Kiss My Knits!

My in-laws have a berber carpet that’s lovely, but kind of rough on socks. It makes socks smell worse (which was not a blessing in a house with six children this weekend) and gets them dirtier and more worn than our carpets here at home. I have no idea why this is true, but it is.

This weekend, I knew I would be asked “what else can you knit?” because I am always asked that. I made a point of packing hand-knitted socks so that I could easily point to my feet as an example. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the carpet.

I knitted these socks from Tofutsies specifically because it seemed like a long-wearing, durable yarn. Unfortunately, it was no match for the carpet. This is them, with me sticking my hand inside. As you can see, the heels are now threadbare, and very close to developing a giant hole. I’ll have to dig out the leftover Tofutsies and darn my first heel. I’ve got a handle on the theory of how it works, and fortunately it won’t be as challenging as it would be if there were a gaping hole there. I think I can just duplicate stitch over the entire thin patch.

If it were more serious, I’d be looking at sites like hjsstudio’s, mousepotato’s (ooh, maybe I should get a darning egg) or onceuponapattern’s. I know there’s a really good book out there with darning instructions, but I can’t remember the title.

In Jayne news, the six multi-colored Jaynes and also a toddler hat went out the door yesterday. I’m currently working on hats ordered on Oct 14th, meaning I’m just barely ahead of my two-month estimated shipping time. I’m hoping to improve that so that the maximum number of people can get theirs before Christmas. Several people have also inquired about kits in the last couple of days. I’m going to roadtrip later today to see if I can’t round up some extra orange before I respond to them with yea or nay.

However, I’m also feeling the need for a bulky non-Jayne project. I do have to stop every now and then and make something non-Jayne or else I go crazy. I do factor that into my delivery estimates. As much as I may love Firefly, I can’t make the same thing 500 times in a row without a break.

I’m still knitting Emily’s doll on tiny needles, and also my socks on tiny needles, but I’m thinking something bulky and scarfy. ‘Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks’ Scarf? Child’s Rainbow Scarf? Something completely different? Or maybe I should go ahead and do Fuzzyfeet for my daughter’s teacher, as I do every year for her teacher for Christmas (except that one year where I ran out of time and Turtlegirl76 saved my bacon)? I dunno. If you knit, do you have a favorite bulky scarfy project, or something that can be done quickly and fairly mindlessly? If you don’t knit, what would you wish you could have someone knit for you?

I gotta admit, though – those Vinnlands are looking pretty good. They’ll be staying safely inside my shoes at my in-laws!