Second Pair of Socks OTN

For you non-knitterly folk: OTN = on the needles. Unlike the quilting me, the reading me, and others, the knitting me likes to finish one project before putting the next one OTN...however, since I am still new to this land of knitting, I do still have potential. Please note that I linked land of knitting to the Yarn Harlot's inspirational blog because she wrote the book I am currently enjoying, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting.

And it begins. Birdie's Baby Sweater is in need of blocking (which I'm not really excited about and kind of waiting for knitting group on Monday to get further guidance from my birthday sharing knitting friend, M). Hmm, I should ask if a name might be okay with her... until then, initial it will be. Birdie's Baby Sweater also needs 2 or 3 really cute and a little oversized for ease of fastening for mom, buttons. I am going to leave the button type out of the blog in order to keep the mystery alive for Birdie's mama because I know she's become a blog reader (hooray).

I met Birdie's mama in 1988, sophomore year in college. We were at a small college in Michigan and shared a suite (no, nothing like the Ritz ... NOTHING); two dorm rooms and a tiny functional bathroom between. Luxury was not on the radar screen. The sulfur content in the water there made blonde hair a frightening shade of orange -- gross. And, the damage that it did to the fixtures in the bathroom (it could also have been the caustic "pink stuff" cleanser that we used to attempt removal of the brown/yellow stains). Eeech. I actually lived there 3 1/2 years. One of the semesters I was out of the country and frankly do not recall anything significant about the water there so I see that as a good sign that my college's town was unique in that way. A big yellow/brown star to the reader who knows what college I'm talking about (no fair if you know me personally). Oh, and did I mention that we couldn't drink the water from the tap? and that it was really really smelly? and that some of the girls (the ones who could afford it) used to bring in distilled water to wash their hair?

Anyway, back to the second pair of socks. I am using actual sock yarn this time. The needles do feel like toothpicks, but actually are thinner than toothpicks. I've frogged the toe once (non-knitters: frog = rip it rip it). I'm not frustrated yet. I'm using some lovely blue/gray/black self-striping wool-blend that for the life of me I cannot recall the name of. The label has found itself a home in the bottom of one of my many "knitting bags." A side note: I don't start tons of projects at one time, but I do change bags on occasion - oh, all right, on many occasions - and leave parts of the WIP (work in progress) in the previous bag. I have a pretty good idea as to what that says about me, but I will allow you to decide for yourselves. Please be kind.

Is it normal to just want to work on the project instead of anything else? Work, eating, sleeping? It's normal for me. Again, please be kind in your analysis of what this says about me.

Back to the sock...I am doing toe-up again. I really like short rows and I like the way the socks look. Maybe my next pair will be from the Yarn Harlot's recipe from Knitting Rules, which is hilarious and chock full of hints!

Garden Report: Beautiful weather expected today in the Chicagoland area. Whoop Whoop! So excited, I'm going to put in my tomato plants today. I'll probably do my de-dandelioning of the lawn too (not as fun, but really needed right about now). The Scottish Moss is starting to flower with these delicate little white blooms and the Clematis is doing really well! I love the purple flowers. Photos in my next post (or the one after that).

Enjoy!