Photographic Evidence

Here, as promised, pictures!

First things first:

Pattern: Pomatomus (winter '05 Knitty) by Cookie A.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in colorway Jay Pond
Needles: US 2 (really more like 1.5) Inox dpns
Recipient: my mom
Mods: My own reversal of the pattern for one sock, to create a mirror-image pair.

These were my mom's Mother's Day present, which I hope she won't mind getting so late! (At least she's in a better situation than my future MIL, whose feet I have yet to even measure for her socks.) I am still not 100 percent pleased with the pattern reversal, but I am working on another prototype sock with an additional modification that looks like it's coming out more the way I wanted it to. I'll know in about another pattern repeat if it's working, and if I does I'll be posting the mods on this here blog shortly.

Here's a closeup shot of the socks so you can see how the pattern has been reversed:

Next up -- sing along with me, now! -- Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, good-bye!

Say adios to Trellis! Yes, that is my trash can. Frankly I didn't even think it was worth it to throw this sweater in the frog pond. The yarn is acrylic baby yarn I got on sale at JoAnn's; maybe if it was wool I'd feel differently. Somehow I managed to build up an incredible resentment of this sweater, and throwing it away -- really throwing it away -- just felt so good. This sweater might look really cute once it's knit up, but the actual process of knitting it was a big pain in the you-know-what. If you ask me, a knit item for a baby or little kid shouldn't be so complicated. I'm using the rest of this yarn for a baby sweater I like much better.

Done. And done.

I finished two things last night, both of which were long in coming. The first was my mother's Pomatomuses (whenever I say "Pomatomus" to J, he responds with "Polamalu"), which I actually finished knitting at lunch but, finding myself without a tapestry needle, had to wait until I got home to kitchener the toes and weave in the ends. I didn't take a picture this morning because they were still blocking on a towel that, coincidentally, is nearly the same color as the main color of the yarn. So I'll wait until they're dry and I can set them up in a pretty location for their photo shoot. This was the first pair with the semi-successful pattern reversal, which I'm semi-excited to show you. I cast on for another experimental sock last night, so I can try out my final tinkering of the pattern in my attempt to get the reversed pattern to pop in the same way as the original. Look for the pattern mods to be posted here some time next week.

Last night I also finished reading Marley & Me, and yes, I bawled like a baby. It's a good thing I was reading right before bed, and when J wasn't around, because let me tell you, I was seriously scary-looking with my bright red, puffy eyes. It was not pretty. But oh, what a good book! If you love dogs, you'll love it, just make sure you're alone and have plenty of tissues on hand (and no place to go for at least a couple hours afterward) when you finish it.

Remember my plan to finish up that baby sweater by the end of the weekend? Yeah, so not happening. I got to the placing of the markers for the fronts, sleeves, and back, and I haven't picked it up since. Let's revise that completion date to at least the end of next weekend, shall we?

Finally, I stopped by Pittsburgh Knit and Bead after work on Wednesday, just to see if there was anything at all left. I think this may be their last week in business, and the discount was up to 55% off. There was pathetically little selection left in the way of yarn (unless you're into eyelash, ribbon, or other novelty yarn, which I'm not particularly) and the needle selection had been decimated. I did score two more pairs of Addi 12" circs (US 1's -- for socks), plus five balls of Karabella Aurora 8 in a lovely color called Kangaroo Taupe (or something like that), two balls of chunky 100% wool for felting in black and bubblegum pink, and a massive skein (1,300+ yards!) of bright red laceweight merino. All of this for about $46! I just couldn't pass it up. I don't have specific projects for any of the yarn yet, but I know I'll use it for something. Any suggestions?

Pictures in the next post, I promise! I have to clear out the camera from all the silly pictures J and I took at the bar last weekend when we were out celebrating the engagement.

Happy weekend knitting, all!

Winning the Lace Race

Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark for Fiber Trends
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace, approximately 1.25 skeins
Needles: US 5 Addi Turbo circs
Dimensions: approximately 60" wide and 32" deep
Mods: None

I finished in time! (Boo hiss to all of you who thought I wouldn't make it!) I finished the knitting Friday afternoon, blocked it (what a PITA that was!) before J and I went out to celebrate Friday night, and finished snipping all the ends and wrapped it Saturday afternoon, just in time to present it to my mom at dinner on Saturday night. It turned out to be a big hit; she just LOVED it, and kept telling me how impressed she was with it.

In spite of the blocking (most definitely my least favorite part of this project), I now find myself completely addicted to knitting lace. I am all set to rip and restart my Adamas Shawl, which I started and set aside months ago.

Before I can pick up the shawl again, however, I have a baby sweater to finish! Remember how I was knitting Trellis for the baby due in July? Well, since then there have been two developments. The first (and most important) is that little Finn made his appearance about a month early last week! The second is that I have decided that I will not be finishing Trellis. Frankly, I think the pattern might be a little too fussy/girly for baby Finn, not to mention the fact that the idea of having to seam that little sweater just horrifies me. So last night I started to make another Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater (Carole Barenys), which I know will be a fast knit (and no seaming, hooray!). Assuming I can find myself some decent knitting time this week, my goal is to have it finished by the end of next weekend so I can send it on to Finn. Yes, I know he won't be wearing it any time soon, but I'm just that anxious to get it out of my WIP pile!

A reminder to all the Pittsburgh-area knitters: this Wednesday is knitting at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble. I'll be bringing my Pomatomus reversal, for anyone who may be interested in seeing it.

...but enough about the ring

Thank you all for your congratulations and your compliments on the ring. (Apologizes for the fuzziness of the picture, by the way. I was holding my hand up against J's chest--because he was wearing a black shirt, the only dark background we could find at the time--and I had to have my father actually take the picture, on account of my still being too shaky to take it on my own. I guess in the end both J and I were still too excited to really hold still.)

There is still a lot of excitement about The Engagement, and it still hasn't fully sunk in, but I know that soon enough the planning will start for the wedding and I'll miss this initial stage of shock/disbelief/joy/excitement/etc. Just trying to enjoy it while it lasts.

(And now, we return to our regular knitting content, already in progress.)

