And away we go!

That's right folks, the beginnings of a sock! The only complaint I have so far is the adjustment to my new Addi Turbos. Wow. These suckers are slicker 'n sh*t on a linoleum floor. And I'm not exaggerating. They're so fast I have trouble keeping my stitches on. Getting better, but still not 100% comfortable. It's hard to tell in the photo but I'm nervous they wouldn't actually fit a foot/leg the size of mine. I guess we'll find out soon enough. I've got a very small amount done, and I'm slacking off of my gift-knitting, so I don't know when we'll see anything that actually looks like a sock, but hey, at least it's something! The yarn is TOFUtsies #800, and I love it. I had a tough time choosing something I thought would be subtle enough with as little pink as possible. Other than the huge pink stripe, I'm pretty happy with the yarn. The quality seems quite good as well - the poor knitting is likely to cause the finished socks to wear thin quickly, but we'll see. That is, of course, if I end up with something wearable, eh?

On another needle, above you'll find the hat I started for my dear brother using yarn he chose. Trouble is, it's WAY to small for a boy...er...man of his size (over 6 feet). SO, it'll go into the pile with the other "youth" FOs I've started. Until I get my sizing and gauge figured out it looks like I'll be knitting for giants and midgets. I guess that's okay - giants and midgets need love too, right?

I'm heading up to Blacksburg, Virginia this weekend to see the Virginia Tech Hokies play the Florida State Criminoles, and I'm going to try to visit the new yarn shop, Mosaic, and maybe pick up some Hokie Yarn. Perhaps a scarf/hat combo would be appropriate for my brother...so what if he lives in Texas! On Sunday I'll be heading to Savannah, Georgia to enjoy a mini-vacation with my hubby. I've already scoped out the LYS' and plan to hit one, maybe two, before heading home on Tuesday. How excited am I?!?! The only drawback, of course, is that I'll most likely be driving the whole time - that's 14+ hours of knitting I won't be able to do. Bummer, dude. Is it "okay" to knit at a tailgate party? I'll let you know! Go HOKIES!!

I'm quite addicted to Ravelry. It's an internet-based community, similar to Facebook. Still in the Beta testing stage, the webmasters allow about 1,000 new members daily, and has a waiting list for the rest. I waited a month to get my invitation and since it arrived I've been online almost non-stop. Ravelery is the most amazing place for knitters to meet, and chat, and share their projects - finished and ongoing. Why would knitting, a seemingly private hobby, lend itself so well to such a virtual meetingplace? My mom and I were chatting just the other day about how counter-intuitive it is to find such a social atmosphere within the knitting community, but it's undeniable. Women (and men) enjoy knitting together (in real life) to share what they're working on, to have questions answered, to get ideas for future projects and to learn about different yarns. And that's just what Ravelry does, in the virtual world. We post what we're up to, and pictures of our yarn, and get inspiration from others as to what projects to tackle next, and what yarns to avoid. It's a great way to meet people all around the world, to plan get togethers and shop hops. It's a great idea and I'm so thankful to have such a pleasant distraction.