So the Broadripple sock is moving along... and the ball of Cascade Fixation grows ever smaller. Supposedly 1 ball = 1 sock, but I may end up with toeless socks. I guess that's the benefit of the toe-up sock designs, you can make the cuff slightly shorter than intended, and no one will notice. Peek-a-boo toes, on the other hand, are noticeable. Even though I haven't reached the "tricky" parts of this sock yet, (i.e., gusset and heel flap) I'd recommend this pattern to someone who has never knitted a sock before, but doesn't want to start with a plain ol' tube sock. The ripple pattern is kind of fun to do, actually!

I decided to try my hand at sock knitting. I'm using the Broadripple pattern from Knitty, and it's going pretty well. The Casdade Fixation yarn is a bit thick, compared to what I'd imagine sock yarn should be like. Sometimes I get sore feet from socks that are a bit too rough (yes, I'm a princess), so we'll see how this goes. In TV news, I've got to say I'm enjoying this new Medium show. The writing is very interesting, and the characters seem like more than poor shadows of characters we've seen a million times before. We watched NUMB3RS last night, and it was a little lame. The "math moments" reminded me of those Girl Scouts commercials that have been playing recently - you know, the ones where girls see physics equations floating over other girls playing sports? Message: it's cool for girls to like science! Ugh. However, given the opinion of the president of Harvard University, it's clear that a gender gap persists at the so-called highest levels of American academia. Doesn't he realize how dumb he sounds?

I finished the Airy Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts in a flash, and I couldn't resist starting in on a variation. I threaded the Douceur et Soie mohair through some sparkly sequins, and made a simple garter stitch sequin scarf. I randomly inserted one sequin every other row as I went along. The result is subtly sparkly - not gaudy. I hope. Anyway, these little flitty scarves are fast, soft, and surprisingly warm around the neck. I may make a habit of these, especially since one skein makes about three scarves.

When I'm almost (read: more than half-way) done with a project, I get myself into these marathon knitting sessions, where I camp out in front of the TV, watch terrible, terrible TiVo'd things, and finish the darn thing. The other day I watched The River Wild with Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon. Wow. That was pretty bad, but with a nice Benjamin Bratt cameo as "Ranger Johnny". It kind of reminded me of that Nicole Kidman movie, but kind of worse. The only similarity is that both movies had suspenseful stuff happen on a body of water. Anyway, I finished the Purl Scarf (and matching hat) while under the influence of The River Wild. If anyone out there is considering making the Purl Scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, you'll have enough yarn to make a matching hat if you make a shorter scarf. My scarf is long enough to wrap twice around my neck and still dangle to my waist, so that's enough for me. Just make the hat first, then make the scarf out of what's left.

Well, I just got the latest issue of Sunset in the mail, and they published an erratum in their cocoa recipe. Just as I thought, their recipe called for too much salt! Instead of 1/2 teaspoon of salt, the original recipe called for 1 tablespoon of salt. I am so glad I subjected mine to a taste test before gifting it. I imagine there are hundreds of cocoa-givers who had a shock upon reading that erratum. Yikes! I gave my boss salty cocoa! No wonder Jones got that promotion!

So someone I know commissioned another iPod cozy this week. The last one I made had a porthole for the headphone cord, but nothing for the recharger plug at the bottom. So, on the #6 dpns went the Tahki Cotton Classic for a second time. The end result was quite dashing, I may post a pattern here in the days to come, as well as photos once I figure out how to get photos on this new website. I must apologize to my four loyal readers, the school quarter has started up again, and I'm busy with learning stuff. Add learning how to use a new website for my knitting blog, and guess which one falls by the wayside. You guessed it, the one I don't get graded on. Ah well. I can only get better!

Well, Seattle finally got its snow. Up here on the Snohomish county line, we got at least three inches. All I can say is I'm glad the snow held off until today, because yesterday morning I got up early to stand in line for the massive sale at So Much Yarn in Belltown. We got there an hour before opening, and we still we only second in line. All yarn in the store was 30% off from 9 am - 11 am, so there was a bit of mayhem in the air. I took this opportunity to by some Manos del Uruguay yarn, which was always a little out of reach for me. I also snagged five skeins of Douceur et Soie mohair/silk blend for scarves. I plan on making the airy scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, and I've already started on the Purl Scarf from the same. Variation on a Frill has been progressing nicely, but I couldn't resist the call of the Manos. I also scored some discontinued eggplant Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky and chartreuse K1C2 Temptation at 50% off. As we waited 45 minutes in the checkout line, I saw some scary sales totals... hardly anyone spent less than $100, and many knitters were plunking down $300 and $400. You gotta spend money to save money, right? I'll be busy for a while, that's for sure.

Okay. The Clapotis was a good idea. In concept. But a knitter has a right to change her mind, right? So I've decided to turn that Lara yarn into a project I've had my eye on for quite a while, Variation on a Frill. Plus, this pattern has a beaded trim, and I really like knitting with beads. It's kind of like cabling - pretty easy to execute, but boy does it look kewl. I'll try to make some progress at Knitting Group tonight, then I can post some pix.