Catching up.

So for the past week I've been at a house party in upstate New York. Between playing in a LARP, hanging out with friends, and generally getting quite a bit less sleep than I needed, I managed to find time to do a surprising amount of knitting-related things.

- I made the acquaintance of more knitters! There were some people at the party whom I already knew to be crafters, and discovered two more simply by having WIPs out. We had a few communal knitting sessions, and later on in the week five of us went out on an expedition to a local yarn store. The first place we went to had recently closed, so we ended up crossing the border into Connecticut to visit Nancy O Boutique. Keeping my already overstuffed luggage in mind, I successfully resisted the lure of all the gorgeous yarns they had in stock. My fellow knitters were not so fortunate.

- I finished the Fern Lace Armwarmers. Despite the fact that I knit each glove about two inches longer, I still ended up using less than 200 yards of yarn, which is far less than the 400 yards that the pattern calls for.

- Socks!

These are the first socks I've ever knitted, following the instructions in the book Getting Started Knitting Socks, by Ann Budd. They're for myself, since I wanted to get the learning curve out of the way on something I wasn't going to worry about gifting. And you know what? All the times that people say how "magical" turning a heel can be, or how much more warm and snuggly handknit socks are than machined socks? They're not exaggerations. I now want to knit socks for and convert absolutely everyone.

Which brings me back to the Ravellenic Games. Only seventeen days left to prepare before casting on, so I've started making my list in the sidebar.

I've had brown and white sock yarn (Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox) picked out for Bandit for a long time, and just before the house party Pickle went to a yarn store with me for his own socks (Dream in Color Smooshy, same brand and colorway as mine). The socks for myself knitted up fairly quickly (well, once I got past the cables - stupid fiddly cables) but then again, my feet are small, and theirs are... not. So those will probably be the only socks on the list, in the interests of having enough time to knit anything else.

Next: what should I make to get my lace fix?