April turned out to be full of finished projects, making it look like I spent many more days knitting than I actually did. In actuality, completing my Deflect socks really early in the month led to several very quick projects, and I ended the month with three pair of socks and a dish cloth finished, as well as a second dish cloth on the needles.
Every time Toad came over while my Deflect socks were on the needles, he would ask when I was going to knit him some socks. Which, in Grandma Code, meant that my very next project must be socks for Toad! So, as soon as I finished grafting the toe on my second Deflect sock, I immediately began pattern hunting for socks to fit a three-and-three-quarter-year old boy!
I found one for fingering weight yarn, which is what I typically knit socks in. But, when I went to my stash, thinking I had a skein of red yarn--because Toad's current favorite color is red, these socks must be knit in red yarn, Grandma Code requires it--I was dismayed to find that my one and only skein of red yarn is hand wash only. Knowing the (shudder) laundry washing procedure at Toad's house (brutal compared to the way I have always sorted and washed clothing with care and longevity of the fabric in mind), any yarn I made his socks from had to be able to withstand both the washer and the dryer on the roughest/highest setting. No special care. I certainly didn't want to make him some red socks just to have them felted or shrunk or shredded in the wash.
I did have another skein, actually nearly two full skeins, of a different red yarn. The same yarn I had knit him a sweater with last spring. The only problem: it was worsted weight, not fingering. But then I remembered that I all ready have a pattern for children's socks that calls for worsted weight yarn! A pattern I'd been bummed to find out didn't use fingering, but I'd saved anyway thinking someday I might be able to figure out the adjustments to use it with the smaller yarn.
Let me tell you, these socks knit up sooooo fast using worsted yarn! Like in an afternoon if I'd been able to sit down and devote an entire afternoon to knitting. As it was, it took me three days per sock, knitting roughly an hour a day.
Of course, since they were so fun and quick to knit, I started thinking that I probably should knit K3 a pair of socks also. Because what kid wants to see their sibling get something special from Grandma if they don't also get a present? Besides, K3 had a birthday coming up much, much sooner than Toad did.
So, since the last Yarn Along, I not only finished my pair of Deflect socks (for me), I also knit a pair of red socks (using the Rye pattern from Tin Can Knits), and a pair of blue socks--because this girl loves blue-- for K3. I thought I might be a little short on the blue yarn for K3s socks, it just didn't quite look like what I estimated socks in her size would need, so I decided to do a contrast heel and toe for hers, using some leftover pink worsted I had forgotten I had.
Its a good thing I did, because wouldn't you know I did run out of the blue yarn about an inch before the toe on the second sock. So, one of her socks has a much larger amount of pink than the other, but I don't think she cares.
In addition to the knitting (and a million other things unrelated to knitting, I managed to read two books in April Lost Connections by Johann Hari and The Road Home by Beverly Lewis. I enjoyed both of them.
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