“…or, maybe if you had one great big pointy middle toe. But seriously, isn’t there some way you can make the toe look less pointy? What if you ended it a few rows earlier?”

That’s what Todd said after analyzing my completed stripey sock. And I have to say, I agree with him. I’m not a huge fan of the toe on this sock, and I even ended the toe with more stitches on my needles than most patterns recommend. Is this the way all top-down sock toes look?

It looks a lot better from the side.

And it actually fits my non-pointy foot. Overall I’m really happy with this sock. I started the second sock on Saturday, while knitting with Lynette, Lori, Violet, and Kaedean at FrogPond. I haven’t made much progress on the second sock yet, I was too worried about getting the stripes to match up exactly. I think that Lynette & Lori thought I was crazy for casting on twice to make sure I had the same amount of tan in the top stripes of both socks, but I had to do it. I am such a perfectionist when it comes to my knitting. (and guess what Todd said when I showed him the second sock that I started… “are you sure the stripes going to match?” How funny! We think so much alike!)

While knitting, Lori told us about a sale at another local knitting store - 40% off all yarn! It’s not a store I’ve shopped at for a while (the selection there is always iffy), but it is only a few blocks away from my house, so I stopped by on my way home from FrogPond to check out the sale. Guess what I found? A single skein of Celtic Green Cascade 220! Just what I needed to finish Sophie:

Here’s a picture of Sophie with the sock for scale. It never fails to amaze me how much felting shrinks knitting. The finished bag is probably 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the original knitted bag. Now I have to find a magnetic snap to sew in, and I may put a lining in the bag eventually too.

At the 40% off sale, I couldn’t resist buying a few more skeins of yarn. I found two self-striping skeins of Opal that I can’t wait to get started on. (have I mentioned that I’m addicted to self-striping sock yarns?) I also found a single, lone skein of Cherry Tree Hill supersock in the Birches colorway (front right). At 40% off, it was actually reasonably priced. And I bought 4 more skeins of Cascade 220, two in a red color with blue-ish flecks, and two in a coordinating blue color - destined to become a felted bag of my own design.

And now, a confession: I wanted to buy more yarn at the sale, but I couldn’t. I am not physically capable of buying yarn simply to add to my (nearly non-existent) yarn stash. I found a single skein of Manos in solid black, and at 40% off, it would have been a steal, but I couldn’t buy it - what would I knit with it? 3 skeins of Rowan Wool Cotton in blue - another bargain, same story… what to knit? It would be tragic for me to own yarn with no purpose - it makes me very uneasy. The only yarn that I’m comfortable buying freely is sock yarn. This will always become socks, and a sock will always use the same, predetermined amount of sock yarn. Other projects aren’t as easy to estimate. When I get yarn from a secret pal, I almost immediately have to find a project for the yarn, even if I don’t knit the project immediately. All of my yarn is slated for projects. Is this weird? Does anyone else treat yarn like this?

If you are completely comfortable freely adding yarn to your stash, and you live in the Sacramento area, you should definitely hit this sale - a wide variety of yarn (most in limited quantities - tons of Cascade 220 though!) at great prices. The lady at the store said the sale would be going on for about two more weeks.