Finally Finished!

After finally ordering a replacement bamboo needle from Knitpicks.com and finishing up some other knitting, I got out my second sock last night and replaced the broken needle with the new one. I was surprised to discover I was almost ready for the toe decreases. I worked on it a bit last night and finished it up tonight. I then tried to take some decent pictures in the dark living room. I finally gave up and decided to post these. I'm really proud of myself for accomplishing this knitting without the help of a knitting teacher by my side. Of course, Trish, helped me through countless instant messages and e-mails. I used many youtube resources to demonstrate heel turns and the kitchener stitch for grafting the toes. If you look closely, you'll see that the sock on the top has a different "sole" than the bottom one. There was one of my big learning errors but I was too stubborn to rip it all out and start again. I figured this way I'd always know which pair of socks were my original pair of handknit socks. Best of all, they do fit on my feet! And I didn't even knit a gauge swatch which I better do in the future. I still had some yarn left over so I realize I could have made the legs or cuffs longer. Oh well, not a bad job for a beginner sock knitter, huh? The next pair of socks I will cast on will be for my husband using sock yarn I bought when we went to Sedona, AZ last spring vacation.

Speaking of sock yarn, here is the yarn I bought in San Diego over Veterans' Day weekend. I plan to make myself a pair of socks with this yarn next year. I'm thinking of my knitting goals for 2009 and the goals definitely include some major sock knitting!

I also finished knitting a beautiful baby blanket for my husband's niece, Diana. I only cast on the blanket eight days before the baby shower. I pretty much knit all the free time that I had that week. Thank God for the Veterans' Day holiday and an extra day off last week. I pulled some late nights and early weekend mornings to finish in time. I've decided that I definitely don't like knitting under pressure! Here's a couple of pics of the blanket knit with Swish Worsted from Knitpicks. The yarn is 100% superwash merino from Peru. It was definitely more expensive than the acrylic yarn readily available at Michael's but I wanted something special. I also decided to go with a non-traditional shade of blue for the expected baby boy. Diana and her husband married on a mountain top in Lake Tahoe so I wanted a color to remind them of the blue of the lake. This color is called "Marine Heather" and I loved the shades of green that were very faint in the blue yarn.

So, that's two major projects done. I also finished a scarf and hat set for my sister-in-law. She was so happy with it as she gets cold easily. It wasn't anything fancy and was knit in boring black yarn, at her request.

Next up to finish:

• The fringe on Joe's Harry Potter scarf (not sure if he'll get to use it, we are back up in the 80s and 90s right now!)


• A purple scarf for a former student, katie, for her Christmas gift