They say that it's a woman's perogative to change her mind.  If that woman is a knitter, it must go double!  Since my last post, several plans have changed.

First up is socks.  I started the Lacy Scallops, and as is often the case with my small, skinny feet, it was apparent from the get-go that these socks were just not going to work.  They were immediately frogged and I searched around for another pattern.  After auditioning a bunch, I settled on a tried and true.  Marguerite's basket weave ribbing socks.  Marguerite's socks are simple and well fitting.  And even though I have a lot of patterns in my personal sock-of-the-month-club, if they are not well fitting, they will not be knitted up.  So there!  Just a day or so after starting them, I was on a fabric shopping outing with my Round Robin group.  I was mentioning my sock knitting venture for the year and there were strong hints given that some of those socks could be gifted for birthdays.  These are probably the only three people on the face of the planet that I would knit for besides my immediate family, so I took the hint to heart.  The first recipient, Caroline, has a birthday coming up in February.  The socks I had already started won't fit her, so I started a new pair.  The yarn I chose has limited colors, but because the color runs are short, still reads as very busy.  I was a little frustrated trying to find something that the colors won't overwhelm until I remembered Nutkin.  It seems to bear up well under busy patterns, but is still rather impressive and fun to knit.  So – on the left, the basket weave socks and on the right Nutkin:

The basketweave socks are in Koigu PPM and the Nutkins are in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock.

Next up – Lusekofte.  I sat down to read the pattern and it is so convoluted!  I had expected that this would be patterned after an historical Norwegian knit, but I should have read closer.  It appears Knit Pick's aim is to take historical patterns and "update" them to make them more wearable.  I don't think this has been an improvement.  I started making note of all the changes I would make to the pattern, when it occurred to me I might as well change direction.  I dug out all of my Dale books and found one that makes my heart go pitter patter (whether in happiness, or trepidation, I'm not sure).  Nagano.  I've had this in my library forever and have occasionally taken it out and dreamed over it.  So now is the time.  Although, in looking at the charting, perhaps I should have my head examined!

But I have made progress – see?

This is my second attempt.  On the first attempt, I cast on for a Small.  My mind just couldn't wrap itself around the concept that I'm anything smaller, so I completely ignored the actual measurements.  It soon became apparent that Small is actually Huge.  So I frogged and am now making an XS.  I like their sizing – it's very flattering.

Last weekend Abby brought the girls up on Sunday because Ben had to work.  They went to church with us and it turned into quite an adventure.  Right in the middle of the sermon Mei-Mei looked up at me and said, "I'm going to scream!"  And she did.  It was just a quick, high pitched squeal, but it was enough to get everyone's (including the pastor's) attention.  Good thing she's so cute.  And speaking of cute:

Busy week this week – but haven't I said that before?  I keep waiting for things to slow down, but I'm not holding my breath.  I just have to keep reminding myself everything doesn't have to be done the first month of retirement.  Yesterday I was sitting down in the middle of the day knitting and trying to quell the feelings of guilt.  It seemed so decadent.  But I had to remind myself I'm making great headway on my organizing goals, fixing hubby a good home cooked meal every day and pretty much keeping up with all my other responsibilities.  I'm sure the feelings of guilt will go away very, very soon!