It's All Good

I'm happy to report that things are pretty good at Casa de Dear.

First and foremost, everyone seems to be pretty much over the hump as far as colds are concerned, and thank goodness for that. Also, I was suffering from a wicked case of the doldrums/introspecties over the past few weeks, but now the (figurative) sun is shining and I'm in a good place. I've no idea why I get like this (OK, that's a lie, I know perfectly well what prompted this particular romp but I'm keeping it to myself, thank you very much), but it's always a blessing when I finally snap out of it, reassess, and realize I've got it pretty good, all in all.

My health and fitness regime is going swimmingly. I'm loving my workouts more than ever, so much so that I'm going 4 times a week when I can. I've also resumed the hundred pushup challenge, and I'm now on week 3 of the program. OK, I'm still in the "wimp" bracket, but for a girl who couldn't even do ONE good-form pushup a mere month ago, I think it's pretty frickin' awesome. And so far this week I'm 3 for 3 on the vegetarian lunch plan. Yay!!!

It really is making a difference, too. This morning, as I pulled on my slacks, I noticed that they were feeling a bit loose. These pants aren't usually "tight" or anything, but they're definitely more form fitting. And today they're not only loose around the waist, but also around the legs and thighs. So progress! Or then again, they might just need to be washed ;)

Enough about me! On to knitting, gentle reader.

Last post I mentioned that I had cast on for another pair of Miscellaneous-Man Socks, this time using the Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn I bought at Rhinebeck. I cast off the first sock last night, and while it looks great and is the perfect size for a miscellaneous-man foot (as Phil pointed out "It's like they were MADE for me!"), I've nevertheless run into a small snag.

I want my socks to match. I realize some people couldn't care less if their self-striping socks are fraternal rather than identical, but I am not one of those people. Now, I cast off the first sock with maybe 2 yards of yarn left in that first ball. And that's the rub.

To start the second sock at the same spot in the stripe sequence, I've had to pull out quite a bit of yarn from the second ball. So there's NO WAY I'm going to have enough to have truly identical socks and finish the second one. It's just not going to happen.

What am I going to do? Well, I'm going to keep that yarn I pulled out and use it at the toe of the second sock. This way they'll be matchy, but only to a certain point. A point which I'm sure I can live with.

This might be a good time to add a lesson to my "Things I learned from Knitting this Garment" series:

• Lesson 5: When buying self-striping sock yarn with the intention of knitting man-socks, I must remember to buy MORE to compensate for the inevitable waste that comes with my desire to have matching socks.

These socks are (mostly) strictly commuter knitting, of course. In the evenings, I'm still plugging away at my Good Old Cabled scarf, and it's coming along nicely. However, I really should get to work on some coordinating accessories for my winter knits. I either need to knit a hot pink scarf (to match the pink Amanda Hat I made for myself, again using Malabrigo worsted) or a cream-coloured hat (to match the good old cabled scarf).

The trouble with that is, especially with the SNOW falling here today, it's getting more and more difficult to ignore the impending loomyness of Christmas, and the absolutely crazy amount of gifts I want to knit for everyone. So if you see some frazzled lady wearing baggy pants and wearing uncoordinated winter accessories knitting in the metro in the near future? It's me.

I'll wrap up this post by mentioning an artist I stumbled on this morning, while listening to David Reidy's Sticks and String podcast. I've only just started to listen to this podcast, and I know that many people aren't crazy about the music he plays, but I'm finding that we have really similar tastes in music. Anyway, one of the songs today was by Christopher Dallman. Go have a listen, it's totally worth it (you can download the MP3s for free here).

Happy Knitting Everyone!