approximately equal progress on 3 projects

My current knitting projects have been in a weird state for the last few weeks.  They all ended up in time-out or on hold for various reasons at about the same time, and they're all now back into an active state.  I think I've spent an equal amount of time on all 3 of them over the last week, which is odd for me.  I usually like to have one main project to focus on and a few fallback projects.

I finished purple sock 1 of 2 on Saturday night, and I cast on the second sock on Sunday.

I decided I do like the cast-on for my colorful striped socks, so they've been living in my purse and getting worked on while I wait for various things, like dinner.

I came up with what I think is a brilliant time-saver for my sweater.  On the final purl row before separating the sleeves, I used the hole in my interchangeable needles to thread in a "life-line".  I then cut it in half (mid-back), removed it from the front/back sections, and left it just in the sleeve sections.  Ta-da!  The sleeves were all set on waste yarn with very little effort on my part.

Now that I've got a few rows of the body, I need to knit my sweater onto a longer cable tonight and try it on.

socks and surgery

In good news, I finished a pair of socks that I've been working on for over a year.

I got to spend a fair amount of time knitting while I waited in urgent care on Sunday, July 6th.  I had no clue what was wrong at the time, but it turns out my gallbladder had had enough of me and was revolting.  I just knew I was in a lot of pain, had no appetite, and was losing weight.  I went in for surgery on the afternoon of Thursday, July 10th.  I went back in for surgery the next day to stop the internal bleeding, but not before I'd lost about half my blood.  What was supposed to be an uninteresting out-patient surgery turned into 4 days in the hospital.

My mom is a retired RN, and my parents live 2 miles away, so it made sense to relocate Callie the cat and myself to their house before I went in for surgery.  What I'd been told would be a few days of recovery turned into 2 weeks of a rather rough recovery.  Having less than the desired amount of red blood cells means I tire easily, and it will take a month or more for my body to replace them.

On Sunday, July 27th, Callie and I returned to our own house, and I went back to work on Monday.  We've both been a little mopey and are readjusting after spending the 2 weeks with my parents.  It's nice to be home, but it was so nice to stay with my parents, too.

My latest pair of socks is coming along quickly.  The first one is ready for the heel flap.

Socks and More Socks

I'm at that wonderful place where one large, super-involved project with a deadline has been completed, and now I get to freely mess around with my other WIPs.  The first one I grabbed was my emergency sock (which lives in my backpack in case I ever need it).  It is sock #2 of the pair, and I have finished the gusset and have some number of inches to go on the foot now.  It felt good to have something much less intense than lace.  It looks like I should take a more recent photo, since this one is from October.

I also started a second pair of socks a few weeks ago, because one can never have too many socks in progress, right?  The biggest difference is that the most recent pair will be done on 2 circulars instead of DPNs.  I went with 2 circs so I don't have to worry about dropping one of my favorite DPNs.  I had planned to try knitting in the dark, but I ended up just pulling out the sock and holding it instead, so it has been named my security sock (like a security blanket).  I will take this one with me to Erie, PA in July.  The thought of a DPN rolling down the length of an airplane is heart wrenching.  I used the German Twisted Cast-On for the first time.  Again, I am lacking a current photo.