He calls them Fish Socks!

I finished these up just in time for Socktopia's January pool. The theme for these socks was, "Celebrate good times". The red spots reminded me of confetti, so I thought they were fitting. The pattern stitch on the leg is from Slouch Socks in Not Just More Socks, I made several changes to the rest of the sock (cast on fewer sts. to make a tighter fit, continued a rib pattern on the top of the foot, changed the heel & toe, etc.). The yarn is Austermann Step worked on size #2 needles and SISU for the heel and toe on size #1's. Normally when I use a striping yarn I cast on at a color change to make it easy to make the 2nd sock match, but this time I just cast on willy nilly and didn't really care if the "matched" perfectly. Then I got to the white and red stripe area, I have knit with this yarn before so I should have remembered, especially because my son didn't like the "pink" and said, "can't you just take that out?" So I did and after the socks were done he didn't want the socks because he knew there was supposed to be pink there! ARGH!! So, I really should have remembered that little stripe, but I didn't and now I was worried that not having them "match" just might make me crazy! But I let it go and didn't even worry when I started the yarn after the heel, right in the middle of a color, again! When it was time to cast on the 2nd sock I realized that I couldn't deal with the stripes not matching so I did my best to match them up and Wow I am really proud of my self! They match almost perfectly! And they are finished in time for the recipient's B-Day! Now if these aren't Celebration socks, I don't know what is!

Oh, about the fish. The men in my house have been conditioned. When I walk around the house sticking my knitting in their face's, they instinctively reach out, touch it and say something like, "that's nice". Well, as I was knitting these socks my husband, with no prodding at all, said, "Those are great socks, I really like the colors". Hmm? What did he do? But the he kept mentioning how much he liked the colors. Finally I said, "So you really like these colors?" and he said, "Yeah, they look just like a salmon right after you catch it, before the colors start to fade." He is a fisherman. I had to break the news, they weren't for him. His response, "You knit fish socks for someone else!" I guess I will be casting on another pair of fish socks for Valentines Day!

This is Enzo and my new T.V. shawl, he likes it. Last Thursday my hubby and I were watching some TV and I was cold so I reached in the knitting basket for something to throw over my shoulders. I pulled out a lot of stuff; pieces of a vest, squares for a blanket, the beginning of a shawl that I decided I didn't like after 5" and ripped out the needles, mumbling to myself, "I like this pattern, I don't need to swatch", it was knit sideways so it may only be 5" long but it is 5 1/2 feet wide! I finally found a poncho that only needed one little seam finished. Perfect, I wrapped it around me and continued with my knitting. Later that night I walked past the mirror in the hall and caught a glimpse of me in the unfinished poncho. That was when I realized why I never finished sewing that seam, it was hideous!! Now, don't get me wrong, I like ponchos, but you should never knit a poncho (or anything else for that matter) in super bulky yarn on size 17 needles in a lace pattern! I don't care how cute it looks in the picture, those photographers can make ANYTHING look good.

I don't remember what I had gotten up to do, whatever it was, it wasn't as important as getting rid of that poncho! I went right upstairs and frogged the whole thing directly onto the ball winder! I stacked the nicely wound balls on top of the TV cabinet, they looked so cute now, kinda like a snowman. I was happy.

Friday, I was cold. Saturday, I decided to put that yarn to good use and knitted up a simple stockinette st. shawl with a garter st. border. It knit up FAST. Saturday night, I was warm.