Gosh — you bloggy peeps are awesome! Thanks for all the cupcake cake love and birthday wishes for MyDadLovesMeBestSister! We had a fun family get-together and tried out a new local restaurant — Granite City. It’s a chain restaurant and they had a great Sunday brunch. I’m sure we’ll be going back.

When I flew home from New Jersey on Saturday morning, I plopped down in my seat and whipped out my knitting, in my usual oblivious-to-everything-around-me manner. Pretty soon, the “girl” next to me said “Oh, I brought mine too.” She was knitting a beautiful cashmere scarf. Pretty soon she said “Are you on Ravelry?” I laughed and said yes. (‘Cause I’m sort of on Ravelry — I get so caught up in blogs, I keep forgetting to go to Ravelry.) Then I said “Do you have a blog?” Nope. Darn it — but at least there’s Ravelry, LOL. (Anyway, Hi Liz!) It was really fun to sit and visit for the duration of the trip. Liz was working on a pretty complicated pattern so I had to try not to talk too much — I didn’t want to make her mess up! Here’s what I was working on:

Don’t look now Cami! I’m finally doing the two socks on one circular needle method that you swear by. Or two socks on one circ. Or magic loop. Or, I think I really like this method, but I’m not sure. No… come to think of it, I really like it. I was afraid I might have trouble adjusting to this new method, so I chose to do a simple stockinette pattern this time. I’m using a nice neutral knit picks yarn that my sweet quilty peep Jewels gave me ages ago. (Thanks Jewels!)

And thanks Cami for the encouragement in convincing me that I could do it. Cami also convinced me to switch from size US 2 needles to US 0. Man, it seems to be taking a lot longer (more stitches) but as Cami promised, the fabric is tighter, so in theory they should wear better.

I’ve noticed a few other knitters out there wondering about the magic loop, so I thought I’d share my thoughts so far on this method (I’m only about 1/2 way down the cuffs):

Pros:

• Two socks at once! You won’t have second sock syndrome.
• I’ve always struggled trying to make sure that the cuff on my second sock was exactly the same length as the cuff on the first sock by counting rows. With this method you don’t have that problem anymore, as you’re knitting both cuffs at the same time.
• No more dpn’s to drop or stab myself with.

Cons:

• Two socks at once LOL!  It feels like progress is slo-o-o-w.
• Getting these socks started is a pain in the … arsenal. I really struggled for those first two rows, just to keep the needles from pulling apart.
• It seems that a fair amount of time is wasted shifting the needle cable around. It’s a necessary evil.

Surprises:

• I’m amazed that the join between the two needles doesn’t leave big ladders all the way down the sock. But it doesn’t. Magic!
• You have to work with a separate skein of yarn for each sock. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised that those yarns don’t get really tangled up — I thought for sure that would be a hazard of this method. Another pleasant surprise.

So, if you’re a sock knitter and you’ve been on the fence about trying this method, give it a go — it’s pretty fun!  And if you need help, stop in at Clementine’s — Cami is awesome and I know she’d gladly lead another sheep off the cliff!
Before I scamper off to bed, I have to show you what loveliness arrived in my mailbox this week:

I won a blog drawing from Lisa at Colors Outside the Lines!  Look at all the fun stuff!  One of her fabulous aprons in beautiful blue vintage-y flowers and stripes.  I’ve admired Lisa’s aprons from afar for a long time — I just love how she attaches a towel to the apron.  I’m always searching for a towel, and therefore wiping my hands on my apron, when I’m cooking.  This is the coolest idea and it’s detachable with buttons. And another cool thing — look how Lisa has used the fringing from the other end of the towel as trim on the pocket!  Too, too cute!  I’m just noticing that this picture is a bit misleading — somehow, the folds of the apron don’t really show that every other panel is made of the striped fabric.  You can kind of see it if you really look — the panels are of equal width across the apron, alternating between flowers and stripes.  It’s a very full apron and will provide great protection!

Lisa also thoughtfully included one of her famous shopping bags (to match the apron!), an adorable little fabric covered notepad (tucked into the apron pocket) that will be perfect for my purse (I’m a note taker!), and a fabulous doily — look at all those cute little flowers around it!

And I had to do a close-up — look at Lisa’s cool tags!  Very, very clever!  Thank you SO much Lisa — I love it all and I’m feeling so very lucky to have won your giveaway!!!

Now…nighty, night all you bloggy peeps and sweet dreams!

XOXO,
Anna