Socks and String

I pretty much gave up on blogging in February. March isn’t exactly looking much better. Turns out marathon training can be sort of time-consuming. Long hours running I expected, but I did not count on needing to spend the rest of the day after a long run as a heap on the couch. Luckily for me, I can still sit on the couch and be a productive knitter. So while I have not been blogging, I have been knitting.

I finished the Sock Knitters Anonymous mystery socks in early February. It just took another four weeks for me to block and photograph them.

Pattern:  Blathnat (Ravelry download)

Yarn:  Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Lubber Grasshoppper

I'm lukewarm. The socks aren't quite my style. I suppose you take that risk with any mystery pattern, and I did really enjoy knitting them.  But...the fit is a little awkward for my foot and I think I made them a bit too short.  I was so looking forward to having my very own pair of Bugga! socks but these don’t have the same squishy softness as the Roger socks I made for Mike.  Looks like I’m going to have to find a nice textured pattern for myself and try again.

The pattern was well thought out and very clearly written, and since each clue had something new, it was a great mystery sock.  And hey, why am I complaining--I finished a pair of socks in a month and I can't even remember the last time that happened.  But all in all, the first finished project of 2012 is sort of a fail.  Bummer.  Moving on.

I was psyched about spinning some sock weight yarn last summer, so obviously finally winding the skein and casting on a sock was super exciting.  Despite choosing a very simple pattern that I thought would compliment the yarn, a few inches into the foot and I couldn’t deny that I liked the sole much more than the instep. After an impulsive decision in the waiting room of my dentist’s office, I pulled the needles out of the sock and ripped it back to the toe.  Plain stockinette it would be.  I’m about back up to where I was before I ripped.

These might take awhile due to my brilliant move to knit man-sized socks on size 0 needles.  The 2012 knitting is not exactly taking my breath away with success.

But where I am rocking out on the crafting front is on my spinning wheel. Despite tired legs and calves, I manged to keep treadling my wheel, and January and February were filled with spinning.

And more spinning.

And even more spinning.

I'm feeling too lazy to write out the details.  If you are interested in fiber, yardage, etc., all the skeins are on my handspun stash page on Ravelry. Now just to figure out what to do with all this pretty pretty yarn.