Slipping Back In
November 18th, 2008 at 11:17 am (Random babbling, Works in progress)
I think I’m going to be back here for a while. With one kid in school full-time and the other one in preschool a few days a week, I feel like I’m finally getting my brain back to some semblance of functionality. I’m not knitting any faster, though. Can’t quite figure that out, except for the fact that I’ve been trying to work harder on cleaning and cooking for my family. Not always succeeding with that, but when you get a huge box of vegetables every couple of weeks it’s harder to justify ordering in or going out for dinner. It’s still a chore to convince the kids to eat this stuff, though – they’re not huge fans of winter squash, potatoes, carrots, or the other root vegetables that we’re overstocked with. I suppose I need to just start cooking what I like and laying in a store of PB&J and quesadilla supplies.
On to the knitting!
Garter Rib sock in Panda Cotton, Kiwi-Mango colorway
I’ve been knitting socks for a long time now, close to 8 years. In all that time, I’ve focused pretty much exclusively on wool and other animal fibers for my socks. The one pair of socks I’d knit from a cotton blend (cotton-wool, I believe) didn’t turn out great and I figured it was best to just leave the cotton socks to people in warmer climates.
In this time, I’ve been knitting socks for lots of the people I love – my husband, my mom, my sister, one of my aunts. Another aunt has made comments implying envy over everyone else’s handknit socks (we tend to compare socks at family gatherings – there are two prolific knitters in the family), but she has a genuine wool allergy and had assumed that she was out of luck due to wool content in all of the cotton sock yarns. I stumbled upon Panda Cotton at Borealis and decided to give it a try. My impression from knitting with the stuff is that it’s very nice – the bamboo makes for a lovely soft fabric, it’s not so elastic that I need to worry about my tension, and it feels nice on my hands. I have no idea how it will wear, but I can see myself knitting with it in the future. It gets a little bit splitty in the casting-on, but if you don’t have to frog your work and redo the cast-on a couple times it’s not quite so bad!
It would appear that I’ve used up all of my sitting-at-the-computer time this morning, so off I go.
Catherine said,
November 18, 2008 at 11:46 am
I have some Panda Cotton socks and I love them. They get a little tight after each machine washing, but have worn really well. Nice to see you back!
limedragon :-: Harriet said,
November 18, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Oooh, I like how that color knits up (I didn’t like the skein much when I saw it); your sock looks great.
Guinifer said,
November 18, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Really like that colorway. I’m sure she’ll like the fabric…
Chris said,
November 18, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I was pleasantly surprised by the Panda Cotton, too, although I made the socks my usual sock length and that turns out to be too long for such stretchy socks.
HollyJo said,
November 19, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Hear, hear on the Panda Cotton. I had to knit with some for an Arizona resident’s socks. Loved.it. So soft. Good to hear from comments that it can wear well.
Don’t you hate how cooking and cleaning gets in the way? I didn’t think it would suck up so much free time. I don’t remember signing up for the cooking part when I agreed to have kids.