What's on the Needles & Fog

My lovely shawl is finished! This isn't the best photo of it but it will have to do. It came out longer than I expected it to. But I like long shawls so I can wrap them around a time or two. They stay on better and are even more toasty.

I cast on for a market tote last night. The reason I'm making it is I snagged this paper yarn, yes, I said paper, at 60% off and thought I'd give it a try. There were just three balls in any one color and this is it. I figured I'd give it a shot just for fun. I can't knit very long on this project because the yarn is anything but soft. It's a little tough on the hands. But get this; it's washable. We'll see how that works out. It is getting softer with handling but you could never make any kind of garment out of it that I can think of.

I have been eyeing this yarn for a good six months. It's not expensive. It's acrylic. And it sparkles like crazy. You can get it at Michael's. I had a coupon good on sale items and this stuff was on sale so I snagged a few balls. I cast on Flame Socks from Socks from Handpainted Yarn. It's hard to tell the flames in this photo but when you stretch it like it was wrapped around an ankle you can easily see it. I did reverse the flames because the pattern has them running from the top of the sock down and I wanted them running from the foot up. I wish you could see how much this stuff sparkles! Okay, I am a fiber snob and it did pain me to buy acrylic yarn. But it is soft. I can easily throw it in the washer and dryer and not break a sweat. We will just have to see how they come out because I have another ball of black yarn, another ball of red yarn, and two balls of copper. I wanted the deep blue but they were out. I was gonna use the deep blue with red for the socks because I don't like working with black yarn. Too tough to see the stitches. It's knits up pretty easily. It's a little bit splitty. I'm using 2.5 needles and you could easily use 2.75's or even try 3's to see how it would come out. I may do that with the rest of the black. No hurry.

My leftover yarn box is overflowing. I might have to make more mismatched socks. I'm not really sure what to do with it all. I'll figure something out. I thought about just using two or three yarns together and knitting up a small blanket or something. Anyone have any ideas?

So we worked like crazy to get stuff done yesterday. It's been foggy in the morning and clearing by nine or ten AM. We worked so we could go for a bike ride today. So now it's afternoon and there is still fog. The bike is very, very, clean and shiny. If we take it out it will get very, very, wet and not so shiny. Not to mention it isn't very visible in the fog. And my old bones would prefer a sunny cool day to a foggy cool day. Heated seats or not. Talk about bad timing! If it clears I'd appreciate a ride around the block! Any darn thing!