Two by Two

Tandem knitting is now going on at my house! I ordered and received ( from Knit Picks, an online knitting store ), another set of Harmony dpns, thereby committing not only to dpns in a big way, but also to knitting socks in tandem. The way I do it is, I knit the cuff of sock # 1, then the cuff of sock #2, the leg of #1 and then the leg of #2. You get where I'm going with this. So by the time I get to the toe, I have 2 socks finished! So I am knitting 2 socks at the same time without having to deal with Magic Loop or 2 circulars and all the cords and ends and tangled balls of yarn! Very rewarding!!

I decided to knit the Rick socks, from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book, with my frogged blue Malabrigo yarn. It is only a 4 row, 12 stitch repeat, so I have that part down pat, but it is swirling around the leg and I didn't use a marker so I am always searching for the start of a row. Maybe putting a marker in now might be a worthwhile thing to do. Who knows? Anyway, I am almost down to the heel with sock 1 and should be starting the leg on sock 2 soon. This pair of socks is for our accountant who loooooves hand knit socks and will really appreciate them. You might notice in the picture, that pair #2 is in a little container. This is the neatest little thing that I also got from Knit Picks to hold your needles safely. I can't tell you the number of times I have pulled my sock knitting out of my project bag only to find I had pulled out a needle or stitches off a needle. So TaDah. Now that doesn't happen anymore.

The last thing I ordered was this book, Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn.
I have lots of lovely yarn that is either handpainted or machine done so that it is variegated or self striping or whatever. I love the yarns but I really enjoy knitting patterned designs in my socks and most often these yarns are so colourful or busy or whatever you want to call it, that the pattern is totally lost. I see so many people on Ravelry knit gorgeous patterned socks with really loud and busy sock yarn and all you see is the colours, not the pattern. It just seems to me to be an exercise in futilitly.

So this book is supposed to help you choose handpainted yarns for certain patterns in socks so that both are enhanced, the yarn and the pattern.I have a really gorgeous skein of yarn that I won that I have earmarked for my first pair from this book. I think I may also have a few other skeins of similar yarn in my stash too. But to be on the safe side, I think I will go to our LYS today and pick up a couple. I was unable to go to WWKIP day as I had a horrid head cold, so they kindly offered to allow me the discount anyway!

Wimbledon starts next week and runs for a "fortnight" as they say over there! I guess someone will get a lot of knitting in the next two weeks! I love watching tennis and more specifically, Wimbledon. And now that Roger has won the French Open, the pressure is off! I am still hoping for him, but the pressure is off!! Go Roger!!