A Sock, A Haul, and More HISMTH

And now, I'd like to present something never before seen on this blog (or anywhere else on the internet, as far as I know):
My foot. Modeling the fastest sock I've ever knit. Of course, now I have to make the second one. I'm going to cast it on tonight so I can have another pair of wool socks to help me keep warm in this cold cold winter we're having. Whatever happened to fall and spring? I wanted the heat to go away, but I was hoping for a little more fall before we went into the deep freeze.

I have to tell you, I love using the circular needle "Magic Loop" method. There's virtually no ladder up the sides and I don't keep dropping those pesky little stitches.

And now for the haul. While I was in Austin my sister took me to a knitting store on the Northwest side of the city--a place called European Knits. The shop is in the owner's living room and is quite small. She carries quite a bit of Anny Blatt, some Regia, Noro, Takhi, Stacy Charles, and some other brands I wasn't familiar with. That's where I got the sock yarn you were admiring up there.

But this was the real treasure she carried:
Old editions of Rowan Magazine and a German magazine called Sandra. I'd seen a copy of Sandra a friend picked up somewhere here in Chicago, but this woman had lots of issues. I had to control myself to just pick four, to which my sister graciously treated me. The Rowan are Issues 7, 9, 11, and The Rowan Liberty Book and there are some fabulous patterns in all of them. Sandra is like Rebecca, except that the patterns are a little more classic--not quite as trendy as the Rebecca. I can't wait to start matching up yarn with patterns!

And finally, for the next installment of HISMTH (How I Spent My Thanksgiving Holiday), here's the sweater I started:
It's Jammie from Rowan No. 28 in Magpie Aran. The yarn has been discontinued but I was lucky to find enough still in stock at the shop.

It's two-color reverse stockinette. It seemed like a good project to start in Austin because it requires very little concentration--there's no shaping so it's straight up 'til the armholes. As a matter of fact, it was a little too easy; I got bored with it pretty quickly. Which led to the Koigu (again, more later).

That picture is a little dark. I hope you can see the colors better on this edge shot:

This might get put on hold again until I go back to Austin in three weeks.

In the meantime I have sweaters to finish, both for me and for the shop, so I'd better get busy!