It's All About Knitting

I never thought the day would come, but I have officially broke my monogamy when it comes to knitting. I am no longer a one project at a time knitter. Now, I realize this isn't the end of the world and it's not like I'm cheating on a spouse or significant other, but still I feel wrong for being unfaithful. Hell, even flirting with the idea made me uncomfortable; however, as I was working on my January sock club shipment I felt the need to start my Banana Hannah socks. So I wound the Opal yarn with my wannabe shift (aka - my rocking chair) and ball winder.

Oh, and if anyone reading this happens to know German please contact me. Opal apparently assumed only Germans buy their yarns because that is where it's manufactured. All the care instruction, etc. are in German. I figure it will be status quo care - hand wash - but it would still nice to be able to read the inside label.


As mentioned a day or two ago, I cast on my January socks a few days ago. Woo-freakin-Hoo! The pattern is the "Queen of Beads" written by Sivia Harding and in the colorway of My Blue Heaven - which might I say is a amazingly beautiful color. It's a mix of dark blue, green, teal and black. Each Notorious Knitter was given different color beads and mine were of a greenish-blue cast. I love 'em!

First things first, threading the beads. As I posted a few days ago, threading beads onto yarn is an interesting experience. Especially when the weight of the yarn is thicker than it was intended to be. I choose to use a dental floss threader. From what I've heard you can also purchase a special bead threader as well, but they aren't readily available at your local drug store. Once all the beads were on, 150 in my case, the next thing to tackle was the cast on. This pattern uses a tubular cast-on, something I had never done before. A tubular cast-on gives a more polished edge your project. I would have to agree that it does make a nicer looking edge, but it seemed to take up a lot of time that could be spent actually knitting the sock. After fumbling through my first tubular cast-on, I finally got rockin' and cracked through that part of the sock.





However, the elasticity of the cuff seems a lot looser than other socks I've knit. I'm thinking the cast on has something to do with it. However, it may also be the brand of yarn it is. I've never used Socks That Rock before so I don't know for sure how it knits up.

So, I got past the cuff and actually started to knit the leg repetition. Once I got the hang of left and right twist stitches I began to crank through the series. This picture was taken before I even began the leg repetition:



All I know is that now that I have gotten over my initial intimidation of knitting socks with beads and an intricate pattern. Overall, I can't put it down. They are turning out so nice and I've only worked the leg!

Well, that's all for now. Until later . . .