Craig must have planned his trip this weekend just because he knew I was hurting for blog content. I have been knitting, and ripping, and knitting this week and just don’t have a whole lot to show for it.  Craig took his sock to Holiday World and to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom this weekend (he’s ahead of the curve… the rest of us will be down there next weekend for Holiwood Nights).

Apparently Santa told him that he must be bad due to the size of his stocking.

And at Six Flags the sock met a couple of characters.

Craig, if you can get that sock in the hands of some poor teenager at a Six Flags who’s walking around in a Marvin the Martian costume, I might just make you a couple of those coaster-rider washclothes after all.

First, I neglected to acknowledge Veterans Day yesterday. To any and all who do or have served, thanks.

Second, I feel like I need to put something resembling a real post in today since last night’s was such a cop out. I’m trying to avoid the “Look, it’s the same sock only now it has a heel” post that the knitting is giving me though. So, I think I may delve into either meme territory or just some in-depth and/or history for the next few posts. If there’s anything anyone is curious about or would like to see me extrapolate on, fire up the comments. If this is the dullest thing ever let me know that too.

I do feel like I’ve not given the coaster hobby as much focus in the blog as it has in my life. I’ve alluded to it, I’ve mentioned some of the trips and events at a fairly high level and I posted my wooden coaster poll ballot for this year last week, but I’ve kinda kept the coaster stuff to the forums I frequent and haven’t brought as much of it to the blog. I’m not really even sure where to start extrapolating on it though (which is probably why I haven’t given it much focus). Anything in particular anyone wants to know or know more about?

And for just that little bit of extra random, I am going to resort to a meme. Sock related natch, and it appears to have originated back at this blog.

Sock Meme!

1. What’s your favorite sock yarn? (please note that the word ‘yarn’ is singular. Just pick one. I know it’s hard.)

I’m still in what I would dub the experimental phase. I’ve knit close to 20 pair, but I don’t think any two have been in the same yarn yet. If I have to choose, I’d go with Sundara’s sock yarn. The socks I made with hers are one of my favorite pair, and I have another colorway that I haven’t knit up yet.

2. What’s your favorite type and brand of sock needle?

I’m pretty partial to my crystal palace bamboo dpns at this point. I’ll probably give some of the knitpicks dpns a shot next year. I’ve never really had any interest in 2-circs or magic loop although I’ll probably get around to learning eventually.
3. Do you knit your socks toe up, cuff down, or sideways?

I prefer cuff-down. I actually really enjoy grafting, and I have an easier time figuring out heel and toe placement. I like the idea of toe up, but they just feel slower to me.
4. Do you knit both socks at once or just one at a time?

One at a time.
5. What’s your favorite toe and why?

I like a regular wedge decreased at the sides grafted toe.
6. Favorite heel?

I prefer a heel flap and I’ve enjoyed the visual and reinforced nature of an eye-of-partridge pattern to a flap. Short row heels don’t seem to fit me right and feel fidgety to execute.
7. Do you prefer plain or patterned socks?

It depends on the yarn. I love handpainted and variegated yarns, but I love a good patterned sock too. I love the patterns that can handle both a complex yarn and a little interest in the sock, but I stockinette is great for mindless knitting too.
8. Who do you knit the most socks for?

Myself, although mom’s collection is slowly growing.
9. Do you darn your socks? If not, what do you do with them?

Mom has walked a hole into one of her pair, and I’ve made some attempts to mend them. I fortunately haven’t needed to mend any of mine yet, but until they’re too disintegrated to fix, I’ll mend what I can.
10. Do you only wear handknit socks?

I have enough pair that if I kept on top of the laundry I could only wear handknit socks. When I did my big closet purge, I pared down to a very limited number of non-knit though. I have a few solid trouser socks because I don’t have any desire to knit myself plain black socks, and I kept a few pair of novelty socks and athletic socks, but I’m otherwise right there with mostly handknit socks.
Bonus question: What pattern, if any, is your basic “I-just-need-a-pair-of-socks” sock pattern based on? Do you keep it written down or memorized?

