Completed socks, and a pay it forward meme (aka FREE STUFF!)

I have finished the Jojoland Melody socks, and my fears about their not matching and my consolation that they would probably at least "go" have both been realized.



Look how very nicely they go together!



Aaaaaaand look how they don't actually really match so much!

It's all good, though.

Unfortunately my "on-deck" socks are not working out. I'm trying to knit Catherine, but it's coming out much too big, even down on 000s, and the pattern repeat is so long that I'm not seeing an easy way to modify the pattern to be smaller. I may try these again some day with another yarn (I'm using Cherry Tree Hill Supersock), because it's a pretty and simple pattern. But it is not the sock for me right now -- I've knitted the first couple of inches twice and there's just no way.

Now, I believe I may have mentioned FREE STUFF in the title.

Here is how the handmade Pay It Forward works (modified from other blogs):

I will send a handmade gift to 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange.* I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I came across this idea on Mary Jane's blog. It's fun!

*First three people who comment on the blog, OR three people chosen at random from people who comment before I go to bed on Tuesday night, in case this is vastly more popular than I expect.

My semi-annual update.

Well this is about the worst blog in the world, isn't it?

I have actually been knitting! I made a Shedir for my sister's birthday, which came out nice. It's in Rowan Felted Tweed. I didn't take any photos of it. Maybe sometime next winter my sister will wear it and I can get a photo then.

I'm also working on a pair of Froot Loop socks, in Jojoland Melody.



I am just about to start the heel flap on the second sock (pictures soon, perhaps), and here is the thing about Jojoland Melody: it is very variegated. Or not so much variegated as self-striping. OK, it's a three-ply yarn and the color of each of the plies changes at different points in the yarn. It's kind of like if you plied three slightly different colors of Noro together. And the way it looks and the way it shades, I like it very much. However, these socks are not going to match in any conventional sense of the word "match". The colors are quite different from each other. I tried to find an end that would be in a relatively similar place in the color to where I started, but alas I could not. Still, even if the socks don't match, I think they will go, which is fine. You hardly even see my socks anyways, since usually when I am wearing wool socks I am also wearing long pants and clogs.

I am also working on the Sapporo Norwegian ski sweater. Here's a not-that recent photo:



Imagine that with about eight more inches of red stockinette, and you will know what it looks like now. This was actually take two -- I knitted a couple of inches before I realized that it was twisted. Curse you, twisted knitting! That made me very very angry, in a silent rageful kind of way.

This sweater has been my baseball knitting, although the sweater is getting bulkier and more lap-filling just as the weather gets hotter, and I'm afraid that as it gets a bit more complicated (I am just about ready to start the colorwork) it may be a little less mindless. So I may have to set it down until September or take it someplace air conditioned to work on it. Or I could just work on the socks more.

I do have another pair of socks on deck -- I have some great red Cherry Tree Hill something or other that I'm looking forward to using. Actually I just have a lot of sock yarn, period. And socks are great for summer. Right now I'm trying to decide what sock or socks I should take on the 2-week trip to Switzerland I'll be taking in August. Lots of train and mountain knitting!