As I mentioned on Friday, Katherine and I went to a wool store (Wool Trends, 238 Hamilton Avenue). I was looking for some new yarn as (and I hesitate to even say this as I know true knitters will cross themselves or mutter incantations against my influence) I was completely out of yarn for a project.My hands were getting twitchy and I was fulfilling the Twitch with such things as washing door frames, cleaning water faucets with a toothbrush, scraping the winter’s accumulation of crud out of the front door sill and brushing the dogs’ undercoats. It was this last one that tipped the balance. The dogs all agreed between them that I really needed wool. So off we went.

I’ve not had a good deal of success with Confetti yarn for socks. I love the look of it (and the price is definitely better than others), but the tension eludes me somehow. I decided, thought, to give it another go and bought a new set of finer dpns (double-pointed needles, for you foreigners). I usually knit with 2.5mm, but switched to 2.25 (that’s switching from a size 2 to a size 1 in US sizes). Works like a charm. Had to adjust my sizes a bit, but so far so good.

So I picked up enough for three pairs of socks, which should keep me well out of mischief for the next month or so. I’m particularly excited about the brown, as it has a variegation that’s just lovely and will show off interesting knitting patterns rather well, I think. Not sure which pattern it’ll become just yet. Possibly something from the Knitty archive. I love the Reptilian Lace socks.

My other purchase was (the clerk felt) rather daring, as I bought a hank of roving by Fleece Artist (colour way Piñata) with the ambition of spinning a bit on a drop spindle for use in a hat. How exactly I was going to do this wasn’t precisely hammered out in my mind at that time (I didn’t have a spinning wheel or drop spindle), but I had already purchased the book of instructions and felt invincible.

Beautiful, isn’t it? There’s 50 grams of exquisite Blue Face Leicester (sliver) carded and hand-dyed fibres there, just waiting for me to completely muddle them up. No intimidation factor at all. Hah.

So home I went and started knitting another pair of socks. I should explain about the socks, actually. Socks are very important to my family. John is a complete sockaholic. I think it has something to do with his lack of circulation. No really, he has no blood pressure and his extremities suffer. He loves socks and Katherine, of course, loves whatever John loves and is equally caught up in the trend. I am the sort of person who wears sandals in February, sock I sometimes need a good pair of socks, but they have to be just the right sort and made of real wool.

You get the picture. We’re a sock family. So I make socks, partially because I know they’ll be used and loved and partially because I have the attention span of a gnat and need things that finish quickly.

So that was Friday. Then came Saturday, a beautifully sunny Saturday with nothing in it……