Knitting Aimlessly: It would seem that my knitting foibles of last week have somehow managed to leave me dead in the water. I have been knitting, but what? I'm not sure. Well, (and I know the picture focus is not focused-I'll try again later) I do have 1 1/2 tiny thumbless baby mittens knit. Very sweet little fair isle deal. The pattern is out of Favorite Mittens, and I used knitpicks Palette and Jamieson and Smith. It seems like an unholy union, but they are happy together. (Sometimes I become conscious of how esoteric my knitspeak is, but that is why I blog. So I don't have to gabble on with only the pantry listening.) And 3 pair of booties. Two pair for the dolls and one pair for an as yet undecided "real" baby. As you can see, one of the doll booties is already AWOL. The yarn for the doll booties came from Target. Yes, Target. Target yarn. Wow. And the real ones are made from cashmerino. Now that's more like it. The pattern is my slight adaptation from the book Knits from the Heart by Kristin Spurkland. The only change I made is that instead of breaking the yarn (twice per boot) I just 1) made them one color and 2) knitted around to the new beginning of round. But they are very fast to do, stay on (dolls) well, and can use up bits of stash. It think the pattern is fairly learned after 6 booties.
And now hopefully, I am getting my focus back. It dawned on me that the Christmas socks needed to be worked on if they are to be worn this Christmas. I turned the heel while watching a movie that I have seen way too many times. Then I started the top with the lovely GS rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. It's just the right amount of interest balanced with ease/speed/brainlessness that I need to actually get these done. Basically, it's a K2P2 rib, alternated with a straight round. Very effective. I love that book. In fact I just found out about a new KAL, for this book. I will try to link it tomorrow or so, but tonight I don't have the strength to remember how to do it. Please keep in mind that until last summer, the last computer we had purchased was in approximately 1990. It obviously has been in retirement for several years now. It's a steep learning curve. Anyway, oh, hey, I DID IT! I think. Hurrah.
Okay, and there's some mitten attempts going. A bit of gauge wankiness. I think I'm getting too experimental to realistically expect success every time. But I think the mittens I'm working on now will fit Keith. Or maybe, like, some cold-handed mountain gorilla.
We went to our local hands on science museum this afternoon. Keith got to come too, which was a real treat because the girls got to each do what they wanted to do, for how long they wanted to do it. Iva got to climb to the tippy top of the two story grapevine, which she doesn't usually do because Shiloh will only go so high, and Iva wants moral support up really high. This thing is so cool. I'll take pictures next time we are there. It has giant leaf shaped climbing tiers, carpet covered, and the whole thing is enclosed in cable netting, so it's totally safe. The local winery sponsored it, so it's a grapevine, yah? The large local homeschool group happened to be there too, so I reconnected a little with them. All in all a good day, even if I didn't get an A+ at the dentist. Now, I must get back to the socks.