spring?

Hmmm... did someone say it was supposed to be spring? Because Appalachia clearly didn't get the message.


At least I got a chance to enjoy the outdoors this weekend, before the snow came in. I went hiking on Saturday with some folks from Appalshop and some folks visiting from NYU/Tisch out to a waterfall (the first waterfall of it's size I've ever seen). It just felt so good to get outdoors... it's amazing how close to nature I am here, and yet I have to drive forty-five minutes to go hiking. I walked more living in the city than I do now. Oh well...


As for knitting, I've been ploughing along on socks. I got the Knitting on the Road book in the mail, and after a lot of time sitting on the couch yesterday, knitting and ripping and knitting and ripping, I learned that while it is fun to have brightly colored yarn (i love bright colors), variegated yarn is a waste for interesting sock patterns. I need to invest (what's that? an excuse to buy more yarn?) in some solid color sock yarn... or something with a very subtle variation... Koigu, here I come! First, I started the Canal du Midi socks in Knitpicks Hawaii (in honor of my finished abstract and my wishful and hopefull thoughts that it will be accepted so I can go to Hawaii -- though who knew Hawaii was so pink? Wish yellow replaced the pink in this yarn). It took me about two hours to cast on, what with learning the whole double cast-on thing and then casting on too tightly and struggling to knit the stitches. Then, I realized that you couldn't seen the pattern at all, what with all the striping of the yarn. So I took this (fairly ineffectual) photo and ripped it out.


Then I started the Conwy socks in Yukon, hoping the stripe pattern wouldn't be so prominent. No such luck. But I love the k1 p1 k3 p1 ribbing and the texture of the fabric, so I kept what I had -- using five pattern repeats as a border and just ribbing the rest. I'm gonna make these knee socks.


I also finished one of the Batman Jaywalkers and cast on for the second (pardon the scrappiness of these photos -- there's no light today and I just popped photos so i could post. but -- notice how all of my knitting is 'posing' today on the awesome 'rustic' kitty tower my dad made for Hank and Phoebe. My dad makes furniture of the 'rustic Adirondak' variety -- from found sticks and branches. The cats took to the tower right away... it's their favorite place, especially when it snows!).