Charity Knitting Postponed To Make Sock

My son James is thoughtfully holding up some Charity Bears, while thinking his Mom is a total goober for taking his picture.

Great Yarns, my LYS, does up a whole bunch of bears every year for children in hospice care and they also sponser a bereivement camp for children who've lost there parents or siblings. When I went in the other week they had the bears put up all over the place. These bears were dressed to the nines. There were bears in sweaters, shawls, hats, cardigans, made with every knitting technique known to man, entrelac, lace, intarsia, fairisle, even beaded. The talent pool of knitters at Great Yarns is just amazing. I was blown away.

And being a giving kind of person, I snatched up two bears to make clothes for then and there. Then I got to talking to Fontelle and she said they were getting in some fabulous new sock yarn. I am a sock yarn addict. We will never tell my husband how much sock yarn I truly have, so we will never have to hear him say something really foolish like 'don't you have enough sock yarn already'. He will never know.

Any way, Fontelle says they're getting in this new yarn and could I knit up a sock for the store's display. I said, 'Oh, yes, please!', just as soon as you get it in. I'm no dummy, I get to knit socks and not have to pay for the yarn first, and everybody gets to admire them and say what fabulous socks they are and how fine a job I did on them. Oh, yeah.

So I went in yesterday and the new sock yarn was in! It was wonderful. She had got in Tofutsie and Shi Bui. Two of my all time favorites. And then Fontelle tells me that she needs the first sock in Shi Bui by next Wednesday so she can take it to the Seattle Mariners Stitch and Pitch on Thursday. So I'm knitting socks and not bear clothes because all the bears have to be in by August 1st and the sock has to be done in 5 days. Eek. Good thing I knit fast.

The pattern I'm using is fun one, Fiber Trends Lupine Lace Socks, and the color we picked is called Anime. I knit some on it last night and this afternoon and it's coming along pretty fast. The pattern calls for Lornas' Lace sock yarn and size 1 needles. I'm using size 2 needles, because Shi Bui is just a tiny bit thicker, to knit the small size sock and I'm getting the medium size measurements out of it. One of the nice things about the pattern is that you get a great leaf pattern and after you've done one pattern repeat you never have to look at the chart again. I love easy to memorize patterns. And have I mentioned the yarn. It's so soft and you can wash it in the wash machine too.