Yarn Along: two-year socks

Well, they didn't really take two years, but I resolved to learn how to knit socks two years ago, tried to get going with fingering yarn and size 1 needles, got frustrated and gave up.  So this time I tried it with sport weight yarn and size 2 needles, and I nailed it!  I'm so glad.  I got the Knit Picks Felici wool on sale, and I can actually get a pair out of 50 grams.  $2.35 for a pair of wool socks!

Now, I haven't a speck of Irish blood in my veins, but I spent two months in Ireland back in 1990, and it is one of the most magical places on earth.  I fell in love with Ireland even before I ever visited, just from looking at photographs and listening to the music of Ireland.  It's a love I've not lost, so when I saw this book  at Goodwill, I snatched it up.  It is really a light, amusing reading.  I've also been glancing through the most recent issue of Dappled Things, a Catholic literary magazine with short stories, art and poetry.  It's lovely.

I have started another pair of socks, and I would like to keep knitting socks--alongside other projects--until the process is second nature and I can whip up a pair in no time.  That's the vision, anyway...

I am hoping to cast on a new hat for Una, hats and fingerless mitts being her favorite accessories of late.  She loves knits, and I am happy to oblige.

Do you want to hear something infuriating? Of the 5 hats I knit my guys for Christmas, 4 of them have gone missing already!  We've searched almost everywhere for them.  I feel as though I never want to knit another hat for any of them ever again.  Gemma lost a hat I knit her last year, too.  So that's 5 hand-knit hats all gone, representing a lot of time and wool.  Discouraging, to say the least.

Also discouraging (and a little embarrassing):  I took out my February Lady Sweater last week to pick up the stitches for the sleeves onto dpns, and I couldn't do it.  Trying to get those open stitches done in gull lace onto needles and pick up stitches under the arms was too much for a Knitter of Very Little Brain.  So I shall have to wait with it until I can take it to an experienced knitter (I think I might know a couple in the general area) and whimper for assistance.

*sigh*

Well, it is a nasty day today...there was a beastly storm last night that woke me and which blew numerous shingles off our old, old roof.  The temperature is to be 64 and rainy today, and tomorrow night they are expecting snow.  That's just nuts.  Good day to just knit, don't you think?

I'm linking up to Ginny's weekly Yarn Along on Small Things...