Speedy Socks!

Last post, I was head over heels in love with the Dr. Watson Sweater; not anymore. Work sent me to Memphis, TN for a Continuous Casting Course hosted by AIST. Because the set up was 2 days of 8 hour lectures, I decided to dye a little yarn to see if I could make some sock yarn self-striping. Some electric green yarn met the dye pot once more with some black dye.  Sunday afternoon is when this last minute panic started. After adding the acid to set the color, we drained the water and abused the poor hank by wrapping it up in a towel then jumping on it. It took 2 towels to get most of the water out of the yarn so I could lay it on top of my dryer while doing laundry. See how wonderful of a house keeper I am? Laundry was done for the yarn!

While in the hank, the yarn looked AWESOME but not quite like the other self-striping yarns I’ve seen.  I needed to leave for Memphis Monday afternoon so I left work early and performed last minute panic packing. That’s when I took out my sweater, balled the sock yarn, grabbed some laceweight, added the Dr. Watson sweater to my bag, and added the last used items to my bag. Then I hopped in the car for a 4 hour drive. By the time of arrival, it was straight into bed for an early start in the morning. At 6:30 I cast on 64 stitches on my size 0 Knitter’s Pride DPN’s and started my ribbing.

Love vanilla socks during lectures! I needed to pay more attention to the lectures than my knitting so after 2” of ribbing I moved to straight knitting. Around the lunch break I noticed I might be getting close to needing a decision on the heel.  A little scrap yarn and delaying the decision until another day.  In 2 days, I managed to knit 1 sock, minus a heel, and start a second! Go me! I feel like such a speedy knitter.

On the way out of town, I visited a new yarn store! Yarniverse actually carries size 0 40” circular needles. I never find those in stores! Magic Loop is my favorite method for knitting socks but I need sharp points. That means Addi Turbos are not for me but the ladies at Yarniverse have the AddiSock Rocket needles. So far I’m loving the Sock Rockets but will admit I miss my known Knitpicks needles. In case you don’t recall, the kitty was under attack from my size 0 Knitpicks a few months ago.