Well, one benefit to selling yarn (and therefore needing to ship packages frequently) is that I wait in line a lot. Hey, wait! Did I really say that?? Well, yes, I did. I knit in line. So I’m getting some knitting done. Imagine that!

I finished another pair of Fast Florida Footies, in the same colorway I used when I knit them for Mom the first time (before I wrote up the pattern). This time I think I might actually save them for myself. I said that last time, then I gave them to Heritage Spinning as a sample for my class. That is, after they had sat in a knitting bag for months and months unworn. I just have no particular interest in wearing cotton socks. I sometimes wear very thin storebought cotton-lycra socks which fit in my sandals really well, but as beautiful as this yarn is, I don’t feel like wearing the sox.

It’s interesting. I did not like knitting the cotton/wool sockyarn I used for a pair of Brian’s socks once. Those sox took me 6 months to finish because I didn’t like the feel of knitting them at all. And they were denim/natural in color, both colors I don’t enjoy. I’ve learned now, never knit yarn you don’t love. Even if it is for someone else, I had better like it or it won’t get finished!

I love wool. I passionately love wool yarn and sweaters and socks. I love scratchy wool, soft wool, washable and handwash. I like mohair, too, and I adore alpaca. But I’m not a big cotton fan, not even with storebought clothing. I almost never wear woven cottons, although I do wear cotton knits sometimes, especially with lycra. In summer I wear cotton knits or woven rayon which is very drapey on this small body I have… drape is everything in clothing a small, somewhat curvy body. Every once in a while I find a full, colorful skirt in super-lightweight, gauzy cotton… usually from India, and that fabric drapes fine as well. However, I’ve preferred wool ever since I discovered it, when I was old enough to have my own money.

So here I am knitting these sox, these Fast Florida Footies. From yarn I chose originally for my mother, not for me! All sorts of people knit this pattern. People write to me about it often. The web page for the pattern gets tons of hits. Then every once in a while, someone asks me how the sox feel. And I honestly don’t know! I tell them that many folks have knit the pattern multiple times, so they must feel fine to someone… but I prefer wool on my feet, and haven’t tried wearing these sox yet.

OK, I could make the footies out of wool yarn in the same gauge. At least one person has done that and sent me a photograph. But the interesting thing is, that because it stretches, I do enjoy knitting with the Cascade Fixation cotton/lycra yarn. It’s just fine. Actually, it would make a wonderful tank top! And the colors… well, there are some gorgeous colors… solids and multicolors. You should have seen the apricot solid Joan Sheridan Hoover sent me from Heritage Spinning! Yum. Good enough to eat.

So now I have a new pair of purple and turquoise Fast Florida Footies, in my size. I wonder if I’ll really wear these? At least this time it’s the right season for it!

Oh… and the Surf & Turf Skirt in Bernat Boa (color: Peacock) and an unknown wool fingering weight yarn, is looking quite lovely. I’m on the 4th skein of yarn (the skeins are pretty small) and have about 6″ (15cm) of tube knit up. The fabric is wonderful, made on size 6 US needles. I showed it to my friend Altu today and she buried her hands in it, because it feels so good.

I don’t know if the skirt will look good on me when I’m done, but I am really pleased with how the knitting looks on the needles right now. I also hope I have enough yarn. I think I have 9 skeins, at 2-1/2 inches each. Then the fabric skirt which will be my waistband/yoke, fits low on the hips and takes up a few inches in length as well. I do not want this to be a miniskirt, so I hope if I need more yarn it will be available.

The skirt is good brainless knitting when I can sit still (the fingering wool is on a cone so it’s clumsy for waiting-in-line knitting, though not impossible). I’ll be knitting it tomorrow night at Foster Center when I’m at the computer lab for adults… assuming I’m alone or nearly alone as I was last week. The Kids Kamp lab is two hours just after lunch, and I do not sit still for a minute during that time… but the later lab is quieter and I sometimes actually get to knit a little.

Anyway, the goal for the skirt is mid-September. I want to wear it to the Ukulele Festival in the Pocanos Mountains of Pennsylvania. That is going to be three days of big fun! And there will be all sorts of pseudo-Hawaiian stuff there, so why not a fake grass skirt? It seems so right…

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2004 at 1:22 amand is filed under Knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.