Two Happy Campers

The Princess hasn't taken her socks off since I presented them to her yesterday when she arrived home from school. (Thus the s0-s0 picture. I got tired of chasing her around with the camera, hoping for a better shot.) She is happy, happy, HAPPY.

Pattern: Basic Socks from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Trekking
Needles: 2.25 mm Knit Picks Harmony DPNs
Notes: 60 stitches around, 45 rows in 2x2 rib for ankle, 40 rows foot
They do look big because I always knit an extra pinch in the toe for room to grow.

As for me, I've had the entire day to myself...although not necessarily for good reasons. Yes, Saturdays are usually my day to sleep in, and my husband does take care of the girls for much of the day. However, today he's gone above and beyond because the evil vertigo virus came back last night. It's not as bad as it was earlier this month, but I did have to spend the night sleeping upright on the couch, and have been rather sick and lightheaded for most of the day. We're a bit worried that this is some new, and infinitely more vile way that my body is responding to stress...but then it's also likely that the virus just hasn't been cleaned out of my system yet.

At any rate, I was not up to any sort of intricate knitting today, so I decided to do something fun and simple.

Several years ago, I took a sock knitting class with Lucy Neatby through my guild. (Thank You guild for the scholarship!) The class corresponded with the release of her book Cool Socks, Warm Feet, which rather charmingly included instructions for mini-socks. Every since then, I've been committed to making a single mini-sock to go with each pair of regular socks that I knit. I follow Lucy's basic recipe, incorporating any details specific to that pair of socks. (length of leg, type of ribbing, any stitch design, etc.) Normally, I don't stop to make the mini as soon as I finish the regular socks, but rather toss the leftovers into a ziplock until I have a need to do something fun and a little bit silly

Today was the perfect day for that, and so I pulled out all of the leftovers for plain socks, and started casting on. I now have eight tiny legs completed, and should be able to finish most of them this evening during our weekly Saturday night bad horror movie time. (a la Sci Fi channel) Once these are completed, I'll be almost caught up with only four or five patterned mini socks left to do.

And what exactly do I do with these socks? I have a personal Christmas tree - an artificial, 5-ft pencil tree - that I cover with handknit ornaments. (My husband has one that he covers with Star Wars ornaments and action figures.) It's beautiful, and very personal, and I love it more than I can say. I'm considering other options for year-around display, and in the meantime I do have a couple of the mini sock blocker key chains that I like to use from time to time.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the Green Woman and her friends play with the socks when I'm not looking.

PS. My husband has ordered a new Internet connection doohickey for my computer. Until then, my connection continues to be rather dubious...thus the lack of links in this post. Once we get everything fixed, I'll go back and fix that!