I continue to knit...

Real yarn that looks a whole lot better than the slubby stuff I was getting before. It's pretty much laceweight, but that's fine. I'm really making yarn! I pick it up a little again last night and it's going along pretty well now. Still need some more practice though.

The next day Sami and I went off on a shopping spree. First stop was the Fabric Place where I picked up this:



Two skeins of Regia and the sock book to feed my sock obsession. This book is definitely worth the reviews it is getting on various blogs. The patterns are any gauge and they have all sorts of cool things like cables in the round. I can't wait to try some of them out but I have a few other projects to do first. The other book is the Ann Budd pattern book that will come in handy very soon as HWJF said he might like a hat and I just joined the warm hands mitten along (I'm gonna need thrummed mittens soon the way the weather is going around here!).

And speaking of HWJF, the scarf he wanted has been perfect for train knitting:



It's growing by the day and I'd say it's a little over half done. Here's a closeup of the stitching:



The pattern is "Mom's Sophisticated Scarf" from SnB Nation (which, incidentally, was designed from a guy who used to come to our SnB in New Haven) and HWJF picked it out himself. It's a really simple looking pattern, but the 10 row repeat keeps giving me fits for some reason. Of course it could be the fact that I'm knitting before 7am instead of sleeping.

The other thing that is on the needles and I've been meaning to blog about for a while is Samus:



The waistband is done and I'm a couple of rows into the miles of stockinette. I picked up the stitches while at SnB the same Thursday I got my spinning lesson. Two of the knitters there gave me a good idea to make the picking up a bit easier. Instead of just going along picking up stitches and finding either too many or two few at the end, I folded the cabled band in half and then in half again. I put a little safety pin at each fold dividing the band into quarters. This way I knew I had to have so many stitches by the first marker, the second etc. until they were all done. I had the stitches on the needle and was on my way in no time! Definitely a less frustrating experience than other times I've had to do this.



Gotta love cables! The charts in this pattern are really well done too. I'm enjoying this a lot.

But, alas Samus may have to be put on hold a bit. It has suddenly occurred to me that the holiday season is not too far off. I only have three people to knit for, but if I'm going to do it, I'd better get to it! One present I already know what I want to do and have the yarn to do it. The other two people, don't really have a clue. They are both slightly more difficult to pick presents for but for different reasons. And one is allergic to wool so that makes it even tougher! Any and all suggestions are welcome of course.

Another long work week ahead. Don't know how often I'll get to blog but I'll post when I can. Have a great week!