All this week I have been knitting furiously on that lace item you got a peek at last week. I think I mentioned that it's a shawl, but I don't think I did a good enough job of explaining beyond that, so here's full disclosure. This is the pattern (Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark for Fibertrends) and yarn (Misti Alpaca Lace) that I purchased at Rosie's Yarn Cellar on our trip to Philadelphia a few weeks ago. After a few false starts, this has turned into my first successful piece of lace knitting, and I've decided that it will be a birthday gift for my mother, who turns 29 again (okay, maybe she's 39 now that she's got an engaged daughter) this weekend. I feel pretty confident in posting this because I'm just about 100 percent sure she won't be reading my blog. (Remember my mom? "What exactly is a blog?") As of this afternoon, I have just a little more than 10.5 repeats done of the body lace chart. I am doing the small version of the shawl (13 pattern repeats), so that means that I have until Sunday to complete just under 2.5 body pattern repeats, do all the edging rows, bind off, and block. Think it'll happen? I know she really won't mind if I need an extra day or two to finish it, but I'd really like to have it done. Then I'd be able to get back to her Mother's Day Pomotomuses. Not to mention that I haven't even measured my future MIL's feet for her Mother's Day socks. Yeah, I'm a bit behind.

Here's a little peek at the progress so far, with my best attempt to spread out the lace one-handed so you can see the design:

I am just loving this pattern, and I plan to knit up one for myself. I may do mine in fingering weight yarn instead of lace weight, if I can find a nice colorway that won't interfere with the lace pattern. The Misti Alpaca is delightful, and you can't beat the price. I just wish it didn't shed so much!

Remember how a while ago I mentioned that I was reversing the Pomatomus pattern? Well do you think I've forgotten about that. I did reverse it, but I'm still tinkering with the stitches a bit to try to get a better mirror image. Once I'm satisfied, Cookie (the designer) has given me permission to post the modifications needed for the reversal to this here blog. So keep an eye out for it. I'm hoping it'll be up in the next couple of weeks.

I'm off to my shawl knitting. Must. Finish. By. Sunday.

If a picture says a thousand words....

...then I probably don't need to say much. :-)

Curses! Foiled again!

Last night I was all set to post when I happened to look out the window -- just in time to see a huge bolt of lightening. Eesh. So, instead of risking frying my hard drive, I decided to do this:

This used to be an Old Navy sweater that I'd bought a couple years ago and then wore maybe twice. It was totally an impulse buy--it was a cheery color (it's actually more of a soft pink than it appears in the photo) and really soft--but unfortately it was a tad big and was rather unflattering. I think I only wore it as a cardigan when I was really desperate and just wanted something to keep me warm. While I was cleaning out my closet in preparation for warm weather, I decided that this yarn was too cozy to just throw away, so it went in the To Be Recycled pile. It's not the nicest fiber (90% acrylic, 10% wool), but, as I said, it's soft and it'll do well for baby garments, I think. The yarn above is from the back, collar and two sleeves. I think the front sections are unless because of the button bands. By the way, here's what the sweater looked like originially:

See what I mean? This thing isn't even flattering on the couch. I don't know what I was thinking.

Once I finished winding the sweater yarn, I decided to make the evening Fun With the Ball Winder Night and tackled my sock yarn. The result of a good hour of winding? Every single skein of sock yarn in my stash is now in a center-pull yarn cake. The proof:

This would be the "affordable" sock yarn drawer (Knit Picks Essential, Regia, and a ball of some German sock yarn whose name I can't read). The "luxury" sock yarn drawer is below this one; it contains the Lorna's and the Koigu.

Knitting on my mom's Pomatomuses (I think I'll call 'em Popos from now on) is going slowly. Why, you ask? Well, I guess this is the point where I have to make a confession: I am addicted to knitting lace. After ripping out my shawl twice, and becoming fully convinced that I would never master lace, I remembered that there was an article on lace knitting in the latest Interweave Knits. I whipped it out, looked up the article, and discovered the one ridiculously simple thing I was doing that was messing me up over and over again: I was yarning over wrong. Hello? Did anyone else know that there's a specific way to yarn over for lace? (And if you did, why didn't you tell me?!) I restarted the pattern, and after only a few rows it became very apparent that the YOs--the correct YOs--made the lace. Ever since, I've been hooked, and I've been spending most of my knitting time this week on the shawl. Here's the obligatory progress shot (and the obligatory statement that lace looks like crap until it's blocked):

Right now I'm almost through six repeats of either 13 (small) or 18 (large). I am thinking the small size will be sufficient, although I specifically bought more than enough yarn for the large. Once it's blocked, the small size should be big enough to throw over my shoulders. Besides, the rows are already taking me about 10 minutes each, and I can't imagine how long they'd take once I got up to 18 repeats.

Scenes from the Spot That Loves You Back

[Note: This post was written yesterday, but due to an unfortunate Blogger bug did not have any pictures.]

Here, as promised, is a summary (I'll try to keep it brief) of the weekend in Philadelphia. Lots of pictures ahead!

Amazing, my office closed early on Friday, at 2:30, so J and I were able to get on the road by 3 p.m. We were able to beat rush hour traffic on the way to the Turnpike, which is what would have really slowed us down, and we encountered very little traffic on the Turnpike itself. We stopped once to use the facilities and fill up on gas, and we arrived at our friends' place in Warrington, Pa., by 7:40. (Yes, that's right, we made it there in four-and-a-half hours. What can I say, J has a bit of a lead foot. No worries, no speeding tickets were issued.) We had a late-ish dinner at a Chinese/Japanese place down the road from their house and then passed out. Well, at least J did. Although I was tired, for some reason I decided to start feeling nervous about the audition at that moment and didn't fall asleep until after midnight.

We were up before 6 a.m., showed and dressed, and got on the train into the city, where we arrived in plenty of time for my Jeopardy! audition. J wandered around the city for the two hours I was in there, and amazingly didn't get lost (it was his first time ever in Philadelphia, so he didn't know his way around at all). The audition itself went well, I think. It's really hard to tell because they didn't give any sort of feedback. There were about 20 people in my group, and we took another 50-question written test before playing a mock game in groups of three. They told us that they were calling us up to play in random order (this is after they graded our tests, mind you), and don't you know I was the last one called up? I had fun, knew the answers to most of the questions, and got a free Jeopardy! pen for my troubles. On the way out, one of the other people trying out with me told me that he didn't want to be up against me in an actual game. I'm choosing to take that as a compliment. So if they want me to be on the show, they'll call me, but that could be any time in the next year, or not at all. I figure, hey, I had fun, I got a pen, so if they call, they call.

