Socks

I decided to behave myself and work on my Tour de Sock pair instead of the patchwork queue jumpers.

The TDS sock is called Ancient Path.  It has fancy colorwork cables on it.

Judging by my credit card bill, I have been doing much better with not indulging in yarn.  The exception is this Shiver of Socks kit.  It is for celebrating Shark Week, so it was a necessary purchase.  Also I had a credit at Jimmy Beans.

Pillows

I finally got a pillow form for the Shadow Magic pillow.  The colors are from the yarn advent calendar I got last year.

I completed a Franklin Habit KAL for a counterpane pillow.  I weighed the leftover yarn and there should have been enough for a second pillow.  I knit it, but needed 10 grams of another color to finish the back.  Not only do swatches lie, scales do too.

I learned a new knitting phrase this week:  queue jumper.  I saw a pattern I really liked, discovered it was already in my Library, and found a ball of the recommended yarn in my stash.  And when I say found, I mean it wasn’t where it should have been.  The minute I realized it wasn’t in the proper bin, I glanced up and spotted it on top of a mixed up pile across the room.  I considered this to be a sign from the universe that I was supposed to drop everything and knit these socks.  These socks are a queue jumper.  I am behind two squares on an afghan KAL and the next stage of Tour de Sock starts today.  I am still knitting merrily away on these socks.

Tour de Sock 2019 Round 1

The socks are a pattern called Fledermaus.  I don't think I care for twisted stitches anymore.

Yellowstone and Banff National Parks

I visited both of these parks on a single trip.  Most of my memories are not the best, due to car troubles and relationship troubles.  The car continued to be a royal pain for the next 3 years.  I continued to be a royal pain for about a year.  Some people should never be married and I would put myself high on that list.

As usual, I digress.  I would put both parks on the wish I could visit again list.  Banff is in the Canadian Rockies and is beautiful.  I remember thinking that they were even nicer than the Rockies in Colorado.  This is especially sacrilegious because that was where I was living at the time.  Even if you’ve never heard of Banff, you have probably seen pictures of gorgeous Lake Louise.  I remember seeing wildlife including moose and bighorn sheep.  There was a bear visiting one of the campgrounds we stayed at but there was no way I was going to go wandering around looking for it.

My souvenir yarn Yellowstone came from Knitted Wit:

The Banff yarn is a substitute for the yarn I really wanted.  It has some of the colors.  It is Malabrigo Mechita:

I have yet to settle on a project for the souvenirs.  There are a lot more parks and yarns to share in the meantime.

I have started on the annual Tour de Sock, which should keep me busy into September.  This year’s event is not competitive because the organizer is taking a year off to do family stuff.  Every 10 days we pick a pattern from a list of free patterns and we whip them up.  I have a major case of second sock syndrome which is why I am posting this instead of knitting.  The pair I am doing have more twisted stitches than I thought would appear on any sock.