I think all one of you should be a little grateful to me that I've spared you the couple of months of very occasional, distracted plain sock knitting that are behind me. You really, really didn't want to read about it, I promise. My in-laws visited during the first full week of October, and it was a gorgeous Indian Summer of a few precious seventy degree days. The day after they left, it started to rain and it has been rainy/overcast with forty-fifty degree highs quite literally ever since. Wisconsin decided that it was fall and would brook no argument about it. The fall colors had peaked around the time of my in-laws' visit and since then have been slowly fading. My knitting has only just now started to kick back into gear with the disappearance of summer, the return of my yarn budget, and the completion of USMLE Step 3, which was keeping me busy studying whenever I had a few extra moments. Now that the winter approaches, and All Saints/All Souls is here, knitting time has returned!
As you have read here before, any project slated for my husband seems to get relegated to the "bored with this" pile far before its time. There is no obvious reason for this...he isn't the type of man who demands only grey, brown, or black. He isn't the type who demands only plain items. There merely seems to be a notable pattern of boredom when I have an item to make for him. To force myself to get over this, and to improve the inequality of handknits we have in our home, I decided to whip up a quick pair of plain socks in a fairly manly burnt orange for him. Sock number one was a knitalong with my Knitting Gakusei (student :) ) Valerie, so I could show her the steps of the sock making process one by one, so it went more slowly than I'm used to. Sock number two, on my own time schedule, has been going even more slowly, and I'm getting so bored with the long slog of stockinette down the leg. Poor husband...it's taking far too long for him to have a single pair of handknit socks.
November first is a traditional time for knitters who craft for the holidays to begin work on the masterpieces they will bestow on loved ones. I'm not going to go into details, so that the recipients will be surprised, but there will be socks, hats, mittens, and scarves aplenty this year, if I can spare enough time to make them all. My Christmas knitting list is growing longer all the time, and I'm running into new questions, such as "What should one knit for one's boss?" I'm hoping to use some of the items I've knit and stowed away this year, but there is less in that pile than I'd really like.
