WIP

The back of the Kimono Top is pretty much finished. Since it's a three-needle bind-off, it's still on a cord with the yarn still attached, so I have the option of adding a little more to the length if needed. I'm casting on for the fronts and plan to work on them simultaneously.

(I know it's a pretty lousy picture, but you try getting a decent picture with a very exuberant 20-pound puppy who likes to chew anything and everything!) I'm hoping to finish the top soon as I really want to wear it to the Maryland Sheep and Wool (is it really only less than a month away!?)

Pretty much the same with this picture:

I've made it to the heel. The pattern calls for a short-row heel, but I much prefer the way heel flaps fit my foot, so that's what I've done. I love everything else about the pattern though.

And here's a rare picture, Sammy actually asleep:

WIP Wednesday

I've made a bit of progress on the Longbourn socks:

I really like how the colors are working together. I've had the mauve yarn for a while now and just couldn't figure out what to do with it. As for the denim, I already had a pair of socks in that exact color and didn't want another one, but with the mauve it really makes the denim look different. And it look like the cuff fits just about perfectly over my leg.

As for the Kimono Top, I have about 14 inches of the 24 inches on the back done. It's just a matter of working on it. I just needed a little break from all the stockinette and butterfly stitches. (Yes, I realize that the socks are all stockinette, but they are also all knitting.) I'll work on it a bit today.

Personal Sock Club

Note to self: don't have eyes dilated on bright sunny day. Two pairs of sunglasses stacked on top of one another only help slightly.

I've seen the "personal sock clubs" floating around on blogs for a few months now. Honestly, I don't know where they started, but they are a brilliant idea. The basic premise is you pick yarn from your stash, a pattern, throw it into a paper bag. You do several of these and pick them out at random at your own interval. I mean, chances are since you already own the yarn, you'll be happy with it, but there's still an element of surprise. (Really, who remembers every single skein of yarn they own?) So anyway, I started out by dumping some of my yarn and digging out my sock books.

By the way, this is nowhere near my whole stash. This isn't all of what I made into little bags. I went through my sock books, found patterns I liked, wrote down which book and page number on index cards, found yarn I liked to go with the patterns and threw them all into little paper lunch bags. I ended up with probably about a dozen to begin with and I chose one last night and somehow ended up with probably my favorite pattern, Longbourn Socks (if you're on Ravelry) by the super talented Kristi Schueler.

I didn't even stack the deck, uh, bags; I honestly chose this one at random and I'm extremely happy with it. I'll start it just as soon as I can see properly again.

It did make me realize exactly how much pink and purple I have in the way of sock yarn. I never knew there were so many shades and variations of those two colors ;-)