I have developed my own memory for stockinette socks on both size one and size two needles that I can pull from memory. I’ve also committed the jaywalker and monkey sock patterns to memory and have pulled both of those into my arsenal of standards on a couple occasions.

Oh, and to keep this really random…  Craft linked to this really neat blog on their blog today, and I’ve been entranced by it all afternoon.

There are several points in the coaster hobby that mark the end of the season. PPP, the Phoenix Phall Phunfest at Knoebels in central PA, has built itself as one of the definitive end of season events. Closing weekend around Halloween at most of the parks in the states that get chilly is usually a big clue too. There are those coaster geeks who live in places where they ride all year and a handful of parks have Christmas events now so the season never truly ends, but things do tend to taper off around October. My biggest indication that the season is truly drawing to a close is the release of the best roller coaster polls by Mitch Hawker.

To fully appreciate the geek-factor involved here, a little elaboration for the uninitiated. Most of the top-whatever-lists out there as far as coasters go are generic popularity contents. Some of the mainstream news organizations run lists that they virtually materialize out of thin air. A couple of the industry rags send out ballots to a cross section of the enthusiast community and create somewhat more accurate lists, but they still tend to skew towards popularity contests. The parks and rides that get the most ridership still tend to rank higher than some of the real gems at some of the smaller parks. Mitch tallies his polls in a more balanced way that weighs ridership differently. It’s still a small segment of the enthusiast population that participates (although it’s been growing more and more each year), but it’s considered the definitive poll for ranking rides. He explains it better than I can here.

So, the wooden coaster poll is live now. Even if you’re not a big coaster geek like me you might find it an interesting use of statistics, or you might just be surprised looking through the list and realizing how many wooden coasters are out there or how many you’ve ridden. You might be surprised to see how seriously some of us crazy geeks take this stuff or which coasters the connoisseurs consider to be the best. You might even feel compelled to participate.

It may just be surprising how many are on my list.

