Speed knitting

I had planned to finish the Corded Rib socks before the weekend but that didn't happen. But the foot is more than half done. I really like this stitch pattern.

But I have to use size 2 mm needles now that that the wooden ones broke. Carrie commented that she knits tighter with metal needles than with wood, but these needles are not slippery at all and very lightweight so I seem to knit looser with them than with the wooden ones, they don't fall out of my knitting anyway. My Addi dpn's on the other hand are very slippery and also very heavy so they fall out all the time, I don't like them at all. But I do like the slipperiness of the Addi circulars, but of course they don't fall out of my knitting.

Today I'm not knitting anything, though, my hands needs resting. Because during the weekend I did this:

The Sock Madness Mad Cow socks! Toe-up, magic loop on 2.5 mm Addis. The yarn is Lorna's Laces in Flames and Opal Uni Black. Flaming Cow socks perhaps? Or Barbecue Socks?
I think there is another Sock Madness pattern calling for one solid plus one varegiated yarn. I'll probably use the same yarns for that one as I've got plenty of leftovers. I haven't weighed the balls but I think there's more than half of the LL left, and the Opal ball was 100 grams to begin with. And I have very few solids in my stash.

I got the pattern around 1 pm on Saturday and of course cast on immediately. I managed to knit most of the day, the kids played nicely and M cooked dinner. It really felt like these socks flew off the needles but I got too tired to finish the first sock on Saturday. I did the last repeat on the leg and the cuff on Sunday morning. I felt that I had less time for knitting on Sunday (and I did the cooking) but I managed to finish the sock in the evening before getting too sleepy. I checked the Flickr group now and then and almost everytime I checked someone had finished their socks. A bit stressful yes. But I did finish among the first 16 in my group, so I'm still in the game :-) It is great fun to see the same pattern knit up in so many different yarn combinations, I don't think I've seen two pairs that are alike yet. I wonder what the next pattern is going to be...

I still can't believe that I knit a pair of socks in two days! Granted, it's plain stockinette even though they are striped and there's only 56 stitches per round, but still!

And here's at least one of the reasons that I was too tired to stay up late on Saturday and finish the sock:

I'm growing a baby! We did the 18 week ultrasound screening today. All seems great so now I feel that I can share it here. If you haven't seen this kind of picture before: the spine is horisontal towards the top, the head is to the right, baby is facing down, the butt is to the left, and you can see the little femur. We saw baby kicking and wawing the little hands, so cute. And there's only one. My mom especially thought that it might be twins because my tummy is rather big already. But I didn't really think so, after all this is my third baby and I'm pretty short-waisted so there is only one way for the baby to grow: outwards!

E and H was very interested in the picture, but I don't think that H understood it much. E on the other hand is interested in skeletons so I think he understood what he saw.
They are very excited about the baby and E said that now we have to take picures of them too and write Big Sister and Big Big Brother on a note :-) So I know what they will get from the new baby when it's born: Big Sister and Big Big Brother t-shirts! But it's a long time until then, I'm not due until mid-August.

I'm off to bed now, I'm tired to the bone. I started pregnancy Pilates classes a couple of weeks ago and the third class was today. The instructor is upping the intensity every time! The first time it was nothing, the second time a little tiring perhaps. Today I felt like I was falling asleep driving home. But it feels great to do at least a little excercising, I haven't been working out for at least a year. I try to take at least a couple of walks every week too, and I will do more as it gets lighter in the evenings. So I hope to get reasonably fit for the delivery!
Good night!

Broke it

Of course I broke one of those tiny wooden needles. Probably just because I dared to think that they maybe wasn't as brittle as I feared... Shortly after that, just as I had started the second sock I heard a crack. It was a k2tog that did it. So I switched the broken needle for an Addi. But that, or something, made the sock very wide. Much wider than the first on. Rip, rip down to the toe and use 2 mm needles instead. I probably knit looser with metal needles. Normally I'd switch to a circular needle and magic loop, but I'll probably need that needle on Saturday. The first yarn for Sock Madness was published today: one varegiated and one solid fingering yarn. Apparently they test knit with Lorna's Laces. Suit me fine, because I was thinking Lorna's Laces Flame (reds and oranges and yellows) and Opal Uni black for this one. So I'll probably need my size 2mm circ. Or possibly 2.5 mm. I don't have anything useable in between anymore :-/

I'm feeling a bit bad about not having sent out my last Sockret Pal package yet. I need the proper candy. I've got the socks, the yarn, the sock bag, but there must be chocolate too! And my pal has something special that she likes and I want to find it for her. Soon, soon.

Socks and Chickens

Chicken pox that is. It is now E's turn to be all spotty. He has it much worse than H did, he's all spotty and itchy poor thing. Good thing that we have lots of the anti-histamine meds left from H. And sunburn lotion. Other than the itching he's quite happy to be at home and build lego's all day. And today we're making cinnamon buns, yum! E likes cooking and baking so a day without little sister at home is a good opportunity for him to play in the kitchen. H is a bit too messy yet.


I made it into Sock Madness, and my group has been published. I'm much honoured to be a part of Stephanie's Travelling Sock Division. They haven't published a post about the name yet but I assume that they mean Yarn Harlot, I love her! But oh my, some competition! Aija of Knitty fame (she designed the RPM socks!), Stariel who knit 50(!) pairs of socks last year, and *the* miss Lime are just a few. Stressed out? Who? Me!? Nah... I just want to finish my current pair OTN before next Saturday, that's all. Here's the first one:

And here's a closeup of the stitch pattern:

The colour is most accurate on the first picture.
You may notice that it doesn't look like Conwy at all... because it's not! I didn't want to fiddle so much right now to make that pattern work for my size so I did something completely different instead :-) I recently got Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Plain Socks so I'm trying out her sock recipie. I haven't quite got the hang of it, the toe looks good, the heel not so much, I'll be more careful with sock nr 2. The stitch pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, it's the Corded Rib on page 38. Very easy to work and learn by heart, and I like the look of it too. The Lorna's Laces are behaving nicely too on 64 sts. When I tried out Conwy on 72 sts it pooled rather badly.

I'm using my new Brittany Birch dpn's, 2.25 mm. I must say that they are so-so. The length is great and the surface is fine, though the tips could be a little more pointy. The problem is they feel so fragile! They bend in my hands even when knitting plain, and k2tog feels like they are going to break every time, brr. 2.25 mm is not a standard size here in Sweden so it's hard to get. My other set is metal Addis and they are way too slippery, they actually fall out of my knitting. I have to find something in between, metal but not slippery.

Now I think I'll go back to obsessing over the best yarns for Sock Madness... see ya!