Jeans and Sneakers

The Socks Are DONE!!! I pushed and I pushed, and I made myself finish them today. :] (The pattern is not on the knitty.com site, it’s just what I happened to be browsing before I decided to take pictures) I give you, Easy Thin Socks:
I have serious issues with this pattern. But I’ll try to be nice. First. . .she tells you to cast on 73 stitches, but then tells you to arrange them on 4 dpn’s in such a way that if you followed the directions, you don’t have enough stitches. If you knit this pattern, start off by putting 20 stitches on needle 1, not 22 like it says. I didn’t knit it in two different colored yarns, so I didn’t have to worry about switching colors.

It might just be my own inadequacy, being a beginner sock knitter, but I’m pretty sure something was funny during the turning of the heel, and on the second sock I ended up with one stray stitch on one side of the heel that I didn’t know what to do with while I was still working the multiple stitches on the other side. :[ I remember that happening with the first sock too, but I have no idea how I avoided getting extra stitches on that first side. . .So the socks don't match in more ways than one, I definitely didn't knit them the same.

Picking up the stitches at the sides of the heel flap went alright. With the exception of the second sock and all those extra stitches I ended up with, they ended up in extra picked up stitches, that I had to decrease to match with the other side.

The toes were easy enough, but they're placed oddly. They're kind of like, diagonal to how your toes actually are (horizontal). I'm pretty sure that's how the pattern is supposed to be though, and not any fault of my beginner's status. It's kind of annoying on the first sock, my stitches were looser, and the sock is baggier around my foot, so when I walk, the toe twists a little bit. The second sock though, with all of it's mistakes, fits better. I knit a tighter stitch, and overall the sock just fits better. I wouldn't really recommend this pattern.
Not bad for my first pair though! I'm pretty sure that my next pair will be much better. . .this pattern was made by some woman somewhere, and not necessarily checked for errors. I have two patterns I'm planning on next. One is the Jaywalker pattern that I'll probably make in the Magic Stripes yarn that I bought the day I went looking for buttons. The other is from Cascade Yarns website, Two-toed Socks. This pattern is like, genius to me. I never thought to make a heel this way, but it's smart, and I look forward to trying it. These socks are for a friend of mine who heard that I was learning to knit socks and immediately wanted a pair to match one of his shirts that he wears out to clubs.

The shirt is black with different sized teal pinstripes. I helped him pick out the yarn for his socks, and he ordered it and had it shipped to my house. I didn't know he had also bought me a $20 gift certificate to YarnMarket.com for my trouble. !!! I don't know what to get!! That's not entirely true, I've got some ideas. The colors are a bit off in this picture, because of my monitor glow, but the match looks pretty good. I'm going to stripe the socks like his shirt. Had enough about knitting yet?

The Job has been good. I'm getting the hang of things, and I'm comfortable there. And they let me play around with a print ad today. We'll see how things go next week, when I'm there full time.

I went to Kohl's yesterday after work to use up some gift cards I got from Rob's Grandma and Great Aunt for Christmas. I didn't even know they were having a sale, and I made out pretty well, got two pairs of pants, a shirt, a shrug (that I should have made, but I bought it, it was on sale), a long sleeved shirt, a makeup kit and a bag of jelly beans. :] I gave those last to Rob. He liked them! Anyway, I’m pretty well off for getting new/more clothes for summer. I’d sorted through my clothes the last time I did laundry and put aside everything that doesn’t fit anymore or I never wear to give away.

I went to Target the other day to get a yoga mat so I can finally start doing that, and ended up getting a bunch of nice comfy stuff. I can’t wait until it’s warm enough to wear everything!

Now I’m going to enjoy my weekend, get back into the groove of these being my only entirely free days to do whatever I want again.