Knitting stats

I was sitting knitting this afternoon - all three kids and husband are gone, bliss - and I was lamenting how long it takes me to finish projects. But then I started listing the things I've knit since September, when my mom made me buy sock wool, and I've knit more than I realized:

3 pairs of socks
3 pairs of baby booties
1 baby hat
1 hat for B
1 felted purse

That's all in about five months. Maybe I'm not knitting as slowly as I thought, given that I fit it in around kids, husband, house, and paying job.

I currently have a pair of socks in progress in this delightful raspberry Mountain Colors wool that my mom gave me for Christmas. I was going to start on a pair of socks out of the Noro sock yarn that mom also gave me, but the skein has disappeared. I've turned OCD, like I always do when I lose something, and I've torn the house apart. I can't find it anywhere. I've ransacked my closet and pulled apart the girls' room, but it's nowhere to be found. I just don't get it.

Unless I find the Noro, my plan is to start on some socks for the girls next. I have some great Supersocke self-striping yarn that I used for the baby booties and baby hat that will be great for socks for the kids. Now I just need a good sock pattern for them. Anyone have any recommendations?

And if you had told me in September that I'd be looking forward to finishing one pair of socks so that I could start another, I'd have laughed at you. I'm officially addicted.

Knitting stuff

I've been busily knitting away this past month - when work and kids allow me the time. I finished the purse for my sister, which I knit on behalf of my mother who is supposed to be taking a break from knitting due to a hurt wrist. This is the purse before I felted it. I KNOW I took an after picture, but I can't find it anywhere. Maybe my sister will take a picture and send it to me. It looked really cool when it was finished, even if the handles didn't quite fuse to the purse correctly.

I finally finished the orange socks, which I've been working on for two months in between other projects. The pattern is bamboo walking socks, which is a lot of fun to work on. It's the perfect combination of a pattern and mindless knitting. I gave the socks to Aunt Alison, who loved them.
I also knit three pairs of baby booties and one baby hat out of this really cool self-striping sock yarn. I meant to take a picture of all the booties lined up, but I forgot.

And now for this. . . . My father-in-law gave me money for Christmas, and I wavered on what to use it for - new running shoes, a pedicure or three, new books. But then inspiration struck as I was wrestling with a skein of yarn, trying to wind it into a ball to begin knitting a hat for B. I bought myself a swift and ball winder off e-Bay. The contraptions arrived tonight, and I immediately pulled them out of the boxes and set them up. I proceeded to wind a skein of gorgeous raspberry wool from Mountain Colors into a ball. It looks neon in the picture, but it's not at all in person. I can't wait to begin knitting socks with it.

B laughed at me about the swift and ball winder, and then he laughed harder when I called my mother about them. He asked, "Calling someone who cares?" He just now walked past and asked if I was posting about the swift and ball winder so that all my "geeky knitting people" could see them. Brave words from a man who keeps asking me to knit things for him.