I hadn't eaten anything at this point, so while we waited for our hosts to meet up with us I got a cup of coffee from a stand in Reading Terminal Market (where we saw real live Amish people!). We went for an early lunch at Marathon Grill, then headed down to Old City to see the famous historic landmarks.

As you would expect on a beautiful holiday weekend day, Old City was mobbed. J had wanted to see the Liberty Bell (which, if you don't know, is now in its own building with a museum or something inside as well), but the line was huge and we didn't feel like waiting, so we walked around the back of the pavilion where we could see the bell through the glass, albeit not very close up. Here's my mom's Pomatomus with the bell in the background (if you look closely you'll see it):

From there we turned around and took a look at Independence Hall, site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which we also didn't go into. Sock took a good look:

We then decided to get away from the hordes of Asian tourists (just what is it about the Japanese and Independence Mall?) and walk down to Front Street at Penn's Landing. There was some sort of music festival going on at Penn's Landing, and admission was $60 a person, so needless to say we did not hang around. We soon hailed a cab over to West Philly, to visit Penn's campus, my old stomping grounds. One of our hosts thought Penn was kind of a dump, so I took them through the most scenic route through campus: starting at 34th and Walnut, up Locust through the green, ending at the bridge over to Superblock. We paused by the compass so Ben on the Bench could admire the Pomatomus:

(Ben says: A penny saved is a penny to be spent on wool!)

And don't worry, fellow Penn grads, the sock did not actually come into contact with Ben and will be washed thoroughly anyway before it goes to my mom.

We did just a brief loop through the main part of campus -- we didn't even make it up to the western edge where I used to live -- and stopped for some ice cream before hailing a cab back to the Rittenhouse Square area.

Our first stop in Rittenhouse -- yes, I dragged J and our (non-knitting) hosts -- was Rosie's Yarn Cellar, my former LYS. They had renovated a bit since my last visit, but it was still as cozy and welcoming as I remembered. I successfully resisted the lure of the wall of Koigu and instead settled on a shawl pattern and some Misti Alpaca Lace to knit it up (I started it once I got home, see below). It was hard to tell if J was impressed by my restraint in spending less than $25 in a yarn store, especially after what I spent in D.C.; he seemed pretty comfortable in a chair with a fan blowing on him and was impervious to the wool, silk, and alpaca all around him. He did, however, admire the softness and silkiness of the yarn I purchased, if he was puzzled by my eagerness to try lace after my last lace misadventure.

Our hosts bid us adieu after we left Rosie's (they both had evening plans, and had to catch the train home to change), and J and I headed over to my old apartment building to visit Julia, who happens to live in my old apartment! We relaxed in the air conditioning for about an hour and a half (J dozed on her sofa while the two of us caught up), and then the three of us went out to dinner at Pietro's, where I had my favorite Rigatoni alla Vodka, sans pancetta. Mmm.

J and I caught the train back to the 'burbs shortly after dinner, got "home" at about 9:15, watched most of Fever Pitch on TV, and passed out at about 11 p.m. We were up by about 8 the next morning and had lunch before getting back on the road. We made great time again and were back in the 'Burgh in plenty of time to go to barbeque Sunday night. The rest of the holiday weekend was scorching hot but fairly uneventful. I spent Monday doing some work (grr) and doing my grocery shopping while J played golf with my dad. And that was the weekend.

Yesterday evening I met up with Jen and Lori at Knit One, where I picked up another skein of Cascade 220 for Forecast (no, I haven't started yet, but I'm swatching so much to get gauge -- or not -- that I was worried I'd be short on yarn) and some Regia sock yarn, so that J and I will have semi-matching socks (see picture below). Jen found one skein of some gorgeous hand-dyed merino sock yarn that looked somewhat like Koigu, and Lori cast on for a piece of Trellis, which made me feel guilty for having not yet started the second sleeve of mine. We then went to dinner. The plan had been to go to an Indian restaurant up the street from Knit One, but we discovered that it had closed and been replaced with a Thai place. After surveying our options, we decided to give it a try, and Jen enjoyed (I think) her first Pad Thai.

I've decided to close this post with a brief rundown of what I'm currently knitting and, since this blog is allegedly also about books, what I'm currently reading. Perhaps I'll do this regularly to close my posts; we'll have to see just how monotonous/boring it becomes. So here goes....

Currently Knitting: Pomatomus #1 (for mom); toe-up Mata Hari in cotton/lycra (for me); Trellis - one sleeve, collar, and sewing up to go (for baby due in July); Leaf Lace Shawl in Misti Alpaca Lace (for me)

Currently Reading: Marley & Me by John Grogan

Blogger sucks, or, Why this isn't a post about the trip to Philadelphia

I had some major issues with Blogger last night, which is why today you may be wondering where my post about the weekend in Philly is. I had everything all ready: the text was all written, the links were put in, the places for the photos were set out. And then I tried to upload a picture. Repeatly. I got the "Done" button, but when I clicked on it, nothing happened. It was as though I had never uploaded the picture. I tried repeatedly to get my photos up over the course of about four hours, but it was always the same, icky-poo. No photos. So, no post. I will try again tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that it'll work, because I'm starting to take out my frustration on my knitting (and as I'm knitting lace and socks with bamboo dpns, that could get ugly).

Full Recounting to Come

I promise I will post a full run-down of the weekend in Philadelphia (with pictures!) soon, likely tomorrow evening. The weekend was just too full for me to get to a computer.

Tonight is a trip to Knit One and dinner at the Indian Oven with Jen and Lori, i.e., much yarn and curry goodness. Mmm, can't wait.

All together now: Awwww!

Remember this hat? Its intended recipient was born last month, and although it's quite a few months before football season starts again, he's already sporting his black and gold:



Isn't he adorable? And oh so stylish, too. Next on baby's agenda: learn to appreciate natural fibers.

You know you're seriously obsessed when...

...you dream about knitting -- or, more specifically, making a mistake in your knitting and having to frog. Last night I had a dream that I was finally working on Forecast (unfortunately I did not happen to notice what size needles I was using to knit it or if I happened to be getting gauge) and that I kept forgetting to work the cables and had to keep frogging back and starting over. Then my alarm clock went off. Very weird. Must have been influenced by having to tink back about three rows on my reverse Pomatomus the other night.

