I have gone a little sock crazy. I have never been that interested in socks. This is probably because of the lack of good sock yarn at my lys and my less than successful efforts to make a pair in the past. I have pattern for slipper socks in worsted that I love and have made at least 5 pairs of. They are basic sock construction on size 8 dpn's and I had no trouble making them perfectly every time. For some reason every time I have tried to make a pair of socks out of sock yarn on small dpns I have trouble. I know how to make socks, I just couldn't get them to fit. Anyway, this was a success and I really don't think I will have trouble again, it's just one of those things. So in the wake of my success and (because I have been reading a lot of Yarn Harlot) I have fallen under the spell of socks. I got a kit for 5 pairs from Knit Picks as well as a hank of Stroll handpainted in Cartoon which I love for some reason. And I treated myself (as if the rest was for someone else) to a set of Harmony wood dpns. I am telling myself that this is a mother's day gift to myself, but I just ordered and received yarn and I really didn't need this...oh well.
My September sweater is going really well, and when Brionna and I can get together to start the best friend sweater I will have that on the needles. I am a wee bit concerned about the gage on the BF sweater. It calls for size 19 needles. I swatched using size 19. It calls for 9 1/2 st to 6 inches I got 12. I do not even know where to get bigger needles and I can't believe that I was knitting it any tighter than anyone else as the needles are so big it is hard to knit tight even if you want to. I used Lopi in teal which is suggested in the pattern. I am not making gage and I don't want to seek out and use bigger needles. I thought to myself, best to do a few inches of the pattern just to see how it goes so maybe I can warn Brionna about any tricky parts and see how far off my gage really is at the same time. I do about 7 inches, realize that this is the most unclear pattern I have ever used and now worry that it will be super frustrating for her and make her never want to knit again. She is my only real live knitting friend. I must warn her. Plus the yarn, which I have seen recommended by reliable sources, kind of sucks. It is itchy and needs to be bulkier. I still think it is beautiful and may get softer after it is blocked and I still really want to use it for this sweater. So I take it off the needles to see how my size is. Much too small. Drat.
