Gray Wednesday

The last few days have been rainy so I've actually had a bit of time to knit and read. Sorry the pics are so drab, my socks as well as the weather are gray. I'm embarrassed to admit that gray is actually one of my favorite colors. What can you expect from a former accountant turned librarian?! These are my first pair of socks worked on circular needles, and aside from a few glitches I think that I am a circular needle convert.

I used two circulars rather than the magic loop. I'm still intimidated by that whole loopy thing, and think that the whole business looks rather awkward. I was reluctant to abandon my double points - there's something about them that makes me feel connected to the past. Maybe it's all of the lovely artwork out there that depicts women working so industriously on their socks. (Though I must admit this young lassie doesn't look all too excited about the task at hand. Is that a dreamy far off look - or a bitter 'when in the hell will I ever be done with this freaking sock look' ?)

That said, cables are wonderful because you never lose them, as I'm always losing those tiny double points, and you don't lose stitches when you put your work down because you can slide the stitches safely down onto the cable. My only trouble was that against the advice of the yarn shop owner I insisted on purchasing the bamboo needles rather than the Addi Turbo's. Don't get me wrong I love Addi's, and in retrospect I should have bought the Addi's, but I fell in love with those cute little bamboo needles and the elegant gold join, that would later prove to be the bane of my existence. You see the stitches are essentially divided in half between the two cables. Work half the stitches, then slide the stitches down onto the cable, drop the needle and pick up the other cable needle working the remaining stitches. Note that the stitches need to slide onto and off of the cable after working the stitches on each needle - here was my problem, that pretty little golden join was not smooth at all - and even after loosening up my stitches a bit to accomodate the join - the last two stitches were always a bit tighter and very tricky to slide back onto needle.


This became rather annoying as you can imagine with the zillions of tiny stitches that go into the making of a sock. So live and learn I guess, or save yourself some time and go straight for the Addi's.

By the way April 1865 is a very interesting book for any of you Civil War buffs out there. I felt very apropros knitting a gray sock while reading it even if I am a Northern girl. By the way I can't actually read and knit simultaneously - that's just a dream of mine, I have to take turns.