Knitting along...

I have officially started my first KAL. The thing we are Knitting Along is SOCKS! It's Lolly's Socktoberfest. I felt like I needed a new project. (This has nothing to do with getting anything finished -- I have at least 3 things on the needles, but none of it was "calling my name") So, you know, new house, new knitting project. I started on Grumperina's sock pattern Jaywalker from the latest MagKnits. All was going swimmingly. Well actually not. Whenever I start on a pattern for the first time I have to completely screw it up at least once. So that happened, and then everything was going along swimmingly. I was knitting in church, and I suppose I wasn't quite paying attention to what I was doing (better than not quite paying attention to church!), and something got messed up, along with there being atrocious stitch ladders in-between some of the needles joins. You can't tell what's wrong from the picture, so you'll just have to believe me. I got this far:

And then had to rip the whole thing out. An entire weekend of knitting. It probably looks pretty sad to see that's all I got done in an entire weekend (and not knitting on anything else, either), but between Baby Flashbang's feedings (now solids as well as nursing!), and Toddler Flashbang's demands (Play ball, Mommy!) on top of Mr. Flashbang having to work nearly the whole weekend through, I feel this was a real accomplishment.

So during naptime yesterday I started again, and here, two naptimes later, is Jaywalker:

This pattern is great. In fact, the decrease/increase is so rewarding that I had a hard time getting through the ribbing when I cast on the second time. Give me more 'a them zig-zags! The pattern stitch is very easy to memorize (except, of course, when you mess it up during church), and every other row is a round of knit stitch, which moves things along nicely.

Something I noticed, since I got the chance to start on the same one twice, is that it really is a good idea to have all your stitches distributed onto 4 needles like the directions call for. The fabric is less stretched, therefore not as much stress on the joins, and with the way the pattern is, it's much easier to keep track of where you are, since you start and end each needle the same way. I only have one set of four size #1's, so I'm using one #0, and it's working fine. None of my stitches have been too tight coming off of the smaller one, so I don't think it's affecting my join any.

I'm using the suggested sock yarn, Opal Handpainted, which I just happened to have in my stash. In fact, I have two identical skeins in my stash, for reasons I don't care to explain. Does anyone want to swap Opal skeins? If you have another colorway that you'd like to trade, please let me know; drop a comment or an email. I love the way it's knitting up, but surely after two socks I won't want to knit with the same stuff again for another project.