A Perfect Time to Knit

The wind is whistling in the trees and beating against the walls of the building, so this is definitely a good day to curl up with some knitting. Particularly as the power is flickering somewhat ominously. I'm dogsitting for my brother while he and his girlfriend are in Las Vegas, and I'm in their apartment, above the roofline of the surrounding houses, so the strength of the wind is really noticeable.

At least I've had a fair bit of knitting to do. I've finished the Blood and Bruises socks, though I don't have my camera here so I can't get a photo of the finished socks. I do have photos of the Times Squared socks, though, finally.

As I mentioned in my last post they're wonderfully soft and warm, particularly after they've been washed.

Since then I've been trying the Magic Loop method of working on sock--I know, me, who said she preferred DPNs and didn't see herself switching any time soon.

I can't exactly say why I decided I'd try doing magic loop, I was mainly just curious about the technique, and thought it might be interesting to find out how to do it. You can never know too many techniques after all.

I got a small 2mm circ when I was at the yarn store for the second Knit & Chat a couple weeks ago. It's too small to do socks for me on it comfortably (in true tradition I didn't see any of the sites where people said "longer circs are better!" until I'd actually bought the needles) but luckily I know a couple people that have spawned, and have been intending to make them baby socks with leftover sock yarn that I've had lying around in the stash.

I figured out how to do the figure-eight cast on and got to work, and I have to admit, it is a handy technique. No knitting needles poking out of my totebag, and it's not as unwieldy to lug around as socks on two circs does. I finished the first sock a couple days ago and have cast on for a second.

Unfortunately the yarn stores in my town aren't the greatest at stocking very small size circs however, and I wanted another 2mm circ in a longer length, as the yarn I got from Lisa Souza and Sunshine Yarns is fairly fine. I was also far too impatient to order off the internet and wait for them to arrive, so yesterday I made a trip to a yarn store in Niagara Falls that I really like, The Knitting Habit, using the local transit system. We don't have a regional transit system, but Niagara Falls and Welland Transit each have one bus that goes to Brock University, so I can head up there and get one of those. Even better, the N. Falls transit bus goes right by the intersection closest to the store, and as I have a monthly pass for St. Catharines Transit, the expense was really only the extra fare for the Niagara Falls bus.

I may have to make that trip more often, as there were quite a few things at the store that I wanted but stopped myself from buying as I have way too much stash already, and I remembered correctly that they had Addi Turbo needles, so I was able to get a 29" 2mm Addi needle as well as a long circ by...I think Aero in 2.25mm and another in 3.5mm for a project that I want to do. I've already started on the first sock using Sunshine Yarns in the "Cliffhanger" colourway, and I think I know what theme I want to do with this one. I'm just loving the yarn so far--it's so wonderfully soft and makes a really nice fabric.

Now if only the interlibrary loan I put in for for Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch and Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush would come in, I'd be in sockmaking heaven. I don't think I'm going to give up the DPNs completely for circs, but it's nice to have yet another set of tools I can use to make socks, so I can have more on the go at once.

At the moment, though, I'd just prefer it if the power came back on so I could knit, as it finally went out about 45 minutes ago, and I've been touch-typing since then. Luckily brother and his girlfriend have digital cable which appears to provide a powersource for the router and TV, so I can still post this!