COASTER NAME PARK LOC
El Toro SFGAd NJ,y,y,1
Tremors Silverwood ID,y,n,2
The Voyage Holiday World IN,y,y,3
Boulder Dash Lake Compounce CT,y,n,4
My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere **,y,n,4
Thunderhead Dollywood TN,y,n,5
Phoenix Knoebel’s PA,y,y,6
Avalanche Timber Falls WI,y,n,7
Raven Holiday World IN,y,y,8
Cyclone Astroland NY,y,y,9
Hades Mount Olympus WI,y,n,10
Cornball Express Indiana Beach IN,y,y,11
Timber Terror Silverwood ID,y,n,12
The Legend Arnolds Park IA,y,n,13
Ozark Wildcat Celebration City MO,y,n,14
Coaster Playland BC,y,n,15
Shivering Timbers Michigan’s Adventure MI,y,y,16
Kentucky Rumbler Beech Bend KY,y,y,17
Giant Dipper Belmont Park CA,y,n,18
J2 Clementon Lake NJ,y,y,19
Jack Rabbit Kennywood PA,y,y,20
Comet Great Escape NY,y,n,21
Viper SFGAm IL,y,n,22
Twister Knoebel’s PA,y,y,23
Cyclops Mount Olympus WI,y,n,24
GhostRider Knott’s Berry Farm CA,y,y,25
Lightning Racer - L Hersheypark PA,y,n,26
Lightning Racer - T Hersheypark PA,y,n,27
The Legend Holiday World IN,y,y,28
Zeus Mount Olympus WI,y,n,29
Yankee Cannonball Canobie Lake Park NH,y,n,30
Wild One SF America MD,y,n,31
Wildcat Hersheypark PA,y,n,32
Excalibur Funtown USA ME,y,n,33
Silver Comet Martin’s Fantasy Is. NY,y,n,34
Georgia Cyclone SFoG GA,y,n,35
Roar Marine World CA,y,n,36
Gwazi-Lion Busch Gardens-Tampa FL,y,n,37
Thunder Run Kentucky Kingdom KY,y,y,38
Roar SF America MD,y,n,39
Big Dipper (SBNO) Geauga Lake OH,y,y,40
Rampage Visionland AL,y,n,41
Thunderbolt Kennywood PA,y,y,42
Hoosier Hurricane Indiana Beach IN,y,y,43
Swamp Fox Family Kingdom SC,y,n,44
Great White Wild Wheels Pier NJ,y,y,45
The Beast Kings Island OH,y,n,46
Roller Coaster Western Wash. Fair WA,y,n,47
Skyliner Lakemont PA,y,n,48
Tornado Adventureland IA,y,n,49
Blue Streak Cedar Point OH,y,y,50
Outlaw Adventureland IA,y,n,51
Racer Kennywood PA,y,y,52
Cyclone Lakeside CO,y,n,53
American Eagle SFGAm IL,y,n,54
Big Dipper Camden Park WV,y,y,55
Timberhawk Enchanted Village WA,y,n,56
Thunderhawk Dorney Park PA,y,n,57
Wolverine Wildcat Michigan’s Adventure MI,y,y,58
Tornado Stricker’s Grove OH,y,n,59
Zippin’ Pippin (S) Libertyland TN,y,n,60
Kingdom Coaster Dutch Wonderland PA,y,n,61
Rollo Coaster Idlewild PA,y,n,62
Leap the Dips Lakemont PA,y,n,63
Zach’s Zoomer Michigan’s Adventure MI,y,y,64
Cannonball Lake Winnepesaukah GA,y,n,65
The Grizzly Great America CA,y,n,66
Blue Streak (SBNO) Conneaut Lake Park PA,y,n,67
Comet Hersheypark PA,y,n,68
Thunderbolt SF New England MA,y,n,69
The Boss Six Flags St Louis MO,y,n,70
Grt Am Scrm Mach SFoG GA,y,n,71
Lost Coaster of SM Indiana Beach IN,y,y,72
Arkansas Twister Magic Springs AR,y,n,73
Underground Adventureland IA,y,n,74
Screamin’ Eagle Six Flags St Louis MO,y,n,75
Jack Rabbit Seabreeze NY,y,n,76
Twister II Elitch Gardens CO,y,n,77
Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk CA,y,n,78
Comet Waldameer PA,y,n,79
Beastie Kings Island OH,y,n,80
Little Dipper Kiddieland IL,y,n,81
Lil’ Dipper Camden Park WV,y,y,82
Sea Dragon Wyandot Lake OH,y,n,83
Teddy Bear Stricker’s Grove OH,y,n,84
Scooby Doo Carowinds NC,y,n,85
Scooby Doo Kings Dominion VA,y,n,86
Ghoster Coaster Canada’s Wonderland ON,y,n,87
M.Can.Mine Buster Canada’s Wonderland ON,y,n,88
Twisted Twins-Lola Kentucky Kingdom KY,y,y,89
Twisted Twins-StellaKentucky Kingdom KY,y,y,90
Thunder Road Carowinds NC,y,n,91
Racer Kings Island OH,y,n,92
Rebel Yell Kings Dominion VA,y,n,93
Hurler Carowinds NC,y,n,94
Cyclone Williams Grove PA,y,n,95
Timber Wolf Worlds of Fun MO,y,n,96
Raging Wolf Bobs(S) Geauga Lake OH,y,n,97
Colossus S.F. Magic Mountain CA,y,n,98
Hurler Kings Dominion VA,y,n,99
Wildcat Lake Compounce CT,y,n,100
High Roller Valleyfair! MN,y,n,101
The Villain (SBNO) Geauga Lake OH,y,y,102
Hurricane Myrtle Bch Pavilion SC,y,n,103
Cyclone SF New England MA,y,n,104
Wilde Beast Canada’s Wonderland ON,y,n,105
Pegasus Mount Olympus WI,y,n,106
Rolling Thunder SFGAd NJ,y,y,107
Predator Darien Lake NY,y,n,108
The Grizzly Kings Dominion VA,y,n,109
Mean Streak Cedar Point OH,y,n,110
Son of Beast Kings Island OH,y,n,111
Psyclone S.F. Magic Mountain CA,y,n,112

I have been working on stuff, and I have some cool stuff to share, I just haven’t gotten it all assembled in blog post format. Shame on me.

