Monday. *zzzzzzzzz*

mmm, sleepy Monday. The weekend was too short. The weather's not helping. I want to find a big cosy armchair and curl up.

As you might expect, there are no big cosy armchairs to be found in my workplace. Probably for the best.

Thanks to those who sent me references to various knee-sock patterns. I'm still going to be working out my sock plan from scratch, however, because I can, for one thing (those of you in the SCA may recall that I've done this before, making period stockings) and I want these to fit me, not some 'average' sock-wearer. And that means measuring and crunching numbers and charting out how to do the decreases from the wide part of my calf to the ankle.

I did some fair-quality number crunching and swatching over the weekend though, so I'm feeling fairly sanguine about the whole project. I'll need to get some of the yarn I actually want to use for the socks (I am thinking Cascade Fixation or Elann Esprit) and swatch with that before I finalise anything, but yeah, think this will work.

It'll be a while before there's anything more than that to display, as I am still grinding away on some other things. My current lunchbreak project is a baby-sized Shedir cap. The pattern appeared in Knitty's Breast Cancer Awareness Month mini-issue [warning, PDF link] as a design for a chemo cap, and I noted it with a 'Gee, hope I never have to knit one of those for myself or anyone I know,' and gave it no more active thought until I stumbled on something from nothing's baby-sized version.

After a brief interlude of bonking myself on the noggin -- well, duh, of course you can make the hat smaller if you do fewer repeats -- I busted out the Brittany dps and sport weight yarn and went to work. I'm now at starting the third iteration of the Saxon braid and it's looking fine. Very fine. I was going to take a picture of it this weekend, but there was no sun.

I should, by rights, be hating the yarn. It's Lion Brand Microspun. I should hate it for being Lion Brand, I should hate it for being acrylic (forgive me, fibre gods, for I have sinned), I should hate the photo on the ball band of a bottle-redhead standing against a purple background wearing a 'ripple shawl' in lime green.

Well, I do hate the photo on the ball band. It's thoroughly lurid. And the 'ripple shawl' for which they thoughtfully offer a free pattern is a giant rectangle of Old Shale.

But I do not hate the yarn. The microfibre acrylic is smooth and soft. The lime green colour is bright and fresh and citrus-y, not the least bit lurid. When knit, the fabric is has better than acceptable hand and drape, is suitably elastic, and shows the cables off well. I like it.

The only complaint I can make about the yarn is that it is a bit splitty. Not horribly so, certainly not as bad as some other (more expensive, allegedly higher quality) yarns I have handled in the past. But it is a bit splitty.

(Do not ask why I had a ball of lime green Lion Brand Microspun in my stash. I have no idea, and even if I did, I wouldn't admit to it.)

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