'Nittin' Notes

There 'tis. A project OTN. And stash-bustin' too."What am I lookin' at?", you may ask, ending your sentence with a preposition. And no, ending a sentence with the word preposition is not incorrect, as it is a noun, and serving, in my case, as the object of a prepositional phrase.

It's the beginning of a sock. Can you guess for whom they'll be? (Betcha thought I'd end that sentence prepositionally.) If you guessed that adorable little boy in the picture, you're right. That little boy isn't so little though. He's 11, soon to be 12, and tall and lanky for his age, and his feet are as big as mine (Ladies 8.5 shoe). His mother is from Cambodia, and while he looks a lot like her, he looks quite a lot like his father, who is also my brother. He is my nephew, Sovann, and I am his Auntie. Sovann is a charmer, snowboards after school, and loves to read Calvin and Hobbes. He has a precocious grasp of irony in humor, and likes to hang out with his cousins, my boys. It occurred to me that there is somewhat of a tradition of home-made socks in the family by way of my grandmother, who literally knit them by the garbage-bag full and handed them out liberally all winter long. She died before he was born, and now I'll take up the task of making sure he gets a pair of hand-knit socks, by golly.I took this picture of the start of the 1st sock yesterday, and by last night I turned the heel. I've raced down the foot during both legs(pun not intended, but welcomed) of my commute today and may get to closing the toe tonight. The yarn is Red Heart I think, all acrylic. The green is called Dark Sage, and the red is Cherry Red. The dpns are Takumi bamboo by Clover, size 3 US.

And here is another project I'll be getting underway, if when I do up a gauge swatch, it appears that I'll have enough to finish the project. I'm not real good at these estimates, but at least if I need more yarn, I'm pretty sure that this yarn isn't discontinued, yet. I'll check before I get underway.

My boy Ian, dapper chap that he is, likes to wear sweaters and vests under his school blazer. His school has classes in 2 different buildings, and he scoots back and forth during the day through the snow and wind on a hillside off Portland's Back Cove looking out to the Atlantic Ocean. (Just a little geographic and climatic orientation to those newcomers who may assume I am alluding to the balmy but damp climate in Oregon; I am in fact referring to the cold and snowy city in Maine.)

And so I got this great pattern from KnitWitKim on Ravelry. She's in Indiana, where the winter wind is as cruel as I've felt anywhere. She calls this "His Quilted Vest" and she has done it up in Blue Sky Dyed Cotton. I originally planned to use cotton, but will first try acrylic for the warmth. Ian gets actual hives wearing wool. Poor kid. What a world of woolly warmness he will weather the winter without.*

* You caught me on the preposition thing. I had to. (There it is again.) I abandoned that principle for the allure of alliteration.