First I have to thank Terri for my Knitter’s Tea Swap package! She totally rocks! She sent knitting fiction (yay books!!), an ass-ton of tea, seriously like 4 boxes or something crazy like that, plus 4 skeins of yarn in great colorways (how did you know I wanted to try the panda wool?) and some good dark chocolate.

Prior to that package arriving, my birthday order at the Loopy Ewe gained me membership into the Loopy Groopies. I got the great extra gifts that go along with having spent way too much money with Sherri. A really cool project bag, some chocolate kisses, some wool wash, and a black and grey skein of Opal. Plus the 3 colorways of Claudia’s and one of Lorna’s that I bought for the actual purchase.

However, I’ve been slowly inventorying the stash and getting it into Ravelry and I’ve come to the realization that I really really need to put the spending on hiatus for a bit. It’s taken me forever just to get the sock yarn stash photographed and entered into the system. I’ve got 63 pairs worth stashed on the site, and I still have 5 or 6 more to photograph and add. I haven’t even tackled the scary room where everything else lives. Or the mess of needles and crochet hooks. Reality is freeing in some ways and scary as hell in others. It’ll be nice to finally know what all I have once I’m done though, and organizing it all electronically might be the push I need to get some sort of organization system in place physically as well.

My biggest birthday gift to myself was a new PC, and I’m starting to slowly get that set up as well and making the move up to Vista.

I also haven’t been completely neglecting the coaster hobby either. I spent Friday at Cedar Point for Coastermania. There is one great crazy story from that that defies definition. I have a friend Kris who is one of those fearless people who will do absolutely anything and not be embarrassed. I also have some other friends who have no issues throwing money at something if it’ll be entertaining. The combo, deadly. We were standing in a shop and someone made a joke about those little girly shorts with the words on the butt. Kris made the offhand remark of “if you buy them, I’ll wear them. ” No less than 10 minutes later, he is in a light blue pair of short shorts with the words “Get in line!” across the butt with his polo shirt tucked in.

Same conversation at a different locale of the park landed him a set of light-up blinky bunny ears. This was his ensemble for the remainder of the evening. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages. People watching was hilarious the rest of the night as we caught everything from people trying to do the sideways-glance-don’t-let-him-see-us-looking-at-him, to outright pointing and staring, asking for photographs, and everything in between. He totally played it up, high fiving random people on the midway, waving to the passing train, and chatting up people in line. My ribs still hurt from laughing so hard.

We covered a lot of ground last week, driving through at least 10 states, putting almost 3,000 miles on my car and adding some new coasters to the counts. It was a blast, it was exhausting, there were a few hurdles, but for the most part everything went smoothly and we had a great time.

Holiwood Nights was an incredible event for the second year in a row and we had a blast hanging out with all of our friends who were able to make it there. Camden Park was a little scary, but a lot of fun. Dollywood was crazy busy and we were glad this was a repeat visit for both of us, as we wouldn’t have gotten a great impression of the park this time around. Busch Gardens was amazing as usual, and we took two days to take it all in at a leisurely pace. Six Flags Great Adventure was also crazy busy, but we managed. Clementon was a quick stop, Memorial Day traffic around Philly was a nightmare and an unplanned last-minute overnight with friends in Pittsburgh gave us an excuse to swing by Cedar Point for their new coaster’s opening day on the way home. All in all, a great trip.

Now, one doesn’t put nearly 3,000 miles on a car without finding a little time for some on-the-road and in-park knitting. The purple stockinette sock got some quality time at Holiday World, including a start to the heel. I did get some strange looks and comments knitting in line, and took the dorky walkback photo posted a couple posts ago during the “backstage” tour of the Voyage. The first sock in that pair is just in need of a little more work on the foot and a toe before it starts to gain a mate. Had I realized Maverick at Cedar Point had bins for stuff in the station, I wouldn’t have left the camera and knitting in the car, and the sock would probably be finished. Now I know for my next visit in a couple weeks.

