Sunday, up early.

Well, it's not early anymore, but I've got the second of three loads of laundry in, and in ten minutes, I'll go down and switch out the first and second in the dryer. Need to vacuum, finish reading a chapter of a late, late, LATE manuscript, practice the drums, and perhaps later, knit a bit while watching a movie. I've just found another list I want to try to run down--50 essential Gay & Lesbian Films, which I got out of an older OUT magazine. My brother got me a subscription last year for Christmas, maybe, because he was broke, and, well... I don't know. It's mostly a glossy male take on being gay. Except sometimes they profile cool people (Hunx and his Punx) or this, a run-down of the 50 most essential gay films. I can't wait to start running this down.

I know what you're thinking... Whatever happened to the books you were reading? Honey, let me tell you, that Alice Munro short story collection was a) very hard to find, and b) when I finally tracked down a UK copy at a tiny used book store in the East Village, it was HUGE. Needless to say, it's propping up my alarm clock on my bedside table. Sigh. I really should have just bought it on the Kindle. I'm stymied. But I'll get back to it! In the meantime, I have films to see...

Anyway, as a way to make it up to you, I have a review of sorts. Knitting books have been finding their way into this house in a continuous stream all year, and I've basically ignored them all. Well, no more! I want to put them away, so that means going through them and evaluating...

The first one is a stranger to no one reading this, I'm sure: Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders. This book is obviously a treasure trove of patterns for sock yarn--101 patterns, to be precise. The patterns range from the ridiculously hideous to really awesome, and one of the best things I like about it is that there are patterns for little bits of sock yarn as well as the whole skein. Even when I finally, sometime this side of never, get to the last full skein of sock yarn in my stash, I will still have about 50 partials waiting for me to do something with them. And now I have a resource! (besides Ravelry, of course...)

Here are a few of my favorites--have to say, the shawl section was the best one over all, but there were some good socks and some passable gloves and mittens, although most of them weren't the most creative in my opinion. They should have done more doll clothes--that is such a great idea for sock yarn. My nieces each have those American Girl dolls, and I'm always thinking I should make stuff for them. Now I can!



The pics go from the back of the book to the front. Love that girl's octopus tattoo.

Also, I've finished (finally) my March socks. Except now I'm calling them my March/April socks.



Pattern: Diagonal Rib Socks by Pam Allen. I think I got this pattern from Knitting Daily or from the IK website or something. I've had it a long time. I thought this would be a good pattern for Spanky socks, but she didn't like these when they were done.



I think it was the patterning that she objected to. Apparently she really does only like plain socks, although she did say she likes the stripy ones. Anyway, the pattern was really easy to follow, and I just basically did what it said. I don't think I made any actual changes apart from just not knitting the cuffs as long as they said (7"). I was afraid that I'd run out of sock yarn, since the balls seemed to be a bit on the small side. I do have a small ball of each skein left, so I guess I could have made them longer, but better safe than sorry, since this wasn't the called for yarn.

Yarn: Strapaz, by Steinbach Wolle

I got this yarn at The Yarn Connection, a now defunct LYS that was near my office. I complained about it all the time while it was open--it was tiny, cranky ladies worked there, and there was a lack of interesting stock, but man, I sure do miss it now that it closed. This yarn is not my favorite. It's not that soft, and the color is this weird green/gray. I put a piece of white paper underneath the socks in an attempt to get a better shot of the color:



When I showed them to Spanky, that's what she said, 'They're green...' I guess what she meant is that she'd like them better if they were gray or black. Oh well. I don't know why I picked this color. My friend Constance uses this yarn all the time for socks, but she always picks baby pink or blue (she's into ballet, so I guess those are ballet colors...). Mine are much harsher/darker.

Needle: US size 2 dpns. I did mine on 4 dpns rather than 3, as the pattern states. I just don't like using 3 if I can help it. I only did when I got down to the foot, and it went a bit faster with all the patterning on one needle. Otherwise, I prefer four needles (5 total with the working needle).

The finished, blocked socks are thick and warm, but softer than they were pre-blocking. I'm looking forward to wearing them next year with clogs. I bet they're going to be great additions to my wardrobe.

Next up, knee socks! YIKES.