When I came home from work today there was a box from my Secret Pal waiting for me! I opened it up and found a gorgeous skein of sock yarn in all shades of blue, a very easy-looking pattern, and a whole pile of chocolate – dark chocolate, to be precise. Yum!
My Secret Pal is encouraging me to get over being intimidated by socks, and with this pretty, pretty yarn I think I have no choice. I think the world is conspiring to get me to knit socks anyway, as my knitting mentor/friend has been making noises about how I need to stock up on small DPN’s. Heh.
In knitting news, I have finished off the first baby blanket, and all that’s left is to tuck in the ends (good timing, since the baby shower is in mid March). I *should* be working on the second baby blanket, but instead I decided to give Blaze another try, this time with my gorgeous Lara cotton in sunburst (dull greens, oranges, and reds). While the cable pattern shows up wonderfully even with the varigated color, I decided I just could not live with the way the colors were pooling. Strike two for Blaze. One of these times I’ll find a yarn that works, I swear!
However, I like this gorgeous cotton so much and I was struck by how well it shows the cable that I decided that it needed to be a bag. Back to Knitty.com I went, and found Tasha. Doubled up, the guage matches perfectly, and doubled up, the yarn shows all its gorgeous color without looking all splotchy from pooling. I’ve only the side and strap section to knit and then off to the washing machine it will go for a little careful shrinking before I can seam all the pieces together and show it off. I figure that will be as good a time as any to get the baby blanket finished up, since it needs a run through the wash to ‘set’ its lovely basketweave as well.
And then…then, I shall have to cast on for socks. They might take me a little while because there is the matter of that other baby blanket that’s due before April, but I will start them regardless. I will not be undone by socks, by golly. Thanks, Secret Pal!