Vacation

For the past several days Philip and I have been on vacation. We didn't actually go anywhere (except a day trip to Louisville on Tuesday,) but we were taking a break from life nonetheless. The weather has been absolutely beautiful here, afternoons in the mid-70's, so we spent quite a few of our vacation hours sitting out on the back porch reading, talking, drawing and knitting. We also managed to spend some time at 3rd Street Cafe which is fast becoming our favorite weekday morning hang out. We go there a lot when Philip has the day off and I am working since I can work from anywhere with internet access, but it is especially nice on the days that I get to go without my computer and knit.

With all of this free time I actually finished some projects! The first is my TV sock that I have been slowly working my way through. If you remember, I started these back when the Tinman re-aired. I changed the gauge and pattern three times before finally deciding on making them anklets on US1 needles. I am very happy with these socks and since I have enough yarn left for another pair I immediately casted on for two more of these babies. Don't they look super cute with my Earth shoes?

The next finished project is the Abalone hat from Woolly Wormhead's book Going Straight. The book focuses on making hats on straight needles without seams by using short rows and grafting techniques. The book was self-published so you have to order it from Lulu.com, but it is totally worth the wait. The grafting instructions are the best I've ever seen covering grafting in several scenarios with lots of pictures. She also shows how to do a crocheted cast-on directly onto the needle, something I have never seen before but absolutely adore. The patterns are interesting and fun and there is good pattern support on Ravelry so if you do run into problems it is easy to find help. I knitted this hat in under a day and I only ended up using 110yds of worsted weight so it was fast and cheap.