Dodged a bullet

The weather guessers were predicting 4-6 inches of snow last night and enough cold to keep it around for a while, which I was not looking forward to! Therefore, I was pleased to wake up this a.m. to no more than 2 inches of the white stuff, and temps high enough that it has mostly melted off sidewalks and driveways. Such a relief, especially since I would have been shoveling solo. The b/f recently had surgery on his ankle, and he wouldn't have been able to wield a snow shovel. Global warming is, once again, my friend.

I finished my wool/alpaca socks; this yarn is so soft! I managed to acquire some for my eBay store; will be listing it soon. The pattern is my own, using a simple garter stitch rib. I like lots of ribbing in my socks, since it makes them stay up so well. But, I hate knitting it; that constant switching back and forth from knit to purl makes me want to scream. The nice thing about garter rib is that every other round is knit plain. So, my knitting goes something like this:

Round 1: Knit 2, purl 2 - "This won't be bad; just one round. One needle done; see, it won't take long. Halfway done! Not bad at all...almost done..."
Round 2: Knit around - "Woohoo! All knit - yippee!"
Repeat as necessary

As you can see, it doesn't take much to keep me happy; just a plain knit round now and again.

I finished the first sock in my current CIC pair. I'm not enjoying this pattern as much as the garter rib. On alternate rounds, every third stitch is twisted. This creates subtle lines the length of the sock, and I like the look of it just fine. But knitting those twisted stitches demands just a little more muscle power than plain stockinette, and after a while my right arm starts to ache. I don't have a problem with it at the looser gauge used in sweaters, but at sock gauge, twisted stitches wasn't such a hot idea. I'll be glad when this pair is done. I think the next pair will be good ol' stockinette. I'll think of it as classic, rather than boring.