I decided I better use my discount coupon with Blue Moon before all my money disappeared. I bought lightweight Socks That Rock (superwash merino) in Grandma's Flower Garden:
I expected it to be more on the pastel side, but I like this just fine.
The other is a new colorway called Christmas Balls:
I love how it has sections of solid color and others that are stripey. This is going to be so much fun to knit.
The (potentially) World's Largest Sock was at Only Ewe and Cotton Too this afternoon and a bunch of people worked on it. About two feet of the 12+ feet needed to get to the start of the heel turn have been completed so far. It's top-down. As one of the knitters said, can you imagine the logistics involved in doing all of those short rows for a toe up?
I have no idea how many stitches are on the needles. The stitches are on a bunch of circular needles. When you knit, you have one end of a needle from the person on either side of you. It's a challenge, since everyone knits at a different speed, everyone has a different experience level, and there are "picker" and "thrower" style knitters next to each other. That's all part of the fun. I was sitting next to a man who wanted to be part of the project, so someone was teaching him how to knit--on the sock!
The Sock will be at The Whole Nine Yarns in Woodstock on Tuesday night. It'll be at some other places in the Atlanta area, but I didn't catch them all. Needle Nook was mentioned, as was a shop in Buckhead whose name I can't recall. The Atlanta Knitter's Guild is behind the Sock's appearance in the area. Contacting them might let you know if it will appear near you.
It will be at an event in Rochester, New York after Atlanta.
This info just arrived in my email:
The World's Largest Sock will be available for you to knit at Only Ewe and Cotton Too on Sunday, August 12 from 2:00pm - 5:00pm.
This sock was started in Great Britain and has made it's way to the U.S. It is now in possession of the Atlanta Knitting Guild - AND YOU - will be able to participate in helping this sock make it into the record books (Guiness) as the world's largest sock!
Eleven people at one time can knit on this sock - COME SEE AND KNIT ! What fun to be able to say that you were part of this event.
Can't Wait to see you on Sunday!
Elyse
Only Ewe and Cotton Too
770-740-0844
I'll be there. Only Ewe is in the Crabapple area in Alpharetta (north of Atlanta).
I used a needle size larger than what was called for, which may not have been necessary. I also ended them one row before what was called for to make sure there was plenty of room at the top. That worked great. Binding off in pattern gave them a cute ruffly top.
The new project is the Bumblebug socks using the yarn I got in the most recent Hogwort's swap. The Hufflepuff yarn I got was a big hank of yellow and a smaller one of black. I would like to make them out of the yellow alone. It looks like there will be enough yellow to do this. I know it's not completely in the spirit of the swap to use just one of the house colors, but they are my socks and I'll do what I like. So there. I got through the heel and discovered a mistake in the first pattern repeat, so I frogged and started again. I tried the sock on pre-frog and it fit pretty well. The second time I did the top ribbing in needles two sizes up from the rest of the sock, so that should correct the only fit issue.
I'll be going to the previous Hogwart swap for the next pair. I'll use the Ravenclaw yarn and the pattern for doing two socks at once. I've not tried this before, so it'll be fun to learn something new.
Here are the latest things that I want and can't justify buying right now. Mmmm, pretty needles (drool).
My brother's in Chile on vacation. Before he left, I asked if he saw any yarn in his travels that his sister likes yarn. Any kind. Any color. I also reminded him how I brought his favorite beer back from France last time I was there. He said he'd get me some alpaca. Mmmm, alpaca (drool). It would be cool to get any sort of yarn from a place I've never been.
It isn't just the Yarn Harlot that spreads dangerous information, though. People are forever posting clever and interesting information to her entries. The one that got me today was Jimmy Beans Wool. They've teamed up with Lorna's Laces to make limited edition sock yarn. They dye just so much and when it's gone, that's it. No more.
The current color is Rainforest: 
They've also got a sock kit of the month. I didn't need to see that.
It was a hard choice, but I decided to work with the Firebird yarn and the solstice pattern. I can't remember the exact name of it, but it is the current Rockin Sock Club pattern. I decided that I better get going on it. At the rate I've not been knitting, the next kit'll be in my mailbox before it is done!
I'm doing it toe-up. Progress: sock 1 is just starting the heel.
This is the bag I made for Tammy in the second Hogwarts sock swap. It uses the lumpy bumpy yarn I got at Only Ewe. I also dyed a skein of yarn in Slytherin colors (green and silver). I used two different greens and gray as a tarnished silver :). I had this skein of plain yarn with little flecks of primary colors in it. I used the leftover dye from the Slitherin skein, mixed up a batch of desert rose, and came up with this skein I call Desert Snake. Just what I needed, more sock yarn to choose from.
