So this Saturday, before going to K8rs' excellent 2nd birthday party (toddler parties are the funnest!), I got to go to Romni for some stash updatin'. I have a few birthdays coming up in the spring, and I'm unlikely to get down that way for a while with the way things have been working lately. The staff, as always, were helpful and interesting and managed to put me on some completely new paths for my projects. For the Boy's Iron Folk Festival sox, I was convinced to try out a spool of a grey mill end. I was told that if I knit 2 strands of the big ol' spool with one strand of matching sock yarn, I would get a sock that wore like diamond. This is good news, since the Boy's toenails have been used to drill mines.

In less exciting news, I picked up some black yarn for Dirk's b-day sox. Since he didn't manage to haul his ass out of bed in time to meet us, I couldn't consult on the more interesting yarn and had to go basic black. I also got some Sockapaloooza yarn for my Secret Sock pal. After a lot of dithering (was it earthy enough? bright enough? pretty enough?) I ended up with a variegated yarn that reminds me a lot of pumpkin soup. Now I just need 2.5 mm needles and I can cast on. That's my goal for this week - to cast on for the first sock. Why did I decide to do this again? Oh yeah, for the socks in the mail.

I found some cheap green DK yarn for a baby sweater to go to a cousin in a month. The momma was hinting like mad when I showed her the pattern for Blake's hoodie, so I figure this is the kind of gift she wants for her son's first birthday. I'm using the LMKG corrected pattern and hoping that I can get through it in a month if I knit an inch a day (6-8 hours my Aunt Fanny). While I was in the cheap DK section, I picked up 2 more balls of purple to match the yarn left over from my mother's Christmas cowl. I suppose that someone will want another baby sweater eventually, so I might as well invest while I have that purple hanging around the stash.

My only indulgent purchase was a green variegated skein of Manos, so that I may knit my son a gnomey hat when the red one goes off to its intended recipient. It's very woody and dark, but for some reason Blake doesn't quite like it as much as the red red Manos. Pity.

But the mostest exciting thing was that Andrea let me use her ball winder at K8rs' party! I think I may have found something in knitting that even the Boy wholeheartedly enjoys!!

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 2/05/2006 06:42:00 p.m.