WIPW v.42 - Rebus!

Hallo, WIPW peeps!

Greetings from the big

That's right, I'm in

this week for

And so, I dont have any progress pictures to share with y'all today.  Rest assured, by the time you read this, I will have one l o n g

under my

and another one looming ahead of me.  Much

will be

Proimise!

Plus which, about 12 hours after I land back in

and I will be heading out on a

to beautiful

We've booked ourselves into a cute little B&B, and are going to do some research on my Dad's side of the family.  I'm hoping to solve lots of

while we're there, and will definitely take tons of pictures, and promise to share all of it as soon as we're back in town.  For his part, Mr. Right will be chauffeuring and attempting to

his way through America's Farmland.  Wish us luck!  And while you're waiting for more news from this neck of the woods, go check out all of the other little WIPWersnappers (Heh.) and see what they're up to today...

Work In Progress Wednesday v.41

Oof.  Today is brought to you by this:



Seriously.  This has been one of those just-pull-the-covers-over-your-head kind of days, from beginning to end. And so I am a great big grump, for which I apologize. 

In the grand scheme of things, life could be much worse.  I'm healthy and happy (usually), and gainfully employed, and blissfully coupled.  And I have Super Secret Sock:

Which is generally coming along as it should, if a little slower than I'd like.  I'm just past the gusset decreases now and so it's all downhill from here.  The yarn is holding out as planned and I'm really thinking I'll get two whole socks out of it in the end, which is always a bonus!  In short, I should shut the heck up and count my blessings.

And, in order to speed up the additude adjustment process just a smidge, I'm going to eat this:

Really, it's for the greater good.  When I'm done, I'm going to go read everyone else's WIPW posts, 98% of which are guaranteed to be much more fun than this one. Go see if I'm right...

Work In Progress Wednesday v.40

Wow, WIP Wednesday is turning 40.  Seems like just yesterday it was barely old enough to drive...

It's been a busy week around these parts and sadly, I haven't managed to knit much of anything.  Boo!  But somehow, spending Saturday poking around little mountain towns with Mr. Right in gorgeous spring weather seemed more enticing than curling up with my Super Secret Socks.  It's amazing how one's priorities shift when the sun comes out and things start greening up!

I did manage a bit of sock progress.  If you'll recall, last week I was all in a tizzy about having enough yarn to make the socks longer by one pattern repeat and still having enough yarn to finish.  (Thanks, by the way, to everyone for their awesome advice and encouragement -- y'all rock.)  As it turns out, I finished repeat #3 (the prescribed number for the leg), and stealthily swiped one of Mr. Right's dress socks to measure against.  Secret Sock was just a hair longer than his current dress sock with only 3 repeats!  This is awesome news, as now I'll almost definitely have enough yarn to finish both socks. Yay! 

Once I got that figured out, I spent the next 3 or so days working through lunch (boo!), and then not having 5 minutes of down time in the evening to figure out how to fiddle my stitches around so that I could start the heel flap.  I actually did manage those 5 minutes at lunch today, and then 10 more to knit the first 12 rows of the heel flap.  Here's what it looks like now:

I was a bit worried that the cable pattern (made by only a couple of mind-bending-- at least for me -- stitch combinations) wouldn't show up well with the yarn, but it looks pretty good when it's all stretched out.  You'll just have to take my word for that until they're finished, lest my tiny little stitches go flinging off my tiny little needles when I stretch it out to show you...

In other news, I've just purchased my first skein of super yummy sock yarn from our friends at Candy Skein, and am really-not-so-patiently awaiting its arrival.  The colorway is Grape Taffy.  Isn't it fab?

I've been entertaining myself while I wait by trying to figure out what to do with it once it arrives.  Purple socks!  Purple shawl!  Purple hat!  Purple bikini top!  (okay, not really on that last one...)  The possibilities are endless.  My favorite kind!  Feel free to leave your purple ideas in the comments.  I'm open to suggestions.

I'm firmly resolving to get more knitting done in the next week.  I'm also firmly resolving to go check out everyone else's WIPW posts, but not until tomorrow, because at the moment it's Tuesday night and my hockey team is about to go kick some serious Red Wing butt.  I hope.

Work In Progress Wednesday v.39

Happy Wednesday, y'all!  Honestly, it seems like we're having them at least twice a week these days.  They just keep coming faster and faster.  Fortunately for me, I had 2 flights this week to actually sneak in some uninterrupted knitting time.  It was all kinds of awesome.  At the moment, the Super Secret Earl Grey Socks look like this:

I'm about 2/3 of a repeat away from starting the heel flap -- according to the pattern, at least.  But, these socks seem pretty short for a boy, and more importantly... pretty short compared to Mr. Right's other socks.  No problem:  I'll just add another repeat to the leg.  Problem:  I'm only about 35% sure that I have enough yarn for that. The pattern makes socks to fit shoe size 12, and takes 460 yards.  Mr. Right's feet are size 10.5, but my skein is only 450 yards.  To make matters worse, I bought the yarn eons ago from an LYS that's no longer with us, and the ball band is long gone, so no chance of lot matching. 

So now I'm thinking I may do the toes an another color, just to be safe.  I'm just not sure how well that will work for this pattern, where the cable is carried all the way to the toe. 

What do y'all think?  Blue toes?  Short socks?  Pray hard and hope I make it?  Any advice would be much appreciated!  It's extra important that these turn out perfect.

In other news, did you see that KnitPicks unveiled their new line of dish cloth cotton yarn (called "Dishie" -- cute!) five minutes after last week's treatise on the joys of dish cloths?  Coincidence?  I think not.  We're all about trendsetting around here, folks.  Speaking of which, you can go catch up with the rest of the cutting edge over at WIPW.  And while you're doing that, I'm off to fold my laundry.  Another trend?  Only time will tell...