It's the middle of the night

and I just finished the socks for Sock Wars.

So here they are. It's been a busy day (dad ain't so good) and now I'm off to bed.

Two amazing things happened whilst I last posted.

More or less simultaneously, my FIL sat up in bed and started eating (or at least, opened his eyes and ate with help. He's talking too) and yarnmonkey sent me the sock wars pattern, two days before I'd expected it. For some reason I was convinced it started on Monday, aka today.
As you can see, I have finished a sock- and I'm loving the colourway. This is not a recent picture, but that's all I'm giving away. The goal is to have both of them on the way to Colorado by the end of today.
Oh- and for the record, I didn't swatch, but gauge is spot on.

On cabling, knitting and life and death

The bottom band of Samus is almost finished.
For some reason, I'm actually really uncomfortable working on this now. It's intended as a gift for my mother's birthday (19 October) but I'm working on it with the phone permanently next to me, waiting on news of my father in law. Dad is in hospital with suspected septicaemia, malnutrition, pneumonia, probable liver failure and an awful lot more besides. Because nobody knows exactly what's wrong with him, apart from the very nasty varicose ulcers on both legs, they have no idea where to start treatment, so they're trying to address the symptoms. And because we don't know what's wrong with him, nobody knows what the prognosis actually is.
And in the midst of this, I'm working cables, woven in and out of another like a tightly knitted family. Somehow, I don't know how, it doesn't seem respectful: it feels like I should either be working on something for dad, or for the kids or myself, but not a gift for another. Does this seem weird to anyone? In a lot of ways, I'm going to be relieved when the Sock Wars pattern is posted on Monday, as it'll provide me with a distraction: well, at least for a while (n.b. must swatch.)
His 70th birthday is October the thirtieth. I have no idea whether he'll see it or not.

Assembling the arsenal

Am I ready for Sock Wars? Heck, no. My goal is to finish the first pair of socks, if possible.
I have decided not to go faffing about with socks on two circulars, or magic loop, but to stick to the technique that I know: the biggest advantage of which is that it will slow my killer down slightly if they prefer magic-looping. I'm loving the teddy-bear needle holders that came with me dpns.
And in happier news, I'm on repeat 6 of the band for Samus, and only need to do 7, not 9. So I'm very happy.

Out of the knitting funk...

and cracking away on the band at the bottom of Samus. I'm kind of cheating somewhat: I may be a bit plus-sized, but my first venture into knitting full garments for grownups is for my mother, who is literally only half the woman I am: and also, really feels the cold. So this is a hug-in-a-box for her birthday (or Christmas, depending on how long it takes.)I'm now 3.5 repeats in, and I need 9, so it's going well. I really want to have the band finished by the time Sock Wars starts on Monday though.

As promised, pictures of the cardigan on Skye. The background is one of those kiddie cars or toddler taxis or whatever they call them- you know, a car on wheels- that my local shopping centre hires out. My back was breaking carrying her, and we didn't have a buggy with us so it was a real treat for both of us. See how big the smile is?
We've found another favourite shopping place: Cirencester, which is another Roman town, similar in many ways to the one we just came from. More importantly, it has a really cool toyshop which sells neither Barbie, Action Man nor things that require batteries. Total bliss.

Knitting under the influence

First, I'm sorry I'm being so crap at updating. Our new house has the computer upstairs, and no chair, so net time is spent standing up. It's done wonders for my resolve to cut down on the time I spend online.
Secondly, I discovered three cool and fun things tonight.
1) I can knit whilst drunk.
2) Knitting whilst drunk (OK, tipsy) is a good and painless way of sobering up.
3) I need to buy more yarn.

The cardigan for Skye is finally finished, and I love it. It needs a button for the inside, and a model, but hey, who cares? The pattern is Dolly from Jaegar book 29, knitted in Artesano Alpaca's inca cloud in fuschia, with Rowan beads. Incidentally, the inca cloud is now cheaper, ounce for ounce, than the standard 4ply merino over here, which is always a good thing to know.
The pattern, however, is a bugger to follow, as it assumes that you have proficient pattern following skills. I don't. I have mummy-brain, and therefore, some of the beaded rows are a bit wonky- there's lots of instructions to follow in pattern- which is great, but not if you need to take decreases and increases in and out of the equation. I am still incredibly proud of it, and desperate to find an opportunity for her to wear it.

Other than that, my stash has a new cupboard. Seeing as I just moved my peace fleece to the WIP bag, I now have a very small stash. It's a little worrying, to be honest, especially now I no longer have a yarn shop within walking distance. Must buy more yarn.