So far this year, in just January and February, I have managed to finish six pairs of socks…albeit *baby* socks. The other orange pair has been given to Baby Reece and the other purple pair were not ribbed (a mistake on my part) and therefore not photographed with the group above.

I decided it is now time to start an adult pair.

The “moss” colored Jitterbug (above) waiting patiently in my stash, was just screaming for another leafy stitch pattern so inspired by the Yarn Harlot’s rendition, I downloaded the Sleepy Hollow sock pattern.  I hope I read the instructions as well as Stephanie did (wink wink).

Feels kind of funny to be knitting a sock from the cuff down…it’s been so long.

I realized I have lots of sock yarn stash.

The lovely Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR came from my good friend Liz Plam who attended the Sock Summit last summer and is in fact a special edition created exclusively for SS09.

And here is some heavenly Malabrigo sock which the ADD knitter used with my favorite sock pattern – Embossed Leaves. I’ve made three pairs with the EL pattern already, even in yellow, that’s how much I love it.

In the meantime, people here in the Bay Area have been grousing about the weather. It’s been rather heavy lately this being an “El Niño” year but I think it’s great. Everything is so beautiful green and growing like mad. Spring blossoms are everywhere. Plus it reminds me of the awesome Pacific Northwest which I miss. So the rain makes it feel like home and it’s wonderful weather for knitting. Liz even got out today and did some weeding.

More rain is on the way!

Knitting baby socks have been a kind of salvation for me lately. I have managed to finish three pairs in the month of January alone (two pair of these). I have accomplished what I never thought I could way back in 1981: knitting an entire sock from memory – no pattern. The purple socks pictured above are similar to a tree ornament I made several years ago. I actually finished the second sock of the pair in just one day…in between classes.

I might even have enough of the bright yellow yarn used to make the grown up pair to knit a bright yellow mini pair. We shall see.

The latest pair were started from remnants of a colorful yarn that were used for a pair I made Alice about a year ago. The sock sits atop atop my Redhook in progress. That’s five inches of the required k2p2 ribbing knit in Cascade 220 purple heather.

You know I was feeling a little down today because I was stuck home on my first day off and the first dry day in quite sometime. So who should appear to cheer me up but the little Bradster. There is no blue feeling that a five year old can’t cure.

My new year’s was spent collecting Alice and her belongings and delivering her to SOU where she started classes yesterday. Here’s the college freshman with her new short haircut.

Amid all the packing and loading and visiting and driving we were able to spend a dry 24 hours in lovely Ashland. After moving her into the somewhat gloomy monolith known as Greensprings,

I suggested we stroll the downtown at night.

Everything was beautifully lit up for the holidays and luckily most of the shops were closed so I wasn’t tempted to spend any money. Still, I do enjoy window shopping at night.

I have to say, the town has a theatrical thing for hats. They were everywhere! Well I can’t wait to come back in the summer and check out some plays on the Elizabethan stage. In any case, I’m sure I’ll be returning to Ashland often.

The only knitting that I have to show for myself is a swatch. Yes, a swatch. I actually knit a swatch and I LOVE it.

Although this magnificently purple Cascade 220 was intended for the Monday Morning Cardigan, I have changed my mind. It’s going to be Redhook from the Made In Brooklyn pattern booklet by Jared Flood (aka brooklyntweed.net). I have had great success with Jared’s designs which are simple yet modern and extremely wearable and so I have high hopes for this project. Casting on…now.

I bought a purple skirt…

…to match my purple vest…

…and purple tights…

…even some purple makeup.

A also ordered some purple yarn from Webs (second row far right) to make a purple Monday Morning Cardigan. I love the color of the sweater modeled but I already have a seamless sweater in that color.

To show you how completely and utterly I have fallen for purple, I even picked up my purple shawl again. Yes, there are signs of knitting in the universe. It’s progress however slowly but progress nonetheless.

This purple bug is currently spreading around the knitting blog-o-sphere. Do be careful – it’s quite contagious.

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