Sundays are for spinning

Although apparently not too much.

I've been feeling rather bereft since finishing the shawl, sort of at loose ends. (By the way, I've responded to as many comments as I had email for, but thank you all very much for all of your kind words and bated breaths; I'm sure it had a lot to do with my successful completion of the knitting.) So on Friday and Saturday, I finished the Kimono socks (pictures to come, but I don't have any right now; imagine that the second one looks like a mirror image of the first one, and you've pretty much got it; like this, but with one tie each). And then I sort of sat around, wondering what to do, in a fibery sense at least; laundry and general housework ensured that I had plenty of other things to do.

So Sunday I sat down to spin, and dang if I hadn't lost some serious mojo since the last time. I drafted like spit. Which is a bad thing, in case you're wondering. Note to self: spin regularly or else. It's a pity, too, as I'm working on the lovely Jacob roving that I first bought from the fiber lady at the farmer's market. I keep trying to get more, but the Jacob she's had since has been brown and white, rather than black and white, and hasn't been nearly so soft as this one is. This is sad, as I'd been hoping to get enough more to ply it with the black Merino that Stella gave me, and then to knit a sweater of the yarn, but now my plan is to spin this and ply it, then to spin the Merino and ply it, and then to see if I've got enough for a sweater with some colorwork at the hems and neck. We'll see. Of course, all of this depends on getting some mojo back, which depends on finding some time to spin, which may not happen as classes start tomorrow.

But we will not speak of that.

I also spent some time thinking about various UFOs sitting around my house. There's one in particular that I've been thinking a lot about, probably because I was knitting it last year at this time as I sat at various soccer games: the Boudica socks. I love love love this pattern, as well as the yarn, but I have stalled out several times and can't seem to get moving on them at all. I am fairly sure it's because they're knitted on size 0 needles. At first, I was knitting on four size 0 dpns, which were very short, and which felt like knitting with toothpicks. I hated them with the flaming passion of a thousand white hot suns. See my difficulty? Love the pattern, love the yarn, hate the needles. (Why yes, I do get whiplash talking to myself, why do you ask?)

I also had a small problem with Size Denial. These are toe-up socks, and I kept trying them on as I knitted, thinking, wow, these are really much too big for my feet (which is saying something, as I have duck feet), but I'm sure that they'll fit better once I've knit more of them. ?? Am I the only person with this problem in my logic circuits? I ended up adjusting the pattern partway up the foot to make them narrower, and am happy with the overall fit of the foot, so that should be OK now, assuming I can remember what I did if I ever get to the second sock.

So I decided to give the whole knitting socks on two circs thing a try. I mean, a lot of people whose opinions I trust love love love socks on two circs, and I was hoping for some love love love of the needles to go with my general attitude towards the yarn and the pattern (which, btw, if you don't know, you should check it out on Ravelry; I really do like it very much; ymmv of course). So, in order to really give the experience my best shot, I invested in two Addi circs, size zero.

Hated It With the Flaming Passion of a Thousand White-Hot Suns: Redux.

I think that it may be that the needle part of the size 0s is just so tiny, and I keep getting poked in the middle of my palms while I'm knitting; my hands aren't that big, so it must be the needles, right? Maybe the thing to do would be to give this whole gig one more try, this time with my Harmonys, as they are longer.

Meanwhile, I've gotten distracted by another shiny object, in the shape of pink socks. A dear friend of mine is walking in the three-day breast cancer walk here in San Diego in November (more on that later), and it occurred to me that anyone who is planning to walk sixty miles in three days deserves a pair of socks. Preferably pink. And then Lime and Violet came out with their intention line of yarns, and the pink colorway is the intention "love". So I bought a skein; clearly the Knitting Fates had A Plan there, and who am I to argue with fate? I'm still feeling a bit wavery about which pattern to use, but I've narrowed it down to two, and I think I'll take that yarn with me to soccer practice tonight.

Unless I get distracted by something else in the next forty-five minutes. It's been known to happen.