I'm in!

I just checked the members list on Socktopia and I'm in! What timing! After two days of examining sock patterns, I finally found a pattern that felt right for a skein of sock yarn in my stash. I've had balls and skeins of sock yarn spread out in my side of the bedroom, and was starting to think that they were starting to take over the room. Correction: I know that they were taking over the room. I've been swatching for days and had just reached the point where I thought I would never be able to get gauge when I did!

Here's the project: Monkey Socks from the Knitty Winter 2006 issue in Tess Yarns Super Socks and Baby on size 1 needles! The yarn is wonderful shades of blue and purple that remind me of water, so hopefully, that watery feel will come across; if not, I bet they'll still look pretty good. My GoKnit pouch just arrived yesterday from www.scoutsswag.com and my sock knitting is safely nestled within. I love knitting accessories!

So, although I have my project, finishing by the end of the month seems a bit ambitious right now. In the past two days, I've knit 1.5 rounds--not so much. At that rate, I'll finish the pair by December. My excuse is that one of the boys is sick and I've been up in the night checking breathing and giving breathing treatments (and watching an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine at 2 a.m. when the boy couldn't sleep), and spent this morning at the pediatrician and this afternoon at the pulmonologist.

Like most other knitters, I've got some other projects in the works as well. One is a wonderful scarf in Schaefer Esperanza, which my sister and knitting consultant, knittingembryologist, told me is long enough. So tonight, I will bind off, and then I will wash it (definitely not tonight) in one of the flavors of Soak I ordered and received with the GoKnit pouch to get rid of the slight odor of vinegar. Despite my acute sense of smell (when I was pregnant with the triplets, I couldn't even boil pasta because the smell bothered me), I would have never noticed it except for the fact that someone in some blog I read mentioned the smell of vinegar on hand-dyed yarns (is it used to fix the color?). So now I know and now I smell it, so washing is on the "To Do" list.

What else? A baby blanket that I'm using as an opportunity to learn to knit Continental. I like it, but it takes more work than I would expect because I'm using it as a learning project. The biggest challenge is maintaining my tension. I may have to bump it up on the priority list, though, because the baby is due in May.

The Babette Blanket, http://www.interweavecrochet.com/2006/materials.asp#babette, a fabulous crochet blanket started last year that has fallen by the wayside. I dabble in crochet for a change of pace, and this is an indulgent project just for me. Which makes it more tempting to do, except now I have to remember how to crochet.

The Sock Monkey blanket from the Happy Hooker, another foray into crochet. I just need to crochet the sock monkey faces, a job requiring a consult from my knitting and crochet teacher and companion, Mom. Then I have to sew them all together. I'm not that into finishing.

Oh, and an important project for me: pop top mittens from Rosie's Yarns. I've made it partway through the first mitten (2-3 fingers, I don't remember), but I need to pick it up because I could really use the mittens: I had a kitchen accident in October and injured a finger, and although it's pretty well healed, it's still sensitive to cold. Wearing mittens can be awkward when I'm out with the children and have to fasten carseats, so I may have to move this one up on the list, too.

The fish scarf from Tess Yarns, bought at Stitches. I bought enough yarn to make three scarves because I thought if would be fun to make them for the boys. Except after watching the boys play with the balloons they got at the shoe store yesterday, they probably shouldn't have anything they can wrap around their or other people's necks! Oh well, it can be a belt, too.

I see there's still a few minutes left in the day to get some knitting in, so off I go! I'm sure I'll have more UFOs to discover in the stash, as well as projects in progress.