Socks

I have become obsessed with knitting socks. It all started when a friend asked for help with the pair she was knitting in the second week of January. I went home, dug out some yarn I had ordered and started a pair that night. Since then, I have knitted five pairs. This is a lot of heavy duty knitting. I will post pictures later in the week as I need new batteries for my camera. I have enough yarn for two more pair before I have to go shopping.

I also knitted a cardigan sweater. It is a Coats and Clark pattern called "Country Swing, City Swing" and was featured in the April 2009 issue of Knit 'n Style. I used Cascade 220 Chocolate Tweed and am really pleased with it.

I read "A Dangerous Lady" by Jane Stanton Hitchcock and really liked it. It is a murder mystery but has several unexpected twists and turns. Also read "Past Perfect" by Susan Isaacs and thought it was wonderful too.

Obviously, it's been a long, cold winter here!

I think the hardest lesson for a beginning knitter is ripping out. I know there have been times when I have had to put aside a sweater or afghan I was working on because I was going to have to rip it out, maybe not all the way but enough that I couldn't face it at that time. Fortunately for me and my sanity, I always have several items on needles or something else ready to start. I think the time I had to rip out a man's cardigan sweater was the worst. It had an elaborate pattern and as I was ready to sew the pieces together, I realized I had made the back 2 inches longer than the fronts. Since it was a gift, I couldn't shunt it to the back of my closet for a couple of months but had to rip out the fronts and redo them immediately. I never made that sweater again.

One of my students refused to rip out and cast on over when she ran out of yarn, instead she joined a second ball and continued. Fortunately, the yarn was knobby and the knot was hidden in the pattern. However the next time she cast on she pulled out plenty of yarn.