Fiesta Feet: March 2008 Archives
One Fiesta Foot ready to dance! We're supposed to get snow tonight, but today it's actually quite lovely for March in Chicago so this first foot got to soak up some sunshine. Sock number two is underway. I'm hoping that the Easter weekend will give me a few more moments to get some work done on the second one. With all the stranded knitting in the foot of the sock, it's going to be quite warm to wear, so I'd like to get it done before Chicago weather does some abrupt shift from cold to full on summer!
For this vacation, I did something remarkable. I got all the things I needed for the vacation in my single suitcase (which is small enough to be carry on when I am on a business trip) and a tote bag. I limited myself to one book to read (never touched it), one book of Sudoku puzzles (did a few) and one knitting project (made many stitches). On the way back, there was still a little room in all of our suitcases. I consider it an ironic victory that we were able to travel lighter with a baby than when we travel on our own. Maybe just knowing that we weren't going to be going out any place fancy with a 7 month old in tow was the key. Who needs fancy shoes or clothes that have to live on hangers when you have to find a restaurant that is tolerant of a small child spreading saltine cracker shards everywhere?Ms. Z did travel very well and I think we were impressed with both her and ourselves when it came to our airplane trip. My best advice for traveling with a baby? 1) Pack some juice. And then take twice as much as you think you need. Take offs and landings can take longer than you think they will and liquids are the perfect way to make a baby swallow so they can handle the pressure changes. 2) Toys. Lots of them. Sacrifice your own potential entertainment for that of the kid. As we learned, you might get lucky and get a short nap, or you might get an active baby. An active baby means that you won't be reading that third book you brought (or knitting) anyway.
By limiting my own entertainment options, I actually made my vacation better. One sock project is easy to schlep around without feeling over loaded. My usual regimen finds me with much more day-to-day luggage because I worry that I won't feel like working on any given project. This time, I just had one project to focus on, and, as a result, I got quite a bit accomplished. Nap time when you are on vacation is just pure bliss time to do whatever you want, even if you can't leave the condo.
If I was only going to take one project along, I decided it was going to be a good one. I bought my Fiesta Feet sock pattern and Soft Touch yarn from the folks at Shelridge Farm at my first MS&W. Looking back, I'm not sure what I was thinking because while I have always been intrigued by color work knitting, I had relatively little interest in doing it. And when I got the pattern home, I remember looking it over, thinking it looked too complicated (without really reading it over very well) and putting everything into my stash.
With the start of the color work projects for Z, I got to thinking about what was in my pattern library that might be fun for me, and remembered this pattern. This time, when I looked over the pattern, I realized that it's no where near as complicated as it looks. In fact, until you get past turning the heel, all of the knitting is done using either one or the other color. Once you get past the heel, every other row is a single color, and the two color rows are straightforward, easy to memorize. In fact, I'd argue that this is a very nice project to "learn" two color knitting on. And all the different techniques in the cuff and leg of the sock make it impossible for you to get bored.
I'll talk about those different sections in my next post -- this sock really comes to life under a macro lens!
With the start of the color work projects for Z, I got to thinking about what was in my pattern library that might be fun for me, and remembered this pattern. This time, when I looked over the pattern, I realized that it's no where near as complicated as it looks. In fact, until you get past turning the heel, all of the knitting is done using either one or the other color. Once you get past the heel, every other row is a single color, and the two color rows are straightforward, easy to memorize. In fact, I'd argue that this is a very nice project to "learn" two color knitting on. And all the different techniques in the cuff and leg of the sock make it impossible for you to get bored.
I'll talk about those different sections in my next post -- this sock really comes to life under a macro lens!
