She introduced me to a series penned by mother and daughter writing tandem, P C Cast and Kristin Cast. I hunted for the book as soon as our knitting meet was finished and ended up with this copy when I got home. I admit it’s written for young adults but it is really engaging. I just haven’t read so much of it yet but the story is getting really interesting now that Zoey is in the House of Night.

Thanks for the rec, Lindsay!
I recently bought a set of the Friends DVDs and the other night found this episode where Monica was knitting, Chandler was being the swift and Rachel was winding the ball. Knitting on TV – how cool is that? Monica is a thrower by the way.
More knitting news. I bought Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters a few months ago and started reading but then we went on holiday and the book went into a box. I didn’t find the book until very recently and started reading it again. I so wanted to learn one of her architectures, Riverbed in particular but decided to ‘Trust Cat. Her formula works’, DPUTiger‘s words, not mine.

So I followed Cat’s advice and knitted the learning socks at the beginning of the book. I picked out the yarn and the needle to get gauge and had it sitting on top of a table in the bedroom for at least a week and a half. It kept taunting me and teasing me and wagging its finger at me so I decided to just take a break from the sock on the needle and just follow what the book says.

Little Sky is the first learning sock and is done from the cuff down. It creates this lovely inverted V from the leg down to the instep where the increases are created on either side. The top of the foot is neat and smooths down to the toe.
The second learning sock is done toe-up and called Little Coriolis, something that I have been dying to try out because the bias that travels up the legs is so neat and simple and is enough of a design element that you don’t need any other stitch pattern. The Whirlpool Toe was a bit of a problem in the beginning but once you have enough stitches it works out okay.This sock architecture seems to create a really snug sock and with perfect measurement it would feel more like gloves on your feet than socks. The bias mimics the Coriolis Effect, which you would see if I finish knitting the other sock!

I’m loving Cat Bordhi’s techniques so far. The needle position and stitch arrangements get me confused a bit but I try to work out the orientation in my own head and not linger too much on how the book describes it.

I read the other architectures as well and decided to take baby steps. The Riverbed Architecture is something that I have been dying to try, but I’m taking it slow. So I dug out 2 skeins of Shibui Knit Sock yarns that I used to knit my first pair of socks, done two-at-a-time, last year, which ended up being too big because I just knit on the fly and didn’t bother reading up some more so I frogged them and now look like curly noodles.

Anyway, I chose Bartholomew’s Tantalizing Socks as my first adult-sized Cat Bordhi socks. Watch me soar!
Yes, the finished sock is supposed to look like that. I am loving the linen stitch, see how it nicely breaks up the colours and gives a really nice texture? Yeah baby, I am knitting a Cat Bordhi sock! Somebody pinch me.More sock news, I finished the first one of the Dippers for the Socks That Rawk Q3 KAL. I had to frog the toe decrease because I was questioning the pattern, but then decided to just trust the pattern and knit as it is on the chart. Guess what, it worked! I love this sock. The second sock is now on the second repeat on the leg.
And yet more sock news, and in particular the same STR Q3 KAL. I decided to sign up for the Cotty KAL as well. It’s a nice little pair of girly socks designed by Carrie. I have her to thank for introducing me to the wonderful colourways by Tina and the beautiful yarns from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Her February Lady Sweater is something of a legend in the knitting community.

This lovely skein of pinks and reds in STR Mediumweight (colourway: Love) will be knit up as my very own pair of Cotty Socks.I’m getting a really bad case of startitis again, people! Time for an intervention?

Nah! Whoa re we kidding, right?

I promise some other content coming soon, mostly about photography and the kids I think. I chatted with them via webcam today and I just realised again how much I am missing my children.

Take care all and enjoy your weekend.