Up To No Good

Well, actually I've really just been up to knitting. Some of it's not all that good, but some of it is decent if I do say so myself. All most all of it recently has been Christmas knitting. Yeah yeah, I'm not normally this prepared but I decided to try giving preparedness a try this year.

First, I was able to get the Echo Flower Shawl completed. I now have a drawer of Christmas Shawls done. It feels weird having such a drawer full of large knitting projects actually complete. Well, before a week prior to Christmas anyway.

The shawl was done using a Bamboo/Cotton blend from The Great Adirondack Knitting Co. It is a very soft and drapy item though it's not wanting to hold it's blocking well. I'm going to have to re-block before giving time and add starch I think. I aggressively wet blocked it and steamed it the first time. Any suggestions?

Oh, and on the note of suggestions, I played with my settings again trying to get comments to play nice. I was speaking with some friends at knit night that also blog on blogspot and they to have been having some issues. Anyway, shoot me an email at gmail if you still can't leave comments like many of you have.

Back to the warm fuzzy's though. I can only discuss electronic world issues for so long before the irritation rises. I'm also making thick socks for some other members of the family. Those that aren't getting shawls. The guys side of the family are ranchers and this spring there was a conversation regarding frost bitten toes so I thought I'd give thick socks a shot to see if they help at all. If they are well received and seem to help I will probably give thrummed socks a shot next year. The first set of socks will probably be done today, and I will just have four more pairs and figure out something else out for my own mom and brother.

The pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmerman. I believe it is titled "Huntsman's Socks". I have her book The Opinionated Knitter has the original publication of the pattern. It's a simple sock on a larger gauge and as most of her patterns go, it's wonderfully adaptable to different gauges, yarn types and variation. I would suggest, and may use it as a beginning sock pattern for anyone who would like to learn sock knitting. They go fairly fast and is a straightforward easy to follow pattern. As usual EZ, you were a leader in the woolie world.

I hope you all have a great day. It's time for me to go shower and pretend to be motivated today. There's a wide world out there just waiting for me.