Making Good

I have been on the receiving end of the generosity of lots of knitters, and am finally able to show my appreciation by knitting all this lovely yarn up.

First off, here are my Anastasia Socks in Fred Flintstone, which I bought from a lovely Raveler ages ago, when it wasn't available on the site (though it is at the moment).



These are my first toe-up socks, and while I liked the short-row toe, I'm not wild about short-row heels or worrying about how stretchy my bindoff will be. To me, grafting a toe is way more fun and stress-free than binding off the top of a sock.

I *love* how the yarn striped/spiraled, and even though the gauge ended up being ridiculously tight for medium weight yarn, the socks fit well and I would do it all again.

These little cute things:



are for my coworker who is due in July. The yarn was outright given to me right before I moved by a local knitter who had seen in the group activity pages for our LYS that I had favorited some Panda Cotton. She found it too splitty to work with, and I must agree that this skein was especially splitty, strangely moreso than the skein of Panda Cotton I used to make these:



which were given to another coworker who had her baby a couple weeks ago. These are Christine's Baby Booties, and they are wee and cute. (One mod I made: when knitting the instep stitch together with the side stitches, I switched their order on the needle, with the side stitch crossing over top of the instep stitch -- I think this helped avoid holes.)

And, finally, one of my first actions on Ravelry way back in August, 2007, was to come across the BMFA Peaseblossom colorway and ask if anyone had a skein they would like to trade. A lovely club member hadn't knit hers up and traded me for it, and I am finally, finally using it.



This is Mad Color Weave, which I'm making as part of the Quarter 2 Socks that Rawk Knitalong. The base yarn feels different than more recent STR -- more like Koigu, seems to me.

Progress on Apres Surf is continuing, but slowly -- I did rip and re-knit, and am in the increase part of the body. I'm giving most of my attention to socks right now, but I'd like to be able to wear Apres Surf this spring, so I should be working on it more. I'll try to find the piece of paper that I was keeping track of increases on and get back to work on it.