knitabit

Once Upon a Time

Yes, once upon a time I was a prolific knitter. This, however, represents the sum of my knitting output over the past month or so:

One lousy sock.

Things should start to turn around soon, however. I got my taxes done, along with the associated filing and paperwork tasks that I seem to do only once a year at tax time. We're also in the middle of soccer season and while normally that turns into some quality knitting time, it seems like the weather's been a bit too chilly at times for outdoor knitting. The hands have wanted to stay in their pockets a lot of the time. Perhaps May will bring warmer soccer/knitting weather.

And finally, I deleted all of the games off of this laptop computer. I was spending an incredibly stupid amount of time playing Spider Solitaire. It and all the other computer games have been uninstalled. Good riddance to time-wasting rubbish.

Justification for Not Letting Go of the Sock-Knitting Obsession

You see, they do eventually wear out:

These are the first pair of socks that I knit that I really liked and started to wear often. I guess I've pretty much wore them out. They lasted through two winters in a regular laundry rotation (machine washed and dried) of at least once a week. What more could we ask of a sock, I'd like to know? Although I could probably find a bit of leftover yarn to re-knit the toe, other parts of the sock are starting to wear out too. I guess they won't last forever...

What I Did On My Vacation

I sure didn't knit as much as I would have expected, though I did progress some on the Ringel sock as you can see:

I'm just a couple of rows away from starting the toe.

Knitting time was limited because either the scenery was interesting and I was looking out the window, or the scenery was boring and I was sleeping.

Here's one of the interesting parts:

This is along the Williams Ranch 4-Wheel Drive Trail at Guadalupe National Park in west Texas. The trail coincides throughout much of its length with the Butterfield Overland Trail, a precursor of the Pony Express Routes. The photo does not do justice to the amazing variety of cacti in this the northernmost portion of the Chihuahuan Desert. I feel so lucky to live in the west. Trees, who needs 'em? We love our wide open spaces out here!!

Knitting will take a back seat again this weekend - this time so I can do our taxes. In the meantime, I'm looking seriously at the Knitty Kitchensink Bag (and I've already got the yarn for it in my stash!)

Vacation Knitting

I have turned the heel and am about halfway down the foot - will post pics tomorrow.

Yesterday morning, we attended mass here and we heard this ("Adagio"), this ("Pie Jesu") and this.

It was one of the most moving experiences of my life and I will never forget it.