Busy Bee

I’ve been a busy bee since the holiday gift-making flurry.

First, I just had to have a pair of knee-high boot socks.  I went to a local fiber festival with a few knit girls and their moms and saw this lovely sock yarn offered by a local dyer.  Browns, blacks, a smidge of gold – perfect!  Little did I know that this…

would turn into this…

I was pleasantly surprised at the patterning.  Several comments were made about the tiger striping while I was knitting them.  So fun!  I made it to just a few inches shy of my knees when I ran out of yarn – very impressive, given the yardage in a skein of sock yarn – so I picked up a small skein in a complementary solid color to finish off the top.  These are so soft and comfortable that they are my new favorites.  Must remember to add more of this yarn to my wish list.

Next up, I also wanted a small shawlette to use during the cooler months as both a shawl (the office is a freezer sometimes) and a small scarf.  I had a particular pattern and yarn in mind.  So, while I was at the yarn shop picking up yarn for my brother’s hat over the holiday visit, I picked up a skein of sock yarn dyed up by Rachel (aka Dyeabolical), my favorite dyer in St. Louis.  Then I spent several hours on the bus, and some mad Super Bowl hours, knitting this.  It’s called the Multnomah shawl.  Some of you may remember from one of my very early posts that there is a beautiful waterfall in Oregon by the same name.  It’s not really a coincidence.

Apparently I was in the mood for the brown/black/gold colorways.  What can I say?  It goes with nearly everything in my wardrobe.  Never fear, I have since moved out of that phase.

Once the boot socks were finished, I needed a pair of socks on the needles for commute-time knitting.  I got this Knit Picks yarn in a fun blue colorway for Christmas and decided to cast on.  (Apparently my knitting needed a color infusion and my family was there to lend their support.)

Then Husband decided that he needed a pair of socks too.  Now you may not know this about him, but he’s a lover of bright colors.  Make those colors sporty in any way, shape, or form, and he’s hooked.  He met me at the yarn shop, I gave him a range of yarn options to choose from, and he made his choice of yarn and color.  Enter the blue and gold striped socks.

He’s a size 13 shoe, which we’ve discovered is exactly twice the size of my shoes.  No joke, mine fit inside his…comfortably even.  They may take a while.  I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Last weekend there was a large fiber festival.  It’s big enough to attract notable names to teach workshops, etc.  And of course I came home with yarn.  To be fair, only one skein of it is actually for me.  This is what I cast on with the rest…

I just finished weaving in the ends a few minutes ago and I’m so excited about how it turned out that I’m having to hold myself back.  Otherwise, I’d be rifling through my stash to find enough yarn to make another one, for myself this time.  (I might not succeed, but at least I’m making a valiant effort.)  You can’t see the finished thing.  Because it’s for someone else, silly.  That would spoil the surprise!  But isn’t it beautiful?

So, in case you’ve lost count, that leaves two projects on the needles.  No worries, I’ve got plenty more queued up.  (Because I can never have just two projects in progress at any given time.)  Busy busy busy!