as i mean to go on

Congrats to Vivian and Charlotte who won bookmarks from my stop on the Nightspell book tour! Charlotte, please check to see if my email to you was misfiled. I apologize for taking so long to announce it!

Cold winter has hit our nest this week. Brr! I have several warming projects on the needles or in sketching stages. My question to the world is thus:

Why do I wait until it is actually frigid to work on replacements for those knits I wore hard last year and are beyond mending?

I know denial and strong dislike of the cold kept me from facing the inevitable chilly fact that winter arrives here in late December and stays for a while. I’ve had plans to knit a new pair of mittens since that cold week last January. Oh I’ve knit them many times this past year. I’ve even knit them several times today… in my head.

Imaginary knitting leads to imaginary mittens which leads to imaginary warmth.

Even if the yarn choice is alpaca. *sigh*

sock progressHmm… these socks cannot keep my feet warm unless I knit a bit more of them. They are a little further along than this photo proves. On Sunday their heels were turned so it might not be too far in the future that I’ll have a new pair of socks. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Soulmate. It contains some (30%) Outlast and theoretically result in a balanced fabric. I’m not sure if this yarn will live up to its hype, but for now I’m enjoying knitting it. The twist is tight and the nylon (15%) content has me hopeful that this sock will last longer than some of its mates in my sock drawer.

This year I hope to knit a little more for myself without guilt. I’ve been knitting lots for the shop. I did not knit many socks last year, yet the sock stash bin is overflowing and I’m afraid to tally up the total yardage napping innocently there. My current plan is that a sock will alternate with a project for the shop as commute knitting. That should restore some balance and make a dent in the stash.