Holiday Socks

Everyone who goes away has a holiday knitting project to bring with them, right?

Well I do. I couldn't conceive of being without my knitting for any period of time. Plus, what would I do on an airplane for 8+hours, then 4 hrs layover, then another 1.5 hrs? Someone would meet an unfortunate end if I was knitting-less.

For some reason I found it really hard to pick a pattern this time. Do you ever have that, where nothing jumps out at you? I studied my knitting books and Ravelry for AGES and eventually managed to decide on this pattern:



Glynis (RavLink) by CookieA from Sock Innovation.
Off I went. I knit solidly on the planes and in the car, and by the time we'd arrived in Orlando, I'd turned the heel and was on the foot.



I have to say the pattern was a bit of a pain. There were sssk's followed by m3 from 1 st followed by k3tog which was difficult to do. But I soldiered on.
Then disaster no 1 struck. I was knitting happily by the pool, and *snap*! One of my dpns broke. I was devastated! After I got over the trauma of one of my beloved KnitPicks harmony dpns "biting the dust" I decided to soldier on.

Then I stopped to examine the sock. Hmm, I thought, that looks a bit snug. So I tried it on. No chance it was fitting. So I called Alice. Tried it on her. No chance it was fitting her either! WTF! This sock was sized to fit an adult, I used the same needle size, same sock weight, and it didn't fit a 9 year old? I'm not a tight knitter either, so I was flummoxed. Not to mention annoyed that half my holiday knitting was wasted.

Still, there was no point in crying over teeny socks. I ripped back and searched for a new pattern. And the indecision hit again. Plus the fact that I was determined to finish these on holidays. Sod it, I thought, I haven't made a plain pair of socks for ages. That'll do.
So I cast on 64 sts and off I went:




I knit like a sunbathing fiend and actually got as far as finishing the heel flap on day 1!
I did go searching for a replacement dpn but to no avail in Florida. I prefer to knit on 5 dpns, but can make do on 4 if I have to. I finally got some in Knitch in Atlanta.

Anyhoo, I stormed along, and finished the first sock on the road, somewhere between Gainesville, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia. I had to take an "action" pic to prove it!:




I was on a roll now. I didn't get much knitting done in Atlanta, but I hit the needles once we were on the plane!
I got as far as the end of the gusset decreases on the foot on the plane, and finished them the day we arrived home. Yay! Socks done while on holiday! And I would have been finished much sooner if it weren't for the Glynis disaster.



Not too bad.
Pattern: Made up out of my head plain socks. I've decided to call them Everglades socks in honour of knitting them in Florida, and also because I think they look kinda swampy coloured.
Yarn: Fibranatura Yummy. To be honest, I didn't like this yarn. It was quite scratchy to work with, and hairy! Lots of little hairs coming off. I wouldn't use it again. Hopefully it'll soften up once washed.
Needles: 2.5mm KnitPicks Harmony Dpns, with one Brittany dpn added towards the end :)


More to come on current projects, and I promise to post about the stores I visited.

In the meantime, here's a slideshow of the cardmaking stuff I bought:




Oh, I almost forgot!
Wyvernfriend and I, as you know, maintain the IrishKnitting website. Last night we were talking on Twitter about how great it would be to encourage new knitters and also to try and get more teachers to teach knitting in primary schools again. We think that maybe some kind of lending library would be a good idea, so that people can borrow books and magazines for techniques or to "try before they buy".
We decided to have two categories, one for lending, where the title will remain the property of the lender, and one for "liberated" books, where the book is free to go to a good home, but with the proviso that it remains on our list of available books, so that anyone else can borrow them too.
What do you guys think? This project will only be as good as the books made available to it, so we will need lots of knitters and crocheters to sign up! Check out the site and leave a comment on the Lending Library page to let us know if you have any suggestions, or are willing to take part.

Good Knitting!