Momsocks and Mansocks

So, my Mom is visiting for a month. She'll be here through the end of July. It's wonderful that she's here for a good long visit, but I feel discombobulated, thrown off my regular knitting slash blogging activities.

Instead of my usual, quiet knitting time, my mom and I have been chatting, shopping, watching movies, eating out. Now, I can (and do) knit through such activities but I can only manage the most basic of knitting. And even then, it's not as fast as if I were more focused.

Plain stockinette socks are my friends.

You'll notice that toe needs grafting. It's been like this for about a week. Mom again. See, I've gotten her into knitting socks. Well, a sock, to be precise. She knows how to knit, but has never really been a Knitter. She's seen my socks (both finished and in progress) and was fascinated with the construction. But as most of us know, the best way to really "get" how a sock comes together is to knit one yourself. As soon as she expressed interest in knitting a sock herself, I whisked her right off to the yarn store to get supplies.

While we were there, she surprised me by buying this green and orange Zarina for me. Back home, we made swatches, measured our feet and got started on our respective socks. At first I tried to pace myself with her so that we'd be at the same part of the sock at the same time. But not only do I knit faster than her, I knit more often than her. I turned my second heel while she turned her first. I was coming to the end of my second toe while she was starting her toe decreases. She's about two rounds away from being ready to graft her toe. Until she's ready, my second toe is waiting so we can graft together.

What to do but start another plain stockinette sock? These will be for Chris. (First pair of socks for Hubby!)

I'm enjoying working with the new, Risata yarn. It's got a good, sturdy feel, perfect for man socks.

Here and there, I've had the occasional moment of being able to address slightly more complex knitting. I finished the first Loksins! and posed it with our basil.

The second Loksins! is underway.

These three pairs of socks plus the Spiral Boot Socks, had me at four socks in progress. Very uncharacteristic of me. I was going to take a picture of the four pairs together. But when I took the Spiral Boot Sock out of it's bag, an entire needle came out. D'oh!

See that whole top portion of the circle with no needle in it? See how I was not that far along at all? I don't feel like fiddling around with getting the loose needle back in the stitches. Also, I don't exactly remember where I am in the pattern (other than at the beginning) and don't feel like trying to figure it out. Especially since I'm not even sure when I'm going turn my attention back to these socks. Having four socks in progress was kind of stressing me out, anyway. Therefore, I'm just going to rip out what I've done. I'll go back to these socks eventually but for now, it'll make me feel better to frog and put it aside.

With that pair out of the equation, this is my Summer of Socks tally: 3 in progress, 0 finished.

I suppose this is confirmation of my apparent startitis. But I'm just not that worried about it anymore. I know now it's more an outcome of this month's circumstances than anything else.

Eye Candy Friday

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

I'm going to try for an actual, knitting-related post over the weekend. See you then, I hope.

Eye Candy Friday

The Pacific. As seen from The Cliff House in San Francisco.

Have a great weekend.

I Think I Have Startitis

Hey look. A sock!
Did it work? Did I distract you from elaborating on my title?

Oh, fine. I'll fess up.

Since finishing Mom's Shawl, I seem to be only starting projects. Not so much finishing.

There are the two Presto Chango's which are only a little bit further along then when last seen. I'm only on the foot of the first Loksins! (the one that toured San Francisco with me). I cast on for Spiral Boot Socks (from Summer '07 IK) with the Koigu seen here, but I've only done about 9 rounds. And then, of course, there's the single sock in the picture.

This is not a critical case of startitis. I think we've caught it in the early stages. Early identification is important with this sort of thing. My proposed course of treatment is first to finish the mate to the sock above. It will then be important to go on to finish other wip's. Especially those baby sweaters. One of the babies has already been born, for cryin' out loud. Should I find myself starting something else new, instead of turning my attention back to items on the needles, then things may be more serious. Stay tuned.

P.S. The sock in the picture is a No Pattern Sock Formula sock from Knitting Rules! Made using FDC Zarina in colors 1734 (the green) and 1743 (the orange). It's not technically sock yarn but it's super soft 100% washable merino, knit on US 2 (2.75mm) aluminum dpn's. It's yarn. I made a sock. Good enough for me.