Sometimes, I Knit

It is of great importance to begin well.
-John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 1776

For a change of pace, today we're going to discuss knitting. As in knitting that I've been doing. Recently, not several weeks ago.* Incredible, right?

I've actually been doing an incredibly small amount of knitting since the Olympics. I think it's a combination of crazy ER shifts, papers to write, and what I can only call post-competition recovery. It's not a physical recovery - my hands were feeling fine by the closing ceremonies - it's more a let-down, a sense that nothing on my to-knit list is pressing, nothing is in a hurry, and I can't really decide what I feel like knitting.

So what do you knit when you feel like knitting but don't know what you feel like knitting?

Socks.The socks you see above you no longer exist. The corrollary, in my life, to doing very little knitting in the past week is that I've ripped pretty much everything I've knit. At least twice. Above you see the beginnings of my sockapaloooza socks. A Cascade Lace pattern from an old Cast On in some lovely blue Sisu. Nice pattern. Nice yarn. Such a waste together. The Sisu is a Norwegian sockyarn with a hard twist, and it just wasn't loving being a summer lace sock. It really wants to be twisted. As in Bavarian twisted stitch patterns. As in the Chalet Socks from Folk Socks. I was wearing mine yesterday when I decided to rip, and it just spoke to me. I think I've been inspired by Stephanie's. I'll show you something when it's more than 6 rows of 2x2 ribbing.

(Actually, I think it really wants to be stranded colorwork, but I'm the adult here. It's going to be twisted stitches, and it's going to like it.)

There are other socks on the needles - a supersecret-superspecial-surprise pair that I can't show you (Marina - that's what I'm making with my Stashalong free day purchase), those d*&*^d argyles that Chris won't let me forget, and a lovely pair of the Birch Leaf Lace socks from A Gathering of Lace by (who else?) Nancy Bush for my Team College Hill teammate Katja. So the answer to any question today is socks. (And for Lynda, our sock counting maestra, that'll take me up to 95 pairs when done.)

*Apparently, I wasn't very clear when I presented Winter Folly as a finished object yesterday and some of you got the impression that I knit that in the last two days. I knit it in January and early February and finished it the day before the Olympics. I've been wearing it ever since.