My in-the-car knitting was primarily the Aran Sandal Socks, and while Mikey was sound asleep from Dramamine in the hotel in Williamsburg, VA about halfway through the trip, I finally put the toe on my second Aran Sandal Sock and wore them in the park the following day.

What can I say about this pattern? The appearance makes them look so complex (then again, what cable pattern doesn’t look complex to the uninitiated?) but really, 3 relatively simple cable patterns spaced out with some twisted ribs are all that make up this pattern. It was a little tricky figuring out how to go from in the round patterning to back and forth for the heels, more so on the smaller cable pattern that trails down the heel than on the main diamond pattern though. And the row counting gets a little trisky with different mismatched cable rows, but once I got into a groove it wasn’t that bad.

And I absolutely adore how they came out. Squishy, attractive, practical, bold, subtle, comfortable. There were a few cool clever details to keep things interesting. The pattern continuing down the heel while a little tricky to devise, is by far my favorite feature of these socks. The seed stitch gussets that continue down the side of the foot just add one more textural element for added interest.

These have definitely boosted my confidence for other cabley patterns, and now that the needles are free, I’m ready to dive into those Austrian Socks for Sockapalooza.

Enjoying the knitting and coasters where I am, hope all is going well where you are!

It’s a random day today, I’ve got too much going on and pulling me in a zillion directions.

Knitting has been scarce around these parts the last few weeks. I’ve been cleaning like crazy (successfully for once) and just have some quick bathroom scrubbing to wrap up tonight. Mike gets here tomorrow night, I’m working Wednesday and we’re on the road as of either Thursday night or Friday morning.  Almost two full weeks of much needed vacation in the works though. We’ll be roaming on the road for a week of that getting to Holiday World, Camden Park, Dollywood, Busch Gardens Europe, Six Flags Great Adventure and Clementon. Had to go with mostly big parks this year since the small parks aren’t open during the week yet.

It’s not all cleaning though. I’ve also been sacrificing some knitting time to discussing and organizing knitting stuff over on Ravelry. I totally lucked out and got on the invite list early enough to get in early last week. I love this site! It’s totally addictive in it’s current form and all the features they’re looking into adding will make it the be all and end all resource for project planning, community networking and just about everything else you can think of that relates to knitting.

On top of that, I’m loving the Pligg Alison set up for Sockapalloza after we broke blogger. I’ve more or less just put a lot of focus on reading about knitting and not as much into actually knitting.

Although, I did finish a pair of socks last week. 

These are the J-Knits lightweight sock on size 1s that I started when the Harlot was here. There was a ton of yarn left, enough that I could probably get a pair of footies out of them, and will definitely go toe-up with calf shaping when I get around to knitting the other colorway I have.

I’m making some progress on the second Aran Sandal Sock, and once those are done, the needles will be free for my Sockapalooza socks. Based on the comments on the last post, no one can decide on a varrigate, but the lavender color got rave reviews all around. Of the cabled patterns I had in mind, I think I’m going to give the Austrian Socks a shot. I haven’t seen any show up in blogs so they’ll be more unique than some of the other socks out there. Plus the construction intrigues me. (If you haven’t looked that closely at the pattern, they’re constructed top-down by making an i-cord, grafting it into a circle then picking up the stitches along the length of the i-cord.) If that is too much, I reserve the right to try a different pattern later if these don’t work out. But I have to give them a chance, they’re too pretty not to.

In the meantime, I need to get back to the scrubbing and packing, I’ll probably post some from the road where internet is available.

This weekend was my first road trip of the season, and my first chance to try out the knitting in amusement parks experiment. For the most part, a rounding success. With Nicole at the wheel, I had two lengthy drives and several short drive during which I was able to knit. Instead of focusing on the chevron scarf as I’d intended, having turned the heel on Thursday night, I kept on going with the Baudelaire sock as car knitting. Although I did do a little blind knitting on the stockinette sock once it got too dark to see what I was doing very well. We got to our hotel, watched the guys get drunk and play poker for a while and crashed for the night around 3.

