New Socks!

In addition to the afghan I've been working on, I finished a pair of socks for myself. It was kind of exciting becauseI haven't finished a project for myself in some time. I've been doing so much charity knitting (Last month, I sent off dozens of hats to the Dulann Project). And then there's gift knitting I've done as well, little Christmas presents for friends at work, which sadly, I didn't get photos of.

So a finished pair of socks was exciting.

The yarn is mini mochi by Crystal Palace. In the ball it seemed a lot more pink and a lot less blue and purple but overall, I'm pretty happy with the result. As for the pattern, I hate to be vague, but I've been knitting socks with this pattern for so long, I'm not even sure if it is a proper pattern written up any where. I've made, well, I can't even tell you how many socks I've made with this pattern over the years. I've lost count.

It's a simple pattern. 72 stitches on the needles. Double points, thankyouverymuch. I've never been able to make the various circular needle techniques work for me. My sister is very much into socks on two circulars and always goes on about how much she hates double points and wonders how I can even use them. If you ask me, this is just another illustration of the fact that there is no one right way to knit. Circs work best for her, DPs work best for me.

I've got another pair of socks on the needles, just started. And I'm done with the afghan, but no photos as yet. Soon, I promise. And I've bought yarn for another crochet afghan, which I'll start as soon as the yarn arrives in the mail. Ah, yes, it feels good to be back at the needles after spending nearly the whole summer and most of the fall without doing a bit of hand work.

Doing what we can do.

I'm sure you're all like myself, feeling more than a little shaken by the news from Haiti. The devastation is incredible, made all the worse by an infrastructure that was nightmare-ish at best before the earthquake. I'm sure you know already, but if you didn't, Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere and lacks decent roads, hospitals, schools and utilities like clean water in most places in the country.

You've probably heard about the Yele campaign by Wyclef Jean and of course, the Red Cross. I did the thing where you text Yele to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti foundation. Red Cross also has a texting donation thing. But I also heard that there may be delays of that money getting where it needs to go. I don't consider the money I spent texting a donation wasted. In 90 days when the money gets there, work will still need to be done in Haiti. They money will go to good use, I believe.

But for a more immediate response, I looked to my favorite charity- Doctors Without Borders, and discovered that they already had a presence in Haiti and had treated over 1,000 people already and had more response teams and a portable hospital on the way. I donated as much as I comfortably could. And I'm asking anyone who reads this blog (and I know there are at least a few of you) to consider a donation to Haiti in some way, whether by texting Yele to 501501 or by clicking through on the picture link above to Doctors Without Borders and making a donation to their secure website.

Thank you.

I've learned to granny square!

It's true. I've learned to crochet. I never thought I would. I'll admit, I had that knit snob attitude. You know the one. No need to explicate my sins of attitude any more.


But seeing wonderful projects around the web and on flickr and on my favorite blogs slowly and gently brought me around


I started simple. I got a real life friend to teach me the basics, then went home and made a few squares in plain yarn for practice. Then went out and bought myself an armload of Berrocco Comfort worsted weight and just dove right in. I picked the yarn because out of the washable/dryable yarns at the shop, it had the best colors. And since it's planned to be a gift, I didn't want to saddle someone else with handwashing. I've done thirty something squares out of the sixty four or so I think I'll need. I can't decide if I want to put the yellow border that I was planning on, or to just join them as is.