Small Victories

*squees, dances* I got a package in the mail this morning, and it had yarn in it!



Yes, the Lisa Souza sock yarn in the "Violet's Pink Ribbon" colourway arrived this morning and I'm in love. The colours are vibrant and gorgeous, and it's soooooo soft. I just couldn't stop touching it or rubbing it against my cheek and revelling in its softness. It's seriously yummy stuff.

Of course it only makes me want to finish all the other projects in the queue ahead of it even faster, and luckily there's some progress on those fronts. I think I've found a rib pattern that would suit the Blood & Bruises socks. Of course it likely won't be too obvious as the colourway will hide some of the texture, but if it's not too eye-hurty I might do it anyway, simply for my own personal giggles.

As for the socks already on the needles, last night after a few concentrated hours of knitting I turned the heel on Dad's second sock, and am now starting on the leg.



It was a nice accomplishment, too, as yesterday was a real bitch of a day, and I was worn out, somewhat pissed off, not feeling well and probably hormonal, just to make things that much more fun. And then today, while commuting around before work, I managed to start the cuff on the Times Squared socks. So far I've only got about a half and inch of 2x2 ribbing on each, but there's a certain comfort to knowing that you're working the cuff, and have entered the home stretch. Hopefully finishing those won't take long.

It'll be about time, too, for me to have a new pair of socks, as I really have to go through my stash and get rid of some. Mainly some of the first ones I knit, which at the time I thought fit fine, but as I've refined my tehnique and gained experience in sock knitting, I've come to realize that some of them really don't fit that well. There's one pair that I wore the other day that I couldn't keep up for more than about 5 minutes, and there are about 3 pairs I've already moved to the "donate" pile, as I only wore and washed them a couple times before I decided that they really were too small, but didn't feel like ripping them out, even when that would only really involve making the foot a little longer. A lot of the earlier ones are also looking somewhat the worse for wear; no holes as yet, but more the heels felting or pilling really badly. They're pretty sorry-looking and even though they might fit someone else, I wouldn't want to donate something that looked as awful as these things do.

Of course this will also answer my mother when she says, upon seeing me knitting another sock, "More socks? Don't you have enough socks?"

The answer, obviously, is "No, mother. You can never have enough hand-knit socks."

I'll probably have to knit her some, just so she can see for herself. ;)

As for knitting other than socks? I had a brainwave tonight (just before I, um...announced we were closing in five minutes an hour before we actually closed *facepalm*), and have an idea for another project. This would be for whenever I finish the afghan and the Swallowtail Shawl, and a couple scarves and...

I need to learn to function without sleep so I can knit. Can't someone invent some kind of regeneration thing like the Borg use (circa Star Trek: The Next Generation) at least?