Avoidance knitting

It's amazing what lengths I will go to avoid doing something that I *should* be doing. Right now I should be working on my image for Charlie's Peace project, and, if I were smart, I should be working on Project Walkway (which I have re-named "Olive") since I am a little concerned that I might run out of yarn before the sale ends (didn't I learn my lesson with Tilia?). Instead, I cleaned the cat box, did laundry, cooked, and oh yeah, started another sock.

Funny thing about socks. They are so small that you can trick yourself into thinking that they don't count and that it's just something to carry around to work on in a traffic jam. Yeah. Right. My intention this evening was to just "get it started" so I could work on it at lunch time, but these self-striping yarns hook me in every time. I keep working just one more row to see how it will look. Then one row becomes 35. But gosh, can you blame me? Look how yummy! The pattern is Garter Rib, another from "Sensational Knitted Socks" and the yarn is Meilinweit Fantasy by Lana Grossa.

Every time I go to a new yarn shop I look for short (as in 5 inch) metal sock needles. You see, I love my Brittany Birch needles, but I am afraid of breaking one - knock on wood, it hasn't happened yet - and I've been told that metal needles are "better. Well, I have visited over 20 yarn shops in the past year and have yet to find the "perfect" metal replacement. On a lark, I decided to try some 7 inch Susan Bates needles ($1.75 on clearance!). Four tries later, after rejecting the notion that it was the yarn, I decided that they just weren't working. The sharp pointy tips constantly split the yarn, poked me, and stuck out at unmanageable angles like a porcupine. After switching to my trusty Brittanys, I zipped right along and realized that it's probably because I have very small hands (6.25 inches from longest finger to base of palm). While knitting, I noticed that I use my palm to push the needles as I go. So, while I will continue to look for 5 inch metal needles with a nice dull tip, Brittanys are my Cadillac.

That little pink stitch counter I am touching? It's stuck on row 46. That's where I am on Olive, 18 rows before putting the sleeve stitches on hold {sigh}. So many stiches, each one exactly the same ~ yaaaaaawn.

Like any self respecting knit blogger, I took it to the beach with me yesterday to photograph (too much green around my house, and I'm so sick of my back yard). There's a bit of seaweed to the bottom of the photo that is exactly the same color as the yarn. Cool eh? I could have re-named the sweater "Seaweed", but Olive sounds more like a sweater name, given that they are usually named after women. Why is that? Boats and Sweaters? The only obvious connection is that sailors have been known to "spin a good yarn". Nyuck nyuck.

In closing, since I'm really grooving on orange right now and to make up for my bad joke, here's one of the last blossoms on our Flowering Maple to tickle your eyeball:


Edited to add: NEWSFLASH! Check out Yarnival!