It’s a Saturday morning and I have the luxury of a whole free day to fill. Yet I’m kind of stuck. There are so many things I’d like to be doing I can’t decide which to start.

I do need to finish warping up the loom, because I want to take it to the spinning meet tomorrow.

I’d like to make another wrap skirt.

Or I could make cards, like I try to do ever year, but it looked like I wouldn’t have time this year, but suddenly I have a day free.

Or make the macrame top I want to make for the 70s theme New Year’s Eve party.

I really ought to sand and varnish the staircase treads, but though it’ll only take an hour or so that’ll mean we can’t go upstairs for 12 hours.

Of course, what do you do when you can’t decide what to do? You do something pointless, like wasting time on the internet. I just had a look at the feedback page for the ebay seller of the needles I supposedly won. There’s now positive feedback there from other buyers. So the seller isn’t dead, or been whisked away on a romantic holiday with some rich and dashing man, like I imagined. They’re just ignoring me.

So I left some ‘neutral’ feedback which, if nothing else, gives me a sense of closure. Interesting how ebay won’t let you read any feedback further back than the current page. And how a seller can have a handful of negative or neutral entries but still come up 100% positive.

And then there’s Ravelry. I can lose hours there. I’m amazed that some people have hundreds of wips entered now. I’ve stopped at 30 because I’m too impatient to wait for my notebook page to load. I’m even thinking of choosing my favourite 30 wips to go up there instead of the 30 most recent.

I’ve had a couple of requests to use my pics as examples of patterns. It amuses me how much of an ego boost this is. I go downstairs and tell the beau, and he obligingly nods and smiles as if he knows what I’m talking about.

Most of my time goes to the groups now. Recently I’ve ‘signed up’ for the next swap – the Australian Knitters Bag Lady Swap. And posted a wish list of sock yarn colours for the new Patonyle range. And discovered new Aussie yarns. And suggested a colourway for PMS.

But I really must sign out, warp up the loom and start on one of those other projects.

A few magazines have made it into my collection (or up on the web) lately, but I haven’t yet blogged about them, so I figured I may as well put them all in one entry…

Yarn Issue#8, Vogue Knitting Holiday 2007, and Interweave Knits Holiday 2007. And let’s not forget the new Winter 07 Knitty.

Yarn Issue #8
There’s the usual good range of articles, including an interview with Nicky Epstein, a description of Ravelry, and technical info on fitting garments and spinning technique. A good range of patterns, too – socks, bags, vest, scarf, camisole, shawl, child’s wrap top, stole, lingerie set and slippers. Nothing for guys, however. There’s a wistful sadness to the editorial due to the announcement that Barbara was closing down the enterprise, but recently the mag was saved from extinction by a group of knitters eager to take over production. Which is very good news.

I want to make… the Buried Treasure Socks. The Angel Puff Scarf also looks fun and interesting

Vogue Knitting Holiday 2007
The usual mix of fashion and shopping articles is bolstered by some technical pieces. There’s an article on British Knitting that I haven’t yet got around to reading. The patterns… typically Vogue – challenging, interesting, a good share of hodgepodge/assymetrical/deconstruction/catwalky and a few elegant pieces. I’ve just noticed that these are mostly garments, not the sort of small, quick projects you’d expect in a holiday issue. Hmm.

I want to make… nothing. Well, except a disproportionately large number of the garments in the ads. Why does that always happen with VK?

Interweave Knits Holiday 2007
True to the theme, there’s gift suggestions for knitters, an article on holding a knitting party, and a range of patterns to knit from small, quick gifts to ski jumpers. There’s socks, toys, hats, gloves and homewares for the knitter who needs to whip up a present fast.

I want to make… Sweetheart socks (there’s a sock pattern in Knitty that’s quite similiar), Koolhaas Hat, Little Gems Mitts, Citrine Socklets, and I’m wondering if I could use the Cleckheaton Bamboo in my stash for the Dragon-Skin Wrap.

Knitty Winter 2007
The issue went up just a few days ago so I’ve only had a chance to look at the patterns.

I want to make… Quant, maybe Square Cake, Azure (if I don’t knit the Sweetheart socks from IK), and, despite the fact that I don’t wear shawls, Jeanie. Actually, I just realised why I like Jeanie. It’s cabled. Not lace. I’m not crazy about the look of knit lace, but I do love cables.

Of all the patterns I like in these magazines, there’s nothing saying ‘Knit me NOW!’. I did note that I could use up some sock yarn making the Little Gem Mitts, and I think they’d look great in black with those little gem-coloured squares instead of grey. I’m looking forward to finding a copy of IK Winter 2007 somewhere. Must keep hunting…

(I have to confess, I also bought an issue of Knit 1 recently, but only for one pattern with some interesting shaping.)

I have a badge…

Though I still haven’t started any of the projects. Having too much fun with Tomato!

On Sunday I finished my first tea towel.

Which is really a hand towel, since it’s only a quarter the size of a normal tea towel.

I learned a lot in the process. Firstly, that Bendy 8ply cotton may not be the best yarn to weave with. It’s quite fuzzy, which makes the warp strands stick to each other. Still, it makes for a nice soft towel.

I changed to the denser yellow reed because when I wove the white diamond scarf the diamonds ended up wider than they were tall.

I was hoping to get squares of colour, but it turned out the denser reed went too far in the other direction. I wound up with ‘squares’ that were much taller than they were wide. No matter how firmly I beat, the fabric wouldn’t tighten up.

I’m thinking that this might be complicated by the fact that the cotton behaved differently to the wool. The wool was happy to snuggle up against the previous weft strand. The cotton seems to want a generous amount of personal space. Clearly cotton isn’t as sociable as wool. Maybe I should have stuck to the blue reed after all. But I suspect it would have produced a very open fabric.

Next I’m going to try a herringbone pattern on the blue reed, but I’m finding it requires a more complex warping than the usual plain weave. I’ll explain that when I’ve worked it all out!

Which means I’ve finished the Bust out of Your Box Socks Challenge!

Pattern: Hedera Socks from Knitty Spring 06
Yarn: Crystal Palace Panda Cotton
Needles: 2.5 mm bamboo dpns until the end of the fourth lace repeat, 2 mm for the rest
Comments: This is a very tidily written pattern, and the yarn, though splitty, is the nicest cotton yarn I’ve used. An interesting new take on the heel flap placed the slip stitch part on the purl side.

Though I found the lace repeat in these socks managable and I love these socks, I’m still not a convert to lace knitting. They seemed to take forever to knit, and while that might have something to do with knitting several other projects at the same time I know it was partly due to the lace.

Overall, the idea behind my little sock challenge was to try new methods of sock shaping, from patterns written by others, instead of just churning out my own safe pattern over and over. It definitely succeeded. I want to try other sideways methods, knit more patterns from Vintage socks as well as Favourite Socks. On the flip side, I’ll think twice before trying a Vogue pattern again! The Panda Cotton was worth making myself mail order to find out what it was like. Not only can I see myself knitting more warm weather socks, but I may actually be able to knit my Mum socks with this.

As for the title for my challenge to knit sock yarn for anything but socks for me, I’ve settled on ‘Sockless Summer’. What am I going to cast on for first? Er… socks for the beau. I did say I could knit socks for others! But I’m also planning to start another project. Either adding the band to the Glamour Vest or the cashmere yarn to make Chocolate Gloves.

But first I need to warp up the loom and whip up some tea towels.