Getting something done.

I don't know why, but I am experiencing a heck of a lot of aversion to some of my knitting projects lately. I continue to feel nervous about Birch and haven't done a lick of work on her. I put down the Hempathy stole for my friend. I am doing some work on childHood (halfway up the hood), but not a lot.

I did, though, finish swatching for the socks, and have cast on, and am knitting. This included a trip to the LYS for new needles, though. The Boye circulars I was using are just awful. One of the two ends is really very sharp, in each one, and they are just unpleasant to work with. I may try to sell them on eBay.

I replaced them with Susan Bates Quicksilver circulars. They do have a long needle, making the cord on the short side, but the stitches slide really nicely on them. (I did end up with size 1s. I wish the size 3s had worked out. Too bad.)

I got the socks cast on and appropriately on the needles. Found a trick there: since I cast on tightly (and these socks are toe-down), I cast on on my size 3 circulars and that made it very easy to transfer the stitches to the size 1 circulars appropriately. Much easier than casting on on the actual needles you're going to use. And I continued to use my mantra of 2 socks on 2 circulars: "You either switch needles or yarn. Never both."

We'll see how stripey the yarn works out to be--or how tight the cast-on is in the end, on my significant calves. I'm glad to have a pair of socks in the works, though.

Oh, and I tried the blue Tahki cotton top on--and it fits! Well!

Maybe someday, I'll pick up Birch again.

But for now, the LYS trip yielded two Fair Isle books and 4 balls of FI yarn...