cover me nerdy

I think a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I felt like I just wanted to knit and knit until I could cover myself in knitting. I was craving knitting Elizabeth Zimmerman's Nethergarments, which are adult leggings/footless tights. I still want to knit them. I am obsessed with the notion, actually. I have a few skeins of matching sock weight yarn just perfect for the task, and I am just stuck mulling over if I should round it out by using up my odd bits of sock yarn leftovers to make some funky stripes.

Meanwhile, as I mull, what I have done instead was to pick up a sock that I had started ages ago and never finished. It was a toe-up sock, and I was only just beyond the toe when I shoved it into the bottom of the knitting bag. I didn't realize until I picked it up again that the reason I had abandoned it was because I couldn't stand the needles I was using.

I was knitting the socks using two circular needles. I've knit with two circs before, but they were more standard length circulars. These little buggers are only 9" long (short??), and while the short cable length was kind of a cool thing, the tips of the needles were so wee, that I couldn't manipulate them easily. I actually use my ring finger and pinky to move my needles around when I work, so it was not fun for me at all to knit with these. Holding the needles made me feel like I was at a kids tea party and trying to hold the teacup or something.

I switched to double-points (which will always be my favorite), and when the sock got longer and wider, I switched to magic loop to make things go faster. Ended up with a knee-sock.

Ravelry Project Page

This was fun knitting for me. It's my first complete toe-up sock (I did a toe-up "over the knee sock" once, but it was a yoga sock, so it didn't have a toe or a heel...and that's a huge bit of technique to leave out). This sock is pretty Plainjane in terms of the knitting, but it has a heel that is new to me (a gusset heel that I picked up out of a book), and I did a folded hem for the bind-off so I could thread some elastic through the casing. I don't think I've ever done a folded hem as part of a bind-off. Anyhow, point is, I had to do a few new things, which was great fun, and the sock fits great.

The sock did not, however, stop the craving to cover all things with knitting. The compulsion I am suffering from now is an urge to knit covers, or little bags, or storage boxes, for the plethora of little electronic devices and charging cables that I own. Niggling away at me and not letting me sleep is this odd urge to cover a rather large external drive storage-device-thingy that I have.

This craziness has also resulted in my starting to knit all of these little ties to wrangle my cords.



See? Neat. Tidy. And not a rubberband.
Hilarious.
Felted boxes to put them all into is not far behind, I assure you.


Although if I keep making them at this rate, I will be using up all of the sock yarn scraps that I was thinking of using for the funky stripes for the leggings, so the mulling will begin again, and then who the frick knows what else that craziness will cause me to knit cozies for!