Ribwarmer and Ribbed Socks

So I was needing a quick, easy project - just for you know - my own mental health. Most of my projects tend to be pretty big, and not too many are just mindless knitting. A skein of yarn that I spun up last October had been screaming at me for a while, it just kept telling me it would make a lovely little Ribwarmer (one of the projects in Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop). So I balled up the yarn and started knitting. It took me a hot two and a half days to get it done.

And here she is on... Bolero's are just so "in" right now - and I swear I'm not one who pays much attention to what's hot this season... But I've done a couple of these (years ago - way before blogging) and I thought sure - why not? I'm also pretty pleased with the whole working out thing, and noticing some difference in my waistline.

It's surprising how much warmth this teeny tiny little thing actually provides, and it's comfy, and handspun.

As you can probably see from the pic of the front of the Ribwarmer (up at the top of the page) I still have a lot of yarn left over - I started off with 8 ozs, and maybe used half of that. I'm thinking maybe some long fingerless gloves to go with? Maybe? Or would that just look weird? Oh, I don't know - I do know that I love the color gradations in the yarn itself, and it really fit the bill as far as knitting something quick and mostly mindless.

I've also closed up the moth holes in my No Sleeves in Your Pi - or I guess I should just call it a Pi shawl now. I still haven't figured out where I'm going to block it, so no pictures of that yet.

I've also finally finished the Socks O' Shame... I still can't believe that it took me so long to actually finish these suckers. You know how most people are pretty good with the first sock, and then go oh - shiny, pretty new pattern/sock yarn that must get knit up now. Well, I'm kinda the opposite. I start a sock, and it takes forever, then I finally get around to the second sock, and it just trucks right along, and I'm done in no time. I am not kidding when I say that I started the first sock about 2 years ago - would work on it here and there, not much. I'd carry it around with me, just in case I had an odd moment, I guess I just haven't had many odd moments over the last couple of years. The second sock was started about a month or so ago, I haven't been working on it exclusively or anything, but it's done! As you can see they're just really basic 2x2 rib socks - knit out of Sockotta on size 0 needles. I can't remember where I saw the idea, but some lovely blogger mentioned that she really liked to demarcate the toe shaping with a row of purl stitches right before the toe shaping. I wasn't so sure with the first sock, but I carried it on with the second sock, and think I'll be using it again.

Anyway - that's it for this installment - I'll try to not have so much time elapse until the next one - there have been technical difficulties.