New Gadgets!

Well, you all guessed what little B was doing in my last post. Heh. As Jess said, "There goes that Mother of the Year award!" Oh and speaking of Jess, you all need to go over to Ravelry and check it out. Rachel said just about everything I have to say on the matter. I think it's the best thing to happen to the online knitting community since Knitty. Go sign up! It's free.

I'm glad so many of you like the list of links I posted last weekend. I said last week that I often gravitate towards blogs that have lots of pictures. This is not to say that I don't read others or that I read only picture-heavy blogs. Sara over at let me explaiKnit is one of my favorites and she never has any pictures. There are also some blogs with great photos that I do not read, primarily because I dislike the written content (and no, I will not provide you with an example of that...) On another note, Mira taught me a new vocabulary word yesterday: "blopping", as in "blog hopping" - may you all go blopping this week!

And now on to knitting-related content:

My stepfather-in-law made me a yarn swift last week!!! Can you believe it???? Isn't it beautiful? I had asked him to look at a swift to see if he could drill holes for pegs. I had considered making one once my semester ends. He returned with a prototype, with the finished product a few days later! I've always wound my yarn by hand but I have a 1-lb skein of Cherry Tree Hill mill end that I'd like to knit up and I just couldn't face the wretched hand-winding.


So of course, what's a girl with a swift to do without a ball winder?

Now, what can I wind up?

I could wind yarn all day.

Progress continues on the Gentleman's Fancy Socks:


I really wish that I could have had them finished to present to the recipient when he gave me my swift but that's OK. I'll finish them this weekend and then I can give both pairs of socks away!!

I must say that I finished the first sock with 2.75 yards left. Suspecting that I'd run out, I bought another skein from Simply Socks Yarn before I decreased for the toe. I hope that I end with a similar amount left over on the second sock because the skein that came is a noticeably different color than my original. If I do not need it, I will plan on using it for some striped socks later on so I'm not too disappointed about purchasing an extra skein.