Speaking of which, le voila, fresh off the needles (I'm cheating a bit here because I haven't even woven in the ends yet):















Aside from the obvious difference in fiber and color, you'll notice that the left sock has a shorter leg than the right sock. That's because I was an idiot and didn't read the very beginning of the pattern (i.e., before the chart) when I started and was thinking I needed to do 20 rows of ribbing. It was supposed to be 10 rows. But by the time I discovered my mistake, I was too anxious to get on to the patterning to rib back, and I figured I'd just tell eveyone it was a planned mod. And now of course I've ruined that plan because I've just told you the truth. Oh well, we all make mistakes. At least I cast on the correct number of stitches, and as you can see, the pattern reversal was successful. I still have some minor tweaking to do in the pattern rewrite, for which I'll have to knit another sock, but I'll be sure to share that info with all the Pomatomus knitters out there when I'm satisfied.

My travel knitting sock (at right) is almost done, but alas, I think it may be too small. I think I'm becoming a tighter knitter, because I'm using the size needles the pattern calls for (US 1) but I think I'd really need a US 2 to make them the correct size. I am going to finish it anyway and hope that a little bath makes the wool relax a bit. They'll be snug, but just maybe they'll work. In this case I think I must have had some amazing foresight, because when I ordered all that sock yarn from Knit Picks a while back I ordered three balls of each color. So even if I can't manage to make this one work, I've still got a pair's worth of yarn left over.

I still haven't started Forecast, in part because I haven't decided what to do in terms of needles. I've been wondering if I should knit another swatch with US 9 needles. I'm still mystified regarding what is going on with gauge. I am using Cascase 220; the pattern calls for Cascade Tweed. Can the two yarns really be that different in terms of gauge? Moreover, why is is that I'm getting the exact same stitch count with two different sized needles? Grrr, the maths. This is my least favorite part of knitting -- next to the fact that I can't do it all day and/or for money.

On the agenda this evening is to start the first Pomatomus for my mom. I'm hoping to get a decent amount done before we hit the road on Friday, even though I know I'll have many good hours of car knitting, If I'm really on top of things, I think it might even be possible to finish the pair by the end of the holiday weekend (you know, so my mom can have her wool socks right when the weather starts getting seasonal again). I also want to have something pretty to pull out of my purse to show the Jeopardy! people. Maybe I'll even show them how I reversed the pattern and they'll be so awed by my creativity and intelligence that they'll want to put me on the air right away so I can win lots of yarn money. Okay, maybe not. But at least I can show it off at Rosie's where I bought my first sock pattern and sock yarn, way back when.

Finally, a little shot I forgot to post last time. The answer: this is the adorable herb growing on top of SJ's bookshelf.


Question: What is parsley, Alex?

Today's Featured Dessert: Yarn Cake

The Lorna's Laces I ordered finally came on Friday, and here's how I spent my Saturday afternoon while watching the Preakness:

Here you see (left to right) the colorways Cool for J's mom's socks, Jay Pond for my mom's socks, and Uptown pour moi. These looked gorgeous in the hanks, and even prettier in these lovely cakes. I can't wait to get started. I still want to finish the "prototype" of the Pomatomus reversal before I start my mom's socks, and I still have to talk to J's mom to find out what pattern she wants, but at least I'll be ready to go once those two issues are settled.

I also stopped by Pittsburgh Knit & Bead on the way home from work yesterday; if you haven't heard, they're going out of business, and everything in the store is on sale. This week everything was 30% off, and I figured that if I waited too much longer too much would be gone. Their yarn selection is nothing wonderful (I never thought it was, to be honest), but I was going in with an eye for Addis. Here is my haul from yesterday:

Two pairs of Addi Turbo 16" circs (US 0), two pairs of Inox 16" circs (US 1), one set of bamboo dpns (US 1), and four balls of Fortissima Socka (75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide) in black and charcoal gray. The yarn is, as you may have guessed, for socks for J, who prefers "plain" colors in his socks. Perhaps these he will actually wear outside of the house.

J and I had a very nice weekend. We went out to see The Da Vinci Code Friday night. The theater was packed, let me tell you. I loved the movie, but J was apparently bored and slept through about an hour and a half of it. I had just finished rereading the book earlier in the week, and although there were some minor changes to the plotline and some omissions of unnecessary story elements, I thought they did a great job bringing it to the screen. If you liked the book, I highly recommend seeing it. That is, of course, unless you're like J and will be bored by already knowing what's going to happen.

This morning we had breakfast at Panera and then spent some time at Barnes & Noble, where I picked up the Yarn Harlot's newest book, as well as this book (which you just have to look at, if only for the cover picture). I'm excited to start reading both -- perhaps on our road trip to Philadelphia next weekend. Have I mentioned the trip and why we're going? I have an audition with Jeopardy! I took the online contestant test a month or two ago, expecting nothing, and then was shocked when I got an e-mail inviting me to come audition in person. I don't necessarily expect anything to come of it, but it can't hurt. Plus I'll get show J around campus and my old neighborhood in Center City.

Playing Hooky, and a Conundrum

Yes, it is the third Wednesday of the month, and yes, I am at home rather than at knitting meet-up at Barnes & Noble. It's already been a very busy week at work, my eyes are tired, and I wasn't thrilled by the idea of trying to drive in the dark. Plus, I thought I'd get a load of laundry done while I'm home. Unfortunately one of my neighbors, whom I will hereby dub the Lazy Launderer, had the same idea. This person decides to do laundry but isn't very punctual about changing machines. His or her first load sat in the washer for at least half an hour before s/he decided to transfer it to the dryer -- and of course put in a second load at the same time. I have a strong suspicion that it is the same Lazy Launderer who, a couple weeks ago, had a wet load of clothes sitting in washer for a good two hours. I wouldn't care so much except that in the load of laundry I need to do are my towels, which I do need to shower tomorrow morning.

