I've been holding off on buying yarn, recently, in an attempt to work through my stash.  As a result, I've found myself stagnated and avoiding knitting for my shop; new colors and textures are what keeps me going.  It has been pretty productive, this avoidance, because I've been working on projects for me, my family, and finishing up things that have been hanging around for awhile.

But...I know I need to work on building up more stock!  I'm already starting to get a trickle of custom orders for the holidays, and I was dreadfully unprepared last year for my etsy sales.  Breaking down and buying yarn currently isn't in the cards, so I decided to whip out my bag of scraps and pull a couple of skeins of yarn out and see if I could come up with anything that suited my fancy.  My goal was to use up some of my scraps and to use up an idle skein.  

Last night in the HAF critique chat, someone mentioned 'sunset colors' in relation to my orange and pink ribbed socks.  I had about 5 yards of each of those colors in my scrap bag, so I pulled them out on the table and saw that a winey red looked quite nice with them.  I also had about 5 yards of that, so I wound off bobbins and have them paired with a skein of cream yarn.

When I finish the pair of socks I'm working on now (for me!), I'm going to get started.  I'm actually excited about it!  Maybe this'll keep me from splurging on supplies for a tiny bit. :)

Black alpaca Simple Luxury socks done!  I would have finished them earlier, but we've had so much going on that they just kept falling behind.  I'm so happy with them, though.  The yarn is probably the nicest alpaca I've knit with in awhile, and they're delightfully silky soft.

I planned on making a green pair next, but realized that my mother-in-law's birthday is at the beginning of next week.  She mentioned that she'd like a pair for that, so I need to get cracking on that.  I have some fun self-striping sock yarn that's got a lot of red in it that I plan on using.

Anyway, here's the long awaited black socks.  You can find them listed here, in my etsy shop.

I've posted about a bazillion times about the alpaca yarn I've ordered, but today I'm very excited.  The Bolivian post service update shows that the yarn left the country three days ago.  It's not tracking in the US yet, but it's so nice to see it finally moving along on its journey.

It takes an average of two weeks to arrive, according to them, and it's only been one week.  I'm champing at the bit to get my hands on those lovely little skeins!  Until it arrives, I'll be compulsively running the number through track-trace and the USPS website to see if there's any news on its location.

I've reached an all-time high number of listings in my shop, so I've decided to slow down a bit on my tabi production.  I really want to beef up the number of traditional-toed socks before cool weather sets in, since they did so well last year, despite the limited colors available, and I was pretty stressed in getting them made.  I placed my order for the new yarn last week, so I've got awhile before I'm able to dig in on that.

While I wait, I've decided to work on some of my personal projects.  Things are pretty slow in etsy-land, so I figured it'd be a good thing to take advantage of.  I really want to crank out at least two sweaters before it gets cool, and have about six Chrismukkah stockings that I'd like to finish.

Knitting really causes a special kind of seasonal madness.  In June, the pressure starts to get warm woolies ready for The Season, so orders of wool, alpaca, etc. start arriving.  Thick sweaters, thrummed mittens, and warm slippers start production in the heat of the summer.  If you're not planning or already working by July, a little bit of a panic starts setting in.  By the end of August, you'd better have a nice bit of product stocked up, or the pinch is really on.  

And I'm a willing participant.  Below is the first repeat of the cabled cuff for a lovely, classic stocking.  I plan on making six of these, and I'm getting a head start!

A few weeks ago, I got notice that a bunch of yarn that was backordered was on its way to me.  I've been waiting and waiting and planning, and it still hasn't arrived.

I called and it turns out that it won't be shipped...and they haven't refunded my money.  I've spent several hours trying to rectify the situation, and it's pissing me off more and more.  I'm itching to knit more alpaca socks, but I'm tired of making them in blue!

I'd like to make a black pair, definitely, and maybe I'll start on a green pair for my brother for the holidays.  I'm craving alpaca and I can't have it.  I'm even shunning a lovely yak blend that I was itching to use.

Gah!  The frustration.

I forgot to go over what I managed to accomplish last week, but I'll go ahead and do that now.

• I finished sewing up all of the sock sleeves I cut out.
• Finished my Simple Luxury Alpaca socks.
• Knit up a new pair of tabi.
• Worked on a new pair of cotton/wool tabi.
• Printed out a bunch of new sock bands.
• Started a lace piece for my grandma.
• Finished weaving in the ends of a bunch of pairs of socks!
  

This week, I'd like to:

• Finish up the cotton/wool tabi.
• Start a new pair of cashmere or yak blend socks.
• Finish up the lace piece for my lovely grandma.
• Work some more on my experiment.
• Possible take some more pictures, including some action shots.

I usually read while I knit; and, last night, as I was finishing up another pair of Simple Luxury Alpaca socks for my shop, I glanced upon a post detailing the number of stitches (estimated) that someone had knit into a sweater.  As I read, I thought of all of the people who've asked 'why are these socks so expensive?', 'why are they so much more special than a machine made, $15 pair?', or other similar questions, and realized I've never actually written anything the minute details of what's in a pair of socks.  

For the following example, I'm going to use numbers from a large pair of socks from my Simple Luxury line.  Many people glance at them and consider only the design.  They're not very flashy, compared to many of my tabi and carry a heftier price tag; and, though they're made of higher-end fibers, that's not the only justification for the price.

What is then?  Well, each sock is made up of over seventeen thousand stitches.  Yes, that's 17.000 with 3 0's.  Each one of those stitches is slipped from needle to needle by hand, not whirled around the gears of a machine.  A pair of socks has over 34.000 stitches -- about twice what a proportionally- sized sweater (on larger needles with larger yarn, of course) uses.

As for yarn, these socks take a little over 1/4 of a mile of yarn.  

That's a lot of stitches!