lunchtime knitting

I picked up stitches to start the Samus body during lunch. Despite my lack of super duper crochet/needle tool (which sounds like it may already exist), it went fairly quickly. Even more important, it looks a lot better than I thought it would . The edges of the cabled section are definitely messy and uneven looking. I managed to completely hide that in how I picked up stitches, and will hide the other messy edge when I add on the icord edging, later. I'm thrilled with how the transition to the main stockinette part of the body looks. Sometimes the simple things can be the hardest to make look nice, and I'm fairly proud of how mine looks. Let's see if I can make the sleeves look as nice.

I also played with my Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn during lunch. I bought it wound in a fairly tight hank, and decided to wind it up, so I could get a better look at how long the color repeats are in the variegation. It was hard to tell, in the hank, whether the repeats were more Koigu like, or longer repeats that would be more likely to pool. It's definitely Koigu-like, with really short strips of color. I'm happy about that. The colors now look even more brilliant and saturated than they did before. I tried to take another photo of the yarn, but I know that, like my other picture, they will do it no justice. I just can't capture the vivacity of it. I'm going to have to figure out how to do that, eventually, because it will one day be socks that will deserve a good photo in my album.

The hank was huge. By that, I mean that the circumference when I unfurled it from its twisted state, it almost maxed out the circumference of my swift! I ended up creating two separate balls, so it's all ready for socks. One ball is a bit lighter than the other, so I guess I'll start with that one. That way, if I don't run out of yarn for the first sock, I can knit the second sock with no worries. I should do toe-up socks, so I can use every last bit of yarn, but I know I'll probably end up doing cuff-down socks. I just like the fit and the process better. I'm leaning toward just doing a plain rib. I wore my Koigu socks yesterday, which was their first outing that involved serious walking. They were perfect, and I might just try to emulate that pattern. I've never done a 3x1 rib before, and I really like it on those. (Those were my Sockapal-2-za socks, so I didn't knit them myself.)

I really want to cast on for those socks this evening, but I won't. I still have the Retro Rib socks going (though I plan to try the CTH yarn on size 0 needles, so that's not an issue), and I should plug away at the stockinette on Samus as long as I can stand it. It's also tempting to swatch for Ingeborg. Now that the mittens are done, I have tons of Naturespun leftover, and will use the mitten colors for my 'Borg swatch. I want to save up every bit of the Naturespun I have in the sweater colors for the sweater, and possibly for making the hat that goes with it. And even though I have a ton of the red (leftover from Elizabeth I), I want to have 2 or 3 skeins of it untouched for a sock pattern that would be perfect for it. I might have more to say on that sock project this winter, if there is a Sockapalooza 3. The socks I have in mind are glorious, but I don't know if my legs have the personality to pull them off.

Okay, back to work. I just had to gush about my lunchtime knitting. Keep your fingers crossed that my Monday photos will include tons of Samus stockinette. After a few inches, I'll probably need some outside motivation or divine intervention to get it all done. :)