Day 85: Knitting does still happen around here

I am, after all, a knitting linguist, and I do still knit.  There is a shawl to show at some point, but I haven't had a chance to block it (maybe this weekend?).  Meanwhile, I have been poking away at a really fun pair of socks that I started at a long weekend of board meetings last spring, and then put away while getting through the College Blanket Saga (TM).  Once that was done, they came back into rotation as an easy and small project, perfect for the car and meetings.  And then they came swiftly off the needles.

Aren't they fun?  They're Must Stash Yarn in the colorway Ready Player One.  Totally aside from the fact that I love that book, every single one of the colors of these stripes makes me happy.  This yarn comes in two identical skeins, so that the stripes end up matching (and how awesome is that?).  My one and only regret about them is that I hadn't gotten the contrasting yarn when I cast on - I just wish I had knit the top ribbing in that, as well as the heels and toes.  (Not enough to cut the ribbing off and reknit it, though - I'd hate to toss that extra bit of stripey goodness!)

There's a happy story about that contrasting yarn.  I cast on for these, as I mentioned, at a three-day set of meetings this past spring.  These meetings are really intense, and they involve a LOT of sitting still.  So I knew I needed something totally mindless to knit, but also cheerful and fun.  This yarn was the answer to my prayers.  I also knew that I didn't want any shaping to disrupt the stripes, and that I'd need a contrasting color for the heels and toes.  There was no time to get anything before leaving home, so I counted on finding a yarn store somewhere near the meetings.  During the first day, a colleague recommended a little shop in Arlington, near where we were having dinner that night.  So off I popped, in my free hour between meetings and dinner, to check it out.  The shop was FibreSpace, which I cannot recommend more highly.  Not only is it a fantastic little shop with friendly folks and a great fiber selection, but check this out.  I had found a skein of something very yummy, and very expensive (especially given that it was technically just for the toes and heels - I was telling myself that I'd get another pair of socks out of it), when I went up to the counter to get an opinion on the color.  The nice young man behind the counter says to me, are you just getting this for heels and toes?  Yep, I say.  And he points to a little basket on the floor behind me and says, "That's what the Miss Babs mini-skeins are made for!"  And that is exactly what I ended up doing.  He could've failed to tell me that, and I would've spent the money.  But he didn't, and he saved me quite a lot, and I am telling you that I'm definitely going back when I'm out there for the next board meeting, and I want to recommend them to you, too.

I knit these top down, as a tube, and put in a strand of waste yarn where I wanted the heel to be.  Then I basically knit a toe as the afterthought heel. I was so enchanted by the stripes that I ended up knitting a very shallow toe, but they fit nicely.  I wore them all day yesterday, both in and out of shoes, and they're cozy and comfortable.  Now I need to get another skein of this yarn, because Rick wants a pair, too.

More related knitting to show tomorrow!