The laundry issue is not the aforementioned conundrum, however. Remember how I was going to knit a sweater, like, last week? Although the Mother's Day socks have moved ahead of in the queue, I've been swatching since my Addis arrived from Knit Picks. Therein lies the problem. First I did a swatch on the US 7s that the pattern called for. Didn't make gauge (I got 18 stitches over four inches instead of 16 stitches). So I pulled out a pair of US 8s and did another swatch -- and got the same exact stitch count! Frankly, this doesn't make any sense to my math-impaired brain. I understand gauge enough to know that if I have more stitches than I should in my swatch, the width of my garment will be less than the pattern specifies. But we're talking an extra half a stitch per inch. Plus, the swatches were pretty stretchy, so I would think the ease would help hide the off-gauge-ness. Here's the dilemma: considering the identical stitch count in both swatches, do I use the US 7s, which are my preferred Addi Turbos, or the US 8 Susan Bates circs, which are less preferred? Any input is very welcome!

I ordered some Lorna's Laces for the Mother's Day socks earlier in the week and I hope it'll be here by Friday or Saturday. In preparation, I'm working on my reversal of the pattern for Pomatomus (which, by the way, I recently discovered is actually the genus name of the Bluefish). The leg portion worked fine, and now I'm encountering just a little bit of difficulty with the transition from gussets to instep patterning. I'm not yet ready to show you the full finished product, but here's a little peek:

This picture doesn't capture the true color of the yarn -- it's the Morning Glory colorway of Knit Picks Sock Garden, and the shade are royal purple, deep bluish purple, and bright yellow.

Finally, a note to my readers -- where did you all go? I haven't received a comment in a week, and I'm starting to wonder if I said something to offend everyone. Sorry if I did (and, hey, could you let me know what it was that ticked you off so I won't say it again?). I'm not really finishing for comments here, but darn it if I did get a little used to getting at least a couple to each post. I guess the semi-popularity went to my head. A bit, a bit.

Obsession has reached a new level

If you've been reading my blog, you will probably know to what obsession I'm referring. I'll get into specifics in a bit. First, here's this (alluded to in my last post):

Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Socks, from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential
Needles: US 1 circs (leg and foot) and dpns (heel and toe)
Mods: I did a doubled cast on to make the leg a little stretchier (J doesn't like his socks to be tight around the leg) and also omitted one pattern repeat in the leg because I was worried about running out of yarn. That turned out to be a good move, as I had just enough yarn. There's just a tiny bit left that I can keep for repairs.

So far the verdict is positive on these. J fell asleep in them last night and this morning reported that his feet were nice and toasty. Maybe not what he wanted for this time of year, but come next winter I'm sure they'll be appreciated.

I had several exciting surprises in the mail yesterday. My shipment from Knit Picks finally came, with my Addis for Forecast, another skein of the Essential in the burgundy of J's socks (so I can make a matching one for myself to go with the original attempt), and two skeins of Sock Garden (I think?) in the Morning Glory colorway to replace the two I traded for more Merino Style for Blanche. I also had this lovely package waiting for me:

Doesn't this just look luscious? This is the hand-dyed colon/lycra sock yarn I purchased from the Greenwood Fiberworks Etsy shop. The colorway is called something like Strawberry Milkshake, and trust me, it looks good enough to lick (although that might leave some unwanted fuzzy things on my tongue). It came with a very friendly, handwritten note from Carolyn, thanking me for my purchase and offering me a nice little discount on my next purchase as a thank you. My favorite thing about the packaging was that the yarn was neatly wrapped up in tissue paper (which you can see I mangled in my excitement), sealed with a little sticker reading "Thank Ewe." This woman knows her business, and she clearly knows knitters! I have yet to do anything with this yarn, but I love it already and I know I'll be a repeat customer!

Now, on to my favorite obsession. You guessed it, it's SOCKS. I decided to give both my mother and J's mom the same thing for Mother's Day: a hand-knit pair of socks, made to their specifications in terms of pattern, fiber, and color. I just measured my mom's foot a little bit ago, and showed her some patterns and let her feel some sock yarn. She went right for the good stuff, so it looks like she'll be getting a pair of Pomatomuses in Lorna's. While we were discussing this, my father just casually happened to mentioned that he wouldn't mind a pair of socks either, so I'll be adding another pair of Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks to my list of socks to knit.

In the meantime, I'm nearly done with the leg of my Child's First Sock, which looks nice but strangely doesn't seem to look like the picture in the book (is it possible I'm doing my YOs incorrectly?). I've also finished up the first sleeve of Trellis, and completed a swatch in preparation for Forecast. My WIP list will definitely be undergoing some shuffling this week in terms of priorities.

WIP, Resurrected

I finished J's socks last night (while watching this -- so good). I will wait until I have a shot of him wearing them to do the full write-up, but here's a peek at them blocking:

(At least here you get a better sense of their actual color -- see, no pink!)

For a moment there I found myself without a SIP (Sock In Progress), so I had to cast on another one for my work knitting. I decided to do Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks, in a lovely shade of green in Knit Picks Essential. I will spare you from a progress shot, since right now there's little more than 2o rows of K2P1 ribbing.

Now that my travel project is settled, it's time to pull out an old WIP for my home knitting. Remember this?

Here is Trellis, which by my reckoning has been sitting untouched since before the start of the Knitting Olympics (here's proof). I'm not especially rushed to finish this -- the intended wearer isn't due to make his debut until July -- but I thought it would be a good idea to get a move on before my Addis come (tomorrow, I hope!) and I get all distracted by Forecast.

Now I'm off to play some more Da Vinci Code quest -- Yvonne has got me hooked!

Down to one sock

I've been a surprisingly monogamous knitter the past week. Ever since I finished the first Pomotamus, I've been focusing all my attention on J's sock.

This is not the best picture -- the socks are actually burgundy, not pink -- but here you see the first, completed sock on the left and approximately two-thirds of the second sock (I'm several rows past the completion of the gussets in the foot). J tried on the first sock this weekend, and it fit him perfectly, nice and cozy. I'm planning on focusing almost entirely on the second sock this week so that he'll have the completed pair by this weekend -- so he can put it in a drawer with the other socks I've knit him until next winter. Oh well, thus is the paradox of the obsession of sock knitting.

I did violate my yarn diet this weekend, but J was with me and it only made a small dent in my wallet. Take a gander at my stash enhancement, courtesy of Knit One:

Here are four skeins of Cascade 220 in color 8339 (Knit One calls it "Marine"). This is destined to be Forecast, pour moi. I was inspired after I saw Carrie's version -- so cute! The necessary Addis have been ordered care of Knit Picks, and once I publish this post I will be setting up my swift and yarn winder to make me some yarn cakes.

