So, I had dental work done on Friday, which required me to stay home for the rest of the day and feel sorry for myself. And knit. And I knit some more on Saturday, and even a bit today, though I normally knit in the evening only. So, I've gotten some things done.

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I finished the first sock of my second Summer of Socks pair last night. It's knit from Regia Silk, a blend of 55% merino, 20% silk, and 25% nylon. It makes wonderfully soft socks and is a dream to knit with. There's just one problem: the yardage.



This picture shows the finished sock and all of the yarn remaining from the first ball (I have another ball of yarn for the second sock). There's actually a bit more yarn left than I'd anticipated as I was rushing to get to the toe decreases (yes, friends, when faced with the possibility of running out of yarn, I did what every knitter does; I knit faster!). But, still, to the resolution of my kitchen scale, I have 2 grams left, and the finished sock weighs 44 grams. Out of a 50 gram ball of yarn.

Now I understand that the weight of a skein or ball of yarn can vary with ambient humidity. But, this is the second pair of socks I've knit from Regia silk, and all four balls of yarn have weighed 44-46 grams, not the 50 marked on the ballband. I've experienced comparable discrepancies with other brands of yarn. But with other brands, I've had as many 52 gram balls of yarn as 48 gram balls, which is pretty much what you'd expect from natural variation.

I have two more balls of this yarn in my stash. Whatever I decide to do with them, the socks will be knit toe-up. It's so much less stressful that way.

There are 1500+ people signed up for Summer of Socks 2008. That means that there are 1500+ people competing to knit socks between June 21 and some time around September 1. There are prizes galore. Last summer, somebody knit 42 pairs of socks over the summer. I can't imagine. Even during the Stanley Cup playoffs, when I watched a lot of TV over the course of two months, I only managed 6.3 pairs of socks. That's a little less than a pair of socks per week. And there's less knitting time over the summer. So, we shall see.

Of course, I've been getting work done on the house. Aside from the air conditioner, I've been getting one of the bathrooms totally redone. The original bathroom, that I've been living with for 7 years was awful. It seemed that every few months I had to replace toilet innards, the medicine chest smelled, the floor rolled, there was no storage space to speak of, the vanity light was gross, and the electrician who put in the overhead heat/fan/light unit did a piss-poor job on the switches. And there were very few towel bars. All that is gone. I have nice tile floor, a new vanity, a new toilet, a linen cabinet next to the vanity, and the switch situation has been fixed. Still to come is a new vanity light, a nice mirror over the sink, a cabinet over the toilet, and towel bars.

There's been a bit of adventure getting the work done, and it's taking longer than I'd anticipated. Between the contractor's girlfriend taking ill and the contractor being attacked by a vicious dog on another job, there have been setbacks. So, I've had to take more vacation days than I anticipated to "supervise". In this context, supervising involves giving workmen permission to use the downstairs bathroom, providing plastic bags and glasses of water, and changing the vacuum cleaner bag. But it's also given me unanticipated knitting time. As a result, there's an actual change that I'll finish my first pair of socks within a week. Right now, I'm about 1/3 done with the second sock.

Of course, I started off with a pair of worsted weight hiking socks. On the other hand, the yarn, a soy-polypropelene blend, is sticky in a way that wool-blend yarns aren't. But the sock, as knit, has a sproingy feel to it. I have enough of this yarn for two pairs of socks. But I want to finish the first pair and actually go for a hike in them before I start the second pair, as I might want to knit the other pair with a looser gauge. We shall see.