So, last night, I could no longer ignore the siren call of the sock books on my desk. If you know me, you know I have a thing for socks, both handmade and store-bought, and also shoes. Which is marginally weird, because I hate feet. They are icky. Just sayin’

So, to the books.

These two books together make an excellent sock knitting course. Clara Parkes goes in to all the things that make a great sock: the yarn (fiber, twist, plies, spins), the stitches, the fit. And she has some great patterns as well, by some very famous designers (Ann Budd, Cat Bordhi, and so on). I love the details on picking yarns, and what to look for in a blend. Of course, I pick yarn because I fall in love with the colorway, and that’s okay, because the information in this book also works in the other direction: you can figure out exactly what the yarn you have in your hand is capable of, even if it needs to be a shawl instead of socks.

The Workshop book is complementary to this. It goes into detail on the different parts of the sock: toes, heels, cuffs, gussets. It also has some neat patterns, but the beauty of it is that you can mix and match features to design your own socks.

Now, I mentioned I love socks. And after my rant the other day about FAT yarn, it should not come as any surprise that I have a substantial stash of sock yarn. Sub. Stan. Tial. But I absolutely refuse to let myself cast on another project at this point, because I am trying to force myself to finish Carrick. However, I am planning other projects, dreaming of other projects, and so forth. And when I start something new, it will most likely be socks. I have six or seven sock books now, and most of the patterns are untried. So here’s what I decided. Any two socks made of the same yarn will constitute a pair. This way, I get to try more patterns, I avoid “second sock syndrome”, and I get to use up complete balls of yarn, because making a third or fourth sock makes perfect sense. In fact, one of the reasons I like sock knitting so much is that I can do it without paying a great deal of attention. It’s pretty much a toe, a tube, a heel, and another tube. Unless I am doing fancy work. So my “pairs” of socks will most likely consist of one fancy sock and one one plain. I can work on both of them at the same time that way, depending on whether or not I am able to concentrate on a pattern. Perfect, right?

Now, here’s the slow progress part. I have continued to work on my office area and organize my craft books and supplies. At this point, all my scrapping stuff is accessible. And I am sitting here looking at it, afraid to touch it. What the heck? It could be the fact that I haven’t scrapped a thing since Batman was a baby. He’s, ah….10. Regardless, I need to jump in. Which I will do right after I eliminate my 48 excuses!

I should maybe put this on the Life List page, but the list of books is getting rather tedious there. Since I last updated it, I have read Becoming a Psychotherapist, Days in the Lives of Social Workers, The Girls Come Marching Home, Once a Warrior, Always a Warrior, The Three of Us and The Courage to Create. That’s 6 books for a total of 41 books since I started the Musing Mighty Life List, if I haven’t forgotten any, which I might have. If it’s all the same to you, we will skip the backed up reviews and just try to do better from now on, ummkay? Kay.

Speaking of reviews, I think I might have mentioned that I have a horrendously tall stack of TBRs. Actually, I now have 4 reasonably short (approximately 2 feet) stacks. That is a lot of books, right? One of my goals for this year is to eliminate that stack of books, either by reading them or deciding not to read them, and/or giving them away/selling them. But another of my goals for the year is to work on my crafty life, including getting my craft books organized and actually making stuff. Yesterday, I pulled all my knitting books together, except for the ones in those stacks, and this morning, I pulled those out. So, in order to accomplish three goals at once over the course of the month, you get some knitting book reviews. Yay!!!!!

Up first, we have Men’s Knits by Erika Knight. Apparently, I have had this book for about 3 years, since I have been SINGLE for almost that long. Yep, I’m a little behind. We’ll get over it. Of course, it helps that the boyfriend sweater is always in style, and this way I can have the sweater without the boyfriend, right? And also, except for the boobs, both men and women are fairly rectangular in the torso, and while women’s clothes are occasionally over-fussy, things for men tend to be functional. I like functional.

So which patterns do I like best? The “favorite sweatshirt” on page 68 looks fairly unisex. It’s reminiscent of the wonderful wallaby, but without a hood or pocket. I love the wallaby, along with most of America, so this may be a knittable option. I also really, really like the “collegiate cardigan” on page 80. It’s thick and lush and has some great textures. Unfortunately, it’s knit in bulky weight yarn, so I may or may not work it up for myself. I tend to think I am bulky enough with adding fat yarn to the mix. Same goes for the “funnel-neck sweater” on page 110. I like it, but not in fat yarn.

But here’s a little trick I know. It is totally possible, if you know your gauge in a preferred yarn, and a little basic math, to knit a pattern written for a different weight yarn without re-writing the pattern. Just figure out how many stitches it takes to go around the person you are knitting for in the yarn you want to use, and (provided you can find a close enough match), follow the pattern as written for that number of cast-on stitches. This is super simple to do when using a pattern written for men (for instance) in bulky weight yarn (for instance) and making something to fit a five foot nothing shrimp of a girl in a lighter weight yarn (for real). Most of the time, patterns don’t call for a given number of rows, but just “knit until the piece is x inches long.” Just keep knitting until you hit the desired dimension, which may be shorter than called for, so don’t forget to measure yourself!

So, long ago and far away, I was sent a copy of Tweed to review. And I did review it over on Cass Knits! And I started a sweater called Carrick out of it. I knitted the back and I knitted the front. And then I got sidetracked, as usual, and sat Carrick aside. When I picked it back up, a year or so later, I discovered that I had misplaced the book. So, last spring, I ordered another copy. It’s been sitting on my shelf since then. And today, finally, I started the first sleeve of Carrick.

Now, the pattern says to knit the two sleeves flat and then sew them up, then sew them into the sweater and then sew the sweater side seams. Un-uh. Way to tedious! I picked up stitches and am knitting these sleeves in the round. When I am done, I will only have to sew shoulder and side seams.

By the way, since this is a knitting post, I suppose I will share my knitting goals for 2012. I want to finish Carrick, I want to finish the Suzie Hoodie I started last year, and I want to finish Hocks which I started when Drama was 2-ish. And I think that’s actually all I have in progress right now, at least knitting wise. Which is not quite the same as saying I have nothing else on the fire, right? You know me better than that, I am sure. For those of you that don’t….about the only thing I don’t have in the fire right now is applications for Audiologist Jobs.