Saturday morning we headed to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom for cheap season passes and some quick rides in the morning. The first test for the sock: park security. The bag screener looked though my camera bag, then opened the knit sack, looked at me quizzically and said “knitting?” and I just smiled and replied “yup”. And she let me though without any further questions. I knit while we waited in line for Chang, I knit while the guys rode T2, I knit while we waited for them to finish the extra rerides they snagged on Thunder Run and Twisted Twins. I even knit a little on the ferris wheel. I didn’t get too many strange looks (except from my friends, and it was as much strange looks as it was them sitting and watching trying to figure out how it all worked). And yet somehow while Bugs and Daffy were visiting with us when we took a short break, I didn’t think to hand one of them the sock for a photo op.

We headed out on the road (more car knitting) and stopped by the KY Action Park to ride the Alpine Slide. It has to be fun, there was a waiver involved. An Alpine Slide is basically a cement trough with twists and turns built onto the side of a hill. Ride a chairlift to the top, grab what is essentially a sled with wheels and ride back down to the base of the hill.

From there we got to our main reason for the trip, the Rumblefest coaster event at Beech Bend Amusement Park in Bowling Green, KY. We arrived in time to take a go-kart run and ride the drop tower before heading back for the wonderful dinner the park setup for us. The sock came out once the food was done and while we waited for things to progress.

After dinner, we had a walk-through tour of the Kentucky Rumbler with the ride’s designer where we got to climb around under the ride for a while. Here’s a photo of me knitting on the deadman. And the sock got to walk out on the brake run.

Following the tour, I discovered that there was a needle fatality. Not as a result of knitting in the park specifically or even rough handling of the bag, but from taking the sock in and out of the bag during the tour when I also had the free t-shirt the park gave us rolled up in the go-knit pouch. If it weren’t a possible security concern, I’d probably switch to metal needles for in-park knitting to try to prevent this sort of an issue but it really survived well all day until that point.

Once the Exclusive Ride Time started, the sock and camera bag spent the remainder of the evening living in the bin in the station while I proceeded to ride the Rumbler for almost 4-straight hours and probably a total of around 70-80 ride cycles. It was a blast.

Sunday, we drove all the way back up to Michigan. And with Nik in the driver’s seat glancing over to see if I had a finished sock yet, I finally bound off the second Baudelaire somewhere between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.

These are my favorite socks to date. I love the pattern (definitely a winner from Cookie) and the yarn (gorgeous and rich and subtle from Sundara) and I love how they fit (yay me). They were my first toe-ups which is something I will no longer shy away from and I also learned that it’s far easier to match a pair with a more intricate pattern repeat than it is to eyeball sizing a plain pair. I knew exactly how many repeats of the lace to do before turning the heel, and exactly how many cable twists to put into the cuff on the second sock.

I’m starting to think that the rest of my wardrobe pales in comparison to these socks. I love them and I want to show them off and I have no idea what to wear with them.

I’ve been thinking about blogging instead of actually blogging this week. I’ve got plenty to talk about though. Mostly knitting related. It’s not that I’m not sympathetic or saddened by the horrific events of this week in the news, but if knitting is a coping method, then talking about knitting is too.

For some reason I’m becoming enamored with complex patterns right now. It’s always at the most inconvenient times though. Even if the weather isn’t cooperating, it is in fact approaching spring and summer, and for me, that means that coaster season is ramping up. I’ve got my first amusement park road trip planned for this coming weekend and a longer trip planned next month. Many weekends will be spent traveling and while I can play with more complex knitting on flights or maybe even as a passenger in the car, it’s probably best for me to stick with fairly simple projects while I’m on the road. So I should be dreaming of more simple patterns or at least those with easy to remember repeats that just look complicated. Instead, I’m eyeing things like the Austrian-patterned knee high socks in the Socks.Socks.Socks book or Eunny’s Bayerische socks or Nancy Bush’s Chalet Socks. I have this odd all-consuming itch to make teeny tiny cables on little bitty sock needles and I think that itch needs to be scratched soon.

