for weighing your yarn and/or food, this one works great. Check out the reviews on Amazon (see link above) — you’ll see that a lot of people agree with me!

Speaking of red . . .

Lucy has been surprisingly unaffected by the high winds and dramatic weather right outside the window:

Part One of the book contains basic information for sock knitters, including tools you need, knitting socks to fit, and essential information about the patterns in the book, tips on reading charts, ans some information about creating your own socks designs.

In Part Two, there are twenty-one sock patterns, divided into 3 sections: lace, cables, colorwork. Each of these sections includes step-by-step instructions for techniques used for its patterns. There  is a section about adapting patterns to knit knee-socks, and a couple of the patterns are written for multiple options for length. With a couple of exceptions, there is a wide range of sizes for the patterns. There are designs exclusively for men, women, and children, plus a number that are uni-sex and . . . um . . . uni-age.

And there is an appendix that contains step-by-step instructions for toe-up techniques.

No, there are no photos of Lucy in the book. Sorry. But wait til you see the models — they are gorgeous. The little girl who models the children’s socks is absolutely adorable.

SallyA asked how it is different from the first sock book. Well, for starters, twenty-one new patterns. And instructions for techniques that aren’t covered in the first book (lace stitches, cabling without a cable needle, and colorwork techniques). And it contains an all-new set of my tips and tricks.

The patterns are, to my mind, more sophisticated. They range from pretty easy to knit to challenging. I look at the first book as a more basic “how-to knit toe-up socks” with fairly easy patterns.

So there you have it. My take on the new book. I am very very happy with it and I hope those of you who buy it will be too.

Because I read it cover to cover last night (twice), I did not do much knitting. But I did make a little progress on Aestlight.

And hopefully it will be close to finished the next time you see it!

Lucy appears to be ready for the weekend.

Me too.

This took approximately 600 yards of dk/light sportweight weight yarn — Lorna’s Laces Pearl, in the “Mineshaft” colorway. I used 3 100-gram skeins (220 yards each) and had 30 grams leftover from the last skein. US 7 (4.5mm) needle.

The wingspan is about 72″, and it’s about 26″ down the center back.

The pattern will be available in a couple of days.

We Have a Winner

Congratulations to Emmy Jay who has won my copy of Men’s Knits: 20 New Classics by Erika Knight. Thanks to everyone who left a comment!

Am I Still Knitting Socks?

Yes.

Am I Still Knitting Lace?

Yes.

Lucy Sez

“This is a nice kitty blanket, Momma!”