socks, socks, spindles and more socks

So pretty much what I've been working on since January is socks.

I kind of got off on a knitting jag where all I wanted to do was stockinette. Just plain, non-complex stockinette. No thinking, no counting, no charts.

The upside to this is that I had some very pretty handspun that I had been working on that was finally finished (oh and how fabulous was it - 4ply fingering weight superwash wool. Dyed by me, spun by me, and finally knit by me and let me tell you do I feel accomplished when I put these lovlies on!) and nothing shows off handspun like good old stockinette.

^ - Mmm, pretty handspun

I think some of my desire for brainless knitting stemmed from being in my last quarter of school and between work and 5 classes and then my knee...

Oh yes, my knee. I have not been able to spin in TWO MONTHS because of my knee (I have not been able to walk particularly either), this past week is the first one since the beginning of February where I have been able to sit at my wheel and work (the walking without a limp will hopefully come soon also). I won't go into the whole drama of what happened, but basically Ice + Me = Torn Collateral Ligament.

I suppose this should have been a knitter's dream injury, but mostly it was just an injury and it adversely affected my ability to knit about as much as it adversely affected everything else.

So I knit stockinette socks and played video games a lot (because interestingly video games seemed to require less coordination than knitting, and hitting 'reset' was somewhat less agonizing than frogging). Besides the handspun ones I finished I'm a cuff away from being done with a pair in Misti Alpaca sock. I also finally managed to finish the socks I promised Amanda for her birthday. Luckily for her most of what was left on them was the stockinette foot.

Anyway, this last weekend Cookie A's new book Sock Innovation came out and it finally shocked me out of the stockinette jag (being done with classes helped too) so I'm also working on some Wollmeise socks using the "Rick" pattern. I liked the description as much as the look of these. Someday I'll wear them to an autocross and they will make me go faster :D

Also this weekend I found a new kind of shaft to use for my drop spindles.

I had a gorgeous Mother of Pearl donut that I got in Austin back in December. It was too light to put on a regular chopstick but its a great fit with this pin. I was finally able to use some of the sterling wire I got as well for the hook. I really love this spindle (Its mine and you can't have it!), the shaft is only about 6" long so its about the same length as my favorite Turkish drops and it spins very well.

I'm considering trying to get more of these pins to make up drop spindles for etsy. I just really like the smaller size and I'm not sure many people are making shorter ones - it seems like this would be a great traveling spindle since its shorter shaft means a longer spin when sitting down. Not sure if there's a big demand, but it might be worth finding whorls for a dozen or so to try out.