Knitting

I'm starting to seriously get in the mood. I haven't been knitting all that much lately. I did a pair of socks and a Meg Swansen spiral yoke sweater, with Uberimma variations, for my SIL prior to our trip. For travel knitting, I brought two balls of Sandnes Smart sock yarn (not machine washable, alas--I did not pay close enough attention to the label) to make a pair of enormoous socks on size 0 (=very very small) needles for a friend with very very wide feet. A tactical error on my part. The first sock took almost the entire trip--I came home with only that and the toe of sock #2. I put those in the mail this past Tuesday and immediately cast on for a pair of socks at a more sane gauge (on 2s) for another friend. And now I'm feeling a very great urge to knit.

Before I was pregnant with Barak, I had been in a major knitting lull. I'd done almost nothing since I got engaged. But when I was about four months along, I discovered the Squares Obsession. I'd only ever done one afghan in my life, and that was my Knitting into the Void Afghan--I cast on a gazillion stitches on size 8s and knit forever (well, two and a half years, off and on) until it was done. But one day at work, I happened across a pattern on the internet (while working very very hard, mind you) for Lincoln Log squares. The pattern was beguiling in both its simplicity and its stash-busting potential. Cast on ten stitches and knit twenty rows. Change color. Knit another twenty rows. Change color. Cast on along the edge of the rectangle you've just created, and knit another twenty rows. Continue ad infinitum, creating either one tremendous square or multiple smaller squares.

I was so taken by this that I went home by way of the yarn store, buying a new set of needles and two balls of yarn so I could start a square on my commute. And I squared almost nonstop from then until the week before Barak was born, knitting two complete afghans for two different friends. Each square took four hours on average, and each afghan had thirty squares. And then you had to weave in all the ends, knit them all together, put on a border, etc. It took for-ever. But ooh, they were gorgeous.

After Barak was born, needless to say, the productivity slowed quite dramatically. It took me more than a year to make him a blanket (a smaller version of the squares afghan, with fewer color changes and therefore fewer ends to weave in)--I only finished it this past fall. MHH still only has one handmade sweater to his name, which is sort of shameful on my part. And it's a Lopi, which is about the fastest sweater you can knit. I made myself a very simple sweater, finished a couple that were mostly done and in bags, designed and knit a sweater for my friend Sarah, and made a few little sweaters for Barak--nothing fancy. I made one for my MIL that looks, in the immortal words of MHH, like something an Imperial Warrior would wear. Still haven't fixed that one. But I haven't really been in the Knitting Groove.

Now, at five months and change, the pregnancy knitting bug is back full blast. It's not quite what it was last time, becuase I have a toddler keeping me busy and I don't have a miserable job to distract myself from. But I'm now plotting multiple projects, carrying knitting around everywhere and--most tellingly--buying yarn, which I've been remarkably good about not doing for months and months. No more.

Mmm. Knitting.

And on that note, I think I have about an hour left on Barak's nap. Quality knitting time, not to be wasted!