It Is Tuesday, Right?

There's one thing I'll say for vacation at this time of year: I am very relaxed, but that means that I often forget what day it is and have to check to keep track. I very nearly forgot this post!

The other nice thing about vacation is that I do get a lot more knitting done. I'll admit I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like (I've been a bit distracted by books and a 2,000-piece puzzle we got out yesterday), but I am determined to finish up at least two current WIPs by the end of the month.

The most pressing (and also the most far along) is a sweater that's a baby gift for my best friend, who just had her third son earlier this month. I would have had something already on the needles were it not for the fact that I completely forgot she was already due, so I'm knitting up an impossibly cute sweater in a size 3-6 months. They live in Colorado, so I figure the baby can get some use out of it even if he'll outgrow it pretty quickly -- and then it can clothe a teddy bear or something.

The pattern is Whippersnapper, a new pattern by my friend Triona Murphy. She designed it to use a set of gradient mini skeins for the stripes, but I didn't have any time to yarn shop and decided to make do with what I could find in the stash. The green is a skein of Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Pond Tonal (which seems to have been discontinued since I bought it) and the blue is some leftover Dale Garn Baby Ull that I bought probably a decade ago. I have one more stripe of green to do on the body (plus the ribbing at the bottom) and then the sleeves, which I think will go quite quickly.

I'm also working on another sample for my Intrecciate Socks pattern for when I get the rights back and can republish in my Ravelry store. I wasn't entirely thrilled with the yarn I was given for the sample for the magazine, as a singles yarn doesn't have the crisp stitch definition that I normally like for cables, so I decided to reknit them in a multiply semisolid yarn. I've had two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in my stash for ages and ages (so long that it was from back when you had to buy two skeins to knit a pair of socks), and they seemed perfectly suited. I cast on before we got on the plane, and I've just finished the gusset on the first sock.

On Thursday, we're planning to drive over to the east coast of Florida to visit some family, which means close to five hours in the car round trip, and these will be coming with me.

Meanwhile, we went to the movies yesterday, and I didn't think either of these projects would be suitable for knitting in the dark, so I had to cast on a new project. I brought two skeins of Felici with me to make Rainbow a new pair anyway, and she has decided she'd like another pair of Vanilla Is the New Black. That worked perfectly for movie theater knitting -- it's just a ribbed cuff and stockinette until I get to the heel.

I haven't measured this, but I think it's around three inches, so nearly half the leg done. I won't be touching these until the other projects are done, but I don't think Rainbow's in any hurry for them at the moment anyway, given that I don't think she's worn socks since the first day we arrived.