Whoops - It's June!

Arghh. I really need to accept the fact that the blog police will not come to my house and arrest me if I write a post without photos. They will not wipe my blog from the internet; they will not send cybergoons through the cable to delete my network connection. Nothing bad will happen. And then perhaps, I would post more regularly.

I mean, look! These socks here today have been finished for almost a month. I’ve hiked in them already, for cripes sake. They are done, done, done. But have I shown them to you? No. Pure laziness on my part – you know, finding a camera when the house is light enough to take pictures, uploading the photo, editing it, loading it into Photobucket. A poor excuse, I know. Most people don’t seem to struggle with this.

Finally I present to you my RPM socks! Or, as I like to call them, my RPM|MPR socks. ‘Cause I reversed the direction of the purl stitch spiral on the second sock so they would be mirror image of each other. Lying flat, the first sock has a much more distinct spiral – the purl stitches really pop out of the fabric. The second sock, not so much. I suspect this is related to everything from the synergy of the spiral matching/not matching the direction of knitting in the round to the way I wrap my stitches. On the ankles though, the differences fade and they really do look neat. I also did these toe up (Judy’s magic cast on), with a stockinette foot (no funky ridges when I’m hiking), and a short-row heel. Oh, and twisted 1x1 ribbing on top. But otherwise, credit where it’s due – the pattern is here.

I made these from some of my crazy Cherry Tree Hill Super Sport stash (this colorway is Spanish Moss). Crazy because I bought 8 skeins in 8 different colors (big grab bag sale). Thanks to the wonder that is the Ravelry yarn search, I discovered that a single skein (~250 yds) is in fact enough to make a pair of adult socks. Not that I need 7 pairs of wildly colored boot socks, but at least I know I can do it. I used one skein some time ago to make a scarf, too.

In other news, I’m getting ready for my big English hiking trip. What to pack… hmmm, let’s see, is 3 projects too many for an 8 day trip? (Note to self: yes. Don’t be ridiculous. Even if you stay awake for every minute of the trans-Atlantic flight in both directions, you cannot knit through that much yarn in that few days.) Two books – both non-fiction (snore….., but required reading for upcoming book club meetings). My not-quite-dead-yet MP3 player (will replace when I get home). Here’s a hmmmm for you. What do people with IPods do when they travel overseas? Do you carry an electric plug converter with you? My current player runs on a single AAA battery – you can get them anywhere on the planet. But it looks like almost all the new devices (most brands) for sale use a lithium ion battery (permanent, rechargeable). That seems like kind of a pain, considering how nice it is to have music on a really long plane trip.

In other knitting news, I’m into the painful part of a baby-blanket in the round for a friend of mine. DK weight, size 6 needles. I think I’m at over 250 sts/round now. I do twelve rows/color and it was fun at first to finish a color per night. Now I’m at around 3 nights per color. Not as much fun.

Okay, I promise to post more regularly in the future. Maybe not with pretty pictures every time, but less than a month between posts.

{Edited Thursday: Did I say 250 sts/round? I must have been smoking. I counted last night. It's at 500 sts/round. Ugh. The end is in sight, but it's a lot of stitches away.}