Of course, I also want another pair of jaywalkers and a pair of monkey socks for myself, and I want to make Cookie’s Twisted Flower socks, and keep some needles free for the rest of the sock madness patterns, and make mom another pair or two, and… too many to list really.

Not that I don’t already have plenty in progress. It’s definitely time to tackle a roundup of the WIPs. And I need to show a little bit of discipline and wrap up a couple projects before I start adding more to the list. Really.

Pomotomous - these are my more complex linger and savor slow moving sock project right now. I’m still on sock #1, slowly making my way onto the foot. I’m not sure why I’m being pokey with this pattern, the repeats aren’t that difficult to remember despite being a reasonable-sized chart. It may be all the twisted stitches. I am enjoying the yarn however, so it is kinda nice to savor it and use it up slowly. They’ll get done when they get done and not a second before.

Baudelaire - These are moving along a little faster, I’m ready to do the heel on sock #2. Once I get the heel turned, the cuff can and should finish up fairly quickly. I just need to sit down and do it. I love how the first sock came out and I can’t wait to wear the finished pair. These should be wrapping up soon.

JKnits stockinette socks - The first sock that I was working on when the Harlot was here is done and I’ve started sock #2. These are going to be my trial at in-park knitting this weekend. I’ve got the go-knit pouch all ready to go and depending on how much in-park knitting I actually do, I may have this pair done this weekend. I’ll probably try to keep some stockinette socks on the needles all summer to serve as in-park knits if these work out well this weekend.

Amusement Park Chevron Scarf - This is getting longer and longer when I pick it up. I’m almost to the halfway point and I still absolutely love it. It’s quick and simple and easy to pick up and knit a couple rows here and there. If it weren’t getting so long, it would be a good candidate for in-park knitting. Instead, this will be my car/hotel knitting this weekend between parks and on the long road down to and back from Kentucky. Its another project that I think may wrap up sooner rather than later.

I also added two new projects to my needles this last weekend.

Mad Weave Socks - I’m out of the competetive side of sock madness, but I’m still knitting the patterns and this was the one released for round 4. I had originally started it in some Wildfoote that was dark purples with turquoise and pink, but that yarn will get a new life as my next stockinette pair as it was a little too dark to show off the patterning. So I frogged it and cast on with this bright and fun merino from KimiK. My last sock madness socks were sunset socks, these are going to be my sunrise socks and so far the colors are showing off the pattern remarkably well. They’ve been my bedside knitting for the last couple nights.

Also new, despite several failed and naieve attempts with other yarns, I’ve made my first forray into real lace knitting with real laceweight yarn. I got the knitpicks needle set over the weekend and grabbed the single ball of red lacy lamb I had purchased last summer and cast on this scarf from Victorian Knitting Today. I’ve done enough with sock-weight yarn now, that the laceweight isn’t seeming nearly as intimidating. I’ve made it though the first repeat of the center pannel pattern (I don’t claim to be fast) and I’m enjoying it as well. It’s an 8-row repeat done 48 times, and I suspect it will grow slowly and be a much longer term project until I clear the needles some more and increase my comfort level with both the laceweight yarn and the knitpicks needles. If this goes well, I’ve got some other laceweight yarns in the stash to play with eventually too and I’ve built up a bit more of a lace library to play from.

As for the legwarmers that I gave up on in February, they finally got frogged tonight for being too tight. I’ll give that pattern another chance later on. For now I’m far more intrigued with cables and lace than I am with colorwork. I think that’s all thats on the needles for now. All these itches and a bout of start-itis, another STR Sock Club Kit package (I really should get around to making the first kit soon too) and some more loophole purchases lately may add some more things to the mix however.

Gromit says, “Mom, get out of the window, I’m trying to stalk the birds.”