Pure and Utter Madness

This weekend was spent knitting like a mad woman. Cast on for the first round of Sock Madness Thursday night and finished Sunday morning. Two and a half days! The crazy open afterthought heel was pretty fun, especially grafting 63 stitches at the end. I like the Kitchener stitch. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.

The yarn is Malabrigo Sock in Abril and I used US1.5 needles. I know that part of the reason this went so quickly is that the leg is a little shorter than I usually would make it. The heel also made it quicker as there were far fewer gusset decreases than you normally would have when using a heel flap.

After the marathon sock knitting, I went back to the pigs. I now actually have seven done (one has been sent off to my mom already) and I have two more bodies done. I'm going to go buy another skein of the light pink yarn tonight and I'd like to get the rest of the bodies done either tonight or tomorrow night. Then it's all down to the itty, bitty parts and sewing them on.

Whatever my next project is, I think I need it to be something decidedly less girly. All this pink and purple is messing with me. Black or charcoal gray sweater, perhaps.

Insanity, Party of One

Pig count: ~6.5 (I have the seventh body completely finished and stuffed but it has no other body parts other than eyes).

The pigs are on hold, though. I signed up for Sock Madness again this year and this time I won't have a 46-52 hour work week standing in my way. I stayed up a little too late last night and got this far

The heel is quite the interesting construction. It's an afterthought, but left open so you can try it on as you go. I thought that it looked like a ski mask for my heel. We'll see if I find it so charming when it's time to go back and pick up the stitches to finish.

I'll probably end up going out in round 2 or 3 (or maybe even round 1 as a handful of people have actually finished both socks already) but it's kind of cool to see the unique designs that people have come up with.

This Little Piggy Went to Market . . .

I got a phone call from my mother asking me if, since I knit her a mouse, could I find a pattern for a pig. And then make ten to twelve of them. This explains so much about me.

My mom's on the community theater board and each spring they have a fundraiser dinner and they use the upcoming summer musical as the theme. This year, they're doing Li'l Abner so they wanted pigs for decoration/door prizes.

Fortunately, the popularity of amigurumi and the awesomeness that is Ravelry made it very easy to find a pattern and I've already got one done. Still, I think this proves I love my mother very much.