Not much other knitting to report. Haven't started the attempt at reversing the Pomatomus pattern. Maybe once J's socks are done.

I continue to be amazed by the comments I've been getting -- not only because they've been so nice, but I've been shocked by the fact that I have readers outside the U.S.! By my count, I've now received comments from three continents (that would be North America, Europe, and Australia). Hello especially to Dipsy, who decided to de-lurk. I'm curious how all of you who are outside of my immediate area found me. Please leave me a comment and let me know!

Lazy Blogger = Busy Knitter

Yes, I know it's been almost a week since I last posted. I've been busy, and not just at work. I've been spending good chunks of time working on socks, as you'll see below.

First I have to thank everyone who left me those lovely comments to my last post. I think that's officially the most comments I've ever received, and J wasn't even one of them! (Although he did assure me that he'd read the post.) Granted, seven comments isn't much when compared to the hundreds that Stephanie and Laurie get on a nearly daily basis, but I am much newer to blogging and thus expect a much smaller readership. What I found most exciting is that many of the comments were from new readers, some of whom (gasp!) are even from outside the greater Pittsburgh area! Hello, new readers! If you've stopped by again -- as I hope you'll continue to do -- I'm sure you're waiting anxiously to see this:

Pomatomus #1, il est fini. I finished it up last night while watching the end of Proof (excellent movie, by the way). Although I had no major issues in the leg portion, I had some wonkiness going on with the foot -- specifically, each time I finished Chart B and started over, I wound up with 38 stitches in row 1 (I was supposed to have 37 for rows 17-22, and 36 for the remaining rows). Any other Pomatomus knitters have this problem? I "solved" this issue by throwing in an additional K2tog at the end of row 1. That got me back to the correct number of stitches and, to tell the truth, I couldn't see any difference on the pattern.

I have not yet started sock #2, because I'm toying with the idea of doing a little pattern modification. You see how all the scallops in the pattern go the same way? Well I was thinking that I'd really like the scallops in the other sock to go the other way, so that the two socks look like mirror images of each other rather than exact copies. The way my brain works, I think it should work if I just reverse (i.e., make a mirror image of) the charts. Has anyone tried this? Think it'll work? I think I may try it with some scrap yarn. I'll keep you posted.

My general reaction to this pattern is that it's really much, much easier than it appears. I whipped this sock up so fast it shocked me. For those of you who find it too intimidating (ahem, Yvonne), you may want to try it with some cheap-y yarn so you can get the hang of it. The charts do look complicated, but if you look at them closely, you'll see that, with the exception of a K2tog and a YO in each pattern repeat, the rest of the stitches are just K, P, K, P. Easy peasy! I'd like to add that this is coming from someone who is not a fan of charts, so that's saying something.

I finally remembered this weekend to take a picture of an item I made for J over a year ago. Did I ever mention that in addition to being an obsessed knitter, I'm also a hooker? That's right, I crochet. In fact, until recently, crochet was my main yarn-based craft. My main crochet project has been the afghan, as you will see here:

The reason I'm posting this now is that I noticed that Carrie commented on my last post. I've been reading Carrie's blog for a little while now, and have come to the conclusion that we might be twins. There are just way too many eerie similarities. We're both natives of Western PA. We both deal with words and language for work. We both knit and crochet. Our boyfriends have the same name -- and, it seems, nearly the same afghan. Need proof? Take a look-see. Scary, no?

Finally, I leave you with one last picture. Jen, this is for you:

Most. Gorgeous. Socks. Ever.

Progress continues on my Pomatomus, and I am falling completely head-over-heels with this pattern. Just look how pretty:

This pattern was really intimidating before I actually sat down and started it, and as you can probably tell by how quickly this sock is coming along, I'm not having any problems with it at this point. The pattern itself is fairly intuitive. Essentially it's a P1 K1 tbl rib, with a K2tog that "moves" from right to left for the first half of the chart, and then for the second half the YO moves from left to right. That probably makes it sound a lot more complicated than it is; the truth is, after the first pattern repeat, I pretty much found myself at the point where I didn't really need to look at the chart except to keep track of the number of rows. I can't wait to see how the foot of this sock takes shape. I'm thinking once I finish the socks, this patterning might make a really gorgeous shawl. I know I could just do a long rectangle, but I'm wondering if there might be a way to adapt this to a triangle. Any ideas?

The best thing about this sock--other than the fabulous pattern--is this yarn. If sock yarn is crack, then this is some premium stuff. It glides so easily off the needles yet hugs them to the point that I don't really feel like I have to hold it taut. I'm so glad I picked out this colorway, even if it wasn't "me," because it shows off this pattern to perfection. Here's another shot so you can see the subtle color changes:

Guess what I'm knitting?

That's right -- socks, and nothing but.

Progress continues on J's Fancy Socks. I'm more than half done with the leg of the first sock, and I'm planning on eliminating about 10 rows on this portion since I'm worried about running short on yarn. The pattern makes a particularly long leg portion anyway, so I don't think it will make a difference in how the sock looks. This mod will result in eight pattern blocks (rather than nine) in the leg, and the called-for seven pattern blocks in the foot.

I've also started another pair for me, and for these I've decided to tackle the Pomatomus (it's taken me all day to learn how to spell that!). I've also caved and joined the Pomatomus Knit Along, which frankly I shouldn't be so worried about because the time frame is really reasonable; I don't think I'll have a lot of trouble finishing these by the fall (although now I've probably jinxed myself). Here's the progress so far, which isn't much, but does show off the beautiful colorway of my Lorna's Laces.


Finally, here's a shot for Yvonne. Sorry I didn't do the formal sign up, but here is my nod to Alton Brown:


(Bad angle -- there's really a lot more in here that you can't see, like milk, tofu, cream cheese, pasta sauce, leftover oatmeal, etc.)

Socks & Stash Busting

Look-y here at what I finished whipping up last night for a new baby in the extended "family":

Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat from SnB
Needles: US 8 (ribbing) and 7 (stockinette) 16" circs and US 7 dpns
Yarn: Some anonymous black acrylic (probably Red Heart) and Lion Brand Micro Spun in a gold shade (left over from this project - the lower one)
Mods: I did five rows of K2P2 ribbing for the brim rather than the stockinette roll brim the pattern calls for; this hat is for Steelers games, and I wanted it to stay down to cover the little 'un's ears from the cold Pittsburgh winter weather. This hat is also a lot stiffer due to the doubled yarn. I only have to assume that will make it warmer.

