so, there’s a birthday coming up next month (well, more than one, but I’m only concerning myself with one right now). and I’ve gotten it into my head that I should make this birthday person a pair of socks. (nevermind the fact that I still haven’t finished MY pair of socks that dh is threatening to steal). but b-day person is small, so they should go quick, right? so, Friday after work I’m searching the personal knitting library for appropriately sized socks, since I’m too lazy to call and find out the actual current foot measurements. I was going to do your standard basic pair in some self striping yarn (cuz there’s plenty of it in the stash), when I found the cutest pattern in the 2006 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar. which required I buy some solid machine washable sock yarn and appropriate sized beads. what an adventure.

I found some solid yarns in my stash, but I was worried I wouldn’t have enough (each color is 1 oz, the pattern wants 50 g. and I didn’t want to go the cuffs in color A/feet in color B route). darn, cuz the bead stash contained beads that would have fit on said yarn nicely. hence the requirement to buy yarn & beads.

so dh and I go down to IKEA to buy our sofa (IKEA sent us a coupon. unfortuantely the sofa didn’ t fit in our vehicle, so the coupon paid a good portion of the delivery fee. we’ll have it on Thursday). on the way down, I’m informing dh of every exit which will take me to a yarn shop. I’m surprised he didn’t kick me out of the car (I think we passed exits for 5 shops - not including the southern Mpls ones that I forgot to mention). anywho, I had to stop in St Paul for something, so I convinced him to take me to Three Kittens. happy dance, they had solid machine washable sock yarn. (Dale Baby Ull). (Koigu was tempting me, but I didn’t think it was worth it for a pair of socks likely to be outgrown pretty quick). we did a few more errands, then dropped dh off at The Village in Anoka for his Pirates game. and I went back down to Coon Rapids and hit up JoAnns & Michael’s for beads to match my yarn. bought a few, but it turns out that the “E” beads are too big and the 10/0 seed beads are too small. *sigh* but I did get some swatching done, and I’ve already got the cuff pattern memorized (actually, I had it memorized after 1 test repeat on Friday with the ‘not enough of it’ yarn. had I had needles with me, I could have started swatching while waiting for dh to finish his game). so yeah, more swatching, and I’m still stuck. so Sunday after dance, I raced down to the Mall of America and poked into Bead It! (and the Atlantic something or other bookstore). found the right color beads in the 8/0 size (which is what the pattern recommended). I’m hoping they’ll fit on the yarn. that’s the goal for tonight.

I’m still working on my socks on the bus. almost done with the toe increases. then on to the never ending foot part. I’m so looking forward to that part! lol

gotta go before I miss the bus home… more in the bday sock saga tomorrow (hopefully)