More Productive Knitting Weekend!

In addition to going on about my weekend,

Close Up of Pantaloon Edge
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I'm also sharing the excitement of my friend Katie's Finished Object--beautiful lace-edge pantaloons, or lounging pants, or something. I have other photos in my Flickr set from my knitting friends, if you want to see what the whole thing looks like (I didn't want to put Katie in her lounging attire directly on the blog). As Katie points out in the comments, the pattern is Unmentionables, from Knitty.

Katie was incredibly patient knitting long stretches of stockinette, then VERY long stretches once the ruffle started. But she got to touch wonderful Cathay yarn for all that time, and now has the most luxurious lounging attire of anyone I know! Katie will no doubt tell me where the pattern came from in the comments, which will be helpful since my mind has blanked it out, even though I knew it perfectly well at one time.

Note: For some reason I keep spelling Katie's name like the Houston suburb of Katy, and not like her "real" name. I wonder how many times I will have to tell myself to stop doing that? Anyway, sorry, Katie.

My Knitting Fun

As the blog entry title hints, I had a better knitting weekend than last week. I did sock #2 for Lee's dad really quickly, thanks to a very long ride on a hot school bus and a lot of time at the yarn shop on Saturday. I'm just glad all that jumping up and down to cheer didn't get the stitches messed up. But, sock #2 is as sturdy, brown and utilitarian as sock #1!

I got well past the heel on the second Disco Colori sock by Sunday afternoon. I am very proud of the toe, which is a thing of beauty and smoothness, as well as the heel, which pretty much exactly matches the patterning on the first sock. I was not sure if the yarn would line up that well, but it did. Yay, I will have identical twins, not fraternal.

I wandered around the room thinking about what socks to knit next for a while yesterday afternoon. I eventually settled on the Silver Leaf colorway Panda yarn from Seacoast, because it is shiny from the bamboo, and so silvery and green. And not turquoise or brown. I went through a number of decisions on what socks to knit, but settled on the Walking Away Socks pattern from Fiber Trends. I've made the center pattern already (see this blog entry for info). This time I will make the one on the left, if you know what the pattern looks like. Everyone really seems to like my socks with interesting back views.

After that, I will go back to gift socks, because I found at the LYS on Saturday Austermann Step in a subdued orange and blue colorway that I can use to make "Go Gators" socks for my sister, who is in Gainesville. It'll be a two-sock holiday for her!

Non-Sock Knitting at Last!

But, I did it! I knitted something other than a sock! I unraveled the cast off on the lace panel I'd done on the surplice top, and started up the back in lovely stockinette. The yarn, which is Nashua Natural Focus Ecologie Cotton is lovely the way it shades slightly, but it sure likes to come apart. It's very loosely wound and consists of what appears to be ten or twelve very thin strands, and it is very easy to miss a strand. So I do have to pay attention. I will love wearing this, though, so I will march forward more rapidly now, I hope.

KnitPicks Needles

Wow, have those new KnitPicks needles started a lot of discussion on various boards and such. People either love them or loathe them. I guess those beautiful rainbows that seem so fun to me really bother others (yet I have read about people who find the metal ones "too shiny" so it takes all kinds, I guess). When I got to the yarn shop on Saturday, Amy was there to teach a sock class. Turns out she had done just what I did--opened her email, saw the needles and ordered ASAP so she'd get some before they sold out. We laughed at our own predictability.

Class

I taught a pretty big beginning knitting class, all but one of whom really weren't beginners, but that's OK. They were all progressing rapidly enough that they ended up making basketweave scarves, and once the realization that you have to move the yarn between knitting and purling was clear, they were going like gangbusters. Almost all of them were using Smile yarn on large needles, so a lot of knitting happened. What I liked best was that they were so enthusiastic that most of them are coming back next week to learn more! I had a request for how to knit a simple hat, so that should be fun to show them. As tired as I was from the long bus ride the night before, their enthusiasm was contagious! Teaching knitting is probably the most fun work I've ever done.