As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working on knitting up some wayward yarn from my stash.  I just finished a pair of gray tabi (size L) out of the wool/acrylic blend, and my mind just took the gray and wandered the entire time I worked on them.  I wanted so badly to pick up and knit another pair of socks that it made it very difficult to finish.  

It's not that common that I finish a pair and immediately, like within two minutes, dash to pick out yarn for a new pair, but that's what happened today.  The new pair will be gray with a few hot pink stripes.  I hate to list two gray pairs in a row, but I can't let this one go!

While looking for my next project, I ran across six balls of a wool-acrylic blend yarn.  I vaguely recall receiving it a few years ago from my mother-in-law, and it's been stuck in one of my stash boxes since then, awaiting a project.  

I did some experimenting with it, knit a couple of swatches, and found that it actually had a pretty hand and excellent memory.  Both of those qualities made me automatically assume that it'd knit up into nice socks, and indeed it did!  I'm actually pretty impressed and listed the pair in my shop.

They're a bit less, price-wise, than my 100% natural fiber socks, which is probably a good thing.  They're also easier care than most of my current listings, and I hope both appeal to people who've been put off before. 

I have two more colors that need to be used up, and I hope to get to them in the next week or two.  It's great to see my item count climbing!  Of course, it'd be nice to have to work my butt off to keep things stocked, but I might actually reach my goal of 50 items by the holiday shopping season.

Spring is here and my motivation to knit, as it always does, is waning a bit.  Sitting in my craft room with the windows open isn't an acceptable substitute for laying in the grass with the cool breezes, warm sun, and catching the occasional whiff of my blooming iris.  I've been spending as much of the days outside getting my garden started as I can, and trying to do as much work-work as I can on the screened porch with my laptop.

In the evenings, I have so many other projects that I want to start, so I'm having to carve out designated knitting time.  I still love doing it, but I find it hard to make time for it when I have so many NEW things to do.  

I wanted to get the lace piece I started for grandmother done a few weeks ago, but that's been, sadly, delayed greatly.  I took an hour last night to work on it and made good progress, so I'll probably do the same today.  I can't wait until it's done!  I keep playing with it while I'm knitting it because it's so soft and flowy. :)

I did finish a pair of socks for my mom, and have decided that they're going to be for her birthday.  I ended up not being able to resist buying her this double oven mitt (and towel) set from TheGivingTree.  They have ducks and will soon have guinea hens, so I thought the frolicking birds were hilariously appropriate.  Well, maybe not hilarious but definitely a bit funny. :)

And to finish this essay off, here are mom's socks:

A few weeks ago, I posted about ordering a pair of fake feet to try as a model for my socks.  Well, they arrived and are hilarious, as expected, but they don't fit the socks.  They're absolutely tiny and the 'ankle' area is too close to the toes, so it makes a weird bump in the middle of the sock.  The split toes do work out nicely, so I may be able to modify them to work more.  I may just end up coughing up the dough to make or buy a decent pair!

Either way, the feet are being hidden around the house to surprise my husband and the occasional visitor.  We've been having a ton of fun with them, and I've named them Lydia.

I knew they were going to be a great investment, at least on the humor front, when I saw the packaging.

After taking last week to work on projects for my family, I'm back and really ready to knit for my shop.  I finished a pair of slippers for my husband, a pair of socks for me, have almost finished the lace for my grandmother, and have picked out colorways for both my mother and mother-in-law for birthday socks.  I'll probably start working on those later in the week.

Over the past two days, I've been working on things for my shop.  I knit a pair of Orange Tabi that I've had listed as made to order in my shop, and have almost finished another pair of Watermelon Tabi that I'll probably list tomorrow.  

I've also spent some time picking pictures out and editing them for color and contrast.  It seems like my monitor must be really bright (even though I've calibrated it), because I've had a few comments about my dark pictures.  Now that I've enhanced them a bit, I can see that they do look better, but I'm still a bit afraid that they're too blinding.

I'm also itching to buy more yarn!  I've been doing really well on knitting up my stash, but there's really nothing quite like new yarn to get creative juices flowing.  I did find out that I have three colors of alpaca (green, more blue, and black) on their way from my supplier.  I back ordered them a few months ago and completely forgot about it, so that'll be fun.  

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the newest addition to my sock 'drobe, and here they are!