The recipient of this hat will presumable fill it better than the model. I just want to wash it (since who knows where that black yarn has been or how long it's been sitting in my stash!) before I gift it. A satisfying, quick knit, but it was hard on my hands. I don't recommend doubling the yarn for a project that doesn't call for it.

I also finished knitting up this last night:

Notice it fits my foot. Although I don't have photographic proof, take my word that it will not fit J's foot. This is a problem, since these socks were intended for him. I followed the pattern faithfully (it's Gentleman's Fancy Sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks), but it was on size 0 needles, and I think I've determined that I knit too tightly to get it to be the size intended. Frustrating, but not a complete disaster. I'd ordered three skeins of this color to begin with, and the one sock used less than a full skein, so there should be enough (I hope) to complete two more socks for a full pair for J -- this time on size 1 needles! I doubled the cast on yarn for a stretchier cuff, and am now knitting away on two circs, which are oh so much faster (and easier on my hands) than the metal US 0 dpns I used for the first one.

Finally did you see who left me a comment on my last post?! Omg, I am still in shock. :-) So, Laurie, in case you happen to stop by here again, I'll spill the secret to socks with matching stripes: use self-striping yarn, and start both socks at the same point in the striping pattern (I started in the middle of the white stripe, at the faux fair isle part). This is a whole lot easier if the striping pattern is fairly simple, and the pattern has to be regular and repeating. Non-knitters are really impressed by stripes, especially if they match, and the self-striping yarns make it so easy to impress!

Just in time for sandal weather...

Pattern: Lady's Plain Winter Socks (same as Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks) from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks
Needles: US 1 circs (legs and feet) and dpns (heels and gussets)
Yarn: Knit Picks Simple Stripes (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon) in Storm
Started/Finished: April 4/April 14
Mods: As with J's socks, I grafted the last 14 stitches of the toe to finish.

If I can toot my own horn for a moment, did you notice that the stripes match up? If not, here's another shot that might make it more obvious:

Tri-State (and one District) Knitting

J and I returned yesterday evening from a very busy and very fun weekend in the D.C. area. Lots to talk about -- and lots of pictures to go with! -- so I'll start at the beginning.

J picked me up right at 5:00 Friday afternoon and we hit the road. Leaving right in the middle of rush hour probably wasn't the greatest plan (it look us probably 30-40 minutes to get to the turnpike) but once we hit "the big road" we were making good time. The severe weather that all the forecasters were calling for never really materialized, and we had beautiful blue skies with light wispy clouds for probably the first half of the trip. We had a lovely dinner at Quizno's in Breezewood (hehe), stopped once for gas about an hour later, and got pelted by a thunderstorm just as we were hitting the belway, which made for some rather scary driving (frankly, I think the beltway is scary in any kind of weather!). We made it to J's friend's house in Alexandria, where we'd be staying for the weekend, just after 10 pm. We were enthusiastically greeted by our host's two Japanese Chins, Sucette and Yoda. Here they are:

Aren't they adorable? Sucette (right) is a total diva and has a tendency to shove Yoda out of the way, especially if there's a new person in the house who might show them attention. Yoda (left) is on the shy side, and is especially freaked out around men, so he was a little wary of J. The poor guy has a neurological disorder and as a result does not have the best balance, so he'll do things like try to scratch himself with a hind leg while standing and just fall over. It's funny but sad at the same time. He's very sweet, though, and I definitely bonded with him this weekend.

Saturday we woke up ready for a good brunch and a chance to see the famed cherry blossoms (this weekend was actually the close of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival). Unfortunately the weather decided to not cooperate with us. It was moderately warm and very muggy in the morning, and over the course of the day it got windier, colder, and more rainy. Any cherry blossoms that were left -- which, we were informed, was not many due to a strong storm earlier in the week -- were pretty much doomed. So we had a lovely brunch at Kramerbooks & Afterwords with some friends who live in D.C. and then the three of us (me, J, and our host) headed over to the Spy Museum, where I randomly ran into one of my high school classmates, who now works there. The Spy Museum was very interesting and a lot of fun, but way too crowded to really get to see everything. I had at least half a dozen people literally walk into me, and spent a lot of time dodging wild children (um, parents? where are you?).

After temporarily loosing J in the Spy Museum gift shop (he was in the toy section), we took the Metro over to Union Station, with the idea that we'd walk from there over to the Library of Congress, because J wanted to see the Declaration of Independence. We stopped there for some drinks and to take a little rest. Of course I took this opportunity to whip out my sock, which I'd made really good progress on in the car before it got too dark to knit. Here's a shot of said sock, with a little Union Station ambiance in the background.


We made it only as far as the street in front of Union Station before we decided that we were just being nuts to try to walk all that way in the blustery weather and turned around to go back to the Metro. It was just too cold and too wet, and we were all feeling miserable. Instead, we hopped back on the train and got off at King Street in Old Town Alexandria, where our host was sure she'd seen a yarn store. We managed to find a free bus that circles through the area on the weekends -- best of all, it was heated! -- and took it to Knit Happens, an adorable knitting shop that had a great selection of sock yarn, which was exactly was I was looking for, specifically some red (aka, real red) sock yarn for socks for J, because he had decided on the way in that the yarn I was using on his new socks was too dark. We found some really red (think maraschino cherry red) Lorna's Laces that he at first loved, but then about five minutes later decided was too bright and told me to put back. So I shopped exclusively for myself, purchasing two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and four of Koigu KPPPM (pictures below). We won't discuss what that sent me back.

We returned to our host's house to dry off and I got a chance to visit with a friend from college, who very nicely drove over to hang out for a couple hours. The dogs really liked her, and proceeded to wrestle each other into her.

J and our host, meanwhile, had gone to Safeway to buy everything to make a scrumptious dinner that night, which we enjoyed with some other friends (ironically, all native Pittsburghers).

