Busy Relaxing

I've been on vacation the past week. Or I should say, a STAYcation. It's been an incredibly busy week. We've had two family gatherings already, with another one today. Yesterday we had a family fun night at the Palasad, which I managed to get at half-price through coupons and deals. There's been trips to the library and video store, and so lots of books to read, games to play and movies to watch. There's been long dog walks, a bunch of baking and even some stewed cherries from my mom's sour cherry tree. Lucky me, I get to do it again next week!

I even took a break from the knitting at first. I struggled with finding a project to work on. Two different sock projects have been scrapped and abandoned. This Norwegian sock is too tight for Jim to pull on:

I had started with the recommended needle size, thought the result looked too loose and so I went down a needle. Stupid me! All that work and now it's time to frog.

Honestly, I don't think the Briggs and Little sport works well for color work. Too rustic. I have four skeins, in three shades of blue and a white, that I think might work better in a shawl or blanket.

Then there's the almost completed Cat Bordhi sock:

It fits, but it bugs me. I don't like the pattern, design style, stitch.... but I love the yarn. It deserves to be something better.

I bought New Pathways for Sock Knitters thinking it would broaden my sock horizons, but it just doesn't work for me. Something about the designs and the way they are presented to the knitter just goes against the grain for me. I know a lot of people really like Cat Bordhi's designs and so I think this book should go somewhere it would be appreciated, so it's up for trade. Anyone interested?

Eventually I did settle in on a knit project, Anne Hanson's Irtfa'a worked in a mohair silk blend. While the start was complicated, I'm already into the second lace motif and finding it to be a fun knit. Anne's Bee Fields Triangle shawl was much more difficult to work.