Yay, a mid-week progress post

Self-patterning socks for I have no idea whom

Tumblina, you doll! I was thinking about using Google to see if there was a webpage out there to give me foot lengths for shoe sizes, but you just up and handed it to me! Ain't you nice. :) Thanks. You're right, it doesn't show foot widths and apparently my brother takes a wide shoe, but I can probably wing it.

So I sent my mom a picture of the socks in progress and asked her whether she thought my brother would like them. She said yes. My dad said no. AUGH! Now I'm even more conflicted. We were over at my parents' for dinner last night and I asked my dad why he thought bro wouldn't like them, and he confirmed my opinion - that bro will probably find them 'unmanly' (or, to use my brother's favourite expression for this kind of thing, which I absolutely abhor and tell him to stop using every time he utters it around me, 'gay'). But then again, said my dad, you never do know with your brother. If his friends think the socks are cool, he will probably decide they're cool, too. On the other hand, I asked my mom about the current contents of bro's sock drawer, and apparently it's all solid blacks and greys.

So conflicted.

Dammit. Maybe I'll just buy some more sock yarn in an excruciatingly boring colour and knit them up for bro.

Or wait...WAIT! Maybe...I'll switch sock projects...these ones could be for bro instead, and DH could have the new self-patterning ones! Apparently they both wear the same size shoe.

Except that last night, my parents started talking about this little project idea of mine right in front of DH who has no idea that the new self-patterning sock yarn is in my possession because it still might be a surprise present for him. I coulda killed 'em. The other problem with giving bro the grey socks is that I really do want to give DH some plain, solid-colour socks.

Sigh.

Maybe the self-patterning socks could be for my dad...his birthday is in September...

Heraldic tabard for moi

Over the weekend I finished the back of the tabard and joined the shoulders together. I used the three-needle bind-off for that, which I lovelovelove the clean look of:


Yesterday I really got going on the sleeve. By the time I got off the subway to go to my parents after work, I had finished quite a few rows of the intarsia motif for sleeve #1 and was feeling pretty damn cocky. Until the moment when I started folding up the work and putting it back into my bag. I suddenly realised that, since I was knitting the sleeve from the shoulder down and had been working the motif from the bottom up, that the damn thing was upside-freakin'-down.

There are no words.

So, after I put DD to sleep at my parents, I brought out my knitting, heaved a sigh, and pulled the needle out of the sleeve stitches in preparation for some frogging. My mom's eyes just about bugged out of her head...and that was even before I pulled out the first stitch. :) "What did you just do?!?" she exclaimed. Sympathies were extended once I explained my plight.

Now, however, I am knitting the motif with the correct orientation and everything's going very well once again. I'm past the halfway point of the sleeve:


If I keep this up, I might be finished this week's goal of finishing the sleeves by mid-week. That'd be nice.

Striped socks for moi

I'm about an inch into the top ribbing of the leg of sock #2.