By the time we woke up on Sunday morning, the nasty weather had passed. It was gorgeous and sunny, blue sky with not a cloud in sight, although still rather chillly (mid-40s). We drove into Georgetown to meet up with my childhood best friend and her boyfriend, and her sister and her boyfriend, for brunch, after which we walked around a bit and enjoyed the sunshine before getting into the car for the ride home. We discovered another yarn store, Stitch DC, about two blocks from the restaurant. It was on the small side, but very cute and the people were very friendly, and I found some must-have Lorna's Laces (see picture below).

We got on the road at about 2:20 pm and had a perfect driving day on the way home. I got the rest of my first Lady's Plain Winter Sock (#1) done, except for grafting the toe, which I wisely left until I was home and on my couch (I say wisely, because even though I wasn't moving and bouncing around, I still managed to accidentally rip out about a row and a half and had to reknit the last two rows). Here she is, keeping my footsie nice and cozy:

I also cast on for sock #2 and got about an inch done on that before going to bed.

Despite the not-so-perfect weather and all the driving and hassle that's involved in a weekend trip, J and I had a lovely time. Our host was so wonderful and really made us feel at home, and it was great to be able to see so many friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a really long time.

As promised, here is a shot of The Loot from my two yarn store stops:

Here you see four skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, two in a colorway called Bee Stripe (destined to be a pair of Steelers socks come football season) and two of a colorway called Georgetown -- ironically, not the color I bought at the store in Georgetown! It's a little more colorful/bright than I'd normally buy, but I thought the name made it a souvenir (which is of course how I justify the purchase!). Here are also four skeins of Koigu, which I'd been specifically looking for as I've never knit with it before. One colorway is mostly woodsy greens with a bit of yellow, and the other is shades of rose and pink, with a bit of peach and a bit of a maroon-y brown. Again, we're not discussing how much I actually spent on all this; let's just say that these four pairs of socks will probably be the most expensive socks I will have every owned. But at least my feet will be comfortable!

Spoiled Rotten

After a long day of work, after which I got to go pay my taxes, I finally got home and discovered that...

I'VE BEEN PAMPERED!

My frogged, restarted, and lately neglected sock wonders, What's in the box?

A wee little peek inside....

The loot!

Take a look at this fantastic package! Here you see yummy smelling shampoo and conditioner, a pair of sock slippers with SHEEP on them(!), a bath pouf in the shape of a flower, OPI nail polish (color: La Paz-itively Hot), a cute little candle with a quilt square motif, four skeins of Classic Elite Mistral (15% baby alpaca, 85% pima cotton), a package of Ghirardelli 60% cocoa dark chocolate squares, and an adorable tote bag that'll be just perfect for carrying my knitting for the car trip to DC this weekend!

All this wonderful stuff was courtesy of my fantastic Pampered Pal, Wendy, who also included a note on a knitting notecard (where did you find those? they're so cute!). Thanks, Wendy, you just made my day!

D'oh!

In spite of the fact that I have been knitting the better part of my life, I still have that occasional beginning knitter (aka "what was I thinking?!") moment. Case in point: my Lady's Plain Winter Socks.

There I was knitting along speedily, a few rows into the heel flap, when I decided I'd like to try the sock on to see how pretty it looked on my foot. Big uh-oh -- it was waaaaay too tight. Where did I go wrong? You guessed it; I neglected to double my yarn for the cast on to make it stretchy enough to fit around my calf, in spite of the fact that I'd just done it correctly for both of J's socks. Big time "D'oh!" moment. So while waiting for the bus I completely frogged my 9+ inches of pretty Storm sock. Trust me, I got some funny looks while doing that. I re-cast on (correctly this time!) last night and got about three inches done by the time I had to leave for work this morning. Everything was going well, and then what did I do? I left my knitting on the couch. In my apartment. When did I discover this? About 30 seconds after I got on the bus this morning, when I reached in my purse to pull it out for some productive bus knitting. Grrrr.

So, until I've made up all that lost knitting time and have something resembling a sock to show you, I'll just post this picture from the Knit Picks site that shows the colorway. Obviously my sock looks a little different, but you get the idea of the colorway.

Looks like these socks will be going to D.C. with us this weekend. Who knows -- maybe your first sight of them will be with a famous monument or a famous politician!

Fancy Feet, and a continuation of Fun with Kool Aid

(If you even think those hairy legs are mine -- well, just don't.)

Pattern: Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks (Nancy Bush)

Yarn: Knit Picks Essential (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon) in Ash, less than 100 grams/2 balls

Needles: Addi Turbo US 1 circs (leg and foot) and US 1 dpns (heel, gussets, and toe)

Mods: I followed this pattern exactly, except for the toe, which calls for a decrease to a total of 14 stitches and then pulling the yarn through the remaining stitches to create a rounded toe. Instead, I decreased to these final 14 stitches and then kitchenered them together. The result is a perfect fit (or so J says -- these are his feet!)

Here's a detail shot of the heel and its ingenious construction.

I really enjoyed this pattern, and the "boring" stockinette portions went pretty quickly on two circs. I liked this pattern so much that I've started a pair for myself (I think I'll call them "Lady's Plain Winter Socks") in Knit Picks Simple Stripes in the Storm colorway. I have to say, it's a much more entertaining yarn than the gray I used for J, and I love watching the stripes change.

For those of you who may be working on this pattern or may want to, I do want to bring to your attention one minor mistake in the pattern. It's pretty easy to spot, and if you've done socks before, you'll probably correct it without realizing it, but I can remember from my early sock knitting days that sometimes you really need everything spelled out for you. So here it is. In the heel flap section, you will see this line:

"Rows 26, 28, and 30: Purl to center st, k1, purl to end."

Can you spot the mistake? That's right, it should read: "Sl1, purl to center st, k1, purl to end."

Last night I spent about two hours detangling my skein of Kool Aid dyed yarn (why didn't anyone warn me about that?!) and getting it onto my swift so I could wind it into a yarn cake. Here's what it looked like after the second dyeing session:

... and here is Kool Aid Yarn Cake. Yummy.

I'm calling this colorway Caribbean Amphibian, or, alternatively, Robin. (I will be very impressed by anyone who gets that reference!) I'm contemplating taking this on our road trip to DC this weekend for my car knitting. I'll have to see just how attached (addicted?) I am to my socks at that point, and I'll have to keep in mind how much room I'll need to allow for stash enhancements from this trip.